#sweetbitterbook

[bookculturebookstore]

Wow wow wow, there are some major paperback releases today!! Now you can finally make these your next #subwayread without lugging around a heavy hardcover! • • • • #paperbacks #newreleasetuesday #anthonydoerr #allthelightwecannotsee #whitetrash #sweetbitterbook (at Book Culture)

[cjellis0213]

Well, that's certainly a start to a novel. Makes the culinarian in me absurdly happy. #sweetbitterbook @smdanler https://www.instagram.com/p/BoubS-7BwX0/?utm_source=ig_tumblr_share&igshid=c52eeob1p8ra

[kelleydoris]

Yesterday would’ve been my dad’s 84th birthday. #sweetbitterbook

[gepoht]

Sweetbitter swallowed me whole and I might have finished it a little too quickly, much like speeding through a delicious meal on an empty stomach. As I closed the book, I reached for my laptop and plunged into a cyber Stephanie Danler vortex which started in a search for her age. If you’re 24-29 living in New York or not-a-girl-not-yet-a-woman, you have to read this and you’ll understand why I was looking for her DOB.

Her book was an uncanny reflection of one of my friends and a number of acquaintances back in New York, the recklessness I justified with a carpe diem mentality from 2012-2016, and high strung youth all imaginatively colliding with truffles, flavorful notes of top notch wine and other foods the average young can’t consistently afford but have an aspirational fascination towards.

She captured the essence of what many tend to forget as they enter the workforce or for those seasoned veterans, the critical gazes they place on wide-eyed graduates at their first job. That is, you don’t really change much between your last day of college and first day of work. Who does? Yet it’s easy to assume that the transition from protected undergraduate to working global citizen is seamless unless you’re in the thick of it. So I thought, please don’t tell me you’re a 24 y.o. writer who’s pulled this off. Because then I’d probably shove a burger in my mouth and throw my hands up in the air at her colossal triumph. I did have a burger tonight, but eaten with glee and relished. No arms flailing.

While she nailed that state of young adulthood on the mark, she simultaneously managed to have balance another personality type. Specifically, the type of adult you find most prominently in New York--mature but... questionably mature. 

This all just made me really want to know how old Stephanie Danler was and thank God Almighty she’s not 24 or 25 or even 26, but older than me by a few years.

Anyway, it was a breathless experience reading this book. Intoxicating, even.

It also confirmed that I still know much too little about wine and have no serious thoughts about educating myself on the topic. From the few articles I’ve read, it sounds like foodies were enthralled by her descriptions of food, beer and wine, but I don’t know. Those weren’t what got to me.

[popcornandwine]

So freakin' excited about this newly-released Amazon preorder. And beyond thrilled for former fellow backwaiter, @smdanler. Know her name, folks. She's the real deal. #theloveoffoodisrealfolks #sweetbitterbook #chefstephkleininspiredagain #nyctocali