Home Made - A Story of Grief, Groceries, Showing Up--and What We Make When We Make Dinner by Liz Hauck
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Web ID: 17693480Grief in different forms
The author was truest when she described the different forms of grief: 1) her own grief for her father 2) the individual boy's grief and defensive mechanisms for missing families, dashed hopes and dreams, and 3) Gerry's hopes to contribute to the solution for longer
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Customer review from barnesandnoble.com
Ultimately not for me
I loved the premise of this book, and thought it showed so much promise. The lives and stories that serve as its basis are raw, real, and at times heartrending; it's definitely a different world from my own. For me, the language and crudeness--while also contributing to the aforementioned--also made a rough go of it for me personally. I ultimately had to set the book aside after 50% as I just couldn't push through more of either. I received an eARC of the book from the publisher via NetGalley; all opinions are my own.
Customer review from barnesandnoble.com
Great Example
When Liz and her dad made a plan to begin cooking lessons at the home her dad founded, she would have no idea what she was getting herself into. Her dad became ill and her family began to focus on him and his needs. It wasn't until after his death that Liz really started to put stock into their plan. Liz and her family come from a line of givers and volunteers. Her family seems like a family we should strive to become, giving to our communities more than receiving, as long as we have the means. As a former foster parent, I can see where what Liz is doing can have a huge impact on the boys she is assisting. I know some of the boys probably didn't think twice about what she was doing for them, some didn't realize what a blessing she was until later in life, and some took it all in while she was giving. This is a heartbreaking and a heartwarming book to read. Definitely give it a go.
Customer review from barnesandnoble.com
The importance of a positive memory
If you have ever worked with children who live in state care or poverty, you might ask, why introduce these youngsters to experiences that they may never again have? In her memoir that vividly captures the dedication of father, the determination of a daughter and the failure of most basic systems, Liz Hauck underscores that every positive experience, no matter how brief, is a positive life-memory for that child that can never be taken from him or her. Engagingly poignant, but neither maudlin nor salvific, this is a great read and an even better listen that leaves you hoping for more…
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Highly recommend
The author was raised in a home where volunteering was valued so this wasn’t her first gig. She and her father had talked about a program where she would cook one night a week for the young men who lived in the group home her father had helped found and where he still worked. After his early death, she wasn’t sure she could go through with it, but with the blessing of his partner and co-founder Gerry, she inaugurated her program. In her words, “this book is my story about dinners and conversations with six boys, or twenty-seven boys, living in foster care who were assigned to a group home run by the human services agency my father had confounded, there as a volunteer. It’s a story about the interconnectedness of food and memory, and community service and community care. This is also a story of modern America.” There was a race against the system to get these young men who came in their mid-to-late teens be prepared for living on their own after they turned 18 and were released to whatever came next, another residential assignment or independence. Their assignment to the house was supposed to be transitional but sometimes there was no where for them to go and Frank was “transitionally” there for four years. He didn’t even have a birth certificate so his celebration dinner was whatever year he decided he was. You can’t help becoming attached to these lost and lonely boys and I absolutely fell in love with Leon. This is a story of the interactions of the boys with the author over the dinners and it’s a story of food. When they were trying to decide what their dinners would look like, Hauck suggested they allow an hour for cooking and an hour for eating. Leon quite honestly asked, why don’t you cook and we eat? Expect to be charmed to pieces and expect to cry.
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Customer review from barnesandnoble.com
Heartbreaking AND “laugh out loud” funny
Homemade is achingly beautiful and radical. A pointed reminder of what it means to care, stay connected and act in a world that has forgotten how. Not many people are like Liz Hauck, a woman in her late 20s who copes with the death of her Dad by cooking with neglected teenagers; we can only be inspired and motivated to do our part. This is not “Eat, Pray, Love” self-revelation, but rather fumbling, honest and powerful testimony of what “servant leadership” means and why we need a whole lot more of it in this world.
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Customer review from barnesandnoble.com
Reflections on loss, grief and life
Warm, authentic tale of a young woman embarking on a dining program with institutionalized boys in honor of her recently deceased father. The book is a memoir that reads more like a friend telling her tales of a volunteer effort. There is not a recognizable story arc with an ending that draws all the experiences together. And the author warns readers of this fact at the onset. This is a rumination on loss and the effort to build something out of it; when really it is a slice of life, nothing more or less. And worthy for the effort. I received my copy from the publisher through NetGalley.
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Customer review from barnesandnoble.com
Heartwarming, Feel Good Memoir
Home Made by Liz Hauck is a warm, make you feel good memoir about a father and a daughter and how just showing up can make a huge difference. Hauck's father Charlie was the kind of guy who made pancakes for his family on Saturday, went to church with his family on Sunday, worked for 30 years at the same nonprofit, and believed in food and baseball. So when his daughter, Liz, suggested starting a cooking program for boys who were in state custody at a residential facility, he responded "that would be neat." Unfortunately, Charlie and Liz did not realize that Charlie had cancer and would be dead before they could start the cooking program. After his death Liz decided to honor her father by going ahead with their plan and started the program without him. She continued to cook with these boys for two hours a week for almost three years and what started as a project to help these boys ended up being her salvation. It is a book with a lot of heart that can be funny but can also be heartbreaking and it is well worth reading. I highly recommend it. Thank you to NetGalley, the author, and the publisher for providing me with a digital copy of this book prior to publication in exchange for my review. This review is being posted immediately to my GoodReads account and will be posted on Amazon and Barnes and Noble upon the book's publication.
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Customer review from barnesandnoble.com