Tender is the Bone

Tender is the Bone and Comfort Me with Apples are 2 memoirs written by Ruth Reichl. Reichl is currently the editor in chief at Gourmet magazine. She was a food writer and the former dining critic for the New York Times. She has been in the food industry for awhile.

Tender is the Bone, her first work, is the story of how she grew up with a mother who would sometimes serve food that was slightly off. Ruth's tales of how she would keep guests away from certain dishes is very funny. And slightly scary! The book really focuses on how she found her place in the world and where she "fit" in. Every experience is geared toward the foodie she becomes, from learning French in a Canadian school, learning dishes from her relatives, to making snack food for her fellow teenagers. She ends up in California at the start of the organic and locally grown food movement that started there in the 1970's. She ends the book at the start of her food writing career.

Comfort Me With Apples, her second book, takes up the story where she left off. She goes from food writing to becoming a reviewer. In the meantime, her personal life changes and evolves as well. It is interesting that what behavior a reader will accept from a adolescent memoir, they will not accept from a "grown-up" memoir. There were parts of this book where I just wanted her to grow up and move on in her life. But then again - it is easy to say when you are the reader and not the person living that life.

As she travels through what is going to become the chef/restuarant explosion of the West Coast (hanging out with Wolfgang Puck and others), it is interesting how she lets us see the sights along the way. A must read for a food lover, and someone interested in the California restaurant scene.

I will eventually read her third book, Garlic and Sapphires: the secret life of a critic in disguise, but until then I will recover from ingesting these two.

The London Blitz Murders

It is 1942 - the Blitz is raging. London is under duress - what else can go wrong? Max Allan Collins' book The London Blitz Murders gives us a fictional scoop of a real murder. The Blackout Ripper was real and Collins takes some of the real players and gives us a great historical mystery.

His lead detective is good ol' Mrs Mallowan who works in a pharmacy for the duration. Don't know her? Try her other name - Agatha Christie. Collins manages to work in Christie's war time work - both writing and otherwise, with the true crime tale.

This book gives the reader a slice of what it was like in the time period - with the characterizations of the real people involved with the case. And leaves us with a little insight into Agatha and her writings as well. Great read.