Be Ready When the Luck Happens: A Memoir

After thirteen cookbooks, Ina Garten, famed for her former Hamptons, NY shop Barefoot Contessa and its television sibling, shares the story of her life and success.

Known for being upbeat and easygoing, Garten maintains much of that voice, but she does not pretend that there have not been struggles, misadventures, and conflicts, including in the central relationship of her life, her marriage to the oft-mentioned Jeffrey.

An ongoing theme is a question Garten began asking early in life, when her interests failed to align with her parents' strictly defined, 1950s ideas of success: Why couldn’t succeeding involve something you enjoyed doing?

Of course, the growth from suspecting something to acting on it takes time–if it happens at all  And though Garten begins her book with the courageous act of buying a catering shop hundreds of miles from home, it took her time to prepare for it, and to be ready on numerous other occasions to seize the opportunity before her.

Black and white photographs.