Enter your mobile number or email address below and we'll send you a link to download the free Kindle App. Then you can start reading Kindle books on your smartphone, tablet, or computer - no Kindle device required.

  • Apple
  • Android
  • Windows Phone
  • Android

To get the free app, enter your email address or mobile phone number.
Download to your computer
Kindle Cloud Reader
Facebook Twitter Pinterest <Embed>
Buy New
$17.70
Qty:1
  • List Price: $22.50
  • Save: $4.80 (21%)
FREE Shipping on orders with at least $25 of books.
Only 8 left in stock (more on the way).
Ships from and sold by Amazon.com. Gift-wrap available.
Life Is Meals: A Food Lov... has been added to your Cart
Want it Monday, April 11? Order within and choose Two-Day Shipping at checkout. Details
Ship to:
Select a shipping address:
To see addresses, please
or
Please enter a valid US zip code.
or

Sorry, there was a problem.

There was an error retrieving your Wish Lists. Please try again.

Sorry, there was a problem.

List unavailable.
Have one to sell? Sell on Amazon
Flip to back Flip to front
Listen Playing... Paused   You're listening to a sample of the Audible audio edition.
Learn more
See this image

Life Is Meals: A Food Lover's Book of Days Paperback – November 2, 2010

by
James Salter (Author)
› Visit Amazon's James Salter Page
Find all the books, read about the author, and more.
See search results for this author
Are you an author? Learn about Author Central
James Salter (Author),
Kay Salter (Author)
› Visit Amazon's Kay Salter Page
Find all the books, read about the author, and more.
See search results for this author
Are you an author? Learn about Author Central
Kay Salter (Author)
4.6 out of 5 stars 31 customer reviews
See all 6 formats and editions Hide other formats and editions
Price
New from Used from
Kindle
"Please retry"
$16.92
— —
Hardcover
"Please retry"
—
$7.16 $6.84
Paperback
"Please retry"
$17.70
$12.77 $4.01
$17.70 FREE Shipping on orders with at least $25 of books. Only 8 left in stock (more on the way). Ships from and sold by Amazon.com. Gift-wrap available.

Frequently Bought Together

  • Life Is Meals: A Food Lover's Book of Days
  • +
  • A Sport and a Pastime: A Novel (FSG Classics)
  • +
  • Light Years
Total price: $36.45
Buy the selected items together

Customers Who Bought This Item Also Bought

Page 1 of 1 Start overPage 1 of 1
This shopping feature will continue to load items. In order to navigate out of this carousel please use your heading shortcut key to navigate to the next or previous heading.
Back
  1. Light Years
    James Salter
    4.2 out of 5 stars 124
    Paperback
    $10.00 Prime
  2. There and Then: The Travel Writing of James Salter
    James Salter
    4.7 out of 5 stars 11
    Paperback
    $14.73 Prime
  3. Burning the Days: Recollection
    James Salter
    4.3 out of 5 stars 70
    Paperback
    $13.16 Prime
  4. A Sport and a Pastime: A Novel (FSG Classics)
    James Salter
    3.9 out of 5 stars 203
    Paperback
    $8.75 Prime
  5. The Hunters: A Novel
    James Salter
    4.3 out of 5 stars 148
    Paperback
    $10.00 Prime
  6. All That Is: A Novel (Vintage International)
    James Salter
    3.4 out of 5 stars 311
    Paperback
    $12.68 Prime
Next
NO_CONTENT_IN_FEATURE
Image
Looking for the Audiobook Edition?
Tell us that you'd like this title to be produced as an audiobook, and we'll alert our colleagues at Audible.com. If you are the author or rights holder, let Audible help you produce the audiobook: Learn more at ACX.com.

Product Details

  • Paperback: 464 pages
  • Publisher: Knopf; Reprint edition (November 2, 2010)
  • Language: English
  • ISBN-10: 0375711392
  • ISBN-13: 978-0375711398
  • Product Dimensions: 5.5 x 1.3 x 8.5 inches
  • Shipping Weight: 1.6 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
  • Average Customer Review: 4.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (31 customer reviews)
  • Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #152,500 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

    •  Would you like to update product info or give feedback on images?

