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    The Cookbook Collector: A Novel
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    The Cookbook Collector: A Novel
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    The Cookbook Collector: A Novel
    Audiobook15 hours

    The Cookbook Collector: A Novel

    Written by Allegra Goodman

    Narrated by Ariadne Meyers

    3.5/5

    ()

    Currently unavailable

    Currently unavailable

    About this audiobook

    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.


    From the Hardcover edition.
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherPenguin Random House Audio
    Release dateJul 6, 2010
    ISBN9780307736857
    Unavailable
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    Reviews for The Cookbook Collector

    3.5/5

    440 ratings61 reviews

    What did you think?

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    Review must be at least 10 words

    • 2/5
      Set just before the tech bubble burst. One sister is a CEO of a tech company in CA. Everything she does/has is expensive (clothing, cars, etc.) Her sister is more "hippie-like". This is the story of this sister in her search for love, her reason for being and herself. It was OK, not super.
    • 2/5
      We need to stop this thing where every woman who writes a serious book that includes family and personal relationships is automatically called a "modern Jane Austen." Not only does it undervalue the true brilliance of Austen's novels, which have rarely, if ever, been matched, but it also strikes me as kind of sexist. It's a knee-jerk comparison that isn't very thoughtful. "Look! A lady writer! Like Jane Austen!" No.This is not Jane Austen. It follows relationships, sure. But Jane Austen wrote about manners and society, and she did it in a way that got her point across while (and this is the important part) being completely readable and engaging. Jane Austen could make you care about the most ridiculous characters. She wanted you to care. If you didn't, you wouldn't get the point.Allegra Goodman, on the other hand, seemed to be almost daring me to care about this story and these characters. They wallowed in their human weakness, or wandered aimlessly through life, or worked very hard not to make decisions, or consciously did things despite the hurt it would cause the people they cared about. Or were supposed to care about. These are all very legitimate literary choices, but they distanced me from the characters. It made it hard to care, which just left the story and the writing itself. The story is meandering. It's entirely character driven for 75% of the book, and then at the end we get a very convenient convergence of characters. Behold! They're all connected after all! It felt cheap. And as for the writing, it didn't feel particularly beautiful or special. At least to me. It felt like I was having a conversation with someone who is pretty smart, and who knows it. And not only does she know, she's determined to show me, over and over again. It felt like performance when what I want as a reader is effortlessness. It takes more skill.So, this is not the book for me. But Allegra Goodman is a critical darling. If that's a thing that matters to you, go for it. What do I know anyway?
    • 1/5
      Yaaaaawwwwnnnnnnnn.
    • 2/5
      The writing was what gave this a two instead of a zero. The writing was literature but I found the story line to be wandering with two many plots and characters. It was like unedited. I would recommend this in parts to read good description.
    • 2/5
      Read right after I read another story about sisters, so maybe that clouded my desire to read ANOTHER one where the mom wrote letters before she died. Also, I have a low tolerance for BAD guys who turn out to be GREAT, and it looked like the key romance was going that way.So I think my not wanting to read this had nothing to with the craft, the writing, more the plot.
    • 2/5
      How did the book collector cook up his exotic menu's when his stove was stuffed with cookbooks? Very disjointed but somehow it all came together.
    • 5/5
      Allegra Goodman strikes me as that rare bird, an author who exudes happiness. Her characters even in the face of tragedy own up to their responsibilities and carry on. There is humor, and complexity too. As I began reading about the two sisters who carry the story, I felt my mouth turn up into a smile. Goodman's happiness as an author makes me happy.
    • 2/5
      The Cookbook Collector by Allegra Goodman was our most recent book club selection that was discussed yesterday. We were all in agreement that it was just sort of "blah". This is the story of motherless sisters, the older Emily, driven and ambitious is the self-appointed nurturer to younger Jess, a college student and free spirit. Emily's company just went public, is selling stock and she's making a fortune. Jess works part-time at a bookstore and is falling in love with a tree-saving activist. Emily's boyfriend Jonathan is also driven but ruthless towards achieving success. George, the owner of the bookstore where Jess works is an unapologetic bibliophile, a connoisseur of fine things who bristles with Jess's irresponsible attitude. These two sisters are at the core of the story, however it branches off into different directions where they eventually drop off and aren't mentioned again. We were all in agreement that this book had too many loose ends and perhaps had the author committed to fewer ideas it might have made for a better read. Another complaint from the group was that none of the characters were all that likable this made for difficultly connecting with them in order to want to continue reading. What I did like is that it took place in Berkeley which is for me is local as well as the sections about the bookstore were the best scenes for me. I wanted this book to be better and feel it had the potential but was unfortunately a disappointing mess.
    • 5/5
      One of those books that grabs hold of me and won't let go - I read most over one weekend. The characters are interesting and unique and feel like real people, and the story is engaging.
    • 4/5
      I could see in this a book that a lot of people would enjoy, but I wasn't one of those people. Perhaps it would be more appealing to someone who was a young adult during the tech boom and had a better feel for the anticipation and enthusiasm of what it could bring. I enjoyed some of the plot lines, but wanted more from their interactions.
    • 3/5
      This book was good but it didn't really have a focus. I thought it was going to be about the relationship and lives of two sisters but it focused on so many other characters too. You would be reading a chapter about Jess or Emily and then then next chapter would focus on someone I perceived as a peripheral. I enjoyed the book and was happy with the way it concluded but I just didn't enjoy it as much as I expected to.
    • 4/5
      This is not the tour de force that Intuition was, but I still thoroughly enjoyed it. I don't find the tech boom/Silicon Valley milieu boring at all--I thought it was a lot of fun to read about. Since the book is set in 1999 - 2001, of course September 11 looms over everything, but I thought it was well-handled. The characters were all well drawn (particularly Emily, whom I thought to be more original than Jess, who was a Marianne Dashwood clone), and although many of the plot turns could be guessed at (if you are familiar at all with Sense & Sensibility), there were still some surprises. (This book does not follow Sense & Sensibility nearly as closely as The Three Weissmans of Westport. What is in the water that there are two different Sense & Sensibility analogs this year?)

