Rating: 
Summary: Loved it!
Review: I loved this book! I was a candy freak as a child and it brought memories flooding back. It was informative, hilarious, well-written, honest and entertaining. It's kind of a dangerous book though, I've found myself spontaneously daydreaming about the candy of my youth ever since: Smarties, Sweetarts, Like-Um-Sticks, Jolly Ranchers, Zots, Marathon Bars, Hot Tamales. Trust me, you'll have your list, and you will too. You will also love being taken to the small candy companies with Almond as your quirky, hyper-observant, generous guide. I read the book in two shots and have been talking it up to everyone I know since. (Along with Candy Freak, I'd bought David Sedaris's new book and put it down after several ho-hum stories. I was thankful I had Candy Freak. Should have started it first.)
Rating: 
Summary: a sweet trip down candymemory lane
Review: I loved this book.Just the history alone is worth the read as steve tell's it like he's talkin to his best friend over a handful of M&M's.The names of the candybar's i grew up with that are no more brought back pleasnt memories of a time when thing's were far simpler than now.The book is fun to read and his personal stories from the youth he seem's to not quite have grown out of flow like honey.I'd reccomend this book to anyone who has ever been a kid and eaten candy for the pure joy of it.
Rating:
Summary: mmm...candy
Review: I picked this book up on a Saturday morning intending to read one chapter and go on with my day. The next thing I knew, it was 10 PM, and I had finished the entire book. This book contains a fascinating look at the world of indepenent candy makers in the US, from those in Vermont, Pennsylvania, and Tennessee, to those in Iowa, Kansas, Idaho, and California. Each company has an interesting product, an fascinating history, and an treacherous road ahead to try to survive under the shadow of the Big Three. An added bonus for those of you who spent your allowance on candy in the 1970s is the reminiscing of candies past. The old Marathon bar, for example. I loved that candy bar. The real kicker, though, is that this book is really funny. I don't dare spoil it for you, though. Get the book.
Rating: 
Summary: a huge disappointment
Review: I tend to read darker material and specifically chose to read a light, fun book this time around. While Almond's book shines as he gleefully discusses his love affair with the cocoa bean, he left me bitter when he discusses world affairs. I literally threw the book across the room (where it still sits at this moment) after his progressive tantrum on page 204, about 4/5ths of the way through the book. The majority of people reading this book I would imagine do not care about Mr. Almond's politics. Why he would choose to interject them in a book about his love of candy bars is beyond me. There are a few belly laughs and tons of chuckles in this book, and I would imagine if you are of the same political persuasion as Mr. Almond the political diatribes won't bother you too much. But since I specifically picked up this book as escapism I cannot recommend it to those who are trying do the same. Steve, good job in alienating about half of the U.S. population in a book about candy bars.
Rating:
Summary: Honestly funny
Review: If you are a candyfreak, and you know if you are (or were) then there is no question that you should read this book. The first chapters in which Almond recalls in stunning detail his childhood love (freak) for candy brought back waves of my own, very similar candy memories... making a retainer out mouth-molded hard candy (been there... thought I invented it!), obsessively categorizing and prioritizing Halloween hauls (been there -- just to be dumped back in the plastic pumpkin and resorted the next day), etc. The subsequent chapters detailing visits to independent candy makers are informational, very entertaining, and eye-opening. I learned why I haven't tried a Valomilk candy bar even though I grew up less then 10 miles from where it is produced (the "evil" tricks of the big three chocolate companies.) Almond is a great writer that strikes a seriously funny chord by just being honest. Really, really honest.
Rating:
Summary: The Funniest Book Ever
Review: If you love candy, you have to read this book. It is so hilarious, that while reading it aloud, my boyfriend and I laughed so hard that we were crying. We literally had to stop reading because we couldn't breathe! :) It's so worth it...
Rating:
Summary: What is Almond's real Joy?
Review: If you read 98% of candy Freak, you would think that Steve Almond is a true candy lover. The remaining 2% of the book is revealing that Almond can't really focus on anything but his nuts. The book is an enoyable run through the back alleys of the candy business but if Steve had left out all the references to male genitalia, Candyfreak would be a much better book.
