Stories from the Kitchen (Everyman's Library Pocket Classics Series)

What makes this book special is how it evokes feelings of warmth and nostalgia. The tales are not just about food but also about the memories and emotions tied to it. It's a reminder of how food can comfort and bring people together.

As anthologies about food go, this one was lovely. I adored the I depth glimpses into cultures across the globe. This read left me both wanting more, hungry and emotional in the best way.

This is a smorgasbord of tales of all kinds with only one thing in common: as the title suggests, all have something to do with food. They are widely varied in tone and caliber, so masters of the short story like Chekhov rub shoulders with authors like Amy Tan, and you'll have a story by food writer M.F.K. Fisher as well as something by Shirley Jackson, better known for sending chills down readers' spines than for the kind of warmth and comfort you'd associate with the kitchen. What will tickle your tastebuds is probably as various as what you'd find appealing on a menu. For my part, I enjoyed encountering some stories by authors who are relatively new to me, or whose work I'm less familiar with, like T.C. Boyle, Lara Vapnyar, John Lanchester and Jim Crace. That aside, what I didn't enjoy -- and what I found sometimes didn't work for me -- was the idea of including excerpts of novels as "stories." They aren't stories -- they are excerpts, and not designed to stand alone, in isolation, from the rest of the work, simply because they happen to be about food and kitchens, etc. Hopefully, they will whet the reader's appetite for more by Maupassant, Zola, Proust, etc., but I fear not. This would be an ideal gift for the foodie on your list; the more so since it also happens to be a physically beautiful object, with a lovely dust jacket, gorgeous cream colored paper of a very high quality, beautifully bound, etc.

Love so many of the authors. A delightful book.

A wonderful collection.

I admit it - I treat some novels in the same way some people treat romance novels - I like skipping to the "juicy scenes". "The Stories from the Kitchen" does just that - it's a collection of some of the juiciest foodie scenes found in novels and short stories from both today and yesteryear. All the stories included are definitively food centric and can be read in any order as they are all stand alone pieces. As a book, this really is great for reading in short spurts of time, and opens the door for you to read the novels some of these short stories are derived from. As an example, Amy Tan's short story "Best Quality" is an excerpt from her novel "Joy Luck Club". Having read the book, I was familiar with the story. Alice B. Tokla's "Murder in the Kitchen" came from a full novel the same name - the excerpt included in "Stories from the Kitchen" was very short, but a good excerpt to make me want to read the full novel. "Stories from the Kitchen" does not include recipes for each chapter, and includes recipes only if it was already included in the story itself. The only two stories I can name off the top of my head that include recipes that you could possibly try were from "Potatoes and Love" and "Murder in the Kitchen". This book really is for reading about how food relates to life - it's interesting to see each author's way of weaving in food with life, and doing it delectably so. Overall, if you're looking for a collection of short stories that are weaved around food, this book is definitely worth considering. It's fun to jump from chapter to chapter to find an interesting story, and easy enough to read in small spurts.

This is a very unique book. While I am a fan of the short story because many times I want to be able to read something from start to finish in one setting and with a novel that is just not always possible, this book has an interesting focal point, that being food and cooking. From the cover that is colorful with an artists rendition of baked goods on the back and a kitchen on the front, along with a ribbon attached to the book to use as a bookmark, this is just a very nice book that would also serve as a gift to the person who enjoys both reading and food. I do find these stories "different" as the writing on some of these is definitely NOT contemporary. The synopsis says that this is a compilation from around the world as well as across time (which would explain the differences in the writing styles). While I have heard and read many of the authors such as Dickens (a classic author) to a more contemporary author (Amy Tan), there are others I have never heard of such as Jim Crace and Gunter Grass. This is NOT a recipe book but a short story anthology. I love reading different types of story and literature and so this book was a pleasant surprise and one that I certainly recommend.

Cute book, will be a great addition to the library.