      The one issue I had is that the story of Emily & Jess's mother is wrapped up much too neatly, with a truly unbelievable coincidence. It is the kind of thing Dickens might have put into a novel, but not Jane Austen.
    • 3/5
      While this was a very entertaining and compelling book, it was in no way like a Jane Austen novel. For a reviewer to state such is unfair to the author. I liked the characters and the story, but found a bit too much going on at times, and several rabbit chases that left me unfulfilled. They story was heavy on Juaism, which was a bit confusing to me. It didn't seem to be a vital part of the story, but merely a fact (albeit important fact) of Gillian's past. Her daughters discovered the secret, each dealing with it in her own way, but that part of the story came too late in the book to explore or pursue. The fact that they were related to the family living behind their father was a little too tidy, or a little too creepy, for me to believe.

      And what happened to Orion? Did he and Sorel just ride off into the sunset? What became of Molly? Did she continue to live in their apartment and become a doctor? Did she, too, become disenfranchised with her path and change it completely? Did Leon finally save the trees?

      These are the reasons I give three stars instead of four. I will, however, read more by this author.
    • 2/5
      Ultimately, I liked this but it was a pretty slow read. There was a lot of material I thought was unnecessary...especially in the first half of the book (I thought I could have been pared down by half!) For me, there was way too much background on internet start-up companies & far too little about the cookbook collector, his cookbooks, & the storyline pertaining to his life.
    • 2/5
      Although it was interesting reading a story that was set in a time, location, and industry that I am very familiar with, I felt that the author was trying to create too many characters and too many storylines and lacked focus -- I didn't feel like I really identified or sympathized with any of the characters. Many of the reviews compared this book to Jane Austen's Sense and Sensibility, and I felt that that comparison was a big stretch. I also did not care for some of the language and intimate situations that were included.
    • 4/5
      What an epic read! Deals with the concepts of "wealth" and what i means to love someone and/or something. It's also a mini course on rare books and literature in general.
    • 2/5
      Although it was interesting reading a story that was set in a time, location, and industry that I am very familiar with, I felt that the author was trying to create too many characters and too many storylines and lacked focus -- I didn't feel like I really identified or sympathized with any of the characters. Many of the reviews compared this book to Jane Austen's Sense and Sensibility, and I felt that that comparison was a big stretch. I also did not care for some of the language and intimate situations that were included.
    • 4/5
      Such a heartwarming story.
    • 4/5
      Great story that interweaves the musty smell of old books and the allure of ideas spoken in the past, and the dot com craze of the early 90's.
    • 3/5
      This was so not the kind of book I usually read!

