This book is marketed as a food memoir written by a man who worked at some of the most famous restaurants in New York City and was once lauded as the “top Maître D'” in the city. The tantalizing title and marketing leads the reader to expect a book chock-full of tales of fine food and fine wine, the challenges and creativity associated with working with famous chefs, and exciting encounters with celebrities served by the author. Unfortunately for the reader, the book reads more like an encounter with a random drunken stranger at a bar who spends the evening recounting his sexual and drug-filled exploits in college rather than an interesting story of the ins and outs of the restaurant industry in NYC.
Michael Cecchi-Azzolina grew up in Brooklyn in a deeply mob-connected single-parent household. He started off as a thieving altar boy, graduated to selling stolen pastries off of the back of a truck and working the counter at his local diner (skimming money off the till with his fellow workers), and eventually headed off to college in Florida where he could get an English degree done with as little work and as much partying as possible. He lands back in NYC in an attempt to break into the acting biz. As many wanna-be actors do, he made ends meet by becoming a waiter. The next eighty percent of the book is a recollection of all the sex, drugs, and rock and roll that he experienced in the rollicking seventies, eighties, and nineties. He is very graphic in his language and describes every drug and sexcapade he and his fellow workers got into. The last twenty percent of the book actually addresses his life as a full-fledged and well-known Maître D' who helped to make some of the most famous restaurants successful. This was the most interesting part of the book and what I had expected to read from the blurbs.
This book is quite shallow and self-aggrandizing. Cecchi attempts to go for a rough and tumble Anthony Bourdain-type atmosphere, but it just reads as a tawdry list of parties and adolescent actor shenanigans. He touches briefly upon a number of topics in the book that could have led to deeper and more interesting reflections on society at the time (the AIDS epidemic in the 80’s and its effect on his colleagues, his life as a director and actor, the misogyny and mistreatment of women in the business, and the general mistreatment of workers in the restaurant industry), but rather than exploring those depths he turns back to crass party stories. I would not recommend this to most readers because the percentage of worthwhile content doesn’t balance out the graphic language and stories of sex and drug use.
Read-alikes:
Kitchen Confidential by Anthony Bourdain
Heat by Bill Buford
Blood, Bones, and Butter by Gabrielle Hamilton
Carolyn Brooks, The Smithtown Library - Commack Building
Broadly speaking, biographies of historical figures tend to fall into two major categories. The first is the straightforward recounting of an individual’s life, from their childhood to their death. The second, and the category that Jonathan Freedland’s masterful book The Escape Artist: The Man Who Broke Out of Auschwitz to Warn the World falls into, is when an author uses a single individual as a reader’s window into a broad historical event. Freedland’s account of Rudolf Vrba’s (born Walter Rosenberg) escape from Auschwitz and attempts to stop the Holocaust in progress, is a brilliant work that gives readers a first-person point of view of one of humanity’s greatest crimes.
The most gripping sections of the book detail how Vrba was first able to survive within the camp and his subsequent escape. These chapters give readers an in-depth look at Auschwitz’s complex hierarchy, both among the prisoners and their tormentors, the day-to-day life of those spared from the gas chambers, and how Vrba, only 19, used his unique position to plot his escape. However, the escape from the camp is only the beginning of Vrba’s complex life. His main reasoning for escape was not purely for personal safety, but to spread the news of Germany’s mass murder to those who he believed could put a stop to it. The final sections of the book show how Vrba’s message repeatedly and agonizingly fell on deaf ears, and how Vrba, who lived until 2005, dealt with what he perceived as a failure to save hundreds of thousands of people from their fate.
Freedland, who also writes thrillers under the pseudonym Sam Bourne, paces the story well while still taking time to pause the narrative, in order to paint a wider picture of the events surrounding Vrba. Even though readers will know at the start that Vrba’s escape is successful, the tension is palpable as he and his fellow escapee, Alfred Wetzler, hide under a stack of lumber for three days as SS patrols search for them. Most importantly, the book does not shirk from showing Vrba’s own failings after the war. Vrba’s escape helped prevent some 200,000 Jewish people of Hungary avoid extermination. Yet Vrba himself would be the first to tell anyone that he was not a hero, despite his heroic act. He is human. He is angry and combative, even with those who want to help him, arrogant at times and consistently sarcastic. It is hard to discern if his extreme paranoia is a product of his experience living for two years in Auschwitz, or if that paranoia was what allowed him to survive and escape. In his own words, Vrba did not fit into “the survivor clichés manufactured for the taste of a certain type of public.”
