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Delicious! A Novel Ruth Reichl 9781400069620 Books

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Delicious! A Novel Ruth Reichl 9781400069620 Books

Billie Breslin quits college just before her senior year and goes to work for Delicious!, a food magazine located in New York City. She has an extraordinary palate and can identify any taste in any food, but has a cooking phobia. Her job is to answer complaint letters from readers who are asking for the magazine's guarantee of success. As part of her job, she meets many interesting characters: Sal, the cheese shop owner and his wife, Rosalie; Sammy, the magazine's travel writer; Jake, the publisher and his dog; Thursday, the talented restauranteur; Richard the photographer who can make any scene come alive.

During the course of her research, Billie finds a hidden room in the library and discovers letters written by a young girl to James Beard during Worl War II. But, the former librarian has filed the letters according to his own system and in order to find the next letter, Billie has to uncover clues left in the card catalog. When the building's owner decides to sell the building, it's a race against time to find all the letters.

We also learn about Billie's life growing up. Her mother died when she was a baby and she was raised by her father and her Aunt Melba, her mother's sister, who lives next door. She lived in the shadow of her older, beautiful and "perfect" sister Genie and sees herself as the quiet, geeky, uncool younger sister. During her time in NYC, we see Billie find herself, her sense of style and her confidence.

I enjoyed the story, the characters and the rich detail that Reichl includes on every page. I highly recommend this book.


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Delicious! A Novel Ruth Reichl 9781400069620 Books Reviews

I was a huge fan of Gourmet magazine and was quite disappointed when it stopped being published. Thus, it was a happy discovery to find that Ruth Reichl had published a novel with a strong food theme. Given that the food magazine in the novel unexpectedly ceases to be published just as Gourmet had been when Ruth Reichl was at the helm I cannot help but wonder how much of the circumstances are autobiographical... Anyway, Delicious! did a good job at holding my attention and the mystery around James Beards' lost letters was clever, but overall I found the plot to be a little too contrived and predictable, and at the end everything was too tidily wrapped up. Lacking a more authentic feel to the story line it was hard to give Ruth Reichl's freshman effort greater than a 4 star ranking.
Although beautifully intriguing story, I felt some of it was disjointed. The characters were interesting but at times not well enough delienated to keep all of them on track. I found it hard to believe a magazine would shut down but keep someone low on the ladder of importance employed simply to answer a phone even for the reasons she did. The ending left me kind of disappointed because some of the facts didn't seem to ring true. Maybe I'm too practical but living in NYC, buying expensive clothes and eating at fabulous restaurants had to be a tremendous cost financially and spiritually to someone who had never lived like that. Numerous unexplained facts that in conclusion left much of this disbelieved.
And then it became predictable. I read this book in one sitting and really loved the author's writing style and how she made the scents and tastes of the ingredients and spices she described so vivid (I had know her writing previously as a restaurant critic and food writer so the progression to novelist seemed appropriate). However, when she began to write about the narrator's "transformation" and brought in the love interest, the story became too predictable for my taste. I was reading the book as a food lover and wasn't looking for it to become a romance.
I have read all of Reichl's books and enjoyed every word. This book is no exception. Although it took me a while to get out of "memoir mode," once I accepted that the book wasn't about Ruth, the characters became their own individuals. There is something for everyone in this book whether it is food, family drama, heartbreak, wartime, publishing, suspense or a love story. I am ready for the next story!
"Delicious!" was recommended to me by a friend. As she and I are not always in agreement as to what we each enjoy reading, I was a little reluctant to put this book on reserve at the library, but reserve it I did, later downloading to my Nook. I'm not quite finished reading, but I can honestly say I have never been so charmed by a book as I am by this one. I really find it hard to put down, such is the "delicious" story Ruth has told, peopled with characters so beautifully drawn that I know I'm going to miss spending time with them when I come to the story's end. I've even ordered a copy to share with friends I want to enjoy, hopefully, the same experience I'm enjoying. I was not familiar with the author, but since acquiring the book, I've learned that she has been, for a long while, a food critic, and this forms the hook for this delightful story, Billie not a food critic but instead a woman who can identify, by taste and smell, ingredients in foods, knowing what extra they might need or what makes them extraordinarily special. In the process of working for the publishers of the food magazine "Delicious," Billie finds herself encountering the most memorable and lovely people, eventually coming upon a "mystery" of sorts which will lead her, I'm sure, to what is going to be the most satisfying of endings. I'll add to this review when I finish reading; I know that when the book is complete I'm going to want more of these people, but, unless there's a sequel, that won't be.
Later Well I finished the final section of the book and I wasn't disappointed...except from the stand-
point of having to leave the story and characters behind. I said it earlier, I'll say it again I've not read anything as charming and as irresistible as this book has been. You will not be disappointed.
Billie Breslin quits college just before her senior year and goes to work for Delicious!, a food magazine located in New York City. She has an extraordinary palate and can identify any taste in any food, but has a cooking phobia. Her job is to answer complaint letters from readers who are asking for the magazine's guarantee of success. As part of her job, she meets many interesting characters Sal, the cheese shop owner and his wife, Rosalie; Sammy, the magazine's travel writer; Jake, the publisher and his dog; Thursday, the talented restauranteur; Richard the photographer who can make any scene come alive.

During the course of her research, Billie finds a hidden room in the library and discovers letters written by a young girl to James Beard during Worl War II. But, the former librarian has filed the letters according to his own system and in order to find the next letter, Billie has to uncover clues left in the card catalog. When the building's owner decides to sell the building, it's a race against time to find all the letters.

We also learn about Billie's life growing up. Her mother died when she was a baby and she was raised by her father and her Aunt Melba, her mother's sister, who lives next door. She lived in the shadow of her older, beautiful and "perfect" sister Genie and sees herself as the quiet, geeky, uncool younger sister. During her time in NYC, we see Billie find herself, her sense of style and her confidence.

I enjoyed the story, the characters and the rich detail that Reichl includes on every page. I highly recommend this book.