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7th out of 82 books
—
71 voters
Aftertaste: A Novel in Five Courses
by
Meredith Mileti (Goodreads Author)
Includes recipes and book discussion questions.
Paperback, 384 pages
Published
September 1st 2011
by Kensington
(first published August 30th 2011)
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I was all ready to give this book 5 stars until the last third of the novel when it got repetitive, giving a whole lot of information on issues related to side characters while skimming over what was at the crux of the story, which is what happens to Grappa after Jake and Nicola take over? The whole "syndicate" plot line was really building up to intrigue, corruption and massive downfall for the arrogant, cheating Jake but instead there were 5 chapters about Richard's, the main character's gay f...more
I wasn't sure what to expect - it seems like lately there've been quite a few "food" novels, some ok and some a little better. Initially I started to seriously read this one. Then began to skim-read figuring I'd just read until I'd had enough and go on to something better.
Somewhere along the line I went from skim-reading to seriously reading clear through to the end. The story just grew on me. The main character began to grow and become more interesting than just the woman-cheated-on. There were...more
Somewhere along the line I went from skim-reading to seriously reading clear through to the end. The story just grew on me. The main character began to grow and become more interesting than just the woman-cheated-on. There were...more
Love the Goodreads First-Rads program, which is where I got this book. It allows me to read a number of books that I might not have picked up before.
I looked at this book, and I read the back cover, an I just couldn't decide if I thought I would like it, so I kept picking it up and then putting it back down and reading something else, but I have a number of books that I have in that pile and I just decided that it was too big, i had to read from that pile, so I went ahead and picked it up, only...more
I looked at this book, and I read the back cover, an I just couldn't decide if I thought I would like it, so I kept picking it up and then putting it back down and reading something else, but I have a number of books that I have in that pile and I just decided that it was too big, i had to read from that pile, so I went ahead and picked it up, only...more
I found this book when I was checking out the newly released shelf of a bookstore. Needless to say, any story that has anything to do about food immediately catches my attention, be it a novel or a movie. This particular novel kept my interest going when I burned through the first few pages. I immediately checked the ratings on Amazon, and back then it only had five stars (although just a few of them). While this is not a sufficient indicator of a good book, I do use it as one of the parameters...more
When the choices were published for potential Librarything.com Early Reviewer copies of recently published or to-be-published books the only book I requested for the month was "Aftertaste: A Novel In Five Courses" by Meredith Mileti. I had never heard of the author since this is her first novel. But the description was a natural pull for me…a novel about a chef, her restaurant, food, relationship, and love. So I was delighted when I was notified that I would be receiving the book! Let me say fro...more
Mileti had me hooked from the first page! The rebuilding of life, love, and career was overpowering. I laughed and cried along with Mira. I groaned when Mira was acting foolish. I beat my head with the book, saying “NO! Not again!” When a reader has such great emotions from simply reading, you know you have an excellent author!
Mira had the perfect life. She had a gorgeous and smart chef husband, a darling infant, the lucrative restaurant of her dreams, yet it shatters like a mirror hitting cemen...more
Mira had the perfect life. She had a gorgeous and smart chef husband, a darling infant, the lucrative restaurant of her dreams, yet it shatters like a mirror hitting cemen...more
Mira is a new mother and is in the process of a divorce as she walked in on her husband and an employee from their restaurant Grappa as they were having relations. She ends up selling her share in the restaurant to her ex and moving back to Pittsburgh with her father until she decides what she wants to do with her life.
I really enjoyed this story and devoured it in just a few sittings. I liked the characters who were so believable and well developed. It is their flaws that make them human and e...more
I really enjoyed this story and devoured it in just a few sittings. I liked the characters who were so believable and well developed. It is their flaws that make them human and e...more
This is a story of one woman trying to figure out what her plan B is (and who doesn't need a plan B). It's a story of love and life balance and pursuing what's important and what you love. I can totally see where Mira is coming from. She literally walks in on her husband umm... engaging in extracurricular activities with one of the employees that works in Mira and her husband's restaurant. I'd be angry too. There are some characters in various books that I wish I could shake some sense into them...more
There are many kinds of Food-Lit, and really, I love them all. Aftertaste is Food-Lit in the sense that the story revolves around the life of a chef... and there are some nice recipes at the end of the novel (a la Barbara O'Neal). It's a novel of self-discovery through food, family, and friends.
It is a true testament to an author's writing skills when they can enthrall me with a tale even though I don't like the main character. Debut author Meredith Mileti reeled me right in. Mira is a woman s...more
It is a true testament to an author's writing skills when they can enthrall me with a tale even though I don't like the main character. Debut author Meredith Mileti reeled me right in. Mira is a woman s...more
I LOVED this book. Always a sucker for "chicklit", this book was no exception. It follows the traditional setup for your average chicklit story - woman scorned, woman reinvents herself, finds love, lives happily ever after - but offered so much more with the Italian recipes and Jewish traditions weaved in.
