
Kitchens of the Great Midwest
A Novel
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Narrated by:
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Amy Ryan
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Michael Stuhlbarg
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By:
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J. Ryan Stradal
About this listen
“A sweet and savory treat.” (People)
“An impressive feat of narrative jujitsu...that keeps readers turning the pages too fast to realize just how ingenious they are.” (The New York Times Book Review, Editor’s Pick)
From the New York Times best-selling author of The Lager Queen of Minnesota, Kitchens of the Great Midwest is a novel about a young woman with a once-in-a-generation palate who becomes the iconic chef behind the country’s most coveted dinner reservation.
When Lars Thorvald's wife, Cynthia, falls in love with wine - and a dashing sommelier - he's left to raise their baby, Eva, on his own. He's determined to pass on his love of food to his daughter - starting with puréed pork shoulder. As Eva grows, she finds her solace and salvation in the flavors of her native Minnesota. From Scandinavian lutefisk to hydroponic chocolate habaneros, each ingredient represents one part of Eva's journey as she becomes the star chef behind a legendary and secretive pop-up supper club, culminating in an opulent and emotional feast that's a testament to her spirit and resilience.
Each chapter in J. Ryan Stradal's startlingly original debut tells the story of a single dish and character, at once capturing the zeitgeist of the Midwest, the rise of foodie culture, and delving into the ways food creates community and a sense of identity. By turns quirky, hilarious, and vividly sensory, Kitchens of the Great Midwest is an unexpected mother-daughter story about the bittersweet nature of life - its missed opportunities and its joyful surprises. It marks the entry of a brilliant new talent.
©2015 J. Ryan Stradal (P)2015 Penguin AudioListeners also enjoyed...
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Critic reviews
"[Kitchens of the Great Midwest is] the first novel about the emergence and current state of foodie culture...Fundamentally, [it's] about what happens when opposing personalities coexist...." (Book Forum)
"Ryan and Stuhlbarg shine as they use subtle pacing and tone to portray the unique personalities of each character, adding just the slightest hints of a Midwestern accent to give authenticity and differentiation. Stradal's skillful writing delivered by accomplished narrators offers listeners a debut performance to savor." (AudioFile)
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Story
1890, San Francisco. Seduced by her employer’s nephew, Annie Gilmurray, an Irish maid, is accused of stealing the ring he promised her. Sentenced to one year in San Quentin, Annie is heartbroken and frightened among the inmates of the women’s ward: prostitutes, murderers, and pickpockets. But Annie finds beauty and friendship in a brutal place, where the women look out for one another, dreaming of a better life after release. But their world inside San Quentin's walls is a dangerous one, and when the unthinkable happens, Annie makes a choice that will alter the course of her future forever.
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A page-turner following strong women finding their agency imbued with rich, local SF history
- By S. Brett on 06-04-24
By: Meredith Jaeger
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A Brief History of Living Forever
- A Novel
- By: Jaroslav Kalfar
- Narrated by: Juanita McMahon
- Length: 13 hrs and 11 mins
- Unabridged
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When Adéla discovers she has a terminal illness, she leaves behind her native Czech village for a chance at reuniting in America with Tereza, the daughter she gave up at birth, decades earlier. But the country Adéla experienced as a young woman, when she eloped with a filmmaker and starred in his cult sci-fi movie, has changed entirely. In 2030, America is ruled by an authoritarian government increasingly closed off to the rest of the world.
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Not so distant future
- By Kindle Customer on 05-14-23
By: Jaroslav Kalfar
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The Garden of Small Beginnings
- By: Abbi Waxman
- Narrated by: Emily Rankin
- Length: 9 hrs and 51 mins
- Unabridged
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Lilian Girvan has been a single mother for three years - ever since her husband died in a car accident. One mental breakdown and some random suicidal thoughts later, she's just starting to get the hang of this widow thing. She can now get her two girls to school, show up to work, and watch TV like a pro. The only problem is she's becoming overwhelmed with being underwhelmed.
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Absolutely Wonderful
- By Lorna on 06-26-17
By: Abbi Waxman
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Cooking for Picasso
- A Novel
- By: C. A. Belmond
- Narrated by: Mozhan Marnò
- Length: 13 hrs and 30 mins
- Unabridged
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The French Riviera, spring 1936: It's off-season in the lovely seaside village of Juan-les-Pins, where 17-year-old Ondine cooks with her mother in the kitchen of their family-owned Café Paradis. A mysterious new patron who's slipped out of Paris and is traveling under a different name has made an unusual request - to have his lunch served to him at the nearby villa he's secretly rented, where he wishes to remain incognito.
