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Summary: Page after page of small joys
Review: I'd never read anything by Ruth Reichl before picking up this book, but you can be assured that I will seek out her work after having put it down! The short vignettes are delightfuly entertaining and the chapter on her travels through Greece made me dance around my living room with my boyfriend in one hand and an ice cream cone in the other in appreciation of all the little things in life that make me happy. If I can live a life half as full as Reichl's, I'll die a very happy woman.
Rating: 
Summary: Wonderful!
Review: I found this book moving, entertaining and down right funny! I loved strolling down "food" memory lane with her. Try the Art Park brownies!! They are delicious.
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Summary: Great food critic, lousy biographer
Review: I've always enjoyed Reichl's NY Times food reviews - they're quick, factual and accurate. The skills that she uses so well in her food columns just don't translate well into a personal biography. The writing drags on and on -I felt as if I were reading an adolescent's 'woe is me' diary. I couldn't even bring myself to finish the book and quit 2/3 of the way through.
Rating: 
Summary: A sometimes moving memory of family and food
Review: This beautifully written account of Ruth Reichl's warm relationship with food, is peppered with moving anectdotes about her mother and the education of one of the most influential food critics in modern times. Unfortunately, the portraits of the most important men in her life( father, husband) is sketchy and guarded. Maybe now that Ms. Reichl doesn't have to hide her identity anymore, she will write a second volume that is not as muted.
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Summary: YUM!
Review: This book is a must for people who share the belief that eating is not a biological necessity but rather one of life's great adventures. Ruth Reichl has enriched the life of many with her superb reviews. Now she has added courage and generosity to her work by sharing some of the experiences that formed her. It was a joy to share her physical and psychological journeys. I will continue to emulate her zest for life and food!
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Summary: A "Bad Mom" book with recipes
Review: While there certainly are some humorous vignettes in these food-centered memoirs,the repeated theme is "my mom was nuts, treated me badly, and made me unhappy." Ruth Reichl paints an attractive picture of herself as a plucky little girl, and it would be churlish to be unsympathetic to that girl's plight, but after a while, the adult's version of these past events becomes just too whiney. Most disturbing is Reichl's seeming willingness to absolve her father from any responsiblity for the unhappy episodes she relates. Hey, mom had an excuse ... she's mentally ill! Adored daddy, however, does nothing to protect his daughter from mom's craziness, but emerges if not completely blameless, then certainly a lot more blameless than he should. Left unanswered is the question of whether mom is still alive. If so, how cruel to publish this book now. If not, well some might think that a less public form of catharsis would have been more dignified.
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Summary: A portrait of how family and food shaped a life.
Review: Ruth Reichl is so brave to bare her family's dysfunctional framework and how it shaped her life as a food lover, cook and critic. I kept wondering if the people she so openly writes about are still alive to see what she wrote! Her love of food is poetic, but her open-minded life more than that is a testament to finding balance and optimism. I hope now that she's at Gourmet she can look back and write about what it was like to become restaurant critic of the New York Times.
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Summary: The best book I've ever read(and reread!)
Review: I can't say enough(good) about this book. I've read it at least four times and have it on audio as well. Ms.Reichl is a good old fashioned story teller. I started reading her reviews in the New York Times and I now look forward to her work at Gourmet magazine-she's the new editor in chief! Hooray!!!
Rating:
Summary: Wonderful!
Review: I had never heard of Ruth Reichl, but the book sounded intriguing. I received it this morning, and wound up reading it in one sitting. The book was such a fun read that I wished it would never end.I am the one Shake-and-Bake'r in a family of gourmet cooks, but Ms. Reichl made even me want to go out and whip up a souffle!
Rating:
Summary: Sugar & Spice and All Things Nice
Review: This book isn't just for cooks but for everyone who enjoys a good laugh now and then. The author's irrepressable mother, the quiet father whose past is full of great adventures untold, and the other zany characters the author lives with in a house is only a taste of the great characters you'll meet in this book. Extremely enjoyable -- finally, a book that doesn't sit and rot in your attic but stays around to be read time after time!
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