Traces the author's journey from the painful deprivations of her homeland to the sudden bounty of the United States, where she endured five jobs, crime, and a painful marriage before the birth of a daughter inspired her writing career.

Using family photographs and quotes from her books, the author provides glimpses into her life.

The author describes her early dream of becoming a concert pianist, the mysterious muscle disorder that forced her to give up that plan and led to confinement in a wheelchair, and her discovery of the wonderful world of writing.

In this book the author details what brought her mother to send her away and unearths the well of emotions she experienced long afterward as a result. For the first time, she reveals the triumphs and struggles of being the daughter of Vivian Baxter, an indomitable spirit whose petite size belied her larger-than-life presence, a presence absent during much of the author's early life. When her marriage began to crumble, Vivian famously sent three-year-old...

The author describes his passion for sailing on the wide open seas and recalls his many adventures.

Builds on the author's popular food-centric blog to recount her unconventional upbringing and her unusually happy and occasionally sorrowful life of literary and culinary sensuality.

The author describes her movements across Europe's scrambled post-war borders, including trips to empty castles and ruined cathedrals and a stint in bombed out Warsaw in the midst of the Communist takeover.

Presents a darkly humorous account of growing up in a prosperous, eccentric family with an older brother whose erratic and increasingly dangerous behavior threatens them all.

Evoking the sounds, scents, and tactile sensations that marked his early life, the author, in four parts, recalls his development from within through the encounters of his interior self with the outer world.