pickA foodie memoir that reads like a novel about growing up between cultures with lots of extended family plus Middle Eastern recipes. I especially love the way Abu-Jaber depicts childhood and how naturally recipes become part of the story. I‘m excited to try making some!
Reading this for book club-love the recipes and her stories of family.
Day26 #readjanuary #autobiography I enjoy autobiographies/memoirs & learning someone's story from their own words. It probably comes as no surprise that many of my favorites are chef and/or food related. Most of these would be considered more memoir than true autobiography, but here are some of my faves. (BTW-You can insert any Ruth Reichl memoir here-all are great & Diana Abu-Jabar is an author but most of her books have a strong food presence)🍴
pickSo good! All throughout reading this book, I kept recommending it to just about everybody, and reading passages aloud. It's about food, and family, and shifting identities between two countries. The prose is lovely.
"I looked, I tasted, I spoke kindly and truthfully. I invited. You know what else? I keep doing it. I don't stop if it doesn't work on the first or the second or the third try. I'd like that!" She snapped the apron from the chair into the air, leaving a poof of flour like a wish. "There is your peace."
Dessert and diplomacy! Yes! This!
"He cooks to remember, but the more he eats, the more he forgets."
The writing in this entire book is so gorgeous, I can't actually pick a single quote. Lush description of food. Imagery and metaphor that borders on poetry, to describe her sense of her inner life in a way that perfectly describes a feeling. I can flip to any page and love a sentence. So good!
Gorgeous food writing to go with my humble brown bag lunch.
Oh, do I love a good food memoir! #booksthatmademehungry #SomethingforSept
This book raises anticipation for summer in this quote "Barbecues are the smell of lighter fluid, dark and delicious as the aromas of gasoline."
The Language of Baklava | 
