1.   And as her earlier books prove, that is the loftier vocation in any case.

2.   In all fairness, the book contains a few Oriental-inspired recipes, barbecue and an angel food cake, none of which is in her earlier books.

3.   One celebrated chef told me that her earlier books had sold well only because of the talents of her collaborator, the photographer Petrina Tinslay.

4.   Or at least this is what she has done in her earlier books.

5.   To try to convince him she was a serious literary biographer, she sent along a copy of one of her earlier books.

6.   Unfortunately, she allows the situation to deteriorate into open conflict, which she then describes in prose that lacks the snap and conviction of her earlier books.

7.   Where her earlier books tended to be simple and sweet, the new one is learned, tragicomic and sprawling.