Comfort Food

by Kate Jacobs

Overview

Now in paperback from the #1 New York Times bestselling author of The Friday Night Knitting Club...

Shortly before turning 50, TV cooking show personality Augusta "Gus" Simpson discovers that the network wants to boost her ratings by teaming her with a beautiful, young new co-host. But Gus isn't going without a fight-whether it's off-set with her two demanding daughters, on-camera with the ambitious new diva herself, or after-hours with Oliver, the new culinary producer who's raising Gus's temperature beyond the comfort zone. Now, in pursuit of higher ratings and culinary delights, Gus might be able to rejuvenate more than just her career.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781440630651
Publisher:	Penguin Publishing Group
Publication date:	05/06/2008
Sold by:	Penguin Group
Format:	eBook
Pages:	384
File size:	368 KB
Age Range:	18 Years

About the Author

Kate Jacobs is the author of the #1 New York Times bestseller The Friday Night Knitting Club, Knit Two, Knit the Season, and Comfort Food. A former magazine writer and editor, she lives in Los Angeles with her husband.

What People are Saying About This

From the Publisher

Praise for Knit the Season

“The spirit of the season permeates every page as the women knit their way through the family trials and tribulations of Thanksgiving, Hanukkah, Christmas, New Year’s, and an unforgettable wedding.” —USA Today

“Comforting, heartwarming…Curling up with a Friday Night Knitting Club novel is like visiting with old friends…This holiday entry is sure to please fans and leave them hungry for the next installment.” —Booklist

“More than a few craft-lovers will find this yarn under their tree.” —BookPage

“[Gives readers a] warm, fuzzy feeling.” —Family Circle

“Jacobs’s prose is pleasant, and she smoothly juggles all the story lines.” —Kirkus Reviews

Praise for Knit Two

“Jacobs stitches together another winning tale…As comforting, enveloping, and warm as a well-crafted afghan.” —Publishers Weekly

“Fans [will] eagerly snuggle in to see how the friends piece together their knitting projects while finding solace in one another’s company.” —People

“As warming and cheering as visiting old friends.” —Booklist

“Fans of Debbie Macomber’s Blossom Street series will find much to enjoy here.” —Library Journal

“Reflects the relationships among women in real life.” —The Omaha World-Herald

“For legions of readers awaiting a reunion with their friends from the bestselling novel The Friday Night Knitting Club...Kate Jacobs’s warmhearted sequel, Knit Two, is certain to be a cozy companion on a blustery winter night.” —BookPage

Praise for The Friday Night Knitting Club
#1 New York Times bestseller!

“If you are looking for an inviting group of gals to spend a few winter evenings with, pull up your afghan (you knitted it yourself, right?) and snuggle in...Reads like Steel Magnolias set in Manhattan.” —USA Today

“An absolutely beautiful, deeply moving portrait of female friendship. You’ll laugh and cry along with these characters.” —Kristin Hannah, #1 New York Times bestselling author

“Its simplicity and soothing repetition leave room for conversation, laughter, revelations and friendship.” —Detroit Free-Press

“It’s all here—dating, love, motherhood, career, estrangement, death and, especially, friendships that span generations…[A] quick, fun, poignant yarn.” —The Seattle Times

“A Steel Magnolias for the twenty-first century.” —Kirkus Reviews

“Impossible to put down.” —Booklist

“Readers will come to root for nearly everyone.” —Concord (NH) Monitor

“[The Friday Night Knitting Club] evolves into an unbreakable sisterhood as the characters learn from each other’s differences and bond over their love of knitting.” —Vogue Knitting

“It’s easy to forget that the characters aren’t your friends…But before you realize your emotional vulnerability, Jacobs does something unexpected—she changes things up, and it goes from being a good book to being a really great story.” —Marie Claire

“An urban counterpart to How to Make an American Quilt.” —New Statesman

Reading Group Guide

INTRODUCTION
Cooking with Gusto! TV personality Augusta "Gus" Simpson is the woman most women spend their lives trying to be—graceful, immaculately dressed, and most of all, an entertainer extraordinaire. From backyard barbecues to simple scones and tea, Gus has just the plan—and the recipe—to bring together her tight-knit group of family and friends. But as she prepares to hit the big 5-0, she realizes that she’s tired of being the hostess, the mother hen, the one who can whip up the perfect chocolate soufflé without getting so much as a spot on her silk blouse. To make things worse, the network execs at the CookingChannel decide to boost ratings by pairing Gus with the beautiful, though conniving, Carmen Vega, a former Miss Spain who’s made her name as the new hottie of the foodie world.

