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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- Length: 8 hrs and 27 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
Unfiltered. Unapologetic. Older, but not wiser, Lancaster goes back to basics in this hilarious essay collection about everything from taking community policing classes to accidentally getting high with her waiter after a fancy dinner. These are the tales she'd tell if she met you in a bar... if she weren't too lazy to put on pants and go to a bar. Offering advice ranging from how to remain happily married to a man who refuses to blow his damn nose already to not creating An Incident at the cheese counter during an attempt at Whole30, she's you, only louder.
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self absorbed
- By D D H on 06-15-19
By: Jen Lancaster
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The Good Luck Girls of Shipwreck Lane
- By: Kelly Harms
- Narrated by: Reay Kaplan, Suehyla El-Attar
- Length: 10 hrs and 13 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
When their lives and personalities intersect, however, they discover that more than just a million-dollar dream home awaits them at the water’s edge. These three women (oh yes, Aunt Midge comes along for the ride!) arrive at their newfound mansion only to uncover what exactly it means to truly be "home." Filled with wit and charm, The Good Luck Girls of Shipwreck Lane is Kelly Harms's enchanting and heartfelt debut - a testament to the many, many ways love finds us, the power of a home-cooked meal, and just what it means to be lucky.
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good plot but the swearing was too much for me
- By Arianne on 02-13-20
By: Kelly Harms
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Orange Mint and Honey
- By: Carleen Brice
- Narrated by: Cherise Booth
- Length: 8 hrs and 7 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
After grad school, Shay Dixon feels like she's had enough for awhile. Inspired by her spiritual adviser - a soul-soothing blues player named Nina Simon - Shay calls her estranged mother Nona for the first time in years, and shocks herself by asking if it would be okay to come home for a while.
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One For The Money
- By DiaRose on 09-25-17
By: Carleen Brice
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The Story of Arthur Truluv
- A Novel
- By: Elizabeth Berg
- Narrated by: Elizabeth Berg
- Length: 6 hrs and 53 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
Three people find their way back from loss and loneliness to a different kind of belonging in this deeply moving novel. Arthur, an old widower struggling to overcome his grief, meets Maddy, a troubled teenage girl who avoids school by hiding out where Arthur goes every day for lunch. The two strike up a friendship that draws them out of isolation.
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Sickly Sweet
- By Amazon Customer on 01-19-18
By: Elizabeth Berg
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Tapestry of Fortunes
- By: Elizabeth Berg
- Narrated by: Barbara Caruso
- Length: 7 hrs and 5 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
Cecilia Ross is looking for a change. She has decided to take time off from her job as a successful motivational speaker and sell her home. She moves in to a beautiful old house in St. Paul, Minnesota, complete with a big front porch, a wild garden, a chef's kitchen - and three roommates. The four women are different ages, but all are feeling restless, and want to take a roadtrip to find the people and things they miss.
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Mellow story
- By Amazon Customer on 04-24-17
By: Elizabeth Berg
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Slider
- By: Pete Hautman
- Narrated by: Scott Lange
- Length: 5 hrs and 29 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
Competitive eating vies with family expectations in a funny, heartfelt novel for middle-grade audiences by National Book Award winner Pete Hautman.
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its the bomb.com
- By M. Smith on 01-03-19
By: Pete Hautman
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I Hate Everyone, Except You
- By: Clinton Kelly
- Narrated by: Clinton Kelly
- Length: 4 hrs and 55 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
Clinton Kelly is probably best known for teaching women how to make their butts look smaller. But in I Hate Everyone, Except You, he reveals some heretofore unknown secrets about himself, like that he's a finicky connoisseur of 1980s pornography, a disillusioned critic of New Jersey's premier water parks, and perhaps the world's least enthused high school commencement speaker.
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Filthy language overshadowed stories
- By Doris on 04-29-17
By: Clinton Kelly
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Whiskey & Ribbons
- By: Leesa Cross-Smith
- Narrated by: Larry Heron, Joe Bearor, Tunisia Hardison
- Length: 8 hrs and 34 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
Set in contemporary Louisville, Leesa Cross-Smith's mesmerizing first novel surrounding the death of a police officer is a requiem for marriage, friendship, and family, from an author Roxane Gay has called "a consummate storyteller". Evi - a classically-trained ballerina - was nine months pregnant when her husband Eamon was killed in the line of duty on a steamy morning in July. Now, it is winter, and Eamon's adopted brother Dalton has moved in to help her raise six-month-old Noah.
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Beautifully Tragic and Heart Healing
- By Jennifer Glover on 08-17-18
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God-Shaped Hole
- A Novel
- By: Tiffanie DeBartolo
- Narrated by: Rachael Warren
- Length: 10 hrs and 44 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
When Beatrice Trixie Jordan replies to a personal ad, she meets Jacob Grace, a charming, effervescent 30-something free-spirit writer passionately seeking life. He possesses his own turns of phrase and ways of thinking and feeling that dissonantly harmonize with Trixie's off-center vision. As they rollercoaster through the joys and furies of their wrenching romance, they try to come to terms with the hurt brought about by both of their distant fathers who, in different ways, forsook them.
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To see a fortune teller or not to see one...
- By Renee on 08-08-18
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Confessions of a Carb Queen
- A Memoir
- By: Susan Blech, Caroline Bock
- Narrated by: Aimee Jolson
- Length: 8 hrs and 32 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
By the time Susan Blech was 38 years old, she weighed a staggering 468.1 pounds. She binged. She was "only a little chubby," or so she convinced herself. Gripping, sometimes shocking, and ultimately inspiring, Confessions of a Carb Queen is the story of how Susan changed her life to save her life, ultimately losing 250 pounds without surgery. Susan speaks candidly about eating binges, fat sex, and other topics no obese person has dared to address.
