Home Made

A Story of Grief, Groceries, Showing Up - and What We Make When We Make Dinner

By: Liz Hauck

Narrated by: Liz Hauck

NEW YORK TIMES EDITORS’ CHOICE • An “extraordinary” (The New York Times Book Review) tender and vivid memoir about the radical grace we discover when we consider ourselves bound together in community, and a moving account of one woman’s attempt to answer the essential question Who are we to one another?

“Your heart will be altered by this book.”—Gregory Boyle, S.J., New York Times bestselling author of Tattoos on the Heart

Liz Hauck and her dad had a plan to start a weekly cooking program in a residential home for teenage boys in state care, which was run by the human services agency he co-directed. When her father died before they had a chance to get the project started, Liz decided she would try it without him. She didn’t know what to expect from volunteering with court-involved youth, but as a high school teacher she knew that teenagers are drawn to food-related activities, and as a daughter, she believed that if she and the kids made even a single dinner together she could check one box off her father’s long, unfinished to-do list. This is the story of what happened around the table, and how one dinner became one hundred dinners.

“The kids picked the menus, I bought the groceries,” Liz writes, “and we cooked and ate dinner together for two hours a week for nearly three years. Sometimes improvisation in kitchens is disastrous. But sometimes, a combination of elements produces something spectacularly unexpected. I think that’s why, when we don’t know what else to do, we feed our neighbors.”

Capturing the clumsy choreography of cooking with other people, this is a sharply observed story about the ways we behave when we are hungry and the conversations that happen at the intersections of flavor and memory, vulnerability and strength, grief and connection.

NAMED ONE OF THE BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR BY SHE READS

©2021 Liz Hauck (P)2021 Random House Audio

Critic reviews

"Because [Liz Hauck] writes with such unvarnished clarity and pragmatism, sudden moments of tenderness burst open on the page.... It turns out that showing up to cook and eat with people once a week allows for startlingly deep moments of connection and community. That’s all that happens. And it’s extraordinary.” (Kate Christensen, The New York Times Book Review)

“I could not wait to get home each night so I could get back to reading Home Made. I cared so much about everybody in it. Hauck’s writing embodies what she knows about successful volunteering: Show up on time when you said you would, do what you said you would do, and leave. I loved this book so much. I stayed up way later than I should have to just get one more chapter in before sleeping.” (Gabrielle Hamilton, New York Times best-selling author of Blood, Bones & Butter)

" [Home Made] is flawless.... It’s a true story about boys who got the short end of the stick through no fault of their own, inequality the most destructive and most indestructible monster of them all.” (The Boston Globe)

A gorgeous heartbreaking book

This book brought me to the table where an unlikely group came together to cook, eat, and share. I cared about all of them, wish I had known them, and even more so, I wish I could give them all everything they need to live a safe, happy, full life.

Wonderful

Well-written. Funny, sad, depressing insightful truth. Couldn't "put it down." Definitely makes one question and wonder about our social services and stewardship.

Wow!!!

I don’t know what to say but this is the best book I have listed to in awhile. I cried and laughed and couldn’t put it down! I fell in love with these boys. A thank you to the author who brought them to life for me.

A personal story that exposes systemic problems

This is a beautifully written account of one woman's experiences with youth who have been failed by the system that is supposed to hold them up.Through a weekly volunteer cooking program, Liz connects with the boys who live in a group home where her father used to work. She goes in looking for a connection to her deceased father and finds so much more. In this intensely personal tale, which beginners even more personal in the author's own voice, we get a glimpse through the cracks of our broken youth services system, and are left appreciating the dozens who work to support the millions.

Fantastic....

absolutely wonderful book. it was very intriguing to hear the adventures of the boys at the house and how much care and love Liz had for them. She poignantly shows the struggles the young men face and the struggles they endure at the hands of other people's choices. The author brought you into the story and walked you up the stairs to cook and have dinner each week while overhearing the raw emotional broken perspective these boys lived on a daily basis. Not only did the program allow Liz to deal with her father's passing but it clearly provided positive, loving and caring relationships to the young men who had not experienced this level of intentional caring before in their lives. The boys deserved a good life and a happy ending to the story but in the end the experience, while hopefully enriching on some level, ended up being another broken ending to add to the string of life's casualties. I listened to this book while commuting to work and back home each day, it was so intentional, I anxiously looked forward to the next listening opportunity.

Inspiring and yet eye opening memoir

The author’s heart for dealing with her loss of her father and a Fulfilled promise that she made to the boys in the group home for foster kids
shines through. I loved that the author didn’t shy away from talking about systematic problems, the Structural racism and problems within the welfare system. She painted such a vivid picture of the different boys in the story.

This book gave me a new appreciation for people working within the child welfare system and also a poignant look at what one could do to help further the cause. As Liz explains there is never enough help for the 450,000 of children in foster children here in America.

The staggering reality is many children. Age out of foster care and with little support and guidance they are released and expected to have it together while all the while dealing with complete complex traumas.

Finishing this book has me reconsidering fostering. I have four children of my own and some with extra needs, but thinking about the harsh realities that some of these foster kids have lived through is heart-breaking.

Touching story about love and loss

The author did a wonderful job giving these “kids” a voice. Terrible to hear the about the experiences these kids had in a such a rich city. I commend the work of all people involved in the home and homes like these.

Truly an Experience

This is a truly astonishing and heart-wrenching memoir of a young woman who loses her dad—himself founder of a group home and a food lover—and then starts teaching troubled boys at the home how to cook, eat, and be a family. The author does a stunning job of narration, her voice starting to crack at parts where I wanted to cry, yet elevated during the laugh-out-loud funny parts. I’ve never seen such an amazing window into the lives of children in the foster care system. Can’t recommend this highly enough.

Deeply Moved

One cannot simply read/listen to this book without being moved. I was drawn into each character so much that I ugly cried at the end. Listen and be inspired to make a difference!

Great story!

Went to BC with Liz so had an extra interest in her story
As an educator I also connected with the story and the truths of all the inequities and injustices that some of our kids of color face