Burnt Toast Makes You Sing Good: A Memoir of Food and Love from an American Midwest Family

In Flinn's (The Sharper Your Knife, the Less You Cry) recipe-rich memoir of her childhood in Flint, Mich., food is a source of sustenance and familial affection. Her Irish-Swedish family's long history of living on working farms allowed them to feed themselves when they were broke. Her father would go out in the morning before his full time job and pick whatever looked ready and her mother would can dozens of jars of applesauce, pickles, beans, and jams, (a skill taught by Flinn's maternal grandparents). The time-consuming and arduous task on her hands earned her mother the nickname "The Claw." With five children in the house, this way of life was once commonplace through the first half of the 20th century, but people abandoned the practice for grocery store conveniences and shortcuts. The family worked incredibly hard on the farm and had few luxuries, (a splurge was going to McDonald's and spending money the kids had earned picking strawberries on another farm in the summer). Surrounded by a warm, extended family, Flinn's childhood sounds like a wonderful way to grow up, and her additions of mouthwatering Michigan recipes adds even more flavor to her memoir. (Aug.)