This is without doubt the most outstanding work on the subject of losing a spouse or lover. The rality and compelling writing make it a must read for anyone, whether they have suffered a loss or not.

I read the mystery of Pony Hollow when i was in grade 3. It was one of the first books that i'd ever read. This book will hold your attention till the very end. You'll fall in love with Panda (the horse) and all the history of mining ponies. Also the mystery of one horse named Oberon will make you wonder at first if he's still alive.

I just finished reading this wonderful book for an Early American Literature course, and I think it is terrific! I had no idea what to expect going into the novel and was a little terrified of reading a "Little Woman"-y sort of story, but found myself to be pleasantly surprised by Fanny Fern's writing. This is a wonderful story which touches on many issues: women's rights, the struggles of the poor, authorship, and the question of what is true literature are just a few. Fern writes, though, so delightfully, incorporating these heavy issues into engaging anecdotes that it is hard to put the novel down once started. I cannot say enough about this piece!

Ruth Rendell books are the scariest there are - not because of blood, gore and mutilation, but because they expose the infinitely greater menace of mental trauma. The number of Hannibal Lecter's in the general population is small - the greater threat comes from the more 'unremarkable' people, like Victor Jenner, this book's main character.

Victor has just been released from prison for shooting and crippling a young policeman. Coping with the changed world without and terrifying rages and phobias within, Victor is resentful, totally amoral, and feels he is entitled to whatever he can get - or take. Unbeknowst to the police, he is also guilty of a number of violent rapes, for which he has never been charged. The 'normal' side he can present to his social workers and employers is countered by the crashing and tortured screaming that others hear coming from his room, and he hears within his head.

Envious of the public admiration for his victim David, whose stoic acceptance of his paralysis has won him high regard and accolades, Victor can't stop himself making contact. To his surprise, David and his girlfriend Clare welcome him, assuming his motives are benign - that he, also, is trying to make sense of how the incident has affected his life. Victor manages to act normally long enough for them to become 'friends', but the tension of his scheming, David's skepticism and Clare's naive belief in Victor make you feel something awful is just around the corner. Away from his friends, all sorts of things in Victor's mind are starting to surface, and go out of control...

Ruth Rendell never writes a bad book, and this is one of her more original plots, no normal whodunnit. From the first pages Victor's incipient violence is so well portrayed, yet what happens is still a complete surprise. Rehabilitation of violent offenders, and their integration back into society, is a very low priority of governments today. The thought that there are people like Victor on the streets around us is all the more worrying for probably being true. A discomforting and somewhat disturbing story.

Though I must admit I might not have made it through this book if I'd read it (I need constant action), listening to it was a real experience. It was slow at the beginning, but I quickly got swept into Victor's world, and felt his humiliation, cringed at his perceptions, and rooted for him . . . for awhile. And then I absolutely hated him. Which, I daresay (can you tell I've been listening to too many British books?), is just what the author intended. Or at least she won't mind.

I thought the book was well read and all the characters were convincing. My favorite was David Fleetwood. I felt I knew him very well, even though only one chapter was from his perspective.

Rendell has written many wonderful books, and this is one of the best. I highly recommend it.

This is absolutely one of Rendell's best. A rapist who accidentally shoots a policeman emerges from jail 10 years later to make amends. How he makes amends, and what happens because of his "remorse" is bone-chilling and remarkably suspenseful. Clue here - the motive behind the shooting has something to do with the name of a restaurant. Rendell loves to pull the rug right under you just as you thought you had sure footing.
Highly recommended. Also read Judgement in Stone, possibly her best and most brilliant!

If you like Ruth Rendell, minus her "Chief Inspector" series, then you are in for a real treat with this book! Never before have I read such an in-depth description of an obsessive, dysfunctional,paranoid character such as the one depicted in Guy. I was literally screaming at the pages while shaking my head and uttering "you damn fool!" While slow to get into initially, you will be very much rewarded as you continue...Rendell quickly builds up tension and you will not be able to put this book down, I guarantee you! She is one of those rare authors who truly has her antennae tuned to the underside of the human condition. My only criticism of this book is a minor one and that is that I think the title of the book is too obscure and bland. It's not a title I will easily remember to recommend to other readers (unlike her dark novel, "Sight for Sore Eyes" which was an excellent title with an excellent story to match). ...

this is another excellent book by Rendell. It displaya all that she has come to be known for. Tight plotting. Realistic writing. Deadly accurate psychology.

