Rating: 
Summary: Awesome!
Review: I'm a student at Cornell University and we had to read this book for a class on the history of food. I will honestly say that although food is an interesting subject, *books* on food often suck. Ruth Reichl's "Tender at the Bone" blew the entire class away. In our weekly class discussion, I saw people raise their hands who had never raised their hands before. Everyone was able to somehow relate to the book. This one is definitely worth reading!
Rating:
Summary: A happy book to read.
Review: I first fell in love with Ruth Reichl's writing when she was still reviewing restaurants for the New York Times. Her language was so captivating, her descriptions so skillfully crafted that I ended up with a Times subscription and a knowledge of what to eat at a few hunderd New York eateries I'll probably never go to. The same careful and beautiful writing can also be found in 'Tender at the Bone,' along with wonderfully funny anecdotes and a real sense of sincerity about her life and experiences. I've given the book to a few of my high school English students who have expressed an interest in food/cooking, and it works for them to. A happy book to read.
Rating: 
Summary: A TENDER SUBJECT
Review: Ms. Reichl writes movingly and wittily of her rite of passage, and it certainly wasn't an easy one. I respect and appreciate her deft handling of her mother's problems (a bipolar manic-depressive with no sense of responsibility and some very strange quirks about what people should or can eat.) I found it alarming that an 8-yr. old child 1. had to keep an sharp eye to make sure her mother didn't kill someone with rotten food. 2. was a good cook at that age, mainly in self-defense. Her father was passive. Ms. Reichl is touchingly loyal to him, but I was outraged at his not taking an active hand to protect and to be responsible for his daughter. Ms. Reichl was a perfect 60's/70's girl--filled to the brim w/idealism, courage, curiousity and yes, arrogance. All that being said, I had a hard time relating to this book. I like cooking memoirs such as Micheal West's "Consuming Passion" and Laurie Colwin's "Home Cooking." Funny, but friendly and no sharp edges. Also I loved their recipes. Ms. Reichl favors complicated French creations and places them rather haphazardly throughout the book. I couldn't get a sense of occasion from them. She has an excellent knack for describing the effect food has upon her, but it is so far from my reality, I felt that I must be very insensitive. I think many readers will thoroughly enjoy this book; but for myself, we were not too good a match.
Rating:
Summary: Many wonderful adventures -- not all happy ones! Recipes!!
Review: Tender at the Bone is filled with many wonderful adventures, although not always happy ones. Imagine being sent off to school in Montreal for several years to learn French cold turkey! It may be nice to know the language, of course, but it seems a rather rude shock for a young kid. It's good to know that she survived to become editor in chief of Gourmet Magazine, but that's 20-20 hindsight. Interestingly enough, amazing meals of all types and varieties are instrumental in her survival of this and other many other adventures, filled with wit, sadness, resourcefulness and occasional mishap. Ms. Reichl is kind enough to include the recipes in this warmly written memoir. I haven't cooked any of the recipes (although I definitely dog-eared some pages, particularly the delicious-looking Artpark Brownies) but I enjoyed reading the book and could easily read it right through again.
Rating:
Summary: A meaty and juicy read!
Review: In her memoir Tender at the Bone, Ruth Reichl, the former NY Times food critic serves to her readers a witty and poignant slice of her life growing up in a kitchen. At a young age, Ms. Reichl who grew up in Manhattan, began learning to cook and experimenting with recipes in her parents kitchen at a young age, in what would become her first foray into a lifetime interest and then career. Ms. Reichl writes lovingly of her passion for foods and preparations, and how to come up with innovative recipes and the world of chefs and restaurants. And she also writes about how this passion helped to sustain her during difficult times in rather unusual family. As the reader, we journey along with her as she covers over for her schizophrenic mother who invites hordes of people and has nothing to serve to them. We sit by her side as a wonderful houskeeper takes Ms. Reichl under her wing and entertains her, where else, but in the kitchen as Ms. Reichl begins to love the culinary world. And then we are there when she attends college in Wisconsin and first waits on tables and then is promoted to assistant chef. And finally we have a front row seat as Ms. Reichl takes her first job as a food critic in Berkeley where she addresses her own concerns about inheriting her mother's illness and overcomes some of her own fears. And all the while we read about mouth watering dishes and long for the book to go on and on. I read this book much too quickly and am now longing for another slice of her life as she eventaully moved on to the NY Times.
Rating:
Summary: Charming Memoir and Superb Culinary Adventure
Review: What a delightful, artful and slightly surreal tale of growing up in the 50, 60 70 time slot. As a good girl hippy, Ruth leads us through a chain of events starting with her poor manic mother's pathetic attempts to provide her children with normal life experiences that backfire into disasters and moving through Ruth's spotty childhood and unusual adolescence. From the beginning the reader is aware that the author is a gifted observer of her own and the human condition. She uses food as metaphor to explain her life. The reader has to stop many times and run to the kitchen to try out the recipes, before reading on. A delightful and touching memoir. I can't wait for her next book.
Rating: 
Summary: who cares!
Review: This was chosen by our reading group, and our universal opinion was "Why did anyone encourage this woman to write a book of her life?" Boring, pointless, unresolved. Except for the recipes, there is no 'meat' in this memoir. If you're in the mood to read a memoir that will give you food for thought, try All Over But The Shoutin' by Rick Bragg, An Unquiet Mind by Kay Jamison, The Diving Bell And The Butterfly by Jean Bauby.
Rating:
Summary: Strong beginning, weak finish
Review: Tender at the Bone is engaging when food is in the room and loses momentum when the conversation too directly deals with the human beings doing the cooking and eating. Reichl has spent her life relating to the world around her through food, and her relationship to that world is most clearly and earnestly told in that context. Reichl's book is well worth reading, especially for the early chapters about her childhood. Those early vignettes are terrific. Once she enters college, the book drifts into the iffy world of memoir, and Reichl's skill with storytelling is notably more limited when reflecting on adulthood than when reminiscing about childhood. The storytelling is also weakened by less attention to the lessons of cooking, eating, and serving than were given to the early chapters. It's a fast read, and there's enough in the second half to keep the reader going... but just enough.
Rating:
Summary: Laughed and Cried
Review: Tender to the heart and raw to the bone. This book weaves beautiful and entertaining stories of a normal but also very extraordinary family and the making of a culinary star. A book with many dimensions that tenderly and humorously explores familial relationships, adolescence, friendship, love -- and the role of food in it all! The recipes are just the icing on the cake. A great, light read.
Rating: 
Summary: Too much psychobabble and not enough food
Review: Tender at the bone manages to find its stride only during the later part of the book. The "growing up" part of the book finds young Ruth constantly whining and blaming her parents for making her so screwed-up. Ruth should look in the mirror. Then she would see that she probably caused her parents much more grief than they ever casued her. As Ruth moves to college, we find out how wonderful and ahead-of-the-times on social issues she was. She seems intent on patting herself on the back and reminding us that few people were as unpredjudiced and open as she was back then. After a few pages on how she liked to get stoned, the book finally starts to hit its stride when Ruth arrives in Berkley and studies under the legendary Alice Waters. However, the chapters at the end do not make up for the endless self-love and analysis that the reader has had to endure up to this point. If you want to read Reichl, stick to her old restaurant reviews. This book reads (mostly) like something that should have been left between Ruth and her therapist. If only Ruth felt that way.
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