Customers Viewing This Page May Be Interested In These Sponsored Links

  (What's this?)

Customer Reviews

Top Customer Reviews

5.0 out of 5 starsA book that makes you hungry --- for more
By Jesse Kornbluth on October 23, 2006
Format: Hardcover
"The meal is the essential act of life. It is the habitual ceremony, the long record of marriage, the school for behavior, the prelude to love."

If you have ever read James Salter, you will have no trouble recognizing that prose. Every word is carefully chosen, measured, considered, sifted, chosen again. The superfluous disappears; the eternal endures. To read Salter is to catch a master in the act.

James and Kay Salter have been together for three decades. He writes, she writes. But reading "Life Is Meals," you get the sense that the art of cooking and eating well is at least as potent for them as any esthetic connection. At their homes in Aspen and the Hamptons and on their travels across Europe, they have the knack of making each meal count --- not just the food, but the company, the ambience and the conversation.

This book is a record of their lifelong interest in food. When they name-drop, it's more often the name of a long-dead French chef than a celebrated friend. But they're not snobs. When they share a recipe, it's usually for a dish that's already an old friend of yours: Gratin dauphinoise. Risotto. French chicken. Chili. Cucumber soup. Their personal cookbook is handwritten. Their book of days is casual: a personal anecdote here, a recipe there, a memory following.

Read with pen in hand, for the Salters are the king and queen of tips. They offer a modest list of the cookbooks they use. (I was delighted to see that one is Bistro Cooking.) They note the importance of the egg cup to the soft-boiled egg. They tell you when to use salt (after browning meat; on pineapple and grapefruit), what to drink when (white wine at lunch, red at dinner), and what to serve with green salad (chilled sparkling Vichy water).Read more ›
Comment 45 people found this helpful. Was this review helpful to you? Yes No Sending feedback...
Thank you for your feedback.
Sorry, we failed to record your vote. Please try again
Report abuse
5.0 out of 5 starsThe perfect dinner party gift
By chardday on October 27, 2006
Format: Hardcover
As a life long fan of James Salter, I ordered this book, not knowing what to expect. Written with his wife, Kay Salter, it's a history of their dinner parties and full of facts about food. The book includes recipes, illustrations and etiquette tips. I'm having a hard time describing everything this book contains. All I can say is it's utterly charming. And the writing is what Salter's fans have come to expect: spare, poetic, sophisticated. As literature, it's hard to put down once you pick it up. I'm going to start bringing this to dinner parties as a gift, instead of my usual bottle of wine. (I wonder what the Salters would have to say about that!)
Comment 14 people found this helpful. Was this review helpful to you? Yes No Sending feedback...
Thank you for your feedback.
Sorry, we failed to record your vote. Please try again
Report abuse
5.0 out of 5 starsAn inspiration
By Reader on October 26, 2006
Format: Hardcover Verified Purchase
This book is a treasure. Life is Meals is charming, beautifully written and loaded with cool facts. (Since reading it, several times a day I find myself saying, "Did you know...") James and Kay Salter have written about great meals, history, literature and friendship. I keep my copy on my desk not just because I know any page I open to will delight, or I love its illustrations and how it feels in my hand, but also because it reminds me there's an alternative to experiencing life via computer screen. Like good food, Life is Meals is something you will want to share.
Comment 8 people found this helpful. Was this review helpful to you? Yes No Sending feedback...
Thank you for your feedback.
Sorry, we failed to record your vote. Please try again
Report abuse
5.0 out of 5 starsLight and entertaining book
By Ionut Trestian on January 31, 2016
Format: Paperback Verified Purchase
I know James Salter for his other books that center around strong male and female characters (The Hunters, All that is, etc). He once wrote in a piece for Esquire magazine called "Younger Women, Older Men" that: "man’s dream and ambition is to have women, as a cat’s is to catch birds, but this is something that must be restrained". A lot of his previous work can be captured with that phrase. This book is completely different and that is one of the reasons I found it interesting. It is authored by James and his wife Kay and it is a collection of recipes, anecdotes, funny moments that took place at the parties they hosted, and historical pieces centered around meals and food.

