The Lost Art of Mixing (A School of Essential Ingredients Novel)

by Erica Bauermeister

MEMORIES TURNED INTO RECIPES, recipes turned into stories.

The Newar people of Kathmandu believe that the older a person gets, the nearer they are to the gods.

It was interesting, Isabelle thought, the children that chose you. Some came through your body; others came in cars in the middle of the night. Sometimes it seemed as if the ones who had their own transportation were easier.

Minds, however, Isabelle had realized, were far more like squirrels—constantly forgetting where they had hidden what would keep them alive through the winter.

“They aren’t leftovers,” Charlie used to tell him as she took the bits and pieces of a previous day’s meal out of the refrigerator. “They’re a head start.”

Some days words seemed more like clothes, created to distract attention from things you didn’t want other people to notice.

for Finnegan, his interest in people’s stories was always the unexpected memories that lingered beneath the words, waiting to come out.