Guys jealousy and obsession grow as the book goes on, and Rendell develops it's perfectly.

This is another of her best books, with a great cast of characters, and complex plot. The writing is excellent, and her stories are always topical and interesting. (This one having more than a little to do with the concept of stalking, and obsessive love.) Even though Guy is obsessed, the reader does feel sympathy with him because he truly does love Leonora. This brings the reader into a conflict of emotions, which is something that all good writers do. Even moreso because of the fact that Leonora's new love, William, is not a particularly likeable character. Coming across as slightly arrogant and full of himself.

Guys increasing paranoia is built up masterfully, and the conclusions is great. a wonderful release of tension.

Rendell cannot be faulted. She is truly the best.

This book is as leisurely paced as a day at the ballpark, with the same quality of time passing yet standing still. It traces three generations of baseball fans, growing with the game, and their encounters with George Herman "Babe" Ruth. Baseball changes more slowly than the events around it: war, the Depression, marriage, birth, technology.

The love of baseball is transmitted from father to son to granddaughter, and it is in that slow but certain transmission that the author conveys the beauty of the game. No other sport treasures its history so much. No other major sport is so unconstrained (at least, theoretically) by time.

Donald Hall has written an unhurried look at baseball, growth, and decline. We meet the young Babe Ruth as a star southpaw for the Red Sox, then follow (with the New Hampshire family portrayed here) repeated years of father-son baseball games, rooting for the Babe as he keeps breaking his own home run record, and then, briefly, the Babe's last, uncompleted year in baseball. Between the lines we see the dimmest outlines of a flawed man. The book is both a sentimental evocation of a New England family's enchantment with baseball, and an unstudied meditation on the passage of time.

Of course, the above is from an adult perspective. Elementary school kids (and older) will enjoy the depiction of times past, the two encounters with the young and the older Babe, and, most of all, the outstanding illustrations by Barry Moser. Like baseball, it can seem a little slow, but if you have the time and the inclination, the book will envelop you like an old familiar glove.

It is 1917 on the Fourth of July in Wilmont Flat in New Hampshire. The characters in the story are Willard,his dad,his mother,Babe Ruth,and Sheridian. Babe Ruth comes to Willard's house and gives him his glove. Willard loves Babe Ruth and goes to all of his games. Willard grows up and has a daughter. Willard works for the Boston Post and writes about sports.

James McBride's The Color of Water was a quick and easy read. The main reason for its quickness came from the fact that it was an irresistible page-turner. McBride does an excellent job of portraying life in the projects as well as tackling the racial issues of intermarriage. He discusses the Jewish side of his family with surprising accuracy in terms of vocabulary and traditional background, and simultaneously manages to express the hardships of his mother's life as well as his own.

The Color of Water is a choice book for memoir-lovers and those who appreciate topics that deal with race. McBride handles the issue beautifully, as he is most fit to do so, being of mixed color himself. An especially moving recurrence in the story comes from the gruff responses by McBride's mother to any question of race, belonging, or any other topic concerning the rest of the world. McBride set the childhood view of his mother on a pedestal fortified by her own beliefs: education, religion (Jesus), and privacy among others. At the same time, the chapters that alternate between mother and son show a weaker side of Mrs. McBride, but provide a good balance to the book. While watching his mother's story unfold as McBride makes certain realizations about his own life, a basic question is answered. Often in memoirs readers wonder what it was in a person's upbringing that impacted that person's personality. Here the reader is allowed the opportunity to make that connection himself.

If there were one area of lacking, it was the description of McBride's siblings. I would have like to have known more about his relationship with his brothers and sisters, as this area seemed strangely weak in comparison to the focus given to his parents. The additional background would have strengthened the book by providing and even broader picture of the lives of those who shaped James McBride into the author of the autobiographical, The Color of Water.

