Elisabeth Hyde

Another dysfunctional family? Sort of, with some secrets to hide.

Three siblings, Ruth, George, and Lizzie all go to visit their father who lives in New Hampshire. Lizzie is the youngest and lives nearby. George and Ruth live in Boston and Washington, DC. Murray, the father, invites Ruth and George to come and intervene with Lizzie and her much older boyfriend to break them up. They all have different personalities and lives but they try to get along now that they are older but there are still resentments.

A lot happens in this book and it goes back and forth from the present (then 2016) back to 1984 and tragedy happens.

I love the title of this book and it refers to a now ruined cookbook that their mother used constantly which cannot be replaced because of their mother's notes in the margins.… (more)

rabck from dove-i-libri; A book about family relationships. Murray is 81 and summons his three children home. The most precious item at the house is the Fannie Farmer Cookbook, that their mother wrote strange phrases in. If a kid asked something, the answer often was "go ask Fannie". Only Lizzie boyfriend dunked it in the sick and now it was a mess. The reunion has flashbacks for all of them to the time before their mother and brother died in a car crash. Because they're considering moving Dad to assisted living, they start cleaning out the house and discover a box of Daniel's things and Lillian's stories, including and acceptance letter for one on the day she died. Now the phrases started making sense. As she was cooking, she was concocting her short stories.… (more)