Outstanding and so beautiful. I'm a big fan of food memoirs but I couldn't really imagine what one crossed with a Holocaust history could look like. This is a lovely and life-affirming story and an incredible addition to both genres.

Reichert offers a beguiling memoir about food, family, love, and the impact of the Holocaust on the survivor generations. I was especially impressed that she didn't dwell on the psychological pain she suffered, but rather described it in a way that evokes the reader's empathy without becoming burdensome. Reichert has a way with words that readers will find compelling. Recommended.

Chef and journalist Bonny Reichert always wanted to write a book about how her father survived the Holocaust, but she never felt wholly capable. After a particularly transformative meal in Poland, Reichert finds the path to her father’s memoir, one that explores both her life and his. The book intertwines Reichert’s culinary career with her father’s intense desire for food — built during his time in Auschwitz — and the joy he expressed in sharing it with his family. Reichert nourishes herself and her readers with every bite of this book.

What a beautiful book. You'll want to read this one. For me, food is so intertwined with family. The sounds and smells and tastes of my family Italian kitchen growing up have clung to me throughout my life. Reichert writes with beauty as she seeks to connect with her father's history as a Holocaust survivor with travel and food. I felt like I could taste the food she was eating and feel the anxiety and trepidation she described while traveling to connect with her dad's past. Heartfelt thanks to the publisher for the gifted book. I loved it.

How to Share an Egg by Bonnie Reichert
****Publishing January 21, 2025****

Bonnie Reichert promised her father she would write about his experience in WWII from the Jewish Ghetto to Concentration Camps, to his escape to Canada. So this book is a tribute to him, plus how food played an integral part of their lives through all the ups and downs.

A heartfelt and heartbreaking story that shows the bond she had with her father through food. I loved how this author chose to write this book from the perspective of how food played an integral role in not only their lives but how it got them through hard times! Perfect for those who love Historical Fiction! A great book for book clubs as it would lead to many good discussions.

Thanks to Random House Publishing Group - Ballantine (Ballantine Books), I was provided an ARC of How to Share an Egg by Bonnie Reichert via Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.

How to Share an Egg is a heartfelt and flavorful journey that explores the deep connections between food, family, and survival. Bonny Reichert, a chef and journalist, takes us on a poignant trip through her life, shaped by her father’s harrowing experience as a Holocaust survivor and her own journey to uncover her culinary heritage.

This memoir is packed with stories that range from sweet and nostalgic to deeply emotional. Bonny shares moments from her colorful childhood in the restaurant world, her challenges as a mother and writer, and the personal transformation sparked by a bowl of borscht in Warsaw. Her vivid descriptions of food—from baba Sarah’s potato knishes to her father’s comforting brown butter eggs—bring her experiences to life, each dish tying her present to her family's past.

Richert’s writing is as layered as the flavors she describes, blending humor, hope, and heartbreak with equal skill. This isn’t just a book about recipes; it’s about identity, legacy, and the resilience passed down through generations. Her story serves up life lessons as satisfying as the meals she lovingly recounts.

With its mix of sweet, salty, and soul-searching moments, How to Share an Egg is a touching reminder that food can nourish more than just our bodies—it can connect us to our roots and to each other. A truly moving read that left me hungry for more, both in its words and its recipes!

I liked the look into her families history and the food going along with it.
I liked the connection of new dishes and how it helped her connect with her family history.
I feel it's really true how food can connect us through generations.

Thanks NetGalley for this ARC.

Thanks Netgalley for allowing me to read this book. Bonny never questioned her ancestry. While on vacation, she wanted to learn more about food that people ate. . I enjoyed this book.

#HowtoShareanEgg #NetGalley

The author’s food journey begins in childhood, under the patient hands of both her, Baba, and father. It continues as a teen when working at the family restaurant and with a high school trip to France. Then, as a young adult in college,she learns to experiment with limited ingredients to recreate familiar and beloved dishes.

Through all this, she shares her feelings of being unmoored in her first marriage as well as the toxicity of her Chefs in culinary schools.

The first third was a bit frustrating as felt the chapters were separate essays loosely threaded together. As the book progressed, however, her story unfolded a bit more smoothly.

This ARC was provided by the publisher, Random House Publishing Group - Ballantine
via Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.

How to Share an Egg is Riechert’s story of her father’s survival from the Holocaust as well as her own story of growing up and finding herself in the shadow of his catastrophic background, oftentimes questioning her right to struggle when compared to what her father endured.

Reichert traces key moments from her past, regaling readers not only of the heart and emotion that made each moment significant but of the meal associated with it. From a bowl of borscht in Warsaw to her dad’s special lox brunch to the many baking lessons from her Baba.

I greatly enjoyed Reichert’s storytelling; she writes in a way that makes you want to keep reading. With that said, there were many moments where I felt like I wanted more from the story and I wanted her to go deeper where, instead, she backed off. Reichart chooses to tell her story in snippets or small vignettes, which are mostly about her own journey through life with pieces of her dad's history woven in. Because of the aforementioned I would argue that this book is digestible (no pun intended) for most readers even though it focuses around one glaringly heavy topic.

