The Bookseller of Florence: The Story of the Manuscripts that Illuminated the Renaissance by Ross King

It was an age when scholars studied the ancient Greek and Roman philosophers in search of answers to contemporary concerns. Book collectors scoured monasteries and abbeys across Italy and Europe seeking rare and neglected books. 

Golden Age Florence was a a republic, a literate city that educated boys and girls, a place where both wealthy and tradesmen ordered volumes for their personal libraries. 

It was also an age of cruel acts of vengeance, political intrigue and family wars, a time of plague, while the Ottoman empire threatened from the East. The church was in turmoil, powerless girls were married off or sent to an abbey, either way locked away from the world.

While some sought truth in Plato and Aristotle, others rejected anything but the Holy Bible and traditional Christian beliefs. 

As one bookseller in Florence wrote,"All evil is born from ignorance, Yet writers have illuminated the world, chasing away the darkness." He was Vespasiano da Bisticci. He started life as an eleven-year-old assistant in a book shop, a stationer and bookbinder, doing manual work that required great strength. He went on to be renowned as the "king of the world's booksellers", a trusted friend to the wealthy and powerful and the scholar. 

The Bookseller of Florence is the story of  Vespasiano's career, set against the story of bookmaking during the shift from hand written and illuminated manuscripts bound in velvet and jewels to the mass production of the printing press. And it is the history of Florence and Italy during the early Renaissance.

Saving ancient manuscripts, copying them, and distributing them for scholarly study did not protect the texts. Without libraries to store and protected them, many sat neglected or where destroyed by fire and warfare, or carried off to disappear.  

King covers a lot of territory! I was only vaguely familiar with Italian and Catholic history previously---and found it fascinating. I will read more! (Such as King's Brunelleschi’s Dome, on my Kindle TBR shelf.) I learned about every aspect of book making, the switch from papyrus to parchment to paper, the advances in writing fonts, how printing presses work.  

Yes, the book is filled with a huge cast of  historic people and events, but my interest never flagged. I was swept up in this epic history.

I received a free egalley from the publisher through NetGalley. My review is fair and unbiased.

I read Ross King's last book Mad Enchantment: Claude Monet and the Painting of the Water Lilies, reviewed here.

The Bookseller of Florence
The Story of the Manuscripts That Illuminated the Renaissance
by Ross King
Grove Atlantic/Atlantic Monthly Press
Pub Date April 13, 2021
ISBN: 9780802158529
hardcover $30.00 (USD)

from the publisher

The Renaissance in Florence conjures images of beautiful frescoes and elegant buildings—the dazzling handiwork of the city’s skilled artists and architects. But equally important for the centuries to follow were geniuses of a different sort: Florence’s manuscript hunters, scribes, scholars, and booksellers, who blew the dust off a thousand years of history and, through the discovery and diffusion of ancient knowledge, imagined a new and enlightened world.

At the heart of this activity, which bestselling author Ross King relates in his exhilarating new book, was a remarkable man: Vespasiano da Bisticci. Born in 1422, he became what a friend called “the king of the world’s booksellers.” At a time when all books were made by hand, over four decades Vespasiano produced and sold many hundreds of volumes from his bookshop, which also became a gathering spot for debate and discussion. Besides repositories of ancient wisdom by the likes of Plato, Aristotle, and Quintilian, his books were works of art in their own right, copied by talented scribes and illuminated by the finest miniaturists. His clients included a roll-call of popes, kings, and princes across Europe who wished to burnish their reputations by founding magnificent libraries.

Vespasiano reached the summit of his powers as Europe’s most prolific merchant of knowledge when a new invention appeared: the printed book. By 1480, the king of the world’s booksellers was swept away by this epic technological disruption, whereby cheaply produced books reached readers who never could have afforded one of Vespasiano’s elegant manuscripts.

A thrilling chronicle of intellectual ferment set against the dramatic political and religious turmoil of the era, Ross King’s brilliant The Bookseller of Florence is also an ode to books and bookmaking that charts the world-changing shift from script to print through the life of an extraordinary man long lost to history—one of the true titans of the Renaissance.

