The Cookbook of Common Prayer

Macclesfield Library received free copies of this book in exchange for reviews:

'Really enjoyed this book. Loved the individual stories of the characters and was very well written'.

'I really enjoyed this story - i typically dont like stories with lots of viewpoints but i loved this. It was interesting reading all the viewpoints and seeing how everyone coped. A great story that kept you gripped.'

'I found this a depressing read with all the issues and problems of the characters. I prefer a book that lifts me up not bring me down'

'A fascinating read with lots of different viewpoints and characters. I enjoyed how it tackled various mental health issues'.

What an extraordinary book, I raced through it. It is easy to read and not at all highbrow but the main reason I raced through it is that I was so intrigued by and involved with the storyline. It starts with the tragic death of a 19 year old Australian in England. His parents fly to London, leaving behind their teenage daughter who has been hospitalised for 3 years with anorexia, her 11 year old younger brother who seems to get forgotten about, but is always working hard to figure out ways of ‘fixing’ the family, and their charming, forgetful grandfather.
The book has short chapters which give a voice to each of the 4 main characters, the parents and 2 surviving kids. These are full of insights into their individual grief and secrets. The father stays in London, waiting for an inquest and throwing himself into deep research about all aspects of his son’s accident, the mother embarks on two interesting writing projects, one of which gives this book its title.
A series of difficult decisions, deceptions and revelations follow which almost break the family, but ultimately bring them together stronger. It really is a clever, absorbing and thought-provoking story and I would recommend it to anyone.

I was not blown away by this book but can understand how other readers were. It is an easy read, short or even very short chapters and the characters are believable. An unusual set of events, possibly too many as there are several storylines to follow simultaneously. Perhaps there are two books to be written here? I would recommend this book but I would not keep returning to it so only awarded it four stars.

How does one cope with tragedy chronic or sudden? How much can a person take? This book by Francesca Haig doesn't answer that question by does aproach it from many angles. A Tasmanian family faces life filled with sad and bad things--a grandfather who is fading away with dementia, a daughter with a several year history of anorexia so bad that she is being treated in an isolation ward in a hospital, a son on his gap year who dies in a strange caving accident. How do the remaining child (10-year-old) the father and the mother cope and come to grips with it all? This heart wrenching book covers it all. Of course there are requisite twists and turns but at the end of the day this is an amazing book.
The plot is driven by the thoughts and rememberance of each character and leaps from one to the other which is a tad distracting. However the author's ability to write from the vantage point of a befuddled dementia patient all the way to a ten year old boy trying to understand death and dying is remarkable. I would recommend this book to anyone.

I defy anyone not to be blown away by this amazing book. You will be totally absorbed by the storyline. It is so well written and each wonderful character keeps you wondering and waiting what will happen next in this captivating story. A great read which I did not want to end.

There’s a lot to like about the book. It’s a family drama, fleshed out with chapters from the POV of each family member. It’s a book about grief that ends hopefully, yet without sugar-coating their pain. It’s nuanced and thoughtful and emotional… It doesn’t surprise me that reviews I’ve read of this novel have been overwhelmingly positive.

All that said, the story didn’t grab me. Many of the main plot points were introduced abruptly and too late in the narrative. For example, it didn’t become clear that Gill (the mother) was a recipe writer until around page 150, when it suddenly became a central aspect of her character (and the reason for the title, of course). The plotline where Gill lies to Sylvie about Dougie’s death was interesting, but it resolved far too quickly in the end. In fact, the whole Sylvie narrative, including a bombshell-reveal casually dropped in one of the final chapters, just seemed to wrap up far too conveniently.

The multiple POVs, too, didn’t work for me. While I appreciated the opportunity to hear from different characters, their voices were all so similar that I often forgot who’s chapter I was reading. Particularly when it switched back and forth quickly, such as between Gabe and Gill, or Gill and Sylvie, the changes just made me confused, rather than giving me additional insight into the characters.

Overall, this is a gentle and beautiful story about dealing with grief and I appreciated the family dynamic. While I personally found it easy to put down, and I had to push myself to finish it, it seems like my frustrations with the novel were the exception rather than the rule.

