Rice is a staple food for so many cultures around the world. This cookbook offers a wonderful variety of rice dishes from different cuisines. You can learn a lot about rice and how to make delicious rice dishes from this book!

Rice Is Life is a wonderful cookbook about the staple food in so many countries. The recipes are mouthwatering and accompanying photographs are stunning. A very informative cookbook for anyone who loves rice and wants to learn more about it and recipes from a variety of countries. Thank you NetGalley and the publisher for providing this ARC. All thoughts are my own.

As soon as I saw the cover of this book, I knew it was a book after my own heart! I always have bags of pre-made rice in my freezer to use as a base for meals and just knew I had to try this book out. It certainly did not disappoint!

There is a great variety of types of meals as well as global cuisines. Although the recipes are great and plentiful, I really enjoyed the background information on rice in general as well as the creation of their company (whose products I've used and loved for years).

My only complaint is that there need to be more photos with the recipes. I am a very visual person and strongly believe that every single recipe in a cookbook ought to have at least one photo. If the publisher would address that, I'd absolutely give this book a 5-star rating.

Many thanks to NetGalley and Chronicle Books for an electronic review copy in exchange for my honest opinion.

I went into to this book looking for some new rice recipes and am pleasantly surprised I found a lot more! The photography for starters is absolutely beautiful; eye catching and vibrant! I’ve learned there’s a International Rice Research Institution dedicated to housing different species of rice and researching… RICE. How cool is that? There’s also or was at one point over 140,000 different types of rice! Here I was thinking we just had white, red and whole grain rice! Lovely recipes for every type of a rice lover and a plethora of knowledge!

Excellent primer on rice. Lots of information about the various types of rice grown around the world and delicious recipes. If you have ever wondered how rice grows, this is the book for you.

I want to thank Netgalley and the author's for gifting me the ebook. Very interesting book. I had no idea there was so many different kinds of rice. The recipes look easy enough and I can't wait to try some. Very informative on how to cook rice and how to prepare it.

Great cover and Rice is life. The book covers this grain from all aspects of its form and purpose. Pretty much everything you wanted to learn about this grain.

What did I like? I liked that it teaches you about the variety of rice and how you can cook with it. White rice is a huge staple in our home so it was great to see some different recipes. This was a gorgeous cookbook. I’ll admit some of the rice recipes looked a bit daunting but still delicious.

Would I recommend or buy? I like the information given but so many of the recipes were rice that I don’t eat, or even seen. Still if your household loves rice it’s worth a good look. Many of the recipes have a Mediterranean feel. Five stars!

I received a complimentary copy to look at and voluntarily left this opinion!

Loved this book! We are huge rice fans at our house so to come across a recipe book dedicated to rice is LIFE!

So many recipes I can't wait to try, especially Ken's simple fried rice. The recipes seem simple enough and the photography was great as well.

Rice is Life was a very descriptive book with all you could possibly want or need to know about rice. I learned about a few new types of rice that I hadn't previously thought I had heard of and I thought I was pretty well versed in the subject. There are wonderful options for recipes, many that I have never seen before. If you are a big fan of rice, this is a great book to pick up.

I started reading this book and immediately ordered a copy for my personal collection. The pictures are nice and the recipes sound good. I haven't actually tried one yet but I'm excited to do so.

Be prepared to get hungry when looking at this cookbook.

In “Rice is Life,” writers Caryl Levine, Ken Lee, and Kristin Donnelly show that rice is anything but simple. They share dozens of recipes from around the world. And they go beyond providing instructions for delicious-looking rice and rice noodle dishes—they give helpful information like varieties of rice from different regions, tips on cooking rice, and common problems working with rice and how to solve them. I was impressed with the breadth and depth of knowledge contained here. As silly as it sounds, I’m most excited to try cooking fried rice using their recipe and special advice—it’s something I’ve never been able to master!

As educational as this book is, I do wish they included more recipes and food photography. I understand they may be trying to be more than just a cookbook, but isn’t that what we’re all here for?

Thank you to NetGalley and Chronicle Books for an advanced reader copy in exchange for an honest review. My review was posted online on June 12, 2022 to Goodreads here: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/4757642069.

This must be the most comprehensive book about rice ever written. Part textbook, part cookbook, it covers every aspect of rice from history, to modern cultivation, to water/rice ratio, to every single possible way to prepare it.