Susan, Linda, Nina & Cokie: The Extradordinary Story of the Founding Mothers of NPR by Lisa Napoli

I was in my early twenties when we moved to Philadelphia in 1975. I don't know exactly when we discovered National Public Radio, it seems to have always been part of our life. 

We listened to Fresh Air, All Things Considered, Morning Edition, Thistle & Shamrock, World Cafe, Piano Jazz, Car Talk, Wait Wait Don't Tell Me, Diane Rehm, and later Here and Now, 1A, plus classical music and folk music and jazz. 

I recognized the voices of our virtual friends on the airwaves. But I did not know much about them.

Susan, Linda, Nina & Cokie is the story of  the "founding mothers" of NPR, whose voices we know like old friends. Lisa Napoli has written an entertaining, highly readable book that tells their stories and the barriers they broke. These women were integral to the rise of public radio. They were different in background and personality, but each rose to the top, bonded, and supported each other. 

I remember my first full time job in 1972 and the sexism in the workplace. A coworker discovered her salary was far less than the salary of the man who had the position before her. He had a family to support, she was told; her husband was her support. Another coworker told me to get a credit card in my name, and a credit rating. When her husband passed, she was unable to get a car loan. It was a time when women were judged by their appearance and attraction. A black coworker was chastised for wearing 'ethnic' earrings. I was fired for a fashionable frizzy perm.

This was the world Susan, Linda, Nina and Cokie encountered when forging their careers. 

When a young Linda Cozby (later, Wertheimer) saw trailblazer Pauline Frederick reporting the news, it was a revelation. "To hell with being Edward R. Murrow's secretary," she thought. "I'm going to aim higher."

In 1959, Susan Levitt Stamberg's "blue-chip" education wasn't as important in the workplace as her ninety-nine words a minute typing speed. She started as a secretary for the new 16 magazine where she chose the winner of the "I Miss Elvis Contest" when Elvis entered the U.S. Army. She advanced to secretary at The New Republic, which gave her a "crash course in Washington." When start-up station WAMU-FM needed a full time producer, at low pay, she found the challenging job she needed.

As a girl, Nina Totenberg, daughter of an eminent violinist, was inspired by Nancy Drew. It struck her that "journalism seemed as close to detective work as she could imagine." Her first job in journalism was working on the women's pages of a daily newspaper.

Cokie Boggs came from an elite background of democratic, Southern, Catholic, politicians. But when she fell in love with the Jewish Steve Roberts, who planned a career in journalism, she knew a political career was out. Cokie found employment in television, including Meet The Press. After Steve and Cokie married, she had a checkered career as her husband was assigned across the world.  While having babies and raising her children, she worked with Steve. While abroad, reporting breaking news for CBS made her mark and her career.

NPR's development, advances, and economic woes is a major part of the book. 

Susan earned a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. Cokie became one of the best-known women in America. Nina's coverage of the Supreme Court, including the Anita Hill sexual harassment suit against Clarence Thomas, earned her top awards. Linda was with NPR from its beginning, integral to All Things Considered, and reporting on Washington politics.

The book is as inspirational as it is informative.

I received a free ebook from the publisher through NetGalley and won a free book from the publisher through Goodreads. My review is fair and unbiased.

Susan, Linda, Nina & Cokie: The Extraordinary Story of the Founding Mothers of NPR

by Lisa Napoli
Abrams Press
Pub Date:  April 13, 2021
ISBN: 9781419750403
hard cover $28.00 (USD)

from the publisher

A group biography of four beloved women who fought sexism, covered decades of American news, and whose voices defined NPR

In the years after the Civil Rights Act of 1964, women in the workplace still found themselves relegated to secretarial positions or locked out of jobs entirely. This was especially true in the news business, a backwater of male chauvinism where a woman might be lucky to get a foothold on the “women’s pages.” But when a pioneering nonprofit called National Public Radio came along in the 1970s, and the door to serious journalism opened a crack, four remarkable women came along and blew it off the hinges.

