Ava's Man - Rick Bragg

Advantages: Accessible writing, touching, er... it won a Pulitzer
Disadvantages: Journalese style and slow pace may not appeal to all.

...Oh, how long have you got? Why is it so hard to squash a lovely book into a little review? And why is it so especially hard when the book itself isn't squashed, but beautifully relaxed and unhurried and nice to read? Redbirds is like that and I'll try to tell you about so that you go and read it, because you should. Rick Bragg was born in the deep South of the United States, in Alabama. His father was a violent, hard-drinking man who regularly beat his wife; once as a small child, Bragg saw his mother tip away his fathers 'likker' and watched when his father returned and she simply stood there, took off her glasses and said, "Don't hurt my teeth." His mother was a determined, strong-willed, loving woman, who spent her entire life struggling to protect her sons from their father, the effects of poverty and the ignorance that had... Read review

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Advantages: Cooking with confidence.
Disadvantages: Sure to pile on the pounds.

...Rick on his TV programme, and reading this book, it is obvious that his love of cooking is not limited to the kitchen.Here is a man who cares deeply about the whole of the food industry, from the farmer in the field, to the fishermen who trawl our native shores.He is not slow to applaud the people who work so hard to produce the fine quality food, that make his job possible.His aim with this book is to pay tribute to these people. His tributes are his recipes. The cover of the book is quite plain, but tasteful, as I would have expected from Rick Stein. His concentration is on the food, and not on the fancy decorations that some chefs seem to rely on. This is a large book, but I would expect no less,its a large subject. The book is made up of 8 catagories....eggs and cheese, salads soups and first courses, fish and shell fish... Read review

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Advantages: Some great stories
Disadvantages: Only for non-Leeds fans

...Sorry about this folks, but Ciao have opened this one up under Dennis Wise when it should have been under Rick Broadbent - ah well, c'est la viw... It's always been a terrible burden being a fan of Leeds United, and sports journalist Rick Broadbent knows that better than most. His love affair with the club began just as the Revie era closed in the mid-70s, and he tells it thus: "I first became a true Leeds fan in 1975. I can vividly recall sitting around the kitchen table in a Cornish holiday cottage with my parents and brothers, listening to the European Cup Final on a crackly transistor radio. When Leeds lost, my dad and elder brother cried. I was six and figured this football thing must really be something, to reduce a grown man and an anguished adolescent to tears. Later I would wonder how it was that we ended up... Read review

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