Thursday, February 04, 2010

The Recipe Club - A Book Review

Thanks to Harper Collins I was given a copy of The Recipe Club by Andrea Israel and Nancy Garfinkel to review.

One of my favorite things about being a book reviewer is that sometimes books that you would have never picked up, end up on your bedside table to read. Sometimes this is a good thing and sometimes, you can't wait to finish the book because you are bored to tears. This IS one of the good times!!!!

I LOVED The Recipe Club.

Product Description

Lilly and Val are lifelong friends, united as much by their differences as by their similarities. Lilly, dramatic and confident, lives in the shadow of her beautiful, wayward mother and craves the attention of her distant, disapproving father. Val, shy and idealistic—and surprisingly ambitious—struggles with her desire to break free from her demanding housebound mother and a father whose dreams never seem to come true.
In childhood, “LillyPad” and “Valpal” vow to form an exclusive two-person club. Throughout the decades they write intimate letters in which they share hopes, fears, deepest secrets—and recipes, from Lilly’s “Lovelorn Lasagna” to Valerie’s “Forgiveness Tapenade.”

Readers can cook along as the girls travel through time, facing the challenges of independence; the joys and heartbreaks of first love; and the emotional complexities of family relationships, identity, mortality, and goals deferred.But no matter what different paths they take or what misunderstandings threaten to break them apart, Lilly and Val always find their way back together through their Recipe Club . . . until the fateful day when an act of kindness becomes an unforgivable betrayal.

Now, decades later, while trying to recapture the trust they’ve lost, Lilly and Val reunite once more—only to uncover a shocking secret. Will it destroy their friendship, or bring them ever closer?

The first part of the book is in the present. The second part, we rewind to when the girls are writing letters back and forth in Elementry School and then we are back in the present. Sounds confusing but it is done so well that you will thoroughly love it.

In A Nutshell:  What I loved the most was the back and forth letters from the girls to each other. Their friendship twists and turns through their letters and it reminded me of my oldest friend Peggy, we met in the 1st grade and our honest our letters were to each other. The writers change the voices of the girls as they age in their letters from worrying about not being together in school, and worrying about the change in the friendship as they let more people into their lives. Then their letters are about first kisses, boyfriends, girlfriends, but throughout all letters they include a recipe themed around the letter they wrote.

I think Andrea and Nancy, have a wonderful way of writing the different ages of the girls. It was fun to hear them age. The recipes made me hungry and the book reads so quickly that you almost forget you are really reading a novel. I love the idea of the letters and eventually emails back and forth.

Great idea for a book! Really good writers. This book will have your nodding your head as you remember your own childhood friendships, or your own life long friendship.

2 comments:

  1. I don't know if I have this one or not. If not I will get a copy!

    Great review!

    ReplyDelete
  2. I loved reading through 'The Recipe Club' as wel. I'm glad to see this on your post.

    ReplyDelete

I love comments. Please feel free to leave a comment. I would love to talk to you further