Susan, Linda, Nina, and Cokie is journalist Lisa Napoli’s captivating account of these four women, their deep and enduring friendships, and the trail they blazed to becoming icons. They had radically different stories. 

Cokie Roberts was born into a political dynasty, roamed the halls of Congress as a child, and felt a tug toward public service. Susan Stamberg, who had lived in India with her husband who worked for the State Department, was the first woman to anchor a nightly news program and pressed for accommodations to balance work and home life. Linda Wertheimer, the daughter of shopkeepers in New Mexico, fought her way to a scholarship and a spot on-air. And Nina Totenberg, the network's legal affairs correspondent, invented a new way to cover the Supreme Court. 

Based on extensive interviews and calling on the author’s deep connections in news and public radio, Susan, Linda, Nina, and Cokie will be as beguiling and sharp as its formidable subjects.

The Twelve Lives of Alfred Hitchcock: An Anatomy of the Master of Suspense by Edward White

Alfred Hitchcock. His name alone can brings chills, fond spooky memories, discomfort, and nostalgia. 

I was still ten years old in 1963 when I saw The Birds from the back seat of the family car, parked at the local drive-in movie theater. My parents thought I would fall asleep.

 

I didn't. The scene of a man missing his eye balls gave me nightmares for years. 

The next year, in 1964, I was nearly twelve when I saw Marnie. I am sure my folks did not expect me to be asleep that time. I did not understand it, I had no concept of sexual dysfunction, so of course watched it every time it came on television, trying to puzzle out the feelings it raised in me. 

Alfred Hitchcock Presents (1955-1962) was a childhood staple. I learned the theme song, The Funeral March of the Marionette, on piano. It impressed the neighbor boy who was also a Hitchcock fan. I had story collections like Alfred Hitchcock's Ghostly Gallery: Eleven Spooky Stories for Young People.

Over the years, watching the classic films I had seen in the movie theater with my folks, including Vertigo. Rear Window, and North By Northwest, and those I only saw later on television, like Psycho, I understood things I could not as a girl.

And I wondered why in the world did Mom take me to see those films! Today, scenes of rape, obsession, murder, and suicide would not be considered proper fare for the under-13-year-old child.

As far as I can tell, the only harm these movies did me, other than nightmares about eyeless men, was a penchant for stylish suspense stories.  I knew that birds would not flock and attack me in reality, or crop dusters chase me. 

"He was a child, you know, a very black-comedy child" screenwriter Arthur Laurents said of Hitch. Perhaps that was his appeal to children. Raised on Dick and Jane while undergoing 'duck and cover' drills and watching adults glued to the news during the 1962 Cuban Missile Crisis, we were ready for the safety of theatrical horror.  War became daily television fodder and political assassinations punctuated our teen years and watching Hitchcock movies on television were not as shocking any more.

I had never explored the man behind the persona. The nine-line sketch Hitch walked into on his show was all I needed to know. The sketch, I learned in The Twelve Lives of Alfred Hitchcock, Hitch himself drew and propagated as part of his image.

Edward White's biography considers the man through the lens of twelve aspects of his personality, each fully explored through Hitchcock's life and art. 

On the one hand, the book is hugely informative and gave me a full picture of the man and the artist.

On the other hand, Hitchcock remains a mystery. He carefully controlled his persona, as deliberately and thoughtfully controlling our image of him as his films controlled our responses.

Was his marriage to Alma platonic? Did he remain a virgin expect for once, resulting in the birth of his daughter? Did he lunge at actresses and ask his secretary to 'erotically entertain' him? I saw Tippi Hendren talk about her experience. Can we tell the difference between the persona Hitch offered and truth?

He grew up with WWI air raids, the 1918 flu pandemic,  in a rough part of town, with a Catholic Education. There is a lot of horror to draw from with that background. 

