Delicious!: A Novel

Billie Breslin quits college just before her senior year and goes to work for Delicious!, a food magazine located in New York City. She has an extraordinary palate and can identify any taste in any food, but has a cooking phobia. Her job is to answer complaint letters from readers who are asking for the magazine's guarantee of success. As part of her job, she meets many interesting characters: Sal, the cheese shop owner and his wife, Rosalie; Sammy, the magazine's travel writer; Jake, the publisher and his dog; Thursday, the talented restauranteur; Richard the photographer who can make any scene come alive.During the course of her research, Billie finds a hidden room in the library and discovers letters written by a young girl to James Beard during Worl War II. But, the former librarian has filed the letters according to his own system and in order to find the next letter, Billie has to uncover clues left in the card catalog. When the building's owner decides to sell the building, it's a race against time to find all the letters.We also learn about Billie's life growing up. Her mother died when she was a baby and she was raised by her father and her Aunt Melba, her mother's sister, who lives next door. She lived in the shadow of her older, beautiful and "perfect" sister Genie and sees herself as the quiet, geeky, uncool younger sister. During her time in NYC, we see Billie find herself, her sense of style and her confidence.I enjoyed the story, the characters and the rich detail that Reichl includes on every page. I highly recommend this book.

"Delicious!" was recommended to me by a friend. As she and I are not always in agreement as to what we each enjoy reading, I was a little reluctant to put this book on reserve at the library, but reserve it I did, later downloading to my Nook. I'm not quite finished reading, but I can honestly say I have never been so charmed by a book as I am by this one. I really find it hard to put down, such is the "delicious" story Ruth has told, peopled with characters so beautifully drawn that I know I'm going to miss spending time with them when I come to the story's end. I've even ordered a copy to share with friends I want to enjoy, hopefully, the same experience I'm enjoying. I was not familiar with the author, but since acquiring the book, I've learned that she has been, for a long while, a food critic, and this forms the hook for this delightful story, Billie not a food critic but instead a woman who can identify, by taste and smell, ingredients in foods, knowing what extra they might need or what makes them extraordinarily special. In the process of working for the publishers of the food magazine "Delicious," Billie finds herself encountering the most memorable and lovely people, eventually coming upon a "mystery" of sorts which will lead her, I'm sure, to what is going to be the most satisfying of endings. I'll add to this review when I finish reading; I know that when the book is complete I'm going to want more of these people, but, unless there's a sequel, that won't be.Later: Well I finished the final section of the book and I wasn't disappointed...except from the stand-point of having to leave the story and characters behind. I said it earlier, I'll say it again: I've not read anything as charming and as irresistible as this book has been. You will not be disappointed.

I have read all of Reichl's books and enjoyed every word. This book is no exception. Although it took me a while to get out of "memoir mode," once I accepted that the book wasn't about Ruth, the characters became their own individuals. There is something for everyone in this book whether it is food, family drama, heartbreak, wartime, publishing, suspense or a love story. I am ready for the next story!

What a fun romp of a story! I just loved all the aspects that contributed to this tale. As a recovering reference librarian I related to many of the situations; as a past resident of Akron I could picture North Hill and North High; my heritage is New York City, so of course those scenes rang true, and believe it or not, I use to work for a magazine publishing company, though sadly, it had nothing to do with food. But we did refer to the issues as "books." The characters are interesting and most of them likable; I liked that I saw things, sometimes before the main character, that were verified later in the story. There were a few "clues" that were never used...kind of driving me nuts...and wondering if there will be a sequel. I flew through this book and was really sorry when it ended.

Although beautifully intriguing story, I felt some of it was disjointed. The characters were interesting but at times not well enough delienated to keep all of them on track. I found it hard to believe a magazine would shut down but keep someone low on the ladder of importance employed simply to answer a phone even for the reasons she did. The ending left me kind of disappointed because some of the facts didn't seem to ring true. Maybe I'm too practical but living in NYC, buying expensive clothes and eating at fabulous restaurants had to be a tremendous cost financially and spiritually to someone who had never lived like that. Numerous unexplained facts that in conclusion left much of this disbelieved.

I was a huge fan of Gourmet magazine and was quite disappointed when it stopped being published. Thus, it was a happy discovery to find that Ruth Reichl had published a novel with a strong food theme. Given that the food magazine in the novel unexpectedly ceases to be published just as Gourmet had been when Ruth Reichl was at the helm I cannot help but wonder how much of the circumstances are autobiographical... Anyway, Delicious! did a good job at holding my attention and the mystery around James Beards' lost letters was clever, but overall I found the plot to be a little too contrived and predictable, and at the end everything was too tidily wrapped up. Lacking a more authentic feel to the story line it was hard to give Ruth Reichl's freshman effort greater than a 4 star ranking.

I enjoyed this novel by food writer Ruth Reichl, although I did find it a little disjointed and would have difficulty describing what it was about. The story is divided into three books which, while there is some continuity across them, are each quite distinct. I was completely hooked on Book 1 and was a little thrown to find Book 2 moving in a different direction. Book 3 is a clearer continuation of Book 2, but is still quite distinct. I found this approach a little disorientating.I did enjoy the characters and their development, although some of the surprises weren’t that surprising. In contrast, some of the conclusions that Billie (our protagonist) reaches while following the trail of letters require quite a leap of imagination. All that said, it is an enjoyable read with some genuinely touching moments. The food descriptions (mostly confined to Book 1) are fantastic and typical of Reichl at her finest. The book might have been stronger if the author had kept closer to that clear strength.

I was enjoying this book. Really enjoying it. Loved the history element, and the descriptions of food made my mouth water. The secret letters keep me engaged till way past normal reading time. All was fine till I got to the the whole 'ugly duckling into swan' storyline. Girl-needs-contact-lenses-and-expensive-haircut to feel good about herself. To feel 'worthy' about herself. Really??? I found that thread extremely unappetising. Would have been a great read otherwise. Sigh!

Pure Ruth Reichl. I’ve loved all her books and this one is the best.

god summer story. recommended

Enjoyed this book wil look ou for more of Ruth’s works