Trouble Is My Business

Book Description

In the four long stories in this collection, Marlowe is hired to protect a rich old guy from a gold digger, runs afoul of crooked politicos, gets a line on some stolen jewels with a reward attached, and stumbles across a murder victim who may have been an extortionist.

From the eBook edition.

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"Raymond Chandler is a master."
   THE NEW YORK TIMES

"[Chandler] wrote as if pain hurt and life mattered."
   THE NEW YORKER

"Chandler seems to have created the culminating American hero: wised up, hopeful, thoughtful, adventurous, sentimental, cynical and rebellious."
   ROBERT B. PARKER, THE NEW YORK TIMES BOOK REVIEW

"Philip Marlowe remains the quintessential urban private eye."
   LOS ANGELES TIMES

"Nobody can write like Chandler on his home turf, not even Faulkner.... An original.... A great artist."
   THE BOSTON BOOK REVIEW

"Raymond Chandler was one of the finest prose writers of the twentieth century.... Age does not wither Chandler's prose.... He wrote like an angel."
   LITERARY REVIEW

"[T]he prose rises to heights of unselfconscious eloquence, and we realize with a jolt of excitement that we are in the presence of not a mere action tale teller, but a stylist, a writer with a vision."
   JOYCE CAROL OATES, THE NEW YORK REVIEW OF BOOKS

"Chandler wrote like a slumming angel and invested the sun-blinded streets of Los Angeles with a romantic presence."
   ROSS MACDONALD

"Raymond Chandler invented a new way of talking about America, and America has never looked the same to us since."
   PAUL AUSTER

"[Chandler]'s the perfect novelist for our times. He takes us into a different world, a world that's like ours, but isn't. "
   CAROLYN SEE

"A serious rereading of the Marlowe novels and stories yields more surprises than a rereading of Hemingway."
   RICHARD RUSSO, AUTHOR OF EMPIRE FALLS

Customer Reviews:

A MARLOWE SAMPLER.......2007-06-24

I have reviewed Raymond Chandler's seven full Phillip Marlowe epics elsewhere in this space. For those who doubt that a mere plebian detective in a once seedy genre can hold your attention and win your admiration as very, very good literature then try these four short pieces to work up the 'big' boys. You will not be disappointed. Moreover, you will get a fair peek at what makes Marlowe tick-his sense of honor, his doggedness in the face of adversity and his tilting after windmills when he gets his teeth in a case. And it does not hurt if there is a good-looking 'dame' in the bargain.

If none of the above convinces you then get this book for the preface by the master Chandler himself about his take, circa 1950, on the meaning of the detective genre as literature. As we know his special pleading then is now the wisdom of the academy.

ON BECOMING PHILLIP MARLOWE

Apparently there are many, many editions of this work. Above I have reviewed the one that has Chandler's introduction. Since then I have found a copy under the same title that has 12 stories in it many of which are different from the above. If you can find it- Vintage Paperback-1988- you will be justly rewarded because what you will get are snatches of stories with various charcters, locales, named detectives and different ending that will later go on to become The Big Sleep, Farewell, My Lovely and Lady in the Lake. Get it if you can, if for no other reason than to see how the master noir detective writer moved the work forward. Amazing.

"When in doubt have a man come through the door with a gun in his hand.".......2006-06-18

The title of this review is from the introduction to "Trouble Is My Business." But Raymond Chandler never had doubts about his writing. He once said, "Don't ever write anything you don't like yourself and if you do like it, don't take anyone's advice about changing it. They just don't know." Thankfully he took his own advice and this book of short stories by the master of us all will illustrate just how good the so-called pulp writing was back then, back in what was truly the golden age of crime fiction.

Deja Vu For Chandler Fans, Excellent for All.......2005-11-28

Chandler fans reading this book for the first time will have many "deja vu" moments. The book contains four of the twenty short stories written by Chandler in the 1930s that were warm ups for the seven novels that followed. Chandler wrote detective mystery stories, and became famous for seven novels and a number of Hollywood screen plays, mostly about crime and private detectives in the "film noir" genre of Hollywood black and white films, or what is called LA "pulp fiction". Far from being an ordinary writer of cheap crime stories, Chandler became one of America's best writers from the mid 20th century.