      I guess I usually read books about things like time-traveling dolphins or Nigerian wizards or Chinese hackers or gentlemen thieves or what have you, so it actually seemed weirdly exotic to read a book about some boring middle-class Californians like myself.

      It was also kind of weird to not really have a plot, or at least not one where anything surprising happened (e.g. aliens or Russian mafia appearing out of nowhere!). Like, if you have your first chapter heading be "Fall 1999", it seems pretty obvious when the big climax of the story is going to happen. And these people are going to make some money and then lose it, and these other people are going to fall in love, and everyone is going to maybe grow a little.
      Still, it was a lot more pageturny than I expected.

      And after reading a bunch of classic SF, I REALLY appreciated having some character development, but I kind of hated the way she was subtly sneering at everyone the whole time. I mean, you invented these people, lady. No need to be so condescending.
      If it wasn't for that, I would have given it 4 stars.
    • 4/5
      I don't usually love contemporary fiction, but this I loved. It reminded me a of a 19th century triple decker: tons of characters, tons of plot. There are echoes of Jane Austen, but it feels a bit like Trollope too in the story about two tech startups. I love it most of all because it doesn't end with a vague ephiphany like so many New Yorker short stories do. I wish Allegra Goodman got as much hype as Jonathan Franzen gets. Also, I abandoned the audio half way through, and then I devoured the second half of the book in two days.
    • 3/5
      Okay, this book greatly annoyed me and greatly delighted me, and from moment to moment I just could not make up my mind which element was prevailing.
      It has sure fire seductions for me: bookshop with rare tomes and attractive curmudgeonly dude. Berkeley and the east coast. Save the Redwoods do gooders. Family and computers.
      (well, the computer bit was not sure fire for me, but is made enthralling).

      Unfortunately I know a lot about rare books and the selling thereof, and I lived through the eco struggles dismissively referenced. Anachronisms don't bother me in Regencies, I reasoned, why would they bother me so much in this bit of earnest fluff? I don't know.

      Oh, and there's poetry, and philosophy, and lots and lots of little bits of quotes for the alert English major.