Rating:
Summary: Oompa Loompas, Goo Goo Clusters, and Abba-Zabas
Review: Imagine an adult who is just as fascinated by candy as he was when he was eight years old. That is Steve Almond, mid-thirties, English professor, candyfreak. It's even better being a candyfreak when you are an adult, because you can buy all the candy you want. And you can even eat all the candy you want, if like Almond, you are an ectomorph who never gains weight. Candyfreak, the book, is a journey through the history of candy in America, and one man's relationship with candy. When Almond is talking about candy -- visiting candy factories, reminiscing about candies past, or discussing the attributes of candy, he is quite good. I enjoyed being reminded of some of my old favorites such as U-No and Kits and Sixlets. But when Almond gets more personal, I tended to skip chunks of the book. This surprised me, because I usually like memoirs and personal essays. I found I just didn't care about Almond's personal quirks or even his politics, although I was in agreement with him. An index would have been helpful, to look up those specific candy bars you were wondering about. Even if you think you aren't interested in the history of candy bars or in candy trivia, you will find yourself compelled to find out what is in a candy bar called "Chicken Dinner" or "Vegetable Sandwich," or why it's called "Three Musketeers."
Rating:
Summary: Bittersweet
Review: In Chapter 1 of Candy Freak, author Steve Almond introduces himself and explains his candy obsession at some length. And while eating candy may be a self-indulgent amusement, writing generally isn't and Almond's initial approach makes for some slow, taffy-like reading.
By Chapter 2, though, Almond focuses on the real treat - the candy itself. Because the Big Three candy conglomerates of Nestle, Hershey's and Mars denied Almond access to their homogenized, candy-making processes, we instead enter the world of the mom-and-pop outfits whose most important ingredients are tradition, pride, craftsmanship and love. They richly narrate the heart of Almond's story, the passion of candy making, with his back story - the passion of candy eating - providing a welcome and very funny context.
Halfway through the book, those two stories blend into his third story about the business side of candy. Like family-run hardware stores, independent bookstores, local coffee shops, self-publishing and small-town five-and-dimes, the homemade candy business is disappearing, too, crushed by the weight of the global candy companies who wield enormous economies of scale, can pay the outrageous shelf rack fees and control the distribution networks. Almond argues that what also gets lost in this ruthless attention to the bottom line and shareholder value is that candy-making passion, the unique flavors and variety.
There's a fourth storyline lurking in here that local businesses are doomed since by their very nature they aren't designed to outgrow their market yet their niche is being poached by big-footed competitors with deep pockets. That's a different kind of feeding frenzy for another book, although Almond sidetracks his main story and editorializes about the subject, anyway.
Except for Chapter 1 and his sermonizing about big business, this is a good, bittersweet journey through the heart and soul of America as told by a candy freak.
Rating:
Summary: A sugar high!
Review: Like other retail foods such as soda pop and salty snacks, the candy business has undergone profound corporate consolidation in the past 50-100 years, with the hundreds of regional producers that made it interesting now gone. This book is about Steve Almond's first-hand, personal journey into into the world of regional candy. In the process he delves into his own relationship with candy, exploring what it is about candy that resonates with him. If you're looking for a comprehensive food history like Zuckerman's "The Potato," Coe's "History of Chocolate," or Pendergrast's coffee book, you'll be disappointed, as Almond would be the first to admit. But if you're looking for looking for an extremely entertaining first-person read, you'll find this to be a sugar-high that is hard to put down. And despite shortcomings that the negative reviewers here on Amazon.com have mentioned, you WILL learn a lot about the fascinating and colorful candy industry -- and what we've lost culturally in our striving to keep stockholders happy with never-ending corporate growth. Almond's humor, enthusiasm, and the lessons he learns about himself on this journey are what makes this book so fabulous. Amazon reviewers who castigate him for being too introspective miss the point that this is a personal story! and may not be familiar or comfortable with this approach -- or must be easily offened by his frankness. That said, the tendency to be flippant toward his subjects makes me uncomfortable; a lot of his humor comes at someone else's expense. After seeing how some of the interviewees come off in the book, I would not want to be interviewed by Almond. But drug use or the occasional four-letter word? Hey, it's a semi-autobiographical book for adults! C'mon, folks.
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