Book Review: Be Ready When the Luck Happens
This is not the first book I read in 2025, but it is my first book review of 2025. I read this for a book club, and I actually listened to it on Audible. The audiobook is narrated by Ina herself; I love an audiobook read by the author. Before we dig in, I’ll say a few things. First, I have a love/hate relationship about celebrity memoir; like, we don’t need your life story just because you’re famous, okay, babe? And secondly, I had always kind of written off Ina Garten because I thought she was kind of an elitist asshole. Turns out I was only right about one of those things.
The audio book is 8 hours and 47 minutes long. I liked that because it was a memoir, it wasn’t 100% essential that I focus on every single word. It wasn’t a big deal if I zoned out a little bit while I was folding laundry.
Here’s what to expect:
"In her long-awaited memoir, Ina Garten—aka the Barefoot Contessa, author of thirteen bestselling cookbooks, beloved Food Network personality, Instagram sensation, and cultural icon-shares her personal story with those hungry for a seat at her table.
Here, for the first time, Ina Garten presents an intimate, entertaining, and inspiring account of her remarkable journey. Ina’s gift is to make everything look easy, yet all of her accomplishments have been the result of hard work, audacious choices, and exquisite attention to detail. In her unmistakable voice (no one tells a story like Ina), she brings her past and her process to life in a high-spirited and no-holds-barred memoir that chronicles decades of personal challenges, adventures (and misadventures) and unexpected career twists, all delivered with her signature combination of playfulness and purpose.
From a difficult childhood to meeting the love of her life, Jeffrey, and marrying him while still in college, from a boring bureaucratic job in Washington, D.C. to asnwering an ad for a specialty food store in the Hamptons, from the owner of one Barefoot Contessa shop to author of bestselling cookbooks and celebrated televsion host, Ina has blazed her own trails and, in the meantime, taught millions of people how to cook and entrtain. Now, she invites them to come closer to experience her story in vivid detail and to share the important life lessons she learned along the way: do what you love because if you love it you’ll be really good at it, swing for the fences, and always Be Ready When the Luck Happens.”
I loved that as a memoir I could drop in and out of this book as I had time. I didn’t really necessarily have to keep track of characters or plot details. I also realized as I was listening to this book that I knew practically nothing about Ina Garten, and that she was actually a pretty interesting person. Unrelated to the book, I have a friend who likes her cookbooks and it was nice to chat with her about the book as I was reading it. As I mentioned at the top, I read this for a book club. I’m not sure I would have read it on my own, as celebrity memoir isn’t a go to genre for me, but I did enjoy it.
One thing that didn’t jive for me in the book was the ending. I felt like all her stories went together so well, and flowed together so nicely, and then one day I was walking laps at the playground while my kids played and I was listening to the book and it just seemed like all of the sudden the book was wrapping up. Like, before this moment, it was moving forward nicely and I was so engaged and interested and then BAM! It just suddenly ended. If memory serves, the ending does sort of tie up nicely; it’s not like a cliff hanger or anything, but it just seemed like something that came out of nowhere.
TL;DR on the review: solid 3.5 stars. I liked learning more about Ina Garten and listening to her stories, but the ending felt abrupt. If you like celebrity memoir, or you’re looking for something light, but still interesting this would be a great book for you. Absolutely an excellent plane or train book, great for a vacation.