From the moment I picked up this book I couldn't put it down. The first chapter starts out where Mira is in anger management classes and tells how she landed herself in the court ordered mess i...more
From the moment I picked up this book I couldn't put it down. The first chapter starts out where Mira is in anger management classes and tells how she landed herself in the court ordered mess i...more
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I received this book as my first ever Goodreads win. I admit that I was skeptical at first, to be reading a book by a first time author, but I have to say that I am glad to be able to add it to my collection. The book is well-written in a simple, yet seemingly effortless manner. I loved Mira from beginning to end and the journey of the book is easy, a very good rainy afternoon read. Though this is her first novel, Mileti writes as though she has been producing published works for years. Her writ...more
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I loved this book! I am also, as Meredith Mileti puts it in a note about herself at the end of her fabulous book, “an untrained, albeit incredibly enthusiastic, home cook” and I fell in love with the heroine of this book, Mira! She’s funny and sarcastic and amazing in any kitchen! She has to take control of her life after finding her husband and a co-worker together…well…control may not be all she takes…she also took a chunk of the other woman’s hair without even realizing it! Love it!! And that...more
Mira Rinaldi seemed thoroughly satisfied with her daily chaos-filled life as co-owner and chef at “Grappa”, the renowned NYC trattora, plus being the mother of their newborn daughter, Chloe and wife of chef and business partner, Jake. All is rolling along smoothly until the fateful night that Mira discovers Jake’s indiscretions with Grappa’s Maitress’d ; the sultry Nicola. Mira’s already stress-filled life evolves into an emotional, anger-filled“roller coaster ride” culminating in her arrest for...more
A novel so clear and convincing that I thought for about two-thirds of the book I was reading a memoir. This story of divorce and its pain is set apart by the candor of the narrator--she is after all sent to anger management courses and finaly banished from New York back to her home in Pittsburgh where she gradually builds a new life. But then comes the chance of a lifetime--to take over the New York trattatoria she and her ex- formerly owned. Will she do and leave Pittsburg, friends and family...more
Aftertaste follows Mira who owns Grappa, an Italian restaurant, with her husband Jake. But, when Mira catches Jake sleeping with one of their employees she freaks out an attacks Jake and Nicola and ends up being sentenced to anger management classes. When she and Jake can't seem to work together at Grappa anymore he offers to buy Mira's share of the restaurant as part of their divorce settlement. Even though it pains Mira to accept that, she knows it's probably better to leave New York and try t...more
Entertaining guests was always on Mira’s to-do list, but entertaining a stint in anger management class was never even a consideration. After years of marriage and a successful restaurant business, Mira and her husband Jack decide to give parenting a try. Unfortunately for Mira the new Mâitress d’ at their restaurant “Grappa” had different ideas and near to the birth of her daughter she discovers her husband’s indiscretion. Suddenly the life she thought she had falls out from beneath her and she...more
While not my usual fare (pun intended), this chicklit foodie novel was just a plain lot of fun. It starts with a bang (literally) when our heroine finds her husband in flagrante with one of the staff at the upscale Greenwich Village trattoria they jointly own and operate ("Grappa"). Our girl, Mira, has just given birth, her hormones are high, and is so physically ruthless with her husband's girlfriend that she ends up in a court ordered anger management class and eventually is legally restrained...more
I love to eat, read and cook. Not necessarily in that order. So when I find a book that combines reading and reading about cooking, I'm usually okay with it--even if it's not spectacular.
