During my recuperation from appendix surgery, I haven't been cooking or even eating much (what little appetite I have craves comfort food like roast chicken, mashed potatoes, Frosted Flakes and Pop Tarts).During the times I'm not dozing, I've been doing some reading. A couple of books have been mind candy -- not worth mentioning -- but I did want to mention The Sharper Your Knife, the Less You Cry by Kathleen Flinn. It is the author's account of a year at the Cordon Bleu cooking school in Paris, interwoven with the tale of a blooming romance. She uses the lessons learned in cooking school as metaphors for lessons about life in general. Although I never had an interest in attending the Cordon Bleu -- and have even less now that I've read the book -- the writer tells a good story and I thoroughly enjoyed it. It's a great summer read.