This is the first in the Toby Peters books and it is excellent. And, the Blackstone Audio Books version is both well read and faithful to the original book. The breaks on the cassettes are handy. Do yourself a favor and check out the later titles Blackstone offers. You'll be glad.

I admit I enjoyed a voyeuristic pleasure from the behind the scenes peek the book offers of daily life at Boulud's restaurant.
The chef seems so fun and fast moving and like he's actually daring you to read on and try a recipe. In the very least, I know I'll try to recreate one of the yummy sounding staff meal dishes. As for the beautifully illustrated eight course tasting menu I guess I'll just read longingly - or - go ahead and make reservations.

I found this book and series while doing an auction "online" search for movie star memorabilia. Typing in "Rita Hayworth" and "Betty Grable" brought up a list of all kinds of "goodies," among them a book called, "Dancing In The Dark." The auction write-up mentioned that Toby Peters, a 1940's Los Angeles Private Investigator for the stars, hoofs it onstage with these two Hollywood lovelies after taking dancing lessons from Fred Astaire. Well, that hooked me, so I bought this book! What a hoot! Toby is modeled after such classic hard-boiled gumshoes as Sam Spade & Philip Marlowe, but he has a heart of gold and his narratives are witty and funny. Fred Astaire turns out to be a "crime aficionado' and sounds like, uh - Fred Astaire! Mr. Kaminsky does such a marvelous job of bringing Astarie to life that you feel like you are "watching" him in the movies! The action takes place in 1943 during WW II and the descriptions of the place and times are very authentic and interesting. Any fan of the old "classic" movies of the 1940's will thoroughly enjoy this book - and the Toby Peters series!

A great read. I'm not a fisherman and in fact I've never gone fishing but this book is filled with such natural and lyrical beauty that I (and other non-fishing folk) could fully appreciate the wonderful portrait of Montauk and its people that Kaminsky has drawn. I may never pick up a flyrod but I will (and have) heartily recommend(ed) this book to the most stubborn land-lubber.

Kaminsky's book is a perfect read about not only the world class fishing we have at Montauk in the Fall, but the cast of characters involved in it. He artfully describes what is fishing that others only dream about, as well as those who over the past decade have come to open an entirely new fishery (flyfishing in saltwater)and their personalities, infighting and expertise. This is a great book, and a must read for any angler.

While it is certainly the case that flyfishing has given rise to more good writing than any sport other than baseball, it is also the case that the pleasures of this literature tend to be somewhat refined. Flyfishing is, for the most part, the pursuit of the leisure classes, the rest of use spinning reels to baitfish or to go after bass with a variety of garish lures. We associate bass fishing with the sound of overpowerful boats and the sour smell of stale beer. Flyfishing gives off a faint whiff of soggy tweed, mixed with pipe tobacco and perhaps a fine brandy. Your ne'er-do-well uncle bass fishes, your successful granddad flyfished. All of which makes Peter Kaminsky's new book something of a rarity; kind of a more muscular, less cultured, less aristocratic, flyfishing memoir.
In large part this is owing to the setting that Kaminsky has chosen; no trips to Idaho or Montana here; no Australian Outback or Scottish Highlands; instead he spends the late Summer/early Fall out at Montauk Point, Long Island, fishing with friends and family, guides and sportsmen, locals and commercial fisherman for stiped bass, albacore, and the like. Both the type of fishing--for bigger fish, on rough seas, battling surfcasters and other boats--and the crowded and competitive conditions make this much different than the typical pastoral treatise on flyfishing. It's a very New York kind of fishing going on here, democratic and combative.
Beyond the unusual milieu, the book is a must read for the quality of Kaminsky's prose.... Fall's just around the corner now, and if you can't get to Montauk, this book's the next best thing.
GRADE : A

I read "Never Cross a Vampire" almost ten years ago and I enjoyed the endearing portrait of Bela Lugosi. The book also features a cameo by Boris Karloff and does not shrink from his rivalry with Lugosi. It is fun to read how a "B-Movie Star Villain" can save the day.

Also, the Asian Professor's account on the myth of internation vampires deserves special mention.

