Life from Scratch

A Memoir of Food, Family, and Forgiveness

By: Sasha Martin

Narrated by: Andi Arndt

Length: 8 hrs and 26 mins

Publisher's Summary

Sasha Martin set herself a rather ambitious goal: to cook - and eat - her way around the world, with 196 recipes from 196 countries in 196 weeks. Enter Global Table Adventure, a project that proves to be more than just a culinary challenge as Sasha attempts to navigate the vicissitudes of marriage, motherhood, and life's failures and successes, all inextricably linked to her troubled past.

For Sasha food and cooking unlock the memories of a difficult childhood and the loss and heartbreak that came with it. She and her brother lived with their mother in Boston before being placed in foster care with a family in Europe. Among the hard moments of her young life, the most difficult occurred when Sasha was just 12 years old - she witnessed her brother's suicide.

As she mines her past to make sense of her childhood, food allows Sasha to find her own place in the world - and create the home she has been craving her whole life. This is a story about food from around the globe but also about how food can transform us, about being a mother and a wife, about loving the world, and about learning to love ourselves.

Download the accompanying reference guide.

©2015 Sasha Martin (P)2015 Blackstone Audio, Inc.

Apple pie for your soul

Beautiful story that had me in tears at times, and other times grinning from ear to ear. I guess I like happy endings. There are a lot of recipes to listen to, so you might also want to pick up a hard copy for reference. Excellent narrator.

Not that much

I thought it would be a lot more enjoyable.
It's an autobiography about her personal pains and happiness. Didn't add anything to me.

Charmingly Bittersweet

Very we'll written contemplation and explanation of Sasah's life and influences. The narrator's voice was as soothing as Sasha's story unfolds to be. Well done.

Excellent Book Club Pick!

Beautifully written. And beautifully read (for those of us in book clubs who don't have the time to sit down and actually physically read the book ourselves). Lots of good points to chew over--especially over a glass of wine and cheese with good friends.

Better than the book -and I loved the book

Well written. I Enjoyed all the details but felt there were too many bad times and not enough details about the good times. I understand it wasn’t a book written about overcoming the good past! I did enjoy it a lot!

Truly about forgiveness...and food

During the course of the book, I was inspired by Sasha Martin's ability to forgive. It's easy to be angry in defense of the heroin. In the end, it isn't my place to feel anything, but empathy for this family. On the updside, it made me proud that the end setting is in Tulsa, a city and people that I love.

what a turn around!

Sasha broke my heart, then have me hope. I wish her continued success. She deserves it.

So much more than food

Every memory of Sasha's brought up memories for me. Every bite of food could be smelled and tasted. The weaving of food with life was bittersweet and beautiful.

A table for everyone!!

A book of acceptance, great food, travel and life!! The importance of all kinds of families, lifestyles, and heritage!! A book to bring us all together!!

A different and better story than I thought it would be

I got this book knowing it’d be about a woman and cooking. What I didn’t know I was getting was a whole family story of travel, frayed relationships, constant unknowns, tender moments, adventure, and then a story about cooking recipes for every country of the world. So much fit into the book I thought I was listening to a different one at times - but in a good way. I already recommended this to a relative who enjoys memoirs and food books.