We received our cookbook as a Christmas present and have not only had so much fun experimenting with the different recipes, we have been so impressed with the book and its cause. Our recommendation? Chili cheese bake, of course! What a great book!

What an outstanding book and what a great cause! Whatever type of food your hankering for -- it's probably in here. Mexican, Chinese, California cuisine, even Russia and Belize are represented. There is everything from "family" night 15 minute meals to equisite menus from famous chefs. We've given it as hostess gifts, Christmas gifts and birthday presents! It's a great book!

This is a cookbook with tremendous heart and soul! My copy is on its way to becoming dog-earred, and I've bought several as hostess gifts. I love to cook, own many cookbooks, and really use a select few. This is one of the select few I use. Great recipes for all: Utilitarian for the family, the working household, and for entertaining! The recipe commentary is well-written, and enticing. The recipes are very user-friendly, and delicious! I'm so pleased to purchase a cookbook that benefits a worthy cause--our public schools!

I confess, I bought this book because a) a friend's work appears in it b) all the proceeds go to a great cause -- the Carol Franc Buck Breast Care Center at the U of C's San Francisco Comprehensive Cancer Center. I kept the book on my bedside table for a while but once I picked it up, I was amazed by how very very good it was.The book is rich in diverse, authentic voices -- it's brimming with humor and insight and sorrow and healing. Topics cover all the milestones of women's lives, as seen from the vantage point of different life stages and several cultures. Yet there's a warm, honest connectedness at the core that ties all of this together, like multicolored beads strung on one thread. I can't image that any thinking, feeling woman of any age would regret reading or buying this book. Another thing that's nice is that short pieces are mixed in with longer works, and there's poetry and travel essays too. What a rich buffet, and what a great experience it must have been being part of this writing group!

A little gem of a book which I carry with me as portable respite. The vignettes are short, but rich and soul-filling. Just this brief contact with another's world, reminds me to stay in contact with my own, and review its richness in terms of experiences, thoughts and memories.

This collection of stories written by women who attended a weekly writing group on Wednesdays is, dare I say, on par with Tuesdays with Morrie. It is a collection of stories that weaves the tales of these women's lives. The stories are at times moving, funny, poignant, compassionate, and resonate of the fabric with which women's lives are woven. You can pick it up, open it to a page, and start reading any story, but once you start, it will be hard to put it down.

Nickel and Dime is three intertwined short stories about Chicano men at different levels of poverty: Roberto, who is offered a severance package to leave his job as a security guard at a bank, and is soon living out of a car, scrambling for a cup of coffee; Silver, a poet who was well-known in the 1970s now looking to give speeches for a couple of hundred dollars to make rent; and Gustavo, the faithful bank security guard, former co-worker of Roberto, who works till his retirement for people who don't care about him one way or the other.

This is the tale of 3 Chicano men doing the best they can and not coming up with very much -- their Chicano friends are making it and they are falling by the wayside. Yet there is hope as you read about them, and there is an almost philosophical voice about class and money in the United States, especially through the eyes of men who are not so young as to be completely idealistic, but not so old that they have let go of their dreams.

This is a good quick read that will stay with you for a long time afterwards!

Gary Soto shows once again that he is not only one of the best Chicano authors out there, but one of the best modern authors, period. In Nickle and Dime, Soto weaves three interconnected stories that detail turning points of the lives of three vatos trying to get by in 1990's Oakland. We meet Roberto, a simple and innocent Mexican-American bank security guard who falls on hard times when he loses his job; Silver, a middle-aged Chicano poet who's having trouble adjusting to life in a world that doesn't have much use for "Raza-power" rhetoric; and Gus, a Mexicano who is getting ready for retirement.

All three stories are very good, but it is the first, "We Ain't Asking Much," which is Soto's tour de force. Soto manages to be simultaneously hilarious and heart-breaking as he looks into how Roberto deals with losing his job and being evicted. Soto plays against the stereotype of the "lazy bum / lazy Mexican" in creating a character who is actually quiet enterprising (and capitalist) in his attempts to get off the streets. However, run-ins with a senile old woman, racist cops, a junkie with a sombrero and most of all, his own ineptitude (witness his attemps to sell rich people twigs in the guise of Christmas ornaments) ultimately doom his efforts. A top-notch story, it really made me re-think my attitudes toward homelessness.