I have read and enjoyed most (if not all) of the Toby Peters mysteries, and this was one of the better ones. Toby represents both Bela Lugosi and William Faulkner at the same time -- Lugosi is being stalked, Faulkner is accused of murder -- and the cases quickly become entwined, with Toby not knowing where one case ends and the other begins. One of the differences to this book (that I don't remember in any other) is that it doesn't begin with the "bad guy" chasing or confronting Toby. There *is* some flashback, but it is expository. As usual, the era references are interesting, and in the re-printed version (that came out in October 2000) there is an good afterword by Kaminsky about the Peters novels and about Bela Lugosi.

mr madden sure knows how to select great foods for this book. ihave great respect for his ability to eat. this is a very userfriendly cookbook, & i have successfully tried severalrecipes,,,they are fantastic. he may be a loudmouth, but he knows howto feed that big belly! :-)

jeff steadman

John Madden-I salute you! I grew up listening and watching you coach and provide excellent commentary on NFL games throughout my life! I always wanted a cookbook that dealt with those wonderful tailgates that you displayed on your TV shows, but never got a chance to give recipes! Thanks for "filling in the BLANKS"!!! You are a great man and I love this cookbook!

ed saunders jr. Nashville, TN

While many of the receipes are for large groups, the basic ingredients are here, including humor and barbecue tips for both novice and top gun. The review of other stadium and facilities for those who want to travel with their team let you know what to expect in Seattle or Dallas, for instance, and to me, that is worth the price of the book alone. Last year I gave the book to many of my male and female friends as a Christmas gift.

I bought this book about a year ago and still refer to it every now and then. Most likely it's not a book you'll really want to sit down and read cover-to-cover. But it makes for nice reading when you're sitting down relaxing and thinking about fishing when you can't actually be out on the water.
The author seems to cover a good bit of ground and for a couple of questions I still had, he was pretty responsive to e-mail as well.
All the different kinds of rods, reels, lines, hooks, artificial bait, live bait, knots, etc. are covered.
All-in-all, worth the money and your time.

As with almost all the "for Dummies" books I have, the reading is quite easy. The author keeps this book moving right along while providing you with in-depth info on eveything from knots, lures, rod action to what to wear under your waders. This book, although they would lead you to believe is for novices to pros, is definitely geared toward the beginner. If you have been fishing for a while there probably isn't any thing new to learn here. Try getting a specialty book if you need to focus on a particular area of angling skills. All in all this book does provide vast amounts of quality information for those just starting out.

Note: A great feature of this book is its list of websites and books in the appendix. I found these lists to be very useful tools in continuing my research of the great outdoors.

I knew next to nothing about fishing, except that there's a lot to learn. This book covers all the basics very clearly, in a very organized way. I read it straight through, cover to cover, and now feel I have a good idea of what to do, what fish or conditions all the different baits and lures are for, how to to use them, how to tie them on, etc. etc. The book can also be used as a reference--you can skip around and pick up info on just the areas you're interested in. Definitely a good choice.

As a complete novice to fly fishing, I bought this book hoping that it would give me all the info I needed to get started. Unfortunately, it didn't.

I don't really understand what the author had in mind when writing this book - it's obviously targeted at the beginner/novice, but doesn't have nearly enough info in some areas to get a beginner going, and at the same time has lots of extraneous info that's of absolutely no use to a beginner.

Specifically, the section on casting is woefully insufficient for someone who's never cast a flyrod before (just a few pages) and there's absolutely no information at all on what to do after you're got your fly out there. Do you cast upstream or down? let it drift or retrieve it? how fast? How to fish dries vs. wets vs. streamers vs. nymphs? Nothing. Nada. Zero.

At the same time, the author devotes 60 pages to fly tying. Now I suppose that folks who get involved in flyfishing may want to start tying their own flies at some point, but is it really appropriate to have 60 pages of step-by-step instructions on how to tie 12 different flies in a book targeted towards folks who've never fly fished before?

Overall, I can't recommend this book to anyone - if you're a beginner it won't tell you what you need to know to get started, and if you're more experienced you already know 90% of what's in here.

When I first started to flyfish back in the day, this was the only guide I had to get me started. Fortunately, it gave me the first step I needed to have the confidence to get out there and keep trying to catch bigger and better fish. A few years later I'm still flyfishing and rarely if ever get skunked. Over the years I've read endless amounts of articles, books, you name it, but this one covered everything I needed to know. To this day still haven't learned many other good tips that hadn't already been covered by Kaminsky. I recommend this book to everyone who wants to flyfish but doesn't quite got the hang of it yet.

This book has an excellent way of teaching. It doesn't take a "Dummie" to learn. It gives good tips for knot tying, fly tying, spotting good areas to fish, and selecting your equipment. Unlike other books I have, Kaminsky makes learning flyfishing fun.

