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This was a warm hug. The audiobook read by Ina Garten is a great experience. Her voice is so familiar and comforting. I learned a lot - she used to work at the White House doing Nuclear budgets before becoming a celebrity chef. What a crazy life and so interesting to read about! There are a lot of really sweet personal moments too - especially with regard to her husband. Loved how intimate this felt and enjoyed getting to know more about her!

I know so little of the foodie-famous, and my TV has never landed on the food channel. Until this was placed in my LFL last February had Ina Garten‘s name come up on a multiple choice question, I‘d have picked C) Swedish climate activist. And for Barefoot Contessa B) drag queen. …I‘ve recently discovered I love foodie memoirs and this further confirms - I loved it!

Super privileged and unrelatable but still a good listen in a roll your eyes kind of way. (Ina don‘t panic if you can‘t find the perfect antiques to furnish your Paris apartment. It‘s not that serious.)

#Read2025

Finished earlier in the week, it was one of my 6 #Roll100 picks for May (#7: Any Memoir). I really enjoyed the audiobook read by Ina herself. When I first started food blogging in 2008, I joined a group called Barefoot Bloggers & we cooked 2 of her recipes a month. In 2017 another group I was with cooked a recipe each week for 6 months, so you can say I‘ve cooked with her A LOT! I‘ve also watched her shows & follow her on Instagram & ⬇️

This was wonderful! All I knew going into this memoir was that Ina is “The Barefoot Contessa.” I‘ve never watched her shows or purchased her cookbooks.

I came out of this a fan! And being able to listen to Ina‘s voice telling her story made it so much more special.

Now I want to buy one of her cookbooks and start trying her recipes.

Loved! ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

Current audiobook… I‘ve never watched Ina‘s show or gotten her cookbooks, but her memoir is so interesting!

“For me, cooking wasn‘t the goal of entertaining; being with friends was the goal, so I wanted to make easy recipes that anyone could prepare and know their guests would be delighted.”

It would be easy to view Ina as a Martha Stewart type woman who knows how to do everything & does it perfectly- the ultimate housewife that us mortals cannot live up to. However describing Ina this way is so wrong. She is her own feminist, who taught herself how to do countless things- own a business, cook, write a book, flip real estate. She even worked for the White House dealing with nuclear policies. I love her focus on perseverance. Read it!

A fun read with a clever title!

Read by Ina herself, this audiobook is very much like her cooking show where she‘s warm and welcoming, often telling stories alongside her cooking demonstrations. I remember watching the Barefoot Contessa on the Food Network way back in the day and I always enjoyed her soft tone and approach. This covers her early days/parents (not so good) her husband Jeffry (really loves him), purchasing the specialty food store in the Hamptons, tv, Paris, more.

I read this for book club. Otherwise I NEVER would have picked it up. I had heard of Ina Garten because I work at a bookstore & we carry her cookbooks. But I am not interested in cooking, cookbooks or cooking shows so this really wasn‘t my thing.

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ Just delightful! I was only vaguely familiar with the “Barefoot Contessa,” but that didn‘t hinder my enjoyment at all. Turns out there are some random similarities from the early years of our marriages, so that was a happy coincidence. Garten is a fantastic, candid storyteller. Highly recommend! So happy I got this in our book club‘s recent “Blind Date with a Book” swap!

5/5

This is a really fascinating memoir about Ina's life from her childhood and meeting Jeffrey to opening her store and eventually working on her cookbooks and TV show. It's an interesting book about someone who has lived an interesting life, and I thought it had a really good message about being prepared for when good luck finds you.

Love Ina and loved her memoir ♥️

ebook: Be Ready When the Luck Happens by Ina Garten
audiobook: A Quiet Life in the Country by T. E. Kinsey

#weekendreads @rachelsbrittain

oved this! Honest, vulnerable, funny and exposing her hard work ethic, it was both inspiring and entertaining. Loved reading about her approach to good food and living. Her genuine authenticity was clear through this quick book!

I finished this today moving my youngest home from Uni. This is the tidy storage unit holding his stuff until his next adventure. My house is not tidy 😩 I liked this audio book but I didn‘t love it

Really enjoyed it

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ Lovely and charming, like Ina Garten herself. It‘s probably exactly what you think it is—Garten telling her story, starting with childhood with emotionally difficult parents, falling in love with Jeffrey as a teenager, and then her paths through school, travel, education, and work all the way to Barefoot Contessa and TV. Perfectly enjoyable, not difficult or surprising.

Very enjoyable listen and I also bought the book for pictures and recipes!

Lukewarm about this. 🤷‍♀️ She does a lot of name dropping and complaining about how awful her parents were, both of which I dislike.🥮

Listening to this one while I start holiday baking. I feel like I‘m missing something, so I keep checking the book for the pictures.

So very excited to learn more about Ina‘s childhood and life story. She is so sweet and i am truly amazed at all the hard work it took to run her Barefoot Contessa store.

I‘ve always liked Ina. I enjoyed watching a feminist perspective inform her personal and professional growth. But this is a light pick for me. I think I just wasn‘t the right reader for this book, at least not in this moment in time/history.
Further thoughts in spoiler comment below! Not spoilers per se, but I wouldn‘t want to mar anyone's experience of escaping into this one, as the food (and many other) aspects are delightful!

I learned how to cook watching Ina and Giada on the Food Network years ago, and have always been a Barefoot Contessa fan. Her life is even more fascinating than I expected, and I loved reading about her relationship with Jeffrey, warts and all. I‘m a Hamptons girl myself and her warm and breezy aesthetic reflects all the best things about this area. Listening to this was a balm for the past week and all the horrendous news here in the US.

I‘ve only watched bits of BC here and there but heard good things about this, so I decided to give it a go when it popped up at my library. I enjoyed spending some time with Ina and hearing her story. Only a small bit of this talks about her show and I liked that. She‘s very relatable, and I like her life philosophy enshrined in the title.

I‘ve harbored a crush on Ina for as long as I can remember. A crush in the sense that I wanted to be in her orbit, read her books, watch her shows, make her recipes and be as cool as her. What a wonderful story of hard work, stubbornness and perseverance, not to mention a thread of her love story with Jeffrey throughout. Well told in her own words and voice.