Rating: 
Summary: Feast for the Famished Southern or otherwise
Review: Fair warning! If you are on a diet or trying to lose weight, this book is lethal. My stars, what a feast of food memoirs complete with rich and tempting recipes! And how I would love some of that coconut cake that emerges from an eight day recipe. Obviously, West knows her family characters and attaches them to their noted eccentricities and manna. And what colorful, yea memorable, folks these are! Everyone should have a family like hers, with Aunt Tempe, Aunt Dell, Uncle Bun, a marvelous Mama and grandparents and cousins and family gatherings around food that will make you want to go to the kitchen to execute one of the cooking delights featured in the tales. I was especially fascinated by the pineapple upside down cake cooked in a cast iron skillet, and macaroni and cheese like I never imagined it. It also thrilled me to learn that West was a slow-to-learn cook herself, yet the obvious love she has for her family and their food eventually became a part of her own mature life. I think this book would be a fabulous gift to anyone from the South, or anyone who wishes they were. And recipe book fans are definite candidates for receipt of this tome. Here is a read with laughs and lessons, and it certainly is a keeper for me. Bon appetit, sugar! Meet me in the kitchen!
Rating:
Summary: Life in the South Lane
Review: Food? A staple for survival? No, a prescription for love. This book shows the world the truth--the South revolves around food--how we eat it, how we fix it, and just who does the "fixin." I just couldn't put it down! I just know she had to know some of my relatives as most of them were in the book. Kudos to Michael Lee West!
Rating: 
Summary: a smorgasbord!
Review: Half cookbook, half family album, this book presents snapshots of the women in this delightful Southern family via what they enjoy preparing in the kitchen (complete with a detailed recipe for the reader to reproduce on their own) and a story accompanying a memory involving the food in question. It's cute, folksy and leaves your mouth watering. Can't wait to make and have some of that coconut cake!!!
Rating:
Summary: great book for those who love to cook
Review: I am always searching for a book that rates 10 stars like Laurie Colwin's "Home Cooking" & "More Home Cooking", and this book comes close. It's a wonderful mixture of stories about food, family, love, and recipes. I'm not a southerner, but reading this made me thirsty for iced tea from a cut glass pitcher and hungry for some good fried chicken & potato salad. West's stories about the food we prepare for the family we love are almost as good as the food itself.
Rating:
Summary: Yum, Yum
Review: I just love Michael Lee West's writing. I would have loved to see more into her personal life, but I was content to read about all the different recipes and the stories that went with them. Like usual when reading her, I laughed out loud on several occasions. This book has changed my outlook on cooking. I've been experimenting in the kitchen more and I think I'll make more time in the future for cooking.
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Summary: Good Ole Southern Humor!
Review: I love this book.One being that I'M a third cousin to the author and the stories in the book are about my family(when it gets down to the nitty griity everone in the souths related to each other in some form or fashion).The book is wacky and studied with southern humor.My favorite stories are about aunt Hettie(my grandmother)and aunt Dorthy Gale(my cousin).Highly recomended.
Rating:
Summary: This one's a keeper
Review: I READ a lot of cookbooks, but BUY very few. This is one of the few that I can't live without. The recipes are wonderful (I can smell a Lemon Cake from this book cooling downstairs as I write this) and the stories are just as juicy and delicious. It's rare to read a cookbook and wish you knew the author and her family, but that's how I felt after savoring this book. As a Yankee transplanted to South Carolina, I am just now learning the pleasures of sweet tea, church bake sales and fried chicken. This book has definitely earned a place of honor in my kitchen next to James Villas' "My Mother's Southern Kitchen". It's a keeper.
Rating:
Summary: Beautifully and honestly written.
Review: I read an unedited proof of this novel and I think that it is just wonderful. Everyone has to have someone in their family like one of the eccentric aunts in this book. The recipies are wonderful too. This book is well seasoned!
Rating:
Summary: BEYOND GUMBO
Review: I SELECTED CONSUMING PASSIONS TO READ ON MY FIRST FLIGHT AFTER THE SEPTEMBER 11 TRAGEDY. I HOPED IT WOULD BE A "COMFORT" READ, i.e., FAMALIAR, SOUL-FEEDING, COMFORTABLE AS A PAIR OF OLD SHOES, AND HUMOROUS....SOMETHING TO KEEP MY MIND OCCUPIED AS WE FLEW FROM LOS ANGELES TO HOUSTON. I LOVED IT FROM THE BEGINNING. I READ IT OVER A 5 DAY VISIT WITH COLLEGE FRIENDS CELEBRATING OUR
25TH YEAR OF BEING FRIENDS. THE BOOK WAS THE PERFECT COMPLIMENT FOR THIS WEEKEND. I HIGHLY RECOMMEND THIS BOOK FOR ALL SOUTHERNERS OR LOVERS OF ALL THINGS SOUTHERN. THIS BOOK WILL TUG AT YOUR HEARTSTRINGS AND APPETITE.
Rating:
Summary: A shared obsession
Review: I too am a foodie with an assortment of odd relatives, and I found this tome of family and food to be truly delightful. Until I read this book, I thought for sure that my family had the market cornered on odd characters and food fixations. Charming, hilarious, and occasionally over-the-top, West's characters leap off the pages and even swing from chandeliers. I have yet to try any of the recipes, but I enjoyed reading axioms such as "Live and learn. Die and get food. That's the southern way." The women in chronicled in these pages are old-fashioned southern cooks. They believed in cooking feasts for their families and keeping their recipes close to their vests. During one funeral a prominent character, Aunt Dell, was seen wailing and weeping over the loss, not of the relative, but of the gingerbread recipe that the deceased had apparently taken to her grave. This book is both funny and instructive with recipes that seem easy to follow. For Christmas, I gave a copy to my sister who made "Miss Johnny's Macaroni and Cheese." I didn't have any, but she seemed pleased with the outcome. West includes all the staples -- sweet tea, pineaple cake and gumbo. She dedicates an entire chapter to fried chicken "Fear of Frying," where she lays out her concerns about the attendant burns and grease fires. In this chapter, her mother recounts burns like battle scars citing the meal and the year during which they were acquired. I enjoyed this author's style and plan to purchase more of her work.
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