Yes, I’m aware that we’re ten days into March and I’m finally getting around to blogging about the two books I finished in February. What can I say, I’ve been working on some other projects? And I did start a lot more books in February, these were just the only two I finished.
February was basically dominated by one book: Breadsong by Kitty and Al Tait. But that’s not because it was a difficult read. The first part is a memoir of how this daughter and father duo discovered baking and went on to start as a bakery as a way to help Kitty out of a massive spell of depression and anxiety. And I adored every moment of it, so much so that I devoured it in a weekend. The book’s second half features recipes, and it’s become my second most go-to baking book, after the King Arthur book I shared last month. I’ve already baked multiple versions of Kitty’s Miracle Overnight Loaf (white, wheat, and my favorite, seeded rye), a batch of focaccia, and some Nutella-swirled Swedish buns. (Which my five-year-old nephew ate three of in quick succession, but then I put him on the school bus, so not my problem!) And I have so many more I want to try!
Not only are the recipes easy to follow, the book itself is gorgeous, with a woven cover, soft matte pages, and plenty of photos and illustrations. I would highly recommend it if for no other reason than that it’s lovely to hold.
Sadly, I can’t make the same case for the second book I read this month. I was able to get an advanced review copy of Adam Gopnik’s The Real Work, and my overall impression was “meh.” Some parts I found really interested, but other parts completely lost me. Gopnik’s book falls into a genre I’ll call “male writers who decided to write about learning things” which also includes Josh Kaufman’s The First 20 Hours and Tom Vanderbilt’s Beginners, both of which I’ve read. Sadly, I don’t think Gopnik’s book brings anything new to the genre. Like the others, it’s a smattering of different learning experiments peppered with some research into learning and mastery.
Maybe I’m being unreasonably salty about this book because I don’t understand why this genre (if you can call three books a genre) is dominated by men. Maybe I’m jealous because I like to learn and I’d love to write a book about my learning experiences. Or maybe there really is something missing from this book, which I think fails to live up to it’s true promise, that being an exploration of mastery. Whatever the reason, I’ll admit I had high expectations for this book, which sadly, it didn’t meet.
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