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thejoyfulbookblogger's review against another edition
emotional
hopeful
inspiring
slow-paced
5.0
Book Format & Source: Paperback received as a gift from a friend
Review & Thoughts:
- This was a slower-paced read than what I normally enjoy but it was 100% worth the time. Slower writing style but very engaging. It was a wonderful, emotional read.
- Padma has been through so much trauma. As a young child she experienced sexual abuse. As an adult she experienced divorce and the diagnosis of endometriosis; something that had caused her chronic pain since starting her first period at a young age. She was in a terrible car accident with her mother and father where her arm was shattered and she was lucky to have made it out alive.
- One of the most important themes and lessons learned is the importance of staying true and embracing who you are, not who society wants you to be.
- One of my favorite things about the book is the way she included recipes throughout the book, mirroring the way recipes and food are woven throughout our lives, almost like a playlist.
- The ONLY thing I didn’t like about the book was that it didn’t contain a recipe index. I made notes while reading to share it with you for reference:
- 67 – Kumquat and ginger chutney
- 85 – Yogurt rice
- 94 – Chaatpati Chutney
- 99 – Chili cheese toast
- 101 – Cranberry drano
- 250 – Egg in a hole
- 260 – Kichidi
- 302 – Krishna’s pickled peppers
- 309 – Applesauce for Teddy
- Content warnings: racism, chronic pain, car accidents/major injury in a vehicle, sexual abuse
Favorite Quotes:
- Moving between India and the states brought changes that left me perpetually confused and feeling like an outsider. I had on door in each culture, but no firm footing in either of them. p 72
- Because just as everybody is not meant to be a size 4, we all are meant to be different sizes at different times in our lives. We are meant to eat different things at different moments. Our needs shift as life shifts. p 276
- The two things I remember about every important day or evening of my life are what I wore and what I ate. In fact, I can say with great conviction that food has played a central role not only in my professional but also in my emotional life, in all of my dealings with loved ones and most of all in my relationship to myself and my body. I am what feeds me. And how I feed myself at any given moment says a lot about what I’m going through or what I need. p 273
Recommend for: Anyone that enjoys memoirs even if you don’t know who Padma is!
My Review Rating: ♥♥♥♥♥
Content Warnings
Moderate: Racism, Chronic illness, and Car accident
Minor: 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
lexa's review against another edition
DNF at Chapter 5. Listening on audiobook and I really enjoy the narration and when she talks about food, just can’t get into the book as a whole. Slow moving and bounces around a lot.
Content Warnings
Moderate: Medical trauma, Infidelity, Fatphobia, and Racism
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