Rating: 
Summary: Review the book, not the ranch, not Imus
Review: It's really not helpful or in the spirit of book reviews for all of these entries that say "I love Imus" or "Isn't the ranch wonderful".
This review is about the book. It's a disappointment.
While the actual book is physically beautiful, and therefore it gets more than one star, from a content perspective, it is amateur.
First, the recipes. It's called "Cooking" but the recipes are sparse, difficult to follow, and unimaginative.
Second, the text. It's overly saccharine, full of puerile humor, and quite self-congratulatory.
If you want to donate to the Ranch, just send them a check.
But you can see from the quick spike up and then drop of this title on the amazon.com list, that there must have been bulk buying by I-Man's friends, as well as pent-up demand from the four hours of radio marketing by Imus for the past six weeks.Send the money direct. You'll never use this book.
Rating: 
Summary: Don't Buy It
Review: I was very disappointed that I bought this book. I didn't read the reviews from this site but wish I had before I purchased it. There are so many better cookbooks that I could have spent my money on! Don't waste your time or money!
Rating: 
Summary: Great cookbook too bad the recipes aren't Deirdres!!
Review: I give this cookbook 5 stars because the recipes belong to Chef Ron of Las Vegas New Mexico! No, sorry I am not a Howard Stern fan just a girl who would have liked for Chef Ron to have been given credit for his work. So I guess I am a Chef Ron fan along with all the people who visited the ranch and loved his food! Did Deirdre ever cook them a meal while they visited the ranch? No!! So how can she say that these are her recipes? These are the recipes that Chef Ron cooked for the wonderful kids at the ranch and some of them even appeared on his menu from his former restaurant! As some of the other reviewers mentioned this has nothing to do with being a fan of Howard's and a hater of Don's, it has to do with principle!! The fact is that Deirdre fired Chef Ron when she realized that Chef Ron had some fans on the ranch! How egotistical is that!? My goodness the kid's really liked Chef Ron as well as the parents, so all she did was deprive them of a wonderful relationship with this man!! The book is great and the pictures are great but Deirdre took someones else's pride and called it her own!
Rating:
Summary: GREAT Cookbook with GREAT Information for Organic Living
Review: I have seen the negative reviews for this book on this site and I have to say something else is going on here. These people must be Howard Stern fans and just think they have to destroy anything Don Imus is involved in. I mean can a Cookbook really incite these kind of hateful comments? Give me a break. This book is wonderful. The recipe's are all vegetarian, actually ovo-vegan (No Dairy but does eat eggs) and I have tried several of them so far and they are wonderful. There is also a summary at the beginning of the book of products used that alot of people will not be familiar with and the pictures throughout the book are absolutely wonderful. All the proceeds of the book go to the Imus Ranch. After reading many of the stories in the cookbook from the kids who have stayed there (who are quite often terminally ill and/or fighting other tremendous obstacles) they seem so excited because they are taught all about hard work on the ranch, and the importance of healthy eating and living in a healthy environment - the ranch is completely organic and chemical free. The expereince sounds wonderful and appears to be very, very positvie for the kids who participate. The recipes are GREAT and being that the proceeds go to such a wonderful cause I think overall this will become one of my favorite cookbooks and I plan to use it time and time again.
Rating: 
Summary: 200+ million would help 8000 children ?
Review: 200+ million would help how many children?
I got the cookbook and was expecting some beef tacos for others, no such luck. We just doctor them the way we like.
I have been watching Imus and his wife build this city, town for the last years. From what I understand only a small select few children get to go to the ranch each year, then they work them .
All the money it took to build that place, buy the land and pay for all the bills you could have helped (4000) four thousand children instead of a few. Why not just take blocks of money, 50,000.00 per child, and give them the money to enjoy life the way they would like? The money could go direct to the family and they could by meds & treatments and things insurance may not cover. It's such a waste of money if you look at it from a dollar to dollar point of view. People who really help the sick and disabled leave 90% of their money to charity and 10% to family. It will be interesting to see how Don steps up to the plate when he dies.
Would work out to (8000) eight thousand families at 25, 000.00 for each family. This is a lot of money for most people and would change their life so much more than a trip to a cattle ranch.
Rating:
Summary: Walkin' The Walk...Talkin' The Talk!!!
