The Seduction of Silence

Book Description

Follow Five Generations of One Remarkable Indian Family on a Quest for Enlightenment.

Customer Reviews:

The Seduction Of Silence.......2007-05-22

Beautifully written novel. A must read for all "India enthusiasts", but it is also a "just cant put it down" type of a book for ALL readers. A story that spans over many generations, and cultures of the East and West.
Fantastic first Novel for Ben LeHunte, cant wait to read her other books.

Five generations of social commentary.......2003-08-06

The thread of a search for spirituality wends its way through The Seduction of Silence, India-born Bem Le Hunte's lovely book that spans the years of English influence in India. The writing in this book is as glorious as the background upon which it is based. There is a mystical quality in both the story and the prose that is not unusual in the works of Indian authors, but Le Hunte, now based in Sydney, Australia, seems to have her feet planted in Western reality even as she wiggles her toes in Eastern philosophy. Her story deals with five generations within a family, couplings that are sure to end in disaster when East meets West through intermarriage.
A social commentary within a novel.

Pleasant enough story with memorable characters.......2003-04-28

"The Seduction of Silence" portrays five generations of an Indian family and their search for spiritual enlightenment and domestic happiness. Although the novel opens (and, in a sense, closes) with Aakash, the family patriarch, the story focuses on the women--their occasional happiness, their common misery, and their fate. Aakash's wife, Jyoti Ma, begins a tradition that repeats itself with each generation: through selfishness and pride and naivete, she drives the members of her family away. This theme continues with her daughter, Tulsi Devi, granddaughter, Rohini, and great-granddaughter, Saakshi. With each generation, too, the men are basically absent: they either leave the family in search of mystical awakening or become aloof or tyrannical husbands who alienate their children.

The first part of the novel, set in a Himalayan Eden, reads like an allegory, in prose reminiscent of magic realism. As the story progresses, however, and the setting changes to Delhi and then to London, the tone gradually becomes less magical and more realist. The effectiveness of this technique is decidedly mixed, especially because the novel is fairly short for a multi-generational epic. The first section works in spite of its brevity; the "fairy tale" of Aakash and Jyoti Ma and their children is enchanting without being sentimental. But, once the family moves to the squalor and the bustle of India and England urban centers, the story feels rushed, the details seem random, and the author allows increasingly less time for the reader to "get to know" the members of each succeeding generation. Furthermore, the melodramatic (and somewhat expected) climax, which briefly recalls the fairy-tale imagery of the first part of the novel, is too forced to be remotely believable.

Through it all, each generation seeks comfort in different beliefs, from Hindu mysticism to 1960's hippie culture to Anglo-American spiritualism to yoga meditation. The philosophical motif that links each generation's seeking (the oft-repeated phrase "everything happens for a reason") is a bit corny--particularly because it`s never clear what the reason is--but since the characters (and the author) skeptically disparage each other`s beliefs (there's even a mocking reference to the "Arthur Conan Doyle Room" for seances), the story avoids being preachy.

The "Seduction of Silence," then, is far too simple and (even at 400 pages) brief for the many complex themes it tackles. Still, Le Hunte has written a captivating and pleasant debut effort that ultimately succeeds because of its involving story and all-too-human characters.

The Seduction of Fairy Tales.......2003-02-25

"The Seduction of Silence," is an easy book to read, quite involving, and 2/3's good. As you've read, it's a multigenerational saga, and though the author distances herself from the Indian slant, it is, through and through, a novel of India.

Bem Le Hunte places her story in rural India - the villages of the Himalayan region - and in that aspect as well as in the gentleness of the spirituality portrayed, it's unlike the seething urban dramas we've gotten used to. It's also quite connected to the "Ramayana," and a reader who knows that story will find many parallels in the wanderings of Aakash and Ram with Ram, Sita, and Lakshman. The primary spiritual lesson is "god will provide," and in this story god does provide - through thick and thin.

Ms. Le Hunte has a good feel for class, caste, character, and Hindu cosmology and though the novel is a bit on the "fairy tale" side I found the reality to be grounded enough to keep the story on track. She runs into difficulty when the venue shifts from village India to the hippie London of the 1960's. Her grasp of the milieu seems much less sure, and the story seems to suffer for being rushed; and though she provides us with a touching conclusion, it's a little too "deus ex machina," to be completely sasifying.

Even so, I recommend this book for its understanding of how the myths play out in daily life, and for an entertaining read.

