This is one of my favorite books of the year! This is a great collection of stories and recipes. This was a pleasure to read and a book I would highly recommend! Special Thank You to Crystal Wilkinson,Clarkson Potter/Ten Speed Press and NetGalley for allowing me to read a complimentary copy in exchange for an honest review.

This book was a cross between a cookbook and an anthology of life stories. I liked the recipes and some of the stories were entertaining. However, they didn't seem to go in order. It didn't take that much away from the book but it's just something I noticed. I think this would be great as two separate books or have the recipes in an appendix at the end. Overall I enjoyed it.

Part cookbook. Part memoir. All incredible. Such a beautifully written book on the history of the author’s family. I can’t say enough good things and thank you to the author for sharing with us.

Absolutely beautiful book. I love the family stories interspersed with recipes and notes about food. Wilkinson's prose is as lovely as ever, and the combination of stories, photographs, recipes and reflections make this a book to really savor and take your time with.

Thought this was really lovely and well-written. Needless to echo the sea of praises from other reviewers and readers, but this is truly a joy to read, I can confirm. Like how sensitive and detailed everything was. More cookbooks and food writing should be like this. The context and historical notes really makes the experience all the more rewarding and just lovely in general. God, I need some biscuits right now. Reading the writer's stories and recipes reminds me of being invited into the kitchens of a friend's mum -- really makes me miss that feeling of being vulnerable and open in a homely space and being stuffed with love. It's an instant 5 star rating whenever a book is able to bring about such tender feelings.

This book part memoir/histgory/cook book was really engaging, and I dont' cook, but the stories behind the recipes personal for the author and tied to a long history was great.

In this cookbook and family history combination book, Crystal Wilkinson brings over five generations of women from her family to life through their recipes and their shared memories and experiences of cooking. Including several family recipes in each chapter, Wilkinson brings her family’s culinary history and stories of her life growing up in a large multigenerational family to the readers. Including beautifully tantalizing photos of several of her recipes, Wilkinson’s book honors the women of her family and the forgotten history (both socio-cultural and culinary) of Black Appalachia. A clear, straightforward prose style, Wilkinson’s book is a fascinatingly complex book conveyed in clear yet descriptive language. These recipes and the stories behind them are treasures Wilkinson shares with her descendants and with the readers, while the history of the region, told through the lens of Wilkinson’s family, is powerfully described. By sharing history through food and through the memories associated with the food, Wilkinson challenges history’s preference for written words over material culture and recipes (which were often passed down orally and varied over the years, as Wilkinson demonstrates). With recipes and histories which will delight, interest, and change the reader, Wilkinson’s family history through Black Appalachia recipes and food is a fascinating book which brings this part of the United States to life.

A lovely book Crystal Wilkinson has written a family memoir and a cookbook.I really enjoyed reading about her family stories and her kitchen memories.A true gem of a book.#netgalley #clarksonpotter

A super interesting take on a cookbook.

I loved reading this one! Great recipes and the photos are amazing. What I really loved was the back story - Crystal's family history notes, the photos and the reasons behind the recipes. It's a true homage to her roots and family. I love the feeling of the kitchen ghosts watching over new generations of cooks.

Thank you to NetGalley, the author and publisher for a temporary, digital ARC in return for my review. This is one to purchase in hardcover to savor many times over!

A lyrical and deeply compelling blend of memoir and history, exploring Wilkinson’s genealogy and the legacy of Black Appalachian women.

Thanks to NetGalley and Clarkson Potter/Ten Speed Press for the opportunity to read this remarkable book! Warmly written memoir with delicious recipes, a tribute to family with photos. I'm not sure how to describe it, but I know I want a copy to hold, to sift through, to cook from and to have on my shelf.

Part memoir, part cookbook, this book is a delight. Wilkinson is a talented storyteller and shares her history and heritage growing up in Black Appalachia. She shares many recipes, several of which I'm anxious to try. Informative yet cozy, I would recommend this book in a physical format to really get to enjoy all the pictures. I read this book in smaller chunks over time and found it a comforting book to come back to time after time! A great, unique read!

What a fun book - biography, cookbook, family, slavery, history, covid, gardening, and traditions.

This story starts out being about family history and food of Kentucky. This is the story of a family and what happened to them. It is about food and recipes that were passed down through generations. I loved the pictures that were included about the people that were being discussed. I also loved the pictures of the food along with the recipes.

