Readability Review No. 8 • Stanley Tucci's Taste: My Life Through Food
Guest reviewer Liz Green whets our appetite for celebrity memoir
READABILITY: Readers, Engaged
Book reviews that measure engagement with the book.
This week, I’ve invited a special guest to join me! Liz Green is the book coach, editor, and ghostwriter, and she has written sixteen books. Today, she brings us her review of Stanley Tucci’s 2021 book Taste.
Readability Review:
Taste: My Life Through Food, by Stanley Tucci
REVIEWED BY LIZ GREEN, GREEN GOOSE WRITING
When focused storytelling becomes a feast for the ears
MEET OUR REVIEWER
Liz Green is the book coach, editor, and ghostwriter behind Green Goose Writing. She helps first-time writers who have been through something and want to write a book about it to help others. She helps them finally write their memoir, so they can share their experience and pay it forward. Liz has written sixteen books, taught college writing classes, and is an Author Accelerator certified book coach specializing in memoir.
Taste: My Life Through Food, by Stanley Tucci
The details
Type of book: Audiobook
Bought or borrowed: Borrowed from my local library via the Libby app
Provenance: I came across this while searching for food memoirs for a client who was doing research for her own food memoir. I love Stanley Tucci in anything he acts in, and I love food, so added the book to my library holds. It took months to become available, but when it did, I dropped my current reading to dive in.
What the cover tells us: The cover features Tucci's face (unsurprising for a celebrity memoir), but in a quirky, not-too-serious way. This gave me hope he would not take himself too seriously in the pages.
The main description says, "From award-winning actor and food obsessive Stanley Tucci comes an intimate and charming memoir of life in and out of the kitchen." I was tired from too much doom scrolling, and something charming felt like just what the doctor ordered.
The book’s promise
Bestseller status • The marketing description bragged about it being an "Instant New York Times Best Seller" and "named a Notable Book of 2021 by NPR and The Washington Post."
Quality audio experience - The audio was narrated by Stanley Tucci himself. As an actor, I figured he'd give a decent performance.
Readability qualities
Style • The first chapter is written in script format, which doesn't come across great in audio where every word (including speaker names) is read verbatim. But once we got over that (thankfully short) hump, the writing style was fantastic
Charm • It WAS charming. Tucci didn't take himself too seriously. His attitude and conversational but eloquent writing style were delightful.
Satisfying in scope • I was impressed with how narrowly focused the book was. A quick Google search reveals Tucci has had plenty of ups and downs in his personal life that he could've included for dramatic effect. But he didn't. He promised a discussion of FOOD throughout his life, and that's what he gave. I work with clients writing their own memoirs, and they often struggle thinking they have to include everything that happened during the years they're discussing. This is an exquisite example of carefully choosing the anecdotes you'll share and excluding the rest, so you can deliver on the promise you made the reader. It resulted in an engaging, satisfying read.
“Tragically it is indeed the goddamn gluten that makes the pasta taste so good.” — Stanley Tucci
Verdict
This book was a delight. It was charming, heartfelt, and wryly funny, with just enough celebrity name-dropping to add a little glitz. It would probably be better as a physical or ebook, so you can more easily copy down the many recipes shared throughout.
Reader engagement: ★★★★★
This is for you if:
You love food.
You love Stanley Tucci. (Who doesn't?)
You're craving something easy, gentle, and engaging, while still real and heartfelt.
You're trying to write your own memoir and want a great example of how to leave out certain bits or keep it tightly focused.
If you want to read it:
Publisher: Penguin Audio | Date: 2021 | ASIN: B08V33M175 | Length: 6h49m
Buy it at Bookshop.org (print) | Buy it on Amazon (audio)
Buy it at Indigo Chapters | Look for it in a library near you
Readability is a special department of The Book Case where I review how engaging books can be, from first glance to the final page. You can find them all in my newsletter, The Book Case.
Do you want to submit your own Readability Review? Email me at hello@dinahlaprairie.com
Coming soon in The Book Case
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Rekindle Creativity Women’s Writing Retreat • What happened at our Spring retreat
Ain’t it good to be talkin’ books? Thanks for showing up and reading.
PS. Did you see my guest article on Jane Friedman’s blog this week? Books aren’t blogs. That’s why I wrote “It’s a Book, Not a Slide Deck: Avoiding Fast-Content Habits in Your Nonfiction Writing.” Head over there and check it out, then leave a comment with your takeaway!
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I read this in hard cover and enjoyed it a lot. It was like listening to a favourite uncle telling stories. The cover took extra significance when I got to the parts about his diagnosis.
Thank you for this Liz and Dinah! Delectable!