Excellent first novel, excellent novel period.......2003-01-16

I am always delighted in finding new fiction that is both entertaining and that it gives the reader several views of culturally rich characters and location.
After hearing Bem le Hunte read and share some excerpts from the book I am eagerly awaiting her second novel and I am recommending
The Seduction of Silence to many of my friends.
The combination of an almost perfect character, an inperfect wife, the trials of their offsprings and the beautiful setting in which the story develops make this book a favorite that has been well received abroad and finally comes to the US.

Seduction of Silence: Journal of a Reluctant Widow

Average customer rating:

SISTER OF THE HOOD
SISTER OF THE HOOD
A WIDOW'S LAMENTATIONS

Seduction of Silence: Journal of a Reluctant Widow
Helen Lewison
Manufacturer: Robert D. Reed Publishers
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

General | Biographies & Memoirs | Subjects | Books

General | Specific Groups | Biographies & Memoirs | Subjects | Books

Women | Specific Groups | Biographies & Memoirs | Subjects | Books

Grief & Bereavement | Death & Grief | Health, Mind & Body | Subjects | Books

General | Psychology & Counseling | Health, Mind & Body | Subjects | Books
ASIN: 1885003269

Customer Reviews:

SISTER OF THE HOOD.......2000-03-24

How very wonderful to read a book that from the moment you start reading, you relive along with the author her transition from wife to widow. I have felt many emotions in my life but her gentle praise of her husband, her innate intellectual assessment of her present life gave me food for thought. How would I handle a loss? The author talks about her everyday musings, her parents, her childhood and her friends. Each of her stories are like a brush stroke on a canvas and slowly the picture evolves, a portrait of a woman coming to terms with as she writes "coming face to face with the dying time". From the first story "I See Red", I find myself seeing all the colors of the rainbow which is somehow integrated into the book. Maybe this is because her cat, Finian, named after the character in Finian's Rainbow is significant in many of her stories. Everybody who reads this book will no doubt leave with other impressions but I guarantee all will be lasting. This is a book to be cherished for a woman allowing us to look into her soul and heart.

SISTER OF THE HOOD.......2000-03-24

A WIDOW'S LAMENTATIONS.......2000-03-24

This is truly an unbelievable book. Each day is started with a title, when followed takes you into the mind of a woman searching for a resolution to the torment churning within every fiber of her being. The one titled "Death the Great Liberator" is so profound and yet so heart warming. She mixes emotions with laughter and loss with independence. I love her titles, The Gregarious Recluse, Waiting for Godot and other Stories, Eternal Standard Time and the Cat's Meow. Her poems are deep and dark; and then she finds time to write a funny ode to Chinese food. I find myself following her pilgrimage through time. After reading the one titled "Is Anyone Listening?", I want to respond and say I am listening, all who read this book are listening....you are not isolated or alone. We care, all of us care. And another title "Attention Must be Paid". This is so very, very true....attention must be paid to our friends and loved ones. I am truly overwhelmed by the unaffectedness of the writing. Being an animal lover myself, I find her cat Finian a great asset in the book. He is obviously a well loved cat and in his own cat way returns this affection.

Average customer rating:

Seduction of Silence
Bem Le Hunte
Manufacturer: HarperSanFrancisco
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
ASIN: B000OEL7PO

Average customer rating:

The Seduction of Silence
Bem Le Hunte
Manufacturer: Harper Collins
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
ASIN: B000NQK6G4

Manual of Exalted Power Dragon Blooded (Exalted)
Average customer rating:

Excellent Dragon Blooded Rule

A great book
Manual of Exalted Power Dragon Blooded (Exalted)
Exalted
Manufacturer: White Wolf Publishing
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

General | Puzzles & Games | Entertainment | Subjects | Books
General | Role Playing & Fantasy | Puzzles & Games | Entertainment | Subjects | Books
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Scroll of the Monk (Exalted)

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ASIN: 1588466884

Customer Reviews:

Excellent Dragon Blooded Rule.......2007-07-24

Ok somehow the guys and girls at white wolf already know how to do excellent books and superb things. This is a great book. The first edition also was excellent but this second edition rulebook is AWESOME.

Full of great charms, rules, animas even better, more things to do and have.
The story is full of possibilties, every House is great and all trademark characters have been redefined. WOAW.