The second story, deals with homelessness as well, as Silver finds out that Chicano poetry just won't pay his bills. It is only in the third story, which is about Roberto's old "compa" Gus, that Soto shows us a character with any stability. Interestingly, Silver is the only of the three men who doesn't meet with redemption (if redemption, in this book, equals a roof over ones head and food in one's stomach) by the end of the book. One wonders what moral Soto (an old Chicano poet) is giving us by having the old Chicano poet Silver left out in the cold, literally and figuratively. Perhaps it is a comment on the need to keep the ideals of the Raza movement relevant to changing times? In any case, I highly recommend Nickle and Dime. Gary Soto once again manages to be as thought-provoking as he is entertaining.

By page 30 I was in stitches! Soto has created three of the most charming losers--victims of circumstances and just plain bad luck--in this funny novel that chronicles their path to loserdom. Roberto, Silver and Gus are three vatos trying to keep themselves righteous, but that's pretty hard to do when nothing goes right and any attempt to persevere only hurts their chances for survival even more. I can't say enough about the humor of this book. It's about time we Chicanos learn to laugh at ourselves and Soto has shown us one healthy way to do that--through on-the-mark writing, sharp, satyrical, and yet sensitive.

The book Snake is the biography of Ken Stabler the Oakland Raiders renegade quarterback of the 1970's. The book was very interesting and was very detailed. I recommend reading this book if you are a football fan. Also if you are an Oakland Raiders fan this book is for you. If you do not vulgar language or talks of sex, drugs and rock and roll you should not read this book. The book had many strong points, which include very detailed recolations of games and wild nights. My overall opinion of the book is that was very interesting and if you have a weak stomach this book is not from you. Snake is a book for football lovers and if you liked this book check "I'm the Assassin" by Jack Tatum another renegade from the Oakland Raiders in the 1970's. Go Raiders.

What were considered rumors about the wild lifestyles of the Oakland Raiders are actually truths according to one of the leaders, Kenny Stabler. Drinking, honky-tonking, reading the playbook by the jukebox light, womanizing and oh yes - football are some of the sideshows in this book. This is not only about the "Snake" but also about the other characters from the Oakland Raiders during their heyday.

This had to be one of the funniest behind the scenes sports books ever. Shocking tales of hot-tub orgies, drunken spree's, and other general hedonism highlight page after page. And there is some football, too.

Recently I was having dinner over a friend's house and the side dish being served was Brussels Sprouts. I never liked them as a child and the thought of eating them now, as an adult, was just as appealing as it was back then. Not to insult my host, I tried some. To my amazement, I LOVED them! I had to have the recipe (Caper Lemon Brussels Sprouts). The delicious side dish comes from the Junior League of Oakland - East Bay's cookbook, California Fresh Harvest, A Season Journey Through Northern California. The book contains recipes of Northern California's famous delicacies including Dungeness Crab, Cioppino, Butternut Squash Soup with Sage, Sizzling Shrimp, Goat Cheese Tart with Lavender Honey, Asparagus and Bell Pepper Risotto, and Mediterranean Penne Pasta to name a few. There are also many recipes for chicken, beef and lamb to give some variety to your usual dinners. The book even gives you menu ideas taken from recipes in the book for such special occasions such as Valentine's Day dinners and Mother's Day Brunch. The main body of the book is split into four main parts, Spring, Summer, Fall & Winter, containing menus, recipes and commodities in each section. The recipes are dishes you would find in the best restaurants but so easy to make even the most inexperienced of cooks, such as I, can make them. Moreover, the recipes do not contain those hard to find ingredients that you need to travel the world to find! I have not tried any of the desert recipes yet but they look awesome. I love the book so much I bought one for my mother and sister-in-law. This is one cookbook that does not just sit in my kitchen for looks

