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jellyneckz's review against another edition
2.0
I enjoyed pieces of this book such as the first person narratives and memoir sections, but I couldn't get an overall sense of who this author was, as I have never read anything by her before. I also enjoyed reading about how Betty Crocker was not a real person, and how recipes have changed throughout the years of Joy of Cooking depending on food trends and health views. I feel this could have been an interesting book on its own. I read this after finishing Kingsolver's [b:Animal, Vegetable, Miracle: A Year of Food Life|25460|Animal, Vegetable, Miracle A Year of Food Life|Barbara Kingsolver|http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1167733922s/25460.jpg|1582285], so I was hoping for something similar. I didn't find that the history and academic-type commentary was unified well with the memoir pieces. The only thing that really united them in my mind was the theme of food. I think the book could have benefited from a unifying theme and structure.
knitter22's review against another edition
1.0
We've all been told "never judge a book by its cover", and sadly that is true here. Based on the title, I was expecting (and hoping for) a book like Laurie Colwin's "Home Cooking", but I was sadly disappointed. Like many other reviewers, I only finished about half of the book because I was very tired of the author's whining. I kept waiting for the good part where she told us about the best thing(s) she ever tasted, but she wasn't writing a food memoir. I'm not really sure what she was writing about; all I got out of it was a disjointed collection of complaints and unintelligible thoughts about fusion, fisheries, and Zen Buddhism.
sandyd's review
5.0
Wonderful non-fiction - such sensuous writing, and a great combination of personal and historical info. If you've ever pondered what food means - socially, culturally, historically, and what changes in what we eat in the 20th-21st century mean - then this would be a great book for you.
It touches on marketing, leisure saving devices, convenience foods, restaurants and Nouvelle cuisine, gender roles & food, Betty Crocker, dieting - just fascinating and all over the place, which is also one of its drawbacks, since there isn't an index. I would have liked footnotes or endnotes, too, but I think most of the book was previously published as short magazine pieces.
It touches on marketing, leisure saving devices, convenience foods, restaurants and Nouvelle cuisine, gender roles & food, Betty Crocker, dieting - just fascinating and all over the place, which is also one of its drawbacks, since there isn't an index. I would have liked footnotes or endnotes, too, but I think most of the book was previously published as short magazine pieces.
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