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Summary: Surviving Childhood
Review: My hat goes off to Ruth Reichel for being able to write with such clarity, wit and savior faire about a childhood that was clearly fraught with emotional trauma. Reichel, the daughter of a manic-depressive whose wild mood swings and irrational behavior ruled the household, did not have a normal childhood. Her mother had peculiar ideas not only about how children should be raised, but about cooking, interior decoration, entertaining and fashion as well. She was in the habit, for example, of buying discounted food in large quantities and allowing it to sit in the refrigerator until mold was well established before serving it to family and friends. Another peculiar trait was her penchant for partially redecorating the interior of their home (her enthusiasm always waned before she completed the project) and selling off their summer homes in order to build new ones. Throughout her childhood Ruth seems to have lived in a perpetual state of chaos and uncertainty, never knowing when her mother would embark on a new self-improvement project or money making scheme. There was, for example, the day that her mother picked Ruth up from school, and without any preparation or explanation, drove all the way to Canada. There she deposited Ruth in a Catholic boarding school where only French was spoken, saying that she felt it was important for children to be bilingual. Not surprisingly, Ruth, who spoke not a word of French, was devastated by the loss of her friends, the isolation that resulted from being unable to communicate, and the ridicule heaped upon her by her teachers and classmates until she gradually learned to speak the language. No amount of phone calls, tears or letter writing could persuade her mother to change her mind, and Ruth's father seemed incapable of standing up to or saying no to his wife. A less tenacious and resilient person might have cracked under the strain of such an upbringing, but Reichel has turned her decidedly difficult childhood into a funny, bittersweet story that celebrates life at its quirkiest. I found myself alternately furious with Ruth's parents and laughing out loud at her creative solutions to the curve balls her mother was forever throwing her way. Likewise, I couldn't help but applaud her strength when she was finally able to stand up to her mother by imposing order and reason on what promised to be yet another disastrous situation. This is a book that delivers on many levels. Five stars.
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Summary: reads well and easy to stay attached
Review: This is told as a story and is easy and entertaining to follow.Fun to read and tough to put down. I would recommend it especially to boomers.
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Summary: Wonderful satiating writing!
Review: Tender at the Bone is fabulous...as it peers into a family that we can all identify with. Excellent read!
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Summary: Charming!
Review: I couldn't put it down. A must-read for any foodie. Great food descriptions as well as great stories.
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Summary: An Instant Friend
Review: Ruth Reichl becomes an instant friend with her memoir, Tender At The Bone. She is conversational with all the quirks of the most tender of friendships. She is so giving with her life's quests and relationships...not to mention her recipes. You are compelled to immediately give back to this storyteller and share her life. Through her words you can just as easily feel the warmth of her soups as you can a hug from Aunt Birdie and Alice. Everyone needs to read a memoir like Tender At The Bone, every so often to remind you that being human and connecting with earthly things are the real joys of life...and as Ruth tells you, that she learned early in life that the most important thing in life is a good story. Amen.
Rating: 
Summary: Gently funny and informative
Review: Tender at the Bone is a gentle, easy read reminding one of the importance of food in one's life. Through stories of food - cooking and/or eating - Reichl provides an autobiography concentrating on but not limited to the influences that led her to become a restaurant critic and food magazine editor. The story also reflects the cultural changes in American food patterns as she moves from wealthy Aunt Birdie's wedding menu, her classmate's French father gourmet meals, her mother-in-law's middle American out-of-the-can meals, through Diet for a Small Planet vegetarian coop, into a very multicultural sense of taste. What strikes one most about the book is the author's sense of food both as art and as social glue - views she has the good sense to allow the stories to show rather than the author telling. Recommended for anyone who enjoys cooking ... and perhaps for those who consider cooking drugery ... it may change their minds.
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Summary: Please write a third autobiography Ms. Reichl.
Review: I was eagerly looking forward to reading Ms. Reichl's first autobiography and was absolutely hooked by the second page. It was so good that I reread several pages out loud to my boyfriend. As the daughter of a woman who cooked either disasters or triumphs I identified with Ms. Reichl immediately. I also learned a great deal from both this book and her next Comfort Me With Apples. I realized that I both knew more than I thought about "food" but have quite a long way to go to really know food. Ms. Reichl's writing will have you in tears, laughing and hungry depending on the chapter. The recipes included fit so beautifully in the storyline and you will want to try them yourself.
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Summary: What A Tasty Treat
Review: I've enjoyed her NYTimes reviews and am very sorry to see her gone - If only she wrote more in Gourmet Magazine! This is a sweet story of the days of one of the greatest food writers of today. It's also the story of her mother's manic depression and the role food played in both their lives. Not only was this book completely charming and wonderfully written, it made me so hungry! I love the inclusion of recipes as punctuations to each chapter. Buy This Book!
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Summary: Food adventures put on the back burner
Review: I devoured the first portion of the book, savoring all the delicacies and food escapades. But something happened in the last third of the book. Reichl strayed away from the food and put her personal traumas in the forefront, which just didn't make for tantilizing reading. By the end of the book, the constant droning of her manic mother had become trite and quite frankly immaturely annoying. Stick to the food, Reichl!
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Summary: Bits of Entertainment
Review: If you are looking for a book focused on food and cooking, this is not it. And perhaps this was not Reichl's intention in the first place. It is really an account of her upbringing and coming into her own...worth the read due to bits of entertaining writing, but more on the side of an autobiography than pure Food Lit.
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