What do readers think of The Kitchen Daughter by Jael McHenry? Write your own review.

This is a delightful read with an inventive and enlightening approach to the confusing and challenging world of Aspergers. It is especially fun for folks who enjoy cooking. Highly recommend.

Jael McHenry’s debut novel is a blast from the past, so to speak and a lesson in what it means to accept the magic in our lives and to never, ever give up on what we know to be true, and above all, to honour who we are and where we came from. I recommend this book for anyone.

The more I read, the more I liked this book. Ginny was a delight and the recipes were very different and added to my enjoyment. I expect this to be a big hit with my book club.

I'm nothing like Ginny--I don't much like to cook and I'm very social--but while reading _The Kitchen Daughter_ it was like I was inside her head. I don't personally know what it is like to be anywhere on the autism spectrum, but now I think I have a much better understanding of how it might feel. So I definitely would recommend this book to anyone who has a friend or family member with Asperger's. I'd also recommend it to foodies and fans of magical realism. For readers' advisers, the character doorway is primary, and I'd say that story is secondary because there were some plot twists I was not expecting!

Jael McHenry's Kitchen Daughter is good book that I went through rather quickly. I read it with delight and despair as I followed the main character, Ginny's path of finding herself an independent place in the world.
It is a story of how a person deals with grief and finds her way through it with the help of food and little magic that comes in the kitchen when she cook's the departed's recipes.
I enjoyed following the tale of this extraordinary heroine and would recommend this book to people who find comfort in their kitchen.

I meant to start this wonderful novel before going to bed, and finish later, but was compelled to finish--encouraged by the imagery and plot. The jacket note says it's about what is normal; but I think it's about whether "normal" is even desirable, and if being close-minded is an appropriate response. I found myself asking questions of myself: Using the senses of smell and taste, how would I describe something? We are generally most dependent on sight and sound.
Am I more understanding of Asperger's Syndrome? Like Ginny, I'd prefer not to paste a name on any personality, as if it were a disease, which carries …more with it an expectation of a cure. Kitchen's Daughter would be an excellent Book Club read. (less)

"The Kitchen Daughter" is not a difficult read; as a matter of fact it can easily be read, completed and enjoyed in one sitting. However, I enjoyed it best by only reading several chapters at a time, thereby, savoring all that I had just read. I am an avid cook and really enjoyed everything described in food terms as well as the recipes (several I have made - delicious)! Being a Hospice volunteer, I related to Ginny's, Amanda's, David's and Gert's grief. This book will be an excellent read for Book Clubs as there are so many different directions the discussions can go. I really enjoyed reading "The Kitchen Daughter".

Is it medically possible for someone with Asperger's Syndrome to develop real insight into her condition and report it with such accuracy as does Ginny Selvaggio? That was the question that kept haunting me as I read this wonderfully realized story of a young woman caught in her own problem. This is a fascinating story. The characters are very well drawn and the drama of Ginny's life, limited as it is, is very well portrayed. I particularly enjoyed her relationship with David although it ended tragically and the way she learned to be involved in her sister's and nieces' lives.