List Price: $19.95 Details

Save: $9.98 (50%)

FREE delivery: Nov 18 - 24

Fastest delivery: Wednesday, Nov 17

Select delivery location

Only 1 left in stock - order soon.

$$9.97 () Includes selected options. Includes initial monthly payment and selected options. Details

Secure transaction

Ships from

Ricky’s Bargain Barn

Sold by

Ricky’s Bargain Barn

Details

Ships from

Ricky’s Bargain Barn

Sold by

Ricky’s Bargain Barn

Return policy: Returnable until Jan 31, 2022

Get Fast, Free Shipping with Amazon Prime

FREE delivery: Wednesday, Nov 17 on orders over $25.00 shipped by Amazon. Details

Fastest delivery: Sunday, Nov 14
Order within 8 hrs and 44 mins Details

Select delivery location

Used: Good | Details

Sold by The BAP Goods

Fulfilled by Amazon

Add to List

Added to

Unable to add item to List. Please try again.

Other Sellers on Amazon

$14.98
FREE Shipping on orders over $25.00 shipped by Amazon.

Sold by: RobsBookStores

$10.79
+ $4.74 shipping

Sold by: Smartbuysclearancebooks

$15.69
FREE Shipping on orders over $25.00 shipped by Amazon.

Sold by: Leland Books

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

Follow the Author

Ruth Reichl

Not Becoming My Mother: and Other Things She Taught Me Along the Way Hardcover – April 21, 2009

by Ruth Reichl (Author)

75 ratings

See all formats and editions

Price

New from

Used from

Audible Audiobook, Unabridged

"Please retry"

$0.00

Free with your Audible trial

Hardcover

"Please retry"

$9.97

$9.75

$1.35

Audio CD, Audiobook, Unabridged

"Please retry"

$10.08

$5.99

$4.25

Enhance your purchase

Reflects on the author's mother, focusing on her early life as a bookstore owner and housewife and the diaries she kept which had been retrieved by her daughter after her death.

Print length

128 pages
Language

English
Publisher

Penguin Press
Publication date

April 21, 2009
Dimensions

5 x 0.5 x 7.25 inches
ISBN-10

1594202168
ISBN-13

978-1594202162
See all details

Frequently bought together

Products related to this item

Sponsored
Hide feedback

Page 1 of 1Start overPage 1 of 1

Customers who viewed this item also viewed

Page 1 of 1 Start overPage 1 of 1

Special offers and product promotions

Create your FREE Amazon Business account to save up to 10% with Business-only prices and free shipping.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Starred Review. The slender size of Reichl's memoir of her late mother's life belies its powerful tale of a young woman, Miriam Brudno, who bowed to societal and familial pressure to become a wife and a mother over pursuing a fulfilling career. While Reichl, editor-in-chief of Gourmet magazine, is well known for writing about her culinary adventures (Tender at the Bone; Garlic and Sapphires), this beautifully crafted homage follows a more personal path as she pushes past Mim Tales—stories she told about her mother to entertain her readers and friends—to dive deep into her mother's diaries and letters, paying tribute to a woman who was raised when good women didn't work if they didn't have to. So Miriam Brudno struggled to fit the mold of the perfect housewife, until she finally told a friend, Who cares about menus... when there are so many more interesting things to think about? When Reichl discovers an unopened letter to herself, she reads that her mother was cheering me on and pointing out that I had an obligation, both to myself and to her, to use my life well. Reichl has created a masterful portrait of a mother-daughter relationship that will resonate with readers across generations. (Apr.)
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