      But..gosh, I'm being mean. And don't we all want to fall in love with an independently wealthy bookseller and live happily ever after after our sister's fiance gets exploded in plane on 9/11? Well, of course we do.
    • 3/5
      A good book -- not so good as Family Markowitz, but eminently readable. Most, but not all characters are engaging. A few loose threads. Beautifully woven story, with surprises that feel organic. A pleasant, nourishing read. Surprised myself at how interesting I found the dynamics of Internet companies when they seemed poised for permanent growth and success.
    • 5/5
      Emily and Jess Bach are about as different as two sisters can be. Emily, in her late twenties, is secure, successful, and ambitious, with a start-up high-tech company, Veritech, that is about to go public and make her very wealthy. Jess, about five years younger, is a free spirit, a mostly vegan graduate student in philosophy at Berkeley whose true passion is saving the trees, and who works in a rare-books store to earn a bit of cash. “The Cookbook Collector” is the story of Emily and Jess, and the people whose lives intersect with theirs, during a three-year period at the turn of the 21st century. In part Allegra Goodman’s novel is a careful depiction of those years in America, portraying both the roller-coaster experience of those directly involved in the dot-com boom and bust, and the overwhelming, life-changing impact of 9-11 on all Americans alive in 2001. But “The Cookbook Collector” is also a story of the timeless experiences of betrayal, of love, and of redemption. From Goodman’s almost matter-of-fact account of Emily and Jess’ stories there emerge moments that are deeply sad and others that are wonderfully joyous. It’s a book to be savored.
    • 4/5
      This is an ambitious novel that was very well reviewed. It is very well-crafted. It is partly a comedy of manners and courtship inspired by Jane Austen's "Sense and Sensibility." It is therefore blessed with two pleasing main characters with whom we already feel half-acquainted. The younger sister (here, Jess) is particularly charming and delightful.The book also manages a very knowing, and judgmental, portrait of the late 1990s dot.com boom. Again, we already know how that story ends, but that is comforting when the telling is so pitch perfect. It gives a really great portrait of the world of the young successful technology entrepreneur. And it even manages to be a September 11 novel, believe it or not. In fact, that's not all. It also delves into rare-book collecting, cooking, environmental activism, a Hasidic Jewish sect, Berkeley, California and Cambridge, Massachusetts. It's flaw, perhaps, is that is the book tries to be so all-encompassing. There are so many characters, with so many plots and sub-plots, and so much sociological description, that it sometimes felt too full.
    • 4/5
      This book begins in the final months of the twentieth century. Technology companies are growing like crazy, and those on the ground floor are becoming millionaires - at least on paper - as the companies go public. Emily Bach, the CEO of Veritech, celebrates her IPO (initial public offering) in California, while her boyfriend Jonathan prepares for his in Cambridge, MA. But not everyone is wrapped up in the business boom. Emily's sister Jessamine is a graduate student in philosophy, dates an activist, and works for a rare book collector. As these disparate threads weave together, I found myself mildly interested in how each character would face challenges to their identities, but I wasn't captivated. I wasn't really engaged in the story until about 100 pages from the end - until the story shifted from gains and losses on paper to gains and losses that were much more real. It was in this final quarter of the book that the characters were pushed from their comfort zones and their decisions became much more interesting.
    • 4/5
      This is the first book I've read by Goodman and I will definitely be checking out others in the future. She's a fine writer and this is a great story!
    • 4/5
      I read this book in one day. I haven't done that for a while, and it wasn't a case of not having other things to do.Relationships are at the heart of The Cookbook Collector: siblings, friends, romantic partners. Jess and Emily are sisters, and complete opposites. For the most part, they accept and yet resent each other, not understanding (or wanting to understand) what drives the other. Their mother died when they were young, and Emily takes after their father-- smart, analytical, and driven. Jess is also smart, but her interests are softer and more varied, and she's not in a hurry to settle down and commit to a career.Emily is a young CEO of a Silicon Valley high tech company, in a relationship with Jonathan, launching his own company on the east coast. Both are on the countdown to an IPO, worrying about future success of their companies. For all they have in common, they are very different people, and the book watches as they try to figure out their lives can work together.Jess collects people, and it was interesting watching her pop in and out of conversations with her then boyfriend, her roommates, a neighborhood rabbi, the owner of the rare books bookstore where she works. It's never clear how the pieces of her life will tie together, but for her, everything really is interconnected.Add in Berkeley tree sitters, the nitty gritty of high tech life, book collecting, the dynamics of many different families, and more.I really enjoyed the book, but had a few issues with it.I expected to see more of Silicon Valley, but more of the action was in Berkeley. I suspect that's a more interesting setting for most people, but I was hoping to see more of the streets I know. But that's just me.With all of the people involved in Emily and Jess's lives, and in the lives of those people as well, there were points where I was having trouble keeping track of secondary character names. I think that is the one weakness of the book. It contains many stories, all worth telling, but in telling them all, the core is weakened.All in all, a good read, and one I'll keep thinking about.
    • 5/5
      Although there is some plot in this novel, it's much more about character and finding one's way in an ethically complex world. The writing is sheer poetry. Loved it!
    • 2/5
      This book is completely not what the title, cover image, or some of the write-ups suggests. I picked it up because I enjoy cooking and have quite a collection of cookbooks. My second reason was that some reviewers likened to books to Jane Austen - a favorite author. Unfortunately, this book has very little to do with either. It actually ended up being about the dot com rise and fall and other historic events surrounding that time periods. There is a cookbook collector in the book, but still!