In the French Country Kitchen, James Villas goes beyond the basic French items known to Americans as French food, and further explores the true essence of French cooking in France.

The introduction delves into the amazing French Paradox, the question of how the French eat suchheavy food, yet have half the rate of heart problems of Americans.

And the recipes in Mr. Villas' masterpiece are also just as interesting. I found the recipes to be very informative, and most were preceded by a humorous or thought provoking anecdote about the French countryside. Each recipe also informs the reader what part of France the particular recipe is from, such as Provence, Flanders, or Alsace.

The recipes are all delicious, and most are relatively easy to prepare as well, contrary to popular belief that French cooking is extremely difficult.

In addition to all the wonderful recipies, Mr. Villas also includes a chapter about bread, and the salade verte, both of which are very important in France. This book is truly interesting, even for someone who dosen't cook. It is worth reading just for the parts about French culture, as well as for the recipies. Bon Appetit

Although I have only tried 3 of his stew recipes so far, plus a biscuit recipe, I can't wait to try the rest. His short ribs for example, are wonderfully ungreasy because you take them out of the cooking liquid and finish them in another pan. Some of the other recipes look like they may require a little too much butter or oil - like the chicken fricassee, but the flavors are great. Most of his vegetable recipes seem a little skimpy for dinner, they're more like side dishes, which is too bad. I wish he had included more information about the different stew words he uses - what is a burgoo? But now I know what a bog is - and it sounds delicious.

Memoirs can be thoroughly boring if not done particularly well. Fortunately this one is well-written indeed. The first half of it deals with the author's coming of age as an academic and transition into a food writer. The second half of the book mainly consists of accounts of famous chefs and famous diners whose lives have intersected with his.

Villas is a outspoken (and perceptive) critic of nouvelle cuisine, fusion and all of the unfortunate food-foolishness of the past couple of decades. He savages some big-time chefs like Wolfgang Puck and is simply dismissive of many more famous names.

The author is also a creature from another time, say the 1930s, and is a terrible(wonderful?) snob. More than anything he reminds me of Lucius Beebe, a mid-century American bon vivant who managed to live a gilded life and then write about it.

The book misses occasionally when Villas gets a little too bitchy, but perhaps these slight lapses are as revealing as the more elegant parts. An interesting and somewhat disturbing revelation is just how many food writers live lonely and seemingly desperate lives. Perhaps only the ones in New York are this way.

James Villas has capped a brilliant career with this enthralling and entertaining biographical and gourmand journey. It is mouth-watering reading, in more ways than one. Villas is amoung two or three "foodies" who can write. I think of M.F.K Fisher and another North Carolinian like Villas, Jean Anderson (no relative).

For anyone who likes to eat and read, this book is for you. A very interesting tale, well written, and one that keeps your intention. I highly recommend it, and think it makes a terrific mother's day gift.

I have spent hours since this book arrived last week just trying to decide which dishes to make first. I ended up making a "Southern" dinner for my Wisconsin mate using the Calabash Cole Slaw and "Brown Paper Bag" BBQ Chicken (I used a Reynolds Hot Bag, thank you!) from this book and Cheddar Cheese Grits from Martha Phelps Stamps' "New Southern Basics" (ISBN # 1581822413 -- another excellent Southern cookbook). It was a big hit and nothing was wasted (next day: grits with breakfast, cole slaw and chicken for lunch!).

As a bonus you get the story behind many of the recipes and running commentary from Villas' mother on many of the recipes. It is clearly a give-and-take mother and son relationship when he says his mother drives him crazy over this or that ingredient and she implies that his version of the family recipe is a little "uppity". She says Jimmy makes his hush puppies with yellow corn meal, but she prefers white. It is both bitchy and sweet at the same time!

I already have my next meal planned from this wonderful book and can recommend it for the cole slaw and BBQ chicken recipes alone - not to mention the lively stories and commentary. Enjoy.

This is the cookbook I can pull out and count on to produce a wonderful dish every single time. I haven't come across a dud yet. Martha Pearl is delightful (and yes I AM hinting for a dinner invitation) and so are her recipes. The macaroni and cheese is a family favorite that already has stains on the page because I make it so often. The pecan coffee cake is another recipe I have made many times and always get compliments on. I live near Charlotte and keep hoping to run into Jimmy and Martha Pearl picking over the Silver Queen corn at the farmer's market. I would unabashedly tell her what a devoted fan she has made of this transplanted Yankee.