A must have. Trust me.
Worth every cent! [or pesos]

A great book.......2007-01-17

All in all, I'm enjoying the 'recasting' of Exalted, and this book is no exception. This book greatly expands on the first edition book, and with the Realm setting shunted off into a companion volume (Compass of Celestial Directions 1: the Blessed Isle), the extra room is well-used in presenting Dragon-Blooded society, along with great ideas on how to run a DB-based campaign, as well as how to leverage DB's in a Solar-based campaign.

Average customer rating:

dragon rule
Good take on an alternate perspective
this should be fun
One of the greatest supplemental books for any system ever!
The first of Exlated's Big Books.

Exalted: The Dragon-Blooded (Exalted)
Brian Armor , Hal Mangold , and James Maliszewski
Manufacturer: White Wolf Publishing
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

General | Puzzles & Games | Entertainment | Subjects | Books

General | Fantasy | Science Fiction & Fantasy | Subjects | Books
Similar Items:

Exalted: The Abyssals
Exalted: The Lunars (Exalted)
Exalted: The Sidereals (Exalted)
Exalted: Fair Folk (Exalted)
Exalted Players Guide (Exalted)

ASIN: 1588466566

Customer Reviews:

dragon rule.......2007-08-07

great book, tons of info and a absolute ,can not deny,with out a doubt,must have book for anyone running a campaign ,or just winging it on your own. the artwork...awsome.the readability...absolutly followable, and keeps you intrested.the lay-out and geography...fantastic. the spells and charms, are even retardedly cool. it even has a cool section on martial arts and dragon kung-fu type stuff. even the history they slap with it is great. get the dragons perspective, and decide for yourself , who should really rule creation. BUY THIS BOOK...you know you want it;)
enjoy and spend that money.

Good take on an alternate perspective.......2004-01-08

The Dragon Blooded. Hailed as gods among men, wielders of semi-divine authority, heirs to vast wealth, power, prestige and authority. And, ultimately, second bannana to just about everyone.

This sourcebook is great material for Dragon Blooded NPCs or players alike. It gives a great deal of insight into the strict, austere shadows of the Dynastic Houses and Immaculate Order, and the mixture of power and obligation that such lofty positions entail. The only issue I would take with the book is that of balance. Realistically, the Dragon Blooded command the key strength of superior numbers and peerless levels of social and political power. However, for a group which is supposed to be the weakest of the Exalted, they seem to have an awfully large array of powerful and well-thought-out charms, as well as powerful, unique martial arts styles which seem conspicuously absent from supposedly more powerful types of Exalted. Nevertheless, if these are perceived as problems, then most judicious Storytellers should be able to find ways around them, and I can't say anything bad about the writers' skill at portraying the simultaneous strength and weakness of the legendary Dragon Blooded. Whether you just want more realistic NPC interaction with your non-Blooded group or a foundation for Dragon Blood players, I can certainly recommend this addition.

this should be fun.......2003-10-21

their is no game i like playing more then exalted and no type i like playing as more then dragon blooded.

the idea of having the backing they do is fun but more importantly since you are not a god you can deal with smaller problems and still have them be a challenge. also since dragon blooded are then only exalts that can walk the blessed isle openly, which adds a whole new dimension to the game, less fear and more awe.

their are only two problems with dragon bloooded. you more or less have to only play with other dragon blooded because all the other types of exalted are a lot more powerful then the dragon blooded.

the other problem is i have a feeling that they thought out the DB charms better then the solar charms so in a lot of respects their charms are nastier.

over all it is a great game and i recomend it.

One of the greatest supplemental books for any system ever!.......2003-01-05

First of all Exalted is probably the best thing to come along for pen and paper RPing in a good long while.Particularly, it's the freshest thing to come to the fantasy genre in a good long time. I love White Wolf products, their other games are a change from other good but overplayed systems but this is something really new. The Dragon Blooded Supplement only adds to this. It contains a wealth of information on the realm, the dragon blooded, the immaculate order, and so much more. Though this background info comprises at least half the book, evert page of it is full of new and interesting material, next to nothing from the core Exalted book about the Dragon Blooded is repeated, that's how thorough it is. Furthermore, if you're dealing with intelligent gamers rather than pokemon-style "I want to be the very best" and kill everything people, then Dragon blooded make truly deep and excellent characters with opportunities for most any type of story. Even if your players don't want to play Dragon Blooded, this supplement is worth it for the background info and the detail you can include for Dragon Blooded storyteller characters. I can't reccomend this enough.

