New York has been the epicenter of world cuisine for some time and this is a classic referance for that cuisine. Not the most modern, or the simplest, or the most complete but a balance of all that is good in food. Like "The Joy of Cooking" or "How to Cook Almost Everything" this book can serve as a basis for learning all the classic recipes and techniques of western and some asian and American cooking. If you want to own just one cookbook, this may well be the one to own.

I have several cookbooks, but this one has the most stains in it by far, which is probably the best way to determine if a cookbook is any good. I turn to the Times cookbook when I want to make my old standbys, when I am trying something new or when I have company coming over. Of course, I was raised by a mother who used an older edition of this book as her main cookbook, so I may be a bit biased.

The cookbook has everything out there you need to start cooking. When I first started cooking, I was able to pick up this cookbook and start with almost no background. All the recipes turned out excellent. I particularly liked the chili recipes.

Last year, I mixed and matched these recipes with ones typed on index cards that I inherited from my grandmother and made a successful Thanksgiving dinner (which may be the ultimate praise for a cookbook).

One warning: recipes in this cookbook are not shortcuts. They will take a decent time to prepare. If I am in a hurry, I don't usually use this cookbook. If you never have much time to prepare a meal or do not enjoy cooking, this is probably not the book for you.

I borrowed it from the library. I tried some recipes thinking I'll be dissapointed like I was with Joy of Cooking. I was WRONG. It's the best cookbook I've ever seen. I decided to buy it. Every recipe I tried was delicious. The recipes are easy to follow, it's not complicated like some other cookbooks.I highly recommend this book.

Throughout my many years of preparing Mexican meals, whether cooking for my family or to please guests entertaining, I've found this book indispensable. I've been using this book for twenty plus years and continue to this day to use it for quick reference. The recipes are authentic, equisite and often exotic culinary delights explained in simple text with instructions that any novice cook can follow. If you like to create your own recipes this is a good springboard to follow one's own inclinations as well. The book is divided into three sections. Part one gives an informative tour of the ingredients and procedures used in Mexican cooking, complete with historical background and identifying drawings and photographs. Part two is the corazon(heart) of the book with all the delicious recipes from way down south. Part three is the conclusion and it includes information on sources and a pronuncaition guide. I have found part one to be particularly interesting and helpful especially when it comes to the use of the lesser known herbs. Some of the ingredients are nearly impossible to find and there are no satisfactory replacements. This is where I learned about huitlacoche, a fungas that forms on the ears of corn that makes for a delicious soup or filling for quesadillas. I've sampled this dish on both sides of the border but never found the fungas at local markets. Another simple treat is squash blossoms used for a filling in quesadillas The recipes are easy to follow and when several stages are involved it is explained perfectly. After travelling in the interior of Mexico I longed for some of the dishes I sampled and this book has allowed me to prepare the dishes north of the border. Have some broth left from the frijole(bean) pot, tortillas, some chicken leftovers and tomatoes or tomato soup? If you do then you have the basis for Sopa Tarasca which will warm you up on a winter day. Sopa Tarasca, a meal in itself, is an example that is easy enough to prepare and well worth the effort. There are countless recipes that employ ingredients that may be thrown out rather than eat the same thing. The colored photgraphs and drawings are a nice touch, but this isn't a cook book with glossy perfection on each page, the recipes are what counts here. Diana Kennedy is a world renowned expert on the cuisines of Mexico and has been decorated with the order of the Aztec Eagle, the highest honor given to foreigners. She is the high priestess of Mexican cooking and her book is a tresure that belongs in any kitchen that prepares authentic Mexican cuisine.

I love this cookbook! After receiving Diana Kennedy's wonderful book I am now able to cook all those great recipes my husband remembers from his home. With all the extra information she gives about the foods and techniques, it will give me a leg up on those dishes he remembers form his grandmother's kitchen!

It's the only Mexican cookbook I brought back with me to Mexico. The texts lively and thoughtful - as complex and as entertaining as a Mexican market itself. - Ron Mader, El Planeta Platica journal

This is an outstanding book. It far outstrips every other Chinese cookbook, including some very good ones by Irene Kuo, Ellen Schrecker, and others. I've been cooking out of it for 20 years. Every recipe I've tried (and I've tried most of them) turns out extraordinary food. Don't bother with the other books. Get this one, if you can find it! The publisher who let this go out of print should be strung up by his thumbs. The world deserves better! A billion stars!

