Sugar Sugar

Paris, My Sweet: A Year in the City of Light (and Dark Chocolate)
By Amy Thomas
Memoir

The cover of this book caught my attention first. I saw pink and white and the words Paris and Sweet. Then I saw the little drawings of madeleines, cupcakes, and pastries. A book about bakeries and Paris, two of my favorite things? That sucker went in my bag right away (my mom even commented later that she meant to grab it, to which I say mom, when we go to the library together, you know if you’re even slightly interested in a book you have to snap it up before I do).

This memoir is an easy read. It will also make you crave baked goods so badly that you’ll start wondering how many excellent bakeries there are in your city and before you know it, you’re Googling like a crazy woman and all these bake shops come up that you had no idea existed and you write each one down and wonder how in the world you will have the time and gas money to visit them all…Err, where were we? Oh, yeah. Book review. Sometimes when I start thinking about sugar my brain gets completely off-track.
Now, while I liked this book and I found Amy Thomas a relateable and descriptive writer (especially when it comes to croissants—oh, Lordy, I can practically taste the pain au chocolat), I wouldn’t say it’s the best memoir of Paris and sweets I’ve ever read. That honor goes to David Lebovitz’s The Sweet Life in Paris. Not only does his book include recipes, but it is hee-larious. Yeah, that’s right, I spelled hilarious phonetically. Because his book is that funny. Deal with it. So I couldn’t help comparing the two along the way and while Amy Thomas has a few amusing comments or anecdotes here and there, she didn’t consistently crack me up like my pal Davey did.

However, I would definitely recommend this book to anyone living in Paris and/or New York City. If you live anywhere else, you’re out of luck because at the end of every chapter, she gives her top picks of all the various bakeries in NYC and Paris that sell whatever sugary concoction she has just described in exquisite detail. Oh, you want some examples? Okay, but I’m starting to get hungry here. Bonbons, macarons, crumbles, chocolate chip cookies, and french toast/pain perdu just to name a few (because drool is starting to splatter on my laptop). The parts of the book where she talks about her bad love life and her stressful job and missing her New York friends are not quite as interesting. I kept thinking, who cares, tell me more about the carrot cupcake with sea salt caramel frosting! But I’m more of a food than people person (Just kidding. Sort of. Kind of. Don’t ever ask me to choose between my sister and Milky Way cupcakes).

Paris, My Sweet is a delicious memoir/guidebook and the perfect read for anyone with a sweet tooth. Bon appetite!