Entertaining Disasters: A Novel (With Recipes)
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Narrated by:
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Nancy Spiller
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By:
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Nancy Spiller
About this listen
In print, the unnamed freelance food writer of Nancy Spiller’s sardonic debut novel, Entertaining Disasters, lives high on the food chain in the heady realm of L.A.’s culinary journalism scene. She waxes poetic about her hip home gatherings, while thinly veiling the identities of her A-list glitterati guests. But in reality, she's been inventing the dinner parties she writes about because social paralysis sets in at the very thought of a real guest in her fabulous - or is it shabby? - hillside home.
Enter the glossy food magazine editor, new in town, who wants an invitation to one of her bashes, and the panic-stricken journey from fantasy hostess to reality bites is on.
Entertaining Disasters at turns whimsical and deeply affecting, chronicles the struggle she faces in the week before she hosts her first real dinner party in a decade. At the same time, her estranged sister threatens to drop by, her husband takes off, and her house implodes.
In the way of Nora Ephron’s Heartburn, Spiller’s book is filled with fascinating culinary lore, (mostly) delicious recipes, generous servings of humor and heartbreak, and infused with longing for a culinary salvation.
What the critics say:
"...offers sharp, startling observations in a unique and very human voice." (Elle Magazine, a Readers' Prize Pick 2009)
Redbook Recommend: "This Zany novel (with recipes)...will make you appreciate your own fallen souffles all that much more."
Los Angeles Magazine: "Nancy Spiller's novel offers memoir's most potent pairing: the child's eye, sensual and vindictive, with the grown-up's aching heart...it's a testament to Spiller's skill as a narrator that tragedy and comedy begin to seem like a natural couple and that feeding a gathering of friends is the ultimate modern ordeal."
©2009 Counterpoint Press (P)2018 Nancy SpillerListeners also enjoyed...
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Out of Line describes Lynch's remarkable process of self-invention, including her encounters with colorful characters of the food world, and vividly evokes the magic of creation in the kitchen. It is also a love letter to South Boston and its vanishing culture, governed by Irish Catholic mothers and its own code of honor. Through her story, Lynch explores how the past - both what we strive to escape from and what we remain true to - can strengthen and expand who we are.
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Hardheaded, arrogant, profane.
- By Minneapolis listener on 10-26-22
By: Barbara Lynch
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Housebroken
- Admissions of an Untidy Life
- By: Laurie Notaro
- Narrated by: Laurie Notaro
- Length: 6 hrs and 12 mins
- Unabridged
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Number-one New York Times best-selling author Laurie Notaro isn't exactly a domestic goddess - unless that means she fully embraces her genetic hoarding predisposition, sneaks peeks at her husband's daily journal, or has made a list of the people she wants on her Apocalypse Survival team (her husband's not on it). Notaro chronicles her chronic misfortune in the domestic arts, including cooking, cleaning, and putting on Spanx while sweaty (which should technically qualify as an Olympic sport).
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Wonderful
- By Carlie on 07-28-16
By: Laurie Notaro
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My Place at the Table
- A Recipe for a Delicious Life in Paris
- By: Alexander Lobrano
- Narrated by: Robert Fass
- Length: 8 hrs and 6 mins
- Unabridged
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A mouthwatering testament to the healing power of food, My Place at the Table is a moving coming-of-age story of how a gay man emerges from a wounding childhood, discovers himself, and finds love. Published here for the first time is Lobrano’s “little black book,” an insider’s guide to his thirty all-time-favorite Paris restaurants.
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Great foodie talk, great palate
- By daily walker on 07-02-21
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Sweet Caroline
- Lowcountry, Book 1
- By: Rachel Hauck
- Narrated by: Cici Dee
- Length: 9 hrs and 47 mins
- Unabridged
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Caroline serves others with little time to enjoy the sweeter parts of life. Until her old boyfriend returns to town - and she's given a second chance at first love. Life hasn't always been so sweet for Caroline Sweeny. She sacrifices her desires for others - unlike her mother who abandoned their family years ago. But when a friend challenges her to accept an exciting job adventure in Spain, Caroline says "yes" to a new destiny. But before she can pack her bags, Caroline suddenly finds herself the new owner of the run-down Frogmore Cafe - and forced to choose: Her friends or her future?
