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Memoir

BOOK FEATURE: “Tiny Hot Dogs”

April 9, 2019 Leave a Comment

“Tiny Hot Dogs” by Mary Giuliani

Blurb:

From awkward schoolgirl to Caterer to the Stars, Mary Giuliani weaves together a collection of hilarious memories, from professional growing pains to her long journey to motherhood, never losing her sense of humor and her love for everyone’s favorite party food, pigs in a blanket.

Mary’s utterly unremarkable childhood was everything she didn’t want: hailing from a deeply loving yet overprotective Italian family in an all-Jewish enclave on Long Island. All she wanted was to fit in (be Jewish) and become famous (specifically a cast member on Saturday Night Live). With an easy, natural storytelling sensibility, Mary shares her journey from a cosseted childhood home to the stage and finally to the party, accidentally landing what she now refers to as “the breakthrough role of a lifetime,” catering to a glittery list of stars she once hoped to be part of herself.  Fresh, personal, and full of Mary’s humorous, self-deprecating, and can-do attitude against all odds, you’ll want to see where each shiny silver tray of hors d’oeuvres takes her next. You never know when the humble hot dog will be a crucial ingredient in the recipe for success, in building a business or simply making life more delicious.


EXCERPT:

Pizza in a Cup

I first watched Carl Reiner’s film, The Jerk, starring Steve Martin, when I was eight years old, and it changed nearly everything about my sweet suburban life (let’s go with “for the better,” although I suppose you should read this and decide for yourself).

As I was watching The Jerk nearly nightly and well past my bedtime, mornings were rough. They would usually begin with my mother shaking me violently, pulling off the covers, and yelling at me to brush my hair and teeth, get dressed, and come to breakfast.

Eventually I would make it to the breakfast table, where my sister, Nanette—whose perfect barrettes matched her perfect dress (perfectly)—would be finishing the last few bites of her cereal while quietly reading another American classic (electively). Nanette my mother understood, whereas she often looked at me with love, yes, mixed with something mystified, like “Really? This came out of me?” as she shook her head and prodded me to finish my pancakes. A honk in the driveway, and there was Bus 24 idling by our house, waiting to take us on our long journey, forty-five minutes away, to the next town and to school.

We lived in Great Neck, Long Island, a predominately Jewish neighborhood, and we couldn’t be more Italian if we tried. My father had a moustache (as did my sister and I). Since neither yeshiva nor the public school down the street was an option, my parents sent my sister and me to the Catholic school in a neighboring town, where we were the only students from Great Neck and were thus quickly labeled “those weird girls.”

I dreaded every minute of that forty-five-minute bus ride. My sister would always get on the bus before me, take the first seat to the right, and bury her face back in her book. I would follow behind, with my crazy hair, half dressed in a dirty uniform with pancake syrup on the side of my face. But unlike Nanette, I opted for the back of the bus. Since we were the only students on the entire bus who came from another town, we were mysterious, and with mystery came a lot of whispers, stares, and speculation. We were teased and made fun of relentlessly, until one day I realized that since there was already a big mystery surrounding who we were, it was my obligation to fill in the gaps. If we were going to be the talk of the bus, I was going to give them something to talk about.

My exaggerations (okay, lies) were easy to get away with, as my sister had mastered the art of ignoring me and mostly stuck to her studies. So while I held court in the back of the bus “big fishing” it, my sister was conveniently too far away to interfere. The film The Jerkserved as the inspiration for my tall tales.

Me: “Yes, Anna Maria Russo, we have a bathtub shaped like a clam and a red billiards room.”

“What’s a billiards room?” a boy named Tom would ask.

“It’s a place to play pool and where you display your stuffed camel collection.”

As “wows” and “ahs” and “what elses” were thrown my way, I was loving the attention.

“Mary, do you really have a tennis court and a pool?”

“I have three pools, Vinny, and a water cooler that dispenses red and white wine, and sometimes I sneak a little vino.”

This went on for weeks, the crowd on the bus growing larger each day. At one point, I had the entire bus believing that I had a disco in my basement, that my father drove a yellow Lamborghini, and that I had a dog named Shithead who could smell danger from miles away.

