Diana Abu-Jaber

Diana Abu-Jaber tosses in a bit of this, a pinch of that, and a smidgen of the other to create a thoroughly engaging meal in Life Without a Recipe: A Memoir of Food and Family. Abu-Jaber pulls together American life and the influence of her father's Jordanian roots in a book that spoke to me in unexpected ways. Her descriptions of being in the kitchen with her grandmother made me long to be in the kitchen with mine just one more time. Fond memories from my own life stirred as she described show more her experience with her grandmother and then with her father sprinkled with her journey toward and into motherhood. When she describes obstacles encountered as she ventured out from her family's belief systems, I nodded and smiled. Abu-Jaber tapped the moment we all share when our opinions, experiences, and choices veer away from the recipe we've been assigned to create a life much more delicious. She explores love and loss and desire and need along side insecurity and confidence and self-discovery and growth. Abu-Jaber demonstrates the connection we all share with a life recipe that is sometimes overcooked, sometimes undercooked, sometimes too salty, sometimes too sweet as we search for the perfect ingredient to balance all the flavors to find the most delicious result. Life Without a Recipe is the story of a woman who knows her recipe is still being written...

This review is written based on a free advance reading copy provided by the publisher. show less

The Language of Baklava pulls and immerses readers from the beginning. While Diana's father and uncles are described as loud, overbearing and demanding, we learn how kind, generous and thoughtful most of them can be. While the women are pictured as compliant and uncomplaining, Diana ensures we see just how capable, smart and independent they are.

The story of Abu-Jaber's father is the experience of many immigrant families in the US. Missing home and family, the resulting disorientation, and show more sadly the bias, disrespect or outright discrimination from Americans for their different language, dress and customs. Adult immigrants also suffer an emotional disconnect as their children grow and assimilate into American culture.

Diana's life is enriched by briefly living in Jordan when her father fears he is losing his children to American culture. It helps her understand him better and accept her Jordanian heritage.

The Language of Baklava is special in its love of family, cooking, serving and eating Jordanian foods, and visiting many relatives especially Auntie Aya who knows best how to mend fences between family members.

Diana's mother's mother, Gram is priceless. She is a proud but historically and culturally ignorant American especially during a trip to a Chinese restaurant. Believing she is worldly and sophisticated, she behaves firtatiously, misunderstanding dramatic differences in Chinese and Japanese history /culture she infuritates and embarrasses Diana big time.

An excellent, funny, sad and moving read. show less

Origin by Diana Abu-Jaber entices the reader to think about the role of identity in the world. It’s a beautifully written novel that doesn’t shy away from intense topics. Abu-Jaber creates a main character, Lena, who is hard to know, confusing, and at times even hard to like, but who will entrance the reader. At times her thought process frustrates the reader but always with a purpose. Abu-Jaber weaves a tale around infant deaths, adoption, foster care, and mental illness that entertains show more the reader while pushing the reader to step outside the accepted sociological mindset. The ending leaves a few unanswered questions leaving the reader to wonder if Abu-Jaber plans subsequent novels about Lena. Origin is a well written, engaging tale that is both fantastical and all too real at times. show less

I’ll leave other print reviews to give you plot summaries and to gush about the fascinating story and the author’s rich, emotion-ladened, authentic, and nuanced prose. This review is focused primarily on the audiobook edition.

Tamara Marston’s reading of Diana Abu-Jaber’s Birds of Paradise is exactly what you’d want for this specific book. It’s a perfect match—outstanding reader, outstanding novel.

I am an avid print book reader and audiobook listener. I read on average three show more to four print books a month. During my working years, I had very long daily commutes, and in my early retirement years I had even longer commutes to visit and care for elderly parents. Audiobooks have been an essential addition to my life. In fact, I’ve been listening to commercial audiobooks since the early days when they were available from only one major vendor and I had to rent them through the U.S. mail from the company that produced them. I must have listened to more than a thousand over the last 35 years. If there is one important lesson I’ve learned, it is that the quality of the reader’s performance is absolutely crucial. I know my favorite readers just as well as I know my favorite authors. I generally browse for print books by favorite authors, but when I am selecting audiobooks, I often browse first by favorite readers. I took a chance with this unfamiliar author and reader, but I was astonished—no, truly blown away—by the quality of this work. What happens here is pure synergy!

I hope this review does not sound too over-the-top…but that is exactly how I feel about this work. I’m positively glowing and floating through my day after finishing the novel. I am definitely going to add Tamara Marston to my list of outstanding readers, and I am definitely going to add Abu-Jaber to my list of favorite authors.

As an important added comment, I listened to most of this book while accompanying my husband on a car trip to visit family 400 miles away. My husband is the type of man who is into vintage planes and automobiles, politics, and economics…he almost never reads fiction and has no opinions about literature one way or the other. I’m pleased to say that he, too, was spellbound by this book. Now, that says a lot about the author and the reader. show less