I originally received this cookbook as a gift. I was so delighted with it, I subsequently ordered four additional copies to give as gifts. The recipients are still thanking me! First, the recipes are creative and delicious -- fully enhancing the flavors of bountiful, diverse, fresh ingredients found in the San Francisco Bay Area and Wine Country. (It's hard NOT to eat well in this region!) Second, the cookbook itself is uncommonly successful in evoking this spectacular setting with gorgeous photos, sidebars of interesting sidetrips, local restaurants and wineries, and mind-boggling facts regarding the abundance of local agriculture. Food preparation tips, background information on local food and wine festivals/events, and delicacies such as Meyer Lemons are also highlighted. While it's fun to simply browse through this beautiful cookbook, it's even better to sample the Junior League's trade-mark "home cooking with flair." Full menus are offered here. My personal favorites are the Baja Guacamole, Savory Polenta w/Asiago Cheese, Garlic-Roasted Chicken, Pork Tenderloin w/Apricot Ginger Sauce, and Cherries & Berries Compote w/Crispy Puffed Pancake. The Chocolate Caramel Shortbread Bars are worth the price of admission all by themselves! I'm not surprised this cookbook is winning national rave reviews and awards. They are very well deserved! It is so beautifully rendered, it puts most commercially-produced cookbooks to shame.

This beautiful cookbook is organized by season, with four fresh produce items featured for each season. This allows even the most novice cook to find simple recipes using the freshest of ingredients. This book is a great place to start to add seasonal produce to your menues.

The recipes are not limited to those contributed by Junior League members, but also include recipes from notable California restaurants.

A bonus: this book is so attractive that it could practically be a coffee table book. The photographs and information about Northern California are exceptional.

This book does an excellent job of showing how despite the economic growth that has been spurred worldwide thanks to deregulation, liberalization of trade and finance, and improvements in information technology, adherence to market fundamentalism has contributed to creating stark disparities in the distribution of wealth between developed and developing nations, as well as within those nations themselves.

Nevertheless, globalization, for whatever faults it possesses, has made the people of the nations of the world feel more connected than ever (In fact, I'm writing this from Japan, where I have lived for seven years). this book sensibly points out that In order to come up with a food policy that will minimize hunger worldwide, naturally poverty must also be reined in. It seems to me that in order to significantly reduce poverty, all nations must make a fundamental shift in their foreign policy away from acting for the benefit of national interests and toward the benefits of the human race as a whole. I cannot say whether mankind is ready for such a change at this juncture.

However, The book concludes that the freedom to eke out a living (the problem of the poor) supersedes the right to accumulate unlimited wealth (the hoarding of wealth by a small number of people). While this is most certainly true, it also seemed to oversimplify the problem of disparity of income based on the very facts presented in the book. While the book did denounce communist regimes at one point in the book, I felt that the conclusion of the book unneccessarily demonized wealthy individuals and major companies and called the proletariat of the world to unite.

For this weakness in its conclusion, I can only give this work four stars, but still I do strongly recommend giving a careful read to this text for the invaluable information it provides on this terrible problem.

World Hunger: Twelve Myths clearly identifies the root causes of hunger as stemming from inequity and lack of true democracy, dispelling entirely the common belief that inadaquate food production is to blame. In their plain spoken and positive eloquence, the authors overwhelmingly succeed in conveying otherwise dauntingly complex global social and economic dynamics that contribute to world hunger and how each must be changed to honestly address the plight of the poor.

World Hunger: 12 Myths should have a permanent home in school curricula, libraries, and in the hands of people of all ages wishing to better understand and improve the world in which they live.

Over the years, many myths have emerged about the subject of world hunger. People think that if this or that should happen, hunger will disappear, and no longer will westerners have to look at pictures of starving babies in Africa. This book explodes many of those myths.

Some people think that population (or overpopulation) is the problem. Others think that there simply isn't enough food available, or that nature, with her floods and droughts, is the culprit. Still others think that the solution lies with free trade, or letting the market provide, or with the Green Revolution, with its heavy emphasis on pesticides and other chemicals. Other possibilities are that the poor are simply too hungry to revolt, or that the US should increase its stingy foreign aid budget.

