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Day of Honey: A Memoir of Food, Love, and War
by
Annia Ciezadlo (Goodreads Author)
American Book Award WinnerWinner of Books for a Better Life Award (First Book)
James Beard Foundation Award Nominee
BNN Discover Awards, second place nonfiction
IN THE FALL OF 2003, AS IRAQ DESCENDED INTO CIVIL WAR, Annia Ciezadlo spent her honeymoon in Baghdad. For the next six years, she lived in Baghdad and Beirut, where she dodged bullets during sectarian street battles,...more
James Beard Foundation Award Nominee
BNN Discover Awards, second place nonfiction
IN THE FALL OF 2003, AS IRAQ DESCENDED INTO CIVIL WAR, Annia Ciezadlo spent her honeymoon in Baghdad. For the next six years, she lived in Baghdad and Beirut, where she dodged bullets during sectarian street battles,...more
Paperback, 416 pages
Published
February 14th 2012
by Free Press
(first published February 1st 2011)
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When Annia Ciezadlo started dating a Lebanese man she met in New York, she had no idea how his culture and his family would influence her life. After all, most of Mohamad’s family lived elsewhere, in Lebanon, France and Spain. But when Newsday appointed Mohamad chief of its Middle East bureau, he wanted to be stationed in Beirut, and Annia moved with him. Soon they were both in Iraq, Mohamad reporting and Annia working as a freelance writer. Annia’s story, Day of Honey: A Memoir of Food, Love, A...more
Loved this book. No easy way to categorize or explain it, but I was moved to want to copy out sentences here and there where I felt she, the author, captured something I have known in life but that is hard to capture in words. The author presents herself in some ways as an aggressive,talkative extrovert but her writing is understated and reflective in ways that I appreciate. I was surprised when I saw her book jacket photo-- the only thing I didn't like about the book-- in the photo I saw a youn...more
This is a book of personal love, family connections, the history of how food connects us, and the modern conflicts in Iraq and Lebanon. The focus is personal and everyday. Annia is comforted and inspir...ed by food and let’s face it who isn’t? From her interest and love of people and food she introduces us to many middle-eastern people and delicious dishes. You start to care for these people and want to learn more about them and she does a wonderful job of explaining the modern political conflic...more
In the fall of 2003, Annia Ciezadlo spent her honeymoon in Baghdad. Over the next six years, while living in Baghdad and Beirut, she broke bread with Shiites and Sunnis, warlords and refugees, matriarchs and mullahs. Day of Honey is her memoir of the hunger for food and friendship—a communion that feeds the soul as much as the body in times of war.
This is a wonderful novel to read. Who said you can't mix business with pleasure, its all in HOW you do it and author Annia Clezadlo did it well in t...more
This is a wonderful novel to read. Who said you can't mix business with pleasure, its all in HOW you do it and author Annia Clezadlo did it well in t...more
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Day of Honey makes me hungry. Not just for the unusual and exotic foods that Annia Ciezadlo describes with an unlimited vocabulary in several languages, but also hungry to explore the customs associated with food, and to peer beneath the layers of politics and war to see the real life going on underneath. Ciezadlo writes, "Food and drink were like truth serum. People would say one thing when you first met them....gradually, bite by bite, they would reveal what they really thought."
Ciezadlo and h...more
Ciezadlo and h...more
I loved, loved, loved this book. The book opens up in the USA, NY to be exact, right after 9/11. The author and her Muslim Arabic boyfriend were not all that popular with everyone at that time. But they marry and move to the Middle East, where the two report on war, peace, and food.
You can tell the author is passionate about food- she writes about it like it is her lover. Like they have a secret, and she is trying to explain their torrid affair. I'm not kidding about this at all. She goes into d...more
You can tell the author is passionate about food- she writes about it like it is her lover. Like they have a secret, and she is trying to explain their torrid affair. I'm not kidding about this at all. She goes into d...more
Honestly, I didn't expect to be so taken by this book. However, I was completely moved.