And then one day, the unthinkable happened: a girl at school actually wanted to have a playdate with me! Me, the girl with one eyebrow from a faraway town who smelled like pancake syrup. I remember being excited and terrified at the same time. I quickly told her yes, and a date was set.

In the days leading up to her arrival, I did my best to fill in the gaps between my boasting and reality. I put two blow-up pools next to our existing in-ground pool (I never told them what kind). I begged my cousin Scott to bring over his mini pool table and created a makeshift billiards room in my basement. I put a blinking flashlight in our spare “junk” room, stuck a tape in my boom box, and poof! I had a disco.

My mother asked what I was doing as I moved a fern from the living room into my bedroom to create a jungle for my “pet monkey.” I told her I was setting up for my friend Anne Marie’s arrival.

“Mom, please please please please serve us our pizza in a cup like in The Jerk!” I pleaded. The Look, a muttered response, and she returned to the kitchen.

When Anne Marie arrived for our playdate, I was panicked. I took her quickly on a tour of the house to see all the things I had fabricated, making excuses for why Iron Balls McGinty (my bodyguard and another character from my beloved film) wasn’t there to play with us and how the arcade I’d boasted about having, with its very own Ms. Pac-Man machine, had been destroyed in “the flood.”

“It was just terrible, Anne Marie, just terrible. Our giraffe drowned in that flood, too.”

Slowly Anne Marie started to realize that the only thing drowning was me in my sea of lies. In the nick of time, my mother called us upstairs for lunch. She had cut up our pizza and put the pieces into little cups with forks, just as I had described. Anne Marie smiled, sat down, and began to eat her lunch.

I sat there waiting for her to get mad or angry, to call me a liar, to tell me that she was going to expose me to the entire school. I waited and waited as, piece by piece, Anne Marie quietly noshed each bite of her pizza in a cup.

When she was done she placed the empty cup down, looked at me, and said, “Mary, this pizza is really good. Can I come back tomorrow?”

My lucky break with Anne Marie created a monster; because from then on I was deeply wedded to the idea that my fantasy life would always trounce the real world. I’ve continued to believe this theory to this day, which explains why I’ve made a pretty nice living creating unique party experiences for clients who have seen it all. I encourage those on the fence, whose imagination is perhaps… lacking… that turning their garage into a disco is always a great idea, or I encourage them to take a chance by serving only hot dogs and martinis at their next soiree, and when I suggest that we try to contact the real Elton John to play at the end of their event for the ultimate party Wow!, I really do believe I can make that happen. Point is, nothing is impossible. If you can dream it, you can do it (or at least some variation of it, like my makeshift billiards room).

Many years later, at the moment I felt I had finally “made it,” I went on eBay and purchased my very own Ms. Pac-Man machine. Anne Marie, feel free to stop on by anytime and take me up on that game I promised you thirty-five years ago.


Deconstructed Pizza Skewers with Roasted Tomato, Fried Mozzarella, and Basil Aioli

MAKES 24 PIECES

As good as I am, it’s quite hard to convince my clients to eat pizza out of a cup, so here is how I pay homage to my favorite childhood meal.

¾ cup light mayonnaise

⅓ cup basil leaves

¼ cup baby arugula leaves

1 tablespoon fresh lemon juice

1½ teaspoon minced garlic

1 tablespoon grated Parmesan

Salt and pepper to taste

1 half-pint container red or yellow grape tomatoes

1 package small mozzarella bocconcini (24 pieces)

½ cup breadcrumbs

1 egg

For the aioli, blend mayonnaise, basil, arugula, lemon juice, garlic, Parmesan, salt, and pepper in a food processor until completely smooth.

In a pan, warm a teaspoon of olive oil on medium heat.

Add the tomatoes and stir to lightly cook and slightly blister their skins. Remove and cool.

In a separate bowl, beat the egg. Dredge the mozzarella in the egg and then in breadcrumbs. Fill the frying pan with olive oil, heat until 400 to 450 degrees, and fry the mozzarella balls approximately 30 seconds each or until golden brown on all sides. Set aside on a paper towel to cool.Once the mozzarella is at room temperature, use a toothpick or skewer and poke through one tomato then one mozzarella ball, dotting the tops with the basil aioli. Repeat.


