Dining and Driving With Cats: Alice Unplugged by Pat Patterson

Summary

Dining and Driving With Cats - Alice Unplugged is a heartwarming and beguiling adventure of a couple who shares a love that most of us only imagine. Pat Patterson is a born storyteller and makes readers feel as if they are part of the road trip. This book is as much a story of sweet devotion as it is an exquisite example of discovering life's hidden joys in the smallest of everyday experiences. Not since Michael Ondaatje’s hypnotic voice in The English Patient has a book spoken with such an allure for the reader. You might even spot a bit of Irish in the author and his spouse's detailed arguments comparing a dish from one restaurant to the same of another restaurant. 
They, along with the cats, dine frequently during a sometimes hilarious but always romantic auto trip across the South. As the miles flip the odometer, we are given insight into how this unusual relationship between the couple came to be, evolved, and gradually, at the end revealed in a secret you didn’t see coming. What, you say? There is a twist in a dining dialogue? Yes! And you’ll just have to read it for yourself–no spoilers here. Dialogue is so natural between the two; you’ll swear he recorded the entire trip. Alice is revealed in the first pages as a real life brainy, successful business woman enjoying life in San Miguel de Allende a small cathedral town high in the Central Mexican foothills. For over thirty years she lived in Washington D.C.. When she was fresh out of grad school and managing her firm’s D.C. office she captured the heart of a young man who came in from the rain. He fell hard. He pursued her. She said no –she told him she had cats. What she didn’t tell him was that she also had a secret. Over thirty years have passed since Alice revealed her secret. The young man is no longer young but he still pursues her. She calls him hubby. This is their story of a shared love for travel and history, for food and for their sweet and wily cats Munchie and Tuffy. 
You might also say the book is unusual in that it totally engages the reader from the first page without a hint of violence, bloodshed, graphic sex, drugs or language. The author's main character (besides the two cats) Alice, does say "you bastards" once. Alice is supremely self-confident and comfortable in her own skin as we learn early on when she promises the author a vehicle of his dreams if he will join her in a multi-state road trip from Mexico across the South and help wrangle two cats into restaurants, diners, cafes and hotels. He expects to find a Suburban or maybe an Escalade in the drive. Alice surprises with a Japanese sub-compact - a Honda Fit. She says it's "flexible". They drive - Scott La. & the Boudin War. They dine - New Orleans at Gautreau's, Clancy's, and Herbsaint. They laugh - the Carousel Bar. They cry - tragic death. If you come along on this moveable feast you will find yourself caught up in a romantic love story that involves the Other Woman and a secret that Alice cannot keep. You will dine on scrumptious creations from America’s most acclaimed chefs from Austin and New Orleans to the Procope and Odeon Relais at Buci Market in Paris. Along the way you will laugh at cats stuck in boxes, fight with a Pirate, terrify a US Vice-President, discover cat smuggling, and learn how the Other Woman persuaded Alice to accept the author's ring. So what’s keeping you? Hop in ‘cause these cats don’t bite. Besides, “The Get In Here and Eat” pop-up food truck is waiting just up the Austin highway.



My Thoughts

I've always wanted to want to be a traveler... but, I am a homebody.  Don't get me wrong, I do enjoy small trips here and there.  However, I'm good with a week vacation, maybe two weeks if it's a wonderful vacation!  With that being said, this book makes me want to go on an extended road trip!  Well, it makes me want to want it even more!

Diving and Dining With Cats: Alice Unplugged is a wonderful story of a fun, and sometimes pretty interesting, trip with Pat, Alice, and their two cats, Munchie and Tuffy.  Pat is such a great story teller, you can picture every bit of the story right down to the details!  And the food!  Oh how I want to visit all of the yummy places that Pat described!

I enjoyed every bit of this book!  From the first chapter right to the last sentence.  This will definitely be a book to read all over again!

*Note:  I received a copy of this book from the author in exchange for an honest review.

The Fatness by Mark A. Rayner

Summary

Keelan Cavanaugh is fat. That’s why the government put him in prison.


They placed him in a Calorie Reduction Centre (CRC), where trained staff work to help him and many others slim down. Well, that was the intention, anyway. The powers that be had decided chubby citizens must either go there or lose their health care coverage.


When he meets Jacinda Williams, an activist lawyer researching this new system, Keelan is more determined than ever to slim down. But Keelan discovers losing weight is more difficult than it seems, especially when he also has to fight against a ridiculous bureaucracy and policy wonks with hidden agendas. Can he succeed, and will the CRC-crossed lovers ever sit at love’s banquet together?


From award-winning author Mark A. Rayner, The Fatness is a contemporary satire of socialism, capitalism, and the so-called “obesity epidemic”. This is Catch-22 for a new generation, with a distinctly tender undertone, even as it mercilessly spoofs the establishment.


My Thoughts

Have you ever had a book that you were excited to read and yet nervous to read it at the same time?  That's how I felt with this book.  It sounded great and yet I could see how it could be a bit touchy as well.

I now know that I didn't need to feel nervous to read it.  While I was somewhat right in thinking that it can be a touchy subject, it was written in a way that humor made it less 'serious'.

Even though this was written in a satirical way, it does bring up the good point of body image.  What is considered "healthy" is often overlooked and what "looks attractive" to most people is what is put ahead.  The idea that people can be put in a Calorie Reduction Center or lose their insurance isn't that hard to imagine!

This was a pretty decent read!  Thank you, Mark A. Rayner, for sending it to me!

*Note: I received a copy of this book from the author in exchange for an honest review.