The Escape Artist is not a typical Holocaust biography, which means it is not for all audiences. It does not contain many stirring messages of hope; there are no reassuring lines like the immortal words of Anne Frank: “In spite of everything, I still believe that people are really good at heart.” Instead, many readers may be left shaking with rage when Freedland reveals how not only did leaders of both the remaining Jewish communities within Europe and the Allied war effort, ignore Vrba’s warnings, but how some of them actively suppressed the information. Vrba himself would have to reckon with this fact all his life, and only decades later would he achieve some sort of peace.
The Escape Artist is a very dark but immensely rewarding read. It does a wonderful job of not just documenting the Holocaust through Vrba’s eyes, but the complex nature of Holocaust remembrance, especially among the survivors.
Read-alikes:
The Nazis Knew My Name by Magda Hellinger & Maya Lee
Inside the Gas Chambers: Eight Months in the Sonderkommando of Auschwitz by Shlomo Venezia
I Escaped from Auschwitz by Rudolf Vrba
Connor McCormack, Northport-East Northport Public Library
Lead singer of the rock band Foo Fighters tells tales of Grohl's childhood and how much music meant to him once he was introduced to punk rock, as well as his rise from unknown drummer, to his years in Nirvana, and finally to the lead singer of a band that has put out 11 studio albums, won 15 Grammys, and were inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame in 2021.
Grohl's story begins with hanging out with childhood friends, getting into small amounts of trouble, and always loving music. As he's starting his teen years, he's introduced to punk rock by a cousin and this leads him on his journey to become a drummer. With the unwavering support of his mom, Grohl practices playing drums on his pillows, saves enough money for just one lesson, and eventually lies his was into a band and goes on tour with them right after graduating high school.
Grohl's memoir moves on to his early days touring in a crappy van and sleeping on people's floors to get by. He eventually makes it out west and leaves the band that gave him his start to join Nirvana. His time in Nirvana had a huge impact on him especially once they found fame and became popular. He talks about what that did to the band, especially Kurt Cobain, and how his death was a blow to the music industry. The latter part of the book is dedicated to founding the Foo Fighters, finding love, starting a family, and the different experiences and honors he's be part of on his rise to the rock star we know today.
Grohl is very respectful of the people and musicians he's met, played with, fanboyed over, and worshiped. There's no juicy gossip, telling of tales, or revealing of secrets. Instead what the reader finds is a heartfelt dedication to the craft and those who've spent their lives chasing their dreams. If you're looking for what it's like to meet Paul McCartney, Elton John, and Little Richard; win a Grammy; be asked to drum for Tom Petty on Saturday Night Live; or collaborate with Joan Jett while she reads bedtime stories to your daughters, this is the book for you. Slow at times but definitely comprehensive of Grohl's life, The Storyteller is a book for lovers of music, rock, down-to-earth musicians, and family with a bit of drugs and a lot of cursing thrown in.
Read-alikes:
Surrender by Bono
From Cradle to Stage: Stories from the Mothers who Rocked and Raised Rock Stars by Virginia Grohl
I Found My Friends: The Oral History of Nirvana by Nick Soulsby
Azurée Agnello, West Babylon Public Library
If Prince Harry had to boil this book down into one sentence, I expect it would be, “I will remain devoted to my mother forever, and I despise the paparazzi to the very core of my being.” That would be an accurate description of this book, but it does leave a lot out.
Harry talks about his education (not distinguished), his relationship with his brother and father (alternately loving and heartbreakingly cruel), his time in the military (action-packed), his time spent in Africa and the charitable work it led to (inspiring), his relationship with his grandmother (close), and much more.