After finishing the book, there was an unsettling feeling of unfinished business. I had enjoyed the book but would have had a better experience had my family not built it up to me so highly before I read it. Unfortunately, starting the book with such high expectations was disastrous for the outcome. This does not in any way mean, though, that I do not respect James' McBride's work on this piece and the hardships he has grown from, because I do. I only wish that I had had the opportunity to read the story having heard nothing about it. My recommendation to all prospective readers is to go in with a clean slate and try to read the book devoid of outside feedback.

Subtitled, "A Black Man's Tribute to his White Mother", the author, James McBride, a journalist and musician, has written his true and remarkable story.

Ruth McBride Jordan was born in 1921, in Poland, the daughter of Orthodox Jews. As a baby, her family immigrated to the United States where she was raised in Virginia where her father had a grocery store. Her life was harsh and when she married a black man in 1942, her family disowned her.

She raised 12 children, every one of them college educated, her indomitable spirit strong through poverty and the tragic deaths of two husbands. Her color confused her children who lived in a black world and it wasn't until they had grown to adulthood that her true story came out.

James McBride is a good writer, and his lively clear prose reflect a home that might have been lacking in material things, but was extraordinary in its warmth and love and nurturing atmosphere.

Ruth McBride Jordan's story is told in her voice through alternating chapters and her strength comes through in her words. Never once is there a shred of self pity as she tells her story. When she was first married she and her husband lived in a cockroach infested single room in Harlem with the bathroom in the hall. Her first four children were born while they were living in that single room. "It was one of the happiest times of my life," she says. Later they moved to an apartment with their own private bathroom which was quite a luxury.

The reader feels the emotions that James feels as he struggles with his own identity. He is the 8th of the 12 children and watches his older brothers and sisters being influenced by the "black power" movement of the 70s. Often, he's embarrassed by the color of his mother's skin.

Ruth is an active Christian avid churchgoer. James knows little or nothing of Jews. It is fascinating to read his point of view which is told with insight and honesty. And it is perhaps even more fascinating to hear the words of Ruth.

The book is an inspiration, a testament to love, and social exploration through the eyes of a mixed race family. Read it! You'll love it!

James McBride, in "The Color of Water," writes about his Jewish mother and the tremendous impact that she had on him and on his siblings. Rachel Shilsky was born in Poland and she emigrated with her family to America when she was a young girl. Rachel's father abused her emotionally and physically, and her life consisted of poverty, loneliness and drudgery. When she could stand it no longer, Rachel changed her name to Ruth and she left her father, mother and sister to start a new life. Ruth cut herself off from her entire heritage and embraced Christianity. She was also married twice (to Black men) and she had twelve children. McBride does not wallow in sentiment, and his book is all the more touching because of its humor and realism. He describes his family life, warts and all. McBride admits that, as a young man, he robbed people and experimented with drugs. Gradually, McBride found his path in life, and he also learned the surprising history of his mother's life, which she had taken great pains to hide. McBride's voyage of self-discovery parallels his discovery of how Rachel Shilsky became Ruth McBride Jordan, church founder and mother of twelve mixed-race children. "The Color of Water" is beautifully written, understated, and eloquent. You will not easily forget it.

Light, yet rich and tasty. Restaurant critic Ruth Reichl's memoir is all of these. Easy to read, yet filled with insight and well-rounded characters. The author's mother suffered from manic depression, and one way it manifested itself was in bizarre - and often downright poisonous - culinary creations. The author describes herself as having been shaped by her mother's handicap, beginning at an early age to use food as a way of making sense of the world. She effectively conveys this food-sense in a series of funny and poignant tales that take us from her childhood in New York up through young adulthood in California. She lovingly introduces the significant people in her life, revealing them to us in how and what they cooked. Her stories are punctuated by recipes (I didn't cook any of them, but they look like they should work).

The author is equally effective when she moves away from the table to tell more directly of her relationships with friends and family. She describes some episodes that could be seen as time-bound clichés - living in a commune, working in a collectively managed restaurant - with a perspective sometimes lacking in baby-boom memoirs. She brings similar good-humored perspective to her mother's mental illness and her own struggle with anxiety attacks, never wallowing in graphic description of symptoms. You don't have to be a "foodie" to enjoy TENDER AT THE BONE, just a lover of warm, tender memoirs.

