Rating: 
Summary: Stuffed is DELICIOUS
Review: I have consumed "Stuffed" so greedily that I read the entire thing in one day-it was a binge of wonderful reading. Every single page was filled with the kind of language I love best: people, nuance, food, relationships, history, and a sense of place. It's like sitting with someone in my own family and looking at scrapbooks and photo albums. I keep hearing, "Tell us again! Tell us again!" as I turn the pages. I love this book. I read passage after passage out loud to my husband-there are so many little nuggets of information and entertainment. Patricia Volk is a wonder. Oh, what a sweet book, and what inspiring writing.
Rating: 
Summary: Family, Food, Fur Coats, and Facelifts
Review: I knew I was in for a tasty treat when I saw that Patricia Volk's genealogical chart of her family contained annotations like "Best Legs in Atlantic City, 1916,""Brought pastrami to the new world," and "first man to carve meat in a window." I imagined that someone who felt whimsies like these were the most important facts about her relatives would be very entertaining to read. As I expected, Volk describes her family with warmth, wit, and affection always, and with wistfulness when required, each member getting his or her own charming chapter. She is clever with descriptions that make sly reference to the family restaurant business ("our hallway was the color of ballpark mustard..."). I especially liked her stories about her rivalry with and love for her sister; even as adults Volk flew across country just to feed her sister after an operation (and then squabbled, of course, like sisters do!) However, it is not an industry expose, as some readers might have hoped. It is a family history first and a 'restaurant' book only secondarily. The only thing that kept me from giving this book my total endorsement (and thus five stars rather than four) is that this seems to be a facelift-and-fur-coat sort of family, which mine is definitely not. Thus there was a limit to how much I could identify with them. If this would not happen to you, you should consider it a five-star book.
Rating:
Summary: A Trip Down Memory Lane
Review: I LOVED THIS BOOK. And when I think of why I did there are several reasons. To begin with I also grew up in Manhattan like Ms. Volk and lived next door to and around the corner from my large multi-generational Jewish family. Like Ms. Volk I can also remember leaving for camp via Grand Central and shopping at now defunct NY stores like Best & Co.with my mother. I might also have loved this book because for close to 40 years my father was in the catering business and I too can remember our food being delivered and that general feeling of being stuffed. And wasn't I surpirsed as I read this book that I even knew a couple of people the author wrote about in this wonderful memoir. But most of all I loved this book because it brought back to me many of my childhood memories and a way of life which I remember and is now sadly gone as we grow up and our world today is so differnt from the way it used to be. No matter what the reason, though, I lapped this book up and gulped it down. And now I keep suggesting it to everyone who will listen to read this book because as much as this is a New York tale, I think it has a broad appeal for readers everywhere who enjoy the story of a family not only devoted to the restaurant business but to each other as well. Like Ruth Reichl's two memoirs, Tender at the Bone and Comfort Me with Apples, the author has done a fine job of describing her family, the restaurant business and her own accomplishments. This book was a pleasure to read and now I say Bon Apetit to you Ms. Volk. I know I will read this book again and again and and will savor it a bit more each time.
Rating:
Summary: A sweet love letter to an amazingly colorful family!
Review: I really enjoyed Stuffed. I have to admit that I originally wanted because I am a foodie, and I was hoping that it would be a book about food and how the family dealt with their restaurant. It did have a little about that, but the main premise of the book is talking about most of the members of her family (including aunts, uncles, grandparents), and how they contributed to the world and to the person she is today. Patricia Volk is a wonderful writer, and she made me want to sit down and have dinner with she and her family. A wonderful love story. Her family must be so proud.
Rating:
Summary: A sweet love letter to an amazingly colorful family!
Review: I really enjoyed Stuffed. I have to admit that I originally wanted because I am a foodie, and I was hoping that it would be a book about food and how the family dealt with their restaurant. It did have a little about that, but the main premise of the book is talking about most of the members of her family (including aunts, uncles, grandparents), and how they contributed to the world and to the person she is today. Patricia Volk is a wonderful writer, and she made me want to sit down and have dinner with she and her family. A wonderful love story. Her family must be so proud.
Rating: 
Summary: Flunks the "So What?" test
Review: I was so looking forward to reading this book, but by the time I got part way through, I was saying "So, what?" an awful lot. Volk tells short little anecdotes about people and events in her history, but they don't really take you anywhere. She adores her father, ignoring the demeaning, nasty nicknames he calls her as a child. The book is poorly written, riddled with strange nonsequiters. I put the book down one day and never picked it up again. So, what?
Rating:
Summary: A well-fed reader in Tucson
Review: I'm a fan of M.F.K. Fischer and all, but the reviewer "Starved" writing below was looking for the wrong thing in Patricia Volk's terrific family chronicle. This isn't a foodie book, it's about family with food as a continuing theme. You shouldn't complain about a writer for not doing what they weren't trying to do. That's like comparing, oh, cassoulet and creme broulee. This book is what most of the people said below, a warm,honest, moving, funny, loving great read.
Rating:
Summary: A well-fed reader in Tucson
Review: I'm a fan of M.F.K. Fischer and all, but the reviewer "Starved" writing below was looking for the wrong thing in Patricia Volk's terrific family chronicle. This isn't a foodie book, it's about family with food as a continuing theme. You shouldn't complain about a writer for not doing what they weren't trying to do. That's like comparing, oh, cassoulet and creme broulee. This book is what most of the people said below, a warm,honest, moving, funny, loving great read.
Rating:
Summary: Need a sorbet to cleanse my palate
Review: If you are into self-indulgent narcissism, this is the book for you. I'm only half way through, and I already feel nauseous from being force-fed one family's over the top ego. There isn't a chapter where I didn't say to myself "yuck". I'm only finishing the book to try to better understand the person who recommended this book as a wonderful read.
Rating:
Summary: A celebration of a family
Review: It has been a while since I have read a book as warm and uplifting as this one. The flyleaf for "Stuffed" is misleading; you initially think you are reading a book which will focus on the tribulations of a restaurant family. However, while incorporating many recollections of the varied members of her family in the New York restaurant business, this transcends that guild. "Stuffed" celebrates a fascinating family, and radiates pride and love, while noting with humor the petty differences that kept family members apart. This is a visit to a distinctively New York Jewish family and reflects the special closeness, unwavering love, and the paramountcy of family in that culture. This is both a touching and an inspirational book. You will feel better for reading it, and be left with quite an admiration for its quite admirable author.
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