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Great Multileveled Christian Story
- By Dr. Elaine L. Wilmore on 01-09-23
By: Rachel Hauck
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A Taste of Sage
- A Novel
- By: Yaffa S. Santos
- Narrated by: Inés del Castillo, Jonathan Todd Ross
- Length: 7 hrs and 40 mins
- Unabridged
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Lumi Santana is a chef with the gift of synesthesia - she can perceive a person’s emotions just by tasting their cooking. Despite being raised by a single mother who taught her that dreams and true love were silly fairy tales, she decides to take a chance and puts her heart and savings into opening a fusion restaurant in Inwood, Manhattan. The restaurant offers a mix of the Dominican cuisine she grew up with and other world cuisines that have been a source of culinary inspiration to her.
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Great summer read!
- By David S on 05-21-20
By: Yaffa S. Santos
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Buttermilk Graffiti
- A Chef’s Journey to Discover America’s New Melting-Pot Cuisine
- By: Edward Lee
- Narrated by: David Shih
- Length: 8 hrs and 53 mins
- Unabridged
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American food is the story of mash-ups. Immigrants arrive, cultures collide, and out of the push-pull come exciting new dishes and flavors. But for Edward Lee, who, like Anthony Bourdain or Gabrielle Hamilton, is as much a writer as he is a chef, that first surprising bite is just the beginning. What about the people behind the food? What about the traditions, the innovations, the memories? A natural-born storyteller, Lee decided to hit the road and spent two years uncovering fascinating narratives from every corner of the country.
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Good listen for the aspiring food snob
- By thurman r. on 02-09-22
By: Edward Lee
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Cooking as Fast as I Can
- A Chef’s Story of Family, Food, and Forgiveness
- By: Cat Cora
- Narrated by: Cassandra Campbell
- Length: 7 hrs and 55 mins
- Unabridged
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In Cooking as Fast as I Can, Cat Cora reveals, for the first time, coming-of-age experiences from early childhood sexual abuse to the realities of life as a lesbian in the Deep South. She shares how she found her passion in the kitchen and went on to attend the prestigious Culinary Institute of America and apprentice under Michelin-star chefs in France. After her big break as a cohost on the Food Network's Melting Pot, Cat broke barriers by becoming the first-ever female Iron Chef.
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Great listen for a chef
- By Nikki on 04-10-24
By: Cat Cora
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Earthly Delights
- By: Kerry Greenwood
- Narrated by: Louise Siversen
- Length: 7 hrs and 57 mins
- Unabridged
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Baking is an alchemical process for Corinna Chapman. At four am she starts work at Earthly Delights, her bakery in Calico Alley. But one morning Corinna receives a threatening note saying 'The wages of sin is death' and finds a syringe in her cat's paw. A blue-faced junkie has collapsed in the dark alley and a mysterious man with beautiful eyes appears with a plan for Corinna and her bread. Then it is Goths, dead drug addicts, witchcraft, a homeless boy and a missing girl and it seems she will never get those muffins cooked in time.
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Don't know why I waited so long.
- By S. Sarabasha on 09-13-13
By: Kerry Greenwood
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Bonjour, Happiness!
- Secrets to Finding Your Joie de Vivre
- By: Jamie Cat Callan
- Narrated by: Tavia Gilbert
- Length: 6 hrs and 50 mins
- Unabridged
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As a young girl, Jamie Cat Callan was fascinated by her French grandmother. Though she had little money, Jamie's grand-mère ate well, dressed well, and took joy in simple, everyday pleasures. As Jamie journeyed through France as an adult, she gained more insight into the differences between French and American women. French women - whether doctors, shop owners, or housewives - don't worry about being thin enough, young enough, or accomplished enough.
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a delight
- By Jan Kovac on 02-28-16
By: Jamie Cat Callan
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Eating for England
- The Delights and Eccentricities of the British at Table
- By: Nigel Slater
- Narrated by: Nigel Slater
- Length: 6 hrs and 24 mins
- Unabridged
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The British have a relationship with their food that is unlike that of any other country. Once something that was never discussed in polite company, it is now something with which the nation is obsessed. But are we at last developing a food culture or are we just going through the motions? Eating for England is an entertaining, detailed, and somewhat tongue-in-cheek observation of the British and their food, their cooking, their eating, and how they behave in restaurants.
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A Must-Hear!
- By Laura on 07-04-08
By: Nigel Slater
What listeners say about Entertaining Disasters: A Novel (With Recipes)
Average customer ratingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
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- Alexandra Corwin
- 08-17-20
Love food? You'll adore this book!
