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jess_mango's review
3.0
meh. Cherries in Winter was a quick read but it really didn't make too much of a positive or negative impression on me. It was just kind of there, something to read in a day or 2. For such a short book it tended to jump around too much and I would've liked to have seen a bit more detail in some areas instead of it being so light and jumping around so much.
beastreader's review
4.0
Suzan Colon went from having take out food whenever she wanted to being laid off and having to pinch every penny she could. Suzan comes upon her grandmother’s old recipe book, filled with tons of delicious foods. Most of the recipes were written my hand. The cook book features recipes like Suzan’s Great-Great-Grandmother Matilde’s Baked Pork Chops with Sauerkraut, Chicken Pie a la Mississippi, Butter Cookies, and Nana’s Lemon Meringue Pie to name a few.
Suzan decides that it is time to take a few tips from her grandmother and mother and start learning to cook her own meals. Suzan and her mother journey back in time to 1913. Back to New York; where Suzan’s mother and her family were living. Suzan’s grandmother loved to cook. She even submitted some of her recipes to magazines. Some of them got published. After reminiscing with her mother, Suzan realizes that she is going to be fine.
Cherries in Winter is as good as a warm homemade meal. This book fills you up and makes you want more. The real star of the book was Suzan’s grandmother, Matilda. She was the glue that held everyone together during the Great Depression. So glad that Suzan Colon wrote this book and let us readers get a peep into her family. They are the kind of people that you want to know and be around. Also, all the recipes in this book sounded so delicious and mouth watering, that it was a shock that I didn’t drool. I am going to try out some of the recipes. Pick up a copy of Cherries in Winter today.
Suzan decides that it is time to take a few tips from her grandmother and mother and start learning to cook her own meals. Suzan and her mother journey back in time to 1913. Back to New York; where Suzan’s mother and her family were living. Suzan’s grandmother loved to cook. She even submitted some of her recipes to magazines. Some of them got published. After reminiscing with her mother, Suzan realizes that she is going to be fine.
Cherries in Winter is as good as a warm homemade meal. This book fills you up and makes you want more. The real star of the book was Suzan’s grandmother, Matilda. She was the glue that held everyone together during the Great Depression. So glad that Suzan Colon wrote this book and let us readers get a peep into her family. They are the kind of people that you want to know and be around. Also, all the recipes in this book sounded so delicious and mouth watering, that it was a shock that I didn’t drool. I am going to try out some of the recipes. Pick up a copy of Cherries in Winter today.
mokate17's review
5.0
I don't know why I waited so long to read this book. It's a charming story that combines a love of cooking and family with a hefty reminder that surviving through tough times is possible. I really enjoyed this book.
endomental's review against another edition
4.0
This is a new favorite. The author tells the story of how her own layoff made her understand and appreciate what her family had been through during their own tough economic times.
bluenicorn's review against another edition
1.0
Premise is good: suffering from the current recession, author refers to grandmother's recipes and accounts of the Great Depression. Lesson learned: it will get better.
Here's my issue, however. I couldn't relate to this author in any way. Her "suffering" is that she loses her job- where she was making 6 figures. She refers to not being able to shop at Whole Foods as much, or being able to buy $600 jackets. She met her husband at a Costa Rican yoga retreat for crying out loud. That is actually the moment I had to put this book down. Good premise, but totally unrelatable.
Here's my issue, however. I couldn't relate to this author in any way. Her "suffering" is that she loses her job- where she was making 6 figures. She refers to not being able to shop at Whole Foods as much, or being able to buy $600 jackets. She met her husband at a Costa Rican yoga retreat for crying out loud. That is actually the moment I had to put this book down. Good premise, but totally unrelatable.
hisaacson's review against another edition
4.0
Full review at:
http://hollybooknotes.blogspot.com/2009/11/cherries-in-winter-by-suzan-colon_23.html
http://hollybooknotes.blogspot.com/2009/11/cherries-in-winter-by-suzan-colon_23.html
saara_ilona_muu's review against another edition
3.0
I liked the premise of the discovery of the tale of three generations, told through their kitchen fare, during good times and lean times. I think it was just too focused on the recession of '08, with no resolution of what came after.
perednia's review against another edition
2.0
Among those hit hardest by the current recession are not the ones suffering the most economically. Sure, some have lost their jobs but their spouse remains employed and has health insurance. They are pursuing freelance opportunities. And even though some, such as magazine writer Suzan Colon, acknowledge that they don't have it as bad as some other Americans who are in genuine dire straits, this recession has just about blown their young yuppie minds.
