Miss Cecily's Recipes for Exceptional Ladies by Vicky ZimmermanMy rating: 4 of 5 stars
Reader, I skimmed back through the book to find the most intriguing recipe titles; then I glanced at the back of the book, to find them there as well. If you’re intrigued by the following, you’re going to enjoy the book, I’ll venture.
“Tea for a Crotchety Aunt”, “Breakfast with a Hangover”, “Dinner for a Charming Stranger”—recipes with advice for food, life, and love.
When I picked up the book, I was expecting a feel-good story about a woman who starts volunteering at an old-folks’ home, and figures out her life thanks to advice from a crotchety old lady with a heart of gold. What I got was a story with more depth, about an intergenerational friendship that made me laugh and cry.
Kate is a modern British woman, working an ok job in marketing at a food emporium and trying to bring an ok boyfriend up to scratch so she can start married life. On her fortieth birthday, she and Nick are on vacation in France when he admits, no, he doesn’t want to move in together after all, and Kate has to move back in with her mother temporarily since she’d already given up her flat share. Seeing her floundering in chaos, Kate’s friend talks her into volunteering as a way to get out of her head. Unfortunately, the kitten socializing program is full, so that leaves the care home.
Cecily is 97, and she’s been waiting to die for years. She’s impatient, sad, and angry. She can’t enjoy her books any longer, and reading was the only thing that made her life bearable. She’s forgotten more about food than any of the other ladies ever knew, and she’s not impressed with Kate’s first efforts at the cooking demo. One thing age can bring is honesty over social convention; despite a rocky start Cecily and Kate talk about the reality of their lives and friendship develops, giving two lonely people the opportunity to move on from fed up with life to feeding the soul.
It’s a perfect read for this holiday season, when friends and family remain physically distant to protect the vulnerable; there’s always comfort food, but sometimes we need to reach out in new ways to learn new recipes for life and love.
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