Will This Make You Happy is an ode to the wild pleasures of transformationhow sugar and heat become sustenance, how a psychic flatline shivers upward into curiosity and hope. I gulped it down, eager for every last crumband will be grateful for its gospel of mess and care for the rest of my days.Leslie Jamison, New York Times bestselling author of Splinters and Make it Scream, Make it Burn
"In what feels like literary magic, Tanya Bush bakes every element of taste, every sensation of sweet, salty, bitter and sour into her recipes and, most enticingly, into her stories. We follow her through a year of cookies and clafoutis, of confusion, love, infatuation and disappointment, of discovery and pleasure. Its the stuff of a real life. That we ride the ups and downs with Bush, feel the dizziness and the joy, and see her world through her sharp eye, is a measure of her talent: She is such a good writer."
Dorie Greenspan, five-time James Beard Award winner
Beautifulsmart, funny, and effortlessly lyrical. Lots of books capture the romance of the kitchen, and lots address the emotional knots of cooking and eating, but Will This Make You Happy does both. It reminds me of so many writers whose work I love and return to and have learned from. Assured and brilliant.
Ruby Tandoh, bestselling and award-winning author of Cook As You Are and Eat Up!
"This is an entirely different kind of cookbook, one that makes you want to curl up and read cover to cover. That is, until you're overcome by the urge to bake a brown butter buckwheat madeleine or Neapolitan pavlova. Once in the kitchen, with Tanya's luminous prose and gentle instruction, you can bake your way to catharsis. I loved it."
Sohla El-Waylly, James Beard Award winner and author of the New York Times best-selling cookbook Start Here
For fans of Nigel Slater and Sally Rooney, this lushly illustrated and gorgeously photographed cookbook/love story is for anyone who has wished the head notes of a recipe also detailed the myriad desires and failures that went into each bite.
Catherine Lacey, author of Biography of X and The Möbius Book
"In loving and tender prose, Tanya Bush writes honestly and lyrically about finding one's way through life's downs and ups, through depression and desire. Her recipes will make you happy: unfussy, resourceful, and comforting all at once. Forsyth Harmon's accompanying illustrations are magical."
Rachel Khong, New York Times bestselling author of Real Americans
"Will This Make You Happy is sensual and alive, a sensitively illustrated document of adriftness, trial and error, and the decadence that awaits on the other side. Bush has rendered, through food, a vulnerable journey toward epiphany."
Raven Leilani, author of Luster "Sectioned by seasons, readers are able to bake along with Bush as she recalls the highs and lows of learning new techniques and discovers her culinary voice. The recipes, like Bushs storytelling, are cheerful and unpretentious, like Blueberry Jam Corn Muffins and Spicy Olive Oil Molasses Ginger Cookies." Food Wine "In staking out the premise of this book, called 'Will This Make You Happy,' Ms. Bush took a risky bet: The exact thing you said you didnt want to wade through before reading a recipe online the origin story, or the particular pleasures of a seasonal ingredient, or any obliquely related anecdote from the recipe writers life? You actually want more of that. And as someone who is primarily a dessert maker, Ms. Bush is an expert in knowing when people want more of something." The New York Times "[ Bush] charts her aspirationsand her romances, with characters she calls The Boyfriend and The Crushthrough the seasons, as she moves from her home kitchen to an ill-fated internship in Italy to her first professional baking gig. [ ...] Recipes for dark-chocolate-and-toasted-coconut cake, soba-cha panna cotta, Concord-grape clafoutis, and other confections punctuate her drifting between listlessness and purpose." - The New Yorker [ ] rich with narrative, following Bushs whirlwind year shaped by love, disappointment, elation, confusion, and ambition. [ ] Sprinkled with transformative desserts, the recipes in the book feel practiced and assured. Bon Appetit and Epicurious "Tanya Bushs bildungsroman of a cookbook, Will This Make You Happy, traces one high-octane year in her early 20s, as she learns to trust her evolving palate in lieu of chasing simple sugar highs. Her sweet tooth functions as a third eye, propelling her out of a depressive fugue state and into an apron, an internship, a polycule, and eventually, a layered sense of self. Her tastein cuisine, prose, and affairs of the heartis a trusty compass readers can cup in their own flour-coated hands." Cultured "This culinary memoir, filled with recipes, follows a year of Bushs life as she learns what it means to be an adult, a baker, and most importantly, happy." Literary Hub "This is not a cookbook. Or, it is, but its so much more than that." Bookshop "In short, vivid chapters, she chronicles the depressing messiness of early adulthood in New York and the many ways her life became fuller, more complicated and more interesting as she fell deeper in love with baking." The Washington Post "While recounting how throwing herself into baking transformed into a new era of self discovery, the writer weaves anecdotal musings of finding herself in the kitchen with standout recipes sure to intrigue bakers of all levels." Harper's Bazaar "The narrative is written in prose thats as indulgent as the recipes, filled with depth, vulnerability, and a sustained sugar rush. Recipes are arranged seasonally, accompanying each chapter of the narrators year. As the story grows more complex, so do theyall illustrated with a tender, dextrous hand by Forsyth Harmon. The result is an open exploration of a young life, documented and delicious, in real time." Bomb "[ A] tale of self-discovery through appetite, complete with 50 inventive but approachable baking recipes." Dazed "This hybrid memoir and cookbook from the cofounder of Cake Zine pairs more than 50 recipes with a chronicle of the year she rediscovered her joy of baking." Publishers Weekly "Bush writes simply, her prose like a recipe blessedly stripped of the food bloggers unnecessary paragraphs of prologue. The result is a coming-of-age and coming-of-chef." Family Style "[ A] book that finds sweetness in the messiness of life, and yes, sometimes, the soul-affirming power of a little treat." Eater "Between recipes of hojicha tiramisu, brown butter buckwheat madeleines, and a plum-drizzled cardamom cruller, Tanya Bush traces her own coming of age." Vogue