Gracious. While still working at her former magazine job, Colon had to economize. No more buying lunch when she could make do with leftovers and sandwiches. After she loses her job and writes from home, she has to choose between a cooler room where the modem is located or going upstairs to the warmth and broadband. That these choices are treated as revelations of character shows how much people forget within the space of time that still exists in the memory of some living folks. (Just ask anyone older than, say 70, about the Great Depression. Or read The Grapes of Wrath. Or for more contemporary times, download Christmas in Appalachia) http://www.archive.org/details/CherylShuman_ChristmasinAppalachiawithCharlesKuraltCherylShuman_ChristmasinAppalachi
Still, these forced economies send Colon to her late grandmother's recipe file and readers benefit from the stories about that remarkable lady. Cherries in Winter refers to how important it is to feed one's spirit by occasionally buying a treat. There was a time when fresh fruit, such as cherries, out of season were prohibitively expensive for all but the very rich. But a time when the author's mother bought them remains an episode that nourishes Colon's soul to this day. An earlier ancestor spent a week's worth of grocery money on a pair of vases that the author's mother still has.
Although the author's family is filled with women who put this kind of nourishment above constant penny-pinching, it is her grandmother Matilda who best embodies the spirit of feeding the soul. A can-do woman regardless of the circumstances life throws as her, Matilda never grumbles and always keeps on the sunny side. At one point her husband decides to uproot them from New York City to become farmers. Matilda befriends the ladies of the Grange by promising that, if they teach her how to cook, she'll do their hair and makeup. It's a happy arrangement and many of the recipes Colon finds in Nana's file are from those ladies.
Cherries in Winter is slim, even with stories from her family's past and recipes. But this is Colon's magazine background showing as much as anything. Instead of going on in greater detail, Colon keeps things as breezy as her grandmother's standard reply of "Fabulous, never better" to the question, "How are you?" Colon's volume is the kitchen equivalent of spending the afternoon at the day spa or a coffeehouse with girlfriends. Cherries in Winter is a forthy entertainment that demonstrates there are worse things that not having money. There are other kinds of poor, and money isn't the solution.
Gracious. While still working at her former magazine job, Colon had to economize. No more buying lunch when she could make do with leftovers and sandwiches. After she loses her job and writes from home, she has to choose between a cooler room where the modem is located or going upstairs to the warmth and broadband. That these choices are treated as revelations of character shows how much people forget within the space of time that still exists in the memory of some living folks. (Just ask anyone older than, say 70, about the Great Depression. Or read The Grapes of Wrath. Or for more contemporary times, download Christmas in Appalachia) http://www.archive.org/details/CherylShuman_ChristmasinAppalachiawithCharlesKuraltCherylShuman_ChristmasinAppalachi
Still, these forced economies send Colon to her late grandmother's recipe file and readers benefit from the stories about that remarkable lady. Cherries in Winter refers to how important it is to feed one's spirit by occasionally buying a treat. There was a time when fresh fruit, such as cherries, out of season were prohibitively expensive for all but the very rich. But a time when the author's mother bought them remains an episode that nourishes Colon's soul to this day. An earlier ancestor spent a week's worth of grocery money on a pair of vases that the author's mother still has.
Although the author's family is filled with women who put this kind of nourishment above constant penny-pinching, it is her grandmother Matilda who best embodies the spirit of feeding the soul. A can-do woman regardless of the circumstances life throws as her, Matilda never grumbles and always keeps on the sunny side. At one point her husband decides to uproot them from New York City to become farmers. Matilda befriends the ladies of the Grange by promising that, if they teach her how to cook, she'll do their hair and makeup. It's a happy arrangement and many of the recipes Colon finds in Nana's file are from those ladies.
Cherries in Winter is slim, even with stories from her family's past and recipes. But this is Colon's magazine background showing as much as anything. Instead of going on in greater detail, Colon keeps things as breezy as her grandmother's standard reply of "Fabulous, never better" to the question, "How are you?" Colon's volume is the kitchen equivalent of spending the afternoon at the day spa or a coffeehouse with girlfriends. Cherries in Winter is a forthy entertainment that demonstrates there are worse things that not having money. There are other kinds of poor, and money isn't the solution.
funsizelibrarian's review against another edition
5.0
When Suzan is laid off she starts economizing - which means, among other things, less eating out and more home cooking. Her mother's suggestion is to "look in Nana's recipe folder," buried somewhere in the basement. When she finally digs out the folder Suzan finds much more than recipes for sturdy comfort food. She also discovers a recipe for living a full life during lean times.
This memoir not only relates Suzan's life in 2008 when she is laid off from her dream job, but also the story of her grandmother's life during the Depression and World War II, and her mother's life as a single mother in the 1960's. The comparisons are hopeful, focusing not on what they lacked but on what they had and how they overcame the hard, lean times they faced. This is a wonderful, quick, timely read and I highly recommend it.
This memoir not only relates Suzan's life in 2008 when she is laid off from her dream job, but also the story of her grandmother's life during the Depression and World War II, and her mother's life as a single mother in the 1960's. The comparisons are hopeful, focusing not on what they lacked but on what they had and how they overcame the hard, lean times they faced. This is a wonderful, quick, timely read and I highly recommend it.