Nan Lyons

Read it years ago and occasionally phrases from this book appear in my consciousness.

The best part of this book is the illustrations. The author cannot decide whether to be scholarly or humorous; in the end, with shallow research undermined by lame jokes, she achieves neither.

Found this one years ago in some second hand store and bought it for fun. I truly enjoyed it even though (as someone else noted) the mystery part wasn't very suspenseful. But the characters are fun and the story zips along at a fast pace. The movie version (with George Segal) wasn't that bad an adaptation, but the book is always better. Give it a try, yo might find it tasty!

The mystery really wasn't much of one and the casual morals of the times (written in 1976) were a little startling in this post-Aids world. I enjoyed a lot of the discussions of food and there was a strong thread of humor that I liked but I have to admit to forcing myself to finish the story. Not an all time favorite, not really sorry that I read it - so a middle of the road book for me.