Rating: 
Summary: Stone's book on Greece is right on target in every way
Review: As a Greek-American who was born, and lives in the US, but also lived in Greece for 12 years, I am always very interested in reading the experiences of expatriates, especially those from the US. I took some time to read through the other reviews here, especially focusing on the ones with negative things to say. I must say this, because I like to keep my reviews brief: Tom Stone did not produce the perfect book here, nor do I think we should expect that from him---what he did do was absolutely capture both the Greek mentality and spirit, the beauty of the land and its culture, and the very difficult divide in which foreigners who live in Greece full-time find themselves. I highly recommend this book not just for Greek diaspora who want to wax nostalgic of the mother country, but for ANY American heading over for a visit, if not a longer stay. I recently recommended this book to two proteges of mine who were headed to Greece for a short stay, and a semester abroad respectively, and both told me upon their returns that it was a priceless learning tool which enhanced their visits, as well as a very enjoyable read. I cant think of any higher recommendation than that of didacticism and real world, in-country experience. Well done, Mr Stone!
Rating: 
Summary: Good story, poor editing
Review: As a Philhellene hungry for true accounts of ex-pat's lives in Greece, and an ex-pat myself living in Greece, I really wanted to like this book. Unfortunately, I struggled many times with its irrelevant details and sometimes boring passages, which caused me to put it down frequently.Unless you know or like Patmos already, it's difficult to envision some landscapes because either the details provided were too limp or simply tried to hard to paint a picture in my head where my imagination might have done better with fewer, succint descriptions. I was also disappointed with simple editing/writing mistakes that Stone and his editor made such as using too many Greek words (spelled phonetically, not true to Greek) and then giving the English translation afterward. A person, like myself and many others, who know both Greek and English can find it annoying to have the same thing repeated twice. It's a beginner's mistake from Strunk and White's rules. If I could get over the poor editing and lifeless passages, I found a gem of a story that could have shined brilliantly with the right organization, more concise adjectives and characters that came more to life. I do admire Thoma for his motivation, intention and courage to make his dreams come true. I do believe he is a good storyteller, as the author says he is in the book. I do believe this could have been a great memoir. Please don't hate me for writing this review, but I'm being honest by presenting the good and the bad. A better memoir is "The Sailor's Wife" by Helen Benedict or Katherine Kizlos' "The Olive Grove."
Rating:
Summary: Fun reading...
Review: I approached this book on a travel writing level where you would read Lawrense Durrell and Henry Miller books about Greece. I did experience this in addition to a great story about finding (and losing) your life-long dreams. As recorded in the brief summary above, the book follows the author's adventure one summer trying to run a Greek taverna on the Agean island of Patmos. The book recounts how the author set up shop, ran it daily with his dubious Greek partner, and finally discovered what his dream really meant to him. The narrative seems to take place before Patmos become a hot tourist location (before 1990), yet Tom Stone doesn't reveal any dates. The author's page revelas that Tom no longer lives in Greece, but in Southern California. The book is light reading (probably take 2 hours of reading...after all it is only 199 pages) -- it includes with some folklore about the island (much revolving around St. John's visit in the first century). The recipies printed in the appendix are a nice touch, especially for those wanting to indulge in the culinary experience.
Rating: 
Summary: More Disappointing Than Cold Moussaka
Review: I heard Tom Stone interviewed recently on NPR's "Savvy Traveler." I couldn't wait to read this book, which seemed to promise a wonderful combination of travel and food writing. I was sorry to discover that it delivers nothing more than a tepid narrative of Stone's adventure, made nearly unreadable by the author's self-congratulatory tone. Stone's memoir develops no interesting characters and is so poorly organized, edited, and written that if there was actually a good story there the reader would be too annoyed to enjoy it. I would recommend that Stone employ a ghost writer if he wants to share his personal experiences in print ever again (but since he's a writer by profession this may be too much to expect). I can't help commenting on the thing that irritated me most about this book, which was Stone's representations of his wife and kids. They were, in this book, just beautiful props without personality, devices for Stone's self-flattering view of himself. One bright note: I haven't tried any of the recipes yet. Maybe they will redeem this disappointing book.
Rating:
Summary: More Disappointing Than Cold Moussaka
Review: I heard Tom Stone interviewed recently on NPR's "Savvy Traveler." I couldn't wait to read this book, which seemed to promise a wonderful combination of travel and food writing. I was sorry to discover that it delivers nothing more than a tepid narrative of Stone's adventure, made nearly unreadable by the author's self-congratulatory tone. Stone's memoir develops no interesting characters and is so poorly organized, edited, and written that if there was actually a good story there the reader would be too annoyed to enjoy it. I would recommend that Stone employ a ghost writer if he wants to share his personal experiences in print ever again (but since he's a writer by profession this may be too much to expect). I can't help commenting on the thing that irritated me most about this book, which was Stone's representations of his wife and kids. They were, in this book, just beautiful props without personality, devices for Stone's self-flattering view of himself. One bright note: I haven't tried any of the recipes yet. Maybe they will redeem this disappointing book.