Instead of throwing in the dishtowel, Gus decides that, for the first time in too many years, she’s going to take a risk—and she’s not afraid to make a mess. Instead of the usual cool and calm of her old show, Gus throws together an on-air cooking class where anything goes. To add a dash of spice, the new cast includes her warring daughters, happygo- lucky Sabrina and somber Aimee; Troy, Sabrina’s ex-boyfriend; and Hannah, Gus’s reclusive neighbor. In addition to family drama, Gus has to worry not only about Carmen’s diva antics but also about her new culinary producer, Oliver, a handsome ex-banker whom Gus can’t decide if she loves or hates.

Somewhere between the pursuit of higher ratings and culinary delights, Gus realizes that this cooking show is shaking things up way more than she anticipated, and not just in her professional life.

ABOUT KATE JACOBS

Kate Jacobs is a writer and editor who divides her time between New York and Los Angeles. A former staffer at Redbook, Working Woman, and Family Life, she is now a freelance editor at the website for Lifetime Television. The Friday Night Knitting Club is her first novel.
 

DISCUSSION QUESTIONS

When we first meet Gus, she’s on the cusp of her fiftieth birthday. Suddenly, the woman known for her lavish celebrations “woke up one morning and realized she hadn’t done a thing to plan. She, who never missed a chance to have a party. And that’s when she realized she didn’t want to do anything about celebrating, either.” Is Gus in an emotional rut simply because she’s hit a milestone birthday? What else in her life might not be worth celebrating? Which of the other characters appear to be in the same rut as the novel begins?

Gus’s two daughters, Sabrina and Aimee, seem to be complete opposites, and yet both seem to be at odds with Gus. Is one daughter more like Gus than the other, or do they represent different facets of their mother’s personality? Does this change over the course of the novel? By the end of the story, do you think Gus has incorporated lessons from her daughters into her own life?

We meet several characters who are grappling with their sense of purpose and identity: Priya, the underappreciated housewife; Hannah, with her candy habit and a secret past; and Carmen, the beauty queen who just wants to be respected. In what way do the women around Gus prompt her to examine or change her own life? Who do you think is most helpful in this way?

Carmen Vega’s defining feature is her beauty—her viewers “loved to talk about how she looked as much as what she cooked.” Does Carmen seem conflicted about using her beauty to get what she wants? How is she typical—or not typical—of women who get ahead by using their looks as well as their brains? Did your opinion of her change by the end of the book?

When we first meet Oliver, we learn that over the course of his lucrative Wall Street career: “ambitious Oliver morphed into an older, far less interesting man. Only he was the only one who didn’t know it.” Does this also describe the very successful Gus Simpson? And if so, what do you make of Oliver’s attraction to her?

As the characters begin to pair off, were there any couples you found surprising? Who is your favorite new couple? Would you have had things turn out differently for any of them?

One of the big mysteries of this story is why Hannah lives such a secluded life. Once you discovered the root of her angst, did you sympathize with her, or think she was overreacting? Why do you think Hannah latched onto her friendship with Gus when she shunned everyone else’s company? And how does Hannah’s journey out of the house and toward a fuller life mirror Gus’s own journey in the course of this novel?

We only hear about Christopher, Gus’s late husband, a few times, but it’s clear that his death was the pivotal event in the lives of Gus and her daughters. Would Gus have achieved the same level of success had Christopher lived? What kind of life would she and her daughters have had if Gus had stayed at home and never become a CookingChannel celebrity?

At the end of the novel, Gus “decided that it wasn’t necessary to explain why she was doing what she was doing, or to rationalize her feelings. She could just let it be.” Is this a total change from the Gus we first met? Why do you think she feels so serene? Is it because of her romance with Oliver, or having cleared the air with her daughters, or perhaps something else?

Not all of the characters cook, but they’re each affected by food or cooking in some way. In what way does food serve to connect or reassure them? Are there times when food seems like a divisive or negative element in relationships? Have you had these food-related experiences with your own friends and loved ones?

