Rating: 
Summary: A book to be gobbled!
Review: I'm reading the book now and wish I could run away from work to finish it. The book is funny, exciting, touching, and mouthwatering. I've been a fan of Reichl's restaurant reviews for years. They are always trenchant and to the point, but never mean-spirited, and they open a window on the world's most interesting food. Read it!
Rating: 
Summary: Looking for a discussion guide
Review: Our book club has chosen "Tender at the bones" and would like to have some discussion questions for our next meeting. We also have a member who is writing the screen play for the book.
Rating:
Summary: I couldn't put it down!
Review: Ruth Reichl's new book is a must-read for food lovers. Tender at the Bone traces the story of how Reichl's passion for food shaped her life and eventually evolved into a career -- and it reads like a wonderful, very funny novel! I LOVED this book.
Rating: 
Summary: Disturbing!
Review: I found the authors travels more interesting than her descriptions of eating or cooking. Much of her cooking tales personally turned my stomach. I suppose I'm glad that I'm not familar with her New York Times reviews. The recipes included in the book were either bizarre sounding or rather simplistic. Save for the soufflet recipe, I'm really not tempted to try any of them.It took until page 54 for me to really get into the book. I had five abortive attempts at starting the book before I finally got to a point where I was interested enough to keep reading. It was at the point that she went to the boarding school that I wanted to continue. Again it was for the traveling and not the food. To top things off I had the joy of reading this book while traveling for the holidays. My mother-in-law and mother both did things that reminded me of Ruth's mother. In the case of latter, it was to see if years old preserves that no longer had the consitency of preserves were still etible. For the former, it was to cook a meat dish that smelled okay but was gray in color. She also then made a strange vegetable dish that had all sorts of things mixed together that just don't seem like they should go together. Both dishes actually tasted fine but they sure looked strange! Perhaps if I hadn't been reading Tender at the Bone at the time I wouldn't have been so put off by them. In the case of the preserves, my mother in law came to her senses before actually eating any.
Rating: 
Summary: Has its moments, although...
Review: First of all, don't buy this book for the recipes. They seem to be included to give the feel of the period, and aren't very interesting today. That said, there are some worthwhile passages in this book, notably those that involve the author's bipolar mother. The problem is that the bulk of the memoir is larded with boomer-generation cliches: the motherly housekeeper, the exotic boarding school roommate, the high school 'fast crowd,' the exotic college roommate, the post-college communal household. One cringe-worthy chapter in the middle is reminiscent of Neal Pollack's "I am friends with a middle-class black person"--minus the satire. Finally, at the end, things just begin to get interesting as the author visits French vintners in the company of Kermit Lynch. Perhaps the sequel is a better read. For a far superior coming-of-age-with-food read, try Nigel Slater's "Toast." It succeeds more effectively on every level--and all he had to work with was British food!
Rating: 
Summary: Worth a read
Review: A memoir about a food writers coming of age through her experiences with food. Her descriptions of food are tantalizing and the recipes sprinkled throughout tempting. I enjoyed reading about the variety of her exposures to food and found it a well written and easy to read memoir. However, the parts about her early life were much more interesting and engaging. She seems to back off on detail and engagement as she grows older and her adult wanderings and accidental entry into the world of food writers is less interesting.
Rating:
Summary: First of Two Scrumptious Memoirs. Highly Recommended
Review: Ruth Reichl is one of the most influential figures in American culinary journalism today, as Editor in Chief of `Gourmet' magazine for the last several years. Her influence may not be as great as that of Craig Claiborne, but that was probably a once and gone opportunity. The American culinary scene is too big for any one or two people to dominate it the way Claiborne and Beard did in the 1960's, 70's and 80's. This book, `Tender at the Bone' is the first of two memoirs by Reichl. Their charm will be eagerly anticipated by anyone who reads Reichl's monthly editor's column in `Gourmet'. These two books are cut from the same primal stuff, with the additional spice of material too personal to warrant the pages of a national magazine. Reichl grew up with a mother with habits which offer as compelling a motive to land in the food business as the very skillful cook / hospitality businesswoman who bore James Beard. In Reichl's case, her mother was just the opposite. She was quite capable of serving food so poorly preserved as to poison her guests. Reichl, as a little girl, had to become skillful in preparing food just to protect her own life and the lives of visitors to her family's house. In many other regards, as one reads this tale of Ruth's life as a small girl in the early 1960s through her start in culinary journalism in San Francisco in 1977 just at the time when the zeitgeist was leading people such as Alice Waters and Jeremiah Tower to create California Cuisine at Chez Panisse and other venues. Two fascinating questions are raised in my mind by this book and its sequel `Comfort Me with Apples'. The first is what it is about Reichl that compels her to reveal so many intimate details about her life and family. I am wondering if there is a writer's gene that propels one to lie out for all the world to see what an odd life one has lead. In spite of the wonder, I am immensely grateful that Ms. Reichl has done so, as the revelations are immensely entertaining. The second question is the wondering of how I may have turned out with the same experiences. I encourage you to bring Ms. Reichl and her very odd family into your experience. You will be richer for the encounter. Since I regret I cannot know Ruth personally, this is the next best thing. Like many other culinary memoirs, this book includes recipes to highlight incidents in Ms. Reichl's life. As Ruth also happens to be an excellent cook, the recipes simply spice up an already very filling meal.
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Summary: coming of age around the dinner table...
Review: Overall, TENDER AT THE BONE is a lovely coming-of-age story with hilarious vignettes that could be woven into a heart-warming comedic drama. All the elements are there, eccentric characters, witty dialogue, over-arching mother-daughter tension and a good meal. The author's childhood is more fascinating, more poignant than her adult transitions, but entire films can be made from many of the short stories. Fantastic characters people this story, including Ruth herself. Her awkwardness and self-esteem issues are painfully obvious, and make her sympathetic and endearing. She smoothly arcs from innocent child to rebel teen to competent woman. Good read!
Rating:
Summary: A tasty treat
Review: Why I like this book can be best summed up by the beginning of the second-to-last chapter: After reading Reichl's first restaurant review, her editor remarks that she was born to do this, and she replies softly, "No, but I was very well trained." Although she was gifted with an appreciative palate and a knack for cooking, Reichl acquired her knowledge of foods from a series of good teachers, ranging from the eccentric quilt-maker Mr. Izzy T to exacting French winegrowers and tart-makers. Her ease with a wide variety of people, and her willingness to learn, were as crucial to her success as her way with words. She's a good storyteller, but there's genuine warmth beneath the engaging (and sometimes scary) portraits of her friends, family, and mentors. (I was a graduate student at Berkeley during some of the time she lived there, and her picture of commune living and the restaurant business was dead on -- but, unlike many other writers who came out of the same milieu, she neither romanticizes the hippie lifestyle nor sneers at the political mind-set.) The book is like having lunch with a friend who's knowledgeable about food and wine, but not pretentious or smug, and I found it perfectly delightful.
Rating:
Summary: 4 1/2 stars. A tasty treat
Review: Reading this book was a pleasure. Ms. Reichl is an amazingly sensual writer. Her stories are emotional, funny and very interesting. This is a life worth writing about and worth reading about. I enjoyed the details about her family life, especially her often painful relationship with her mother. Best of all is that we get recipes! Both an informative and bittersweet read.
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