James and Kay met when he was in his 50s and she was in her 30s and that event is captured in this book "The man across the table from me was everything. I was young and still too inexperienced to be a decent conversationalist. We talked about Europe which he knew intimately - Rome, Paris, London, Barcelona - a world I had seen bits of on a student tour and I longed to know. It was the first of thousands - at home, abroad, in elegant restaurants and unforgettable dives. A lifetime of meals. He's always said that conversation - and so much of it takes place at the table - is the essence of a shared life. I learned to talk".

James and Kay lived at a time when women were often enough typecast into certain types of jobs. At the same time it was a period that shaped american cooking and american understanding of certain foods and drinks. So it's no wonder that some of the most important pioneers of that period such as Julia Child, Irma Rombauer, MFK Fisher were women and made their way into this book. Overall, the book is a light and interesting read and I will keep it as a reference for certain recipes.
Comment One person found this helpful. Was this review helpful to you? Yes No Sending feedback...
Thank you for your feedback.
Sorry, we failed to record your vote. Please try again
Report abuse
5.0 out of 5 starsThis will be the favorite book you buy all year. I promise.
By Jack Kruse on September 27, 2015
Format: Paperback Verified Purchase
Buy it because:
It will sit on your kitchen table or breakfast nook all year as you awake each day looking forward to reading it with a morning espresso. . With a short epicurean entry for every day you will quickly fall in love with the authors' (a husband and wife team) elegant and witty prose. Some days it will be a recipe, other days you might get the read the history of vermouth.

By the way, you should also go ahead right now and order every book that Salter has ever written--he died last year and is definitely a 'writer's writer.
Comment Was this review helpful to you? Yes No Sending feedback...
Thank you for your feedback.
Sorry, we failed to record your vote. Please try again
Report abuse

Most Recent Customer Reviews

5.0 out of 5 starsI love this book

I love this book! As someone who enjoys good food and company, and loves to entertain I feel like this book is a gem.

Published 2 months ago by Documama
5.0 out of 5 starsGood service.

James Salter -the writers's author -sadly now a blessed memory- wrote this curious book with his wife, calendaring the days with moveable and memorable feasts. Read more

Published 4 months ago by Albert V. lesley
5.0 out of 5 starsFive Stars

A lovely book.

Published 8 months ago by Greg Redlin
5.0 out of 5 starsthis is a great book, by a phenomenal writer

this is a great book, by a phenomenal writer, who, alas, just died. It is wonderful if you have been to Normandie and equally enjoyable
if you have not. Read more

Published 8 months ago by Ruth K. Ziony
5.0 out of 5 starsAll that matters

These are delightful anecdotes about food, friends, and living that prompt one to think again and again about all that's lovely and worthwhile. I reread it every few years.

Published 9 months ago by D. Marie
5.0 out of 5 starsAn essential read.

If you have the slightest interest in food, this book must be in your collection. Well written and loaded with gems.

Published on February 14, 2014 by Russell Wayne
5.0 out of 5 starsStories - both personal and historical

This is a great book to read when you don't have time to 'jump in' and read for hours. Written as a book of days you can go to the season that you want to read about - or dates... Read more

Published on November 19, 2013 by W. Werner
3.0 out of 5 starsCraig Claiborne puts one over on the author

October 17: Craig Claiborne is invited to lunch. The meal is a triumph.

"Then, among a literary group who ought to know every word in the dictionary, [Claiborne]... Read more

Published on August 24, 2013 by Roger Lippman
5.0 out of 5 starsExcellent

By a writers' writer, I've purchased two copies over the years. As a chef living in Aspen, Colorado, I should know!

Published on July 27, 2013 by Francis L
3.0 out of 5 starsBook fails to connect dates with story line. Too Bad!

The book is charming but the story line does not as a whole connect to the days of the year with some nice exceptions . Read more

Published on June 24, 2013 by Thomas A. Kernan

Set up an Amazon Giveaway

Life Is Meals: A Food Lover's Book of Days
Amazon Giveaway allows you to run promotional giveaways in order to create buzz, reward your audience, and attract new followers and customers. Learn more
This item: Life Is Meals: A Food Lover's Book of Days
Set up a giveaway

There's a problem loading this menu right now.

Learn more about Amazon Prime.



Pages with Related Products. See and discover other items: noilly prat vermouth