Burnt Toast Makes You Sing Good

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. M.F. Winner of AudioFile Earphones Award © AudioFile 2014, Portland, Maine

August 18, 2014
In Flinn's (The Sharper Your Knife, the Less You Cry) recipe-rich memoir of her childhood in Flint, Mich., food is a source of sustenance and familial affection. Her Irish-Swedish family's long history of living on working farms allowed them to feed themselves when they were broke. Her father would go out in the morning before his full time job and pick whatever looked ready and her mother would can dozens of jars of applesauce, pickles, beans, and jams, (a skill taught by Flinn's maternal grandparents). The time-consuming and arduous task on her hands earned her mother the nickname "The Claw." With five children in the house, this way of life was once commonplace through the first half of the 20th century, but people abandoned the practice for grocery store conveniences and shortcuts. The family worked incredibly hard on the farm and had few luxuries, (a splurge was going to McDonald's and spending money the kids had earned picking strawberries on another farm in the summer). 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.

February 1, 2015

Flinn's latest work, a prequel to her best-selling The Sharper Your Knife, the Less You Cry, covers the history of her family and how, for them, food and cooking spoke louder than any words. The stories she shares include her family's adventures moving from Michigan to San Francisco and back, the opening and closing of their pizza parlor, the lean years living on the farm, and the more comfortable later years. While this is a pleasant memoir, devoted foodies will be disappointed by the lack of emphasis on food and cooking. Many stories are more about family, with food mentioned only tangentially. Cassandra Campbell returns as narrator and does a fine job of keeping the listener engaged. The audiobook does not include the recipes that are present in the print version. VERDICT Purchase for fans of memoirs with elements of Midwestern family life.--Donna Bachowski, Orange Cty. Lib. Syst., Orlando, FL

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