Georgeanne Brennan

This book has made me drool and slaver and happily refer to the recipes. Imagine escaping from the US's involvement from the Vietnam War by fleeing to Provence with a small daughter and a plan to learn how to herd goats and make cheese. The modern reader is daunted by this lackadaisical plan for generating income. Imagine making all that work out on faith and no Google or Wikipedia.

Liked the idea that the older residents are still proud of having been partisans during WWII, and furthermore show more are quite satisfied with having kicked the occupying German soldiers back to the curb.

I want mushrooms, red wine, garlic bread and bouillabaisse soooo bad and I am not even half way through this book.

Much, much later: in 2018 I came back to finish reading this book. I wanted to read about the pleasure of food after "Surviving Paradise," because a year of eating not much but plain white rice in the Marshall Islands sounds just terrible. I had no idea that a tropical paradise can be a food desert. show less

Every year, I make Christmas pudding from this book. It isn't bad, especially the sauce. There are a lot of other neat-looking recipes in here too, but I never seem to get to them. I have high hopes for Turkish Delight, one of these years. It'll be just like the White Witch, in Narnia. Though I think Turkish Delight looks like one of those recipes that is probably much better in theory than in fact. But everything about this book makes you think of Christmas, as it should be. What I couldn't show more do with a lot more time and money for craft supplies and ingredients... show less

This is a real cookbook. The recipes are simple enough for children to follow (say, 8-12, or older), but they're not bland and boring recipes. They are mostly from scratch and with good ingredients. They are appealing to children but appropriate for adult tastes as well. Did I mention that they also are named after foods in Dr. Seuss books? With quotes and illustrations from the texts, and explanations for the recipes, this is a great choice for a cook who also likes Dr. Seuss. If you get it show more for a non-cook, they'll enjoy the pictures, but they may not cook much from it. show less

A delightful slice of life, food, family and friends based on the author's extended residencies in Provence. It makes you long for a simpler, more authentic way of life where the relationship with food, its production, preparation, cooking and eating is bound up with the day to day fabric of surviving and enjoying what the earth has to offer, and not complicated and endlessly overblown by what's trendy or fashionable. Focused primarily on food and cooking, it gives glimpses into the author's show more family life and relationships with two husbands as well as many good friends, but it's not a memoir, unless you want to define it as a food memoir. If you love books like "Under the Tuscan Sun", "A Year in Provence" and so on, you'll love this one show less