Chandler was a Los Angeles accountant turned writer and he developed his own careful writing style. He started by first analysing other works, such as articles in the Black Mask mystery magazine. He used those stories plus local newspaper crime articles for plot ideas. He would set some of his stories in the fictional ocean side town of Bay City which is really Santa Monica, or set his stories in west Los Angeles, or other parts of southern California. He lived in Santa Monica after being fired from his oil executive job for drinking in the 1930s. He detested the place and moved into LA proper when he became wealthy as a screenplay writer in the early 1940s while working at Paramount. In the late 1940s he moved to La Jolla, just north of San Diego. Chandler started with short fiction pieces in the 1930s and then graduated to novels in 1938-39. From the early novels he was hired to write screen plays and eventually he wrote or created 59 works including stories, screenplays, and novels. His novels with the private Detective Phillip Marlowe brought him fame including the Bogart-Bacall movie The Big Sleep.

This book contains four short stories each about 50 to 60 pages long from the 1930s. These are a warm ups to his seven novels and screenplays that followed. There are plot elements and prose that are almost a duplicate of some of the later novels. For example, the second story Finger Man has scenes and references that are almost directly inserted into The Big Sleep (1939) and Farwewell, My Lovely (1940). For Chandler lovers like myself, it is like eating chocolates to go back and be able to read these early works. Also Chandler has a four page introduction where he makes a number of comments on his writing style and philosophy at the front of the book. Trouble is my Business is the first of the four short stories.

His career did not take off until after he had written three or four novels and started to do screenplays in the mid-1940s. He was lucky in that he was able to write the screenplays and make a lot of money. He became famous for the screenplays, but simultaneously, he rose to further fame by the growth in popularity of paperback books in the 1940s. As a result, millions of his Philip Marlowe detective novels were sold and after just a few years he had moved from a run down flat in Santa Monica to a large house with an ocean view beside the Kellog family in La Jolla. He is now recognised as one of America's best writers from the 1930s through 1940s era. If you get a chance, have a look at the movie Double Indemnity, where Chandler co-wrote the screenplay with Billy Wilder at Paramount - his first attempt at this type of writing - and he and Wilder were nominated for an Oscar but they did not win. I think that is an excellent film, and it is generally regarded as one of the best films of the period.

His technique was to pull old stories apart, then change them, then re-write them as short stories, and then take that work and extend it, modify it again a second or third time or even more, and finally put together complete novels. He would take six months to write a short story - as found in the present collection, while some other mystery writers wrote a complete novel in a week - by dictation. He was not big on plots, but more of a craftsman on the individual scenes and the prose, especially descriptions of the people. He said that it took him two years to write a short description of a person getting up from a table and walking out of a room. So there is a high level of refinement and a certain style that he was able to develop as a result of this writing process. This technique is not new. Shakespeare himself used this technique in virtually every play, taking old myths, stories, and historical accounts such as King Lear. He would break them apart, change them, and make new works with new twists, turns, and addnew characters; his last play The Tempest is his thought to be his only completely original play. Chandler used to joke that if Shakespeare was alive, he would be a Hollywood writer. Chandler is a little more obvious in that some of the prose in the seven novels are almost lifted from the early works - in part because Chandler wrote only one half page increments at a time, and kept those half page writings on file to use as source materials for later works. His aim was to make each segment as complate as possible, but some of his early short stories are similar to and have almost identical names to the full novels.

In any case, this is a book that is not to be missed by Chandler fans and it is simply excellent for anyone else.

Reading the Lost Stories.......2004-08-02

Trouble Is My Business, by Raymond Chandler

These four short stories were taken from the original book "The Simple Art of Murder". They are about his fictional private detective Phillip Marlowe who is from Los Angeles. The "Continental Op" was a hard-boiled gritty detective. Phillip Marlowe speaks in a witty manner that show the erudition of his author, and may explain his appeal in literary circle. Marlow drinks like a fish (to match the author?). The slang used has a short shelf life. You can decide if this is more realistic.