And yet, Hitch was averse to conflict and could not deal with "complex emotions."  He would not use animal cruelty in his films and preferred to have his victims thrown off a building than shot as in American films. 

Still,  he was fascinated by violence and cruelty, grew up reading classic British crime fiction including G. K. Chesterton and John Buchan. He once expressed his belief that he would have made a great criminal lawyer.

I learned about his  middle class, Catholic childhood, his struggle with his appearance, the art and film and stories that inspired him.

The book is always fascinating, always interesting, and often disturbing. Especially when I ask myself what kind of person is a Hitchcock fan, as perhaps it reveals things about myself I would rather not consider.

I received a free galley from the publisher through NetGalley. My review is fair and unbiased.

The Twelve Lives of Alfred Hitchcock: An Anatomy of the Master of Suspense
by Edward White
W. W. Norton & Company
Pub Date: April 13, 2021 
ISBN: 9781324002390
hardcover $28.95 (USD)

from the publisher

A fresh, innovative biography of the twentieth century’s most iconic filmmaker.

In The Twelve Lives of Alfred Hitchcock, Edward White explores the Hitchcock phenomenon—what defines it, how it was invented, what it reveals about the man at its core, and how its legacy continues to shape our cultural world.

The book’s twelve chapters illuminate different aspects of Hitchcock’s life and work: “The Boy Who Couldn’t Grow Up”; “The Murderer”; “The Auteur”; “The Womanizer”; “The Fat Man”; “The Dandy”; “The Family Man”; “The Voyeur”; “The Entertainer”; “The Pioneer”; “The Londoner”; “The Man of God.” 

Each of these angles reveals something fundamental about the man he was and the mythological creature he has become, presenting not just the life Hitchcock lived but also the various versions of himself that he projected, and those projected on his behalf.

From Hitchcock’s early work in England to his most celebrated films, White astutely analyzes Hitchcock’s oeuvre and provides new interpretations. He also delves into Hitchcock’s ideas about gender; his complicated relationships with “his women”—not only Grace Kelly and Tippi Hedren but also his female audiences—as well as leading men such as Cary Grant, and writes movingly of Hitchcock’s devotion to his wife and lifelong companion, Alma, who made vital contributions to numerous classic Hitchcock films, and burnished his mythology. And White is trenchant in his assessment of the Hitchcock persona, so carefully created that Hitchcock became not only a figurehead for his own industry but nothing less than a cultural icon.

Ultimately, White’s portrayal illuminates a vital truth: Hitchcock was more than a Hollywood titan; he was the definitive modern artist, and his significance reaches far beyond the confines of cinema.

Covid-19 Life: Gardening, New Books, Quilts

Spring has come. Daffodils and hyacinth are in bloom, as is the pear tree. The robins are splashing in the bird bath, the sparrows have a family in the bird house, and the mason bees are finding nooks in the bricks.

About one year ago we went to the local gardening center to buy herbs. It is mostly outdoors, and even indoors, the building is open and has high ceilings. Last year we only had a mask for protection; this year we had our vaccinations, too.

We bought parsley and dill and Nasturtium seeds and some tools and things.

A dozen years ago we pulled the English ivy up from under the apple trees and I put down stones. This spring, we took up the stone and are planting companion plants for fruit trees. Our oregano patch had become huge, so we divided it up and took most to plant under the trees. I sowed Nasturtium in the sunnier parts. In the fall we will transplant our bulbs under the trees. Next spring, we will see the daffodils and hyacinths from the family room patio door!

The stones are now along the house and driveway where we put the Stella d'Oro lilies when the front yard was landscaped three years ago. They have done wonderful there!

It is to rain tomorrow and I can return to machine quilting my Water Lily quilt. It is a lot of work! But it would be even more had I hand quilted it. My other projects are backing up, waiting for me to finish this quilting. But I did the first month block for Barbara Brackman's new quilt along project, Ladies Aid New York Sampler. Being from New York, I 'had' to participate! 

