Be Ready When the Luck Happens by Ina Garten is, apparently, a memoir—but if you don’t already know who Ina Garten is (which we don’t), this cover gives us no reason to care. A pleasant-looking woman smiles at us over a coffee cup, and… that’s it. No intrigue, no context, just a vague warmth that screams, you should already know who I am. The title is in a relatively small font, which might be an attempt at understatement, but mostly feels like they ran out of ideas and  weren’t ready when the luck happened and had to throw together any old thing before the deadline hit.

The even smaller “a memoir” confirms that, yes, this is someone’s life story—though all we’ve learned so far is that she either drinks coffee or enjoys posing with empty mugs for aesthetic purposes.

BASED ON THE COVER, WE THINK THIS BOOK IS ABOUT…

A memoir about someone stumbling into success—probably in food, business, or media—full of warm, well-meaning anecdotes about how things just worked out.

Rating: ★★☆☆☆