The Greatest Book Ever about the porking of a French lady from Europe
926747
Gone Girl? She sets the whole thing up and returns to her husband. Proof of Heaven?  It's called the Bible.  I just summarized two of the most popular books on Amazon for you so you don't have to waste time reading them. So that leaves you with time to read "The Porking of Madame R."

You have to read because there are books and then there are books.  This is a book.  A good book about porking.  I think we can all agree that there have been no good books on porking until now.  This book has everything: porking, a detective, hard to pronounce words, and a mystery.  It's a page turner, if I could have turned the page.  I read it on a iPad, because I am not poor - one of the new ones with the retina B.S. so you know I am legit.

I am giving this book to all my friends for Christmas.  I already sent it to them, but they have to wait till Christmas, but you don't.  Unless you want to be friends, then we can talk.
647917
My Life in France is the most entertaining memoir I've read in 2006!  It's a winner.

I first met Julia Child under unusual circumstances.  My consulting firm was located down the street from where she got her hair done.  Every Friday night, she would be seen peering into the windows to look at our art collection.  After a few weeks of this, I walked outside and invited her in to tour the work up close.  She was immediately studying everything from about three inches away.  She thanked me politely and charged out the door. There was no hint of the slightly tipsy person filled with laughter who hosted The French Chef.  Ah . . . I felt like I had met the real woman beneath the persona.

From that meeting, I gathered that she was a woman moved more than most by curiosity.  I found myself also being curious about how she learned enough about French cooking to help co-author that masterwork, Mastering the Art of French Cooking.  Most French people in those days would not choose working with an American as a way to produce a work about France.  That would be like putting salty Virginia ham into Quiche Lorraine.

My Life in France nicely filled in all the blanks for me.  The book was lovingly finished by her grand-nephew, Paul Prud'homme, after Julia's death and is filled with lovely photographs produced by Julia's husband, Paul Child.

Here's the short version of the book.  Julia had been in Asia for World War II as part of the OSS and met her husband there.  He was ten years older than she was and well traveled . . . especially in France.  After World War II, he joined the USIS (predecessor to the USIA) which played a friendly sort of propaganda function promoting American values and ways of doing things.  In November 1948, Paul landed a posting in Paris and Julia, the Pasadena, California bred daughter of a conservative businessman, was in for the surprises of her life.  She fell in love with French food at her first meal!  With no job in France, she began working on her language skills and learning how to cook (a new task for her!).  Soon, she decided she wanted to go to Cordon Bleu.  After some misadventures, she finally passed with some modest skills designed to help a homemaker rather than a chef.  But she made friends with others who loved French food and eventually became acquainted with Simone Beck and Louisette Bertholle.  The latter two had an informal agreement to publish a book on French cooking for Americans.  But they had just lost their American collaborator.  Julia stepped in.

From there, much of the book recounts the decades of painstaking work that went into creating that first book and its follow-ons in which Julia played the role of making the recipes work in American kitchens with American ingredients and utensils.  It's truly mind-boggling.  My respect for her work is unlimited!

The book finishes with explaining how Mastering became a best seller and Julia became a television star.

Along the way, you'll meet her favorite food vendors, tutors, chefs and guests.  She'll also delight you with her mouth-watering menus and how dishes turned out under different circumstances.

The title of the book is a little misleading.  The material also covers time spent in Germany, Norway and the United States.  You also get a full look at her marriage and the great joy that both Childs brought to their love.

Throughout, the book is filled with little Julia-isms in that humorous self-deprecating style that we all came to love on The French Chef.  She lards the text with some piquant French phrases and quotes (which are usually translated more mildly into English).

As an author, I found her process of finding a publisher and working with publishers to be quite fascinating.

In her last decades, the book is a picture of grace as she devoted herself to her husband, her old friends and to French cooking.

Bon appetit!
965775
Leafing through this book is like sitting down and having a long conversation with Monsieur Pepin.  His knowledge and charm are in every delightful story about how and why he loves a particular dish, from fried chicken to escargot, and the photography by Tom Hopkins is superb.  Together they have created a coffee table book that you will want to have on your lap more than on your table... preferably with a glass of rose on the side.  I highly, highly recommend this book.
2577952
There is no way this book is not a classic. People who don't appreciate it simply haven't read it or are too prejudiced. Its 11 hundred marvelous pages are full of wisdom, historical accounts, relevant personal experiences, wit, humor, love of literature and personal humility. Despising it is a suicide of the intellect.