"Aftertaste" was a good if VERY predictable story about a young woman and her husband who open a restaurant, have a child, endure a messy divorce and start over. The story follows Mira who ends up losing much more than she thinks she should. She tends to play the victim for a little too long and I sometimes tru...more
"Aftertaste" was a good if VERY predictable story about a young woman and her husband who open a restaurant, have a child, endure a messy divorce and start over. The story follows Mira who ends up losing much more than she thinks she should. She tends to play the victim for a little too long and I sometimes tru...more
I read this book after reading an intense book and I wanted a change in reading uplifiting and funny. This book fit the bill - very cute and well written! I eventually grew to enjoy the main character! At first I was not rooting for her her at all yet as the book progressed I enjoyed her character. I thought that the reference to Gymboree was funny, since I took my daughter to Gymboree when she was 18 mos old and she enjoyed it! It is funny as it all reminds me of those bubble and parachute days...more
This book opens with Mira, the main character retelling her assualt of her husbands lover. It is funny, but not over the top, just funny in a looking back sort of way. This gets the reader hooked in my opinion, however the book has some lull around pages 120 or so and it takes about 50 pages to get back into it. Mira is depressed at that time and it is almost as if the emotion transfers to the reader and the pages. Once you get over the depression the book picks up a great deal and I found mysel...more
After the first few pages, I realized that Meredith had left me hopelessly behind with her food knowledge, but by then I was already giving not-so-silent advice to Mira about what not to do. I loved Mira and enjoyed watching her character grow as she worked to conquer her impulsive nature. Happily not all of her impulses are self-destructive, and I don't think she ever tames them into submission. Her wonderfully supportive friends were drawn with a sensitive pen. Some began almost as cardboard c...more
This is a dishy (every possible pun intended) read about a foodie couple and their divorce, told from Mira's point of view. Mira is a talented chef and co-owner of a hip NY restaurant, a new mother, in the middle of a divorce and going to court ordered anger management sessions because she ripped a few clumps of hair out of one of the servers head after she caught her on the office couch with her husband. At times in the book you laugh with her, at her, cry for her and generally wish that she li...more
I read this on a recommendation and was far from disappointed. An unfortunate victim of a spouse's infelity (and later, just overall sliminess), causes Mira (a rounouned executive chef) to lose most everthing dear to her. Out of necessity, she retreats with her daughter to her hometown of Pittsburgh. It's a drastic change from her life in New York. Along the way, she rediscovers herself and finds it is the intimacy of cooking that she loves.
The familiarity of the Pittsburgh settings made this no...more
The familiarity of the Pittsburgh settings made this no...more
I really enjoyed this book despite the fact that I hate cooking! The heroine is a person I would like to be friends with, she is real and has real emotions. She finds her husband with another woman and proceeds to pull the hair right out of this woman's head! I would think that any woman who found herself in this situation would love to do the same. Of course, her actions are not without consequences... The characters in this book are loveable and not so loveable at the same time, like real peop...more
I liked this book a lot. Not overly focused on romance but on all the details of running a successful restaurant--going to the fish market at 4am, choosing what the menu for the day will be based on what was fresh and fabulous at the markets, line cooks, sous chefs and the head chefs working in the kitchen like a well-choreographed ballet. Some humor, some heartbreak, new beginnings and new friends, family changes. And above all, the food. It reminded me a lot of the movie No Reservations, one o...more
The first course Antipasti, is just ok, deals with heroine's life coming apart which is a bit painful to read...God, that sounds horrible when you think how painful it is when your life falls apart in reality. But I am extremely glad I stuck with it, this book gets better and better. The ending is perfect...a promise of the future.
A quote I really liked "Why would anyone write anything after Hemingway, or compose a symphony after Beethoven, or paint a landscape after Turner? It isn't mecessaril...more
A quote I really liked "Why would anyone write anything after Hemingway, or compose a symphony after Beethoven, or paint a landscape after Turner? It isn't mecessaril...more
Again, should be 4 1/2 stars. I really enjoyed this book. Not depressing, but a good story about a women who struggles to make a new life. She's got some good and funny friends and family who add a lot to the story. I did find myself wanting to strangle her ex and others. I could put myself in her place in parts of this book. I also love to read about how food is prepared, especially Italian foods. This book has just enough of this, without going into a real foodie book. Story takes place in New...more
First off, let me give five stars to the cover alone. I could stare at this beauty all day. I’m a big fan of foodie books, and I just knew this book was going to speak to me. Aftertaste, the debut novel from Meredith Mileti, follows Mira Rinaldi as she tries to pick up the pieces of her life after finding her husband cheating on her. Mira and husband Jake are co-owners to the wildly successful Manhattan Italian restaurant, Grappa, the same location where Mira finds Jake with Grappa’s newest wait...more
This boo really grabbed my interest. The main character Mira is a delight to read about. She faces many personal challenges, deals with a hot
temper and tendency toward addition, but her love of cooking, her baby daughter and her zest for life is a delight to follow. I just with I were a gourmet Italian cook. Her really knows that field and shares some original recipes at the end of the book. I guess I woiuld say that this book really grabbed me and was one read I hated to put down.
temper and tendency toward addition, but her love of cooking, her baby daughter and her zest for life is a delight to follow. I just with I were a gourmet Italian cook. Her really knows that field and shares some original recipes at the end of the book. I guess I woiuld say that this book really grabbed me and was one read I hated to put down.
| topics | posts | views | last activity | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Meredith Mileti h...: The Desert Island... | 5 | 12 | Sep 27, 2011 06:06pm | |
| (never home)maker...: Food & Literature in One! | 1 | 7 | Sep 10, 2011 05:01pm | |
| What's Cookin': Meredith Mileti: Author Q&A | 1 | 16 | Sep 09, 2011 11:25pm |