The first of Exlated's Big Books........2002-09-05

This was going to be an important book in many ways. It's the first big supplement for Exalted, and the figures it details are going to be the most common enemies for any Exalted game.

But it suceeds. Hugely.

The books is dedicated to fleshing out the Terrestrial Exalted, or 'Dragon-Blooded'. They're the weakest but most numerous Exalted, and currently control Creation from the Blessed Isle at it's centre.

A sizable portion of the book is given over to explaining how the Realm's society works. It comes across as a credible system of government in a world where the ruling classes are individually far more powerful than the plebians. You can believe that this system of government could actually exist, which lends quite a bit of credibility to the setting. It also explains how things are breaking down now that the immortal ruler of the Realm has vanished and the families she established are battling for position. Also mentioned here is what it's like for a Terrestrial Exalted to actually grow up, undergo education and make their way in the hostile world without and the twisting mazes of obligations and politics within. Also detailed are the Immaculate monks and their belief system and abilities. (Yes, as in martial arts movies, the bald-headed monks are the most terrifying fighters.)

Though this makes up about half the book, it doesn't seem a page too long. You can tell the authors have thought about how these superhumans would interact with each other, mortals and the outside world. As a result, the setting of the Realm and it's inhabitants has a consistency and credibility that a lot of other fantasy settings lack.

Then we move on to the game material. Pleasingly, the powers of the Terrestrials have not been beefed up so much as varied--the average Solar, Lunar or Abyssal will chew up a Terrestrial of equivalent experience and spit them out. They are, however, geared towards working as a team as opposed to Solar characters who can be built up into one-man armies. There are Charms that allow a group to enter a 'hive-mind' where they can draw on each other's knowledge of a battle, enhance the courage of their followers or allow a group of allies to all attack one enemy with no penalty. The Immaculate martial arts are also detailed, adding five new Styles to them. Finally, you get to use the quote "Your Snake style fighting is strong, but my Water Dragon style will defeat you!" Or maybe I've just watched too many kung fu movies....anyway, though the Martial Arts powers are deadly (The higher-level Charms let you rip people's souls from their bodies, burst into flame or transform into living stone) they carry an increased cost and can be accessed by other Exalted.

New character creation rules are introduced. To go briefly over them, Terrestrials don't have Allies or Contacts, they have Connections and replace Followers with Legions (up to 1000 soliders). Also, they have extra skill points (but have required minimum ratings for some skills) easier access to Artifacts and Hearthstones. They also have a Background called Breeding that allows them to alleviate their small Essence pool problem. While this doesn't make them overpowering (they're supposed to be the weakest Exalted type, remember), it does give them flavour and edges.

The book is rounded off by a section detailing possible uses for the source material. Campaigns with the PC's all being young Terrestrials at boarding school or with them being several generations of the same family over several centuries. There's also a thoughtful segment on how to present the Realm's less savoury practices in a game, and whether to impose 20'th century sensibilities on a fantasy culture or whether to accept 'that's the way things are here'.

Problems? Maybe that the book tries a bit too hard not to reprint information from the core book or supplements, sometimes leaving out quite important information like the names of the Elemental Dragons, the beings the Terrestrials worship. Also, there's little information on the Exalted-hunting organisation the Wyld Hunt, which is annoying, given that that's probably one of the main ways Terrestrial and Solar PC's will come into contact.

But that's a minor niggle. Whether you want to send a group into the Realm, run a lower-powered Exalted game (Spiderman level, rather than the Superman level of the Solars) or just want some detailed NPC's, this book will satisfy.

Given what a good job they've done here, I await with bated breath for the Lunar Exalted sourcebook.

Jack Jacobs and the Doomsday Time Machine
Average customer rating:

Perfect book for sci-fi fans

Jack Jacobs and the Doomsday Time Machine
Albert S. Abraham
Manufacturer: Blue Comet Books Inc.
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

General | Science Fiction | Science Fiction & Fantasy | Subjects | Books
High Tech | Science Fiction | Science Fiction & Fantasy | Subjects | Books
ASIN: 0976974401