Rebecca West must have been a one of a kind woman, understanding and forgiving. She dwells on all topics through this travel book. There are passages that are so interesting and so well written that must win her a place among the best writers in the English language.

I'd like to chose two excepts from this nice Penguin Classics edition. One is a humoristic and down-to-earth rationalization of xenophobia:

'She was the gentlest and sweetest of women and for that reason had developed a most peculiar form of hysteria. Perhaps because of her experience as a tiny child in the war she was a true xenophobe, she could not imagine anything more disgusting than a member of another race than her own. ut she did not like to feel anything but love for her fellow-creatures, so she transformed her loathing for them into a belief that they exude powerful and most unpleasant odours.. This belief made her life as a chambermaid an extraordinary olfactory adventure, for to this hotel there came people of all nationalities. [...] The Hungarians seemed to her to have a strong smell, which, however, was not unpleasant, only extremely different from the smell a human being ought to exhale. But the Germans and Austrians were definitely very gross in her nostrils, and the French smelt wicked and puzzling, as I imagine a chemist's shop might to a country woman who knew the uses of hardly any of the articles it exhibited.'

Or this one:

'There are those who sourly remark that Bolshevism was made in such rooms. It is not true. The Russian exiles who were responsible for that sat on unmade beds in flats as untidy as Versailles or any medieval castle. They were the powerful people who never tidy up, who only happened for the moment to be out of power. But those who live in these wept and garnished rooms wish only to serve. In the hereafter they shall be saved when all the rest of us are damned.' Eloquent, isn't it?

And what about this almost mystical passage:

'In too many Western pictures Christ looks as if He were wholly dying, and as if He were making an unmanly fuss over it considering His foreknowledge of the Resurrection. But in all these Macedonian frescoes death is shown working on the body that is bound to the spirit of Christ, wringing the breath out of the lungs as a laundress wrings water out of a shirt, taking the power out of the muscles and nerves like a dentist drawing a tooth whose roots drive down through the whole body. There is demonstrated that separateness of the flesh which Proust once noted, in a passage which describes how we think in our youth that our bodies are identical with ourselves, and have the same interests, but discover later in life that they are heartless companions who have been accidentally yoked with us, and who are as likely as not in our extreme sickness or old age to treat us with less mercy than we would have received at the hands of the worst bandits.'

Must be read slowly, like a good wine.
3158658
Absolutely fascinating recipe book, but you can read it lot a novel, with her very interesting personal stories coupled with gorgeous photographs. Her story as a high-powered career woman derailed by a hunky cowboy is precious. She fell in love and gave it all up - then received so much more in her life than just a career that would eventually go away. Her beautiful and loving family will always be there for her. As a recipe book, she shows step-by-step instructions, which would be a marvelous gift for a young cook, someone just beginning. Collectors of cookbooks will want this one on their shelves. Just when you think you are NOT going to buy another cookbook, along comes Ree with hers. It's a must for beginners and collectors.
3946516
This book is one of the funniest things I've ever read. His perspective on being an outsider in France is fascinating and hilarious. Buy this book!
515669
If you have read every word ever written by M.F.K.  Fisher, Julia Child and James Beard etc. and you are a cooking pro and if you are a big fan of the south of France then you'll appreciate this book.
2464581
This book is easy to read and will teach you everything you need to know about food, restaurants and culture in Paris.  It is very informative about how dishes are made and what exactly is in them.  I bought the kindle version and will be taking it with me to restaurants so I can look up things before I order.  He writes about the history of the restaurant as well as the people that work there and where they source their food.  I honestly knew very little about French food and if you want to feel comfortable going into a Bistro and selecting something off the menu (without being unpleasantly surprised), this book is essential.  I never thought a book about restaurants could be such a good read.  You won't regret purchasing this book.
371726
This graphic biography was a delicious French meal. Not only do we get an intimate look at creative people living during a particularly unbridled time and in a place humming with energy, we do it through the life experiences of someone who charted her own course when daring women were rare. Kiki is a fascinating original. With so much to do with the art world, graphic treatment makes perfect sense. It also makes for an unusual and facile read--but don't rush to dessert. Each period of her life deserves to be consumed with kind attention. Although many of Kiki's choices are not what most of us would recommend, her life story is unforgettable. I will read this again.
1360919
Since reading this book (twice; maybe three times), I've been literally begging people I know to read it. It is, quite seriously, one of the most illuminating books I've ever read, and it was the spark that triggered over a decade of my reading and research on French history, a subject about which I was almost completely ignorant beforehand.  The writing is absolutely superb, witty but never annoyingly epigrammatic, and the stories that make up the themes of the book are masterfully told.

