title: The Recipe Club: A Tale of Food and Friendship
authors: Andrea Israel & Nancy Garfinkel
pages: 363
genre: fiction
published: 2009
rated: 5 out of 5
The Recipe Club is one of those books that grabs your attention and does not let go. If I didn't have to work full time and tend to two children, I would have finished this one in one sitting, instead, I read it in two.
Lilly and Val are lifelong friends who haven't spoken in 26 years due to a falling out. Lilly is outgoing, flirty and dramatic, Val is the shy one, who tends to have her nose in a book and feels insecure most of the time.
In April of 2000, when Val's mother passes away, she emails Lilly, who is thrilled to hear from her long lost friend. The two women begin to email back and forth, but while they are catching up and reminiscing, they begin to argue once again over the same old issues that broke up their friendship up in the first place.
The book is written in the form of the womens' letters to each other. When the girls were tweens in the mid 1960's, they formed what they called 'The Recipe Club', and as they wrote to each other, they included a recipe with nearly each letter. So as you are reading the letters, you get a different recipe to go along with it. Recipes like First-Kiss Caramel Almond Kisses, Starry Night Scampi and Missing You Warmly Lentil Salad.
This book reads like non-fiction, you get the feeling that you are really reading the correspondence between these two friends.
I really enjoyed this book and am so happy I got a chance to read it. I highly recommend it! I liked both Val and Lilly, and I liked reading about thier lives through the letters they sent each other. This book also has a great twist in the end that took me totally off guard.
This one will be on my top favorites for 2010. The Recipe Club: A Tale of Food and Friendship is my first favorite read of the year. Special thanks to Caitlin over @ FSB Associates for sending me a copy of this book.
Here's a few tidbits I liked:
Sometimes I feel like you and I don't have much in common anymore. But here's a recipe anyway. For the sake of the Recipe Club. It's complicated. I hope you mess it up.
Valerie
I'm starting to understand what it takes to make friends: it's all about connecting with other strong, intelligent, focused women. About abandoning the shell you've been hiding in your whole life. And when you do it right, you're rewarded with love. With people who really get you. Who never judge you. Who admire you for who you are and what you have to offer.
The truth is, you need lots of different kinds of friends, Val. My mom has taught me that, too. When I think about it, I realize my friends are like planets, circling around me. Each one is different, but I am always the sun.
