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Summary: It will make your mouth water with anticipation...
Review: What if you could tell what kind of person someone was just by observing what, where and how they eat? In Ruth Reichl's, Tender at the Bone- Growing up at the Table, you will learn to do just this. Her book is a well-written and interesting look at life, food, and relationships.
Her descriptive details and life reflecting commentary give an instant understanding of the author's experiences. Which include living with a neglectful father and manic-depressive mother. The catchy dialogue between characters leads the reader deeper into the book. With each page more connections are made between people, what they eat and how food can dictate our emotions. Ruth suggests that good times and good food co-exist, while those experiences that are unpleasant involve less appetizing meals.
Growing up constantly shielding herself, and her friends, from her mother's food makes Ruth a very unique person. Ruth discusses how her mother's illness often drove her crazy and made her paranoid about having friends over or throwing parties. When she is old enough she leaves town; going to college and eventually living on her own. It is then that she meets her husbands, travels throughout Europe, and becomes a "food guru."
There are always interesting and slightly odd things occurring throughout the duration of this book. Ruth gets slightly crazy, eats rotten food, digs through garbage and does several other eccentric things.
From youth to adulthood and all the recipes in between, this book never falls short. Ruth Reichl's, Tender at the Bone- Growing Up at the Table, is an excellent read, and well worth the paper it is printed on.
Rating:
Summary: Engaging and yummy
Review: Ruth Reichl can cook, she can edit, and she can write.
This is an engaging story of growing up with a bi-polar mother in the era before the condition had a name or treatment options. She describes her mother as waking up every morning not knowing who she would be that day - so imagine the child's life, waking up not knowing who your mother would be.
Reichl was obviously scarred by this childhood, but she also triumphed, raised herself - and learned to cook and appreciate the good food others offered her along the way.
Read it. You'll like it.
Rating: 
Summary: Read it in one day.....
Review: I just couldn't put this one down! Ruth Reichl has an obvious talent for engaging her readers. In Tender at the Bone, Ruth chronicles her early life as a "gourmand in training". Join her as she tells about her not-yet-diagnosed manic-depressive mother. Revel with her as she has her first experience with truffles. Travel with her to Tunis as she becomes a guest of some mysterious strangers. Agonize with her when she moves to Berkeley, where her fellow commune dwellers constantly harped on her for preparing "elitist" meals, and grocery shopping meant digging through dumpsters. An incredible story about a strangely incredible life.
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Summary: Even if you're not into food books per se
Review: This book is simply a great memoir. I loved the story of dealing with a dysfuntional mom. Which of us hasn't had to deal with someone in our family whom we feel "lives to make us nuts".I recommend this book to anyone who just wants a good read, and it's "icing on the cake" to have the recipies thrown in!
Rating:
Summary: Yummy
Review: Ruth Reichl has been the food critic for the NY Times and the editor-in-chief of Gourmet magazine. This is the first of her memoirs and it covers her childhood and young adult life. As she mentions in the Author's Note, "This book is absolutely in the family tradition. Everything here is true, but it may not be entirely factual... I learned early that the most important thing in life is a good story." And Ms. Reichl is a great storyteller. I also recommend her second book "Comfort Me With Apples."
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Summary: Kitchen shenanigans.....
Review: I first saw this book at a local bookstore and made a mental note to try to find it later. I happened to see it again and finally picked it up and could not put it down. I had reservations that perhaps it would be a dry account, but found it fascinating. Ruth Reichl's writing style is conversational. She writes as though you were sitting with her in her home chatting. I was found her story hilarious, pathetic, touching, and fascinating. The fact that she apparently grew up in a somewhat bizarre home does not seem to have destroyed her ability to find humor in life. I was particularly interested in her boarding school experience and found it fascinating how much it helped her later as a food critic. She not only provides an extremely entertaining account of her life but offers some recipes which may entice some of her readers to do a little cooking of their own.
I am now looking forward to reading her second book, "Comfort Me With Apples".
Rating:
Summary: Great Book
Review: This book is much better than "Comfort me with Apples". Its a nicely told personal story expressed with a touch of the art of becoming a home cook, and the pursuit to go further. If you love cooking, you can identify with the authors' experiences. Her family story is no different than that of any other struggling american family.
Rating:
Summary: Delicious Memoir Seasoned with Spicy People and Food
Review: True to the memoir form, this is an intensely personal story. From the time she's a child, food shapes Reichl's mind and life. It's not easy going, either. Most children, raised in the same way, might have turned totally away from anything culinary. Not Reichl. She just adapts. Her disfunctional mother, for example, is a not only a disinterested cook, she's an actively abusive one. "It was just the way she was. Which was taste-blind and unafraid of rot. 'Oh, it's just a little mold,' I can remember her saying on the many occasions she scraped the fuzzy blue stuff off some concoction before serving what was left for dinner." Against this background Reichl chronicles her own development as gourmet and gourmand -- a remarkable and fascinating transition. She presents a delectable collection of stories about people and food (recipes included) as she works toward her destiny as a famous food writer. I was deeply disturbed about her presentation of her mother as a manic depressive, frightening personality. I'd have been much more comfortable -- and might have even been amused by it -- if that villainy had been presented in the character of a grandmother or aunt. Mothers, I feel, deserve all the respect we can give them! I had to get over it to enjoy the book. That faced, the scenes where she and her brother try to protect guests from their mother's food foibles lend a riotous humor to the story. When she brings a special man to meet her family, "Mom cooked the steaks in her usual fashion, which was to put the meat in the broiler for about a minute, turn it, and announce that dinner was ready. 'It's raw,' Doug whispered, gulping. He ate six ears of corn and pushed his meat around on the plate." Don't expect lovely, literary prose. Reichl is, after all, a journalist, which means the prose is as lean as a trimmed lamb chop. Do expect an amusing romp through growing-up adventures, friendships and food.
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Summary: Reichl is Cool
Review: In a world beset by global warming, suicide bombings and restatement of earnings, what a pleasure to read a book like this. Ruth Reichl is a treasure. Tender at the Bone is an absorbing and absolutely charming coming of age story of a gifted food conniseur, chef and writer. Sandwiched between mouth watering recipes and tall tales of travel and counter culture is a childhood with some poignancy. Her mother serves for more than foil and comic relief, she is the major challenge in Ruth's life. The ghost and horror revisits her in Berkeley when she is stalked by a strange woman who foreshadows future battles with mental illness. I couldn't put it down. This is a wonderfully written book for anyone who loves a good story and great food.
Rating: 
Summary: Okay, but...
Review: I thought that this book was an okay read, but it left quite a lot to be desired. The author's life story was, for me, a not particularly interesting one (except for the havoc wrecked by author's manic/depressive mother and passive/enabling father). Reichl's ponderous writing style ruined many a good scene. Her annoying use of passive verbs (i.e. "I could see," "I could smell," "He seemed to be," etc.) slowed things down considerably. More aggravating, Reichl skips over some lucious details of her cooking apprenticship--she learns to cook such-and-such and it turns out delicious. Boom, just like that, with no description of technique or trial-by-error or any of those pesky things that home cooks (and probably professionals, as well) have to deal with on the road to a perfect souffle or divine roast. So, all in all, if a reader is seeking a combined autobiography/cookbook, there are better choices than "Tender at the Bone."
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