Pining For New York

Season To Taste by Molly Birnbaum is best described as a book that brought me joy. It was wonderful to read: an interesting, well-written, well balanced mix of personal experience and factual detail. Birnbaum has taken her experience of losing her sense of smell and made it a truly wonderful read.

It reminded me of Not Eating Out in New York by Cathy Erway which I also loved. Both are full of beautiful, clear writing and food descriptions, and both make me want to go to New York. Sadly, I think I'll have to settle for being wistful about travel for a while yet.

Not knowing anything about the author, I was worried it was going to be one of those books I hate - the type written by somebody who has one book in them. That is, a person who isn't really a writer but happens to have experienced something extraordinary that gets turned into a book. The problem with these books is that they have been re-written so much by an editorial team that they usually end up sounding hollow and bombastic at the same time. As is rather obvious from my earlier comments, I needn't have worried AT ALL!!

I loved reading about somebody who made it through a life-altering experience with new skills, new direction and new hope. I loved learning some of the science and data behind taste and smell, and I loved experiencing life through an intense focus on sensations I often ignore.

Both authors I have mentioned in this post have wonderful blogs that can be found in the "Browsings" sidebar on this blog, or - a one time special for readers of this post - here:
Molly Birnbaum
Cathy Erway