From Booklist

Irreverently immortalized as the klutzy cook who renounced edibility in favor of creativity, Reichl’s mother, and her quirky kitchen habits,provided frivolous fodder for Reichl’s previous culinary memoirs. But in this keenly felt retrospective, Reichl reveals another side of her mother, whose life seemed a shining example of what not to do. Where once Miriam harbored visions of being a doctor and applied her formidable intellect in the business world, she ultimately subjugated her own ambition and desires in favor of those of her family, thus providing her daughter with a seemingly negative role model. Sadly typical of her time and generation, Miriam surrendered personal dreams to suit society’s restrictive ideals of feminine conduct, and paid a steep psychic price. Only upon discovering a hidden trove of diaries and letters after Miriam’s death was Reichl able to understand the full extent of her mother’s sacrifices. Candid and insightful, Reichl’s intensely personal and fiercely loving tribute acknowledges her mother as both the source and inspiration behind her success. --Carol Haggas

Publisher ‏ : ‎ Penguin Press; 1st edition (April 21, 2009)
Language ‏ : ‎ English
Hardcover ‏ : ‎ 128 pages
ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 1594202168
ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-1594202162
Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 8 ounces
Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 5 x 0.5 x 7.25 inches

Best Sellers Rank: #1,440,124 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #2,835 in Culinary Biographies & Memoirs
- #17,556 in Women's Biographies
- #50,020 in Memoirs (Books)

Customer Reviews:
75 ratings

Brief content visible, double tap to read full content.

Full content visible, double tap to read brief content.

Help others learn more about this product by uploading a video!

Upload video

About the author

Follow authors to get new release updates, plus improved recommendations.

Ruth Reichl

Brief content visible, double tap to read full content.

Full content visible, double tap to read brief content.

Ruth Reichl, Gourmet's editor in chief, is the author of the best-selling memoirs Tender at the Bone, Comfort Me with Apples, and Garlic and Sapphires, and the forthcoming Not Becoming My Mother and Other Things She Taught Me Along the Way. She is executive producer of the two-time James Beard Award-winning Gourmet's Diary of a Foodie, which airs on public television across the country, and the editor of the Modern Library Food Series. Before coming to Gourmet, she was the restaurant critic for the New York Times, receiving two James Beard Awards for her work. She lectures frequently on food and culture.

Products related to this item

Sponsored
Hide feedback

Page 1 of 1Start overPage 1 of 1

Customer reviews

5 star		66%
4 star		15%
3 star		5%
2 star		8%
1 star		5%

How are ratings calculated?

Top reviews from the United States

There was a problem filtering reviews right now. Please try again later.

Yoomi

would have been better as an essay

Reviewed in the United States on June 3, 2009

Verified Purchase

I love Ruth Reichl and I devoured her other three books. Her writing about food and life was intriguing and memorable. So I was looking forward to this book. Like other reviewers, I also hadn't looked at the size or length when I ordered it so I was a bit surprised that it was such a slim volume. But sometimes great things come in small packages so I may have gone in with expectations that led to disappointment. This read more as an apology to her mother than anything else. It didn't have the same spark and personality that made her other books so enjoyable. Ms. Reichl obviously felt guilty (and she says so) about all the anecdotes she had told of her mother and upon finding her letters and scraps of a journal, she felt she needed to backtrack and explain why her mother was the way she was. I understand it and I think it's a loving, compassionate tribute to her mother. But I can't help but feel like I shelled out a lot of money for a small book that I would have enjoyed much more if it had been an essay.

9 people found this helpful

Helpful

Kristine Hale

Lacking soul

Reviewed in the United States on May 20, 2009

Verified Purchase

This book had so much potential: interesting subjects in both the lives of that generation of women and Ms. Reichl's mother, a charming character. Ms. Reichl's writing is typically warm, vivid and engaging, but this "book" was none of those things, nor did it bring to life either of the subjects. I've found more enjoyment reading her letters at the beginning Gourmet magazine than I found here.

Weighing in at hardly over 100 large font-typed, wide margin pages, this book hardly warrants its own publication, it would have been fine as a chapter in any one of Ms. Reichl's other books. In fact, short as this book is, it repeats some of the stories from other books, compounding the disappointment. All could be forgiven, or at least overlooked, if the writing was as incredible as some of Ms. Reichls past efforts. Sadly, it is not. The characters are flat, the writing feels strained and the story reads like a diary entry from a particularly rainy day.

