How do I begin to write a review to do this beautiful book justice? I feel like I’ve gotten an education on Sicilian culture, cuisine, and a front row seat in Tembi’s experience of losing the love of her life. My heart is full, and aching with how real the fragility of life is, and how we should cherish every moment with our spouses and loved ones. To actually live life and do things instead of being absorbed in our phones. How does Zoela both comfort and challenge Tembi after Saro’s death? Did Tembi’s description of parenting through grief surprise you in any way? Did you write for a certain audience, or does an imagined reader not play a role in your writing process? But it was learning about her in the fourth grade that made me first understand what it meant to be exiled. To be cast out of home. To have no home. I was not exiled, for sure, but as a kid I didn’t always feel rooted. At times I even fantasized about making a home with Miriam Makeba. I saw her as the godmother my atheist parents hadn’t given me. In my childish fantasy, she and I could be two exiled people, flung around the globe. As we turned onto Viale Alessandro Volta, the boulevard that would take me to my host family’s home, I got scared. I was falling for him.

Ciao, Tembi!” Her voice rang out as if we had just seen each other a couple of nights before over an aperitivo. “Connor told me about you. I knew you’d call. Where are you?” The couple head to Sicily for their honeymoon, so Lino can introduce his family to his new wife and show Amy his beloved home, but his father tells him not to bother visiting. Just come outside, one moment. I want to make you a surprise.” English should always sound like this. I let him take my hand. The reward of jet lag is a new set of coordinates, a new language, and local delicacies. Italy did not disappoint. Eating my pastries as I looked out the window, on the bus ride from the Rome airport to Florence, I watched the passing cypress trees, hills, and farmhouses. It was like seeing a place for the first time that you felt you had known your whole life. When we finally made it to Florence under the midday summer sun, we stumbled out of the bus near the church of San Lorenzo. By then I realized I couldn’t wait to get away from the bulk of the girls on the exchange program. One transatlantic flight and then a two-hour bus ride was enough.In her quest to find belonging within Saro’s family and in Aliminusa, Tembi must navigate barriers of language, race, and class. Discuss the moments where she feels most like an outsider, and the ways in which she is able to find mutual understanding and respect despite seemingly insurmountable differences. Tonight has been busy, I could not come down to say hello.” He was unguarded, his ease alluring. “I’ll come by your school tomorrow.” Another large chunk of the series is true to the spirit of the book, if not the letter. Sometimes narrative necessity and strict memories didn’t coincide precisely. “So maybe that moment would happen a little bit later in the episode, or maybe it would come in the next episode,” Tembi says. “But we know that the characters need to have traversed this moment somehow.” IMDB has described the From Scratch mini-series as "an American woman falls in love with a Sicilian man while studying abroad in Italy."

Overall, an interesting and enjoyable audiobook that I am glad I listened to. Thank you to my lovely local library for the audio loan! However, the father and son bump into each other at a market, but the rift remains as his father drives off. Risotto con sugo verde is first. Saro will to make you samples of the menu. Tutto menu. All of it.” I loved the way Lucia doubled down on verbs to make a point. The platter hit the table with a gentle bounce. “This is the first. Buon appetito.” With that she disappeared like a hostessing Merlin into the stone walls. The spell was cast, and I hadn’t even taken the first bite. From Scratch started as a book, and speaking about her decision to write the memoir, author Tembi said: "This story had been swelling in my heart for years. Some of it even before Saro passed. I understood that there were aspects of our love story that were rare and beautiful. But, Mom, I’m an art history major. My graduation requirement includes being proficient in either French, German, or Italian. Studying in Kenya—”

Table of Contents

Discuss the significance of the book’s title. In what ways does Tembi start her life “from scratch,” and in what ways is she building off a preexisting foundation?

When I got to the window, flushed with anxious nerves, the first thing I saw was that it was pouring rain. Shit! Really? Could this be any worse? As I peered out into the night and looked down, there he was. My Saro. His coat was drawn tight, his hair was a wet, soaking mess. He was looking up at the window of our apartment.Louise Erdrich, Cheryl Strayed, Toni Morrison, Isabel Allende, Zadie Smith, Pablo Neruda, James Baldwin, and, personally, my sister Attica. The world continued turning as the author grieved, but she seems really annoyed that happened. We learn almost nothing about the years of her marriage, the life or death of her father in law, their life after their daughter joined the family, or anything else that isn't about the author, the author's feelings, how inconvenienced the author was by having to care for other people, and how upset the author was by being widowed because somehow she never seemed to notice it had ever happened to anyone else. Does From Scratch reinforce or challenge any preconceptions you may have had about rural Sicilian life? This book is about Tembi and Saro’s love and their struggles once he was diagnosed with cancer. His death was heartbreaking to Tembi and their daughter, Zoela. How does one cope with the loss of the love of your life? How were Tembi and her daughter able to move forward? This is what this memoir explores.