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Negative reviews are ridiculous.
- By Heather Marie on 01-07-16
By: Susan Blech, and others
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The Wangs vs. the World
- By: Jade Chang
- Narrated by: Nancy Wu
- Length: 14 hrs and 1 min
- Unabridged
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
Charles Wang is mad at America. A brash, lovable immigrant businessman who built a cosmetics empire and made a fortune, he's just been ruined by the financial crisis. Now all Charles wants is to get his kids safely stowed away so that he can go to China and attempt to reclaim his family's ancestral lands - and his pride. Outrageously funny and full of charm, The Wangs vs. the World is an entirely fresh look at what it means to belong in America - and how going from glorious riches to (still name-brand) rags brings one family together in a way money never could.
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Spectacular
- By Barbara on 10-11-16
By: Jade Chang
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The Way Life Should Be
- A Novel
- By: Christina Baker Kline
- Narrated by: Caitlin Davies
- Length: 7 hrs and 19 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
Angela can feel the clock ticking. She is single in New York City, stuck in a job she doesn't want and a life that seems to have somehow just happened. She inherited a flair for Italian cooking from her grandmother, but she never seems to have the time for it - these days, her oven holds only sweaters. Tacked to her office bulletin board is a photo from a magazine of a tidy cottage on the coast of Maine - a charming reminder of a life that could be hers if she could only muster the courage to go after it.
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Simple story
- By Dianna Bogart on 06-09-15
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Garden Spells
- By: Sarah Addison Allen
- Narrated by: Susan Ericksen
- Length: 7 hrs and 43 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
The Waverleys have always been a curious family, endowed with peculiar gifts that make them outsiders even in their hometown of Bascom, North Carolina. Even their garden has a reputation, famous for its feisty apple tree that bears prophetic fruit, and its edible flowers, imbued with special powers.
Generations of Waverleys tended this garden. Their history was in the soil. But so were their futures.
Together again in the house they grew up in, the Waverley sisters realize they must deal with their common legacy - if they are ever to feel at home in Bascom - or with each other.
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I so want to give it 5 stars...!!!!
- By Joihelene on 10-09-10
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From the celebrated author of The Secret Life of Bees, a magnificent novel about two unforgettable American women. Writing at the height of her narrative and imaginative gifts, Sue Monk Kidd presents a masterpiece of hope, daring, the quest for freedom, and the desire to have a voice in the world - and it is now the newest Oprah’s Book Club 2.0 selection. Hetty “Handful” Grimke, an urban slave in early nineteenth century Charleston, yearns for life beyond the suffocating walls that enclose her within the wealthy Grimke household. The Grimke’s daughter, Sarah, has known from an early age she is meant to do something large in the world, but she is hemmed in by the limits imposed on women.
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This is embarrassing!
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When her estranged mother dies, Stella is left with an unusual inheritance: a one-way plane ticket and a note reading “Go to Paris.” Stella is hardly cut out for adventure; a traumatic childhood has kept her confined to the strict routines of her comfort zone. But when her boss encourages her to take time off, Stella resigns herself to honoring her mother’s last wishes.
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Magical, but read the actual book do not listen
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What listeners say about Kitchens of the Great Midwest
Average customer ratingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
- Trish
- 04-04-17
My Favorite Book I've read this Year!
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.
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- Mrsrichard13
- 10-10-19
Great read
Another great book by J. Ryan Stradal. I’m still in awe at how this author can take so many characters and several plots and interweave them so magnificently.
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- Liz Jardine
- 05-28-20
Delicious Perfection!!
He's done it again! Actually he wrote this magnificent novel first but i read it after discovering The Lager Queen of Minnesota. Bravo, it was sheer perfection, i even loved the inclusion of the actual recipes mentioned in the story. i love the way he 'drew' his characters & am continually amazed how a man can understand & write women so beautifully.
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
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- CL
- 03-17-17
Hang in there - it's worth it!
So I thought about not finishing this book & returning it. REALLY glad I didn't!
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- delacemi
- 05-23-19
A delicious tapestry
I absolutely loved this book, but I didn't love it as much as I did until I finished it.
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.
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- Paul
- 10-15-16
Held my interest.
Interesting interweaving of characters. Familiar settings of the mid-west. Mouth watering recipes and enticing read.
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- Asheley
- 09-17-18
PERFECTION.
I love this book and audiobook so much. I just completed my third listen and I love it more every time. The story structure is so cool, the way every chapter features a different person in Eva Thorvald's life. Eva's life centers around food, as she eventually grows up to become a famous chef, so this is very much a book for foodies. But it is also a book about family - the kind we are born with and the kind we make for ourselves by surrounding ourselves with the people we love the most. It seems like every time I read the book either in print or on audio, the theme of family becomes more obvious to me and I can see a little something more about these complicated relationships layered in there. It is really a spectacular story and one that is very close to my heart.
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.
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- Mamacat
- 05-09-17
Different!
Enjoyed the cool way the author told the story. it was interesting and kept me reading. Again and again I will say I do not enjoy foul language and I am sure writers can tell these stories with less of it. The narration was good, I sped it up to 1.65 on Audible.
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- Julie Schwait
- 10-26-18
A perfect distraction
What a kind, charming novel, and what a welcome respite from the crude ugliness of the day. I commend all listeners to the sentiments of a national spice purveyor, who freely shares the bumper sticker: Love People... Cook Them Tasty Food. Sharing food is surely a great act of love and we need that now.
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- L. S.
- 09-24-21
Tough as an audiobook
Really well written, but so many interconnected characters made it tough to follow and it’s probably better read. Also, all of the characters except for one are really (realistically) unlikeable so much of it is a slog to get through.
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