I've got a 14 year old son that I've succeeded in turning into a history addict. Soon, he'll be the first person I know to read the book. (He's not interested in food or cooking, really, but I'm working on a plan of entrapment.) In the meantime, I implore you, Amazon shopper, to read this book. Right away. It'll transform the way you think about modern food culture.
2912150
I opened this book to read it and didn't close it again until I reached the end. I cannot say enough good things about this book. It is beautifully and carefully written, easily devourable, and full of the Parisian personality. The book "explains" how to be Parisian in a way that is so Parisian. It captures the essence of Paris and the Paris woman in 200 pages. I just bought a second copy and I'm carrying my first copy around with me in my purse at all times. What a fantastic read.
1875295
French cuisine is considered to be one of the most widely acclaimed and fabulous cuisines around the world. In France, there is a distinctive culture of French food that is undeniable. It is accompanied with pride, exclusive ingredients and techniques,  and some of those are found in these special recipes. To NOT experience these food, recipes , is to not truly experience excellence. If you were to sum up the entire French attitude towards food, you would have to say that the French like to enjoy their meals. This cookbook sets the avent faire. So buy this book and enjoy these unique recipes. C'est un livre extraordinaire.  : )
4878706
I found Norman Katkov's biography of the late, great Fanny Brice wonderful enough to order TWO copies from Amazon. Com, one for a friend and one to KEEP for myself!  The photos are superb and I especially enjoyed the chapter written by Ms. Brice herself that comes near the end of the book.  Fanny Brice was not only funny but extremely wise and quite a beautiful woman!  Part of her "magic" comes from the fact that she was so lovely and talented and had the ability to morph herself into "Baby Snooks"!

This is indeed a charming biography because it predates the musical "Funny Girl" and the movies "Funny Girl" and "Funny Lady".  That alone justifies its purchase!
3823980
Fantastic story of cooking and different countries.  Reading this book made me hungry!  I really loved the story and felt I was actually there in France or India.  I had to keep reminding myself this book was fiction as it reads like a biography.  I love books about cooking and different countries, this book covers both.
4341254
I was attracted to this book in part because Susie begins her walk in the region of France from which my mother's family originated, and ends up in a region of France I have not visited. This, I thought, will be most informative (I loved Miles Morland's "A Walk Across France"). I expected to learn, but not to laugh so much. What a great sense of humor Susie has! It makes her writing so endearing! She's down to earth, kind-hearted and insightful. You feel as though you are walking with her. I love to walk and although I'll never walk across France, she's got me thinking I could work more miles into my workouts, and maybe even do some charity walks, instead of the one-mile walks in the neighborhood.

Read this book if you need an extra push in order to accomplish a dream. (And if you love France as I do!) You will see a France you can only see on foot, I suspect. And you will meet a charming writer with an appealing style.
3929857
This biography of Catherine the Great is immensely readable and brings her to vivid life.  This book reads like a novel and it is ever so much more fun to learn the history of Europe and Russia this way. She was an incredible, gutsy woman who, like Olimpia in "Mistress of the Vatican," carved out her own place in the power grid at a time when women simply didn't do things like that!  If you enjoy a well-written, entertaining biography, you will love this one.
4151304
LOVE, LOVE, LOVE this book!  Coming from a long-time baker of pies and tarts, this is the best baking book I have ever read.  I simply cannot say enough wonderful things about this book. It takes the "blue ribbon" in my opinion.  It is such a pleasure to read, as it is written in a very well-organized form and covers EVERYTHING you'd ever want to know about a pie, tart, torte, or galette--be it history, the how-to of making one of these delectable creations, and Gesine's clever tricks of the trade.  Her writing style is incredibly funny!  Not only is this book so completely informative, it is one that has prompted me to laugh out loud many-a-time!  When it comes to pie making, nothing has been left out of this book.  One can tell that much careful thought went into it.  It is a treasure--and simply the best of anything I've ever read about those luscious creations we know as pies.  Thank you, Gesine.  I give your book my highest recommendation.