"The Sharper Your Knife, The Less You Cry" Review

Well, I have to say that I was pleasantly surprised by this book. I had originally bought the book at a random book reading that Kathleen Flinn did in a book store in Seattle that I happened to be at when she was there. I had never heard of her, and certainly never heard of her book. I remeber thinknig at the time that She was really cool and I wished that I could do something similar in my life someday. I honestly do not even really like cooking, but I am a sucker for good titles. Plus she had read enough at the reading event that I was intrigued by her story so I bought a copy - I even stood in line and had her sign it.

Almost two years later now, and I am on the hunt for my next book to read. You wonder why it has taken me two years to read said book? Well, I have one addictive habit in my life and that is buying freaking books. I buy them in stacks of ten (sometimes multiple times in the same month) so it takes me a minute or two to get to some of them.

Anyway, I am perusing through my own library of unread books and I see this one. "The Sharper Your Knife, The Less You Cry", by Kathleen Flinn and I remember my random night at Third Place Books and thinking to myself that she had guts. Now I know at this point you are wondering why I am telling you these things, but it will become clear. You see I had never read the inscription she had written in the book when I had her sign it, or if I had I did not remember it. When I read it this time though- it hit a cord. "To Tami, Remember life is not a dress rehearsal - Bests, Kat" Really it is just the time in my life and the things that I am doing and deciding to do at this time (hopefully with in the year) and I realize that she writes that in probably all of the books that she signs, but to me it means something, and to me it made her book worth reading.

Now, I had read "Eat, Pray, Love" and watched "Under the Tuscan Sun" and "Julie and Julia" - this book is way better. I had to tell myself that I could only read it for such and such amount of time because unfortunately I chose a particularly busy time in my life to read it. I liked how she laughs at herself but shows you the courage that it took her to go and change her entire life to do this one thing with out saying "hey look at this really brave thing that I did". It's funny, and great writing. She definitely focuses on the education that she had in Paris and just glazes over her personal life, but that is one of the things that I loved about it. She has a major personal event happen two thirds of the way through that she sums up in a paragraph.

Mostly, this book is about a journey. Her own journey and life's journey in general. She is an American Woman working in the corporate world in London when she comes home from vacation to find that she has been let go. Instead of heading back to the states to get another job immediately she moves to Paris with her boyfriend and attends the Le Cordon Bleu cooking school. She hones her skills as a chef, and as a person. I found it to be inspiring, funny, well written, and above all open-ended. As I stayed up late to finish the thing I closed the back cover with the filling of "this is a little snippet of my journey here that you just read. I am not done. I hope that you are making the most of your journey as well." coming from the book. What can I say, I love books that make me want to do something more with my life. I like to be left thinking. Whether it be thinking about a life philosophy or the endless possibilities that I have before me - To make a stranger think is an accomplishment in itself I would say.

I would definitely recommend this book to anyone who likes nonfiction life stories. She has a good one.