Ciezaldo writes so vividly that I couldn't stop dreaming of the food she described. I swear I could taste it. My mouth literally watered. She writes from the heart and she touched mine.
In 2003, Annia, who grew up in the Midwest, and her Lebanese husband, who grew up in New York, move to Beirut to Baghdad and back to Beirut to cover the war as reporters. She covers the events, people, culture and food there wi...more
Ciezaldo writes so vividly that I couldn't stop dreaming of the food she described. I swear I could taste it. My mouth literally watered. She writes from the heart and she touched mine.
In 2003, Annia, who grew up in the Midwest, and her Lebanese husband, who grew up in New York, move to Beirut to Baghdad and back to Beirut to cover the war as reporters. She covers the events, people, culture and food there wi...more
The ‘Day of Honey’ is neither a cookbook nor a travel book: it is a free of stereotypes journey through the cultures of the Middle East, from Lebanon to Iraq and back to New York city. In a very tensed world, facing wars and violence, food is the only recipe for peace and dialogue. It is a book that should be included in the list of the compulsory bibliography of any diplomat ready to enter the real world of wars and peace between the nations. Being able to eat is part of the basic survival, but...more
Annia took us to places that most people fear to go. And that is into the war zones. However, instead of focusing on the fighting and the soldiers as most “war” stories do, she focuses on the everyday person and how they live their daily lives in spite of bombs going off around them.
She does discuss some of the politics that are taking place at the time of her life in Baghdad. However, this is not at the forefront of her book. This is more like a side note in order for the reader to understand t...more
She does discuss some of the politics that are taking place at the time of her life in Baghdad. However, this is not at the forefront of her book. This is more like a side note in order for the reader to understand t...more
I really enjoyed this memoir, as horrific as it was a times. Annia presents a pretty clear eyed view from inside Bagdad during 2004-2005 and even more so Beirut the next few years. As a person of Lebanese descent, I found her descriptions of the tribalism, corruption, and legacy of civil war and Syrian domination in Lebanese life to be very sobering and heartbreaking. Annia does an excellent job of showing life in war time through the eyes of every day people. She shows how the rhetoric of the "...more
This extraordinary debut by Annia Ciezadlo is memoir of her time covering wars, loving Mohamed (her husband), and trying to make a home in the Middle East since 2001. This memoir is like being with a friend on a crowded New York City subway: she tells the story loudly over the clatter of wheels and we (and everyone else) are riveted to her startlingly vivid tale: love, war, revenge, and mothers-in-law. And Food—it’s as though she “has prepared a feast for us with her own hands.”
Ciezadlo makes n...more
Ciezadlo makes n...more
I've marked this book "read" but it's not finished, since I'm still working my way through the recipes in the back! Annia is a friend and colleague, and in this deft, funny and thoughtful book she shows those of us lucky to have lived far from war how conflict remakes the fabric of everyday life without ever wholly destroying it. In these pages lies the rich human detail I had always wanted to see in journalism from Iraq but could almost never find in the papers (aside from Annia's dispatches fo...more
Apr 15, 2012
Maria
rated it
4 of 5 stars
Recommends it for:
All
Recommended to Maria by:
I just saw it in Politics & Prose bookstore
This memorist knew how to use the journalistic angle to get the most of the story. The story was not about her. She was the catalyst for those affected by war to tell their stories. She had the opportunity many times to emphasize her chaotic teenage years, and how she perceived the world as a result. However, when I finished this book I realized that she didn't add the story of her upbringing to say it was the reason why she empathized with others in chaotic situations, it was more a way to just...more
Stumbled upon this book at the GC library's table entitled, "Walk in their Shoes" and loved the gorgeous cover. So far, enjoyed the strong intro chapter - philosophy of life via food. Mmmmmm.
