The story behind cookbooks 'The Talisman of Happiness' and 'Will This Make You Happy'

NPR's Book of the Day

NPR

Books, Arts

4.2 • 672 Ratings

🗓️ 3 April 2026

⏱️ 18 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Today’s episode features two cookbooks: One new, the other newly translated. First, a classic Italian cookbook (and classic wedding gift) has been translated into English in full for the first time. Juana Summers spoke with publisher Michael Szczerban about the long journey that brought the regional Italian recipes of The Talisman of Happiness to a global audience. Then, pastry chef Tanya Bush once looked to the kitchen during a difficult moment. She spoke with NPR’s Scott Detrow about Will This Make You Happy, a cookbook and memoir about her year of self-discovery and imperfect baking.

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Transcript

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0:00.0	Hello there. It's NPR's Book of the Day. I'm Timberdi Armias.
0:05.6	Today, two cookbooks that are a real treat. In a moment, we'll hear about baking as catharsis,
0:11.5	but first, a classic. The Talisman of Happiness, the most iconic Italian cookbook ever written,
0:17.5	was first published in 1929. It was written by Auduboni, and as the title
0:22.8	suggests, it's a canonical work, but until now, hadn't been translated into English.
0:28.2	That is, until book publisher Michael Zurban got to work on making it happen. He tells all
0:33.5	things considered host Juana Summers about that process and some of his favorite recipes
0:37.7	from the book.
0:39.6	When you think about classic wedding gifts, what comes to mind? A lot of them revolve around food,
0:45.4	a new set of dishes, tablecloths, maybe a stand mixer, or various other kitchen appliances.
0:51.7	Well, in Italy, for many years throughout the 20th century, a classic
0:56.4	cookbook published in 1929 was among the most common wedding gifts. The book is called Iltesmano
1:03.8	della Felicita, or the Talisman of Happiness. And now for the first time, this classic
1:09.4	Italian cookbook has been translated in full into English.
1:13.8	That is thanks to the efforts of Michael Zurban, a publisher at Veracious.
1:18.2	This new edition of Talismet of Happiness was published in October, and Michael Zurban is with us now.
1:23.2	Hi there.
1:23.8	Hi there. Thank you so much for having me.
1:25.6	Thanks for being here. Michael, first start by telling us who wrote this cookbook and how did it
1:30.1	become so popular in Italy.
1:32.1	Wow. The person who wrote the book was named Ada Boni, and she was born in the 1880s in Rome,
1:38.8	and she is, I think, the most important, forgotten culinary icon in Italian cooking history.
	...

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