"Trouble Is My Business" tells of a job where Marlowe has to break up the romance between a wealthy heir and a showgirl. This ends in a tragedy for the powerful millionaire that hired Marlowe. (Why couldn't Marlowe notice the tail when he went to visit the Questioned Document Examiner?) Does this story echo some Shakespearean tragedy?
"Finger Man" tells how a crooked politician tries to get even with Marlowe for his testimony. A man hires Marlowe to act as his bodyguard when he visits a gambling house. The man is found dead, his winnings wind up in Marlowe's safe. This typical detective story ends with the guilty dead or in jail; except for the red-head.
"Goldfish" tells how Marlowe is hired to recover stolen property. The company that insured the pearls offers a reward. The man with the lead is found dead. More difficulties follow. Another pair try to find the pearls. Marlowe finds the paroled thief. (If someone lives in an area, do they need a map to find a house?) The evil pair are neutralized, and Marlowe finds the hidden pearls.
"Red Wind" begins with Marlowe drinking a beer at a bar, watching another man drink rye. A stranger walks in for a drink. The rye drinker suddenly shoots him, and walks out the door. Now the mystery begins: strangers pop up, then disappear. Coincidences that are part of the story appear. The ending has an "O. Henry" touch. Illusions fall, and reveal a sad reality. [This is the most dramatic story in this book.]

Count Jason Ennis: attention.......2002-07-04

Count Jason Ennis: You can find the rest of the stories from "Trouble is My Business" in the Chandler title "The Simple Art of Murder." That's another great collection of the master's work. Now that's a collection worthy of a bishop kicking a hole through a stained-glass window!" -- Dashiell Millar

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Trouble

Trouble Is My Business
Raymond Chandler
Manufacturer: Phoenix Books
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Audio CD

Hard-Boiled | Mystery | Mystery & Thrillers | Subjects | Books

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ASIN: 1597770612

Customer Reviews:

Trouble.......2006-07-26

Very good. I wish it had been longer. Kind of expensive for so few CD's.

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TROUBLE IS MY BUSINESS.

Manufacturer: P/B
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

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Love Trouble Is My Business
Veronica Geng
Manufacturer: HarperCollins
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

Business | Humor | Entertainment | Subjects | Books

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ASIN: 0060159693

Marlowe, Vol. 2: Los problemas son mi negocio (Marlowe, Vol. 2: Trouble is My Business, Spanish Edition)

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Marlowe, Vol. 2: Los problemas son mi negocio (Marlowe, Vol. 2: Trouble is My Business, Spanish Edition)
David Lloyd
Manufacturer: Public Square Books
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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Book Description

This graphic novel series is based on Raymond Chandler's legendary hard-boiled detective, Philip Marlowe. Marlowe is about to tackle two dangerous assignments. Marlowe's clients: an ancient gorilla who sees his life threatened when he decides to leave the criminal world behind forever, and a millionaire, whose son has been taken prisoner by the gambling mafia.

My Troubles Are Going to Have Trouble With Me: Everyday Trials and Triumphs of Women Workers (The Douglass Series on Women's Lives and the Meaning of Gender)

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My Troubles Are Going to Have Trouble With Me: Everyday Trials and Triumphs of Women Workers (The Douglass Series on Women's Lives and the Meaning of Gender)

Manufacturer: Rutgers Univ Pr
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

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ASIN: 0813510384

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TROUBLE IS MY BUSINESS

Manufacturer: POCKET BOOK
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

Product Description

A compilation of 4 stories featuring super sleuth Philip Marlowe, taken from the work THE SIMPLE ART OF MURDER, published September, 1950 by Houghton Mifflin.

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TROUBLE IS MY BUSINESS
RAYMOND CHANDLER
Manufacturer: PENGUIN
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
ASIN: B000SDXX3A

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Reading the Lost Stories

Trouble Is My Business

Manufacturer: Ballentine Books
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
ASIN: 0345255135

Customer Reviews:

Reading the Lost Stories.......2004-08-02

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Trouble is My Business
Raymond Chandler
Manufacturer: Pocket Books
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Mass Market Paperback
ASIN: B000TZ55BK

Book Description

Boddekker's not just a faceless copywriter anymore, grinding out ads for VR simulators and mood/attitude orienters. Now he's the "five-hundred-pound gorilla" of the Pembroke Hall agency, lumbering toward fame, fortune, and a fabled house in Princeton with shapely Honniker In Accounting. All thanks to Ferman's Devils, the four New York City street thugs whose record-breaking (and bone-breaking) commercial has won them billions of fans and made gangster chic the latest rage.

