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The Cookbook Collector  By  cover art

The Cookbook Collector

By: Allegra Goodman
Narrated by: Ariadne Meyers
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Publisher's summary

Heralded as “a modern day Jane Austen” by USA Today, National Book Award finalist and New York Times best-selling 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, 23-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.

©2010 Allegra Goodman (P)2010 Random House

Critic reviews

"If any contemporary author deserves to wear the mantle of Jane Austen, it’s [Allegra] Goodman, whose subtle, astute social comedies perfectly capture the quirks of human nature. This dazzling novel...is Goodman’s most robust, fully realized and trenchantly meaningful work yet.” ( Publishers Weekly)
"Fans of Goodman's lovely, nuanced novels have a treat in store with this tale of two sisters." ( Entertainment Weekly)
"Goodman is remarkably successful in creating rich, engaging characters and a complex story of love and identity." ( Library Journal)

What listeners say about The Cookbook Collector

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  • Overall
    2 out of 5 stars

Pretty, but too slow

I loved the main characters, and I really wanted to like this book, but it moved too slowly for me: I prefer audiobooks with a quicker pace. Still, the characters are well-developed, and the narrative structure is interesting and effective.

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3 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    2 out of 5 stars

I really wanted to like this one

This book had all kinds of indicators in its description that made me think it was right up my alley. However, I just found it disappointing. I think the most obvious problem, as an audiobook, was the narrator. I'm sorry to say I found her delivery lacking. What really annoyed me was the way she read the voices for the male characters. It was so forced and artificial, I couldn't buy it. There was a male character who was an MIT-educated software developer, and he sounded like a whiny surfer dude. Why? This may be a cosmetic sort of criticism, but it really bugged me. The story itself I found to be "just okay," not awful, but not terribly gripping either. I didn't hate it.

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  • Overall
    2 out of 5 stars

Maybe a good story, but the reader?

I can't get past the quality of the reader who seems intent on making every young female character a squishy, saccharine ball of 12 year old enthusiasm. The male characters are worse.

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7 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    1 out of 5 stars

Worst narration I can remember

The narrator was so poor she ruined the book for me. I finally gave up and decided to go to a library to finish reading it. I usually find that listening enhances my pleasure but not in this case.

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1 person found this helpful

  • Overall
    1 out of 5 stars

Terrible Narrator

Honestly, I got to Chapter 7 of this book and just couldn't tolerate the narrator's voice any more. She attempts to use different voices and accents for different characters, and most of them are poorly done. However, even more annoying than that is her own voice for the narration of the story which had my teeth constantly on edge. As a result, I don't think I gave the book itself a fair chance. It just wasn't worth my sanity to try to go any further.

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8 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    1 out of 5 stars
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    1 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    1 out of 5 stars

Don't spend your money - typical harlequin romance

I really enjoy books about brilliant women and enjoyed the first 60 pages then it turned into a harlequin romance set in silicon valley! It became tedious to read anymore. When she starts talking business because "she wants to make her rival boyfriend feel better" i turned off the book.

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