Then we get to Covid and how the family responded to staying home. Some people that had never gardened before started trying to grow their own food. How the quiet life impacted this family and changed their life. The ability to cook became much more important. Time was spent shopping at home and having groceries delivered along with new kitchen appliances. Teaching kids to cook using Zoom.

There was a whole chapter on celebrating birthdays and the food required. There are whole chapters on blackberries, cornbread and biscuits. There were chapters about food and traditions at Christmas,

Quote from book - "Grief is, of coarse, deeply connected to love."

I feel like Crystal Wilkinson has given us a gift with this book. It is a treasure. It’s a privilege to have access to these amazing, deeply personal recipes and stories of her family. She has helped to give voice to Black Appalachians past and present, and shown a light onto a history that is virtually unknown (or rather ignored) yet so vibrant and important. I cannot love this book more, The pictures, stories, and recipes together weave a kind of magic that makes this more than a cookbook, more than a family history, it’s really a thing of beauty.

As a child of Appalachia (though white so I can only speak from that experience and as a white reader) and a homemaker/family historian, this book sang to my soul. The recipes were lovely, dating back to the 1700s and carrying with them so much history and love.
This book shares so much of a culture that is often overlooked in history and preserves what is at risk of being forgotten.
Its a beautiful book and I highly recommend it to anyone interested in Black American history, Appalachian history, and history around food.

Crystal Wilkinson's Praisesong For The Kitchen Ghosts is a uniquely special cookbook that mixes family recipes with history. I absolutely loved reading about her family's rich Appalachian roots and the recipes that have been handed down through the generations. This is a beautiful cookbook filled with the author's family photos mixed with great photos of the food as well and is beautifully written family history that brings to light five generations of Black women who settled in Appalachia and the dishes that they left behind for future generations to enjoy.

I love pouring over this book. It is just so gorgeous and wonderful to read. I love the photographs, recipes, and stories. For lovers of High on the Hog and Chasing Flavor.

Crystal Wilkinson is a gorgeous writer who deserves to be better known. I was surprised and delighted when I learned of the concept for her new book; "kitchen ghosts" captures the idea that her ancestors are always with her, and the women are most present when she's chopping vegetables or stirring something at the stove. I hope this proves to be her breakout—she's a gorgeous writer and many readers would be delighted to discover her work.

It’s not often I find a cookbook that is as much a story as a collection of recipes. Praisesong for the Kitchen Ghosts is such a book. Crystal Wilkinson writes a lovely, flowing memoir of her family as seen through the food they grew and consumed. Blending elements of a family scrapbook (snapshots of Wilkinson’s people likely taken with an old Kodak camera) are interspersed with fancier photos of the current finished recipes Wilkinson shares. Each recipe is connected in specific ways to her family, ways which are communicated through gently told tales of her “kitchen ghosts” or all the women who came before her.

Wilkinson’s earliest ancestors settled in Kentucky - those who were enslaved and those who were free. They grew up and worked the land on Indian Creek and reveled in the bounty that the land provided. Wilkinson provides a rare insight to the black folks who inhabited parts of Appalachia. While the folkways and stories are unique to Wilkinson’s family, I recognized much of the food she writes about from stories told by my mother-in-law, a white woman who grew up dirt-poor in the hills of West Virginia. In fact, I read the section on poke to my husband, who educated me about the beautiful but poisonous plant last summer. Turns out his mother planted it on her farmland in western NY because it reminded her of home in West Virginia. The steps Wilkinson shares on how to safely handle and consume poke are identical to the process my mother-in-law used, Same thing for how to wash and cook greens.

General observation not really related to the book: As I’ve learned more about racism in the last few years, I’ve observed that when it comes to food, we are very alike in our traditions and approaches to fixing things to eat. Food seems to be a common ground.

This is one of the most enjoyable, readable cookbooks I’ve read in years and I’ll be buying a copy for myself. I’m definitely making Jam Cake and caramel icing, although there are plenty of wonderful recipes to try.

I LOVED this book. As a food historian, this is the type of work I am consistently hoping to find. The way Wilkinson weaves together familial history and recipes while also providing a broader historical perspective is executed flawlessly. This book was so deeply personal, but instead of making the text unrelatable, it actually made it feel more familiar to me. I loved feeling like I was meeting the family members Wilkinson writes about, and feeling like I could walk into my kitchen and find them there, waiting to cook with me. Also, as someone who grew up in and around Appalachia, I loved getting to see some of the recipes and how they were inspired by the region. Overall, this book is an automatic buy for me, and I can't wait to try out the recipes within.