13 Little Blue Envelopes by Maureen Johnson

Overview from Barnes and Noble:
When Ginny receives thirteen little blue envelopes and instructions to buy a plane ticket to London, she knows something exciting is going to happen. What Ginny doesn't know is that she will have the adventure of her life and it will change her in more ways than one. Life and love are waiting for her across the Atlantic, and the thirteen little blue envelopes are the key to finding them in this funny, romantic, heartbreaking novel.

My thoughts:
This was the second book I read on my kindle.  I loved the premise of this one.  Ginny's aunt has sent her a package with 13 numbered letters that she is supposed to complete in order, only opening the next one when she has completed the previous one.  Her first instruction is to go to a Chinese restaurant below where her aunt used to live to pickup a package then go to the airport with only a backpack as luggage and no kind of technology to fly to London.  Ginny has to navigate foreign countries, foreign languages, and different cultures to complete each task.  Sometimes she meets people who are supposed to help her and sometimes she doesn't, but she grows and also comes to terms with some things about her aunt that she has not wanted to face.  Unfortunately the last letter is lost to her, which I was really disappointed about until I saw that there is another book that will answer what questions are left.  Part of me felt like it was a cop out to write another book, but this one was long enough and she grew enough, so now I just need to add another book to my TBR list!


Details
•Pub. Date: October 2009
•Publisher: HarperCollins Publishers
•Sold By: HARPERCOLLINS
•Format:  368pp
•ISBN-13: 9780061973802
•ISBN: 0061973807

The Recipe Club: A Novel about Food and Friendship by Andrea Israel , Nancy Garfinkel .

Overview from Barnes and Noble:
Loyalty, loss, and the ties that bind: These are the ingredients of The Recipe Club, a "novel cookbook" that combines an authentic story of friendship with more than eighty delicious recipes.


Lifelong friends Lilly and Val are united as much by their differences as by their similarities. In childhood, "LillyPad" and "ValPal" form an exclusive two-person club, writing intimate letters in which they share hopes, fears, deepest secrets . . . and recipes—from Lilly's "Lovelorn Lasagna" to Valerie's "Forgiveness Tapenade." The Recipe Club sustains Lilly and Val's bond across the decades: through the challenges of independence, the joys and heartbreaks of first love, and the emotional complexities of family relationships, identity, mortality, and goals deferred—until the fateful day when an act of kindness becomes an unforgivable betrayal.

My thoughts:
I love books that are set up as letters between two people.  At the beginning of the novel the two women are exchanging email because on of their parents has just died.  At first it seems like the two are striking back up a friendship that suffered a rift many years ago, but then the reach an impasse and call it off.  Then we go back to the 1960's and 1970's and read letters between the two as children.  Things get fleshed out, insight is given, and things start to make sense.

I loved the letters and the childhood feelings and insecurities that are shown, how much more dramatic an eighteen year old is than a forty year old, how much they want to find themselves and find their place and be loved and accepted by their parents.  In many of the letters a recipe is exchanged.  I found myself wanting to try out the recipes.  I  haven't as of yet, but there are a few I may.  I am torn because I usually pass along books I read unless I know I want to read it again, but with all the recipes I may save this one a little longer to have the chance to try them.  It may even go with my recipe books in the kitchen cabinet.

I liked Valerie more than Lilly, but could see traits of who I used to be in some of both of their actions, especially some of Lilly's.  Part of her growing up and fitting in and having boyfriends, not the singing and performing parts. 

The last part that brought them up to their present, or second to last part I guess, where it was actually in a regular novel format was my least favorite, I was glad when they went back to emails and letters.  Some of it was tied up a bit tidier than I would have liked, but I was satisfied with the ending.

Details
•Pub. Date: September 2010
•Publisher: HarperCollins Publishers
•Format: Paperback , 342pp
•ISBN-13: 9780061992292
•ISBN: 0061992291

"The Letters" by Luanne Rice and Joseph Monninger

I love letters. There is something so personal and fun about sending and receiving them. At times I am sad that due to email, texting and other electronic communications as well as cell phones we do so little letter writing anymore. When I saw the cover I thought this might be a book about Christmas, I guess it was all the trees and snow but that was not the case at all. In this novel Hadley and Sam are a married couple who are currently separated as they each come to terms with their 20 year old son Paul's death in a plane crash in Alaska. Sam, a sports writer, has decided to take a trip via dogsled to the location of the crash to say good-bye to his son's spirit while Hadley, an artist, rents a home in Massachusetts on an island with an active art community where she immerses herself in AA meetings and her artwork. The entire story is told through letters between the two as they work through feelings of guilt, blame, sadness and hope about the past and the future. Because of how far apart they are geographically sometimes there will be more than one letter in a row from the one to the other and because of delays in the letters being received topics don't always show up in the next letter. I enjoyed seeing each character come to terms with the past individually while also recalling and describing their journey to the other. Even though they are separated we can see the love that they still have for each other. This book made me wish for an actual heartfelt letter in my mailbox rather than my usual mail.