Garlic and Sapphires: The Secret Life of a Critic in Disguise
by Ruth Reichl
List Price:
Our Price: $12.56
You Save: $12.39 (50%)
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
Buy Used: from $1.00 (click here)
Category: Book
See more book details and other editions
Book Summary Information
Author: Ruth ReichlEdition: Hardcover
Audio: English (Published)
Format: Bargain Price
Published: 2005-04-07
ISBN: N/A
Number of pages: 352
Publisher: Penguin Press HC, The
Book Reviews of Garlic and Sapphires: The Secret Life of a Critic in Disguise
Book Review: A Delicious Memoir
Summary: 4 Stars
I found Garlic and Sapphires: The Secret Life of a Critic in Disguise by former New York Times Restaurant Critic, Ruth Reichel as enjoyable as a warm plate of risotto paired with a glass of red wine!
In Garlic and Sapphires, Reichel recounts the six years she spent contriving clever disguises to hide her identity as she gallivanted around New York City's restaurants and bistros writing reviews for the Times. Reichel's memoir focuses on three aspects of her life at that time: her personal life as a wife and mother, her restaurant patronizing as a critic, and her life as an employee of the venerable and mighty New York Times. Reichel's descriptions of her son are touching and heartwarming, her recounting of the extremes she went to in order to create and truly become her aliases are entertaining and amusing, and her telling of the behind-the-scenes goings-on at the Times are fascinating and fulfill the gossipy voyeur in all of us.
Reichel is a talented writer and her truly joyous love of food, cooking, and eating are evident on each page of the book. The book is peppered with Ruth's favorite recipes and this adds a certain feel-good warmth to the tome.
My only criticism of the book is that I had to be willing to suspend my good reason in order to believe that Ruth truly became the characters she created to the extent she described. According to Ruth, she was so immersed in these characters that she found herself unable to use her own judgment and mannerisms while inhabiting that character's persona. For example, is she was dressed as "Miriam" she was brash and rude and "Ruth" had no control over the rude things that came out of "Miriam's" mouth. This was slightly hard to believe - but maybe I just don't have the same amount of acting chops!
The title Garlic and Sapphires is only briefly alluded to and comes from a poem written by T.S. Eliot.
Overall, Garlic and Sapphires is a delicious romp of a memoir that I truly relished devouring - excuse the puns!
Journalists Books
Book Subjects
- Arts & Photography
- Biographies & Memoirs
- Business & Investing
- Children's Books
- Comics & Graphic Novels
- Computers & Internet
- Cooking, Food & Wine
- Entertainment
- Gay & Lesbian
- Health, Mind & Body
- History
- Home & Garden
- Horror
- Law
- Literature & Fiction
- Mystery & Thrillers
- Nonfiction
- Outdoors & Nature
- Parenting & Families
- Professional & Technical
- Reference
- Religion & Spirituality
- Romance
- Science
- Science Fiction & Fantasy
- Sports
- Teens
- Travel
Most talked about in Journalists Books
Stanley: The Impossible Life of Africa's Greatest Explorerby Tim Jeal
Yale University Press; Published: 2008-10-28; Paperback; Book
Best price: $11.69
Price in other shops:
CBS's Don Hollenbeck: An Honest Reporter in the Age of McCarthyismby Loren Ghiglione
Columbia University Press; Published: 2008-09-29; Hardcover; Book
Best price: $13.94
Price in other shops:
Stop Press: A Life in Journalismby Inam Aziz
Oxford University Press, USA; Published: 2008-06-23; Hardcover; Book
Best price: $9.97
Price in other shops:
Let Me Finishby Roger Angell
Mariner Books; Published: 2007-06-04; Paperback; Book
Best price: $0.01
Price in other shops:
Rowing Without Oars: A Memoir of Living and Dyingby Ulla-Carin Lindquist
Penguin (Non-Classics); Published: 2007-03-27; Mass Market Paperback; Book
Best price: $0.32
Price in other shops:
Inside Storyby Greg Dyke
HarperCollins UK; Published: 2005-04-01; Hardcover; Book
Best price: $26.65
Price in other shops:
The Ride of Our Livesby Mike Leonard
Ballantine Books; Published: 2007-05-29; Paperback; Book
Best price: $3.20
Price in other shops:
The Ride of Our Lives: Roadside Lessons of an American Familyby Mike Leonard
Ballantine Books; Published: 2006-04-18; Hardcover; Book
Best price: $2.01
Price in other shops:
Front Row: Anna Wintour: What Lies Beneath the Chic Exterior of Vogue's Editor in Chiefby Jerry Oppenheimer
St. Martin's Griffin; Published: 2006-02-07; Paperback; Book
Best price: $5.00
Price in other shops:
Bitch Is the New Black: A Memoirby Helena Andrews
Harper; Published: 2010-06-01; Hardcover; Book
Best price: $5.99
Price in other shops:
Similar books summaries and other product reviews
Life, on the Line: A Chef's Story of Chasing Greatness, Facing Death, and Redefining the Way We Eatby Grant Achatz, Nick Kokonas
Gotham; Published: 2011-03-03; Hardcover; Book
Best price: $7.49
Price in other shops:
Insatiable: Tales from a Life of Delicious Excessby Gael Greene
Grand Central Publishing; Published: 2006-04-04; Hardcover; Book
Best price: $0.90
Price in other shops:
The Apprentice: My Life in the Kitchenby Jacques Pepin
Houghton Mifflin Harcourt; Published: 2003-04-10; Hardcover; Book
Best price: $12.60
Price in other shops:
Garlic and Sapphires: The Secret Life of a Critic in Disguiseby Ruth Reichl
Penguin (Non-Classics); Published: 2006-03-28; Paperback; Book
Best price: $4.87
Price in other shops:
The Art of Eatingby M. F. K. Fisher, Joan Reardon
Wiley; Published: 2004-03-05; Paperback; Book
Best price: $14.92
Price in other shops:
For You Mom, Finallyby Ruth Reichl
Penguin (Non-Classics); Published: 2010-04-06; Paperback; Book
Best price: $3.43
Price in other shops:
Not Becoming My Mother: and Other Things She Taught Me Along the Wayby Ruth Reichl
Penguin Press HC, The; Published: 2009-04-21; Hardcover; Book
Best price: $3.98
Price in other shops:
Comfort Me with Apples: More Adventures at the Tableby Ruth Reichl
Random House; Published: 2001-04-10; Hardcover; Book
Best price: $6.00
Price in other shops:
Tender at the Bone: Growing Up at the Tableby Ruth Reichl
Random House; Published: 1998-02-24; Hardcover; Book
Best price: $25.94
Tender at the Bone: Growing Up at the Table (Random House Reader's Circle)by Ruth Reichl
Random House Trade Paperbacks; Published: 2010-05-25; Paperback; Book
Best price: $8.60
Price in other shops: