Be Ready When the Luck Happens was an absolute balm to my soul. Ina Garten, the Bob Ross of calm, reassuring presence in the food world, managed to make me like her even more. I expected the confident breeziness we see on her shows, but I didn't anticipate the depth, candor, or the kindred sense of adventure she brings to her story.

From her difficult upbringing to her marriage with Jeffrey and her influential entrepreneurial drive, Garten's memoir is warm, funny, and refreshingly open, as she takes charge of her life's story to tell it the way it deserves to be told.