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rebecita's review against another edition
2.0
(With apologies to my dad, who generously gifted me this promising book!) Some of these essays stand nicely on their own but many are forgettable, and as a collection this is a waste of paper. A transparent attempt to milk some extra money out of a perfectly nice column in the NYT. It barely cracks 200 pages, and has literally an extra inch of right margin space. Every essay is followed by one of those frivolous tie-in recipes no one ever makes. One of these "essays" is just a reprinted excerpt from a Julia Child's My Life in France! And several others I'd already read in other collections. AND FINALLY these essays claim to avoid the sentimental, but if I have to suffer through another reference to Proust or his godforsaken cookies in foodwriting, I won't be held accountable for my actions.
eupomene's review against another edition
2.0
My friends all know I love reading about food and this looked like a beautiful book. There are many lovely essays in here but overall it was just okay. Some, like the essay by the guy living on air, just seemed rather silly. Worth it for the recipes.
bronkmb's review against another edition
great fun! nothing remotely saccharine in these essays. And now I'm going to have to watch "Babette's Feast." Thank you Paula Conan for dropping this book off to me!
amysbrittain's review against another edition
3.0
Enjoyed the most-unexpected vignettes here, most of which were from writers I wasn't familiar with. Very fast, entertaining, fun read. I would read a whole series of books like this!
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