I am not using reproduction fabrics for this quilt. I have loads of that background fabric and need to use it. Truthfully, the fabric was once bedroom curtains in a house we lived in for 17 months! I kept it figuring I would use it some day.

A few more books have been added to my shelf.

• The Writer's Crusade: Kurt Vonnegut and the Many Lives of Slaughterhouse-Five by Tom Roston
• Among the Beautiful Beasts by Lori McMullen, the story of the early life of Marjory Stoneman Douglas, known in her later years as a tireless activist for the Florida Everglades
• Beautiful Country: A Memoir by Qian Julie Wang, about her undocumented Chinese immigrant family

I won A Good Neighborhood by Theresa Anne Fowler from the Book Club Cookbook.

And I purchased some poetry books for National Poetry Month. First to arrive are two books by Joseph Fasano, whose The Dark Heart of Every Wild Thing I reviewed here.

Fasano shares his poetry online, as well as his music, and I have greatly enjoyed both.

We are watching Ken Burn's Hemingway on PBS. I have my grandfather's For Whom the Bell Tolls, printed in 1943, and two 1970 books I bought as a high school senior, and the short stories we bought for our son to read in school.

Here are the grandpuppies at doggy day care, looking very springy.

The quilters are meeting in the park. Most now are fully vaccinated. Years ago, I donated fan blocks I had made to the 'free table' and Bev Olson has been embellishing them with her wonderful embroidery and beading. She has created an amazing quilt from them!

And another friend dove into her fabric scraps to make a double sided quilt; Roman Coins on one side, and on the back is this very cool assemblage.(Sorry, the quilt is sideways!)

We are excited that our son and his girlfriend both received their first covid-19 vaccination this week at Ford Field! The virus is wrecking havoc in Michigan, even in our small town. We have scheduled doctor appointments over the next few weeks, but otherwise are continuing to social isolate.

But, hopefully, in a month we will be able to have a family gathering again.

Stay safe. Find your bliss.

The Sound Between the Notes by Barbara Linn Probst

Obviously the notes have to be right. But they're just a path to the music."~from The Sound Between the Notes by Barbara Linn Probst

Schubert knew he was dying when he wrote his B-flat major sonata. The piece was going to be Susannah's reentry into her lapsed career as a concert pianist. Her early gift had been set aside when she became a wife and mother. Now it was time to put music a priority in her life. Especially as there was a chance of being on a CD of composers who had died young.

But Susannah's little finger was not as responsive as it should be and a doctor delivered the horrible news: she had Dupuytren's contracture, and no one could predict how quickly it would progress or how severe it would become. There was no cure, and few treatments available.  

Susannah would not to listen to the doctors, or her husband, and merely wait and see what developed. She would do everything to make her comeback a success and to prevent another sidelining of her career. Misha Dichter had overcome Dupuytren's. So would she.

I loved how the story is filled with music, composers, and the stories of the challenges they faced. I remember hearing some in concert, like Alicia de Larrocha and Vladamir Horowitz. The author is a serious amateur pianist and understands what she is writing about, and it shows. Susannah's search for just the right piano with the right touch struck home; I always had a challenge when I played a piano not my own. 

When Susannah met her future husband Aaron he bonded with her father over Thomas Kuhn. I loved this reference! I had read Kuhn's book Structure of Scientific Revolutions in a Poly Sci class in my early college career. 

Now, Susannah's father is losing his memory and will need to find Assisted Living soon. With her dad, preparing for her upcoming concert, her teenage son going his own way, and her husband trusting her to take care of all the domestic duties she had always been responsible for, the stress is building.

Aaron was the logical thinker, the scientist. Susannah was the creative one, the one who could speak through music. They had always relied on each other's strengths to balance. Now, by not listening to her husband's advice, a wedge had appeared between them. She had broken the unspoken contract; would their marriage survive it?