I have the '72 edition as well, bought new then, and turned to it again just last night. I agree with mbrown's description of the recipes by category and don't wish to be redundent. What charmed me and Chinese shopkeepers was being able to point to the Chinese characters of various ingredients in the glossary. They were then able to quickly find just what I needed. The recipes are organized, easy to follow, and consistently tasty. I love Chinese cuisine and would be lost without it.

I have the old version of this text, which was published in 72. I was browsing through cook books at the store and noticed that I had seen all the recipes before and then I realized it was the same book, only a newer cover. This has been my bible of chinese cooking. The book is very thorough and easy to understand. It has all the well known chinese recipes and a description of cooking techniques, such as the proper ways to carve and present meat. All recipes are categorized by their main ingredient (pork, chicken, beef, seafood, ect. . ) with a chapter on deserts. My only qualm with this book is it doesn't provide the chinese name for many recipes. This might be because they have been generalize for a western audience and the chinese names no longer apply, but I'd like to think that they are authentic originals from traditional dishes. If you only own one chinese cooking book, this is the one to have. Maybe that is why the title is "THE Chinese Cook Book".

That's the word for this cookbook. Every recipe I have attempted has been a winner the first time prepared. The meals I have presented from this cookbook have pleased some very tough critics.

We have lived or visited all over the world, and we have eaten some fantastic meals. This book tells you how to prepare the best of these meals, and they taste just like they did overseas. Every recipe results in the best meal you've ever tasted. Why this book is out of print is a total mystery to me. When we can find a copy, we give them as presents (normally to newlyweds), and we always get rave reviews. One problem: the recipes are time consuming--not many recipes lend themselves to after-work quickie meals. But if you have the time, the food is incredible!

This book has been my guide to international cooking for at least 15 years. I use it continually. Many of my family's favorites are from this book.

I borrowed this book about 10 years ago from a friend and have been looking for a replacement for it ever since. This book starts with the first grunts of our ancestors and progresses to the present proliferation of English dialects today. Seemingly nothing is left out as every influence on our language is explored. Where the author found the information in this book is a mystery, but if you ever wondered why English is so exquisitely descriptive, this book will make it all clear in laymans terms. This is a book you will have a hard time putting down and a harder time keeping if your friends start reading it.

I've always had trouble with English. Well, not always, but from the time people tried to teach me how to read and write. You look for rules and you get more twists and turns than a snaky road. The problem has the most wonderful solution - this book. I am amazed that it has not been embraced by the school system and made required reading for all teachers. It tells the fascinating story of the development of the English tongue. How it grabs passing words, shapes them and stitches them into this wonderful living tapestry. How it resists with great ingenuity any attempt to constrain it. There are so many stories hidden in the nooks and crannies of English. It is amazing. Did you know that nice used to mean stupid. Did you know that the silent k in knock used not to be silent? Did you know that English has many more words than any other language? This book is a must for any parent struggling with a small child trying to spell yacht and other such lovely words stolen from other languages. It is one of those rare books which will change the way you think about something very familiar. The only problem is that it is well nigh impossible to get hold of.

This book is great. Clairbone's writing is clear, concise, and thourghly enjoyable. He makes sense of the much debated twists and turns our language has taken. Need another copy as the print in the one I now have is losing its readability. If I write the publisher, do you think they would have some copies in stock

I NEED to have a copy of this cookbook. My old book -- and I mean OLD -- and frayed and stained and... was lost in a move and I am LOST without it. PLEASE let me know how I can find it. When will it reprint? What's a cook to do? I really miss my old friend in the kitchen. There is no cookbook like it and I have several. It is the best resource I've ever owned. PLEASE HELP.

I HAVE OWNED THIS COOKBOOK FOR ABOUT 20+ YEARS AND HAVE USED IT CONTINUOUSLY FOR AS LONG A TIME. WHEN I WENT THROUGH MY DIVORCE, LUCKILY I WAS ALLOWED TO KEEP THE BOOK IN MY POSSESSION, BUT I HAVE TRIED TO BUY A COPY FOR MY EX-WIFE WITH NO SUCCESS. SHE REALLY LIKES IT TOO. THE RECIPE FOR THE LEG OF LAMB IS A RECIPE OF WHICH IS A THOUSAND YEAR OLD FROM MESOPOTAMIA AND IT IS AWESOME. FINGER LICKING GOOD. THE BHUNA GHOST RECIPE IS ALSO AWESOME.

