The Cookbook Collector

The Cookbook Collector (2010) by Allegra Goodman. Jess and Emily are sisters, but they have profoundly different temperaments. Jess is a tree-hugger, while Emily is the hard-charging CEO of a Silicon Valley start-up. How they approach life, love and money makes up the meat of this novel, set in the late 20th and early 21st Centuries. The central event of the book, not surprisingly, is Sept. 11, 2001, when two hijacked passenger planes slammed into the twin towers of the World Trade Center in New York City. Emily's boyfriend, Jonathan, is a passenger on one of the planes, a plot twist that took me by surprise and neatly embroidered the events of the book into real-life events. But elsewhere, Jess, the flibbertigibbet, falls happily in love with a book store owner 16 years her senior; and Emily, the career woman, discovers after his death that Jonathan has betrayed her and stolen business secrets from her. The book is a great read and scarcely has any flaws worth mentioning. Grade: A