Rue tatin

Ahhhh, I have a new reading obsession. The lovely Susan Loomis.
I found the first of this series in my local oxfam. Loving the cover and the comparison to Nigella I quickly snapped this up and started reading.
The first book On Rue Tatin covers how the author fell in love with France and finally found her dream home in Louvres and opens up a cookery school in her own home.
Now a cynic might say that this is all just a publicity book as throughout we hear her talk about the books that she was writing at whatever time in the story and it is about making her cookery school a success, so therefore we get a lot of self promotion.
If this was the aim of the book then it worked on me as she's my favourite kind of cookery writer, very chatty with background information and snippets of advice thrown in wherever it may come in useful.
I don't think this was the aim of the book anyway as this is the knowledge that we need to know how the author got to where she was.
The writing shines for me when she starts talking about integrating into the new society that she's chosen to live in and when she's telling you about her sons trials and triumphs.
Whilst reading this book I had a real urge to pack up and move to France myself such is the love conveyed in this book for her adopted homeland.
Half way through the first book I found the second in the series in a different charity shop and started reading it as soon as I'd put down the first.
Tarte Tatin just carries on the story and kept me as hooked as the first.
What I really love about these books is how Loomis doesn't just focus on what goes right for her in France. You get a real sense of the difficulties that would face you if you decided to live there.
At the end of each chapter you also get some recipes that tie in with the stories and most of them actually do.
Sometimes I get frustrated with food memoirs when you've spent a whole chapter reading about one kind of food to either be given a recipe that doesn't really correspond or even worse none at all.
Luckily these books didn't leave me feeling this way. The recipes defiantly correspond to the stories.
I liked these books so much that I don't really know what else to say about them other than read them.
I'll post the things I cooked from them in the next few days.