Coming soon to a blog near you! Our (semi) exclusive interview with Ayun Halliday, author of the new book, Dirty Sugar Cookies, Culinary Observations, Questionable Taste. This is Halliday’s fourth book, the previous ones being Job Hopper (I think I would like that one), No Touch Monkey!, and The Big Rumpus: A Mother’s Tale From The Trenches.

Sugar Cookies chronicles the author’s journey from being an extremely picky eater as a child to being the kind of omnivore who would probably win the jackpot on Survivor; well, as long as she doesn’t have to eat meat, that is. Every chapter reportedly ends with a recipe, although I can’t comment on them since they weren’t included in the galleys that Leland and I were sent for reviewing.

How does a virtual book tour work, you may be asking—good question! I don’t know yet, but for a list of all the food blogs that are going to be visited by Ms. Halliday, go to her website, Dirty Sugar Cookies . We are about halfway down, so we’ll get a chance to observe some of the other interviews before our turn.

A couple of quick reactions to the book—I found it to be hilarious because I kept relating to it. She had the same cookbook I had when I was a little girl, Betty Crocker’s New Boys and Girls Cookbook, and as she described some of the “recipes” it brought back a lot of memories. She writes about early adventures as a college student impressing her peers with her prowess in the kitchen and gaining a reputation as a nurturing earth mother type. I did all of that, and I only wish I had gone on to travel the globe as she did, having further culinary adventures before settling down to marriage and motherhood. Everything is described in comical detail, and her recall of everything she has eaten from the time she was little is nothing short of amazing. It is also refreshing to read a memoir in which no one is sexually abused.

Halliday is the wife of New York playwright Greg Kottis, author of Urinetown, coincidentally the play I had plans to see before 9/11 changed the world. A girlfriend and I had mapped out a weekend in New York, had plane and hotel reservations, theater tickets, and were looking forward to a lovely time, although I am really not much of a theater person in general. My friend Paula is, though, and had given me the review of Urinetown to read from The New Yorker, so out of all the plays in the city, this is the one we had chosen. We never did get around to that weekend in New York, unfortunately, and now Paula’s moved to Kentucky I guess we never will. Mr. Kottis has a new play about to premiere, Pig Farm, although I don’t know anything about it. (PLEASE, no one get the idea that I am in any way at all comparing my not seeing a play to the real tragedies of 9/11!! I was just noting a coincidence, that’s all.)

Dirty Sugar Cookies is available from Amazon now if you want to read it for yourself before the virtual book tours begin.