An illuminating guide to a career as a baker, written by acclaimed journalist Glynnis MacNicol and based on the real-life experiences of an expert in the field–essential reading for someone considering a path to this challenging, yet rewarding profession.

Go behind the scenes and be mentored by the best to find out what it’s really like, and what it really takes, to become a baker.

Esteemed journalist Glynnis MacNicol takes readers to the front counters of bakeries and cafes to offer a candid portrait of modern baking. MacNicol shadows Mary Louise Clemens, the owner and head baker of Ladybird Bakery in Brooklyn, to reveal how bakers work and how they stand out in a neighborhood, community, and city. In Becoming a Baker, MacNicol reveals the path to becoming a baker, from education to the creation of new recipes, from negotiating with suppliers to the possibility of opening a small business.

Prepare the legendary “Brooklyn Blackout” cupcakes in Ladybird’s kitchen, shape croissants at the beloved Sea Wolf Bakery in Seattle, and learn why bakers think the Great British Bake-Off has captured our collective imagination.

As the food industry changes to meet the 21st century, the role of a baker is becoming more and more central to our lives. For those passionate about nourishment, working with your hands, and the place of locally-owned businesses in communities, this is the most valuable informational interview you’ll ever have–required reading for anyone considering this career.

“I found myself underlining sentences, and then entire passages, that resonated with me, articulating the extreme inadequacy and sense of dislocation single women of a certain age, like MacNicol–and like me –experience in moments when others are growing closer without you…an anthem to choosing the single, family-free life.”–Amanda Stern, The New York Times Book Review

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If the story doesn’t end with marriage or a child, what then?

This question plagued Glynnis MacNicol on the eve of her 40th birthday. Despite a successful career as a writer, and an exciting life in New York City, Glynnis was constantly reminded she had neither of the things the world expected of a woman her age: a partner or a baby. She knew she was supposed to feel bad about this. After all, single women and those without children are often seen as objects of pity, relegated to the sidelines, or indulgent spoiled creatures who think only of themselves.

Glynnis refused to be cast into either of those roles and yet the question remained: What now? There was no good blueprint for how to be a woman alone in the world. She concluded it was time to create one.

Over the course of her fortieth year, which this memoir chronicles, Glynnis embarks on a revealing journey of self-discovery that continually contradicts everything she’d been led to expect. Through the trials of family illness and turmoil, and the thrills of far-flung travel and adventures with men, young and old (and sometimes wearing cowboy hats), she is forced to wrestle with her biggest hopes and fears about love, death, sex, friendship, and loneliness. In doing so, she discovers that holding the power to determine her own fate requires a resilience and courage that no one talks about, and is more rewarding than anyone imagines.

Intimate and timely, No One Tells You This is a fearless reckoning with modern womanhood and an exhilarating adventure that will resonate with anyone determined to live by their own rules.