PRAISE FOR TINY HOT DOGS:

“Mary Giuliani is not a name: it is a promise. Like a guarantee on the box, her name attached to an event, a book, a menu, a meal, is a golden ticket to good times. Mary makes me smile, laugh, cry happy tears, and she always leaves me hungry for more of her wisdom, her humor, and her stories. I raise my glass in a toast to the hostess with the mostest to celebrate this, her most personal, touching, and delicious work yet!”
—Rachael Ray 

“No one tells a story like Mary Giuliani and she does it with great recipes, too! To read her deeply personal memoir is to feel that you’ve connected with a dear friend who’s thoughtful, funny, and truly unique. I love this book!”
—Ina Garten

“Giuliani’s entertaining memoir is packed with satisfying stories and recipes that readers will guiltily enjoy.”
—Publishers Weekly

“Giuliani has chutzpah to spare in these life-filled, rib-sticking (and-tickling) stories.”
—Booklist

About Mary: Mary Giuliani is an author, party and lifestyle expert, and founder and CEO of Mary Giuliani Catering and Events. Mary has appeared on The Barefoot Contessa, The Chew, The Today Show, Good Morning America, Moltissimo with Jimmy Fallon, and is a regularly featured guest on The Rachael Ray Show. Mary’s first book, The Cocktail Party (Eat, Drink, Play, Recover) came out in 2015.

Contact Mary: Website / Facebook / Instagram / Twitter

Filed Under: Tiny Hot Dogs Tagged With: Books, Mary Giuliani, Memoir, Tiny Hot Dogs

AUTHOR INTERVIEW: Juliette Sobanet

December 10, 2015 2 Comments

Juliette Sobanet 115

About the author: Juliette Sobanet is the award-winning author of five Paris-based romance and mystery novels,  four short stories, and a brand new memoir, Meet Me in Paris. Her books have hit the Top 100 Bestseller Lists on Amazon US, UK, Germany, and France, and her work has been published in Italian and Romanian, with more on the way. A former French professor, Juliette holds a B.A. from Georgetown University and an M.A. from New York University in Paris. She is a blogger for The Huffington Post, and she writes about her personal experience with divorce on her blog, Confessions of a Romance Novelist.

**Contact Juliette: Email   Website   Facebook   Twitter   Amazon Author Page   Goodreads   Pinterest   Instagram


INTERVIEW

Describe your writing style in five sentences: I write sassy Paris romances, spicy time travel mysteries, and most recently, I wrote my own true story of love and heartbreak in the City of Light in my memoir, Meet Me in Paris. In my fiction, I love taking my readers on adventures through some of my most favorite places in France—Paris, Lyon, Annecy, Giverny, the French Alps, the French countryside…and the list goes on. Throw in a sexy Frenchman, a little chocolate in bed, and perhaps a dead body or two, and I’ve found it’s the perfect recipe to help my readers escape from everyday life and forget about their troubles for a night. In my memoir, my writing style is more raw and honest, showing what it was like to lose my own happily ever while I was writing romance novels.  Of course, I still whisk my readers away to Paris for a steamy love affair and to Lyon to eat the most decadent of French desserts—le fondant au chocolat…

Tell us about your writing/editing/publishing process? I write 5-6 days a week, in addition to teaching French and yoga, so I am diligent about scheduling in my writing time because I have to be. I self-published my first two novels on Kindle, and four months after publication, Sleeping with Paris hit #30 on Amazon’s Overall Top 100 Bestseller List. That success opened up a new door for me with Amazon Publishing’s Montlake Romance. I signed a few deals with Montlake, and the following year, they released three more of my Paris novels and a short story in addition to re-releasing my first two novels. It was an incredible experience, but I decided to self-publish my memoir because I was excited to have more control in the publishing process again by hiring my own team of editors and designers. I am absolutely thrilled with how everything has turned out for this memoir, and I wouldn’t change a thing!