The "New York Times Cookbook" is without peer in my opinion. I have never found a single reciepe that failed to live up to our expectations. Everything has been easy to follow and well explained for the professional to the amateur like myself. We have used this guide to great food for several years now so this is no quick judgement and I can heartily recommend it to all fortunate enough to secure a copy.

Really, you just can't go wrong. There are no 'vanity' recipes in here (you know the ones, with 87 ingredients and impossible-to-find spices), only simple and flawless dishes that have been proven over time to be winners. I first got this book on the recommendation of a professional chef, and was very suspicious that it would be completely beyond my meager abilities. I was pleased to discover that everything about this book is straightforward, and no matter what your cooking level is you CAN make EVERY SINGLE RECIPE even if you are a cooking novice. It's a little heavy on the cream in some recipes, so I recommend more for special occasions and weekends than every day cooking - although there are quite a few healthier recipes in there as well.

Favorite recipes? Chicken Scarpariello (took me all of 25 minutes, start to finish), Shell Steak in Vinager & Cream sauce (will impress big-time).

This book has all the flavor and variety you would want from a cookbook. The recipes are easy to read, and great for any amateur chef. Also, the book is compact in size, so it is not overwhelming you with too many recipes or cooking methods. It is simply the best cookbook I ever saw.

This is the second time I am purchasing this book. My original book is falling apart and covered in food stains from so much use. I've shared recipes from this book with everyone. The recipes are easy and delicious. You will use this book often, buy two!

Some of the vocabulary was long and tedious, but on the whole the story was well written. The struggles when her daughter started insisting on sameness was interesting. I felt like I could be reading my own daughter's future.

Having lived with Jessy in the Park residence for two consecutive summers, and those summers being among the most eye-opening experiences I've ever had, I strongly recommend learning about Jessy and the world in which she lives. While it's tough to explain something that a non-autistic mind cannot fully grasp from the outside (or at all?), Clara's eye for detail and seamless prose paint a strongly emotional, wonderful, and strange picture of raising an autistic child. Look for the sequel to The Siege, which I believe is in the final stages of its authoring at this time.

Knowing Jessy is a wonderful thing, and knowing David and Clara is always a fantastic journey. It's a pleasure to be part of The Siege, as everyone that really knows Jessy eventually becomes.

Clara Claiborne had a child with autism born in 1958. In those days autism was considered a purely psychological disorder due to poor parenting. Clara had the sense to reject this dogma and help her child even though the professionals at the time could not do anything for her. This was before the IDEA and other government supports. This book is remarkable for its time and will always be a classic. It totally blows away the garbage spewed out by Bruno Bettelheim and the likes.

Existing Nirvana: a daughter's life with autism, by Clara Claiborne Park, is a book about Jessy, the author's daughter, growing up with autism. Although it would seem to be hard growing up with autism, rather than focusing on the negative, Park shares the story of her daughter focusing on her differences from 'normal' people in society and stressing the remarkable progress Jessy has made despite her abnormalities. This progress has allowed her to mentally and socially move more and more from her own world, 'Nirvana', into the world in which everyone else operates. By giving an account of Jessy's life, the reader becomes more aware of the disability and its characteristics. The book focuses on they way individuals with autism think and even their speech. The speech portion of the story is more focused on Jessy specifically because her speech was worse than most individuals with autism. Park uses journals and pictures Jessy has drawn to looking deeper into her speech, thought process, portraits, and her current living. Through these different aspects, the reader becomes enlightened on the type of characteristics that define autism.
One of the many strengths of Exiting Nirvana is that readers receive an accurate account of autism by the specific analysis of the way individuals with this disability think and respond to situations. In addition to this, it shows the possible personal growth from childhood to adulthood of someone with autism. One of the weaknesses is that Park does not focus on Jessy's negative qualities. Although they are not totally ignored, the book idealizes autism by continually expressing Jessy's happiness. "She is still happy. I can't think of another woman in her forties who is more content with who she is, less likely to question how she lives or what she does" (Park, 9). The struggle of having a child who is autistic is not emphasized to the extent that it probably exists. This is partially because Jessy has showed so much improvement as she has grown up. Besides the idealism of the parenting necessary with autistic children, Exiting Nirvana is a great book to learn more about autism and the impossible improvements by looking at an actual person's life.

