"Outside a dog a book is man's best friend, inside a dog it is too dark to read!" -Groucho Marx========="The person, be it gentleman or lady, who has not pleasure in a good novel, must be intolerably stupid." -Jane Austen========="I don’t believe in the kind of magic in my books. But I do believe something very magical can happen when you read a good book."-JK Rowling========"I spend a lot of time reading." -Bill Gates=========“Ahhh. Bed, book, kitten, sandwich. All one needed in life, really.” -Jacqueline Kelly=========

Thursday, June 26, 2025

Review: BE READY WHEN THE LUCK COMES (+Friday56 LinkUp)



Title: BE READY WHEN THE LUCK COMES: A MEMOIR by Ina Garten

Book Beginnings quote:
"There has to be something more fun than this," I said to myself , probably for the millionth time, as I sat at my desk drafting nuclear energy policy at the White House.
Friday56 quote:
What did I do? Besides going to college, there was dinner to prepare every night -- we certainly couldn't afford to go to a restaurant -- which meant coming up with a menu, shopping on the base, and then teaching myself how to cook. I had to learn everything. My bible at the time was Craig Claiborne's' New Your Times Cookbook, and I immediately started making his recipes.
Summary: A memoir by Ina Garten -- aka the Barefoot Contessa, author of thirteen cookbooks, a Food Network personality, and a cultural icon -- shares her personal story from a difficult childhood to meeting Jeffrey and marrying him while still in college; from a boring job in Washington, D.C. to ownership of a specialty food store and becoming the Barefoot Contessa, and her journey to get to where she is today.


Review:
It seemed like everyone was reading this book last year and I wanted to be one of those people. I really enjoyed learning about Ina Garten's backstory, how she was ready to spring at several opportunities that led to her success first as a business owner and then as a Food Network chef and cookbook creator. As Garten described the creation of several of her famous recipes, I was reminded I have a copy of her cookbook, Cooking for Jeffrey. I decided to pull it out and make several recipe from it. We especially liked two entrees: Rigatoni with sausage and fennel and Skillet-roasted lemon chicken, and a dessert: Raspberry rhubarb crostata (I used strawberries as they are in season right now.) As I read through these and other recipes, it occured to me I should read the whole book. A first for me, reading through a whole cookbook. I actually learned some really helpful tips, too. Have you ever read a cookbook all the way through? Clearly I need to read my other cookbooks for ideas and tips, not just go to the same recipes over and over.

My rating of the memoir: 4 stars and the cookbook: 5 stars. Makes sense, doesn't it?






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RULES:

*Grab a book, any book
*Turn to page 56 or 56% in your e-reader (If you want to improvise, go ahead!)
*Find a snippet, but no spoilers!
*Post it to your blog and add your url to the Linky below. If you do not add the specific url for your post, we may miss it! 
*Visit other blogs and leave comments about their snippets. Expand the community. Please leave a comment for me, too!  


Also visit Book Beginnings on Friday hosted by Rose City Reader and First Line Friday hosted by Reading is My Super Power to share the beginning quote from your book.



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-Anne

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