Partita

"Partita" is the title of the French original. It is the life story of Michel Mailhoc who, at age five, became the student of the well-known pianist Nicolau Anderiu. The boy has great talent and grows up to be a very good pianist indeed. But life?s cards are stacked against him. His teacher leaves him, and Michel flounders. From important concerts he sinks to playing in a piano bar and finally gives up playing altogether. He now tries to compose, but cannot get it together. The many women in his life leave him because there is nothing to him beyond the piano.

In his middle age, he becomes the tutor to his grand-niece Emma, also age five. She is a true genius and, as she grows up, easily outgrows him and leaves on her own career. He is now left behind, alone with his dog, in his old house.

It is a somewhat sad and melancholy story, rather typical for a French writer and perhaps too slow and morose for our tastes.

There's a lot of good sense and good food in this book, but the California style is getting a bit past mark of mouth, if you'll permit an archaic phrase/pun. I've made a few of these dishes, and they're fine, but somehow this isn't the book I pick up and flip through, asking myself, "what's for dinner?" With Jody Adams, Daniel Boulud, and Pat Wells on the shelf, I'm not sure I'd call this a "must have" addition. But, if you're a Waters fan, go for it .

This is one of Alice Waters' early books, and it shows, as compared to the later ones. Many of the recipes are complicated, and involve ingredients that are not easy to come by, even in NYC. I read it more for amusement. The later books (Vegetables, Fruit, Cafe), are much more user friendly and result in great dishes. I wouldn't recommend this to someone new to her philosophy of cooking, or who doesn't have serious kitchen experience.

There's a special reason we go to the books of the great chefs. It's not to throw a meal together in 2 minutes, or to make sure we will find a dish we can cook with no trouble in two pans in our kitchens at home. It's to look inside an imagination and see what someone can achieve with ingredients and passion when it's what they do all day, every day, with devotion.

As Nigella Lawson said about another writer, "I often cook, if not directly from it, then inspired by it (which is more telling)". This is a truly inspiring work, one you will go back to again and again. From the buckwheat crepes with glaced fruit and eau de vie, to the amazing amazing fish soup, simple dishes with corn and over the top reworking of french classics, the judgement of flavours and textures is perfect. Ignore Water's fetish about perfect lettuce, read it, and just go to the kitchen. 10 stars out of five, the best of all the Waters books.

This full-color cookbook is a feast for all of your senses. With luxurious photography and pastel-colored pages, this cookbook will make you long for a potager garden of your own.

The authors were compelled to write this cookbook after twenty years of running Chez Panisse. The authors had a passion for freshness of ingredients that compelled them to snipping fresh rosemary while their neighbors were asleep!

The recipes are organized by seasons:
Spring: The Season of New Growth
Summer: The Season of Full Growth
Fall: The Crossover Season
Winter: The Dormant Season

The Recipes include:
Spring: Onion Pancakes with Dandelion Greens and Bacon, Fettuccine with Pea Pods and Mushrooms, and Fresh Cherry Tart
Summer: Red and Yellow Tomato Platter with Balsamic Vinegar, Cream of Ratatouille Soup with Savory Croutons, and Compote of Peaches and Plums
Fall: Cabbage Leaves Rolled with Roquefort, Pine Nuts, and Jambon Cru, Garlic-Rubbed Roast Chicken with Turnips, Carrots, and Wild Mushrooms, and Persimmon Flan.
Winter: Golden Stew of Pumpkin, Cabbage, and Turmeric with Riso, Civet of Rabbit with Pickled Wild Mushrooms and Caper Toasts, and Tarte Tatin of Quinces and Golden Raisins.

If you enjoy French cooking, and are seeking new tastes and new challenges, you will feast on this cookbook.

This very short (64 pages, only 50 of which have direct info) book on the French and Indian War does not cover the war in detail, but merely has a collection of historical letters and reports on various topics like: women, disease, a skirmish, etc.... Even for an introduction, I think this is a poor choice.

I bought this book to give to my kid for information on the French and Indian War. This was a mistake. The book tells almost nothing about the history of the War. It is just some stuff that goes on during the war, but it is not what the title suggests.

This is a small book (approximately 5"x7") of only about 50 pages consisting mainly of excerpts from journals and letters written during the French and Indian War period (1754-1763 or so). These are all interesting readings, but all of these excerpts have been printed numerous times elsewhere. While a person who has never read anything about the French and Indian War may gain some insight from this book, I can't imagine anyone who has read anything about this period gaining any new knowledge from this book. There just isn't enough information here, nor is there anything new that hasn't been told already. For comparison, "Montcalm and Wolfe" by Francis Parkman offers more information about the French and Indian War in its appendixes than "The French and Indian War" offers in the entire book. And "Montcalm and Wolfe" doesn't cost a great deal more. I would buy "Wilderness Empire" by Eckert, "Crucible of War" by Anderson or "Montcalm and Wolfe" instead. Or, if one is looking for a shorter, concise history of the war, one of the many good books available is "The French and Indian War 1754-1763: The Imperial Struggle for North America," by Seymour Schwartz, which is available for about 3 times the cost of this book but offers many, many times the information (it also has many maps and pictures, is 7"x10" in physical size and has nearly 4 times the number of pages). Any of these four books--and many others--will be money better spent. In fact, most encyclopedia articles (which are usually rather short) will offer a better rendering of the history of the war than this book will, as this book doesn't offer even a reasonable history of the war or its causes; it is more like an odd collection of lengthier-than-normal footnotes. If the title of the book were "Various writings concerning the French and Indian War," then I could somewhat understand the contents, but since the title is "The French and Indian War," the book is a complete failure. In reading the table of contents, one might be impressed, but this is a case of "not judging the book by the table of contents." The table of contents greatly exaggerates the amount of information contained therein. I'm really not sure why this book was written: it presents nothing new; there is no different approach to the history of the time; no great writing; no new ideas or insights; nothing that can't be found elsewhere, no real history of the war's causes and progress-completely disappointing. I have never in my life had a book on the French and Indian War that offered less for the money--there is just not enough information in this book to justify its cost. This is simply a book of several short episodes of things that happened during the French and Indian War. I gave this book 1 star only because I couldn't give it "0".