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"  Her keen observations on the manners and mores of insular communities have earned Allegra Goodman (Intuition, Kaaterskill Falls) comparisons to two of her favorites, George Eliot and Jane Austen. Her new novel, The Cookbook Collector (Dial), set in the boom-and-bust years from 1999 to 2002, may remind readers more of Charles Dickens (another on her list) and his fin de si\u00E8cle masterpiece, A Tale of Two Cities. In Goodman&amp;#039;s variation, Emily is the 28-year-old CEO of Veritech, a Silicon Valley start-up, and her little sister, Jess, as charmingly unkempt as Emily is stylishly buttoned up, is a philosophy grad student at Berkeley. Their mother died when they were young, and both are now searching for connection to something bigger than themselves. Emily, like so many, becomes a paper millionaire after her company&amp;#039;s IPO. She maintains a long-distance relationship with a technology entrepreneur in Boston. Jess, an environmental activist, works at an antiquarian bookstore run by George, who made a mint off Microsoft and fantasizes about romancing Jess in his Maybeck mansion.  The cookbooks of the title refer to a trove of rare culinary guides that George and Jess are trying to obtain, which becomes a metaphor for longing, substitution, and thwarted satisfaction. Goodman is especially admired for evoking smart and subtly nuanced characters, and Emily and Jess are so emotionally authentic that I almost tried to Google them. She also perfectly captures what it felt like to be an optimistic, idealistic twentysomething during one of the most optimistic, idealistic periods in American history\u2014when anyone who didn&amp;#039;t risk everything felt like they were missing out on the main chance. Goodman writes that &amp;quot;ultimately Veritech&amp;#039;s true product had nothing to do with data storage. What Veritech offered the public was its stupendous expectations.&amp;quot; Unlike many of the companies of the First Digital Age, The Cookbook Collector is enormously satisfying and well worth the investment. "^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
<http://www.elle.com/culture/books/reviews/a11285/a-tale-of-two-sisters-the-cookbook-collector-452356/>