Melissa Hart
Gringa


"The book is filled with detailed conversations and particulars of dress, mannerisms and facial expressions that give it the feeling of a novel. A quirky narrative of artfully reconstructed memories."--Kirkus Reviews


"LGBT families and immigrant kids will want it for the honesty, humor, and love. Every lively chapter ends with a detailed recipe that mixes food and feelings." --Booklist


"Hart . . . . has crafted a well-balanced tale that forgoes blame in favor of poignancy."--The Oregonian


"Gringa is a breezy, agreeable read, written in clear, detailed prose."--New West Books & Writers





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View the book trailer for Gringa . . .and then learn how to make "Annie's Special Chili" from "The Squeaky Animal Hat Club"!

Melissa Hart teaches journalism at the University of Oregon and memoir writing for U.C. Berkeley's online extension program.  She's a contributing editor at The Writer Magazine.  Her essays have appeared in The Washington Post, The Los Angeles Times, The Chronicle of Higher Education, The Advocate, Fourth Genre, and numerous other publications. 


White Girl Cookies, from Gringa
 

Ponder your sentence of a lifetime of despair, then preheat your oven to 325 F. Chop one cup of macadamia nuts in a blender or food processor, duly noting their whiteness. Cut two sticks of cold butter into one-inch cubes. Add them to the nuts and mix until smooth.

 

Hold one-fourth cup of powdered sugar against your skin to check for any faint difference in hue, then add to blender with a tablespoon of vanilla. Mix, and add two cups of white flour. Process until just blended. The dough will be very pale.

 

Flour your hands and roll the dough into one-inch balls. Place these about an inch apart on an ungreased cookie sheet. Bake fifteen to twenty minutes, or until the bottom of the cookies are as brown as the eyes of the boy you love.

 

Cool cookies on racks for ten minutes. Heap insult upon injury by rolling warm cookies in sifted powdered sugar. Let them cool and roll once more in powdered sugar for additional humiliation.


Read an excerpt of Gringa


Download reading guide for book clubs


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