Halloween : The Best of Martha Stewart Living

Rating:
Summary: Better than you might think!
Review: Being a HUGE Halloween fan, I would have never thought that Martha could have any good ideas for Halloween decorating. Her decorating ideas are always so cute and cheerful, right?

How wrong I was! This book has wonderfully dark and gothic decorations that really capture the essence and magic of Halloween. Even the ideas for the kids are tasteful, without being overly cutesy.

Add to this great ideas for seasonal food (who knew you could use pumpkin in so many different ways), excellent costume ideas, and party ideas, and you have a great 'grown-up' Halloween decorating guide!

And for those reviewers here who complained that the book was only a collection of Martha's previous magazine articles: The title is "Halloween: The Best of Martha Stewart Living". The "Best of" title should have clued you in that this was not brand new material. I'm sure the audience for the book was people like me, who have never picked up Martha's magazine before. I know I buy every Halloween issue now, as well as other seasonal issues.

Rating:
Summary: --TRICKS and TREATS--
Review: HALLOWEEN from The Best of Martha Stewart Living is a dazzling book filled with terrific ideas for Alls Hallow Eve.

First of all, the photography is beautiful. Just a leisurely look through the book and without reading anything, you can get plenty of decorating ideas. The various ways of carving pumpkins into traditional jack o' lanterns, celestial pumpkins, or even a chandelier is enlightening. No pun intended! The instructions are given for all of the decorative ways to carve the scrumptious gourds.

The chapter called Trading Faces has several different makeup applications; including those for a witch, a skeleton, a mummy, a cat and a vampire. The chapter on Haunting a House has lots of ways to make the house scary. A unique idea was to make the silhouette of someone standing on the stairs. Very effective! The Crafty Party chapter has ways to decorate everything in the house. There are ideas for table decorations, masks, and party favors.

Wickedly Good Menus is, of course, the chapter on food. There are about 20 recipes included. The following recipes sound especially bewitching: White Bean & Sausage Stew in Pumpkin Shells, The Devil's Salsa. and The Great Pumpkin Cake. For years, Susan, my sister, has been using the recipe to make the Ladies' Fingers. They are simply to die for! Happy Halloween!

Judith Miller


Rating:
Summary: Halloween by Martha
Review: Halloween is a great time of year. I just discovered this book and I was really surprised. It was by Martha Stewart no less! This is not your run of the mill book! The ideas are fantastic and go beyond anything I ever imagined. This is not ordinary stuff here. There are ideas for the house and yard, food and candy and way out ways to make yourself up for the evening. This is a quality publication. There is still time to order!

Rating:
Summary: A bit thin - more of a booklet
Review: Here it is, the best of Martha Stewart Living Hallowe'en content through 2001! Everything is here, packaged so efficiently and beautifully that even die-hard Martha Mag collectors will want it. There are great crafts, recipes, and costume projects, but the real fun of this book is in simply looking through the pictures and informational bits.

Everything is so clever, and presented so creatively! Put it on your coffee table!

Rating:
Summary: Book or glorified magazine?
Review: I found the contents of this "book" to be terrific. It is full of lovely pictures and creative, scary, unique ideas. Some of them are very labor intensive, but anyone familiar with Martha would expect that. On content alone I probably would have given it 4 1/2 or 5 stars. However, I was extremely disappointed in the format. When I opened the box my first thought was, "I don't remember ordering a magazine." That's really what this is. No, it does not have any ads and none of those annoying little subscription cards fell out of the pages but those are about the only differences. It is no thicker than a standard magazine, and in fact, not as thick as most of my issues of Marth Stewart Living. Because it is a book that should get a lot of use over the years, I can't help but expect that it will look dog-eared very quickly. I would much rather have spent a little more and gotten a hard cover version or at least a thicker book with smaller, sturdier pages.

Rating:
Summary: A bit thin - more of a booklet
Review: I preferred the photo of Martha stomping around on her front porch scaring the small children on Halloween in Westport. The parents were furious.

It was a priceless picture and showed what a mean spirited person she really is. Sadly the photo is not in the book.

Rating:
Summary: I think this book is so much fun!
Review: OK, so Martha Stewart has become a little sketchy, but you can't deny that she has talent. This book has great ideas for decorating, entertaining, cooking, and costumes. We've had a lot of fun with it. (The man-toes and lady-fingers cookies are so funny!) It's great if you're on a tight budget--none of the crafts or recipes cost a lot to make.

Rating:
Summary: Not for the die-hard Martha fan!
Review: This book is an excellent source for elegant party ideas and recipes. However, if you have subscribed to Martha Stewart Magazines, you already have seen these ideas. I much prefer the book, however, so I can throw out all those old Halloween issues!


Rating:
Summary: Halloween: The Best of Martha Stewart Living
Review: This book is what I expected: a compiliation of Halloween ideas from past issues of the MSL magazine. If you've saved October issues over the last several years, you may be disappointed that this book doesn't have anything new (but it's convenient to have all these ideas in one place). I'm glad I bought this book, as I subscribed to the mag. just two years ago.

Many of the crafts in this book require patience and skill, and really are for adults and older children. I've made simplified versions of the shadow lanterns -- my family's delighted with the results.

If you're looking for easier Halloween crafts and projects, there are many wonderful books on the market. My children particulary enjoy _The Halloween Book_ by Jane Bull (DK Publishing), a kid-friendly guide to preparing for the holiday.