I thoroughly enjoyed listening to this novel. Author Nancy Spiller narrates in a wonderfully droll, ironic, matter-of-fact voice and leads us through a funny, poignant, and harrowing story which explores a woman’s life with food and recipes. Because she inhabits her story so completely it sounds autobiographical, although for the author’s sake I hope it is not. The voice is that of a food writer, also known for her fabulous dinner parties. She lives in a house in Glendale, California, with Someone (her name for her husband.) She is also a food expert, a world traveler, and a collector of recipes. The novel is constructed like a braid, sections woven neatly together to create a smooth polished whole. The adult scrupulously prepares for a dinner party; her younger self works as a successful food writer. And then there’s her childhood, growing up the youngest sibling in a painfully dysfunctional family. They barely make it out alive as her mother gets angrier, more isolated, and more and more crazy. Yet throughout the novel our protagonist remains sturdy, capable, and optimistic. She comforts herself with an inner life full of plans and promises. In her outer life surrogate families teach her how to self-nourish, how to love, and how to cook. Each chapter is accompanied by a recipe. This book kept me listening, laughing out loud, and shouting “Oh, no,” from start to finish.
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- Richard Natale
- 08-20-20
Humor and trauma. With food.
Prepare to laugh and weep and drool through the intricate yet breezy Entertaining Disasters. Nancy Spiller has created a singular fictional work that weaves a captivating tapestry of past and present, at times delightfully humorous and at others wrenching and sad. Intermixed are mouth watering recipes. All of it narrated by the author in a confiding tone that establishes an intimacy with the listener.
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- Diana Daniele
- 08-23-20
Highly Recommend Entertaining Disasters,
Entertaining Disasters offers pleasurable culinary missives, both real and imagined, with each chapter ending in a mouth-watering recipe. But this is not a light-as-meringue romp. Interspersed with the food in the kitchen, is a story told in flashbacks about the narrator’s family growing up, especially her mother, college-educated housewife Lenore who suffered from hysteria, as mental issues were called back then. Searingly honest and unflinching, Entertaining Disasters has the depth, character and pathos that makes for a truly great work of fiction. Highly recommend!!
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- wellreadCarol
- 08-12-20
HEROINE'S FOODIE OBSESSIONS FUEL AUTHOR'S EMPATHY
I read and enjoyed Entertaining Disasters in print and I liked it even more as an audiobook experience over a few longish drives. The author's reading gave the story an even more immediate movie-in-my-mind feeling. She comes across like your funny, mordant friend-- pointed and self-deprecating. The story is about a food and entertaining writer who puts her own personality into her recipe articles. But it turns out it's her fantasy personality she puts into the articles-- so complications ensue over the next several weeks. If you've ever spent a few hours in the kitchen cooking, you'll recognize the narrator's inner voice as even different ingredients in her spice cabinet remind her of people and places. If you've ever entertained, you'll understand how the thread of planning and worry runs through her daily life and sparks memories of childhood and family. It's actually quite suspenseful.
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- Jo Giese
- 08-10-20
Warning: This Novel Will Make You Hungry
Warning. Don't start this delicious audio book until you have the time to listen straight through. You won't have a choice. Entertaining Disasters: A Novel With Recipes by Nancy Spiller is so good you'll want to eat it all at once.
The author also does an excellent job as narrator, which makes the listening experience of this intimate story even more personal and arresting.
The story is set in LA's culinary scene and the clever narrative arc revolves around entertaining and hosting a dinner party. Sounds easy enough, but it turns out that the central character in this debut novel is a food writer who has been inventing the fabulous dinner parties she's been writing about. When she has to morph from fantasy hostess to real hostess, she has a meltdown, and the book takes off.
A subplot revolves around the writer's mentally ill mother who, for the family's health, clearly should have been institutionalized much earlier in the story. I also wondered how the author could pull off an audio book with recipes. And she did an excellent job. Her description tempted to me to make osso bocu tonight.
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- Mavis Rode
- 01-21-21
Marvellously entertaining and insightful
The author, Nancy Spiller, narrates this audio book, which makes it ever more intimate. Read other's review for a synopsis, but do listen to this book. Or read it. I've done both and it is even richer the second time. The narrative captures and embraces you in the heroine's past (you are there with her) and in her future projections of a dinner party she is planning. Marvellously entertaining and insightful.
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