When did you know you wanted to be a writer? I have been writing non-stop since I was young, filling up journals upon journals with my own stories of love and heartbreak, writing short stories and poems, and everything in between. I first knew that I wanted to write a novel when I was living in Paris, completing my master’s degree. The idea for Sleeping with Paris was swimming around in my mind, and writing a 70 page thesis in French gave me the confidence to give this novel-writing thing a try. After I returned home to the States, I was working at a dreadfully boring translating job when I secretly began typing the opening pages to Sleeping with Paris on my work computer. I’ve been hooked ever since.

Salty or sweet? Sweet! And specifically…chocolate!

At what time of day do you work best? Mornings typically, but sometimes inspiration strikes me late at night, and when that happens, I go with it. I can always sleep another day…

Being that “Meet Me in Paris” is a memoir, how hard or easy was it for you to write this book? The memoir details my experience with divorce and with a love affair that ensued the year after I left my marriage, so writing this book was extremely emotional. What I found, though, once I began, was that the story was so ready to come out that it just poured out of me onto the page (along with all of the tears I shed in the process!). There were days when I would write 15-20 pages in only four or five hours, and whatever flowed out of me was exactly what needed to be told. It was an extremely cathartic process and very healing. In writing this story, I learned how to sit with my pain and my grief, how to accept the choices I’ve made in my life, and how to love myself for all of it. Writing this book was a significant part of my journey, and I’m so thankful that I did it, and that everyone involved in the story has received the book with so much love and kindness.

Do you have any writing rituals? I create playlists on Spotify for all of my books with songs that set the mood for the book or that I would imagine being in the soundtrack if the book became a movie. I listen to the book’s playlist as I’m writing and this always helps me write more powerful, emotional scenes.

If you could meet any other author, who would it be? I was fortunate enough to meet three of my absolute favorite authors in the last few months—Elizabeth Gilbert, Cheryl Strayed, and Jewel—but if I was lucky enough to meet another, it would have to be Janet Fitch, the author of White Oleander. That has been my most treasured book since I first read it many years ago, and her writing is absolutely beautiful.

Where do you see yourself in five years? Living in Paris, writing full-time, traveling through Europe on the weekends, being swept off my feet in an incredible romance, and loving life.

Hard/paperbacks or eBooks? I love them both, but I still love the feel of a real book in my hands.

What do you want readers to take away from “Meet Me In Paris”? I want my readers to walk away knowing that whatever is going on in their lives, no matter how hopeless or difficult it may seem, they are never alone and they are loved. I also want them to know that it’s okay to be exactly who they are, and that it is only in accepting who they are and loving themselves that they will invite love into their lives. And of course, I hope the book makes them hop on a flight to Paris!

What are you working on right now? I’m working on my next novel which is a thriller based in Paris. I can’t say much more about it at the moment except that I am beyond excited about this story! I’m also working on a book of poetry that may be a companion book to the memoir. Stay tuned!


Meet_Me_In_Paris_JSobanet_Final

“Meet Me in Paris” by Juliette Sobanet

Blurb: What does a romance novelist do when she loses her own happily ever after? Take a lover and travel to Paris, obviously. Or at least this is what Juliette Sobanet did upon making the bold, heart-wrenching decision to divorce the man she had loved since she was a teenager. This is the story of the passionate love affair that ensued during the most devastating year of Sobanet’s life and how her star-crossed romance in the City of Light led to her undoing. Meet Me in Paris is a raw, powerful take on divorce and the daring choices that followed such a monumental loss from the pen of a writer who’d always believed in happy endings…and who ultimately found the courage to write her own.

Excerpt from the Prologue

No matter the season, no matter the weather, love is always in the air in Paris.

And tonight is no different.

The autumn sun has been swept away by a splattering of gray clouds, blanketing the city’s cobblestone streets in one of those inky, mysterious Parisian nights where lovers’ secrets will be swept away by the choppy waters of the Seine, or captured whole by the Gothic towers of Notre Dame, or better yet, swallowed up by the bottle of red wine my own lover and I are sharing in a charming little bar near Châtelet.

Yes, I’ve taken a lover.

In Paris.

A Paris lover.

Oh, how I adore the taste of those delicious words.

