The cookbook collector

English language

Published July 6, 2010 by Dial Press.

ISBN:: 978-0-385-34085-4
OCLC Number:: 457147993

(4 reviews)

Emily and Jessamine Bach are opposites in every way: Twenty-eight-year-old Emily is the CEO of Veritech, twenty-three-year-old Jess is an environmental activist and graduate student in philosophy. Pragmatic Emily is making a fortune in Silicon Valley, romantic Jess works in an antiquarian bookstore. Emily is rational and driven, while Jess is dreamy and whimsical. Emily’s boyfriend, Jonathan, is fantastically successful. Jess’s boyfriends, not so much.

National Book Award finalist and New York Times bestselling author Allegra Goodman has written a delicious novel about appetite, temptation, and holding on to what is real in a virtual world: love that stays.

2 editions

Balise reviewed The cookbook collector by Allegra Goodman

Review of 'The cookbook collector' on 'Goodreads'

2 stars

I definitely picked that one at the library solely based on the title, without really knowing what to expect.
I read it, and I'm still not entirely sure. I think the title is kind of confusing - there is indeed a cookbook collector that has quite an influence on a part of the book, but none on the other half, so... "meh".
It is the story of two sisters, one is CEO of a "soon-to-be-IPO'd" tech company in the early 2000s, the other is working in a second-hand bookshop. I kind of liked the characters, although the secondary characters can be a bit confusing at times ("wait, who's that guy already?").
I got to 3/4 of the book, already thinking about what I'd write about it, essentially thinking "allright, this is not a very memorable book, but it's still readable", and bam, something happened, and, rare occurrence, I found myself …

I definitely picked that one at the library solely based on the title, without really knowing what to expect.
I read it, and I'm still not entirely sure. I think the title is kind of confusing - there is indeed a cookbook collector that has quite an influence on a part of the book, but none on the other half, so... "meh".
It is the story of two sisters, one is CEO of a "soon-to-be-IPO'd" tech company in the early 2000s, the other is working in a second-hand bookshop. I kind of liked the characters, although the secondary characters can be a bit confusing at times ("wait, who's that guy already?").
I got to 3/4 of the book, already thinking about what I'd write about it, essentially thinking "allright, this is not a very memorable book, but it's still readable", and bam, something happened, and, rare occurrence, I found myself crying for a few pages. And in a way, it did redempt the whole story a bit for me. I also liked the fact that the story happens in the Bay area and in Boston/Cambridge, and I've been to both places, and it sounded credible enough :-)
But I also suppose I had more expectations from the title, and that I was kind of disappointed too.
Anyway, I'll put a "meh+" on this one.