Bayou Bytes Blog

Title:   My Life in France Author:  Julia Child with Alex Prud'homme This book was my favorite choice from "Blind Date with a Book" which was part of the CPPL Adult Summer Reading Program.  Child's autobiography with the help of her husband's grandnephew is a delightful account of her life with her beloved husband, Paul.  He worked for the United States Information Service which landed them in France in the beginning of their marriage.  Julia's descriptions of acquiring her culinary skills which began in Paris and of living in different countries are filled with humor.  She doesn't hold back in her descriptions of people in her life, of the tasks of writing cookbooks and of demonstrating her cooking skills on television, or of her husband's trials in working for the government.  Paul's interrogation by Senator Joseph McCarthy's investigators is addressed.  Julia's love of life is evident.  This is not a cookbook, but it does give one th...

Look Me in the Eye: My life with Asperger's by John Elder Robison Look Me in the Eye chronicles John Elder Robison's experience growing up with Asperger's Syndrome in a time before anyone knew there was such a condition. As anyone who's read Running with Scissors by Augusten Burroughs could tell you, John Elder's home life could only exacerbate his status as misfit even more. His father was frequently abusive and his not-all-there mother was increasingly slipping into the control of the dubious psychiatrist Dr. Finch.  Despite being labeled as a misfit and future criminal in his youth, John Elder learns to design and construct sound equipment which eventually leads him to building special effects guitars for KISS. Later on he helps design early electronic games for Milton Bradley. Then, realizing he works better on his own, starts a business repairing expensive cars. Though the events of the book are not told in strict chronological order, John Elder's hi...

A Once Crowded Sky By Tom King Once the sky was bursting with superheroes and villains. Each day some plot to destroy the earth was foiled by one of the good guys. Sometimes a villain or a hero dies, but they always come back and the game continues. One day Penultimate, sidekick of Ultimate, decides to leave the game. There are enough superheroes around to keep on saving people. One person gone won't make that much of a difference. Then The Blue, a dangerous force of energy, threatens the planet. There is a way to stop The Blue, but it requires all the superheroes to give up their power and give it to one man, for it will take all their power to close the portal to The Blue. But when the world almost ends every other day, how are you to know that this time is for real? Now all the villains are dead and the superheroes are powerless. Their power sacrificed, along with Ultimate, to close The Blue. All except Penultimate, Pen. Now each hero must wrestle with their place in the w...

I Suck At Girls by Justin Halpern From the author that wrote the side-splittingly hilarious memoir, Sh*t My Dad Says, comes a new, equally hilarious book, I Suck At Girls. This time the book focuses on the author’s awkward, endlessly amusing interludes with the opposite sex, rather than his frank, rather profane father. However, if you enjoyed his father’s straight-shooting, entertaining interjections and advice from the first book, never fear—he’s featured prominently in this memoir as well. Through a humorous lens, you’ll follow Justin as he draws a terrible, inappropriate portrait of his first crush and makes her cry, steals a hobo’s most precious collection, and stumbles into adult relationships as a dishwasher at Hooters. Though the book’s purpose is primarily to make the reader laugh, there’s a certain amount of honest sweetness in these pages. Besides savoring his embarrassments, we also get to see him grow as a person and fall in love for the first time. A...

Tell the Wolves I’m Home by Carol Rifka Brunt This incredibly moving debut novel is set in the 1980s and centers on fourteen-year-old June Elbus, who has just lost her favorite person in the world, her uncle Finn. Finn was a celebrated painter and died of a shameful illness that can only be talked about in hushed whispers; to June he was the person who understood her best.  After he dies, June finds out more and more about her uncle’s private life, including a life partner she knew nothing about. An unlikely friendship develops between June and this mysterious man, each finding in the other pieces of the man they both loved deeply. The novel touches on themes of coming-of-age, love, loss, shame, and healing. Though events are taking place in the 1980s, the book feels topical with the current political climate focused on gay marriage and civil rights. This book was sweet and heartbreaking at the same time, and I cried more times than I can remember. Pick this up for an...

Ava's Man by Rick Bragg (Pulitzer Prize-winning author of   All Over but the Shoutin ' )   The author's mother's father, Charlie Bundrum, was the husband of Ava, Bragg's grandmother.  The unfolding of Charlie's life with Ava and their children gives an informative view of life in Georgia/Alabama during the Great Depression.  Though he could not read, Charlie had many skills and a work ethic which provided for his family; but his talent of making moonshine and his tendency  to drink in excess did cause hardships  for all.  Those hardships did not lessen the love and admiration of him by his family and others.  When anyone had a problem, Charlie could "stop the storm" and ease the pain.   His care of his fellow-man is evident by his "shadow".  The author's family is fortunate to have such a thorough family history which includes this man of great character from the Appalachian foothills....