Yet Boddekker's new proteges are on the fast track to hell. First they assault a famous talk show host. Then they murder a former child celebrity in cold blood. And the more outrageous their actions, the more popular they become. So when another murder occurs, this time just too close to home, Boddekker knows he must find a way to take the Devils down. He made them and he can break them...if they don't break him first.

Customer Reviews:

good, but gads is it grim..........1999-05-06

Well, this was sort of unexpected. Ferman's Devils was a very fun, light read, despite the ever-present darker elements. This second tome more or less cuts out the "fun, light" bit, in favour of expanding on said darker elements. You may have noticed that, despite the gang's alleged brutality, you never actually see them kill anyone. Here, you see them make a whole lot of people die. In addition to that, the company comes across as much more evil, and Boddekker's ladylove is much more cold, cynical, and generally repulsive. It's still a good read, but it's certainly a shock.

"Demons" as scathing as "Devils"........1998-09-28

Faust's second book in the "Pembroke Hall" series is as scathing and wickedly hilarious as it's predecessor "Ferman's Devils". Beleaguered Boddekker jumps from the frying pan into the fire while all around him turn up the heat! The author hasn't let his fans down one bit. Anyone looking for their "daily Jones" of Faust satire will be pleased.

Handling It: How I Got Rich and Famous, Made Media Stars Out of Common Street Scum and Almost Got the Girl: Includes Fermans Devils and Boddekkers Demons

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Handling It: How I Got Rich and Famous, Made Media Stars Out of Common Street Scum and Almost Got the Girl: Includes Fermans Devils and Boddekkers Demons
Joe Clifford Faust
Manufacturer: Bantam Doubleday Dell
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

Amazon.com

A woman tells you, within minutes of meeting her, that she's in a support group for incest victims. In theory, this woman is trying to recover from her childhood trauma, but in reality, Caroline Myss writes, she's one of a growing army of people who practice "woundology," the use of their pain and suffering to manipulate those around them. Myss first noticed this phenomenon in the late 1980s, and began to analyze why so many people seemed to choose to carry such painful problems so proudly through life, to define themselves by the awful things that had happened to them. She offers a program to use "symbolic power"--a deep, spiritual insight that surpasses any conjured by the conscious mind--to craft a genuine conclusion to the illness or injury.

Book Description

For more than fifteen years, Caroline Myss has studied why some people heal, while others do not. In her previous book, Anatomy of the Spirit, Dr. Myss illuminated the hidden interactions of belief and body, soul and cell to show how, as she inimitably puts it, "your biography becomes your biology." In this new book, she builds on her earlier teachings of the seven different energy centers of the body to provide a vital self-healing program for physical and spiritual disorders. With her characteristic no-nonsense style and high-voltage storytelling, she exposes and explodes the five myths about healing, explains the cultural and individual contexts in which people become physically and spiritually ill and invested in "woundology," and teaches new methods of working with the challenges that the seven energy centers embody.

Both visionary and practical, Why People Don't Heal and How They Can presents a bold new account of the development of human consciousness and spirituality over the ages, and examines the dynamic global transformation of attitudes about healing. To help you get and stay on the path to wellness, Dr. Myss provides rituals and prayers for gaining a symbolic perspective on your life issues; for bolstering your personal power; and for connecting with a universal divine energy. Dr. Myss's breakthrough views on energy medicine and her active approach to healing life issues and physical illness will help you overcome the mental blocks that keep you from becoming well.

Customer Reviews:

Oh please...........2007-05-26

I am forced into the uncomfortable position of defending Ms Myss. No, I don't call her Dr. Myss, for reasons others have amply stated. Until I see her dissertation listed on Dissertation Abstracts International, she's no 'Ph.D.' to me! I also must admit that I have listened to a few of her audio programs, and while I agree with some of her ire directed toward the New Age quackery--love spells and candlelighting and stuff like that--she has come across as a bit arrogant and abrasive--two traits I myself share, so I know whereof I speak. She's kind of a jerk. But so's Dr. Phil. Is it because she's a *woman* we get so uptight that she's not 'nice' enough?

