BE READY WHEN THE LUCK HAPPENS
by Ina Garten
My most recent celebrity memoir on audiobook, Be Ready When The Luck Happens, was a delight from beginning to end. I’ve long known Ina Garten was charming from her TV shows and Instagram, and she brings that charm to bear on the telling of a surprising and compelling story.
Garten grew up in Connecticut with a much older brother and two emotionally and occasionally physically abusive parents. Although their life looked perfect from the outside, Garten says she often felt lonely and afraid as a child and spent most of her time in her room. When she met her husband Jeffrey Garten (infamous thanks to Garten’s near constant mentions of him) she was only 16 years old and visiting her brother at Dartmouth. Their early life together was full of upheaval, travels, separations and improvisation. By their early 20s they were living in Washington DC and both working for the White House. Ina found her job at the Offices of Management and Budget frustratingly slow-moving, despite its potential for impact. And so she spent her days dreaming about dinner parties and home renovations.
One day she saw an ad in the paper selling a gourmet food store in the Hamptons called Barefoot Contessa. After visiting briefly, she made an incredible leap and bought it, changing the course of her life forever. Over the years the store thrived and she expanded to another location. Garten was always looking for her next challenge though and that led her to sell the stores and begin to write cookbooks. Those led, with a few false starts, to a television show and the global fame we now associate with her personal brand.
As often happens with a memoir, I found there was much more than I realized to this woman whom I already admired. She worked incredibly hard and was constantly challenging herself and others to find a better, smoother or kinder way to do things. She often wrested control of situations where others tried to keep her in the dark. And of course, she makes cooking and entertaining sound easy and fun, which it should be! This book was a delight and has inspired me in more ways than one. (Lily)
