Dear Great Book Guru, There has been much talk of pre or faux Thanksgivings around Sea Cliff and beyond : the D'Amicos, the DiPietros, and the Halliday-Ambroses all began their celebrations this past weekend and great times were had by all! Now we have the actual Thanksgiving coming up and I would love a short but meaningful book to read this holiday weekend. Any suggestions? Turkey Troubadour


Dear Turkey Troubadour, I so love Thanksgiving with its variety of celebrations , and you are certainly to be commended for your desire to find some good reading material despite a hectic holiday schedule. I would recommend Ruth Reichl's NOT BECOMING MY MOTHER AND OTHER THINGS SHE TAUGHT ME ALONG THE WAY. Reichl was the food critic for the New York Times for many years and has written many books; most recently, she has concentrated on memoirs of her personal and professional life. In Reichl's earlier works she playfully recounted stories of her mother's less than stellar food adventures which she referred to as Mim's tales. Well, after her mother's death, Reichl began to regret her flippant dismissal of Mim and her life . After finding a trove of letters written by her over a sixty year period, Reich takes a far different, more admiring view of her mother. The lesson we all can learn from this book is that things are seldom as they seem and people's lives are far more complicated than any of us might guess. Talking about complicated- all you followers of the quiz show JEOPARDY, gather round your TVs at 7pm, Thursday, Dec.1- Gillian DiPietro will be appearing!