As much as Diana and the paparazzi dominate the book, the writing really comes alive when Harry departs from those topics. One example is when he talks about the military. The part that really shines is less his descriptions of his time in war zones, and more his thoughts about what being in the military meant to him, and his frustration that his title prevented him from seeing much action. The narrative also comes alive when Harry describes meeting and falling in love with Meghan, who of course becomes another major theme in the latter half of the book.
But surrounding all that is Harry’s loathing of the paparazzi, and he doesn’t mince words about it. He details story after story that come out in the British tabloids (and even some more reputable news outlets) that are just plain lies, recounts his battles with the palace about how to respond to them, and suggests more than once that certain people within the palace are feeding information to the press. The palace’s unwavering policy of not responding, even to the tabloid stories that were clearly untrue, along with Harry’s suspicions of a leak in the inner circle, led to a major breach between Harry and Charles and William.
Of course, we have only Harry’s side of the story here, and as Goethe tells us, “One man’s word is no man’s word; we should quietly hear both sides.” But the palace continues its policy of silence, and it’s unlikely that any further developments happen quietly. So, we have to take Harry’s word for it, for now, which is very easy to do after reading this candid memoir.
Read-alikes:
Bad Mormon by Heather Gay
Growing Up Biden by Valerie Biden Owens
More than Love: An Intimate Portrait of My Mother, Natalie Wood by Natasha Gregson Wagner
Mara Zonderman, Westhampton Free Library
Civil rights, women’s rights, gay rights, racism, equal opportunity, equal pay—what could these movements have in common with tennis? In a name, Billie Jean King. She is one of the world’s greatest all-time tennis players, but political activism was her life’s calling as much as the game. Her role as an acclaimed global athlete provided her with a platform to spearhead some of the most significant societal and cultural changes that many of us may take for granted.
From a very early age, Billie Jean Moffitt had an awareness that there were inequities in the world. Why were all the participants in the local tennis clubs only white, and male? She wondered why she was relegated to sitting behind the courts to eat her bagged lunch, while the tennis club treated the boys? Why weren’t there any varsity sports teams for girls? Why did a club advisor feel perfectly comfortable telling her that she may go far in the sport because she was ugly, and then bar her from being in a team photo because she was wearing shorts instead of a skirt? The inequities became even more evident to her as her tennis career progressed.
Tournament-title-winning women were not allowed to compete in sanctioned tennis matches. They were told by tournament organizers that no one was interested in watching women play. And when they were allowed to play, their winnings were a fraction of what the men were awarded.
Billie Jean had no patience for the disparity in her beloved sport, so she embarked on a campaign to right the ship. Hence, the formation of the “Original Nine”—a group of nine courageous women that were willing to forfeit their careers by breaking away from the men’s circuit to establish their own tour schedule. Today, women are not only included, but equally compensated. This is due, in great part, to the efforts of Billie Jean King.
Billie Jean not only advocated for the women in professional tennis, but for women in all sports and all walks of life. She was a driving force behind the passage of Title IX; she sparked the creation of the Women’s Tennis Association (WTA); she has been a champion in the advancement of civil, women’s, and gay rights; and she has promoted countless social and educational initiatives. Through the years, Billie Jean has been instrumental in accomplishing many societal milestones with a laundry list of world leaders, celebrities, and everyday people—including President Obama, Vice President Biden, Nelson Mandela, Gloria Steinem, Elton John, Martina Navratilova, and so many others.
All In is the biography of a trail-blazing woman who set out from a very young age to right the wrongs in the world. The narrative, which traces her entire life to date, is written in the first person making it an easy read. The book tells the story of a sports legend and a political activist. The only caveat is that fans of tennis may glean more from certain parts of this book than non-tennis enthusiasts, as it contains detailed descriptions of matches and opponents. On the other hand, the balance of the book presents a fascinating account of Billie Jean King’s entire life—her life-long commitment to social change; her struggle with coming out as gay; her involvement in the infamous “Battle of the Sexes” tennis match. Ultimately the book draws the portrait of a human dynamo who proclaims that she will never rest as long as there is injustice, on or off the court.
