5.29.2009

Foodie Book Friday: A Homemade Life





In the effort to post more frequently, I've decided to institute "Foodie Book Friday," weekly posts in which I'll share my thoughts about food-centric books.

For the first of these posts, I think it's appropriate to start with the book A Homemade Life written by successful food blogger Molly Wizenberg, creator of Orangette. I have followed her blog for about a year and her recent absences from it make me grateful to have the book to turn to for an occasional fix of her writing.

The book is written in short chapters, each of which tell the story of a dish then give a very clear, well-written recipe for that dish. Her prose writing is as delicious as the recipes sound. Her wittiness made me laugh aloud, while many of the reminiscences of her family, in particular her late father, often brought me to tears. It is a sentimental book, but not in an over-the-top saccharine way. Rather, her father's presence is evident throughout as she tells stories of his cooking and how it influences hers. Along the way, she takes the reader to Paris, back to Seattle, and on the journeys of how her blog came to be and of meeting the man who will be her husband.

Like Orangette, A Homemade Life is charming, romantic, honest, insightful, passionate and moving. When you read it, you fall in love with Molly, with her writing, and with the food she creates and inspires her readers to create as well. I'm grateful to be one of them.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Many thanks for featuring this. The female half of this Duo loves a good book.

jck said...

My fingers are crossed for you that next year's Latin camp will be in Seattle. My toes are crossed that you'll start to like fish more...