AUTHOR REBECCA BARRY--"RECIPES FOR A BEAUTIFUL LIFE"--a memoir of married life, motherhood, and making it work in the modern world--told with humor, truth, and a few recipes sprinkled here and there

Recipes for a Beautiful Life: A Memoir in Stories 
by Rebecca Barry

Writing with a delicate balance of humor and truth, critically acclaimed author Rebecca Barry reflects on motherhood, work, and marriage in her new memoir about trying to build a creative life.

When Rebecca Barry and her husband moved to upstate New York to start their family, they wanted to be surrounded by natural beauty but close to a small urban center, doing work they loved, and plenty of time to spend with their kids. But living their dreams turned out not to be so simple: the lovely old house they bought had lots of character but also needed lots of repairs, they struggled to stay afloat financially, their children refused to sleep or play quietly, and the novel Rebecca had dreamed of writing simply wouldn’t come to her.

Recipes for a Beautiful Life blends heartwarming, funny, authentically told stories about the messiness of family life, a fearless examination of the anxieties of creative work, and sharp-eyed observations of the pressures that all women face. This is a story of a woman confronting her deepest fears: What if I’m a terrible mother? What if I’m not good at the work I love? What if my children never eat anything but peanut butter and cake? What if I go to sleep angry? It’s also a story of the beauty, light, and humor that’s around us, all the time—even when things look bleak, and using that to find your way back to your heart.

Mostly, though, it is about the journey to building not just a beautiful life, but a creative one.

See more at: http://books.simonandschuster.com/Recipes-for-a-Beautiful-Life/Rebecca-Barry/9781416593362#sthash.n4RwrRdD.dpuf

REBECCA BARRY

Rebecca Barry lives in Trumansburg, New York, with her husband and two sons. She received her B.A. from Cornell and her M.F.A. from The Ohio State University. Her nonfiction has appeared in numerous publications, including The New York Times Magazine, The Washington Post Magazine, Seventeen, Real Simple, Details, Hallmark, and The Best American Travel Writing 2003. Her fiction has appeared in Ploughshares, One Story, Tin House, Ecotone, The Mid-American Review, and Best New American Voices 2005.