Martha Pearl is a spunky wonderful character. More than that, she is a wonderful Southern cook. Her son,James, shares her sense of humor and love of cooking. I adore the way she puts him in his place when he wants to "fuss" with her recipes. I am almost through with the entire cookbook. I have laughed and underlined and referenced. It is a great, wonderful read. Knowing recipes as I do, I can tell you that you can trust this book to give you great food. Don't wait. Don't even put this on your wish list. It's a keeper. Yum

"Pancho Villa" is written in a straight-forward style that is accessible and blunt, like a boy's adventure novel. I am not an expert on the Mexican Revolution and its aftermath, so I can't really comment on the accuracy of the book, but any reader should know ahead of time that the book is a veritable bloodbath. Villa and his men are portrayed as near psychopaths with only the most simplistic of political motivations. What they enjoy most is POWER and everything it brings - mostly free sex and the ability to kill at will. The author is certainly consistent - if not monotonous - in his presentation.

I've never read a James Carlos Blake novel before. I bought this, hesitantly, off a remainder shelf... Frankly, I'm amazed it was there. This is a tremendous book, replete with wonderful characters, an interesting plot, and wonderful atmosphere. The author has recreated the time of the Mexican revolution wonderfully, and the main character, and narrator, is someone you'd like to sit and have a conversation with...though not in a dark alley.

Rudy Fierro is there, throughout the whole of the Mexican revolution, and Pancho Villa's fight with the various people in power in Mexico City. The various people involved are tremendously depicted, and there's a parade of minor characters, some historical, some not. Both Ambrose Bierce and George Patton, not to mention John Pershing, make appearances. The author does a marvelous job of portraying men for whom it is nothing to shoot several hundred people, and then go have dinner.

Frankly, I was surprised by how good this book was. I found another one on the same remainder shelf, and after that I'll be hitting the used bookstore.

This is one of the greatest novels I've heard of Pancho Villa.

James and Martha Pearl did a knock out collaboration in "My Mother's Southern Kitchen." So I purchased this book with high expectations. It has some excellent recipes-her Savannah Red Rice on her Gumbo Dinner menu is a worthy addition to "things to do with rice." The menus were thoughtful, and something I had never seen before: The Bereavement Buffet. Ms. Villas suggests a good friend or family member take charge of the after-the-funeral gathering and have it at their home rather than the close friends and family, covered dishes in hand, troop to the home of the bereaved. Makes a lot of sense.

The problem with the book is evident on the front cover: A very handsome picture of various cooking entries placed on a white tablecloth. The picture features the food and no attention is paid to the setting. The book has sketchy comments here and there as to types of china and crockery used or maybe what flowers were picked from the garden to dress the table. I expect a book on Entertaining to have a few (hopefully many) lavish pictures of table settings. Schedules are a boon and things that can be cooked ahead are a must. Invitations and how they should be communicated is a big help. For instance, Martha Pearl does not give us a clue how people at the funeral are going to know where the buffet is.

The book is an extension of "Southern Kitchen" with barely a nod to Entertaining. However, the recipes are good, precise and easy to follow. It is written in an entertaining manner.

I have all three of Martha Pearl's cookbooks, including this latest, and I love them all. She's witty, she's opinionated, and she's sometimes hilariously dictatorial ("Don't be uppity about using canned salmon if you don't have fresh .... You really can't tell the difference" in this molded salad.) Martha Pearl's got some seventy years of experience giving parties, and y'all can tell she knows how to throw a party, southern-style! The recipes are very practically organized into complete (and I mean complete!) menus, each comprising seven or eight items, from the pre-dinner drinks and punches all the way to the desserts. Each menu makes for a lavish spread of elegantly simple foods that are just delicious. I have never tried a Martha Pearl recipe that wasn't utterly delectable. In addition to the customary holiday celebrations throughout the year, for which this book offers a wealth of good recipes and fresh ideas for entertaining, this book inspires me to want to give parties I never thought of before, like a Spend-the-Day Fruitcake Party (y'all bring your own dried and candied fruits to snip and soak, and luncheon will be served while y'all take a break at some point); a Gumbo Night; an After-Shopping Brunch (any excuse to throw a party!); a Tots' Jingle-Bell Party; etc. Martha Pearl's evident love for giving a good party is contagious. Having her recipes and party-planning tips is like having her in the kitchen with me, and she's like everyone's favorite grandmother: inspiring, dependable, and just delightful. If Martha Pearl comes out with a fourth cookbook, I'll have to have it!

This is wonderful. Very witty and inspiring to boot! Run, don't walk, to purchase this beauty!

