EATS OF EDEN
Eats of Eden is a trip into the memory, into the stomach, and into the heart of every woman. These essays of tasty bites, writing, coming-of-age, family, sex, self-esteem—and above all, overcoming personal odds to live your best life—are complete with mouth-watering recipes and memories that will change your relationship with food forever. From self-identity to love affairs with the sinking of the Titanic to cheese snobbery to reconciling the unanswered questions of a lost friendship, the home-loving socialite at the heart of this memoir dishes and dines on fashion, feminism, fabulousness, and food.
Eats of Eden follows a year of attempting to write a novel, and the daily life, occasional revelations and passions that feed, distract, complicate, and enrich that process—in the author’s case, constant detours into the kitchen. It’s a book about writing, eating, and surviving in the modern west, from literary hustling at the Doug Fir Lounge, to waiting for life-altering emails around a stew-cooking campfire at Crater Lake.
EATS OF EDEN IN THE PRESS
Interview in 1859 Magazine
Review & Interview at The Museum of Americana
Eats of Eden Playlist on Largehearted Boy
"What to Read When You're Hungry" in The Rumpus
Afternoon Live! Segment on Portland's KATU
Book Review in Atticus Review
Book Review in Tenacious Feminist
Book Review in The Spines
This Podcast Will Change Your Life Interview
Interview with The Nervous Breakdown
Interview with Split Lip Magazine
BOOK TOUR STOP REVIEW IN THE SEASIDE SIGNAL
Interview with the coil
Interview with the LITERALLY podcast
Most Anticipated of 2018 on The Spines
Book Bites with Steph Post
—Leesa Cross-Smith,
author of Whiskey & Ribbons and Every Kiss a War
“Eats of Eden is truly a delicious treat! Blankenbiller is a confident essay writer, making it look easy as she lets us into her hungry heart in this bright, satisfying collection. She waxes on food and being a writer and wrestles with rejection, ambition, and cheese-lust. Peppered with recipes, pop culture, sugar-sweetness, and plenty of nostalgia, this book is a unique, honest, funny, glittery, high-energy explosion of a sparkly cupcake—easily and greedily devoured.”
—Aaron Gilbreath,
author of Everything We Don’t Know and This Is: Essays on Jazz
“A writer’s life can be ridiculous, between the self-sabotage, the hours spent moving commas and carefully crafting our public images, never mind the risks we take to create moments of deep luminous beauty only for the world to ignore them. Blankenbiller writes a triumphant, existential comedy of errors about finding her way as a creative person, making readers laugh one moment and nod the next. I love when books can be this fun and vulnerable. She laughs without hiding behind the humor. She also includes recipes, because she knows salvation lies in food and friends. Take a risk. Bake a strata. Read Eats of Eden.”