The Cookbook Club

On one of my rare entries into a store this past year, I walked into Barnes & Noble with my daughter while she was attempting to pick up a book. I browsed, picked up The Cookbook Club by Beth Harbison. It must have struck my fancy as I added to my ToBeRead list. After finishing Night and This Tender Land, I was wanting something light to read and this was available from the library.

I had a preconceived notion about what this novel would be like and it was nothing like what I imagined. I expected a novel with a bunch of people in a club where they worked on recipes from a particular cookbook for each month. That part was true. But I also expected the story to somehow be connected to the recipes or the cookbook or  the cookbook author. That wasn't the case at all. 

Beth Harbison clearly has a love of cookbooks. My cookbook collection isn't too shabby either but... when I'm in a need a recipe, I typically head to google and search and print the recipe that most strikes my fancy.

Margo, Aja and Trista are each at a crossroads. Trista has just purchased a bar and has come up with the idea of a cookbook club basically to find like-minded testers for the recipes she hopes to cook and serve at her bar. Margo has just been dumped by her jerk of a husband when she comes across the ad for the cookbook club. Aja is hoping that she can learn how to cook! The three definitely bond over food and this is a wonderful book for foodies. However, the book is more about the women's friendships and the choices that each one makes during a difficult time in her life. Oh... but the food...

If only I wasn't going to be on Weight Watchers for the rest of my life! I'd love a cookbook club! It has given me the idea, though, that if I ever bond with people also following WW, a  WW dinner club might be something fun. Who can make the most delicious healthy food?

One thing that really struck me, though, was what Margo had to go through cooking for her husband. He was truly obsessed with a healthy diet so she wasn't allowed to use butter, real cheese, make fresh pasta, and so on. To think that I think I make things tough on my husband! He can use anything as long as he weighs and measures out what he's using. And he can't use a lot of the foods that I want to limit. I'm nothing like Margo's ex-husband. Although her complaints did give me a window into what my husband might be thinking.

There's also a bit of home improvement stuff in here. As part of Margo's divorce settlement, she's gotten the dilapidated farm house that has been in her husband's  family for years. An old college friend of hers is in need of an escape so in return for free rent, he is doing some renovations for her. I sure hope that future Cookbook Club meetings will be held at Margo's farmhouse.

If you need something light and "a bit cheesy" (pun intended) to read and food is one of your things, you might want to pick this one up.