However. (Deep sigh). I don't know about many of the negative reviewers here, but I work in a field where I come in contact with a lot of people and as much as you might not want to hear it, woundology is real and is more damaging than you think. I know people who have literally reduced themselves to one-dimensional caricatures of what were once human beings: one of them has become almost the archetype Vietnam Vet; another is the sexual abuse victim; another, the bitter divorced man who hates women. We all have problems in life. We all have faced, if not in childhood than at some point, absolutely heartrending loss and bad things. All of us. I might not have had the same trauma as you, but I've had something rotten happen in my life. I ain't gonna play my damage is bigger than yours, and if anyone responds to this review by telling me I haven't 'suffered', well, let me just say, you have NOOOOO idea what you're talking about and leave it at that. Troubles, I gots plenty, as the song used to go.

It's the human condition. But to turn those bad things into the core of your identity, why, anyone can see that that's not healthy. Turning your trauma into Who You Are first of all constantly feeds that trauma. When that's your identity, every single day, every single time you refer to yourself as an incest survivor or war veteran or cancer survivor, you are revictimizing *yourself*, reaffirming that experience to be more powerful than *you*. Secondly, you get stuck in that identity. YOu can't grow if you remain so invested in one identity that you refuse to change.

What Myss said in this book that so offends people is by and large taken out of context. What she's trying to say, and I'll admit she doesn't say it as nicely as she could have, is that many times people have an ego-investment in keeping a hold on their wound. One might use it to manipulate others--feel sorry for me! My life has been so terrible!--or one might use one's wound to turn one's back on life and the causes of the problem by escaping into what we all must admit by now is the HUGE and apparently quite lucrative industry of therapy and support groups and self-help. One can bury oneself so deep in spiritual readings and support groups and this and that that one never actually gets to deal with the real life manifestations of the issue.

That is not to say that therapy is not useful. It is immensely useful for some (never had much use for it myself, but I've seen it really help a number of people), but the point is therapy works in your head. Unfortunately, sooner or later, one has to get out of one's head and into the real world, and maybe come face to face with the abuser, or the doctor with the bad news, or the broken family, or whatever was the proximal cause of the wound. Sooner or later, you have to deal with external reality. It's unpleasant to realize how one may have let a persona rule one's identity, or how it's made one do unskillful or hurtful things to others, but it's part of the process of waking up.

My drill sergeant had an old saying that came to mind as I was reading the more foaming-at-the-mouth of these reviews. He'd say, "Throw a shoe into a pack of dogs, and the one that yelps is the one that got hit."

Very off-putting.......2007-05-17

I found this book very off-putting. I'm glad to see I wasn't the only one who felt that way. I would welcome a good book about how to move through and past old wounds, but not a book like this, so scornful and insulting, making it sound like incest survivors go around parading their wounds in order to manipulate people (her very words, honestly). In my own experience, most survivors of childhood trauma try to deny, bury, and forget their wounds. It is only because wounds keep resurfacing and interfering with present happiness that people seek help. Yes one can get stuck ... but Myss isn't the person who can help them get unstuck, with her judgemental attitude. At least, I wasn't able to benefit from this book because her attitude really turned me off.

It's amazing how many people here are so quick to say that if you criticize her book, you are just "proving her point" and you "don't want to heal." Simply amazing. Most people do want to heal. People try many different techniques and paths to heal. There is no one answer, and Ms. Myss certainly has no copyright on healing.

Interesting book.......2006-12-22

If you are serious about spiritual, emotional and physical healing this is the book for you.

One of the best books I ever read.......2006-12-05

I recommand everyone who is interested in healing to read and learn from this book. I even recommand to have all her books she is writing her books to guid us and not like others to sell books great information.

Empowering... if that's what you really want.......2006-07-02

Why People Don't Heal and How They Can (WPDH) is a (potentially) valuable and empowering piece of non-fiction literature in the field of self-health and healing. It sheds light on many truths gleaned by Caroline's personal and direct experience in working with thousands of people wanting (and not wanting) to heal physically, emotionally, psychologically, and spiritually.

I through the word "potentially" in there for sound reason. In my opinion the subject matter is such that many of the people who might be drawn to read a book with a title such as this are people struggling to "heal" (just as I have done when right in the "thick of it") and are looking further afield for more answers. If such people, whilst reading this book or after reaching the closing pages, still don't make the choice to surrender into "why they are not healing, and how they can" this book may feel like "salt on a wound", or "adding insult to injury". Many of the poor reviews WPDH appears to have received are likely to have been written by people in this very situation--so I encourage you to hear what they have to say with this perspective in mind.

