Book 47- The Recipe Club

Earlier this month I said I wanted to read a bunch of memoirs about women and cooking. Well, tucked into the recommendations for this genre was this fictional novel, which I decided to include in my personal theme, and I'm glad I did. This is the first in my grouping of women and food books, with the focus usually to be on memoirs, but since this is the exception, it's first. More about women, food and memoirs will follow over the next month.

The bulk of The Recipe Club by authors Andrea Israel and Nancy Garfinkel is an exchange of letters between two life long friends who always love and hate each other. The chronicling of the friendship between Val and Lilly is also punctuated by recipes; their story spans from childhood into their middle-aged adulthood.

This was an interesting story and I didn't always like the characters, but I like the letter exchange way of telling a story. And while often found the story predictable, I have to say I liked the book because of the format. I also LOVE the layout of the book. It's is laid out as emails and letters, which changing fonts and the pages are in color with pictures and such, so it actually LOOKS like letters oft times. I like the "stationary" and post cards, and little drawings. I'm a letter writer and I do things like that when I send a paper letter through the USPS.

I also thought the recipes were great. I liked they were all easy and very practical, nothing to complicated, and made with ingredients that are going to be accessible to most people, and they sound delicious and basic, but yummy.

So, I'm glad that I read a review from Food for Thought blogger Once in a Blue Moon. I enjoyed the concept of this novel, the basic story was fine, but the food and fun lay out were the kick for me!