Kitchen Reader - Blood, Bones and Butter

This months Kitchen reader pick is Blood, Bones and Butter by Gabrielle Hamilton chosen by Aileen from Pharmafoodie.

I'll start out by saying, I read this book quite some time ago and had to return it to the library so some of my review may not be completely accurate.  However, I do remember I enjoyed it.  One of my favorite types of books to read is a memoir and a memoir which includes food is a bonus (although this book has very little food in it compared to other memories such as Ruth Reichl's  Tender at the Bone)! 

Blood, Bones and Butter:

The story begins with Gabrielle's bohemian childhood, which includes parties full of delicious, homemade, and rustic food.  Spending nights outdoors under the stars and fetching beers and soda's for the guests from the stream in which they kept them to remain cold as ice.  I pictured myself living these scenes.  Although the author never really says why she choose food as a career I imagine it was from those experiences; watching her parent's cook, foraging mushrooms with her mom, eating foods many kids her age were not getting the opportunity to experience.  But I am only guessing.

Besides her childhood (before her parents divorce), my favorite scenes in her story were those she spends in Italy with her husbands family.  The landscapes, the foods, the gardens, love, love, love.  I longed to return there after reading her descriptions.  

However, this is not a book so much about food as it is about family, heartache, love, and relationships.  I wasn't inspired to cook or try a food I'v never had before because she describes it so deliciously, but it did make me feel as though I should value my family a little more.  Say I love you to my mom more often for not leaving me to fend for myself as a young girl and for being there each and everyday since.

If you enjoy memoirs, I recommend reading Blood, Bones, and Butter.