Read-alikes:
Tennis:
Open by Andre Agassi
The Master: The Long Run & Beautiful Game of Roger Federer by Christopher Clarey
You Cannot Be Serious by John McEnroe
Women's Struggles in Sports:
When Women Stood by Alexandra Allred
Good for a Girl by Lauren Fleshman
Who Let Them In by Joanne Lannin
Deborah Formosa, Northport-East Northport Public Library
This memoir is about a celebrity actor who dreamt about the life he thought he could never have, but eventually achieved it through many hardships along his journey. Simu Liu, star role in Marvel’s Shang Chi, begins his story by sharing the early life of his parents, growing up under Mao Zedong’s rule in China and the difficulties they went through to gain an education. During their schooling in China, his parents met each other, keeping their relationship a secret as it was frowned upon to date. Once they graduated, they married and had a plan to go to university in Canada. However, Simu’s mother became pregnant with him, and plans changed. With a full scholarship, his father started in North America, eventually earning enough money for his mother to join him in Canada and leaving Simu behind in the care of his grandparents. By the time Simu was 4 years old, his dad came over to China to pick him up and move him to North America, and this left Simu sad to leave his grandparents and extended family.
When he arrives in Canada, the whole family must adjust to this new setting. For Simu, he no longer needs to boil water to take a hot shower. His mother realized her mistake when she left him at home for 30 minutes to go run an errand. When she came back, Simu was crying at the top of the steps. Unfortunately, adjusting to this new lifestyle becomes worse as his parents become strict on manners and education, often leaving Simu sad and angry through the abusive situations that occurred. For lying, he was locked out of the apartment at the age of 7 to reflect on his mistake. For dating a girl from another school, he was slapped across the face. Simu was always searching for love and affection, but there came a point in his life where he just gave up pleasing them. By the time he is a senior in high school, he puts his mind to his academics with the underlying thought that if he gets into a college far from home, he wouldn’t be under his parents’ rules. He achieves just that and winds up going to Northwestern University.
In his first year, Simu does the bare minimum, but is able to get good grades. He partied, slacked off, and was a bit of a showoff, trying to fit in with the rest of the crowd, looking for the love he never received. By sophomore year, he started failing. Just getting by in college, Simu tried to achieve an internship in accounting but getting a 55 in one of his classes prohibited him from achieving it. Instead, he went to a career fair and landed a job in marketing for Wonder Bread. He was on the set for a commercial shoot, and this was his first exposure to meeting an actor and seeing the spotlight for the first time.
Simu graduates college, masters the interview process, and lands a job at a top firm. While working there, he felt accomplished but at the same time bored of his work; not to mention not knowing how to do his job from failing so many classes. During his year and a half there, he never improved, playing hooky one day to be an extra on a movie set. They let him go from his job in April of 2012 and he felt like a failure, especially to his parents.
Craigslist became Simu’s friend as he found job after job as an extra on a movie set. Eventually he landed small roles all the while, his parents were not happy with his choices, and he wasn’t speaking with them. He realized he needed to go back to school for acting if he wanted to make it in the big leagues, so he used whatever money he was making from these small acting jobs to pay for schooling and was basically broke. As a side job, he was Spiderman at birthday parties as well as doing flash mobs to sell products. Money was tight but he was determined to fulfill his dream.
A big turn of events occurred when he landed the role on Blood & Water, a Canadian TV series. His parents started talking to him again. After completing this role, he found an agent in Hollywood who said he would need a US visa to work in the states but since it was costly, he went back to Canada and landed two roles at once. One role was for Kim’s Convenience about a Canadian convenience store run by an Asian family and another for the TV version of Taken.
While on set, he was advised to apply for the visa and just go for it in America because there were very few Asian actors on the market.
In trying to score an American movie while obtaining his Visa, Simu was shot down many times for various roles including the lead in Crazy Rich Asians. He felt terrible but his parents kept his spirits up by saying they raised him to never give up. Eventually he connected with Ken Jeong who mentored him and introduced him to other actors.
