Book Review: Recipe fora Perfect Wife by Karma Brown

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I haven't read as fantastic a book as Karma Brown's Recipe for a Perfect Wife in a long long while. Also not this fast.

The book oscillates between the tales of a current day wife Alice Hale and the life of Nellie Murdoch a homemaker who lived in the house that lice now occupies with her husband, during the 1950s. 

Alice stumbles upon an old cookbook of Nellie's and not just finds recipes to try but a window in Nellie's life. As she discovers her cooking skills with the help of recipes in the book and Nellie's garden she also discovers the stories from Nellie's life hidden in between the pages of the book. While Alice struggles with finding her own identity within her marriage and life, she finds herself immersing and adopting some of Nellie's choices. Does Alice find herself or does she lose herself further while trying to become a perfect wife?

This book must also be praised for the format. Every chapter on Alice opens with hilarious advice for women on how to become ideal life partners culled from magazines and books dating back to 40s, 50s and 60s (when it might have been prudent to heed those words) while every one on Nellie started with a tempting recipe (some of which I have a good mind of trying).

All in all a fun read, Recipe for a Perfect Wife by Brown holds not just a mirror to the struggle of someone trying to find their own voice in the times we live but also acquaints us with the lives of women who did not have much of a choice (unless they took matters into their own hands like Nellie, maybe?). Thanks NetGalley for the ARC.

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