“Absorbing.”
“Hauck’s absorbing memoir describes the cooking club she ran at a residential home for adolescent boys in Boston. “Systems fail but food is revolutionary,” she writes. Kate Christensen, reviewing the book, says that Hauck “writes with such unvarnished clarity and pragmatism, sudden moments of tenderness jump off the page… It turns out that showing up to eat with people once a week allows for startlingly deep moments of connection and community. That’s all that happens. And it’s extraordinary.”
—The New York Times Editors’ Choice: 12 New Books We Recommend This Week, June 10, 2021
In print June 13, 2021 Editors’ Choice, bottom of page 23 in the Book Review
“A captivating debut.”
—KIRKUS (starred review)
“An affecting, thoughtful look at the lives of boys in transitional moments.”
—Booklist (starred review)
“A moving, often funny account.”
“Hauck writes with deep compassion, not only for the boys but for her grieving, idealistic younger self… She captures the humor and pathos of interactions with young men already wary of well-meaning adults, and shares glimpses of the ordinary conversations that took place around the table. Home Made is not a prescription for sweeping social change or a story of a white woman saving young men of color (or even herself). Rather, it is a tender, insightful, often funny account of what happens when people show up–and keep showing up–to cook and eat together.”
—Shelf Awareness, excerpt of review by Katie Noah Gibson, blogger at Cakes, Tea and Dreams
“54 memoirs that are resonating with Goodreads readers in a huge way so far this year…We curated this list based on reader anticipation and buzz, which we measure by how many times a book has been added to Want to Read shelves. We also measured each book’s average rating (nothing below a 3.5 average made the cut).”
—Goodreads, 54 Memoirs That Readers Are Raving About
Liz Hauck 