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Great book
- By Becci on 01-03-17
By: C. A. Belmond
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One Day I'll Grow Up and Be a Beautiful Woman
- A Mother's Story
- By: Abi Maxwell
- Narrated by: Abi Maxwell
- Length: 10 hrs and 34 mins
- Unabridged
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Abi Maxwell grew up in rural New Hampshire, one of eight kids in a poor town abutting a wealthier lakeside village. As a young couple, Maxwell and her husband planned not to have kids, but when Maxwell became pregnant, she knew she wanted to raise her child near the mountains and lake of her youth. When her six-year-old, who was known to the world as a boy, asks to wear pink sneakers, asks to be a witch for Halloween, asks to wear a girl’s dance costume, Abi worries about how their small community will react.
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Love
- By luke on 09-20-24
By: Abi Maxwell
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The Kennedy Debutante
- By: Kerri Maher
- Narrated by: Julia Whelan
- Length: 12 hrs and 21 mins
- Unabridged
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London, 1938. The effervescent "It girl" of London society since her father was named the ambassador, Kathleen "Kick" Kennedy moves in rarified circles. Eager to strike out on her own, Kick is soon swept off her feet by Billy Hartington, the future duke of Devonshire. But their love is forbidden, as Kick's devout Catholic family and Billy's staunchly Protestant one would never approve their match. And when war breaks like a tidal wave across her world, Billy is ripped from her arms as the Kennedys are forced to return to the States.
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The pure historical revisionism herein...
- By Talia on 05-04-19
By: Kerri Maher
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Saturday Night at the Lakeside Supper Club
- A Novel
- By: J. Ryan Stradal
- Narrated by: Aspen Vincent
- Length: 9 hrs and 20 mins
- Unabridged
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Mariel Prager needs a break. Her husband Ned is having an identity crisis, her spunky, beloved restaurant is bleeding money by the day, and her mother Florence is stubbornly refusing to leave the church where she’s been holed up for more than a week. The Lakeside Supper Club has been in her family for decades, and while Mariel’s grandmother embraced the business, seeing it as a saving grace, Florence never took to it. When Mariel inherited the restaurant, skipping Florence, it created a rift between mother and daughter that never quite healed.
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Just okay
- By Joy Pahl on 05-14-23
By: J. Ryan Stradal
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Hum If You Don't Know the Words
- By: Bianca Marais
- Narrated by: Katharine Lee McEwan, Bahni Turpin
- Length: 14 hrs and 25 mins
- Unabridged
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Life under Apartheid has created a secure future for Robin Conrad, a 10-year-old white girl living with her parents in 1970s Johannesburg. In the same nation but worlds apart, Beauty Mbali, a Xhosa woman in a rural village in the Bantu homeland of the Transkei, struggles to raise her children alone after her husband's death. Both lives have been built upon the division of race, and their meeting should never have occurred...until the Soweto Uprising.
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Completely wrong accents
- By Debbie on 02-12-22
By: Bianca Marais
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Darling Girl
- A Novel of Peter Pan
- By: Liz Michalski
- Narrated by: Elizabeth Knowelden
- Length: 11 hrs and 41 mins
- Unabridged
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Life is looking up for Holly Darling, granddaughter of Wendy—yes, that Wendy. She's running a successful skincare company; her son, Jack, is happy and healthy; and the tragedy of her past is well behind her...until she gets a call that her daughter, Eden, who has been in a coma for nearly a decade, has gone missing from the estate where she's been long tucked away. And, worst of all, Holly knows who must be responsible: Peter Pan, who is not only very real, but more dangerous than anyone could imagine.
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Brilliant
- By D. D. Falvo on 05-06-22
By: Liz Michalski
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Minor Dramas & Other Catastrophes
- By: Kathleen West
- Narrated by: Julia Whelan
- Length: 11 hrs and 9 mins
- Unabridged
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Isobel Johnson has spent her career in Liston Heights sidestepping the community’s high-powered families. But when she receives a threatening voicemail accusing her of anti-Americanism and a liberal agenda, she’s in the spotlight. Meanwhile, Julia Abbott, obsessed with the casting of the school’s winter musical, makes an error in judgment that has far-reaching consequences for her entire family.
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Julia Whelan makes all books great!