Page 58:
What makes us civilized?
cooking makes us human
We are the only creatures who share food with strangers - Feast: Why Humans Share Food - by Martin Jones
Page 61:
Hospitality, whether offered by an emperor or an illiterate goatherd, is what makes us civilized...the old custom of hospitality to strangers,...more
Page 58:
What makes us civilized?
cooking makes us human
We are the only creatures who share food with strangers - Feast: Why Humans Share Food - by Martin Jones
Page 61:
Hospitality, whether offered by an emperor or an illiterate goatherd, is what makes us civilized...the old custom of hospitality to strangers,...more
Early in the pages of the book Ciezadlo writes, “The truth is I was never all that interested in the Middle East”. It’s a simple observation that draws you into her story with the understanding that you – and anyone else – is welcome in reading, that you have every right to venture into the pages. It also illustrates the honesty with which she approaches the topic, and all the smaller topics within the book. It’s her non-political approach that makes Day of Honey a reading experience everyone wi...more
Beautiful, sad, and honest look at the people and places of the Middle East during modern turbulent times. Annia has succeeded beyond mere reporter and shone the lens on not only the people she encountered and befriended while living in Beirut and Baghdad, but on how their history, culture, and most importantly, their food changed her. This book is one of the better memoirs I have read in a long time and the pages are filled with harrowing tales of living life in a war zone, peppered with storie...more
A great memoir for anyone intrigued by food and the customs, norms, and loving bonds fostered by cooking and eating good food. The author writes about living in Iraq and Lebanon. Some days are full of friends, family and delicious cuisine. Other days are characterized by war, sectarian division, and fear. The Arab saying "Days of honey, days of onions" suggests this dichotomy. The neighborhood (and even the apartment building!) where I lived in Beirut figures heavily in the harrowing account of...more
Mar 12, 2011
Mary (BookHounds)
rated it
4 of 5 stars
·
review of another edition
Shelves:
2011,
from-publisher-author
This is a wonderful book about love, war and food that will have you craving the dishes mentioned. Of course, the author is kind enough to provide some recipes along with her witty take on life. I found myself laughing (inappropriately) at her descriptions of how marriages are arranged in the Middle East. There are a lot of little insights into this little understood place with first person accounts make the area a lot more real than what you see on the news.
It is a blessing that Ciezadlo is a j...more
It is a blessing that Ciezadlo is a j...more
Didn't finish this one. It's a memoir of a journalist who goes to Beirut and Baghdad with her Arabic journalist husband. The author has chosen to present her experiences there through the lens of food. And I thought the food parts were fine, although I couldn't "taste" anything through descriptions.
However, the author didn't put enough of herself into the book. 60 pages in, I had no idea what she was like, what her husband was like, or what her in-laws really were like. I had a hard time picturi...more
However, the author didn't put enough of herself into the book. 60 pages in, I had no idea what she was like, what her husband was like, or what her in-laws really were like. I had a hard time picturi...more
After reading "Mornings in Jenin" I really wanted to love this book. Essentially a freelance journalist (Greek heritage, American citizen) and her husband (a regional correspondent from Beirut) go to active war zones, Baghdad, Beirut etc. for their jobs and Annia seeks the real food from each war torn city, she learns to cook from her mother-in-law, and goes in search of food that people ate before war ravaged their home cities.
I had a hard time identifying with Annia, she didn't seem very genui...more
I had a hard time identifying with Annia, she didn't seem very genui...more
Another wonderful book that I highly recommend. Ms. Ciezadlo writes a compelling book about her connection to food. As she states in the book, the one thing that keeps people together is "food." No matter if you are living in a war zone, or not, everyone needs to eat. She also wants readers to experience the different foods in different cultures. She talks about her struggle trying to cook in Iraq when the war began.