Product Description

In this futuristic science-fiction time travel puzzler, Jack Jacobs and his organic supercomputer, Jennifer, have been gone from Earth for sixteen years in their custom-designed spaceship secretly fitted with a device that facilitates moving back and forth through the space-time continuum at incredible speeds. Now they are finally arriving back on Earth and expecting it to be the year 2199, but strangely they find themselves not in the year 2199, but in the year 2099, exactly one-hundred years into the past. After some detailed analysis of the changes occurring to the space-time gravity field lines, they soon discover that an unimaginable anomaly is causing Earth and its history to go back in time. They quickly discover they must now jump inside their ship's time warp field each time the anomaly occurs just to keep from going back in time themselves and possibly ceasing to exist. But they soon find that this is only a temporary fix, as time dilations start to occur inside their own time tunnel. Their new investigative adventure suddenly becomes a matter of life and death as they continually struggle to calculate a change in their ship's own time warp field drive. In their quest to come up with an answer for how to overcome these strange dilations, they soon find themselves in a domain of time and space where no one has ever been before…

Customer Reviews:

Perfect book for sci-fi fans.......2006-09-12

Reviewed by Paige Lovitt for Reader Views (8/06)

"Jack Jacobs and the Doomsday Time Machine" is written by Albert S. Abraham who works in aerospace engineering. Because of his career experience and education he writes very convincingly. He also includes a glossary that includes some real scientific definitions and some that are created from his perspective. This makes reading the story more fun. I don't know which is real and which isn't, but Abraham manages to write in a way that it all makes sense.

In this time travel story, Jack Jacobs and his sentient seeming supercomputer, Jennifer, have been traveling for some time in his space ship. It has a quantum gravity propulsion system that allows them to travel very quickly. When they arrive back on earth after one of their explorations, they discover that they are one hundred years in the past and when they try to fix it, they keep going further and further back in time. To correct this problem, they have to journey to another distant galaxy where they find a device that appears to be responsible for the time dilations. Along the way, through the time changes, they also discover that history is changing itself.

It was amusing to see that on one of its appearances back in time, the ship was assumed to be a UFO. Jack manages to make it disappear before any real harm is done.

This is a great book for Sci-Fi purists. I would highly recommend it to a science fiction readers group. I also recommend it to people that enjoy science fiction stories that take place in space.

Italian Two Easy: Simple Recipes from the London River Cafe
Average customer rating:

London Food Icon on the River

More Great, Simple Recipes. Buy It!!!

Italian Two Easy: Simple Recipes from the London River Cafe
Rose Gray , and Ruth Rogers
Manufacturer: Clarkson Potter
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

General | Cooking, Food & Wine | Subjects | Books
General | Quick & Easy | Cooking, Food & Wine | Subjects | Books
Italian | European | Regional & International | Cooking, Food & Wine | Subjects | Books
Similar Items:

Italian Easy: Recipes from the London River Cafe

Sunday Suppers at Lucques: Seasonal Recipes from Market to Table

JAMIE'S ITALY

London River Cafe Cookbook

Heat: An Amateur's Adventures as Kitchen Slave, Line Cook, Pasta-Maker, and Apprentice to a Dante-Quoting Butcher in Tuscany (Vintage)

ASIN: 0307338355
Release Date: 2006-06-13

Book Description

Simple Recipes from the London River Cafe

Deliciously simple, delightfully sophisticated

London’s hot-spot River Cafe has been seducing guests with its completely irresistible renderings of authentic regional Italian food for almost twenty years. Now, cofounders Rose Gray and Ruth Rogers, bestselling authors of the River Cafe cookbook series, present Italian Two Easy, a follow-up to their immensely popular Italian Easy, sharing 150 additional quick and easy recipes for everyone who loves Italian food but does not want to spend ages preparing it.

With just a small number of fresh ingredients and minimal effort, you can re-create the flavors of Italy in your home kitchen with recipes such as cucumber salad with mint and mascarpone, linguine with clams and white asparagus, beef tenderloin with red wine and horseradish, zucchini scapece, and hazelnut truffle cake. Organized into fourteen chapters, including Really Easy Soups, Salads, Tomato Pastas, Roast Meat, Italian Vegetables, and Chocolate & Coffee, the recipes are designed to save home cooks time at the end of a busy day without ever sacrificing flavor. From a dozen ways to highlight fresh mozzarella—most ready in a matter of minutes—to instructions for perfect, simply grilled fish, meats, and vegetables, Gray and Rogers’s Italian Two Easy will help bring your weeknight Italian meals to a new level.

