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

Garlic and Sapphires : The Secret Life of a Critic in Disguise
5ducksfans avatar reviewed on + 92 more book reviews
Helpful Score: 2


What a great book! There are really so many levels in this period of her life. From her decision to move to NY at the beginning, all the way through the last page, she undergoes not only the superficial transformations in restaurants, but in life as well. And it's not hokey at all.

There is one disguise she takes on somewhere around the middle of the book that kind of made me uncomfortable - I thought it was kinda mean. (She sees a woman on the bus or subway and thinks how sad she is, and then uses her as a character). However, she more than makes up for it for this character later on. That was my ONLY complaint, and it turned out to be unfounded.

One word of warning: I was ALWAYS hungry while I was reading this!!!! The way she describes food! Some of it is food I wouldn't even like!!!!! I mowed through Girl Scout Cookies, Wheat Thins, entire tubs of cottage cheese, and all sorts of non-gourmet goodies because she just made me SO HUNGRY! LOL. I guess that's a great tribute to her writing skills, because this is not the first wonderful memoir about cooking and food I have read. This is just the first one that cleared out my pantry :)