The authors place the blame elsewhere. All over the world, there has been a huge concentration of land in fewer and fewer hands, forcing poor and middle-class peasants off the land (in the US, witness the decline of the family farmer). Structural adjustment programs from places like the World Bank and International Monetary Fund (part of the requirements when asking for a loan) require a country to reorient its agriculture toward items that are easily exportable rather than items that can feed their people. Another requirement is the removal of internal tariffs and other barriers to the import of grain and other foodstuffs. It results in a flood of cheaper (usually American) agricultural products reaching the market, driving local farmers out of business. The countries that one thinks of when hearing "famine" actually produce enough food to feed their people. The only problem is that much of it has to go overseas to help pay the foreign debt.

This book is excellent. It presents a potentially complex subject in a clear, easy to understand manner. It contains a list of addresses to contact for more information, and is a great activism reference.

I gravitated towards this book initially because of the many good things I had heard about it. This book sucked me in immediately and it's thick size did not matter, until the end when I wished it would continue.
Richard Dry captures the "black experience" in America better than anyone ever has in the past. It is not a "preachy", "blame the white man" novel, but a FACTUAL, ACTUAL account of the travesties and inhumane conditions blacks have and continue to endure in the "land of the free".
At times I was angered and saddened over particular events that I had never heard of. But as an AA woman I gathered the strength inherited from my people to face the truth.
Something has sparked in me after completing this book, a renewed spirit maybe? An awakening?
"Leaving" should become required reading for all students in high school. It is too important to ignore.
EXCELLENT WORK MR. RICHARD DRY! Anyone who reads this book owes it to the public to spread the word. PICK THIS ONE UP! It is a classic!

This book changed my life. Dry captures a stark reality many of us comfortably avoid. Thoughtful, compelling and wrenchingly honest, this book has become my preferred gift for my most literate and socially responsible friends - as well as those who just like a good story.

This book was excellent. The characters were real, the plot amazing and overall everything was one of the best books that I read this year!

Wonderful book! The characters come to life in this touching story about a family's life, struggles, their ups and downs. Excellent reading!

This multi-generational novel about an African-American family in Oakland begins in 1959, when Ruby and Easton Washington leave South Carolina for California, and follows them and their family through the trials of the second half of the 20th century, including the civil rights movement, drug addiction, sexual abuse, misguided social workers, and various forms of racism,

I enjoyed the character development of the story, and how the people are not all as they seem, and don't all believe in "the game" but have to do it anyway. However, the plot is a little weak and the verbage that the characters use grows old after a while, even though it's true to life.

I find it hard to believe that people, kids, live like they are portrayed in this book. I appreciated the descriptive nature of the book and it gave me a phenomenal view into a troubled lifestyle but in a humanizing and sad way. It's a good book, just a little slow in the beginning and, in parts, not very well written.

First off, I want to say that this is an excellent book. The beginning of the book was very slow, but once you merged into the nover further, the better the book got, and the harder the book was to put down. Its a basic black coming of age novel about a 13 yr old who leaves Mississppi and travels because of circumstances to Oakland, California. Ive reccommended the book to all my friends, and I suggest you do to. It uncovers alot of myths that float around about the black community that needs to be brought to light, and Mr. Mowry does just that![.] GO GET THE BOOK!...

I am writing from Dar es Salaam in Tanzania. I finished reading this book last night (May 4, 2000) and, like Corbitt, had a real dream about it! Few books have been written about the incredible courage and strength of children living in the worst of times and the baddest of places. This is one of the best! And I agree with Corbitt - we (young Africans and African-Americans) have our destinies in our own hands.

I just moved to San Francisco, and this book was extremely helpful. However, to those about to move, I urge you to skip the Movers section. I hired one of their recommended movers: One Big Man & One Big Truck. The book said they could move a 1 BR in 1 1/2 hours. HA!!! AFTER they tore up my $4,000 sofa, then tried to lie and say the hole had been there all along, it took them 3 hours to move HALF the apartment (and of course, only moved the lightest items first, even though we TOLD them we only needed help with the heavy objects), until my husband finally told them to take off. THEN the owner dared to insinuate that we were liars, his employees NEVER lie, etc., and to minimize our damage by saying "Hey, a $4,000 sofa is no big deal to me, I deal with them every day." We're still trying to resolve this mess a month later, and every time I look at the sofa, my blood boils. BEWARE.

