L'Appart: The Delights And Disasters Of Making My Paris Home

"I’ve been charmed by the writing of American chef David Lebovitz for years – his 2009 memoir, The Sweet Life in Paris, made me laugh till I cried, and its dessert recipe pages bear the chocolatey, buttery traces of my baking. I’ll read anything Lebovitz writes, but L’Appart was of special interest to me since my grandparents also uprooted (long ago) from the U.S. and chose to make their home in France. And though I know they faced frustrations, I don’t think anything approached the ordeals Lebovitz details here. L’Appart isn’t hilarious in the way of his earlier memoir – given the relentless tribulations Lebovitz faced in buying and renovating his apartment, that is not surprising – but we get to know him better. “Living in Paris awakened something inside me that not only changed my cooking,” he writes, “but the kind of person I am.”"