Featuring 100 stunning full-color photographs illustrating the artistry that goes into each dish, Italian Two Easy makes it simpler than ever to achieve enviable results with the greatest of ease.

Customer Reviews:

London Food Icon on the River.......2007-02-23

Having been to the restaurant twice in my adult life I can not only recommend the London River Cafe as a destination place but now I can actually produce some sensational, yet quite easy, recipes in the here and now. Sometimes our palette can only be satisfied with the real thing but the new book, "Italian Two Easy", is as close as you can get. I highly recommend the book.

More Great, Simple Recipes. Buy It!!!.......2006-06-15

`Italian Two Easy, Simple Recipes from the London River Café' by proprietor / chefs, Rose Gray and Ruth Rodgers is the sixth cookbook by these ladies, and I welcome it with almost as much anticipation as I did the next installment of `The Lord of the Rings' or at least the DVD release of same.

As the title suggests, this volume is the second of a pair of volumes of `Easy Italian' recipes, the first published about two years ago, copyrighted in 2004. This volume actually improves on the earlier volume in that I found the layout of the first volume very annoying, to the point where it detracted from the value of the book, in spite of the fact that the recipes were almost uniformly excellent.

Gray and Rogers reaffirm two major themes with this volume. First, they celebrate the genius of the Italian pantry with its rich collection of wines, olive oils, cheeses, salt cured fish, capers, breads, pasta, sausages, and cured meats. All of these products are centuries old, enhanced just a bit by the modern methods for canning beans and tomatoes. These commercial, yet artisinally prepared products are such great ingredients that one can assemble fabulous dishes with very little effort. And, that is what Mmes. Gray and Rodgers' recipes are all about.

The second main behind their books is that their recipes follow a very typically English approach to recipe writing. As I wrote to Ms. Diane Jacob, author of `Will Write for Food', there seems to me to be three types of recipe writing. First is the Julia Child model of `Mastering the Art of French Cooking' which covers every detail of cooking technique in exquisite detail. The second is the Joel Robuchon style found in the `Simply French' collaboration with Patricia Wells, where the point of a recipe is often to demonstrate some salient aspect of an important ingredient technique. The third is the Elizabeth David style which is light on asides or voluminous comments on technique or ingredients. This is the style that has become so successful for most recent and contemporary English writers such as Jane Grigson, Nigel Slater, Nigella Lawson, Tamasin Day-Lewis, Gray and Rogers, and their protégé, Jamie Oliver. Now this is not the style of recipe writing you want to deal with when you are just starting out, unless it happens to be in Slater's and Day-Lewis recent large cookery manuals, `Appetite' and `Tamasin's Kitchen Bible' respectively. This is also not the style of cookbook you want if you wish to dig deep into the heart of Italian cuisine, as Gray and Rodgers do not (at least in this book) go into the techniques of either bread, pasta, or sausage making. For these techniques and important insights into the backbone of classical Italian cooking, I refer you to the grand dame of Italian cooking writing in English, Marcella Hazan and her `Essentials of Classic Italian Cooking' and her most recent `Marcella Says'.

As I have said of Jamie Oliver's books, Gray and Rogers' books are primarily celebrations of the simplicity of the Italian cuisine, although Oliver's exuberance comes through just a bit better than from our ladies. One thing you will not get from Gray and Rogers is a reflection of the typical Mario Batali statement that the Italian cuisine is the cuisine of poverty. While hams and cheeses and sausages may have been a necessity 200 years ago, in England and the United States, these Italian specialties are pretty dear. Prosciutto di Parma and Parmesano-Reggiano both run to $16 or more dollars a pound or more.

So, if you know your way around the kitchen and can afford `the good stuff', genuine imported Italian ingredients, then I heartily recommend this and all of the other five Gray / Rogers volumes, especially if you are fond of entertaining or like to cook every day, but don't want to spend three hours in the kitchen every day. These books demonstrate why it is so easy for Rachael Ray, for example, to put together fast meals based on the Italian pantry, but these recipes are, unlike Ms. Ray's fare, tested in restaurant experience.

Some of the recipes do require some Italian ingredients that are still not that easy to come by. One, for example, is bottarga, the sun-dried roe of the gray mullet. I have never searched for it, but I have also never seen it in my local megamart, although I suspect the big New York City food emporia such as Zabar's are sure to carry it. I was pleasantly surprised to find that the appendix of suppliers in the back of the book were all American sources and not UK sources.

