Eat Joy by Natalie Eve Garrett (Hardcover)

Praise for Eat Joy

An ABA Indie Next Pick
One of Real Simple's Best Books of the Year (So Far)
One of Domino's Best Books of the Season
The Millions, Most Anticipated (This Month)
Women.com, One of the Best Books of the Year
A Belletrist Gift Guide Selection

"The essays in Eat Joy are so sharp, so real, so beautiful, so full of heartbreak . . . Each is an extraordinary act of generosity." --Helen Rosner, food correspondent for The New Yorker

"If you've ever felt a deep, emotional connection to a recipe or been comforted by food during a dark time, you'll fall in love with these stories." --Kelly Vaughan, Martha Stewart Living

"The next time you're looking for a comforting personal essay, curl up with Eat Joy." --Elizabeth Sile, Real Simple

"A multi-genre, illustrated work of food writing. Literary luminaries like Claire Messud, Colum McCann and Lev Grossman share personal essays and an associated recipe." --Emily Vaughn, The Salt, NPR

"Readers get the sense that Garrett really tapped into something with her query. Taken separately or all together, these essays depicting food as love, medicine, relief, and communion, as a sacrifice and a gift, are profound and genuinely moving." --Booklist (starred review)

"A collection of recipes and thoughtful essays . . . This book is a feast for avid lit lovers and foodies alike." --Library Journal (starred review)

"Short memoirs that explore the meaning of comfort food." --Saveur, One of the Season's Best Books

"Readers will recognize many of the names that contributed to this anthology that's all about food and the place it holds in our lives . . . And yes, there are recipes for when they invariably make you hungry." --Lizz Schumer, Good Housekeeping

"Magnificent illustrations add spirit to recipes and heartfelt narratives. Plan to buy two copies--one for you and one for your best foodie friend." --Ellen Riley, Taste of Home

"An essay compilation about comfort food, but not the category of food that, in America, tends to include large amounts of butter. Here, comfort food is whatever dish has helped 31 notable writers through various life phases . . . Along with these stories, and all of the stories in Eat Joy, the writers have included recipes that, the idea goes, may help readers through their own trials." --Monica Burton, Eater

"Searing personal essays from writers as disparate as Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie and Claire Messud. Plus, it comes with recipes!" --Tomi Obaro, BuzzFeed

"Sure to satiate the reader." --Jensen Davis, Bookforum

"Filled with stories on how food impacts our lives, and the accompanying recipes that have made the biggest." --Food52

"This collection of illustrated essays by some of America's most well-regarded writers explores how comfort food can help us cope with dark times." --PureWow

"There's something about food that helps us through hard times. Eating our favorite dishes can offer the comfort of a certain time and place in ways most other things--and even people--can't. Eat Joy is a thoughtful collection of essays by some of our favorite writers about just that: comfort food's ability to help you cope." --Elizabeth Entenman, HelloGiggles

"Oh, I love this little slice of delight . . . You don't have to love cooking to enjoy the passion each writer brings to their work on comfort foods . . . Eat Joy will be welcomed into your home (and the culinary world) with open arms." --Sophie Matthews, Women.com

"Relatable, gorgeous." --Dana Staves, Book Riot

"The stories show how food can connect us to others and provide comfort, even after death or separation, years or distance. It took me a long time to read this one because I simply didn't want it to end." --Jaime Herndon, Book Riot

"If every picture tells a story, it's also true of every recipe, as Natalie Eve Garrett and her contributors prove in Eat Joy . . . From Anthony Doerr's hilarious recipe for brownie mix ("Sit on floor. Cut open bag of brownie mix. Add water. Stir. Eat with fingers. Repeat when necessary.") to Rosie Schaap's moving tale of her first Passover Seder as a widow in New Mexico, Garrett has gathered not only the 'what' of her talented essayists' relationships with food, but more importantly the tragedies and triumphs behind the 'why.'" --Thane Tierney, BookPage

"Delightful . . . Garrett has selected the best kind of culinary writing--unfussy recipes and heartfelt stories that use food as an avenue for reflection. Foodies and fiction readers alike will devour this excellent collection." --Publishers Weekly

