Book cover of Garlic and Sapphires: The Secret Life of a Critic in Disguise

Book description

Author of Save Me the Plums Ruth Reichl’s iconic, bestselling memoir of her time as an undercover restaurant critic for The New York Times

"Expansive and funny." —Entertainment Weekly

Ruth Reichl, world-renowned food critic and former editor in chief of Gourmet magazine, knows a thing or two about food. She…

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Why read it?

2 authors picked Garlic and Sapphires as one of their favorite books. Why do they recommend it?

I haven’t read this book for over a decade, but there are still stories I know by heart and tell friends. When food critic Ruth Reichl boards a plane to take the job as the New York Times food critic, the woman sitting next to her recognizes her.

There’s a picture of Ruth in the kitchen of the restaurant where she works, and the first person to spot her come in gets a $500 spot bonus. Realizing she’ll never get an honest experience as herself, Ruth works with a costume and hair and make-up team to create a series of…

Among the many genres of literature that I enjoy from Harry Potter to The Brothers Karamazov, I like best those that are about food and people with vibrant personalities. This book hits the jackpot: its all about haute cuisine of mouth-watering fusion of tastes with elegant plating and, the best of it, the glamorous and sexy or quirky or snooty individuals enjoying an excellent. .... or not....meal. The author already has one bombshell of a personality and the many identities she assumed to remain incognito in her job as a food critic for the New York Times all came…

If you love Garlic and Sapphires...

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When Paris Whispers by Marianne C. Bohr,

Twenty-two-year-old Catrine arrives in Paris, the city she's dreamed of since childhood, and it speaks back, but not in ways she expected.

Drifting through the streets of 1981 Paris, the voices of French writers she once read in solitude whisper back, intimate and insistent. Rather than reassure her, they unsettle…

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