Feels Like Home: A Song for the Sonoran Borderlands by Linda Ronstadt

Feels Like Home: A Song for the Sonoran Borderlands Reviews

• 
  Cathrine ☯️

  4 🌵🌵🌵🌵
  The beautifully bound hard-copy of this book is filled with culture, family, history, food, photography, and music of course.
  It led me to numerous links listening to Linda’s rich heritage of Mexican songs. Oh my soul, the notes just soared out of her vocal cords, especially in her collections from Canciones de mi Padre.
  I love the southwest and her childhood memories of growing up in Tucson Arizona and her earlier family history in the Sonoran borderlands brings it to life, like flowers blooming in the desert after a rare rain.
• 
  BookTrib.com

  FEELS LIKE HOME: A SONG FOR THE SONORAN BORDERLANDS by Linda Ronstadt is a profoundly moving and visceral memoir and travelog, rooted in place, containing family, heritage, history, and, food!
  
  
  Read the full review on Booktrib.com
• 
  Kevin

  Co-author Downes (There Is Just Us) calls this book a “historical-musical-edible memoir.” While it’s not a straight-forward autobiography like Ronstadt’s "Simple Dreams: A Musical Memoir" from 2013, FEELS LIKE HOME is a beautifully written celebration of her extended family, the Sonoran Desert (that straddles her hometown of Tucson, Arizona and northern Mexico) and the food and culture that shaped her.
  
  She grew up surrounded by music. “Music was the homegrown magic we all learned to conjure,” she writes. She writes she was “saturated in song from earliest childhood, when melodies and harmonies and chords enter your body through your ears and skin, mingle with your brain cells, and nestle in your heart .”
  
  Sprinkled throughout the photo-filled book are twenty recipes ranging from Ronstadt Family Meatballs, Sonoran Hot Dogs (the caption under the photo of the final product reads: “Somewhere under that avalanche of toppings is a hot dog wrapped in bacon. It’s all too much, which is why it’s so good.”), El Minuto’s Cheese Crisps and her grandmother’s “knock-you-flat” eggnog.
  
  Linda Ronstadt celebrates her roots in this engaging, personal and entertaining hybrid family memoir/cookbook and social history.
• 
  Helen

  Ahhh..I just finished this beautiful book of desert and song and food and family. I am a huge Linda Ronstadt fan, and reading her memories and thoughts about where she grew up and all the things that have informed her as an artist…well, it does a heart good. The book gets better and better as it goes, and ends with a dream. Poignant and sentimental and never short on insights into the lives of real people…and did I mention phenomenal photography? This book will stay with me for a long time.
• 
  Edward Amato

  This was a beautiful book. I had once thought to write something similar to this that would reflect my families past related to the recipes I grew up with (Italian-Americans live to eat). The Photos of Bill Steen were spectacular. It was also so refreshing to read something beautiful about the borderlands of Mexico and the US. I am also a fan of Linda Ronstadt so enjoyed reading about her family history. A feel-good book that makes one optimistic about the future.
• 
  Lisa-Michele

  I liked this wandering reminiscence about Ronstadt’s affection for the Sonoran Borderlands. It taught me about the history of the land, her Mexican heritage, and the desert environment. I did not know that Ronstadt was raised in the Tucson desert before becoming a worldwide rock star in the 1970s. As a 14-year-old, I eagerly listened to her songs (“Rock Me On The Water,” “Different Drum,” “You’re No Good“) and envied her vagabond life at the Troubadour hanging out with Jackson Browne and Neil Young. “The Rio Sonora region is one of the prettiest corners of Mexico, a landscape etched by sunlight and carved by wind and softened by lush evergreens. This stretch of desert happens to be my foothold in the world,” Ronstadt writes. “I believe in genetic memory, that sense of a place that lives in the bloodstream and passes down the generations. Wherever I’ve lived, wherever I travel, my soul is always winging down the road, south over the border, back to my land and my roots in Sonora.”
  
  I share her belief in genetic memory; I feel a similar magnetic pull to certain places on earth. Ronstadt recites the history of her German immigrant great-grandfather, Friedrich Ronstadt, who joined the Mexican army in the 1840s then stayed on in Sonora to run a ranch. He played the guitar, establishing music as a cornerstone in Ronstadt’s life. Fred married Margarita Redondo, daughter of a prosperous Sonoran rancher. Linda was raised on all kinds of music, and she weaves musical themes into the story, but the focus is her connection to the land. She also takes on “the disease of exclusion and hostility” which plagues the borderlands. All in all, it is an uplifting look at the best the desert has to offer. “With them, and all the musical Ronstadts, I am certain that the threads that connect us all are in no danger of breaking…So I fall back on the music, the unbreakable chain of melody. It hasn’t failed us yet.”
  
