If You are Interested in Reading a First Hand Account…. I recommend two books that you might like.  Both give first hand accounts of different cultures:  Common Lives of Uncommon Strength: The Women of the Coal and Coke Era of Southwestern Pennsylvania 1880-1970 by Evelyn A. Hovanec includes interviews with many women who shared their memories of living in the Coal Patches of southwestern Pennsylvania.  As The Tree Fell: The History and Reunion of Our Croatian Immigrant Family and the Joys and Challenges of Retirement on Vis, An Adriatic Island by Patricia Repanich shares her personal experiences as she and her husband discover his Croatian roots and relatives on the island of Vis.  Both books offered food for thought and made me think about food — food the way my Baba would have made it in her homeland of the Adriatic and in the coal camp of West Virginia!  See my Book List.