At first I didn't like this book as much as her others. And I almost did not keep reading it when she was in Paris but she has a way of honestly sharing that draws me. I was glad I kept going because it improved and, despite being less cohesive than her other books, I enjoyed it.

A bit hard for me to sympathize with a protagonist who spends the entire book having extramarital affairs. Garlic and Sapphires is a much more enjoyable read.

LOVED LOVED LOVED

Reading Ruth Reichl makes me late for ballet pick up and coffee with friends because I just can’t stop.

A friend introduced me to Ruth Reichl in her first memoir, Tender at the Bone, which I thoroughly enjoyed. I’ve read two more of her memoirs, and I’m on the library wait list for her latest book, Save Me the Plums. Good reads each one.

I just could not find myself liking the author or being okay with her selfish choices. She didn't even try to defend her choices, but seemed to think it was perfectly acceptable to have a first date sexual affair while she was married. More than once.

I'm not a big gourmet eater so the central theme of food didn't really do it for me, either. I didn't even read the recipes. Just not my thing.

I wish I hadn't read this book: I ended up not liking Ruth Reichl at all. I loved Tender at the Bone, so when I saw this book at Costco I bought it on impulse. I enjoyed maybe the first 1/3 or 1/2--after all, I lived on Channing Way in Berkeley in the 70s also--and the book was an easy read, but she just seemed to make bad and then worse decisions in her personal life, and then justify each one, and eventually I realized I reading it just to finish the dang thing. I might try some of the recipes, but not Fried Capers and Calves' Brains with Sherry Butter Sauce.

3.5 зірок
Це другий мемуар за хронологією після "Tender at the Bone", і поки для мене він найслабший. Рут розповідає про те, як руйнується її перший шлюб, зради/інтрижки, мандрівку у Китай, свої перші кроки в ролі ресторанного критика, жахливі спроби процесу всиновлення і, на жаль, трішки менше безпосередньо про їжу. Хоча все це незмінно подано у її фірмовому стилі — відверто, щиро, так ніби ведеш бесіду з давнім другом. Мабуть, саме тому я повертаюся до книжок Рут з таким задоволенням — вони дуже comforting.

Зроблю невелику паузу і візьмуся (вже наступного року) за останню частину "GARLIC AND SAPPHIRES The Secret Life of a Critic in Disguise". Щаслива, що 2020 рік подарував це випадкове знайомство і наразі "Save Me the Plums: My Gourmet Memoir" залишається одним з моїх найулюбленіших мемуарів ever <3

This book made me really want to eat Chinese and Thai food! I love the way Ruth Reichl writes about food. Everything is an experience, and the setting and characters play just as important role as the food itself. I was a little disappointed by some of her personal decisions, but I certainly wouldn't pass any judgement. She has had a really interesting life, or at least does a great job of writing about it in an interesting way.

Really liked this memoir about Reichl’s early career, the start of California cuisine, and about how she grew up in her relationships and in becoming a food critic. One of my favorite parts is her first time tasting balsamic vinegar which was not commercially available at the time and has been homemade by the person at whose home she was dining. Really captured a certain era in California from commune living in Berkeley to the rise of Wolfgang Puck and Jonathan Waxman.

Library hardcover

I don't know how to review this book exactly. The story itself was well told, and there were even bits that I read aloud to my brother, because the passages on food, and eating, and cooking, were so well written. And that's the whole story, surely - except that it isn't, it's largely about Reichl's personal life. And honestly, her personal life in these books isn't all that likable. To me, at least.

So I enjoyed about half of it, I'd say, and lost interest in the personal bits. It's the chance you take with a memoir.