Having not had the good fortune to be born a Southerner, I at least had the good taste to marry one! But because the cuisine of North Carolina is so different from my native Western Pennsylvania, I have been learning as much as I can about Southern cooking so that my spouse and I can enjoy the flavors of both regions. For desserts, Miss Martha Pearl and Mr. Villas have put together a staggeringly beautiful array of sweets for every conceivable occasion. The only reason I didn't give this book 5 stars is because some of the recipe directions are a little unclear: the Easter Moravian Sugar Cake, for example, tells you to dissolve yeast and sugar in water in a small bowl but never gets around to telling you when you should incorporate that mixture into your larger bowl of batter dough. While I didn't have any problems decipering the directions myself since I've been baking since I was eight years old, I think of the baking novice whom might get a little frustrated by the lack of detail. That said, this is a beautiful and exciting book made even more enjoyable by the anecdotes regarding family and friends. My only regret is that their first book, My Mother's Southern Kitchen, is out of stock and I can't find a copy anywhere! Kudos to Miss Martha Pearl and Mr. Villas for their wonderful offering.

"My Mother's Southern Desserts" is a praiseworthy compilation of recipes from Jim Villas and his mother, Martha Pearl. Her repertoire of sumptuous sweets is organized by holidays and special events. And each recipe has a side-panel, in which Martha Pearl pens an engaging bit of background on the dish at hand. Being both Southern and a dessert lover, I perused this volume with a growling stomach. A handful of dishes that I wanted to bounce up and bake included Chewy Peanut-Chocolate Chip Drop Cookies, The Delta Queen's Pralines, Chocolate Pecan Pie, and--believe it or not--mango ice cream! The book's layout is superb: Simple red dots and lines seperate the recipes' titles, comments, and lists of ingredients. And there are 16, full-page color pictures at the center of the book. Southern food lovers will crave this work.

I am really big on Martha Pearl Villas's recipes because there is an elegant simplicity in her tastes, and this is true even of the richest desserts in this book. Often amusingly bossy and opinionated, she is absolutely adamant about not "tarting up" a dessert with extraneous flavors or ingredients. I tried her Confederate Peach Cobbler recently, and it was a real success with my family, including my thinks-he-is-a-food-critic husband. The fresh peaches were cooked just right -- not too sweet and neither too firm nor too soft -- in a crystal-clear filling that let the marvelous peach flavors come through, unobscured by unnecessary spices and extracts. The rich biscuit crust made with heavy cream was scrumptious, the perfect counterpoint to the simple filling. Another great example of such elegant simplicity is the Pineapple Upside-Down Cake, which also came out utterly delectable when I tried it recently. This upside-down cake was not cloyingly sweet like some, for it had just the right amount of brown sugar and butter glazing the pineapples and cherries, and the cake underneath was a simple sponge that was the perfect foil for the rich, caramelized glaze. Though definitely highly caloric, this cake, with its clear fruit flavors and light sponge base, seemed so light that I, surprisingly, felt I could have finished the entire cake in one sitting. I am looking forward to trying all of the recipes in this book. In short, you will find that Martha Pearl Villas does not "re-invent" (i.e., adulterate) the old Southern favorites just to sell a cookbook; these recipes are the real thing. I highly recommend (and own) all of Martha Pearl Villas's cookbooks for their very Southern emphasis on good, true flavors.

Homey fare, from Texas Hash Casserole, to Portland Oyster and Bacon Pie, and Michigan Baked Fish Casserole, Villas' (The French Country Kitchen") collection of one-dish meals takes us across the country from breakfast (Weekend Egg and Feta Cheese, Plantation Grits and Cheddar) to dessert (Raspberry and Blueberry Crunch, Florida Key Lime Pudding). All the old favorites are here - Yankee Hot Pot, Sally Lunn Casserole Bread, Tuna Noodle - plus some new-fangled favorites like Minnesota Quail with Wild Rice and Raisins, and some local curiosities like New Hampshire Turnip, Beet and Hazelnut Soufflé (Villas even makes this sound good). But New England holds it own with Cheddar, Onion and Walnut Pie, Indian Pudding, Yankee Oyster Pie and Vermont Walnut Casserole Bread. Eggs, butter and cream abound as does macaroni and cheese in various combinations. Succulent meat dishes are also well represented, from Georgia Chicken and Peanut Bake and Country Captain, to Spiced Lamb Chops and Radicchio Casserole, Baked Spareribs with Apples and Prunes, Nevada Basque Chicken, and Venison and Wild Mushroom Bake.

Villas sprinkles this well-rounded, all-American comfort-food collection with tips on everything from freezing to condiment brands and baking dish equivalents. Recipe prefaces provide background history and cooking suggestions. Useful for entertaining as well as everyday, this book will see plenty of use in any kitchen.