The Italian Wedding

 

The Italian Wedding by Nicky Pellegrino was part of the 3-novel volume that I needed to purchase in order to read The Food of Love Cookery School. I loved The Food of Love Cookery School (still trying to convince my husband we need to take a cooking class in Sicily - now that he watched a Hallmark movie about a cooking school in Venice, he's more intrigued by the idea of a cooking school). I simply liked The Italian Wedding. 

It was the perfect book to read on the plane on the first leg of my Italy trip. (And no, I'm not in Italy yet.) I was initially disappointed that so much of the novel took place in England, but gradually, there was more and more of the story set in Italy. At this point it's very obvious that I love reading books based in Italy, especially when they deal with food!

What was also cool is that in this novel, the main character, Pieta, is a wedding dress designer making her sister's wedding dress and helping her plan a dream wedding. The first leg of this trip I'm on is to attend my daughter's wedding. Lots of connections there!

Pieta's mother, Catherine, helps with the construction of the wedding dress. And as they sew and bead, Catherine tells Pieta about how she and Pieta's father met and fell in love. Until that point, Pieta had a very  hard time imagining her mother before she was her mother. 

This was a very enjoyable novel to read, had my mouth watering in parts, got me really excited to visit Italy (counting the days), and it would make a great Hallmark-type movie.

I look forward to reading The Villa Girls, the third novel in this volume.

Kissing Kosher

 

When I saw that Jean Meltzer, author of The Matzah Ball and Mr. Perfect on Paper wrote a new novel, Kissing Kosher, I immediately put it on request at the library. I requested the audiobook which meant that I didn't read the acknowledgement of Renee's Reading Club, the group on Facebook. I still might try to get a print or ebook copy to check that out.

Like her first two novels, this one would make a great Hallmark movie. By now you should know how much I love me a Hallmark movie! It's also a bit of a Romeo and Juliet story.

Avital and Ethan are the grandchildren of men in a longstanding feud regarding a recipe for babka. Yes, babka. Pumpkin spice babka at that. Really? People eat pumpkin spice babka all year? And these men developed a pumpkin spice recipe for babka years ago? I i had to suspend belief in order to get past that little detail. But besides that...

The grandparents developed a delicious babka years ago. After a fight, Avital's grandparents went on to build up their small local Brooklyn bakery, Best Babka, which was famous for its pumpkin spice babka. Ethan's grandparents went into commercial production of kosher baked goods. Their most popular item was a pumpkin spice donut. Ethan's grandfather has had enough. He wants the babka recipe. He forces Ethan to commit corporate espionage by getting hired at Best Babka to steal the recipe. His grandfather has been forcing him into doing things most of his life so this is no different. He doesn't have much control over his own life.

Avital had gone to art school and left Brooklyn to become a professional photographer in California when she gets diagnosed with a chronic illness and is forced to come home where she has family that can help her manage her life. She feels like she doesn't have much control over her life either.

The novel delves into the family feud, Avital's chronic illness, and how Ethan helps her come to terms with living with a chronic illness. It also takes place in Brooklyn. It's got some yiddish words thrown in. I can see myself in some of the Jewish parts of the story. And who doesn't love babka?

Kissing Kosher was a sweet, pleasant, tasty, romantic read.

A Good Neighborhood

 

A Good Neighborhood, by Therese Anne Fowler, is a very timely, quite thought-provoking novel that addresses the issues of what makes a good neighborhood and what makes a good neighbor. It factors in age, profession, women's roles, race, religion, environmental issues just to name a few. 

The narrator of the novel are "the neighbors," collectively. As if they are sitting down to tell you a story about something that happened in their neighborhood. It tells the tale of Xavier Alston-Holt and his mother, Valerie and their new neighbors, the Whitmans. The two families have absolutely nothing in common. 

Brad Whitman is a real blow-hard, new money, and a local celebrity because he's personable and does his own commercials for his HVAC business. His wife, Julia, just wants to fit in. Brad and Julia have two daughters, Juniper and Lily.

Valerie Alston-Holt is a single mom to graduating senior, Brad. They are both well-liked in the neighborhood.

Valerie doesn't like Brad, and Brad isn't crazy about Valerie, even though Julia so wants to have Valerie as a friend. It's a dying oak tree in the Alston-Holt's backyard that starts the serious friction between the two neighbors. At the same time that trouble is brewing between the adult members of the families, Xavier and Juniper are becoming friends.

The book was incredibly authentic and many of the story lines are along the lines of things that are pretty current in the news, although the book was written before these stories hit the news. It's just that timely. There's no reason that anything in this story could not possibly happen, especially not in the current climate of our country. The setting of the story is Oak Knoll, North Carolina, a southern small city. As a transplanted New Yorker living in the part of Florida that more closely associates with the south, it reminded me of just how southern the thoughts of many people who live here are. I was able to make a few uncomfortable connections.

I found the book a real page turner and think it would make a great book club book. Will definitely recommend it to my book club this afternoon.