Naturally I was attracted to this book because I love cookbooks (not to be mistaken with actually BEING a good cook) and assumed that they would be an integral part of the story. Plus, the cover was very pretty!
Jessamine and Emily Bach seem as different as sisters can be. Jessamine is a dreamer, a doctoral student in philosophy who moves from romance to romance and hasn't quite figured out what she wants to do with her life. Older sister Emily graduated from MIT and is the CEO of Veritech, a very successful California-based Internet data storage company about to go public. Emily is in a long-distance relationship with Jonathan, who has his own Internet start-up on the east coast.
Jessamine works part-time for George Friedman in his bookstore, a business that Jess suggests is more of a personal collection than a business. George, 39, is a retired Microsoft millionaire who is still seeking the perfect woman to cook for and nurture. Of course, you can seewhere this is all going. Will Emily and Jonathan work out how to combine their lives and businesses and live happily ever after? Will jessamine and george ultimate come to the realiztion that they were made for each other?
The Cookbook Collector includes many literary references juxtaposed against the culture and ambition of the dot com boom. It is, interestingly, set just before (and after) 9/11. Family heritage, values, and business figure prominently into the novel, as does its historic context and a bit of Jewish culture. While beautifully written, this is a novel that seems even better in retrospect. My only criticism is that I had a hard time figuring out all of the connections among the stories (a little distracting), but maybe that was just me. I would definitely recommend it.
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