The above aside, in WPDH Myss takes a concise, detailed, and clear look at the very things that may be delaying or stalling your healing journey. She'll lead you into new perspectives and awarenesses around understanding what could be standing in your way and how to step around it. Of course, you'll have to be up for that challenge! My input here is to say that the rewards will make it all worth while (which of course, you already know).

WHO SHOULD READ THIS BOOK?
If you feel challenged by your wounds, your dis-ease, and the pain within; and you feel like you've been going round in circles or are facing a familiar and insurmountable "wall"; If you feel something akin to this and you have a humble and heartfelt desire to take a new and even more loving approach with yourself, please do buy and read this book. You'll be pleased you did.

If you read it and find anger, frustration, and annoyance emerging... I encourage you to stay with that feeling, own it, and let it tell you its story, without denying yourself the words of wisdom in WPDH that brought you into contract with these feelings. As one reviewer stated, "medicine doesn't always taste good", and WPDH is a powerful and effective dose of proverbial medicine for those with a receptive mind and heart.

In closing, I shall point out that this work is available in an audio format--great for those who like to listen rather than read. I have WPDH on CD and found it really useful listening to it in the car. This helped the rational (a.k.a. "resistant") mind to drop aside, allowing this information into those places it really needed to touch inside in order to be of use and value. I found that having it in audio format and listening to it in the car made it easy to revisit the material again and again-- reasserting exactly what I needed to hear whenever I felt I needed to uncover "why I am not healing right now, and how I can".

Enjoy. Be well.

Jonathan Evatt

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Why People Don't Heal And How They Can

Manufacturer: Harmony
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
ASIN: 0965845710

Product Description

Self-Help/Psychology

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Why People Don't Heal And How They Can
Caroline, Ph.D. Myss
Manufacturer: Three Rivers Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
ASIN: B000K1P34C

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Why People Don't Heal and How They Can
Caroline MYSS
Manufacturer: Harmony Books
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

Why People Don't Heal and How They Can (The Seminar Tapes)

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Why People Don't Heal and How They Can (The Seminar Tapes)

Manufacturer: Great Lakes Training Associates
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Audio Cassette
ASIN: B000BOH6WK

Product Description

A Six Cassette Tape Audio Series...Recorded Live, Oakland california December 1997

The Caroline Collection Three Levels of Power and How to Use Them and Why People Don't Heal and How They Can by Caroline Myss (VHS)

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The Caroline Collection Three Levels of Power and How to Use Them and Why People Don't Heal and How They Can by Caroline Myss (VHS)
Caroline Myss
Manufacturer: Inner Dimension
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

Product Description

Two Videotapes. 146 minutes.

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Great Reading!!!

Comfort food, but it has a few issues

Simplistic recipes, Nice insight to church social events

More than 500 hearty, delicious, easy-to-make dishes

The Church Potluck Supper Cookbook: Over 500 Hearty, Delicious Recipes for Friends, Family, and Community
Elaine Robinson
Manufacturer: Adams Media Corporation
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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Church Suppers: 722 Favorite Recipes From Our Church Communities

Church Potluck Carry-ins And Casseroles: Homestyle Recipes for Church Suppers, Family Gatherings, And Community Celebrations

The Church Supper Cookbook: A Special Collection of Over 400 Potluck Recipes from Families and Churches Across the Country

The Church Ladies' Divine Desserts

White Trash Gatherings: From-scratch Cooking for Down-home Entertaining

ASIN: 1580628389

Book Description

Potluck luncheons and suppers not only nourish bodies, but also souls when people come together for fellowship, community—and wonderful food! The Church Potluck Supper Cookbook presents more than 500 treasured recipes—soups to desserts—gathered by parson's wife Elaine Robinson from church supper "chefs" across the country.

From Raspberry Glazed Chicken to Stuffed Green Peppers to Mint Chocolate Squares, the recipes in The Church Potluck Supper Cookbook show you how to create delicious dishes to take to the next potluck event. Some of the tasty recipes include:

·Real New England Fish Chowder
·Chilly Night Chili
·Old Favorite Ham Loaf
·Hummingbird Cake
·Lemon-Strawberry Punch and Mulled Cider

Make mouthwatering meals perfect for small or large groups and any festive occasion. Anyone who enjoys the warmth of good food and the company of good people will savor The Church Potluck Supper Cookbook

Customer Reviews:

Great Reading!!!.......2006-05-14

This is a great cookbook and also a book you can enjoy simply by reading it. I bet you can't read it without trying a recipe!!