In this autobiography, Ruth Reichl, the longtime food critic for the NY Times, now the editor in chief at Gourmet, explains how she came to love food. The book weaves a tapestry of stories, including some about her mother (dubbed the Queen of Mold for serving completely unpalatable dishes) and her early childhood (how an early trip to Paris and her time spent at a French-Canadian boarding school influenced her tastes) to her adulthood, working in a collaborative kitchen and becoming friends with influential foodies.

The stories are often laugh out loud funny, and some are very touching (her mother's manic behavior is explained later in the book). The book allows the reader to see Reichl's influences and her deep love of food through the stories, without Reichl ever coming out and saying "these are my influences."

Food lovers in particular will probably adore this book, but lovers of autobiographies will probably also enjoy it. The book is not about food, exactly, but about a woman's coming of age (and part of that coming of age is that she simply loves food and the art of its creation).

A delicious read--I couldn't put it down.

The friend that I borrowed this book from was devastated when I returned it and she (subsequently) couldn't find it. Synchronously, I received it in a recycling effort from one of her dear friends. Imagine how excited she's going to be to receive it back!

With good-humored perspective, Ruth Reichl, NY Times Food Editor, lovingly introduces the significant people in her life and the way she managed to find a path for herself and build a wonderful life in spite of a tumultuous childhood. A childhood that was filled with emotional trauma and rather ghastly home experiences, (imagine) Ruth's Mother picks her up from middle school, and without any preparation or explanation, drives to Canada, where she deposits Ruth in a Catholic boarding school where only French is spoken. When Ruth begs not to be left there, her Mother reminds her that she is the one that wants to learn French!
Reichl introduces us to quirky, memorable characters that thankfully guided the development of her love of fine food. A story filled with wit, sadness, resourcefulness and occasional mishap, Ruth will tell you she learned early in life that the most important thing in life is a good story!
You will be as amazed as I by the life Reichl led and discover a range of cooking and eating possibilities way beyond today's lifestyle. Excellent!

I read both Ruth Reichl's books while on vacation, back to back. I was left with a feeling that this woman cannot find happiness unless some flavor is "exploding" in her mouth.

She is one terrific writer and I absolutely agree that it is hard to put her books down, while taking her life journey with food and early family years, friends, lovers, husbands and colleagues. Her food descriptions and emotions and turmoils are all boundlessly and abundantly juicy, almost soggy, with sensuality, pain, jealousy, rage and an inability to wait for one meal to digest before going after the next one.

That is what irritated me about her writing. I didn't get a sense of completion about anything in her life, or a feeling of being sated and satisfied with anything. It was exhausing by the end. Especially in her second book, being an adult, and no longer a child or young adult, I was waiting for her to develop some wisdom and grace about life - not just "solving" everything with food, escapes, and infidelities, even babies. And, trying to come off sounding like it was brave and adventurous. Sorry I didn't get that part. Not that I have any quarrel with great food or great sex or raising a family. Quite the contrary.

I felt sorry for Doug, who seemed like an anchor, a sweet guy with endless patience and a person who brought balance to her boundry-less appetities and confused emotions. I could predict from the start that the sorry adoption situation was going to end in disaster. Don't people get SMART by the time they're 40? I felt the author merely "went with" any emotion and felt it was ok simply because she HAD it. For example, what women in their right mind wouldn't LOVE that her husband and her dad developed such a wonderful bond - why the baby-like rage about that??

I also agree with the reviews about continual whining about her mother's habits. Funny during the child year anecdotes, but a drag when she's a grown woman. Get over it. And don't print such stuff about your mom while she's alive to read it! Where's the compassion for mental illness?

Ok, so I said I was irritated. All said and done, the girl knows how to write. But would I want to put up with her in a relationship? Guess.

