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4.0 

Life Without a Recipe: A Memoir of Food and Family

By Diana Abu-Jaber
Life Without a Recipe: A Memoir of Food and Family by Diana Abu-Jaber digital book - Fable

Publisher Description

A “bold, luscious” memoir, “indispensable to anyone trying to forge their own truer path” (Ruth Reichl).

On one side, there is Grace: prize-winning author Diana Abu-Jaber’s tough, independent sugar-fiend of a German grandmother, wielding a suitcase full of holiday cookies. On the other, Bud: a flamboyant, spice-obsessed Arab father, full of passionate argument. The two could not agree on anything: not about food, work, or especially about what Diana should do with her life. Grace warned her away from children. Bud wanted her married above all—even if he had to provide the ring. Caught between cultures and lavished with contradictory “advice” from both sides of her family, Diana spent years learning how to ignore others’ well-intentioned prescriptions.

Hilarious, gorgeously written, poignant, and wise, Life Without a Recipe is Diana’s celebration of journeying without a map, of learning to ignore the script and improvise, of escaping family and making family on one’s own terms. As Diana discovers, however, building confidence in one’s own path sometimes takes a mistaken marriage or two—or in her case, three: to a longhaired boy-poet, to a dashing deconstructionist literary scholar, and finally to her steadfast, outdoors-loving Scott. It also takes a good deal of angst (was it possible to have a serious writing career and be a mother?) and, even when she knew what she wanted (the craziest thing, in one’s late forties: a baby!), the nerve to pursue it.

Finally, fearlessly independent like the Grace she’s named after, Diana and Scott’s daughter Gracie will heal all the old battles with Bud and, like her writer-mom, learn to cook up a life without a recipe.

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3 Reviews

4.0
“Diana Abu-Jaber is a Jordanian-American writer who is caught between two cultures - sweet and savory. Her German grandmother taught her how to bake and shared her recipe for a perfect life while the Arab side of her family was all about not using recipes and adding lots of spice to life. Life Without a Recipe is the story of Abu-Jaber finding a balance between the two. This is a beautifully written, poignant memoir with a whole lot of heart. She describes her family members in such a way, that you feel like you've sat across the table from them at a meal just last week. And the various loved ones offer up a lot of wisdom that I found myself reading and thinking, "aha!". One of my favorite passages was when Diana was baking with her Jordanian aunt, Aya: "She pointed out sparse places on the tray; I leaned over and tufted it with more dough. She produced a bowl filled with tiny cheese curds which were then scattered over the dough. 'The cheese is mild - like the heart of a good husband. Next, comes the syrup, sweet as a bride. Not too much! Nothing worse that too sweet.' She monitored as I poured a thin streak of attar over the pastry. 'Nobody expects cheese and sweet to get along, but you arrange their marriage and see? They are crazy in love.'" It's these little moments that she shares with her family throughout the book that make it not just another memoir. This one is about family and life and how the love of food transcends culture and generation. It's the perfect blend of sweet and savory, of wit and sincerity. I look forward to reading what else Abu-Jaber has to offer. *I received an advance reading copy from the publisher in exchange for my honest review. All opinions are my own.*”

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