I'm delighted to be doing a reading & signing with my sisters, Blake Spalding & Jen Castle of Hell's Backbone Grill, in a Bay Area bookstore that's one of my happy places, my literary touchstone, my karaoke heart home: Book Passage in Corte Madera.

We'll be signing copies of This Immeasurable Place, our newest narrative cookbook, and With a Measure of Grace, our first book, which was just freshly redesigned and updated! Both are filled with delicious recipes, stunning photos, and stories about the land surrounding the restaurant (the threatened Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument) and the fascinating people who make up the community. The books tell the full story of how Blake and Jen, two-time James Beard Award semi-finalists, came to own an incredible Buddhist-based, farm-to-table restaurant in a tiny, remote town in southern Utah.

If you haven't seen it yet, Blake and Jen and their mission to save the Grand Staircase were the subject of this amazing twelve-page feature in The New Yorker last month! (My name is in there, too. You'll find it around paragraph 33. It was a big moment for me.)

We hope to see you at the event!

By the way, these books, signed and personalized, make exceptionally terrific holiday gifts. Bet you didn't see that one coming. But don't just take it from me! Here's what some very awesome people are saying:

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"Blake Spalding and Jen Castle are alchemists, truly changing the world through their hands, their hearts, their farm, their food. In community, everything is possible. Theirs is a leadership of love." -- Terry Tempest Williams, author of The Hour of Land.

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"... Filled with remarkable recipes and essays, it breathed life back into my radical, sometimes flagging hope for humanity, and is as inspiring as it is mouthwatering. We need this book now more than ever." -- Elissa Altman, author of Poor Man's Feast

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"The wisdom found in the pages of this beautiful and surprising book is immeasurable. It's wisdom from the edge, from one of the most glorious hidden kitchens there is. The story of Blake and Jen, true kitchen sisters -- their cooking, friendship, and farming--is expansive and illuminating. Land, food, family, stewardship, and spirit all course through these tempting, gorgeous pages. A book that feeds us on so many levels." -- Davia Nelson, NPR's Kitchen Sisters

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