The Sound Between the Notes has great depth into human nature and family connections, including Susannah's feelings and relationships with her adoptive parents and biological family. The climax is dramatic and the resolution satisfying. Readers of women's fiction will enjoy this novel. Many of us will recognize the challenges of how changing marital roles require a paradigm shift that some couples overcome and others can not.

I previous read the author's novel The Queen of the Owls.

I received a free egalley from the publisher through NetGalley. My review is fair and unbiased.

The Sound Between The Notes
by Barbara Linn Probst
She Writes Press
Pub Date : April 6. 2021 
ISBN: 9781647420123
paperback $16.95 (USD)

from the publisher

The highly anticipated new novel from the multiple award-winning author of Queen of the Owls . . .

What if you had a second chance at the very thing you thought you’d renounced forever? How steep a price would you be willing to pay?

Susannah’s career as a pianist has been on hold for nearly sixteen years, ever since her son was born. An adoptee who’s never forgiven her birth mother for not putting her first, Susannah vowed to put her own child first, no matter what. And she did.

But now, suddenly, she has a chance to vault into that elite tier of “chosen” musicians. There’s just one problem: somewhere along the way, she lost the power and the magic that used to be hers at the keyboard. She needs to get them back. Now.

Her quest—what her husband calls her obsession—turns out to have a cost Susannah couldn’t have anticipated. Even her hand betrays her, as Susannah learns that she has a progressive hereditary disease that’s making her fingers cramp and curl—a curse waiting in her genes, legacy of a birth family that gave her little else. As her now-or-never concert draws near, Susannah is catapulted back to memories she’s never been able to purge—and forward, to choices she never thought she would have to make.

Told through the unique perspective of a musician, The Sound Between the Notes draws the reader deeper and deeper into the question Susannah can no longer silence: Who am I, and where do I belong?

Advance Praise

“The climax, on the night of her performance, is a tour de force steeped in suspense, and Susannah’s subsequent revelations are satisfying and authentic. A sensitive, astute exploration of artistic passion, family, and perseverance.”—Kirkus Reviews

 “As soaring as the music it so lovingly describes, poignantly human, and relatable to anyone who’s ever wondered if it’s too late for their dream, The Sound Between the Notes is an exploration of our vulnerability to life’s timing and chance occurrences that influence our decisions, for better or worse. Probst creates her trademark intelligent suspense as Susannah, an adoptee trying for a mid-life resurrection of an abandoned music career, confronts lifelong questions of who she is. A story that speaks to our universal need to have someone who believes in us unequivocally, and how that person had better be ourselves.”—Ellen Notbohm, award-winning author of The River by Starlight

The Bohemians by Jasmin Darznik

What struck me most about San Francisco so far wasn't the newness of the place--that I'd expected--as the absence of the past.~ from The Bohemians by Jasmin Darznik

In 1918, Dorothea Lange set out to travel the country when she became stranded in San Francisco. She meets the Bohemians of Monkey Block, artists and photographers and actors who don't fit into mainstream society. It is where Lange belongs, and she settles in with hopes to open her own photography studio.

Her entree into this world is through a beautiful Chinese woman with green eyes; as a Chinese person she is reviled and harassed; as a person of mixed race she has no people--except for the Bohemians. Based on references to Lange's Chinese 'Mission girl' assistant, her affecting story weaves through the novel.

Jasmin Darznik uses the story of Lange's early life and career as the skeleton of her novel, but the city itself is the star: it is a place of great beauty with a history of horror and disaster; a place of hate and corruption and a haven for artists; the home of the nouveau riche and dire poverty. 

When Lange arrives, the city still bore the scars of the devastating earthquake of 1906, but on the ruins a new city has spring up. Including Chinatown, the only place the Chinese are allowed to live, slums run by wealthy and powerful white people.

Darznik writes about the waves of Spanish Influenza, the collapse of Lange's business, and the subsequent anti-Chinese and anti-immigrant fervor that arose in the aftermath.

Readers will follow Lange's love affair and unhappy marriage with the artist Maynard Dixon and her work for the WPA that brought her fame. The final chapter gives closure to all the story threads. 