Interspersed within the textbook content are dozens of recipes that range from torta to sushi to soups and so much more. Experienced cooks looking to expand their knowledge about this most ancient of grains will savor every part of this book; cooks wanting to expand their repertoire of rice recipes will also find some excellent choices here.

Recommended for large library collections.

Beautiful pictures. Almost every recipe has one. I learned a lot about rice, its history and the many varieties. There is a lot of recipes, all different meals and different flavor profiles. Thanks to Netgalley for the opportunity to read this book

Loved recipes in this cookbook! The photos were wonderfully done and the text style was different which caught my attention! Will me making many recipes from this book!

This is and absolute Lifesaver!! My family is heavy on rice dishes and this one is perfection. Thank you!!

This book starts out by describing the different types of rice, where they are grown and how they are prepared. The authors have visited areas where rice is grown, built relationships with growers who are growing different types of unique rice sustainably, and they have introduced these rices to the American and international markets.

You will be shown the best way to cook differnt types of rice so they are sticky, separated or firm.

You will also find recipes for cooking different types of rice from all over the world. There are recipes for Lentil and rice Shakshuka, breakfast sausage fried rice, Furikake rice balls, Hand rolled sushi and many different types of rice pudding.

The variety of recipes included in this cookbook do an excellent job of highlighting some of the many forms through which this much-loved grain is consumed. These selected dishes of course also satisfy an array of different mealtimes and taste preferences.

The book however goes even further. With its thorough overview provided in the very beginning, and how-tos and other written segments scattered throughout the book help make “Rice is Life” a delightfully informative read as well.

If I had to make one quibble, it’s that this book calls attention to rice’s limitations while trying to show off its versatility. There are quite a few cuisine styles covered here, plus some creative uses that were quite new to me personally. However, a lot of other dishes in this rice-centric cookbook were basically just different recipes served atop or with rice or rice noodles. Though like I just said, that’s more of a little observational quibble than anything else - not really a complaint, much less a deal-breaker. Because to be fair, to me at least a great deal of rice’s strength lies in the way in which it serves as the tasty foundation to many a meal.

So overall, “Rice is Life” has a great deal to enjoy, and this would make a more than fine addition to any rice-lover’s kitchen.

I made the mistake of starting to read through this book before lunch one day, and very quickly had a grumbling stomach! The recipes all sound incredible, and I can't wait to try some of them. However, Rice is Life is more than just a cookbook. Levine and Lee include tons of information on different rice varieties, innovative growing techniques, and other info on rice. Who knew there was so much to this simple, humble grain!

I learned so much about the humble rice grain from this cookbook! It begins with a thorough history of rice, how it’s grown and the many varieties, colors and best uses. There is a very complete instructional section on proper cooking of all the varieties of rice as well as equipment breakdown. And ending with a troubleshooting section for cooking perfect rice. I didn’t realize that the brown crusty rice in the bottom of my rice cooker was considered a delicacy and many cultures have a name for it. I guess I’ll think twice before scraping it out and throwing it away next time! This cookbook is full of stunning photos of recipes and rice fields from around the world. A few of the recipes I can’t wait to try are Spiced Lentil and Rice Shakshuka, Cheesy Crispy Rice Patties, Furikake Rice Balls and Scallion Rice Pancakes with dipping sauce. But there are many more recipes to keep the home cook busy in here. Thank you Netgalley, Chronicle Books and the author for this eARC in exchange for my honest review.

As someone who loves to cook but inevitably ends up eating rice probably six days a week, I can't help but feel this cookbook was meant for me.

Kimchi, rice, and eggs has been my go-to comfort meal for months. I now have 65 other preparations to choose from. I'm also substantially less intimidated by the idea of steaming sticky rice (mango sticky rice is one of my favorites, but steaming rice always seemed more trouble than it's worth). Much love for the stove top cooking chart since I do not own a rice cooker and my rice (while always delicious) can be kind of hit or miss on our stove, and the aptly-named "troubleshooting" page.

This glorious grain contains multitudes, and this cookbook outlines all the different types of rice, the many ways you can prepare these different types of rice (with emphasis on "but it's up to you" on most everything), and then recipes on top of it. I also really appreciated the pages detailing how rice is grown. The authors want you to think about the process as a whole, from their farms to your tables, and to think about where your rice comes from. I always like the reminder of how labor intensive it is, and how it should be appreciated. She also mentions this, how each grain of rice represents one worker's drop of sweat. Eat every grain, guys!