I sped through this book, and experienced difficulty in putting it down. Diana Abu-Jaber writes with great humor and endearingly conveys the pains of growing up in a multicultural family. There where times while reading this book that people in the surrounding area stared at me because I was laughing to the point of nearly falling out of my chair. The stories in the book seamlessly act as an introduction to the recipes. I've tried a number of the recipes in the book; the hummus recipe is THE best you'll try!

Enjoyable read about a Jordanian-American family. Lyrical writing and recipes as a bonus. A worthwhile read.

one of my fave food/growing up memoirs

Read for my Reading the Global Kitchen class

This was a great read! I loved her language and I will definitely try some of the included recipes.

When I read that each vignette was to be related to a food, I thought, This isn't going to work; I'm going to be bored quickly. However, food was so important to Abu-Jaber's father, his family, and culture, that it did work. I was soon caught up in the narrative and the organizing device slipped into the background. I would be reminded with each recipe, then it would again retreat.

I have read about first-generation dual-culture challenges, but this is the first second-generation memoir I have read. Not only the push-pull of old-country Vs. new-country values and expectations, but also parent expectations Vs. peer expectations added to the complexity of Diana's growing up. In spite of narrating teen-ager frustration and rebellion, Abu-Jaber presents a sympathetic portrait of her father. Her mother, though mentioned less often, is still a dominant figure, also presented sympathetically.

Abu-Jaber's descriptive language pulled me into the appeal of each culture, periods of confusion, times of identifying with where she was, and times of missing where she was not. Making the transition from living in New York state to Jordan, she describes her first ride through town: "The sidewalks are not like the orderly, straight-line sidewalks of our old neighborhood. Here, they wind around and roam this way and that, as if they've decided to go where they pleased." On returning to a Jordanian city after visiting Bedouin relatives, she ponders " . . . a larger, more formless question, something about whether people have to decide exactly who they are and where their home is. Do we have to know who we are once and for all? How many lives are we allowed"

The book was well paced. I didn't have any moments of "when will this end?" that sometimes occur about three quarters of the way through a memoir. it is not only a good read, but opens a necessary window on immigrant experience, on insights of identity formation, some of which are transferable to non-immigrants.

A memoir, surprisingly successfully using food as a connecting theme, about the author's Jordanian father, his adjustment (or lack thereof) to living in America, and the author's experience living as a child in two cultures and countries. Even when the author discussed moments of conflict, I felt warmth from this book.

I just wrote a review of a book in which an extraordinary story was written in a way that made it less than completely involving. This book happily does the opposite! Ms. Abu-Jaber makes the ordinary events of her childhood extraordinary through her warm and shining writing and her empathy with her family member characters. And of course not all of her childhood is ordinary! With an American mother and Jordanian immigrant father, & a large extended family of her dad's relatives surrounding her, things are a little different even before dad uproots the family & has them all living in Jordan for a while. I can't wait to try some of the recipes, tho there are others that sound much too complicated! I've always wished I could be part of a family in which someone has the time for this kind of "all-day cooking"! Oh, especially baklava, one of my goals for this year is to learn to make baklava! Anyway - the writer's father is a character you'll remember for a long time, & overall this is a funny, sweet & involving portrait of a girl growing up in two cultures.

Abu-Jaber is, incidentally, and excellent food writer. Readers experience her multi cultural upbringing through her descriptions of food in this memoir. Look forward to trying her recipes and reading her fiction.

I loved the characters, the storyline ... I can't wait to try the recipes.