If I were to pick one especially strong point of the Gray / Rogers volumes, it would be their vegetable recipes. I have read and reviewed a number of excellent books on vegetable recipes, most especially Jack Bishop's several books, and I still find unique recipes among the River Café cuisine, especially in dishes which combine two or more vegetables and therefore don't easily fit into a book organized by vegetable. My only caveat is that since this book is all about the recipes and nothing but the recipes, it sometimes lets some bad advice slip by as when it suggests you discard the stems from a head of broccoli. I happen to love broccoli right down to its tougher stems, which one can always peel, so I suggest you be a bit more frugal here.

The second best aspect of the River Café books is their wealth of simple pasta recipes.

The bottom line is that these River Café cookbooks are easily one of the best sources of quick Italian influenced books I have seen anywhere, without the annoying and cloying Rayspeak chatter from Ms. Rachael. One could do worse than to fill your entire kitchen library with Gray and Rogers cookbooks, with Marcella Hazan's works in the library to fill in the background.

Italian Easy: Recipes from the London River Cafe

Average customer rating:

best italian cookbook
Really Easy
Success with Simple, Interesting Recipes. Recommended

Italian Easy: Recipes from the London River Cafe
Rose Gray , and Ruth Rogers
Manufacturer: Clarkson Potter
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

General | Cooking, Food & Wine | Subjects | Books

General | Quick & Easy | Cooking, Food & Wine | Subjects | Books

Italian Two Easy: Simple Recipes from the London River Cafe
London River Cafe Cookbook
The Cafe Cook Book: Italian Recipes from London's River Cafe
The Silver Spoon
JAMIE'S ITALY

ASIN: 140005348X
Release Date: 2004-06-15

Book Description

“Easy food doesn’t have to mean unsophisticated food.”

Rose Gray and Ruth Rogers, founders of London’s renowned River Cafe, are famous for their innovative approach to traditional Italian fare. In Italian Easy, their fifth cookbook, they reinvent the Italian kitchen for today’s busy home cook, refuting the notion that elegant food requires hours of preparation. These are visually spectacular, remarkably simple recipes for those who love good food but have little time to prepare it.

Displaying the imagination and panache that are Rose and Ruth’s hallmarks, the nearly 200 recipes in Italian Easy are streamlined for efficiency in the kitchen without compromising either quality or taste. Relying on a well-stocked pantry, just a handful of fresh, seasonal ingredients, and even fewer steps, these sublime recipes summon both familiar and surprising Italian flavors. Bruschetta with tender asparagus and shaved Parmesan, tagliatelle with ripe figs and spicy chiles, slow-roasted chicken with fresh nutmeg and prosciutto, and the restaurant’s popular Chocolate Nemesis cake are all as enticing as they are effortless.

This is not Italian food that’s impossible to pronounce or prepare. At once straightforward and sexy, this is Italian Easy—the cookbook that makes it possible for busy people to eat well every night of the week.

Customer Reviews:

best italian cookbook .......2007-01-12

I cannot believe that only two people have reviewed this book! It is by far one of the best books I own, and I have quite a collection. It is better than anything Giada DeLaurentis has done, simpler than Mario Batali, and as much as I love Jamie Oliver, is better than his new Italian cookbook as well. The book is simply beautiful. The layout and the photography make everything look irresistible. Even more importantly, everything I have made from here has been exceptionally good. The bruschetta ideas are inspiring. Almost everything in here is so simple, you wonder, why didn't I think of that? And yet the simplicity is deceiving as the outcome is beyond delicious. The pea and scallion pasta with prosciutto is insane. The sea bass with potatoes divine. The veggie dishes are so good I recommend this book to vegetarians despite the fact that it is not a veggie cookbook. If you buy one Italian cookbook, this is the one....

Really Easy.......2007-01-05

You get the usual top quality presentations. Preparation is really easy! Triggers your own ideas.

Success with Simple, Interesting Recipes. Recommended.......2004-06-17

'Italian Easy' authors Rose Gray and Ruth Rogers are two English chefs who seem to carry a lot of weight in the community of writers on Italian Cuisine. They are one of the first employers of Jamie Oliver and were, I suspect, a strong influence on his style and choice of cuisine. In spite of Oliver's great celebrity, Gray and Roger owe nothing to this. Their reputation is firmly based on doing good Italian food before Jamie came to the limelight. Mario Batali also offers their books as one of his favorite reads for Italian recipes.