As the book comes to a close, he reflects on his biggest success of all, playing the lead actor in Shang-Chi, making it to the top and experiencing the love from the Marvel community. I recommend this title to a person looking for a coming-of-age story because as the book progresses, we see the maturity and growth in Simu as he achieves his dreams of being a star actor. This is a good story for those looking to learn more about Asian family life and assimilating to the cultures of North America. The underlying message of this book is essentially to find your dream and fulfill it. Don’t fall back on something that is going to bore you for the rest of your life.
Read-alikes:
Never Grow Up by Jackie Chan
Making a Scene by Constance Wu
How to American: An Immigrant's Guide to Disappointing Your Parents by Jimmy O. Yang
Liana Coletti, West Islip Public Library
Gold Dust Woman is the newest biography about one of rock’s leading ladies, Stevie Nicks. The book begins in the early 1970s when a young Stevie Nicks and then boyfriend Lindsey Buckingham are writing songs, playing gigs in sunny California, and trying desperately to get a record deal. In the book, we learn about young Stevie’s nomadic life. Her family moved around a lot in order to support her father’s corporate ladder climb. Eventually they settled in Northern California where Stevie meets Lindsey and the two begin dating and collaborating on music. Stevie, a deeply sensitive and thoughtful person, always kept a journal nearby so she could write poems, keep notes and drawings. All of these became inspiration for music. As luck would have, Stevie and Lindsey got the opportunity of a lifetime when mega British rock band Fleetwood Mac invited them on tour. The band was losing steam and needed something new to revitalize them and Mick Fleetwood thought that Stevie and Lindsey were just the thing to bring the band back to greatness. This book blatantly describes the life and loves of Stevie Nicks and at the same time wonderfully documents her collection of songs. In it we learn the true inspiration and backstory of many of her and the band’s most popular and successful hits. However, there is a dark side to this thrilling rollercoaster ride. Stevie and the rest of band lived a sex, drug, and booze fueled existence. The relationship between Stevie and Lindsey was volatile. Lindsey was prone to violent fits and there were reports that he attempted to strangle Stevie until Mick Fleetwood intervened. There were also torrid affairs taking place between members of the bands and others. It was a whirlwind ride and yet through it all Stevie survived.
The second half of the book is devoted to Stevie’s success as a solo artist after a breakup with the band. It seemed that everyone was unhappy and getting on each other’s nerves while touring. That said, Stevie always remained loyal to Fleetwood Mac and would tour on and off for years. The tales of Stevie’s love affairs are legendary. Stevie had deep feelings for many men, most were musicians. She was involved with Don Henley, Tom Petty, and Mick Fleetwood, who was said to be smitten with her for years. They all fade in comparison to Joe Walsh who Stevie said was the “one.” The one she would have married and changed her life for. The book goes on to document many nights spent in the studio creating the music we love her for with a variety of legendary musicians, sound engineers, producers, and backup singers. Stevie is truly a gifted musical legend with over 40 years of writing, singing, and performing for the masses and whose ability to weather musical taste changes over the years remains incredible.
I really enjoyed this book. I loved learning about the music industry and was impressed at the level of skill and passion that goes into recording a single song. I think it is monumental task to select just the right producer, engineers, musicians, and singers to make a reality of what began as a scribble on a piece of paper. I learned so much about the relationships that Stevie had with members of the band both personal and musically. I enjoyed learning about the world of the music business and the colorful people who make it all happen. When I was reading this book, I was also watching the Prime TV series Daisy Jones and the Six. What a joy ride though the 70s. This book is for anyone and everyone who loves listening to music.
Read-alikes:
Jennifer Juniper: A Journey Beyond the Muse by Jenny Boyd
The Storyteller: Tales of Life and Music by Dave Grohl
Mirror in the Sky: The Life and Music of Stevie Nicks by Simon Morrison
Karen McHugh, Harborfields Public Library
Arrested 10 days after 9/11, Ana Montes’ story did not make the cover of any newspapers. From 1985 until her arrest in 2001, Montes spent 17 years moving up the ranks to more and more classified positions within the United States’ Defense Intelligence Agency while simultaneously feeding top secret information to the Cuban government.
Written by an investigative journalist, this in-depth biography definitely picks up the pace as Montes’ identity as a mole gets closer to being revealed to her co-workers and would be a good suggestion for those who enjoy stories about espionage and/or true crime.
