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akswhy's review against another edition
challenging
emotional
reflective
medium-paced
2.5
Come for the recipes, stay for the vivid and honest descriptions of heartbreak and grief.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Cancer, Terminal illness, Chronic illness, Pregnancy, Infidelity, Infertility, Death, Medical content, and Grief
Moderate: Domestic abuse
carlytenille's review against another edition
emotional
informative
reflective
medium-paced
3.75
An honest and surprising memoir
Content Warnings
Graphic: Death, Grief, Chronic illness, and Sexual assault
mariakureads's review against another edition
emotional
hopeful
reflective
sad
slow-paced
4.0
I came into this book with very little knowledge of Padma as I've only ever seen her on Top Chef so I wasn't sure what to expect with this memoir but it's definitely a combination of things.
Part memoir, part musings, part cookbook, I enjoyed the slow journey to learning more about Padma. The book has a back n forth narrative as she jumps back and forth from childhood to adulthood and all of the in-between, creating a more personal narrative which is lacking a bit of structure which I think worked well for here.
Through this book, I got to learn a lot about her, the person behind the persona and the way she talks about these moments are not just full of yearning but she is genuine and warm, full of wide-eyed wonder and skepticism and yet itching to learn more and I gravitated to that as much as I did when she started talking about the variety of food. I appreciated her candor about her relationships and her ownership of specific choices and moments which is not an easy thing to recognize much less admit.
She reads her own audiobook and I equally appreciated that as you can hear in her voice how certain moments hit her in her reading especially when talking about said relationships as well as her battle with endometriosis which I also got to learn more about through her struggle.
Part memoir, part musings, part cookbook, I enjoyed the slow journey to learning more about Padma. The book has a back n forth narrative as she jumps back and forth from childhood to adulthood and all of the in-between, creating a more personal narrative which is lacking a bit of structure which I think worked well for here.
Through this book, I got to learn a lot about her, the person behind the persona and the way she talks about these moments are not just full of yearning but she is genuine and warm, full of wide-eyed wonder and skepticism and yet itching to learn more and I gravitated to that as much as I did when she started talking about the variety of food. I appreciated her candor about her relationships and her ownership of specific choices and moments which is not an easy thing to recognize much less admit.
She reads her own audiobook and I equally appreciated that as you can hear in her voice how certain moments hit her in her reading especially when talking about said relationships as well as her battle with endometriosis which I also got to learn more about through her struggle.
Content Warnings
Moderate: Infidelity, Medical content, Medical trauma, and Death
Minor: Fatphobia and Racism
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