The Merlot slips past my lips, smooth and rich, as I smile at this most disarming man I have by my side. I give him a look that is both coy and inviting, in lust and falling—well, more like plummeting—headfirst and harder than ever before.

It is only the third time we’ve been together, and already, this lover of mine has hopped on a plane from Chicago to spend a few days with me in Paris.

I’m not sure if he understands how much his presence by my side, in my beloved city, means to me. Or how each touch of his strong hands, each adoring smile, each endearing tilt of his head is healing this broken heart of mine.

Divorce has a way of shattering hearts like nothing else. And mine is no exception. It has only been a few months since I left my husband—the man I have loved for twelve years, the man I still love, despite my choice to leave our dying marriage—and I know these days in Paris with my lover will be my only happy ones for some time.

We’ve spent this crisp fall day strolling hand in hand along the hilly streets of Montmartre, devouring croissants aux amandes and pains au chocolat, stealing kisses in abandoned courtyards, sipping espresso at hilltop cafés, flirting with every word, every breath, and falling ever so hopelessly in love.

Although neither of us wants to admit it yet.

**Buy “Meet Me in Paris”: Kindle   Paperback


Filed Under: Meet Me in Paris Tagged With: Books, Chick-Lit, Divorce, Juliette Sobanet, Meet Me in Paris, Memoir, Paris, Romance, Women's Fiction

Dangled Carat

April 24, 2014 4 Comments

DangledCarat-BarnesAndNoble-1600x1000 copy

“Dangled Carat” by Hilary Gorssman

Blurb: Hilary had gotten used to dating the commitment-phobic Marc, thirteen years her senior. They had a great relationship–why rush into things? She saw no need to pressure him for marriage, believing that when the time was right, he would propose. But after they had been together for four years, their friends decided to take matters into their own hands, pushing Marc to propose and making Hilary realize how much she really did want to marry the man that she loved. Unfortunately, Marc still wasn’t ready–and their friends’ meddling in the form of a faux engagement party led to a disastrous New Year’s Eve that brought their relationship to an inevitable turning point.

My Review: After I featured an excerpt of “Dangled Carat” as part of a Chick Lit Plus Blog Tour, (click HERE to see the excerpt), I received an email from the author asking if I’d like to read and review this book. With my review schedule, I didn’t think I would be able to get a review out until May. However, it was a lazy weekend, so I decided to start “Dangled Carat”, even though I was reading two other books. Once I did, I literally could not put this book down, and was sad when I had to stop to go to dinner with friends that night. All I wanted to read was this book, wanting to see if Marc would finally propose.

The blurb hooked me right away. My fifth wedding anniversary is coming up, but I was with my husband for 6 years (YES, SIX) before he proposed, so I felt that I could relate to the main character, Hilary. It turns out that she and I are very similar. We both loved our men, they just wouldn’t put a ring on the finger, no matter how many times their friends nudged them about it.

There were some scenes where I cringed (the New Year’s Eve party especially), feeling sorry for Hilary, but she handled it like a pro, (I wouldn’t have). Hilary and Marc’s characters are very believable, and written very well. I liked that the author wrote scenes during their years together, making it nice to see how their relationship evolved over the years. The only thing that I thought this book was missing was more of Hilary and Marc together — I wanted to feel physical chemistry between them during the present time, because at times, I felt like they were just roommates, not lovers who have been together for so long.

If you’re looking to read an awesome book, one that you won’t want to put down, I highly recommend “Dangled Carat”! No matter what stage you’re at in your love life, you will truly enjoy this book!

I give this book 5 stars!

**Reviewer note: While “Dangled Carat” is a memoir, it doesn’t read like one, and you will not be disappointed! 🙂

HilaryGrossman**About Hilary Grossman: Hilary Grossman dated a guy so commitment-phobic that she was able to write a book about their relationship. She is currently the CFO of a beverage alcohol importer and lives on Long Island.

Filed Under: Book Review, Dangled Carat Tagged With: Books, Chick-Lit, Commitment, Dangled Carat, Engagement, Hilary Gorssman, Marriage, Memoir, Review, Women's Fiction

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