Entertaining, light as air, kind of like short magazine articles interspersed with recipes.

I’m mystified by people who insist on snobbishly going on about how terrible Americans are as travelers. There’s certainly some truth – especially if they act entitled and express no interest in learning new customs. But Lebovitz’s mocking was indiscriminate, not so finely defined as that, and…mean spirited. So you hate everyone who isn’t fully up-to-speed on French customs immediately upon arrival? How is anyone supposed to learn?

This is a specific example, but seems to sum up Lebovitz’s attitude towards almost everything. People who don’t know as much as he does are stupid and annoying. It’s supposed to be funny in a biting, observational way, but it’s just mean. (To Americans, to the French, to non-dessert-cookbook-writers, to store owners, to line-standers, to…everyone and everything. At least he’s indiscriminate?)

It’s possible the audio format did the book no favors. Maybe what sounded whiny and rude when said out loud would come across as more playful on the page. I don’t think the particular reader was well-suited to it, either.

About- Another food memoir set in Paris.

Why I picked it– I will never get tired of these. First of all, it’s set in Paris. Secondly, it contains many recipes throughout that sound absolutely delicious. Also, remember how my friend recommended a different Paris food memoir to me and I read the wrong one? This is the one I was actually supposed to read!

Thoughts- Like I said, I don’t think I’ll ever get tired of this genre. For a little while I’m transported to another country through the author’s narrative and this helps ease my wanderlust a bit. Next on my list in this category- Mastering the Art of French Eating.

I listened to this audiobook and it took a bit for me to get invested in the story. I actually stopped listening to it for almost a week.

I'm glad I gave it another try. It was a good, insider view of Paris, a city I enjoy. It was cool imagining myself to be the American who immigrated to the City of Love. The stories are fairly short and ar show an interesting perspective.

I couldn't help comparing it to David Sedaris's Me Talk Pretty One Day, because the experiences that both men have share similarities. But they are extremely different.

I didn't love the narrator, either, which may have contributed to my initial avoidance of the audiobook.

I mostly went in for a view of life in Paris and got some good food ideas along the way. Fun to read.

The writing was a bit slapdash, but the recipe for chouquettes with chocolate chips is definitely a keeper.

I listened to this on audio to entertain me while running. I gave it 3 stars because it did the job. I liked it, but not enough to encourage others to read it. I found the author's tone to be rather annoying at times, especially his humor, especially the one-liners at the end of each chapter, especially his innuendos.
His attitude towards the French teetered between being accurate and being stereotypical. He solves a lot of his issues with Parisians with childish passive-aggressive behaviors. I'm not sure if he thought it was funny or if he really did and said those things.
I don't know anything about this guy, I only read it because it was about someone's experience in Paris and that sort of thing typically interests me.

Funny anecdotes about living in Paris - I was happy to learn you can now get decas (decaf coffees) in the cafes.

I now want to move to Paris as an expat writer and develop a complex love-hate relationship with their culture while having une affaire with the food and drink.

I enjoyed most of the book, though Lebovitz's humor can be a bit catty at times. The last, say, third or so of the book felt a bit more aggressively critical than the rest. I'm chalking it up to the fact that the book was written at the very beginning of Lebovitz's time in Paris, so I think a lot of the commentary is still coming from a place of culture shock as opposed to genuine negativity. I was just surprised at just how grouchy some of the chapters can come across considering this is all coming from a man who just up and decided to move his entire life to Paris. I thought he would be a little more enamored than curmudgeonly about the differences between San Francisco and Paris because of that courageous drive the decision seemed to reflect.

This is my first Lebovitz book, including his cookbooks, but I'm not turned off enough to not try checking out his other work. I will admit that, though I was a little disappointed with his tone in places, he still provided some valuable information for anyone planning on visiting or moving to Paris. I also can't speak for Lebovitz's recipes since I haven't tried any of them yet, but the Chouquettes aux Pepites de Chocolat recipe looks divine and is very high on my baking list.

Oh, and the back section where he provides resources and addresses is wonderful, and he should definitely be commended for thinking of including it. There are only a couple defunct websites, but the rest have great stuff that can't really be found outside of big cities with gourmet shops.