  
• 
  Jane Healy

  As a Linda Ronstadt fan and lover of the U.S. Southwest, I knew I wanted to read this book. I was surprised when I saw it! This is no small volume; rather, it has the heft of a coffee table book. Unlike a coffee table book, this one goes well beyond flipping through the pages of pictures. I was immediately drawn in to the history, geography, and lifestyle of Ronstadt's ancestors in Sonora. The compelling writing by Ronstadt and Lawrence Downes, accompanied by archival photos and photos by Bill Steen, make for a wide-ranging look at the U.S. Southwest/Mexico borderlands of the Sonoran Desert and the Tucson area.
  Part memoir, part family story, part history, part current events, part geography, part cookery, part music and arts, and part peek into the future, this book put me in these places special to Ronstadt and gave me a feel for the area that only someone who was raised there could express. While Ronstadt loves this area--or maybe BECAUSE she loves the area--she doesn't shy away from sharing negative opinions about certain policies and popular views throughout history.
  Despite its size, the book is an interesting and easy read enhanced with photos. The authentic, and in some cases, family recipes are well described with ingredients and processes that could bring Sonora to any kitchen.
  The physical book is beautiful, using high-quality paper, well-sewn binding, and interesting layout.
• 
  Judy & Marianne from Long and Short Reviews

  A picture painted in photos, words and song.
  
  I picked this book up because when I flipped through the pages, the vistas are simply breathtaking. I’ve never been to Arizona and haven’t seen the Sonora, but I want to. If it’s anything as pretty as the photos, then I want to be there.
  
  This is the place Linda Ronstadt grew up. She was surrounded by her American and Mexican roots. To say she’s steeped in both cultures is an understatement. She writes eloquently and it felt like I was really there. The recipes included are fascinating and while I’ll have to order some of the ingredients online (we don’t have some of the specialties around my neck of the woods), I can’t wait to try to make them. I loved every page.
  
  I will say there is a small bit that gets a tad political. Keep in mind, Ronstadt is writing from her own perspective and how she’s been affected by what she’s writing about. I won’t give away spoilers, but the politics are there. They didn’t take anything away from the story for me because it’s part of who she is and part of the culture down there. She’s writing from experience. It might not be for some and that’s okay, but don’t not read this book because of that. You’ll be missing out.
  
  If you’ve ever wondered what this part of the country looks like, tastes like and feels like, then pick this book up and give it a try. You’ll be glad you did.
• 
  Deanna

  I just love this book❣️ I am a huge fan of Linda’s, for many years, but besides her amazing voice, she has a great sense of humor and a huge heart that really come through in her story telling.
  I was so shocked when I found out that Linda is Hispanic/Mexican because when I first heard her sing (in English) her heritage never occurred to me. Then I heard her songs in Spanish and by that time I spoke Spanish and could understand the stories behind the songs. I am not Hispanic but I have been living with the Mexican culture for 44 yrs. now and deeply appreciated reading about Linda’s childhood and family. ❤️
• 
  Lynne

  I know I would have loved to have read further than page 17 of this book, but the publishing choices made it too difficult to go on. This book is HEAVY (weight-wise)...too heavy to comfortably read...having lived in the Tucson area, I was finding it quite interesting....and the recipes and the photos made it doubly so.
  
  It is also oversized and weight over 2 lbs. 7 oz....consider it more of a coffee table book, not a normal biography tome.
  
  I hope the publishers make a decision to soon release the book in paperback on less heavy paper so I can read it. It's headed back to the library...
• 
  Greg Kelley

  Linda's personal memories of growing up in the desert with a family that enjoyed song, food, and memories together. Interesting history of the Sonora region and how it has changed over time, both good and bad. Revealing look at how people in the area have been treated from the perspective of someone that lived it growing up. You can see how the heart linda brings to her singing comes from growing up in a close-knit extended family.
• 
  Leona

  This book is a peek into the history of the area and the lineage of Linda's family. I moved to Arizona in 2017 and always appreciate learning about the past. This book is specific to this region and is made even more personal by the recipes and music referenced. The photographs are lovely. The projects featured at the conclusion are a nice way to bring us to present times.
• 
  Becky Bjork

  I have been a Ronstadt fan since the ‘70’s and recently lived in SE AZ for 8 years. So I had a special interest in reading this book and was not disappointed.
  I also enjoyed reading the recipes and intend to try some of them. I miss the wonderful foods prepared by our Hispanic friends.
  I gave it 4 stars simply because others may not have the same interests and connection.
• 
  Jamesjohn Jamesjohn

  This beautiful and substantial book is about flavor, love, and interconnection. It's centered in the deep history of the Sonoran borderlands, with stories of the deep roots that survive, persist, and thrive. The history and people are intriguing, the recipes tempting and obscure, and harshness underlies it all with stunning beauty.
• 
  Linden

  Part travelogue, part history lesson, part biography, and part cookbook, Linda Ronstadt tells of growing up in Arizona, and of her Mexican ancestors. The book includes regional recipes and beautiful photographs.
• 
  Carly Thompson

  Memoir about the singer's family and their connection to Sonora area in both the US and Mexico. The book has lots of beautiful photographs of the area and the authors discuss the landscape, native people, colonization and the present day thru Ronstadt's connection to the area.
• 
  KC

  A love letter to Ms Ronstadt's family, their history, and the Sonoran lands that were home (southern Arizona and the Sonoran state of Mexico).
  
  As a more than fifty year resident of Arizona, I appreciate the stories and vistas she shares with the reader.
• 
  Lindsay

  I love love love Linda Ronstadt. I wish more musicians of her era were more outspokenly progressive as she is.
• 
  Paula

  This is a beautiful book, visually and emotionally, as well as a history lesson.