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Praise for EATS OF EDEN:
“If you can’t cuddle up with a good friend and trade life
stories, the next best thing is cuddling up with Blankenbiller’s charming Eats
of Eden. From buying your first bra and attending the dinner anniversary of the
Titanic’s sinking to joining Weight Watchers (again) to navigating the peaks
and valleys of a writer’s life, Blankenbiller parses these relatable, tender,
human moments with candor, humor, heart—and food. A bon vivant who finds
ultimate joy in cooking and eating, Blankenbiller takes us on a culinary tour
of her life—recipes included!—with delicious, and nourishing, results.”
—Sarah Sweeney, author of Tell Me if You’re Lying
“Reading Eats of Eden is like having a delicious, leisurely
lunch with a smart and insightful friend. Blankenbiller is sharp and self-aware
in these essays about food, writing, and being a person, and each one is a
distinct pleasure on its own. The collection—complete with recipes—comes
together like a satisfying and well-balanced meal.”
—Sarah Einstein, AWP Prize in Creative Nonfiction award-winning author of Mot
“Eats of Eden starts with a generous helping of humor and
adds dashes of writerly anxiety. Focused around the food and the recipes that
feed the soul and the body, Blankenbiller mines her memories for evocative details
and snapshots. Come for the stories, and stay for the cooking!”
—Sonya Huber, author of Pain Woman Takes Your Keys and Other Essays from a
Nervous System
“Blankenbiller has packaged longing, self-doubt, body image,
and love for others and food into fun and fulfilling narrative recipes for
living an authentic life. Eats of Eden demonstrates the ways food can bring
people together (or tear them apart), how pursuing one’s dreams is never
futile, and that the best meals—and moments—come from creative practice. This
‘foodoir’ is a funny and reassuring read for anyone who has ever felt like a
front-line cook in a world of gourmet chefs.”
—Melissa Grunow, author of Realizing River City and I Don’t Belong Here
“Eats of Eden is truly a delicious treat! Blankenbiller is a
confident essay writer, making it look easy as she lets us into her hungry
heart in this bright, satisfying collection. She waxes on food and being a
writer and wrestles with rejection, ambition, and cheese-lust. Peppered with
recipes, pop culture, sugar-sweetness, and plenty of nostalgia, this book is a
unique, honest, funny, glittery, high-energy explosion of a sparkly
cupcake—easily and greedily devoured.”
—Leesa Cross-Smith, author of Whiskey & Ribbons and Every Kiss a War
“A feast of the senses and the writerly sensibilities,
Blankenbiller’s foodoir cuts to the heart of the things that elude us—success,
ex-friends, the perfect lemon meringue pie. A debut to savor.”
—Kendra Fortmeyer, author of Hole in the Middle
“A writer’s life can be ridiculous, between the
self-sabotage, the hours spent moving commas and carefully crafting our public
images, never mind the risks we take to create moments of deep luminous beauty
only for the world to ignore them. Blankenbiller writes a triumphant,
existential comedy of errors about finding her way as a creative person, making
readers laugh one moment and nod the next. I love when books can be this fun and
vulnerable. She laughs without hiding behind the humor. She also includes
recipes, because she knows salvation lies in food and friends. Take a risk.
Bake a strata. Read Eats of Eden.”
—Aaron Gilbreath, author of Everything We Don’t Know and This Is: Essays on
Jazz
“Wise, funny, sharply observed, and eminently readable,
Blankenbiller’s Eats of Eden is literary comfort food. The stories at the heart
of these essays—and the recipes that follow—offer the nourishing warmth of
companionship and intimacy.”
—Steve Edwards, author of Breaking into the Backcountry