Readers who enjoy historic fiction with strong female characters and who appreciate historic parallels to contemporary problems will enjoy this novel. 

I received a free egalley from the publisher through NetGalley. My review is fair and unbiased.

See Lange's most famous photographs here.

The Bohemians: A Novel
by Jasmin Darznik
Random House Publishing Group - Ballantine
Pub Date Aprril 6, 2021 

ISBN: 9780593129425
hardcover $28.00 (USD)

from the publisher

A dazzling novel of one of America’s most celebrated photographers, Dorothea Lange, exploring the wild years in San Francisco that awakened her career-defining grit, compassion, and daring.

“Jasmin Darznik expertly delivers an intriguing glimpse into the woman behind those unforgettable photographs of the Great Depression, and their impact on humanity.”—Susan Meissner, bestselling author of The Nature of Fragile Things

In 1918, a young and bright-eyed Dorothea Lange steps off the train in San Francisco, where a disaster kick-starts a new life. Her friendship with Caroline Lee, a vivacious, straight-talking Chinese American with a complicated past, gives Dorothea entrée into Monkey Block, an artists’ colony and the bohemian heart of the city. Dazzled by Caroline and her friends, Dorothea is catapulted into a heady new world of freedom, art, and politics. She also finds herself unexpectedly falling in love with the brilliant but troubled painter Maynard Dixon. Dorothea and Caroline eventually create a flourishing portrait studio, but a devastating betrayal pushes their friendship to the breaking point and alters the course of their lives.

The Bohemians captures a glittering and gritty 1920s San Francisco, with a cast of unforgettable characters, including cameos from such legendary figures as Mabel Dodge Luhan, Frida Kahlo, Ansel Adams, and D. H. Lawrence. A vivid and absorbing portrait of the past, it is also eerily resonant with contemporary themes, as anti-immigration sentiment, corrupt politicians, and a devastating pandemic bring tumult to the city—and the gift of friendship and the possibility of self-invention persist against the ferocious pull of history.

As Dorothea sheds her innocence, her purpose is awakened and she grows into the figure we know from history—the artist whose iconic Depression-era photographs like “Migrant Mother” broke the hearts and opened the eyes of a nation.

Finding Freedom A Cook's Story Remaking a Life From Scratch by Erin French

 For me food wasn’t a competition about who could make the best dish. It’s greatest power was to take taste and turn it into a long-lasting memory.~ from Finding Freedom by Erin French

I had never heard of The Lost Kitchen or Erin French before I read an excerpt of her memoir on BookishFirst. The author described her idyllic childhood in Maine with such detail and love, I was charmed. 

Erin French's memoir made me recall how much we loved Maine, leaving behind Philadelphia with its yellow haze and heat and noise and rush. We spent seven years vacationing in Maine, one year for a whole month, tent camping at Acadia National Park. We loved sitting along the pink cliffs overlooking the Atlantic Ocean, watching the lobster boats pulling up and setting their traps.  

Mostly we ate around the campfire, but several days we would splurge on a meal of lobster on the beach or steamers in a diner. One year we went to a post-season, $5 dinner of lobster, rock crab, and corn on the cob  at a little diner. We were surrounded by locals who coolly watched me struggle to cracking open the crab. Finally, a grizzled man in a cap and denim jacket stood up, and grabbed the crab from my hands and expertly cracked it, shaking his head.

French lovingly describes the food of her childhood, made by her grandmother or by her father at his diner. Building on these roots, she took simple, wholesome, locally sourced foods,and with a artist's creative twist, served culinary delights.

But French's story was not all pink Rugosa roses and wild berries. She grew up in a dysfunctional family ruled by her father, a man who worked hard running his diner and drank too much, a distant, judgmental, controlling man. French planned to escape life in small town Freedom, Maine, by going to college in Boston. Instead, she returned to her family home, an unwed mother.