I've read the reviews to date and beg to differ: this "home cook" likes the book; it is not just for "foodies". This book is like "adult education"--the teacher may not be perfect but there is much to learn and to think about and to react to in "Elements of Taste." The authors teach some basic principles for balancing flavors, for adding texture and an undaunting amount of complexity, using some very interesting sample dishes to illustrate their points.

Readers who just like fine dining can use the book's approach to step up their appreciation of good restaurant food. Home cooks like me, who may be ready to improvise on "set" recipes can find a way to think about adding flavor to a dish when "something seems to be missing." If you have ever thought that you liked the basic ingredients in a dish but..."I want to do it my way," this book can extend your ability to change recipes to suit your liking. Just the idea of thinking about and looking for layers of flavors is an important step forward for many of us and this book makes a very useful beginning for that.

Cooks who don't like to think about ingredients might do better to look elsewhere since they are not really looking for inspiration or extension of technique. If you are ready to reach out a bit; just want to produce a "different" dish for your family or for a holiday or for a dining group of friends, many of these recipes will do very well. The book represents good value, giving more than its price would indicate.

i have been frustrated when trying to learn more about, i have to say it, the elements of taste. what makes a dish taste good? what ingredients compliment each other, which do not? i am a novice cook but i have reached the point where i want to be able to understand why i am cooking something the way the recipe calls. or why i am using certain ingredients. i am shocked at the lack of books out there about this topic. if you want to learn to appreciate and develop your taste buds, this is a prefect starting point.

the book discusses the many elements of taste. it then delves into recipes specific to those aspects of taste. and then, the best part, it sums up what you should look for when eating the dish (salty taste at first, giving way to sweetness from the aroma of caramelized onions, the texture, etc. etc., then the finish).

this book explains taste, allows you to create a dish, then explains what the dish does to your mouth. i am very satisfied with the book and believe this is an excellent launching pad for me to learn to create my own dishes.

i would also recommend "culinary artistry". it is more textbook-like, however, it has a HUGE appendix telling you what foods compliment one another.

Not only is it full of WONDERFUL recipes, it is also full of a lot of taste commentary and other information that will help you to design your own wonderful recipes. If you like to cook, or like to eat, this is the book for you!!!!

This is an especially great book for meat-eaters, who have over 70 amazing recipes to choose from. It's not so great for vegetarians (25 recipes), pretty poor for vegans (9 or 10 recipes), and downright bad for "no-honey" vegans (5 recipes). Still, the book is about more than just recipes: it is about taste, and the factors of taste.

Please note that the recipe count above does NOT include items in the chef's larder: a section filled with 43 recipes for things used to make other things, such as ginger confit, bourbon mustard brine, floral herbal aioli, tomato fennel broth, almond milk broth, bulby citrus butter topping, orange spice mix, cranberry glaze, and crispy rice flake breading.

All in all, an excellent book. One of the things I dig about it most is that it considers TEXTURE as a part of taste, and this is apparent in the recipes. The very first recipe in the book, PAN ROASTED SALMON WITH AROMATIC SALTED HERBS, had me convinced. The thing that really says something about this particular recipe is that both my father and I like it. My father adores salmon; I can't stand the stuff, but I like this. Seriously: try the recipe even if you don't like salmon, and especially if you do; it's easier than it looks and tastier than it sounds. Either way, I believe you will be pleasantly suprised.

Each recipe includes a section on taste, called "taste notes". These help you to hone in on the different tastes in the mix, and why they taste the way they do together.

If you like listening to an arrogant braggart pretend to be life's guru, this book is for you. However, that not being MY cup of tea, I spent the last half of it skimming it to get done with it, and it was like, gag me, you arrogant, full of yourself man who has found a scam, skimming money from flower purchasers, thereby contributing to the demise of flowers being good gifts.

If you want to learn how to scam people, and then brag about it, maybe you'll like this, but for me it was not only non-educational, but rather disgusting.

Jim McCann's book is entertaining, enlightning, and a great tune up for business people and anyone interested in an easy read. He offers the basics in the best business philosphy that people will do business with people they like, respect and trust. Jim also offers a unique perspective and feel for New York City. Sharing of his family experiences and the lessons learned both good and bad make this work genuine and fun to read. I've shared this book with family, friends and business associates. Treat yourself and Enjoy!

Jim McCann confirms the value of relationship selling. Be sure to read and maintain in your core library of business reference books.