Kitchens of the Great Midwest / J. Ryan Stradal, 312 pp.

Much fiction seems to feature food, cooking and recipes, and most of it doesn't appeal to me - too gimmicky.  So I was a little dubious when Christa raved about Kitchens.  But I should never have doubted.  This is startlingly good, the story of Eva, a cooking prodigy whose life begins in tragic circumstances but doesn't stay that way.  Especially interesting to me was the way Stradal tells Eva's story indirectly through the lives of people she impacts, sometimes peripherally.  And for the record, the food aspect is interesting but almost incidental.  This is really the story of mothers, absent or dead but always missed.  Moving, funny and very smart.