A review by readingwithhippos
Life Without a Recipe by Diana Abu-Jaber

3.0

I’ve been on a memoir kick lately, and this one is sweet and poignant and full of baked goods. Abu-Jaber writes about her complicated relationships with her German grandmother and Arab father, who were almost always at odds with each other and influenced her life in equal, if competing, ways. It's also the story of her roundabout route to marriage (third time's the charm) and motherhood (domestic infant adoption when she was well into her forties). This is the kind of memoir that's less a recounting of events than it is a smattering of reflections on life. Abu-Jaber's voice is charming, but I didn't come away with any big revelations or experience any of that memoir-catharsis I so love.