Clara Claiborne Park describes her daughter Jessy, an autistic woman in her 40's and discusses how her daughter has changed in the years since she wrote The Siege: A Family's Journey into the World of an Autistic Child, which ended when Jessy was 8. The book is an eloquent argument for the education of autistic children, and a detailed glimpse into the family life of an autistic person. Park describes different aspects of their life in a matter-of-fact manner-- no whining or victimhood here. Her love of Jessy is obvious, and there is no complaining, but it becomes obvious through the descriptions of Jessy's behavior and personality that their life has been difficult. It's also obvious how well Jessy has been cared for and loved. It's refreshing to read this book because the Park family just seems so, so good, and that's unusual to come across these days.Parks is a great writer-- the book is intelligent and readable. I'd recommend this book for any family with an autistic child, and for anyone who is just interested in thinking about how love, personality, and intelligence relate

This is a wonderful sequel to her earlier book, The Siege. I enjoyed being able to follow her daughter's life and see how it all turned out. Clara Park writes about her daughter with so much love and insight into all the positives and negatives of raising a challenged child/woman. Yet she so clearly admits there is so much they will never understand. I would have liked to have seen more written about how the rest of the family interacts with Jessy - the focus is somewhat narrow. Recommended for any parent or person that works with others with any type of disability. This book will heighten your sensitivity!

Stephen King's ascent from free-lance scribe to multi-million-selling-brand-name-writing-industry is a fascinating case. His scintillating first novel, "Carrie", was published in an era where horror novels were quite out of vogue--but it still succeeded. His third effort, "The Stand", was an 800+ page monolith that broke every rule from "How To Become A Best Selling Novelist"--it was long (verrrrry long), multi-layered, and really really dark. But again, King succeeded. By the time the nineties rolled around, King's loyal fan base knew that their man could be relied on to deliver an entertaining, readable, and verrrrry long fright-fest. Through hard work and consistancy, Stephen King had deservedly earned the total trust of his readers. But sometime around 1988, I suspect the prolific scare-meister realized that his fans would, with very little question, follow him anywhere. So the Horror King decided to put it in cruise control. "Stephen King's Latest", a set of three novels from the early nineties, epitomizes the problems of King's more recent work. In "Dolores Clairborne," King's fascination (or obsession) with his homestate of Maine kills an otherwise interesting little mystery. The picayune historical details about the state, combined with the native-Maine dialect that permiates most of the dialogue, turns the book into somewhat of an endurance test. In "Gerald's Game", King semi-overbearing, soapbox-jumping attitude about feminism (he's all for it--what a guy!) overrides the clever, sexually-charged premise. And the creepy (and verrrrry long) "Insomnia"--though closer in tone and spirit to vintage King outings like "The Stand" and "The Dead Zone"--is in dire need of an editor's red pencil. All that said, this troika of books nonetheless demonstrates that even at half-power, Stephen King is a true pop fiction craftsman who will always be able to snare a reader by the cortex, and not let go. "Dolores Clairborne", "Gerald's Game", and "Insomnia" are relatively tasty in their own right, but to experience Steve at full power, stick with the early stuff.

I've been a Stephen King fan since I was in fifth grade (when I first read Misery), and I will be for life. He has never disappointed me. From his epic Dark Tower series (which is great) to his short stories he always writes with great depth. In the three books here: Rose Madder, Insomnia, and Dolores Claiborne he has yet again put together a trilogy of masterpieces. In Rose Madder a young wife finally works up enough strength to leave her abusive husband, who is also a cop. The cop doesn't let her go that easily and follows her cross country and tries to kill her. King throws a twist into the story, however, once the wife can enter a painting and go back and forth through time. A must read. Insomnia is about an old man who at first can't sleep but then begins to see "visions" and people who can cut the thread of life, so he knows who is going to die. His nemisis in the story is the Crimson King who...I don't want to tell to much. This story gets a little long at parts (near the middle), but it is a very long book anyway. Good read. Dolores Claiborne is about a woman who finds out her husband has had sexual experiences with their young daughter. During a solar eclipse she kills him and nobody ever finds out who did it, until... I love how this book ties in with Geralds Game. To find out how read the books. This one is very good (the movie was okay too - but not as good). So, I think everyone should read these books because they are 1)suspensful, 2)entertaining, 3)written by Stephen King, trust me you won't be disappointed. by the way my favorite Stephen King book is "IT"

One of King's best. Going through time by entering a painting. What a concept. The whole story was riveting. You cant put it down, because you want to know, what's going to happen to Rose next??????