"Instructions: Pick up Eat Joy. Close your eyes and let your thumb brush the edge of the pages. Stop when you feel like it, when it feels right. Read the story you land on; if you land in the middle of a story, flip a few pages back and find its beginning. Let the story heal you. Let it be a balm for your heartache, whatever it is you are missing and longing for--your mother or father, your sister or brother, your best friend who made pizza with you once after a break-up. Let these stories be your companions and help you return: to home, to love, to the memories you need, to yourself. Repeat for as much and as long as you need." --Jennifer Huang, The Rumpus

"Eat Joy is a delectable book of essays that are not only easy to digest, but provide nourishment for the soul." --Lynn Alexander, Coastal Breeze News

"In this collection of short essays and recipes, writers serve up stories about the dishes that have comforted them in times of growth and sorrow. Find Miami-based writer Edwidge Danticat's tribute to rice simmered with coconut milk, which will always remind her of her late father and their beautiful, complicated family history in Haiti and South Florida." --C. J. Lotz, Garden & Gun

"Eat Joy: Stories & Comfort Food from 31 Celebrated Writers steps into that powerful world of food and memory with generosity and grace. Editor Natalie Eve Garrett (The Artists' and Writers' Cookbook) has pulled together an impressive and diverse roster of writers who revisit some of the most tender moments of their lives through the lens of food." --Blyth Meier, Porchlight

"Comfort food in illustrated essays." --The Globe and Mail

"A fine gift for foodies and literati alike." --Patricia West-Barker, Santa Fe New Mexican

"These stories remind us how much of the human experience we all share. The book itself will feed your soul and is perfect for anyone who enjoys food writing. It's the ideal gift for a friend who has gone through or is going through a difficult situation. Comfort and joy." --Beth Seufer Buss, Winston-Salem Journal

"This lovely collection of words and food shows that comfort food can be anything that makes you feel better." --Jan Johnston, The Columbian

"Essays and memoir-inspired stories followed by a recipe . . . A great, giftable book." --Annie Jones, Georgia Public Broadcasting

"Genuinely comforting." --Yale Alumni Magazine

"A good reminder of the healing properties of food that drew so many of us to the industry, and the hope that can be found in a bowl of something delicious." --Chandra Ram, Plate

"Natalie Eve Garrett's Eat Joy does this magical thing where it makes you remember the tastes of the heaviest times in your life, while reminding you that everyone on earth has experienced the taste of love and loss, though none of our tastes are the same. This is the first collection that ever made me want to sensually eat, cook, write, and thank all the wonderful makers of the most memorable memories in my life." --Kiese Laymon, author of Heavy

"Food is a key to unlocking memories. The nourishing stories in Eat Joy show us that thinking about what we've eaten is the easiest way to remember the bitter, the beautiful, and everything in between." --Julia Turshen, author of Small Victories and host of Keep Calm and Cook On

"Food is personal and political; it's essential but can be luxurious. Food is art; it's family--it's how we care for each other and know who we are. In this spellbinding book, some of our most crucial writers bring us much-needed sustenance, intellectual and physical. This book is a gift." --Michelle Tea, author of How to Grow Up

"Food binds this book together, and each beautifully told story circles life's truths in ways that are surprising, often revelatory, and always moving. It's impossible not to love Eat Joy, and equally impossible not to want to bake and eat these dishes while reading. It's an extraordinary collection." --Dorie Greenspan, James Beard Award-winning author of Everyday Dorie

"Sensory memories can transport us through time and space, and the outstanding essays in Eat Joy harness that power. By the time you finish reading these distinctly personal stories, you'll feel as if you've been right there alongside this glorious assemblage of contributing writers--licking the brownie mix, handling the raw meat, savoring the pickles, and processing what it means to be alive. You might also be hungry." --Mary Laura Philpott, author of I Miss You When I Blink

"I ADORE this book. Humans hold deep and complex relationships with the food they eat, relationships inflected with social, cultural, and personal histories. Eat Joy, an exhilarating and ingenious pairing of personal essays and delicious recipes by some of the guiding lights of contemporary literature, uses food as the catalyst for stirring and poignant reflections on love, heartbreak, community, and the heady complexities of the human condition. Boasting contributions from the likes of Alexander Chee, Carmen Maria Machado, Anthony Doerr, and Diana Abu-Jaber, this is nourishing 'soul food' for bibliophiles, cooks, and casual readers alike." --Zak, Better Read Than Dead (Newtown, New South Wales, Australia)

Praise for The Artists' and Writers' Cookbook (2016)