Goodreads review: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/4094161774

Oh my goodness, what a book! Poignant and very moving, this book is about famiy, bereavement and grief. Every chapter from a different family member's perspective, this is done so well that it blends seamlessly together to create a somehow bigger and richer story than it would otherwise have been from a single person's point of view. I have nothing negative to say about this book, and now eagerly look forward to reading everything that this author has written.

The Jordan family comprises Gill and Gabe (Mum and Dad), Dougie, Sylvie and Teddy (their three children) and PappaBee (Gabe’s father). They live in Tasmania and are just about managing to keep their heads above water as they struggle to do their best for Sylvie who has been in hospital for three years with anorexia and nobody is sure if she is going to make it. And then tragedy strikes and Dougie is killed in a caving accident in England. The family is in turmoil as each of them try to find their own ways of coping. Each of the main characters has a voice, taking turns to give their perspective on the narrative as it unfolds. The title of the book comes from the fact that Gill is a food writer and starts cooking obsessively, with recipes designed to help deal with the crisis of the moment (the day the police tell you your son has died, the day you land in England to collect your son’s body etc.). The story is liberally interspersed with these recipes. Gradually the family starts to fall apart – the question is, can they put themselves back together?

This is an extraordinary book which delivers on so many levels. Despite the horrendous situation that the family find themselves in, it is not a depressing book. On the contrary it is fast-paced, gripping and almost addictive. The loss of a much-loved son and brother is examined with a gravitas entirely appropriate to the situation. The coping mechanisms adopted by each of the parents are scrutinised in detail and come across as being entirely authentic. The very real struggles of their anorexic daughter who wants nothing more than to be allowed to die provide a stark backdrop to the tragedy as her parents try to protect her from the knowledge of what has happened to her brother. And then in the midst of all this tragedy are Pappabee who has dementia and Teddy, their youngest son, who inadvertently provide light relief just by being themselves.
This is a book about families and how they cope in the direst of circumstances. Gill and Gabe have very different ways of coping with their grief but their frenzied activities are, ultimately, acts of denial, tactics used to avoid confronting the real issue. We accompany them on their journeys through this process as they begin to confront what has happened and find their way back to each other.

This book has a very high rating on Goodreads and deservedly so. I can think of nothing I would change about the book at all.

Unbeknown to me at the time of reading this book, I had come across this author before. She wrote a post-apocalyptic trilogy which I adored and couldn’t put down. This book has nothing obviously to connect it with that trilogy except for the fact that both are brilliantly written and both deserve their five star rating. I hope that that in itself is recommendation enough. I will be reading everything I can lay my hands on by this author. She has a real talent.

Really loved this book. Was a little unsure at first because of the subject matter-a child dying, but the book explores all the feelings/thoughts of those involved in such a sympathic and real way that you feel drawn to all the characters and want to know how they are coping, what makes them cope and how they can help each other. A book filled with love - sometimes expressed in not knowing what to do for the best but wanting more than anything things to be 'right'. The chapters are short and each one told from the perspectives of one of the characters. This book is hard to put down-you want to know what's next. An excellent read for all the right reasons.

I was lucky enough to be sent a copy of this book by LoveReading and it’s fair to say that I was a bit dubious about the subject, as it deals with the aftermath of the death of a teenage boy. But once I’d started I couldn’t stop reading and absolutely adored it. I really didn’t want to put it down and when I did I found myself thinking about and missing the characters. I also took sneaky breaks from what I should have been doing to read a couple more pages.

While the book is obviously about grief and its impact on a family, the overwhelming emotion is always love – all the different kinds that exist within a family, how it can bring people together but also push them apart. It’s narrated by different members of the Jordan family who each deal with grief in their own way. My favourite character was 11-year old Teddy who feels it’s his responsibility to try to fix things while struggling to cope with what’s happened.

All the characters here, even minor ones, are real people that I wanted to reach out to. I was torn between racing through to find out everything I could about them, and wanting to take it slow and spend as much time with them as possible. I’m still thinking about them now.

The book reminded me Jodi Picoult’s work, but I enjoyed it more than I have any of her books.