The Recipe Club: A Tale of Food and Friendship

What a surprise! I wasn't expecting much from a book with "Recipe" in the title, but it was great. My wife loved it, and I was stuck on the plane with nothing to read. I assumed that this was a book for women only, but it really grabbed me. I couldn't put the book down and was sorry the flight was over before I could finish. This story really resonated for me in ways that I couldn't have predicted. I was brought back to my childhood, and my two best friends that I had lost touch with. After reading this book I reached out to them and managed to track them down. After almost 25 years of silence we picked up where we left off - we'll be getting together again this summer! Thanks to The Recipe Club I've renewed some great friendships. I think you'll love it too. D

This is the first time I have felt compelled to write a book review. YOU MUST BUY THIS BOOK ... it is fantastic. You'll laugh and cry and miss the girls terribly when it ends. The story takes place between written letters. And it unfolds brilliantly. I read about 2 to 3 books (or more) a month, and this one is worthy of recommendation! You will thank me!!!

This heartwarming book was so creative and fun to read. It begins as emails going back and forth through two former friends. We can tell there is some tension and you immediately want to know why. The book then flashes backwards to the childhood of these friends, through Pen Pal type letters. The letters dont tell you everything like a book does. You never are privy to what happens between each letter or when the girls are together unless they write about it to each other. With the letters they send each other recipes. Some of them are easy and quick to make and others become more complicated and experimental. You get to grow up with Lilly and Val, experience love, loss and fun. After the misunderstand separates them, the book transforms into a typical fashion, giving the reader a bit more focus into the life of the two women. It then ends full circle with emails. I found this approach so interesting. If you are anything like me the story will engross you and you will need to clear your schedule to read this book in one sitting.

From the first pages of Andrea Israel and Nancy Garfinkel's new book, The Recipe Club: A Tale of Food and Friendship, I knew I was in for a treat. Initially told through a series of emails, letters and recipes, we learn about Val and Lilly and the power of friendship and food to enrich and nourish us. They deal with issues of trust, love, anger and resentment between friends - you will definitely recognize yourself and your own friends in these two women. The book will captivate you. Without realizing, I completed it straight through (and had book-marked the first recipe I wanted to try). The book itself is uniquely beautiful - the recipes and illustrations make it a very inviting and warm book. I recommend this book to anyone who relishes a smart and honest book about real relationships.

Food and friendship define every woman's life and this book is so well written that I dare any woman to not say to herself, "this could be about me," while reading the first few pages. It is so well-written: cleaver and heartfelt that I just want to sit down at a meal with Val and Lilly. Even the recipes resonate. The icebox cake took me back to being 13-years-old and making it with creme de menthe--I thought it was the height of sophistication. It's a book you'll want to read more than once and then cook from again and again with your best friend.