Home Baked

My Mom, Marijuana, and the Stoning of San Francisco

By: Alia Volz

Narrated by: Alia Volz

FINALIST FOR THE NATIONAL BOOK CRITICS CIRCLE AWARD FOR AUTOBIOGRAPHY

A blazingly funny, heartfelt memoir from the daughter of the larger-than-life woman who ran Sticky Fingers Brownies, an underground bakery that distributed thousands of marijuana brownies per month and helped provide medical marijuana to AIDS patients in San Francisco—for fans of Armistead Maupin and Patricia Lockwood

During the '70s in San Francisco, Alia's mother ran the underground Sticky Fingers Brownies, delivering upwards of 10,000 illegal marijuana edibles per month throughout the circus-like atmosphere of a city in the throes of major change. She exchanged psychic readings with Alia's future father, and thereafter had a partner in business and life.

Decades before cannabusiness went mainstream, when marijuana was as illicit as heroin, they ingeniously hid themselves in plain sight, parading through town—and through the scenes and upheavals of the day, from Gay Liberation to the tragedy of the Peoples Temple—in bright and elaborate outfits, the goods wrapped in hand-designed packaging and tucked into Alia's stroller. But the stars were not aligned forever and, after leaving the city and a shoulda-seen-it-coming divorce, Alia and her mom returned to San Francisco in the mid-80s, this time using Sticky Fingers' distribution channels to provide medical marijuana to friends and former customers now suffering the depredations of AIDS.

Exhilarating, laugh-out-loud funny, and heartbreaking, Home Baked celebrates an eccentric and remarkable extended family, taking us through love, loss, and finding home.

Loved this book

Loved the story and devotion to tell her mothers story and I guess in a way her story to

Time travel to a world I didn’t live from the time I grew up in

Surprisingly interesting listen. Great narration by the author, she immures the listener/reader in SF in the 70s and 80s- life, politics, drugs, fashion, etc and makes you feel part of that scene. Often paused my listening to look up people and protests and other events in the book. An honest but gentle look at her mother’s life.

So Much More than I Expected

I love memoirs, so picking Home Baked was not a far stretch for me. I wanted an interesting book for my road trip, and I got that and so much more. I absolutely loved the history experience sprinkled in along the way. I had NO idea what a powerful experience this book would be. I laughed, cried, got angry, and experienced authentic joy. I felt so much compassion and felt very uneasy about the ties to what we are experiencing today. Alia Volz did an amazing job at painting pictures a reader can jump into. This is definitely a must-read!

Definitely worth a listen

Awesome story tying in personal/family history with social and historical events. Great job Alia, and thanks.

Groovy

Wonderful memoir of the author’s Mother in San Francisco during 1970. We’ll worth the read.

Everything and more

The author's voice is kind, rich, calming. The true story includes everything you could want in a book! An easy read that made me laugh out loud, cry, feel anger, disappointment and so much more. Fabulous!

Absolutely loved this book!

This book really hit home for me. I moved to San Francisco in 1978, just a few months before the Jonestown massacre and the assassination of George Moscone and Harvey Milk. I also lived in the Castro during the AIDS crisis and worked for a drug copany that partnered with ActUp. The narration is wonderful and so heartfelt. Not only is Alia's family's story so well told, but she interweaves San Francisco history and presents a powerful narrative on the war on drugs and it's devastation. I cried so many times while listening. I miss the old San Francisco and it's quirkiness, now mostly replaced by tech workers, corporate businesses. I highly recommend.

Absolutely loved this book!

This book captures the times and zeitgeist of
San Francisco in the 70s. Told with humor, honesty, intimacy and so much love, these colorful characters come alive. I wish I had been there during this time, these people are my tribe!

Terrible Narration

Author being unthusiastic about narrating their own book shows exactly how interesting the book is.