Rating:
Summary: foreign reader
Review: I picked this up and couldn't it down. it is beautifully written with vivid descriptions that made me feel, smell, and taste the Greece I remember from several trips there. it's also a terrific story-about a lot more than just another rose-colored trip to a foreign land. I think Stone has shown the other side of Americans from the typical "Ugly American" stereotype- idealistic, trusting, hopeful, and, unfortunately at times, naive! But very sympathetic and engaging. It is a funny, moving, bittersweet story which I enjoyed immensely.
It also has some great recipes. The moussaka is delicious (but I personally would at least double the amount of the bechamel sauce!)
Rating: 
Summary: Disappointing
Review: I read this book hoping for an arm-chair travel experience, like I get from the many books I've read about Italy and Southern France. Stone's honesty is refreshing, but his characters are not fleshed out enough, except for Theologos the thief. The storyline has potential and the setting sounds sublime, but would I want to go there? No way. And who cares how many times he made love to his French wife? We get the point.
Rating:
Summary: Rookie chef concocts winning dish
Review: In telling this entertaining story of a young American who takes over
a restaurant for the summer in the islands off the coast of Greece, Tom
Stone displays a natural gift for character and storytelling that makes this
delightful memoir a joy to read.
Rating:
Summary: Good tzadziki recipe
Review: It's an account of the American author's life after falling in love with Greece and with a French girl. It centers on half a summer attempting to run a taverna on the island of Patmos and getting swindled. It's light-hearted in tone but covers a few tragic events and many that must not have seemed funny at the time. It's short and unpretentious but I enjoyed it more than many heavy works that aspire to tell us significant things about the Greek soul. Many of the things he says about Greeks and how they do business are - well- unfavorable. I kept thinking that if he'd said these things about a more vulnerable ethnic group he'd have been accused of prejudice, but judging from the reviews I've seen so far, Greeks and Greek-Americans don't seem to mind.
The only recipe I've tried was the tzadziki one. It's a great advance on just chopping slices of cucumber into Dannon. I couldn't figure out what he meant by rinsing the grated cucumber. I just rolled it in a paper towel. I got rave reviews although I didn't have white pepper and used black.
Rating:
Summary: Greek Isle Idyll Goes Wrong but not Sour
Review: Like other books of this genre---rich-enough-upper/middle classer eschews conformist corporate lifestyle for simple labor-intensive technologically sparse villa/farm lifestyle in foreign settin---the pure escapist notion of removing oneself from the rat race of traffic jams, cell phones, voice mail and other so-called conveniences of 21st century life somehow acts as a welcome tranquilizer for my overactive and overextended braincells.
Rather than choosing Provence or Tuscany, the author, Tom Stone, decides on the Greek Island of Patmos where John the Evangelist penned his gospel and the feared book of Revelations, as his halycon destination. Tom's reasoning is both nostalgic and capitalistic: it was on Patmos that he met and wooed his wife and wrote his first novel and it is on Patmos that he will accrue enough cash to see himself financially clear for an entire year. All he needs do is rent 'The Beautiful Helen' Taverna for the four hectic months of the summer season, incorporate his multi-national repetoire of delicious menu entrees to the typical Greek fare and through hard work and determination rack in a sizeable fortune.
Unfortunately, Tom overplays his hand with an overindulgence of American optimism. Amidst a silent, embarrassed chorus of less-than-encouraging island characters, Tom learns what the islanders already know: Fresh produce, fine recipes and hard work are not the only ingredients needed in maintaining a successful restaurant,a watchful eye is first and foremost when one is dealing with an unscrupulous partner like the taverna's owner, Theologos.
Soon, Tom's dreamscape of blue water and Greek light are obliviated by the all consuming operation of the taverna. As the Beautiful Helen's popularity increases, Tom's clearly drawn time allocations are blurred into a huge block of toil and varicose veins that barely afford him the time to sleep.
However throughout the Sisyphian tasks of running the taverna, Stone's writing style remains chatty and enthusiastic. Happily, in spite of his bouts with jealous friends, thieving partners, and evil-eye removing witches, Tom remains pleasantly breezy, refusing to let his misjudgement dampen his spirits. Above all, the reader gets the sense that even as he is cast out of his Eden by economic necessity, he is not soured by the presense of the serpent in the garden---his omnipresent need to breath the air of Hellas remains pure and untainted. His exuberance forces us to understand why he undertook the proposition in the first place while his charitable highlighting of the high points of taverna life rather than his humiliations results in a pleasant true-to-life portrayal of the Greek's resolve in business as seasoned by the resource-isolated island life.
One Note: I was saddened that the author's marriage to 'Danielle' ended in divorce no matter how amicable--his love for her was palpable even through the worst of his ordeal.
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