Read-alikes:
The Quiet Americans: Four CIA Spies at the Dawn of the Cold War -- A Tragedy in Three Acts by Scott Anderson
Life Under Cover: Coming of Age in the CIA by Amaryllis Fox
Fair Game: My Life as a Spy, My Betrayal by the White House by Valerie Plame Wilson
Jessicca Newmark, The Smithtown Library - Smithtown Building
by Nina Totenberg
An excellent biography and autobiography of two well-known, powerful women in the political and legal arena and the enduring friendship between them.
When Totenberg, as NPR’s Legal Affairs Correspondent, was covering the first major Supreme Court case that addressed discrimination based on gender, she felt she needed a mentor who could explain the issues to her. She made a cold call to Ruth Bader Ginsburg, then a law professor at Rutgers University. Ginsburg spent an hour on the phone explaining to her how the Fourteenth Amendment applied to all people; that discrimination based on gender was unconstitutional because it denies equal protection. She quotes Ginsburg as saying about that conversation, “We have been close friends ever since.”
In writing about her life, Totenberg discusses the progressive stand of NPR in hiring more than “token women” and of sexual harassment in the professional world where, as she puts it, “they gently fended off unwanted advances”. They were less able to recognize and report sexual harassment than women who entered journalism just a few years later.
The relationship between Ginsburg and Totenberg is poignant and powerful… and there is much to enjoy about politics and friendships with a helping of Washington gossip included.
Dinners with Ruth would appeal to older teens and adult men and women.
Read-alikes:
Wise Gals: The Spies Who Built the CIA and Changed the Future of Espionage by Nathalia Holt
The Light We Carry by Michelle Obama
Grace O'Connor, Retired
by Richard Antoine White
I’m Possible is an inspiring memoir about a boy who struggled in Baltimore and grew up to become the first African American to receive a Doctorate in Music for Tuba Performance.
Born prematurely to a teen mom who struggled with alcoholism, Richard Antoine White dealt with hardships from the beginning. For the first four years of his life, Richard and his mom did not have a house to call their own, but they had each other. Even at a young age, Richard thought he could look after his mom. Richard recounts many memories of himself as a preschooler being on his own at night finding a safe and soft spot under a tree to sleep until his mom returned in the morning. This was his life until one day at four years old he almost died searching for his mom in a blizzard. Richard’s mother selflessly gave up her rights to give Richard a chance. He was taken in by his adoptive grandparents, where he would live for the remainder of his youth.
Transitioning to a stable household was a big adjustment for Richard. There were rules and routines, and grandparents who had to teach discipline. Richard was not a great student in his elementary school years. He struggled with math and reading. School started to get better in 4th grade when he was able to join the band. Richard and his friend chose the trumpet because “it only has three valves, so it’s easy”. Quickly, Richard fell in love with playing music. He discovered talent and a sense of purpose when he played. When he moved to middle school, he saw a sousaphone in the band room and was in awe. He quickly switched to this instrument and his passion for music grew even more. He was accepted into the Baltimore School for the Arts high school and then to the Peabody Conservatory. As he continued his education, Richard began to see the racial and socioeconomic disparities in the music world and in life as one of the few Black students in his programs.
With perseverance and teachers who saw the spark in him, Richard worked hard to reach his dream of becoming a professional musician. He secured a coveted spot in the New Mexico Symphony Orchestra, helped build the New Mexico Philharmonic, and became the first African American to receive a Doctorate in Music for Tuba Performance. Now a professor, mentor, and motivational speaker Richard Antoine White shares his story through his memoir, and a 2018 documentary, R.A.W. Tuba.
This remarkable memoir shows that with a dream and determination, anything is possible. The audiobook starts each chapter with little tuba interludes performed by the author. This is a must read for people looking for a memoir that roots for the underdog, or someone who has a passion for music.
Read-alikes:
Every Good Boy Does Fine by Jeremy Denk
Purpose by Wyclef Jean
Words Without Music by Philip Glass
Nanci Helmle, The Smithtown Library - Commack Building