French had built a life for herself and her son when an older man pursued her and she fell in love. When she finally started her dream restaurant, her marriage became strained along with her health. Her husband was a man much like her father, controlling, selfish, a drinker.

A physician over-prescribed medications to help her cope with her pain and depression, which lead to rehab and her husband ceasing the restaurant--and her son. When insurance ran out before she was fully recovered, broke and in despair, she returned to her family home to start over. 

Again.

French needed to prove she could support her son. She worked hard and created her pop-up restaurant, using locally sourced foods and building a clientele. She remembered the foods served by her grandmother, recreating the joyous experience for others. 

The Lost Kitchen became famous, people lining up for a chance to experience French's cuisine.

French's vulnerability and openness about her struggles allows readers to become immersed in her sorrows and her joys. It is a story of the ways women are victims and how women can fight for self-determination. 

French credits her New England heritage of hard work as the root of her success. But also the eighteen-hour days working at her father's diner, even while pregnant, even when he was having a private drinking party with friends on the back porch as she ran the restaurant, for he taught her the basics of cooking.

If you love food, if you love a story of a woman's resilience and success, if you like a family drama of pain and healing, if you enjoy books about healing and finding wholeness, you will love Finding Freedom.

I received an ARC from the publisher through Bookish First. My review is fair and unbiased.

Finding Freedom:A Cook's Story Remaking a Life From Scratch

by Erin French

Celadon Books

Publication Date: April 6, 2021

ISBN: 9781250312341

from the publisher

Long before The Lost Kitchen became a world dining destination with every seating filled the day the reservation book opens each spring, Erin French was a girl roaming barefoot on a 25-acre farm, a teenager falling in love with food while working the line at her dad’s diner and a young woman finding her calling as a professional chef at her tiny restaurant tucked into a 19th century mill. This singular memoir—a classic American story—invites readers to Erin’s corner of her beloved Maine to share the real person behind the “girl from Freedom” fairytale, and the not-so-picture-perfect struggles that have taken every ounce of her strength to overcome, and that make Erin’s life triumphant. 

In Finding Freedom, Erin opens up to the challenges, stumbles, and victories that have led her to the exact place she was ever meant to be, telling stories of multiple rock-bottoms, of darkness and anxiety, of survival as a jobless single mother, of pills that promised release but delivered addiction, of a man who seemed to offer salvation but in the end ripped away her very sense of self. And of the beautiful son who was her guiding light as she slowly rebuilt her personal and culinary life around the solace she found in food—as a source of comfort, a sense of place, as a way of bringing goodness into the world. Erin’s experiences with deep loss and abiding hope, told with both honesty and humor, will resonate with women everywhere who are determined to find their voices, create community, grow stronger and discover their best-selves despite seemingly impossible odds. Set against the backdrop of rural Maine and its lushly intense, bountiful seasons, Erin reveals the passion and courage needed to invent oneself anew, and the poignant, timeless connections between food and generosity, renewal and freedom

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About the Author

Erin French is the owner and chef of The Lost Kitchen, a 40-seat restaurant in Freedom, Maine, that was recently named one TIME Magazine’s World’s Greatest Places and one of “12 Restaurants Worth Traveling Across the World to Experience” by Bloomberg. 

A born-and-raised native of Maine, she learned early the simple pleasures of thoughtful food and the importance of gathering for a meal. Her love of sharing Maine and its delicious heritage with curious dinner guests and new friends alike has garnered attention in outlets such as The New York Times (her piece was one of the ten most read articles in the food section the year it was published), Martha Stewart Living, Wall Street Journal, Boston Globe, and Food & Wine. 

She has been invited to share her story on NPR’s All Things Considered, The Chew, CBS This Morning, and The Today Show. Erin was featured in a short film made by Tastemade in partnership with L. L. Bean, which won a James Beard Award, and The Lost Kitchen Cookbook has been named one of the best cookbooks by The Washington Post, Vogue.com, and Remodelista and was nominated for a James Beard Foundation Award.