Cellar Rat by Hannah Selinger

May 16, 2025

Cellar Rat by Hannah Selinger

I've always had a secret desire to open a restaurant or a bar, probably because I enjoy cooking and feeding people, but the author here makes it sound a lot less appealing. She worked in fine and ultra fine dining establishments, first as a server and then as a cellar rat while she learned about wines and later as a sommelier or wine steward (a cellar rat is one of the people who unpacks cases of wine and stocks the wine cellar). It is not at all a healthy environment, as it turns out: the hours are long, the work is hard and thankless, and chefs and restaurant managers prey on vulnerable staff members. Sensitive subjects include child abuse, sexual abuse, workplace abuse, body image, and misogyny. The whole memoir comes off as repetitious and a little whiny. The author read the audio version - it might have been better if she'd hired a professional reader. A much better memoir of the restaurant industry is Anthony Bourdain's Kitchen Confidential

Never Have I Ever by Joshilyn Jackson

August 1, 2019

Never Have I Ever by Joshilyn Jackson

This is a story about games and people who play them, especially about the worst thing you've ever done (and more than one character has a dark secret).

Amy Whey is living a quiet orderly life and she likes it that way.  She has her husband Davis, her stepdaughter Madison, and baby son Oliver.  Her career as a diving instructor is currently on hold since the birth of her son, but she looks forward to going back to it soon.  About the most exciting thing she does is host her friend Charlotte’s neighborhood mommy book club, which focuses on classical literature and 19^th century comedies of manners.  That is, until a new neighbor named Roux moves in and takes over the book club, insisting that they play a game similar to the high school game of Never Have I Ever.  But the game seems to be specifically aimed at Amy, and Roux hints that she knows all about the past that Amy left behind.  Unless Amy gives her what she wants, Roux will make the information public.

Several party and “icebreaker” games are mentioned:  Never Have I Ever, Mother May I, Truth or Dare, Two Lies One Truth, Spin the Bottle, Bet.

Having read Jackson’s last novel, The Almost Sisters, this title is something of a departure for her.  Probably 20 pages of baby chores could have been omitted (feeding the baby, changing the baby, checking the baby, etc.), but unlike Ruth Ware’s The Lying Game, the baby conversation doesn’t hijack the story.  Several good plot twists kept me turning the pages.

Many thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for an e-ARC in exchange for a review.