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Interesting,
Romantic,
Unconvincing

6 reviews

The Cookbook Collector: A Novel

by Allegra Goodman

Published: 2010-07-06
Hardcover : 394 pages

16 members reading this now
23 clubs reading this now
8 members have read this book

Recommended to book clubs by 4 of 6 members

Heralded as ?a modern day Jane Austen? by USA Today, National Book Award finalist and New York Times bestselling author Allegra Goodman has compelled and delighted hundreds of thousands of readers. Now, in her most ambitious work yet, Goodman weaves together the worlds of Silicon Valley ...

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Introduction

(Heralded as ?a modern day Jane Austen? by USA Today, National Book Award finalist and New York Times bestselling author Allegra Goodman has compelled and delighted hundreds of thousands of readers. Now, in her most ambitious work yet, Goodman weaves together the worlds of Silicon Valley and rare book collecting in a delicious novel about appetite, temptation, and fulfillment.

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?as her employer George points out in what he hopes is a completely disinterested way.

Bicoastal, surprising, rich in ideas and characters, The Cookbook Collector is a novel about getting and spending, and about the substitutions we make when we can?t find what we?re looking for: reading cookbooks instead of cooking, speculating instead of creating, collecting instead of living. But above all it is about holding on to what is real in a virtual world: love that stays.

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Book Club Recommendations

Recommended to book clubs by 4 of 6 members.

Member Reviews

Overall rating:

"The Cookbook Collector"by Karen Gravelle M. (see profile) 11/23/13

It took a while to learn the "tie" to "cookbook" but I enjoyed the female entrepreneur and computer software slant. It definitely maintained my interest throughout.

"Cookbook Collector"by Lynne M. (see profile) 05/13/12

"The cookbook Collector"by Fran V. (see profile) 05/12/12

This book did not hold my interest. I pushed through because I wanted to speak at book club. The characters were flat and uninteresting stereotypes. The interesting things like the Jewish fa... (read more)

"I Wanted to Love This Book - I Didn't"by Jodie B. (see profile) 02/12/11

2 1/2 stars. I so wanted to really love this book. I don't get the overblown comparisons to Jane Austen at all, but that didn't draw me to it, nor did it put me off, I just don't get where this comes from.... (read more)

"The Cookbook Collector"by Lee Anne M. (see profile) 02/01/11

The group as a whole enjoyed the book. We would recommend this to other book clubs.

"The Cookbook Collector"by Lynn W. (see profile) 09/12/10

Emily and Jess are mismatched siblings who love and care for each other despite their different outlooks on love and life. The routes their lives take over the course of two years show that life is unpredictable... (read more)

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