11. Garlic and Sapphires is the story of a restaurant critic and the disguises she uses in order to escape detection (and the preferential treatment that results). But it’s also the story of how the characters Reichl creates expose parts of herself, or people she’d like to be, or people she isn’t but ought to pay more heed to. Like Bob Harris’s Prisoner of Trebekistan, it’s the story of a fabulous change in world-view; if it’s not as funny as Harris’s book, Reichl makes up for it with tasty recipes.

It’s wonderful. Just wonderful.