Review: A lot of folks think my listening to Don Imus for over 25 years has turned me into a clone of him. I am a bit of an old buzzard myself,but I got to meet Fred,Don and Deirdre Imus at a book signing in Madison,Conn. for the "TwoGuys,FourCorners" book. First...with any of them,you get straight talk/no bull,no matter what the topic. The Imus' have had the Auto Body Express since 1994,making great products at a loss to them to make stuff in the USA,and his food products work with the recipes in this book. Moreover,the books and causes they have written about and continue to work on...whether it be for SIDS or The Imus Ranch...or Mrs.Imus' Greening of a hospital in New Jersey is just the start of what they are about. The book that Deirdre Imus wrote here is just a continuation of the great work and thoughtfulness to others in trying to provide a healthier lifestyle with terrific recipes (especially the salads)and stories of the Ranch,and the young cowboys and cowgirls who have been invited, and have gained a new integrity in themselves...when others would treat them with kit gloves,saying they were sick and couldn't do anything. Well,this follows the other Imus'Family books as a real keeper. I bought 9,gave 6 to family members who use the recipes nearly every day or two. Just buy it!!
Rating:
Summary: Did ayone think this book was REAL?
Review: C'mon folks. Don Imus has a couple more years to work, he needs the money for the Ranch. Why use a majority of his substantial wealth when you can use other peoples money. Smart business move for sure and a good tax write off too. You may say, "he is helping those poor sick children and there families," that's great, but there is more to the story than that. The guilt of the real purpose of the Ranch must be hurting him - I think. Those kids are really hurting and I think he got more than he bargained for. In this cynical world it is hard to believe a self-proclaimed cynic. It is ok to be wealthy and driven for business reasons, but these kids are human beings and not a commodity. Money can't make you happy and make the sick kids feel better and I think he is having a problem with that. Do things for the "right and unselfish reasons," and you can have a clear head (I think he needs to read Tony Hendra's book again - and actually understand what Father Joe was all about).
Diedra is dragging him along and sold him on this idea of a vegan book on a working cattle ranch (doesn't that sound hypocritical).
Life must be experienced and played with if one is going to progress, I hope it works out for them. Good Luck.
Rating:
Summary: The Lies Continue!
Review: Deirdre Imus can't even write a thank you note; how could she have written this cookbook?
It's too bad that people have to steal from others in order to make themselves look good.
Rating:
Summary: Not vegan at all.
Review: I don't know anything about the Imuses, their politics, or whatever it is that upsets people about them, but I do know that
"Ovo vegetarian" does not equal "vegan." The inside flap of the book calls the ranch "vegan" but for anyone who actually is vegan, the abundance of eggs & meat replacements that contain egg whites in these recipes is horrifyingly misleading.
For anyone looking for vegan recipes, there are a dirth of new books out there that actually contain information about healthy vegan cooking and the vegan lifestyle. Myra Kornfeld's Voluptuous Vegan, the Millennium Cookbook, & May All Be Fed are good places to start.
And as far as the "personal essays" about the ranch, though self-serving, as some reviewers note, Imus does manage to make herself look completely classist & racist: when the fourth kitchen crew she hired (who apparently have "tattoos, nose rings, do rags & hip hop shorts") quit en masse & she refers to them as "the Crips & the Bloods," relieved that they have left without killing them all. Very nice.
Do yourself, vegans, & members of chef gangs everywhere a favor by spending your money on someone else's book.
Rating:
Summary: Spiritual reading?
Review: Mr. Hendra's book is a paean to Fr. Joe by a savant who squandered his talent and seems swamped more than most people by the challenges of life. It is readable because of the character of Fr. Joe in spite of Mr. Hendra's lack of roots. One is glad to have met the monk but wishes more of the book had been devoted to him. One also wishes that Fr. Joe had left Mr. Hendra with a deeper understanding of Catholicism.
A word about the challenge of his daughter, Jessica, Judy's second child, that her father sexually mosested her beginning when she was seven. The long article in the N.Y. Times, July 1, 2004, presents considerable and persuasive evidence that her accusations are true. She has been complaining of it since it began but now, her beef is that Hendra failed to confess his greatest sin in the book. That is correct, but the book is not a confession, it is a picture of a relationship between a confused individual and a saint. For all of me, Hendra did confess this to Fr. Joe but for obvious reasons, omitted it from the book. He does not purport to confess all his faults in this book (notwithstanding the May 30 book review in the Times to the contrary).
Finally, the Times' book reviewer puts this book "in the first tier of spiritual memoirs ever written". That is a grotesque comment, clearly the reviewer's veiled plea for a prescribed list of spiritual reading.
William J. Bauer
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