Comfort food, but it has a few issues.......2005-04-13

I was looking forward to reviewing Elaine Robinson's "The Church Potluck Supper Cookbook." Unfortunately, while the basic flavors and ideas are good ones, the recipes themselves suffer from a few problems.

Nothing that we made from this cookbook was terrible; there was nothing that made me think the author was in any way a poor cook with bad ideas. In fact, the basic flavors tended to be quite good. It's just that there are a number of details missing from the recipes, not to mention ratios that just seemed off somehow, and similar things. It also seemed that many of these dishes were a little low-volume; when I think potluck supper, I tend to think of larger amounts of food. One scalloped tomato dish we made provided four not-oversized servings.

One of my pet peeves in a cookbook is inconsistency in the level of detail and type of notation. For example, if you have a cookbook where some herbs are mentioned as being dried and ground and others aren't (but also aren't specified as fresh), you can never be entirely sure whether those herbs are meant to be used fresh or dried--and there'll be a big difference in the result. This cookbook contains a number of such inconsistencies. For example, a corn casserole calls for a 15 oz. can of cream-style corn, but a "small" can of regular corn. In my experience 15 oz. cans are the smallest I've seen, but since the recipe used different notation does that mean it's supposed to be a smaller size? Any inconsistency in notation may imply a difference in usage--once those differences creep in, you can never be entirely sure what a recipe is calling for.

We tried a turkey dressing from this book that had a wonderful flavor to it. However, the consensus among all of the people who tried it was that the recipe should have used at least half again as much bread and possibly twice as much (both the consistency and the intensity of the flavors were off). The "crispee bars deluxe" (a bar cookie recipe) were delicious, but two people found them too sweet and said they had too much chocolate, and I was right on the border--and I have a pretty high tolerance for sweet stuff.

Other than the inconsistencies that confuse things, these are simple, easy recipes. I found them easy to make by myself even when I was also busy with other things, and they didn't take up much time. They're simple enough that they tend to come two or three to a page. Layout is clear and simple--there isn't much to mess up in that area when you're using such short and simple recipes!

There are no photos to go with the recipes, but when you're talking about things like casseroles and bar cookies, this isn't a big deal.

One of the more useful aspects of this book is the information on organizing such things as bake sales, potluck suppers, and church picnics. Most of it is simple, fairly obvious stuff (things like having serving spoons for each dish), but then again these are the details that it's easy to forget in the heat of things, particularly if you're new to this kind of work, so I'm glad they were included. I think someone who's already spent time organizing these kinds of things won't find much new, but someone who hasn't done it before will be glad of the help.

All in all I like the quality of the food in this book, but I find the recipes a bit frustrating. If you feel comfortable enough in the kitchen that you think you'll be able to figure out some of the confusions and you don't mind mucking with the recipes then I'd say you should go ahead and use this cookbook, particularly if you'd find the informational material handy. However, I'd recommend making any recipe from this book for your own use before you make it for a public gathering, so you have the opportunity to fix any flavor imbalances or ingredient confusions.

Simplistic recipes, Nice insight to church social events.......2004-10-12

While I purchased this book for its recipes, I found myself more interested in the chapter introductions, which are lovely memories and helpful hints about church social (and of course, food-centered) functions such as bake sales, potlucks, funeral meals, etc. I found most of the recipes a little too plain for my taste (although there are a few gems), but the editorials are wonderful. Would be particularly helpful for someone who is getting involved with church life and who hasn't grown up in the church.

More than 500 hearty, delicious, easy-to-make dishes.......2003-05-16

From Real New England Fish Chowder; Chilly-Night Chili; and Old Favorite Ham Loaf; to Hummingbird Cake; Lemon-Strawberry Punch; Stained-Glass Fruitcakes; and American Chop Suey for 25, The Church Potluck Supper Cookbook is a culinary celebration featuring more than 500 hearty, delicious, easy-to-make dishes suitable for family gatherings, meals with friends, as well as community and church suppers and cookouts.

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