This book is something everyone moving to San Francisco should have. It covers everything from descriptions of the neighborhoods to what to include in an earthquake kit. Internet addresses and phone numbers to banks, rental agencies, and just about anything else you can think of are included. I used the book a lot before I arrived and am using it just as much, if not more, after making the move. I highly recommend it.

This book has so much info. A good book to help you anticipate your move!

What a treat! Danyel Smith has created some of the most interesting and vividly-drawn characters that I can remember reading about - Paige & Pinch - and May & Oscar & others - are going to be with me for a long, long time. Her love and affection for Oakland is palpable, and the descriptions so real that you really do feel as if you're right there with Paige & Pinch & the gang.

I highly recommend this book, and will be anxiously awaiting her next!

MORE LIKE WRESTLING is a debut novel that is stirring and lyrical, and raw and real. Its pages tell a story about all the strife that goes on in the world --alcoholism, abuse, drugs, murder, familial separation-- through the eyes of two sisters whose love for each other is so fierce, they find themselves potentially unable to grow up and out of the pain and inflictions of their pasts.

Oakland, California sets the stage for this powerful novel about Paige and Pinch, who are on shaky and volatile ground as they live with their quiet mother and her increasingly abusive boyfriend. One fateful day, a confrontation between Paige, Pinch and the boyfriend results in their mother renting Paige and Pinch an apartment to live in, alone. This surprising turn of events --moving a 12- and 14-year-old into an apartment to take care of each other, becomes the point of no return for Paige and Pinch as they find themselves meeting new people and making friends whom introduce them into the world of drugs, dealing, drinking, and death.

It is these friends and this new world of unforgiving and ruthless things that begins an unraveling of sorts for Paige and Pinch and their existences. Each will struggle to find her true essence, will try to come to grips with her past and present in order to move on to her future. Will the pair be able to break their dangerously tight love in order to escape the, at times, mean streets of Oakland, to escape their dependency on each other and their painful pasts, so that they can see better days?

Through the voices of Paige and Pinch, Danyel Smith creates a harshly beautiful portrait of real people going through real trials and tribulations. Smith's mosaic, fragmented-like writing style is poetic and lyrical, hard and abrupt, and it cannot help but to lull you into not only the stories of Paige and Pinch, but also the stories of the other characters in the story, whom Smith draws out in concrete details just as poignant and revealing as the two narrators.

I read this novel in virtually one sitting, needing to race back to it every time I put it down for a second. I felt connected to Paige and Pinch, and I felt visually entertained by Smith's lush detail of Oakland and the area. I would highly recommend MORE THAN WRESTLING to readers so they can enjoy it for themselves, and I look forward to reading Smith's future works.

Shon Bacon

Pinch and Paige are two sisters growing up in Oakland, California. When their mother's boyfriend becomes physically abusive, she opts to stay in the situation, however, she rents the girls their own apartment. The girls, who at the time are ages 12 and 14, find that they have to grow up fast in order to be self-sufficient. Paige takes on the role of guardian, and the two form a bond that is unbreakable.

The girls soon meet friends who love to hang out at their apartment without adult supervision. These friendships continue to grow and flourish, and follow the girls into adulthood. Once the girls become adults, their lives change in ways that they could never have imagined. Their once close-knit clique of friends begin to find themselves drifting apart as some members become involved in the lucrative, albeit dangerous, drug game. Pinch and Paige find themselves questioning everything that they once held sacred including their bond to each other.

Danyel Smith has written a wonderful, engrossing novel. The characters are well developed and have so much history with each other. The story reads smoothly and her use of flashbacks and diary entries helps the reader gain insight into past situations, helps with understanding the characters actions, and provides insight into their psyches. Her vivid descriptions made me feel as though I was in Oakland and that I personally knew all of the characters. I definitely recommend this book and eagerly anticipate future works from this author.

Reviewed by Latoya Carter-Qawiyy