Tasting Home - by Judith Newton (Paperback)

About the Book

"Tasting Home combines recipes with personal vignettes, in the classic form of food memoirs by writers such as M.F.K. Fisher and Ruth Reichl, to take us on a remarkable journey through the cuisines, cultural spirit, and politics of the 1940s through the 2000s"--Provided by publisher.

Book Synopsis

Organized by decade and by the cookbooks that shaped her life, Tasting Home is the history of Judith Newton's emotional education--including her marriage to a gay man, and an exploration of the ways that cooking can lay the groundwork for personal healing, personal intimacy, and political community.

Review Quotes

"In this elegantly written work, Newton has completely taken us by surprise. There's a sense of tension, of expectation, of waiting for the other shoe to drop that creates a subliminal buzz. Through her personal story, Newton manages to weave in the entire course of the culture, a reflection of her skills as an historian and an accomplished writer as well as a born storyteller."
--Jeanette Ferrary, author of Out of the Kitchen: Adventures of a Food Writer and Between Friends: M.F.K. Fisher and Me

"In this captivating memoir, Newton draws the reader into a world where major events are brought to life with poignant food memories. Each vignette is pitch-perfect, lively, and engaging, striking a delicate balance between self-disclosure and universal themes of acceptance, love, community-building, and political engagement."
--Janet A. Flammang, author of The Taste for Civilization: Food, Politics, and Civil Society

"Tasting Home is more than a food memoir. Influenced by the civil rights struggle, the women's movement, and the AIDS epidemic, it is an odyssey of emotional, intellectual, and spiritual growth. Like a grand meal, Tasting Home is a resounding success."
--Belinda Robnett, author of How Long? How Long? African-American Women in the Struggle for Civil Rights

"This evocative memoir creates a tapestry of the personal and the political, weaving together stories of family, friendship, and community, of love, birth, and death. Punctuated by favorite recipes, this vivid narrative celebrates matters of both the kitchen and the heart."
--Wendy Martin, author of We Are the Stories We Tell and More Stories We Tell

About the Author

Judith Newton is Professor Emerita in Women and Gender Studies at U.C. Davis. While at U.C. Davis she directed the Women and Gender Studies program for eight years and the Consortium for Women and Research for four.
She is; the author and co-editor of five works of non fiction on nineteenth-century British women writers, feminist criticism, women's history, and men's; movements.
Her most current work has appeared in The Redwood Coast Review (Winter 2012), poetalk (Summer, 2011), and at http: //tasting-home.com and at http: //ipinion.us/columns/?cat=26. She is currently at work on a feminist mystery and lives in the East Bay of California where she tends her garden.