The Cookbook Collector by Allegra Goodman is a bit misleading by it’s title. It is about an antique cookbook collection, not the collector himself. We also don’t even get to the cookbooks until about half way through the book, which is a shame, as they were the best part of this novel.

It is a modern day story about those who made it rich in the internet hey day of the late 90’s. Interspersed with this story are gems from a rare collection of very old cookbooks. The story centers around two very different sisters and their lives and relationships.

Although I enjoyed Goodman’s writing, I found that the different story lines didn’t really work well to form a complete whole. Still worth reading for the cookbooks alone.