Book Review - But Mama Always Put Vodka in Her Sangria

Julia Reed is a hoot. Her book But Mama Always Put Vodka in Her Sangria is subtitled Adventures in Eating, Drinking, and Making Merry. She covers the gamut along with recipes and travel tales. And Reed’s indelible Mississippi Delta childhood provides a strong foundation for her sassy stories.  The title derives from a real life friend’s mother, and only serves to give a sampling of some culinary adventures. She will make you hunger for food from Madrid to Paris to Kabul (from back in the day as a reporter). Some of the highlights of the book come from her own Southern garden and its bounty.

Come along to some fabulous parties. From the back cover: Shindigs range from sultry summer suppers and raucous dinners at home to a Plymouth-like Thanksgiving feast, and an upscale St. Patrick’s Day celebration. This delightful collection of essays by Julia Reed, a master storyteller with an inimitable voice and a limitless capacity for fun, will show you how to entertain guests with style, have a good time yourself, and always have that perfect pitcher of sangria ready at a moment’s notice.

I loved this book and appreciated that it was given to me by a friend who was born in Mississippi and knew Julia Reed from school days. I can’t wait to get together with her and hear some more. Meanwhile, pour a tall glass of lemonade or sangria, plop yourself in a lounge chair, and prepare to laugh. But Mama Always Put Vodka in Her Sangria is lighthearted, witty, and sunshine on a cloudy day. This book made a flight of three hours zoom by in no time. Now that’s a fun read.