A story of resiliency and re-building, of family and food, it will definitely be one that I recommend but not one that I would necessarily return to.

I received an arc of this title from NetGalley for an honest review. This book wasn't what I thought it would be, but an impactful story starting in a Nazi concentration camp and finding a way to grow up and have a full life.

How to Share an Egg is a moving memoir about the author's childhood, teenage years, marriage, divorce, remarriage and motherhood. Throughout her journey, she is grappling with her emotions regarding her family, especially her father who is a Holocaust survivor.

I love the descriptions of her family meals and how different foods and meals played a pivotal role in her life as well as the lives of her father, mother and grandmother. I appreciated her story mixed with the great influence that her father's trauma and life choices after the horrors he lived through had on her development and life. I enjoyed the family's trip back to Poland and would have liked more of her father's voice in his life after moving to Canada.

Thank you to Random House Publishing Group who provided an advance reader copy via NetGalley.

A wonderful memoir about food and family. The author was raised by a Holocaust Survivor.. Food has always been a thing for Bonny. The book will give one many emotions.

This was an amazing non fiction book about a woman’s father and the horrors he saw during the Holocaust. It’s about food, family, and strength. It’s very hard to write a review on this kind of book. I have always had strong feelings about the Holocaust, and have read many books about it, I’m not sure why. This book was beautifully heart wrenching. Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for the early read. I’ve already been telling people to buy this book.

How to Share an Egg is a unique food-centric blend of memoir and father's survival of the Holocaust.

I love reading about food and flavors; and I also enjoy occasional memoirs and history. I highly recommend How to Share and Egg.

I loved the secret of life that Bonny's father told her. "The most important thing is to enjoy life. Just marry a nice boy and be happy. That's all. That's the secret."

Bonny Reichert's 2nd book. (But 1st in the last 20 years and distinctly different than the first.)

Many thanks to NetGalley and Ballantine Books for approving my request to read How to Share an Egg in exchange for an honest review. Approx 304 pages. Expected release is January 2025.

A moving story of survival during the Holocaust. Characters navigating physical challenges whilst encompassing family and food. Well done and left me thinking about choices we make.

A beautifully written story about relationships, generational trauma, and coming to terms with yourself.

Eggs. We love them and they give us nourishment. From my first glance of the cover, it looked like a friendly book about cooking eggs. True, it’s about food and the enjoyment of cooking but there’s a lot more going on in this memoir. It quickly got my attention with a taste of reality.

The reader quickly learned from the start that one egg was shared between two starving Jewish boys during WWII in Poland. They were desperately trying to survive after five years of severe abuse and terror from the Nazis. One of the boys was Bonnie Reichert’s dad. After the war, he found a new life in Edmonton, Canada.

Bonnie’s dad encouraged her often to tell his story. The thought of what he endured gave her nightmares especially when she was young. But years later, she did an intense amount of research with international travels to Poland and Germany. She combined her dad’s story from the war with her own career path and passion for food.

Many of the short chapters started with something to eat. Bonnie learned early how to cook from her grandma and dad. It’s impossible to read this book on an empty stomach as she described mouth-watering dishes as she explored cooking as a career.

There have been numerous books about the preparation of food but a first to have a memoir that includes this dark part of history. Her dad was a strong survivor and his story is important and educates all of us.

My thanks to Ballantine Books and NetGalley for providing me with an advanced copy of this book with an expected release date of January 21, 2025.

“How to Share an Egg” is a memoir by Bonny Reichert. Bonny’s father, a Holocaust survivor, features a lot in this book - but the bulk of his story is not told until the last 20% of this book. Most of the book focuses on Bonny - her love of food (though her father and family shared it too), her generational trauma (wonderfully expressed), and her life - though her father’s story is interwoven. I have really mixed feelings about this book, which is frustrating for me. I so wanted to enjoy this book more than I did as I knew Holocaust survivors and absolutely loved how Bonny expressed and told her father’s heartbreaking story. However, I found myself feeling a bit too bogged down in Bonny’s story - as I wanted to know more about her father’s tale, not how she was maturing and dealing with life, work, marriage, and kids. I liked how food was the tying together aspect of this book, but I felt like something was missing. Do I think this book was one to read - yes. Do I need to read it again - no. Would I recommend it to people - yes, but I’d caution that I found Bonny’s father’s life more gripping, to be honest. 3.25 stars overall, rounded up due to this being a debut novel.

Speechless, not sure anything I can put into words can capture the emotions I felt while reading this. The author weaves family, history, and food into a moving story around her father’s story of surviving the Holocaust. Dishes are detailed so well through the chapters in between moments of family relationships and the author’s personal growth.

“For us, the way that people cook and eat, how they set their tables, and the utensils they use all tell a story.”