Feels Like Home

A Song for the Sonoran Borderlands

By: Linda Ronstadt, Lawrence Downes

Narrated by: Kathe Mazur

Rock and Roll Hall of Famer Linda Ronstadt takes readers on a journey to the place her soul calls home, the Sonoran Desert, in this candid new memoir.

In Feels Like Home, Grammy award-winning singer Linda Ronstadt effortlessly evokes the magical panorama of the high desert, a landscape etched by sunlight and carved by wind, offering a personal tour built around meals and memories of the place where she came of age. Growing up the granddaughter of Mexican immigrants and a descendant of Spanish settlers near northern Sonora, Ronstadt’s intimate new memoir celebrates the marvelous flavors and indomitable people on both sides of what was once a porous border whose denizens were happy to exchange recipes and gather around campfires to sing the ballads that shaped Ronstadt’s musical heritage. Following her bestselling musical memoir, Simple Dreams, this book seamlessly braids together Ronstadt’s recollections of people and their passions in a region little understood in the rest of the United States. This road trip through the desert, written in collaboration with former New York Times writer Lawrence Downes and illustrated throughout with beautiful photographs by Bill Steen, features recipes for traditional Sonoran dishes and a bevy of revelations for Ronstadt’s admirers. If this book were a radio signal, you might first pick it up on an Arizona highway, well south of Phoenix, coming into the glow of Ronstadt’s hometown of Tucson. It would be playing something old and Mexican, from a time when the border was a place not of peril but of possibility.

©2022 Linda Ronstadt, Lawrence Downes, and Bill Steen (P)2022 Heyday

Critic reviews

"The arid land that starts in Arizona and stretches into Mexico's west coast is Ronstadt's foothold in the world. It's a story she has told through music, and now wants to tell through food."—The New York Times

"The book is many things at once. It’s a portrait of a place, the Sonoran Desert, and it’s a genealogy of sorts, an archival romp through Ronstadt’s family history."—Vogue

"An album of loves for the high desert of Sonora and Ronstadt's hometown of Tucson."—NPR

Brilliantly written rich cultural history of Linda Ronstadf’s home in Mexico-

I truly loved this touching biography- It’s heartfelt love for the culture of Mexico is one that can teach the world how to be a wonderful, happy, & enriched enlightenment- I Thank Linda For Sharing Her Background & Life - She’s An Amazing Singer,Politically Savvy, & Is My SHERO - It would behoove all to read her book - There’s so much Mexico could teach us !♥️💫

Tucson!

I recently spent time in Tucson and fell in love. This book brought me to tears when she would describe the smells and beauty of it.

Linda’s family life (ancestors included)!

All the Ronstadt’s sang! It sounds like many generations of her family sang quite a bit. Family gatherings did not end when the children were sleepy. They just crawled up into an adult’s lap and fell asleep listening to the music. Linda’s American side of the family were successful business owners. Her Mexican relatives were on the poor side of life. This family has published much about the family ancestors and I hope to find and read these items.

This book tells us about Linda’s childhood as a white/hispanic child/woman. Linda is from Tucson so she grew up knowing much about border crossings. The difference in what color your skin was. (White, light brown or dark brown.) Linda’s English-speaking/light skin gave her advantage over many of her friends and relatives who were dark brown. Grade schools tried to punish children who didn’t speak English. It sounds like the goals back in the 1960’s was to punish Spanish speaking children, rather than putting them in a class like English for Spanish speakers. The difference between then and now is amazing.

Recommend.