Book Review: But Mama Always Put Vodka in her Sangria

But Mama Always Put Vodka in her SangriaBut Mama Always Put Vodka in Her Sangria!: Adventures in Eating, Drinking, and Making Merry
by Julia Reed, Nonfiction – Cooking / Food 
(Released April, 2013)

Bottom Line: Skip it.
Summary: 
Essays on eating, drinking, and entertaining…in a Southern way.
My Thoughts: I loved Julia Reed’s essay collection on Southern life (Queen of the Turtle Derby and Other Southern Phenomena), so was looking forward to her food book…obviously, since I love eating! At first, I loved it and thought it was a perfect book for Southern girls who love to eat…and made my mouth water and hips expand just by reading. Reed is funny, eccentric, and irreverent. Her first two essays are hilarious and hit the nail on the head. One is about how Southern food brings all kinds of people together…and puts snooty French fare to shame! The second essay makes fun of NYC socialites’ horrible “diet” food they serve at their cocktail parties. Some will probably say Reed is over the top with her name dropping, but I personally enjoyed reading about celebrities’ eating and drinking habits! After the first two essays, the book went downhill for me. I’m not a big exotic cocktails person (mostly white wine, or the occasional Mojito, for me!), so the entire second section bored me. I just couldn’t make myself interested in a whole chapter debating the finer points of Martini variations. I also didn’t realize how many recipes were in this book – both for food and cocktails. It’s sort of like The Pat Conroy Cookbook, a cookbook with accompanying stories. This book could make a good gift (in paper format, of course!!), but was not a good choice to just read…especially on Kindle. 

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