Creating food that is both easy to prepare and sophisticated in taste and presentation always seems to me to be a chimera. An attempt to put together two things which are simply incompatible. I think Rogers and Gray have succeeded as well as anyone who has put their mind to this task. In their favor is the great pantry available to an Italian cook. Sometimes I think that if you put Parmesano Reggiano, fresh Tuscan olive oil, capers from Panteloria, sliced garlic, and basil from Genoa on shoe leather, it would taste good. It you replace shoe leather with artisinal bread, pasta, shellfish, spinach, or chicken and add tomatoes and anchovies, you basically have the recipes in this book. This is certainly an exaggeration, but not much. I am truly impressed by how simple and easy many of the recipes in this book appear on the page. Like a lot of simple recipes in Patricia Wells' new book 'The Provence Cookbook', they make you wonder how something so simple can taste good. I tried recipes in both books and I can attest that even a simple combination of pasta, broccoli, olive oil, garlic, and pancetta which comes together within 20 minutes, can be really impressive, especially as a dish which gives one both a starch and a vegetable.

The same surprisingly short list of ingredients is the norm for most of the recipes. This is not to say there is no variety in the recipes. Just the opposite is true. In the short chapter on ricotta recipes, there are two different Italian specialities based on similar short ingredient lists that are totally unfamiliar to me. The first is 'Gnudi' that may be loosely described as a ricotta gnocchi. There are two recipes, one plain or 'Bianchi' and the other with spinach. The second type of recipe is a ricotta gratin named 'Sformata di ricotta'. The very best aspect of this and many other of these recipes is that it calls for cherry tomatoes which succeed in being reasonably tasty even if they are grown in a hothouse out of season. Another example of a successful mix of novelty and diversity is the chapter of nine potato recipes. Two of the nine are gnocchi, so there is nothing new there, and one is mashed potatoes with nutmeg and parmesan, so there is nothing dramatic there. But the other six recipes make dramatic combinations of potato with fennel, mustard, pumpkin, lemon, and tomato sauce.

Speaking of tomato sauce, the book's pantry 'quick tomato sauce' is really quick with four ingredients and about 20 minutes of cooking time for an experienced cook. Compare this to Mario Batali's basic sauce which I find difficult to prep and cook in less than an hour (but then, I'm not the fastest knife in the kitchen).

Even dishes which may appear to have involved or difficult recipes such as potato gnocchi or risotto appear simple in Rogers and Gray's words. I think this is a symptom that these recipes are not as daunting as they may seem to the newbie, but it is also a symptom of the fact that Rogers and Gray are writing to people who have some experience in the kitchen. The dozens of helpful little hints you typically get on the 'Molto Mario' show about the technique for heating garlic in oil, for example, are simply not there. There are no tips on peeling fava beans or even a hint that fava beans are naturally double wrapped. There is no babble about terroir or commentary on how the recipes were found or invented. Unlike the 8 year old 'Italian Country Cookbook' there is no consistent use of Italian recipe names with English translations taking a second line role. While many recipes such as potato gnocchi are Italian classics, many others are either highly streamlined versions of Italian classics or they are River Caf? inventions with Italian ingredients and techniques.

I really like the many chapters with only a few recipes in some chapters, making it easier than usual to find the nine recipes based on potatoes or the three risotto recipes or the nine truly simple spaghetti recipes. The Brits must be as fond of spaghetti as we colonists. I really dislike the artsy presentation of the dozen bruschetta food photos on one page opposed to the corresponding dozen recipes on the following pages. What WERE these people thinking? Luckily, this nuttiness plays itself out by the time we get to the third chapter, carpaccio and we return to the sanity of recipe and photo on facing pages.

This is the first River Caf? cookbook I have reviewed, and I regret my having overlooked them up to now. The authors have truly succeeded in giving straightforward recipes, easy to prepare with readily available (but not necessarily cheap) ingredients.

Very highly recommended, especially if you have any taste for Italian food and need fast recipes. Also highly recommended if you like Jamie Oliver's style of food. This book is no nonsense good, easy cooking, as long as you have good basic kitchen skills.

Italian Easy: Recipes From the London River Cafe
Average customer rating:
Italian Easy: Recipes From the London River Cafe
Rose Gray
Manufacturer: Clarkson N Potter Publishers
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
ASIN: B000N630JO

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