I love her experiences with food and as a Greek, she talked about the history of...more
I love her experiences with food and as a Greek, she talked about the history of...more
This was really lovely. With one caveat--some raw language towards the end, but I guess I'll forgive her since she was living in a war zone. :-) The author, a journalist and foodie, marries an American of Lebanese Muslim descent who is also a journalist, and they move to the Middle East, living in Baghdad and Beirut through war and unrest. The author connects with the people around her through food--recipes included. She writes of how she finds a way to maintain normality by cooking and eating....more
A wonderful read. For all us us in the US who don't appreciate living in a relatively stable situation, I highly recommend this memoir. Gives a needed view of life in Iraq, Lebanon and other related areas. From Amazon: IN THE FALL OF 2003, AS IRAQ DESCENDED INTO CIVIL WAR, Annia Ciezadlo spent her honeymoon in Baghdad. For the next six years, she lived in Baghdad and Beirut, where she dodged bullets during sectarian street battles, chronicled the Arab world’s first peaceful revolution, and watch...more
Annia Ciezadlo is one tough amazing woman and a darn good writer. A war reporter, she spends her honeymoon in Baghdad in the fall of 2003 after marrying a Shiite Muslim from Lebanon she met in New York just before 9/11. The memoir covers the aftermath of invasion of Iraq, as well as the repercussions in Lebanon afterwards and I learned a lot about the precariousness of any peace that catches hold in that region. What I loved about this book is the way it is about everyday people's lives in the m...more
Food as a way of taking your mind off war. Food as a way of learning about history. Food as a way of connecting with your mother-in-law. I know this all has been done before, and yet I absolutely loved this book. It made me wish I could travel to Beirut and Baghdad, for the way Lebanese bake bread, for the way Iraqis grill fish.
The politics of Lebanon were still hard to sort out, but the geek in me enjoyed the brief digressions into how Akkadians baked bread, how dismissive other Middle Eastern...more
The politics of Lebanon were still hard to sort out, but the geek in me enjoyed the brief digressions into how Akkadians baked bread, how dismissive other Middle Eastern...more
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If you have any doubt in Annia Ciezadlo’s love for food, you only have to read a few pages of her memoir, Day of Honey, to dispel that notion.
Annia cooks for fun, cooks for comfort and everything in between. She creates a mental map of geographical areas by the foods found in little hole-in-the-wall restaurants or in the carts of street vendors. When her new husband’s job takes her to Beirut, and then Baghdad, Annia uses food to understand the people and...more
If you have any doubt in Annia Ciezadlo’s love for food, you only have to read a few pages of her memoir, Day of Honey, to dispel that notion.
Annia cooks for fun, cooks for comfort and everything in between. She creates a mental map of geographical areas by the foods found in little hole-in-the-wall restaurants or in the carts of street vendors. When her new husband’s job takes her to Beirut, and then Baghdad, Annia uses food to understand the people and...more
I sometimes listen to interviews with the authors on NPR, and this book particularly intrigued me. Perhaps it is because the life of the author is the one I believed I was destined to have at one time in my life. Yes, Christiane Amanpour is one of my heroes, and now so is Annia Ciezadlo. Here she was, a fearless and truth seeking modern day war time journalist describing a life I had never dreamed possible - successfully married, having family members living near by, yet somehow living in and un...more
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I loved this book! It had me on the edge of my seat, white knuckled at times, hungry most of the time, smiling, laughing and shed a tear or two but mostly wishing I had gone on a long trip to explore and eat my way through the Middle East. Ms. Ciezadlo's research is extensive in both the history of food, politics of food then and now. I've never read a book about covering a war(s) with this very insightful different point of view and answers how a war reporter feeds and nurtures herself while wr...more
As a “polish-Greek-Scot-Irish mutt from working class Chicago” journalist, married to a Lebanese man, Ciezalo travels from Brooklyn in the aftermath of 9/11 events to Lebanon and Baghdad. She turns her attention to the culinary traditions of the region and to “millions of ways people cope” during wartime mostly through cooking and eating rituals, while providing a history of the Middle East and giving an entertaining account of her adventures with her new Lebanese in-laws. Captivating and inform...more
Annia Ciezadlo does an amazing job of taking a history lesson, and making it into something readable & enjoyable! Perhaps it is because she weaves in the story of food, and who doesn't like food!? I was enlightened by her perspective of how war affects the everyday lives of people, including what they eat, how they get food, etc. Because in the end, isn't everything we do about staying alive by eating? This makes me appreciate the abundance and availability of food that we are blessed with!
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