Life from Scratch

A Memoir of Food, Family, and Forgiveness

By: Sasha Martin

Narrated by: Andi Arndt

Sasha Martin set herself a rather ambitious goal: to cook - and eat - her way around the world, with 196 recipes from 196 countries in 196 weeks. Enter Global Table Adventure, a project that proves to be more than just a culinary challenge as Sasha attempts to navigate the vicissitudes of marriage, motherhood, and life's failures and successes, all inextricably linked to her troubled past.

For Sasha food and cooking unlock the memories of a difficult childhood and the loss and heartbreak that came with it. She and her brother lived with their mother in Boston before being placed in foster care with a family in Europe. Among the hard moments of her young life, the most difficult occurred when Sasha was just 12 years old - she witnessed her brother's suicide.

As she mines her past to make sense of her childhood, food allows Sasha to find her own place in the world - and create the home she has been craving her whole life. This is a story about food from around the globe but also about how food can transform us, about being a mother and a wife, about loving the world, and about learning to love ourselves.

Download the accompanying reference guide.©2015 Sasha Martin (P)2015 Blackstone Audio, Inc.

Excellent Book Club Pick!

Beautifully written. And beautifully read (for those of us in book clubs who don't have the time to sit down and actually physically read the book ourselves). Lots of good points to chew over--especially over a glass of wine and cheese with good friends.

So much more than food

Every memory of Sasha's brought up memories for me. Every bite of food could be smelled and tasted. The weaving of food with life was bittersweet and beautiful.

Truly about forgiveness...and food

During the course of the book, I was inspired by Sasha Martin's ability to forgive. It's easy to be angry in defense of the heroin. In the end, it isn't my place to feel anything, but empathy for this family. On the updside, it made me proud that the end setting is in Tulsa, a city and people that I love.

A vivid illustration of how good connects, heals, and communicates

I listened to this book in two days. I generally get bored with audiobooks and don’t generally finish. I couldn’t get enough of this one. I hope there’s a second part.

what a turn around!

Sasha broke my heart, then have me hope. I wish her continued success. She deserves it.