Review on 📖 Margrit Mondavi's Sketchbook: Insights on Wine, Gastronomy, Artistry, Family Bonds, Love, and Lifestyle by Wendy Rodriguez

The most helpful advice I've ever received was, "Don't try to impress others. Just EXPRESS who you really are.” That's what Margrit Mondavi lives on. I am grateful that her friends and family encouraged her to put together this collection of her memoirs, sketches, watercolors and family photos. Beautiful to look at, but even more fun to read. Margriet paints as she paints, with bright, intense strokes of color that leave the background to the reader's imagination. For example, her account of her early years in America as a military woman living in South Dakota and looking forward to the release of the Sears biennial catalog. What a contrast to growing up in a multilingual family just a few meters from Lake Maggiore, nestled in the Alpine backdrop, just a short drive from Italy. There was wine on the table, and a naked mother sunbathed in the garden. But there is not a hint of condescension or snobbery in her memories of her time on the plains. She still knew how to find beauty in details and remember interesting people. Having grown up on this plain, I can imagine how many of her neighbors would have thought she'd attempted a Swiss-style vegetable garden or a backyard fish pond. "Trying to be something special" is NOT what Margrit is talking about. Margriet is about being Margrit to the fullest, whatever that means. It is a blessing to all of us that she had the opportunity and means throughout her life - and this is described in more detail in her book - to express the essence of her being more and more fully. With great generosity, she made art, culture, delicious food and drink accessible to so many and in so many ways. She is in her late 80's and continues to inspire young women like me in my 60's. She makes me feel like I'm just starting out and that's a priceless gift.