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The Cookbook Collector
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The Cookbook Collector (2010) (edit title/settings)

by Allegra Goodman (Author) (edit contributors)

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Description edit see section history

Starred Review. If any contemporary author deserves to wear the mantel of Jane Austen, it's Goodman, whose subtle, astute social comedies perfectly capture the quirks of human nature. This dazzling novel is Austen updated for the dot-com era, played out between 1999 and 2001 among a group of... read more

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Quotes edit see section history

  • “How sad, he thought, that desire found new objects but did not abate, that when it came to longing there was no end. (pg 27)”
    George Friedman (owner of Yorick's Used and Rare Books)
  • “When I read Swift here, I'm reading him in this ink, on this paper, with this book in my hands--and I'm reading him as his contemporaries read him. You think there's something materialistic about collecting books, but really collectors are the last romantics. We're the only ones who still love books as objects. (pg 69)”
    George Friedman (owner of Yorick's Used and Rare Books)
  • “I have a theory about rare books. Here's what I think. Rare books--any books--start to die without readers. The words grow paler and paler. (pg 70)”
    Jessamine Bach
  • “She read Coleridge or Keats and felt that they had covered the great subjects so well that she had nothing to add about beauty, or immortality of the soul. (p. 72)”
  • “Reluctantly Mel admitted the cause of indigestion was anxiety. As soon as he arrived at this conclusion his stomachaches subsided, and his back went out. (pg 122)”
  • “What were lies anyway? Only futures waiting to come true. (pg 154)”
    Jonathan
  • “She had come to appreciate white rag paper and color plates with tissue over them and marbled endpapers and gilt titles. once, she had insisted that content was all that mattered. Now form began to matter too, and her eye delighted in elegant type, and her hand loved thick creamy pages. She treasured what was old and handmade, and began to enjoy early editions more than new. (pg 195)”
    (referring to Jess)
  • “The desserts were superb, the champagne subtly teasing, like a word on the tip of the tongue--methodological, perspicacious--the word that comes to you, playfully, when you think you have forgotten. Palimpsest. Irreversibility. Inamorata. (pg 245)”
  • “He himself had read some economics. In fact he had read The Wealth of Nations, a book Jessamine had recommended, and he saw in Adam Smith a very Jewish form of Providence. What was the invisible hand Smith always spoke about, but the hand of God? What was a correction, but the Creator's recalibration of the world? Had he studied physics in college, Helfgott might have learned that what goes up comes down. But the rabbi had not attended college, only seminary, where he learned that what comes down, must rise again. (pg 232)”
  • “There are no coincidences. (pg 327)”
    Chaya Zylberfenig
  • “Desire shifts to expectation, and expectation creates desire. This dynamic applies to everyday mass consumption in the kitchen, and feeds new theories of supply and demand, hunger and satisfaction. (pg 337)”
    Jess
  • Popular Highlights from Kindle Customers
  • Information wasn’t always such a gift; it was also a loss, the end of possibility.
    Highlighted by 123 Kindle customers
  • How sad, he thought, that desire found new objects but did not abate, that when it came to longing there was no end.
    Highlighted by 121 Kindle customers
  • ‘Why was I put on earth?’ As if there is perhaps one reason. The truth is there are too many reasons to count, and each reason and each soul connects to every other.
    Highlighted by 102 Kindle customers
  • “The truth is, it’s exhausting to take care of other people.”
    Highlighted by 91 Kindle customers
  • This is the way kids learn today. Someone told them how you feel is more important than what you know, and so they think accusations are ideas. This is political correctness run amok.”
    Highlighted by 86 Kindle customers
  • But who can measure appetite, or predict the limits of desire? Who can chart love’s parabola, from acquaintance to infatuation to estrangement?
    Highlighted by 70 Kindle customers
  • before their potential had hardened into the ordinary shell of adulthood.
    Highlighted by 65 Kindle customers
  • She had a high threshold for happiness, a straightforward, trusting nature when it came to joy.
    Highlighted by 63 Kindle customers
  • That’s another way to look at death, isn’t it? Simply the part of life that’s unexpressed. The might-haves and could-have-beens …
    Highlighted by 62 Kindle customers
  • PART TWO Light Trading
    Highlighted by 48 Kindle customers
Show all 21 quotes from this book

Setting & Locations edit see section history

Late 20th century San Francisco Bay area

Organizations edit see section history

  • Veritech: A major data-storage start-up corporation under the overall management of Emily Bach which has recently releasing an IPO .
  • ISIS: A dot.com company which sells encryption of web financial transactions. Their Chief of Technology is Emily's boyfriend.
  • Tree Savers: Environmental activists which include Jess as a volunteer.

First Sentence edit see section history

Rain at last.

Table of Contents edit see section history

Part 1: Friends and Family (Fall 1999)
Part 2: Light Trading (Thanksgiving Week 1999)
Part 3: High Fliers (November & December 1999)
Part 4: Best Offer (October 2000-January 2001)
Part 5: Free Fall (March-April 2001)
Part 6: Risk (August 2001)
Part 7: The Bottom Line (September & October 2001)
Part 8: Closely Held (May 2002)
Acknowledgements

Glossary edit see section history

  • reliquary: a container for relics
  • talisman: an amulet or other object considered to possess supernatural or magical powers
  • cousinage: collection of cousins

Series & Lists edit see section history

This book is in Bon Appetit - Favorite Books 2010. (community list)
This book is in Rainy Day Books (Staff Picks for 2010). (community list)

Authors & Contributors edit see section history

  1. Allegra Goodman (Author)

First Edition edit see section history

Original Language: English
Publisher: The Dial Press
Country: Add the country of publication.
Publication Date: July 6, 2010
ISBN: 978-0385340854
Page Count: 416

Classification edit see section history

  • Library of Congress: PS3557.O5829 C66 2010
  • Dewey: 813.54

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