The Cookbook Collector

I wasn't sure what to expect when I opened The Cookbook Collector by Allegra Goodman. The jacket description sounded like it could veer into schmaltzy territory, and I'm always suspect when an author is touted as a "modern day Jane Austen". Happily, I ended up really, really liking this book (and it's not really Austen like; not sure where that comparison came from).

It's the story of two sisters that takes place in a world where rare book collecting, environmentalism, and the 1990s dot com craze all converge. It's a dialogue-rich, character-driven book. It almost surprises me that I like the book as a whole because I found it hard to like some of the characters. I think they were just all so well written that I found myself compelled to find out what happens to them, regardless of whether or not I liked them.