If you are big Ruth Reichl fan, as I am, and you are determined to read this, get it from the library. Otherwise, I would simply suggest that you go back and re-read Tender at the Bone and let the character of Ms. Reichl's mother reach out you in her charming way from there.

8 people found this helpful

Helpful

Beth A. Wegbreit

Excellent essay

Reviewed in the United States on May 19, 2009

Verified Purchase

I really did enjoy the book and for the first time(I read her three other books), I liked the author as a person. The book is beautfully written and shows empathy for her mother and an understanding of the person that her mother was. My only disappointment was the length of the book. I had purchased the Kindle edition. Perhaps if I had actually seen it in the bookstore I would have realized that it is more a tribute essay than a book.

4 people found this helpful

Helpful

rude dog

too much repetition from other books

Reviewed in the United States on October 8, 2011

Verified Purchase

I eagerly awaited getting into this book after reading "Tender at the Bone" by the same author. Loved "Tender...", but found this was primarily a rehash of stories from that book, and upon reading another book by same author, "For You, Mom, Finally", discovered it is EXACTLY the same book, differing only by having an afterword chapter that is essentially nothing new. I was really disappointed in both of the last two books, having read that they were dealing with a bi-polar mother and coming to terms with it. Not! Do read "Tender at the Bone" if you have not yet. Skip" Not Becoming My Mother" and "For You, Mom, Finally."

5 people found this helpful

Helpful

William A. Weinberg

Love this book

Reviewed in the United States on July 3, 2015

Verified Purchase

Love this book! But I as disappointed that TGE ither one I ordered, the same day, is actually the same book, just a new title. But I do not blame you, I will use one as s gift!

2 people found this helpful

Helpful

JP Cooks in Seattle

Thoughtful, sweet book

Reviewed in the United States on May 7, 2009

Verified Purchase

Like quite a few of the other reviewers, I was surprised to see how slim this book was once I received it. However, it was such a sweet, thoughtful story, I didn't feel in the bit gypped or duped. It was a true love letter to a mother and I loved the emotions Reichel shared with us as she realized she didn't really know her mother and it was now too late to talk to her. I think it is best to enjoy this on its own merit and let go of expectations. Grab your hankie.

4 people found this helpful

Helpful

S. Belson

Ruth Reichl is my hero

Reviewed in the United States on March 29, 2013

Verified Purchase

Get all her books as fast as you can. But don't forget to get this one. Tells every secret to her amazing life. You will love it. You'll also want a daughter asap.

2 people found this helpful

Helpful

yellowcatsjazz

Not Becoming My Mother and other things my mother taught me

Reviewed in the United States on December 2, 2009

Verified Purchase

A very poignant book. I think every daughter should read this, no matter what the age. It tells you a lot about many of our own mothers. Ruth Reichl has a style of writing that keeps you in the story. I couln't put it down. Read it in one sitting and bought two more for Christmas presents. A reading must.

6 people found this helpful

Helpful

Top reviews from other countries

Odelew

A food writer not writing about food

Reviewed in Australia on September 21, 2020

Verified Purchase

Insightful and beautifully written, just wish it had been longer !

Marming

Great author.

Reviewed in Canada on December 6, 2014

Verified Purchase

I enjoyed all of Ruth Reichl's books.

K. M. Newitt

be warned

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on January 22, 2011

Verified Purchase

I have not read this book yet, but have given it 5 stars because I am sure I will love it - I am a fan of Ruth Reichl's writing and have loved all others I have read. But I wanted to warn other keen fans, if you wish to collect all of her writing, be warned that this title is the same book as 'For you Mom, Finally' - it was changed for paperback version. I ordered both thinking I had another two books to look forward to and wish it had been made clear that it was the same book

4 people found this helpful

See all reviews