Memoirs seldom take us into new territory. Ms. Ruth Reichl's Comfort Me with Apples is the happy exception. You will find your mouth watering, your skin coming alive, your ears perking up, and your heart breaking in this amazing story. She successfully mixes marriage, divorce, wild romances, great food, a new career, building a new life, meeting celebrities, travel, loss of a father and of a child she wants to adopt, pregnancy at 40, and recipes in this compelling book. You've never read its like, and will never forget it. Ms. Reichl is now the editor-in-chief of Gourmet, a former restaurant critic for both the New York Times and the Los Angeles Times, as well as the former food editor at the Los Angeles Times. But don't let this establishment resume fool you, Ms. Reichl followed her own muse to get there.

Most people who experience life crises around 30-35 (almost everyone) tend to self-dramatize and feel sorry for themselves. Ms. Reichl treats life as an adventure to be embraced and tends to poke fun at herself. As a result, you cannot help but like her. She is also very down-to-earth, and is very candid about things that most people would downplay or try to keep secret.

She has a lot of courage. Whether it is ignoring the orders not to talk to people in China or offering her untutored opinions to great chefs, she just dives in with whatever fits her sense of the moment. You will probably admire her courage, if you are like me.

Ms. Reichl is extremely intelligent, and her imagination will stir yours. She has a great ability as a writer to help you enter into her world, and feel what she feels.

At the beginning of the book, she had just been surviving as a writer by keeping her expenses low and working as a cook. Her husband's art career had started to take off, and she gets a chance to become a restaurant reviewer. This opportunity is derided by her fellow commune mates in Berkeley, and couldn't be more different than her experiences with eating macrobiotic food that she often prepared herself. She only had one dinner out a year before taking this new job.

Soon, she is reviewing (after misadventures like having her credit card rejected at the first restaurant she reviews and reporting that a robbery had occurred in the parking lot of another restaurant without checking the facts) and starting a tempestuous affair with her editor at New West. The affair fizzles out when he marries another editor at the magazine. Ms. Reichl soon falls for a man who she cannot stand at first, and they also have a torrid relationship that ends happily in marriage.

Some of the best parts of the book involve the difficulties of opening new restaurants. You will get most of the gory details on two, including Wolfgang Puck's Chinois. The book is filled with other restaurant celebrities, and you will enjoy what you learn about them. They are most engaging when away from the harried moments in the kitchen.

The book also is filled with recipes. Now, most recipes in books are long on ingredients and short on instructions. Ms. Reichl is just the opposite. These are almost all simple recipes with oodles of details concerning preparation. For example, asparagus in balsamic vinegar has two pages of directions. Also, the dishes come from many cultures so they can allow you to have some adventure with your meals.

One of the many clever devices she uses in the book is to describe meals at Chez Panisse in Berkeley as a kind of measuring stick for her connection to the world of food. She nicely uses her mother's experiences with the restaurant in the same way. I was very impressed by this method.

After you finish reading this marvelous book, I suggest that you think about where you need to try more things. Ms. Reichl's life would have clearly been much less if she had not taken great strides to try things she had never done before. Where should you do the same?

Seize life and experience it with full flavor!

I've rushed reading this book because I could not put it down. Ruth writes with all her senses. She recreates the smells, the taste, the the texture, the appearance, the sound of food. I have totally enjoyed her sharing the humorous, unique experiences she has had reviewing restauerants, traveling , cooking, famous and not so famous friendships, tender relationships, difficult transitions, and a mother that would try the patience of Job. Throughout all the details shines a love of life and an amazing ability to experience and write about food in such full terms that you feel you are with her in the experience. At the end of each chapter is a recipe or 2 that was mentioned in her adventures. I plan on trying the pasta recipe first. I hope book number 3 is coming soon.

An interesting story of a remarkable woman with unusual strength and deep insight into faith, Christ and christian living. Thus defenately worth reading. Yet the book left me spiritually hungry; I would have wanted to hear more Ruth's own voice, get closer to her and her way of figuring things out. That would have also brought more warmth into the biography. A book called "Coffee and conversation with Ruth Bell Graham and Gigi Tchividjian" fills that kind of needs better.

Ruth is a remarkable woman, with an interesting childhood, young adult and adult life story. She is a picture of a godly, submissive wife who is not a doormat....(something this world needs more examples of!) I recommend it, especially for young Christian women who are engaged or newly married.

A well written biography of one of the best examples of a Godly woman