Nora Ephron: I feel bad about my neck, Doubleday, ‎ 9780857526939, paperback

(German Edition:  Was nie im Trend lag, kommt niemals aus der Mode … Atlantik Verlag, gebunden)

 I have been re-reading my old edition of “I feel bad about my neck” by the wonderful Nora Ephron who died in 2012.  What a witty, laugh out loud hilarious look about the problems females face (particularly in New York) or create for themselves. 

Her writing is so sharp and funny, be it about “Maintenance” – she literally boils it down to hair, skin or other parts  of the body , or what it means to find the perfect apartment in New York or what she wished she had known which is a fabulous piece in its to the point  straight forwardness and humor.  She was truly brilliant; I just love her writing and sense of humor. I urge you to get a copy and have some good laughs while enjoying her sharp intelligence.

 

 

Ajay Chowdhury: The Cook, 9781787303157, Harvill Secker (Penguin Random House UK) trade paperback, publication date: May 5^th, 2022

 

Ajay Chowdhury’s upcoming “The Cook” was made available to me as a proof, courtesy of PRH UK, and turned out to be a much needed, wonderfully entertaining cozy crime read last week while nursing a cold.  I had read the first book “The Waiter” and took a shine to the main protagonist, Kamil Rahman, a former Kolkata police detective who had to make an involuntary new start in London as a waiter in an Indian/Pakistani restaurant while not giving up solving murders entirely  in his new hometown. 

“The Cook” is just as refreshing and entertaining. Set in the Indian/Pakistani community and restaurant around Brick Lane, Kamil has been promoted to cook in his friend Anjali’s restaurant and has a new romance lined up, Naila, who has come to London to study nursing from Lahore fleeing her suffocating family. When one of their mutual friends, Salma, is found strangled, the blame falls on her boyfriend but Kamil’s detective instincts tell him something does not quite match.  I will not say much more but if you are in the mood for a slightly different mystery with an unusual detective team, Chowdhury’s two books make a great read. “The Waiter “had a better, more plausible plot I thought but “The Cook” makes your mouth water when Kamil describes the Indian meals he is cooking and is an atmospheric description of Indian / Pakistani life around Brick Lane.