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Sign up todayBurnt Toast Makes You Sing Good
A Memoir of Food and Love from an American Midwest Family
Narrator
Cassandra Campbell
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Length
8 hours 26 minutes
Language
English
A delicious memoir from the author of The Sharper Your Knife, the Less You Cry
In this family history interwoven with recipes, Kathleen Flinn returns readers to the mix of food and memoir beloved by readers of her bestselling The Sharper Your Knife, the Less You Cry. Burnt Toast Makes You Sing Good explores the very beginnings of her love affair with food and its connection to home. It is the story of her Midwestern childhood, its memorable home cooks, and the delicious recipes she grew up with. Flinn shares tales of her parents' pizza parlor in San Francisco, where they sold Uncle Clarence's popular oven-fried chicken, as well as recipes for the chili made by former army cook Grandpa Charles, fluffy Swedish pancakes from Grandma Inez, and cinnamon rolls for birthday breakfasts. Through these dishes, Flinn came to understand how meals can be memories and how cooking can be a form of communication.
Brimming with warmth and wit, this book is sure to appeal to Flinn's many fans, as well as readers of Marcus Samuelsson, Ruth Reichl, and Julie Powell.
Kathleen Flinn has written for the Chicago Tribune, Chicago Sun-Times, and other publications. The director of the International Association of Culinary Professionals, she lives in Seattle and Florida.
Original bio sent from Cassandra:
Cassandra Campbell began doing voice overs as the voice for Calvin Klein’s Italian commercials. This was followed by commercial and documentary recording in both English and Italian. She has recorded many audiobooks and has received several AudioFile Earphones Awards as well as an Audie® Award nomination. As an actress and director, she has worked at the Public, the Mint, the Berkshire Theatre Festival, Stagewest, Theatreworks, the Baltimore Shakespeare Festival, Millmountain Theatre, the National Shakespeare Company, and the New York Fringe Festival.
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Reviews
“Craving a beach read with a bite? Kathleen Flinn’s new memoir, Burnt Toast Makes You Sing Good, chronicles her Midwestern family’s culinary adventures, starting with a move cross-country to run her uncle’s pizzeria. There are plenty of hilarious missteps (like a maybe-don’t-try-this-at-home experience raising chickens), but food is a blissful constant, even in the craziest of times. And the book is filled with recipes—Grandpa’s Mich-Mex chili, Mom’s cinnamon rolls—so you can create some memorable family meals of your own.”
“Flinn shares uplifting stories of the recipes that shaped her life, from her Swedish grandmother’s pancakes to her mom’s chicken and biscuits.”
“True to its lighthearted title, the book possesses a friendly, intimate feel, complete with memorable family characters including a bootlegger-cook granddad and a kitchen-wizard grandmother. Flinn herself is a Le Cordon Bleu graduate, but her tasty recipes here possess distinctive Swedish and Midwestern flavors.”
“A memoir with lots of eating, road trips, and family history, this combination platter will fill you up.”
“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.”
“Flinn affectionately recalls her family and growing up in the counties surrounding Flint, Michigan, in the days before America’s mighty auto industry collapsed…As she recounts the years of her youth, Flinn summons up memories of family dinners and of foods the older women of her extended family cooked so carefully and lovingly…Recipes for Flinn’s family’s favorite feasts appear throughout the text, most of them readily replicated, yet carefully detailed, even to the level of creating specific spice mixtures.”
“An award-winning nonfiction writer and journalist’s recipe-packed memoir of her Midwestern childhood…A warm, quietly poignant treat.”
“Cassandra Campbell’s velvety voice conveys heartfelt moments in this comforting story of tradition, food, and familial love. This rich memoir recounts the journey of author Kathleen Flinn’s family from Sweden to America and how they managed through good times and bad to maintain a life that provided the stability and support of family. Campbell’s steady narration not only allows listeners to relish all the details of cooking rituals but also captures the strong family connection, especially between the author’s mother and father. Campbell’s range of voices offers some liveliness in an otherwise soothing narration. Winner of the AudioFile Earphones Award.”
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