Recipe for Joy by Monica Comas
- Mar 31
- 2 min read
Recipe for Joy by Monica Comas is a touching story of family, grief, and food that makes you want to call your siblings, start a garden, and start making your own vegetable stock.
Belle is a middle-aged woman at a sticking point in life where she has stalled out and lost momentum. She decides to regroup by going home to stay with her Gran. Gran raised Belle and Belle’s sister Lexie after their mom died, and is a huge source of comfort to Belle as she starts to figure herself out again. This is relatable to me— I’m in my mid thirties and feel like career wise I’ve started over a few times, and ask myself: What do I really want to be doing with my life? What’s really important to me?
In this way, this book reminded me of another recent book I enjoyed, The Fortune Flip by Lauren Kung Jessen, which is totally different yet also features a female protagonist starting over in a lot of ways.
Belle and her sister Lexie are somewhat estranged, which clearly bothers Gran, who is also estranged from her own sister. As Belle stays with Gran and Gran encourages her to get back in touch with Lexie, she also teaches Belle secrets of cooking, gardening, and all her Gran ways.
This book conveys human emotions so strongly and speaks to how complicated grief can be, how it can shuffle up the whole deck you thought you knew. The writing is very heartfelt and fast paced. I felt like this story is an accurate display of the human experience. Nothing over the top, too easy, or too great, just life and its quiet joys and stresses. It’s a story of identity and family.
This book also includes Gran’s recipes, which if you’re like me, you will need because you will be HUNGRY reading this. I was serious about the vegetable stock. If you like book club fiction, or a heartfelt tale of food and family pick this one up! I read this as part of BookSparks Spring Reading Challenge thank you @booksparks @lakeunion and thanks to @monicacomas who clearly poured her heart and soul on to this page!
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