What I Ate In One Year by Stanley Tucci

I like the author's view on food as well as Italian food in general, and so this should have been a slam dunk win for me, but it just wasn't. It is essentially a diary of the food that he eats and prepares over the course of a calendar year, interspersed with what he is doing and who he is doing it with, and the narrative lacked the humor that I would need to be completely caught up in it. Because he is an actor, and one who was filming a movie the year this was written, and because his wife is a literary agent and the sister of an actor, there is some name dropping that happens as well--which is a distraction and a bit of a detraction for me, but it might appeal to others. The positives for me were: 1. the Italian food--he and his wife like to cook, as do my spouse and I, and they make some very good food between them over the year. 2. I was intrigued by the cookware that he developed--he seems fussy about the things he cooks with and the next time I need to buy some pans, these will be at the top of my list. They say you can use them on induction cook tops, and my pasta pot cannot be, for example. 3. I am going to check out a cookbook he likes by Julius Roberts, because again, he seems fussy. 4. I felt validated in bringing home things to cook with when I travel and for packing my own food to bring when we travel by car. I am a bit of a lightweight compared to him where that is concerned. 5. The restaurants he eats in may be worth checking out--London and Rome are the two cities where he eats out a lot, so I guess I will just have to go back to them to see if this is in fact the case. All in all, you have to be deeply into food or deeply into actors to really love this book but it isn't a tough read, it has that going for it. And I definitely would not turn down an invitation to have him cook for me.