- By Ellen Zelda on 02-19-20
By: Kathleen West
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A Season of Perfect Happiness
- A Novel
- By: Maribeth Fischer
- Narrated by: Beth Hicks
- Length: 10 hrs and 1 min
- Unabridged
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Ten years after an unspeakable tragedy caused Claire to flee her hometown in Delaware, she finally feels content. She has a quiet, tidy life in Wisconsin, a place she picked at random for its shape on a map. Her careful existence centers on a simple plan: keep her social circle small and keep the past a secret. But when she meets Erik—a lighthearted theater nerd who gives Claire more of a chance than she’s given herself in a long time—that plan seems increasingly impossible.
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Couldn’t put it down!
- By Lawrence S. Weigand on 11-19-24
By: Maribeth Fischer
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All Our Wrong Todays
- A Novel
- By: Elan Mastai
- Narrated by: Elan Mastai
- Length: 10 hrs and 2 mins
- Unabridged
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You know the future that people in the 1950s imagined we'd have? Well, it happened. In Tom Barren's 2016, humanity thrives in a techno-utopian paradise of flying cars, moving sidewalks, and moon bases, where avocados never go bad and punk rock never existed...because it wasn't necessary. Except Tom just can't seem to find his place in this dazzling, idealistic world, and that's before his life gets turned upside down.
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Really fun time travel novel
- By Mark on 07-20-17
By: Elan Mastai
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The Forgotten Letters of Esther Durrant
- A Novel
- By: Kayte Nunn
- Narrated by: Arianwen Parkes-Lockwood
- Length: 10 hrs and 52 mins
- Unabridged
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1951. Esther Durrant, a young mother, is committed to an isolated mental asylum by her husband. Run by a pioneering psychiatrist, the hospital is at first Esther's prison but soon surprisingly becomes her refuge. 2018. Free-spirited marine scientist Rachel Parker embarks on a research posting in the Isles of Scilly, off the Cornish coast. When a violent storm forces her to take shelter on a far-flung island, she discovers a collection of hidden love letters.
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Family Secrets
- By Carmen Gibson on 05-14-25
By: Kayte Nunn
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Are We There Yet?
- By: Kathleen West
- Narrated by: Thérèse Plummer
- Length: 10 hrs and 8 mins
- Unabridged
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Alice Sullivan feels like she’s finally found her groove in middle age, but it only takes one moment for her perfectly curated life to unravel. On the same day she learns her daughter is struggling in second grade, a call from her son’s school accusing him of bullying throws Alice into a tailspin.
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Excellent narration, unlikable characters
- By Deborah on 01-24-22
By: Kathleen West
Where does Kitchens of the Great Midwest rank among all the audiobooks you’ve listened to so far?
I think this book is an undiscovered gem. It ranks as my favorite Audible book this year.Who was your favorite character and why?
Eva was amazing! Pat, too! Both of these are strong women who make their marks.Any additional comments?
This is a wonderful book for any foodie! I love to read and the "foodie" influence made it extra special. I am so pleased that i came across this book.My Favorite Book I've read this Year!
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Great read
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i pray he is hard at work on a new novel at this very moment. thank you Ryan for bringing these wonderful women into my life, they will live on in me for a long time to come. Sincerely, liZ Jardine
Delicious Perfection!!
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Hang in there - it's worth it!
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Each chapter is about an entirely different person, some are incredibly close to Eva, others are merely tertiary characters in her life. It's their story we're actively involved in with Eva being a part of it, yet the novel is about Eva. Think of it as a collection of short stories with a reoccurring character that isn't necessarily connected to any other characters in the novel.
There were times I was frustrated with how little Eva appeared in one's chapter, particularly in Pat's story...and I have so many questions about Pat's story.
But the final chapter, all the stories come together into one, in the final meal. I longed to be sitting at that table. As soon as the menu was read, I knew why we heard about Eva in each persons' story.
I hate spoilers, so I cannot be more specific, but part of me begged for a big revelation but then, I was filled with such respect for how this character handled herself, not wanting to cause, pardon my pop culture reference, 'a disturbance in the force.'
I gave it 5/5 for story but for my frustration in some of the chapters, I'd give it 4.5 if I could.
The two narrators were pretty good but sometimes their accents seemed a bit over the top...but never having been to Minnesota, maybe they do sound like that.
A delicious tapestry
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Held my interest.
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I literally could not love this book any more than I do, it is just not possible.
I particularly love the three different chapters called Lutefisk, Venison, and Bars. But there is something wonderful in each of the chapters and the stories told in each one.
The narrators chosen for this audio are oh-my-gosh so good. Reading the story in print is enjoyable, but listening to the audiobook makes me smile while I listen. The accents are TO DIE FOR.
PERFECTION.
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Different!
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A perfect distraction
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Tough as an audiobook
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