The Vacationers by Emma Straub

It first resembles some sort of reality television show: 7 people living in a house on a beautiful 

island off the coast of Spain for two weeks. But it turns out that we're really being invited along on a family vacation of sorts. Seven very different people come together for a chance to relax, swim, and eat glorious food and we soon realize that each has their own hopes, fears, and issues.

Jim: father of the Post family is "a cool 60" years old and finds himself faced with the void of retirement forced upon him once it came to light that he had an affair with a 23-year-old intern (sorry, editorial assistant) at work.

Franny: matriarch, freelance food writer and woman coming to terms with herself due to the shock of her husband's infidelity this trip also marks their 35th wedding anniversary.

Sylvia: their 18-year-old daughter who has just graduated high school and is hoping to lose her virginity before learning for Brown in the fall.

Bobby: the Post's oldest child. Struggling Miami real estate agent and ambivalent gym rat.

Carmen: Bobby's long-time athletic trainer girlfriend who Franny and Jim have always felt was "too old" for their son.

Charles: Franny's best friend for almost 40 years and artist.

Lawrence: Charles' husband and accountant for movie productions. Wants more than anything to adopt a baby and become a father with Charles.

Throw all of these people and their separate and shared histories together and you've got...an interesting two weeks ahead. Break-ups, blowups, possible adoptions--all bubbling under the surface of this seemingly ideal vacation. Straub's characters are fully formed and the reader gobbles up page after page trying to see what will happen next. Will Bobby dump Carmen? Will Franny just divorce Jim already? This seemingly light-hearted beach novel packs a realistic punch for readers. Be sure to check out a copy of The Vacationers today.

The Telling Room by Michael Paterniti

First, there was the cheese. It was a tin of artisanal Spanish cheese in a time when hand-made foods were not appreciated in the United States, the early 1990s. Ari Weinzweig, who owned a delicatessen in the college town of Ann Arbor, Michigan, brought it along when he returned from traveling in Europe. He wrote about it in his deli newsletter.                                              

 Second, there was the writer. Michael Paterniti’s job was to proofread that newsletter. Since he was a poor college student, he was unable to taste the twenty-two dollar a pound cheese. However, on the basis of the description he edited, he admired and coveted it. After finishing school, he became a successful writer, and years after his non-tasting of the wonderful cheese, he decided to pursue its story.

Third, and most importantly, there was the cheesemaker, Ambrosio Molinos, who spent years perfecting and marketing the old family cheese, Paramo de Guzman, only to eventually lose the business to financial problems, due to betrayal by a boyhood friend. 

Paterniti traveled to Spain to track down the cheese and its maker. He became enamored of the remote village of Guzman, even moving his young family there for a year. He loved the sunny farm fields, the well-tended vineyards, the quaint homes and their eccentric inhabitants with their old Castilian way of life. He was most taken with Ambrosio Molinos, cheesemaker and storyteller extraordinaire. In the hills surrounding Guzman are a series of caves called bodegas belonging to the farmers. Here they store their wine and cheese. Each bodega had a contador, a room once used for keeping track of inventory, now used for meeting friends, drinking, eating and telling stories. Hence, it is the “telling room.” The telling room is where Ambrosio tells Paterniti the story of the cheese: the development, growth and success of the family business and its sad demise. 

Michael Paterniti writes beautifully about Spain, its countryside, people, history and food. The Telling Room: a Tale of Love, Betrayal, Revenge and the World's Greatest Piece of Cheese is an unusual and intriguing story.

Check out The Telling Room: a Tale of Love, Betrayal, Revenge and the World's Greatest Piece of Cheese @ the library!