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Saturday, March 3, 2018

Pre Pub Book Buzz: Go Ask Fannie by Elizabeth Hyde

My family has a bit of an addiction to banana bread. And while I like to experiment, changing it up sometimes (out of necessity since I moved from sea level to high altitude), my dad is a firm believer that the recipe we've always used is the best one and there's no need to deviate from it. 

That recipe comes from a book pretty beloved by my family - The Fannie Farmer Cookbook. My grandmother had a copy, my mom has a copy that's falling apart, and when I moved out on my own my grandmother bought me a copy as well. 

When I stumbled upon Elizabeth Hyde's upcoming Go Ask Fannie, it piqued my interest. And when a read through of the synopsis confirmed the Fannie in question was indeed Fannie Farmer, I immediately had to read it. Here's a bit about the book from Goodreads:

Everyone has baggage. The Blaire siblings are just taking theirs home for the long weekend.

When Murray Blaire invites his three grown children to his New Hampshire farm for a few days, he makes it clear he expects them to keep things pleasant. The rest of his agenda–using Ruth and George to convince their younger sister, Lizzie, to break up with her much older boyfriend–that he chooses to keep private. But Ruth and George arrive bickering, with old scores to settle. And, in a classic Blaire move, Lizzie derails everything when she turns up late, cradling a damaged family cookbook, and talking about possible criminal charges against her.

This is not the first time the Blaire family has been thrown into chaos. In fact, that cookbook, an old edition of Fannie Farmer, is the last remaining artifact from a time when they were a family of six, not four, with a father running for Congress and a mother building a private life of her own. The now -obscured notes written in its pages provide tantalizing clues to their mother’s ambitions and the mysterious choices she once made, choices her children have always sought without success to understand. Until this weekend.

As the Blaire siblings piece together their mother’s story, they come to realize not just what they’ve lost, but how they can find their way back to each other. In this way, celebrated author Elisabeth Hyde reminds readers that family survival isn’t about simply setting aside old rivalries, but preserving the love that’s written between the lines.

As an added bonus, Hyde is a local author here in the Boulder/Denver area. You can read more about Go Ask Fannie, including an excerpt, over on her website

Go Ask Fannie is due out from Putnam in April. 

1 comment:

As the Crowe Flies and Reads said...

I'm looking forward to this one, too! My bookstore is in negotiations with the publisher for an author event, but we keep going back & forth on possible dates. With luck I'll get to hear her read in person!