"[The] book tells a collective story about more than just how to prepare food. It tells the story of what it sometimes means to be human: hungry, heartbroken and hopeful." --Los Angeles Times

"The Artists' and Writers' Cookbook is far from anything traditional and that's exactly what makes it so inspiring. There are proper ingredients and measurement listings, yes, but more important are the imaginative, artful narratives conjured up around everyday foods." --Vogue

"The Artists' and Writers' Cookbook, Natalie Eve Garrett's imaginative and beautiful new compilation, is a goldmine . . . It's one of the most exciting, poignant, and eclectic 'cookbooks' I've come across in a long time--maybe ever." --Martha Stewart

"[The] recipes . . . are insightful and surprising--with stories that mix art-making, writing, and cooking. Each ingredient in a soup, color used in an illustration, and word modifying a sentence provides a trace of deep-seated emotional experience." --The Guardian

"This is no mere cookbook . . . [It contains] narratives as delightful to your literary palette as the recipes are to your culinary one." --NYLON

"What we eat is emblematic of who we are, where we come from, and what matters most to us. This is the basic and delicious premise behind The Artists' and Writers' Cookbook." --The Kitchn

"In this lovely new book, Garrett--herself an artist and writer--has collected stories and recipes from a quirky selection of dozens of writers and artists. The authors here have scavenged their pasts, their families, their relationships, and their personal tragedies. They give us stuff to eat, too." --Epicurious

"Do you like eating? Do you like whimsical, beautifully illustrated recipes written by your favorite novelists, cartoonists and other creative geniuses? Then The Artists' and Writers' Cookbook is for you." --Lenny Letter

"A collection of juicy and impassioned stories with colorfully illustrated recipes." --Rookie

"Readers [are] sure to appreciate the thoughtful curation of this most unusual cookbook." --Publishers Weekly

"Very rarely have I found writing so consistently charming, or a book so unwaveringly lovable! This is an instant classic that all of us, readers and eaters that we are, have no choice but to absolutely adore." --Porochista Khakpour, author of The Last Illusion and Sons and Other Flammable Objects

"Proust knew what was what: food is rarely just a meal, and memories are made over plates, in front of stoves, at tables, and, of course, in the mouth. This is a book of the best gustatory recollections--great writers and artists offering us their own personal madeleines. It's a delicious seventy-six-course literary meal." --Darin Strauss, author of Half a Life and Chang & Eng

"The joy of Natalie Eve Garrett's charming cookbook isn't just in the recipes, it's in the personal vignettes attached to each dish--altogether funny, heartbreaking, and redeeming--from some of our most beloved writers and artists. Inside, you'll find recipes to be recreated, but more importantly, stories to be treasured. This is a book that belongs on your kitchen shelf as well as on your bedside table." --Kevin Pang, James Beard Award-winning food writer

"This book is the most rewarding and nourishing of Venn diagrams: story and food. Trust me--you will never see more beautifully crafted, heartbreaking, or provocative first sentences in recipes; this is a cookbook that was meant to be read. I never knew I wanted Padgett Powell's gumbo recipe, or to read Sharon Olds's early ideas about food--but I did. You will find yourself in the night kitchen with Leanne Shapton and remote cabins with Anthony Doerr, reading rituals of healing and joy." --Megan Mayhew Bergman, author of Almost Famous Women and Birds of a Lesser Paradise

"The Artists' and Writers' Cookbook has the two best things: great writing and great food. In Natalie Eve Garrett's careful hands, neither one outshines or unbalances the other, and combined, they make for a smart, delicious, well-rounded book that you'll want to give to anyone who likes to read and eat or eat and read." --Jessica Soffer, author of Tomorrow There Will Be Apricots

"The Artists' and Writers' Cookbook gives the reader the distinctly wonderful feeling of hanging out in the kitchen with some of the most interesting people writing and creating art today. Even if you're not a cook, this gorgeous book is a joy--you'll want to read it cover to cover." --Gabi Moskowitz, author of The BrokeAss Gourmet Cookbook and producer of Young & Hungry on Freeform

Number of Pages: 208
Genre: Cooking + Food + Wine
Sub-Genre: Essays & Narratives
Format: Hardcover
Publisher: Black Balloon Publishing
Age Range: Adult
Author: Natalie Eve Garrett
Language: English