In your opinion, is there a “lesson” to Comfort Food ? What, if anything, do you think Kate Jacobs most wants you to take away from this story? And what is your own favorite “comfort food”?

Editorial Reviews

"Gus Simpson adored birthday cake. Chocolate, coconut, lemon, strawberry, vanilla -- she had a particular fondness for the classics. Even though she experimented with new flavors and frostings, drizzlings with syrups and artfully arranging hibiscus petals. Gus more often took the retro route with piped-on flowers or a flash of candy sprinkles across the iced top. Because birthday cake was really about nostalgia, she knew, about reaching in and using the senses to remember one perfect childhood moment." The first words of Kate Jacobs's novel establish the power of food to evoke memories and bring people together. But Comfort Food isn't all sugary icing. As Cooking Channel star Augusta "Gus" Simpson contemplates her fast-approaching 50th birthday, she realizes that she faces scary risks in her plans to rejuvenate her life. A smoothly themed follow-up to The Friday Night Knitting Club.

Without resorting to stereotypical personalities or over-the-top plot twists . . . Jacobs does something unexpected—she changes things up, and [Club] goes from being a good book to being a really great story.

Marie Claire

The lives and loves of a TV chef, her daughters, neighbor and associates all receive a makeover in this lighthearted but sometimes sagging romantic problem-solver. Jacobs (The Friday Night Knitting Club, 2007) turns to the subject of food on television. Widowed control-freak and mother of two Gus Simpson, approaching 50, has been a star of the CookingChannel for 12 years with her show Cooking with Gusto! But now, under pressure to improve her drooping ratings, she finds herself sharing a new program-Eat Drink and Be-filmed in her own kitchen, with pushy Carmen Vega, a ruthlessly ambitious ex-Miss Spain. Helping out on the live program are Gus's adult daughters Sabrina and Aimee, her neighbor Hannah (a reclusive journalist with a disgraced sporting past), one of Sabrina's ex-boyfriends and Oliver, the show's attractive producer. In a rather slack middle section, the story gets diverted down multiple paths, involving career, family, finance and relationships, while dodging from one mini-crisis or set piece to the next: a kitchen fire, a teambuilding weekend, a bride with extreme wedding nerves. But late in the day, Jacobs marshals her occasionally tepid characters, cuts back on the life philosophy, connects various predictable dots (and one or two less predictable ones) and delivers a slew of happy endings. Not quite as satisfying as the title would lead us to expect. Agent: Dorian Karchmar/William Morris Agency

Kirkus Reviews

Barbara Rosenblat gives a flawless performance…[She] performs Jacobs’ hilarious scenes perfectly, capturing all the intended humor…A delicious performance from soup to nuts.”

AudioFile

Comfort Food is good for the heart and soul.”

BookPage

Kate Jacobs’ breezy follow-up to her bestselling The Friday Night Knitting Club is a satisfying read that showcases Jacobs’ skill in creating endearingly flawed characters… the kind of book you rush home to finish.”

USA Today

Rosenblat infuses the [story] with tension, warmth, and humor. Drawing on years of experience and a veritable magic bag of accents and vocal tones, Rosenblat expertly discerns all the characters…The story goes down as easy as a scoop of vanilla ice cream with Rosenblat adding the syrup, whipped cream, and cherry. A quality production.”

Booklist (audio review)

Praise for Knit the Season

“The spirit of the season permeates every page as the women knit their way through the family trials and tribulations of Thanksgiving, Hanukkah, Christmas, New Year’s, and an unforgettable wedding.” —USA Today

“Comforting, heartwarming…Curling up with a Friday Night Knitting Club novel is like visiting with old friends…This holiday entry is sure to please fans and leave them hungry for the next installment.” —Booklist

“More than a few craft-lovers will find this yarn under their tree.” —BookPage

“[Gives readers a] warm, fuzzy feeling.” —Family Circle

“Jacobs’s prose is pleasant, and she smoothly juggles all the story lines.” —Kirkus Reviews

Praise for Knit Two

“Jacobs stitches together another winning tale…As comforting, enveloping, and warm as a well-crafted afghan.” —Publishers Weekly

“Fans [will] eagerly snuggle in to see how the friends piece together their knitting projects while finding solace in one another’s company.” —People

“As warming and cheering as visiting old friends.” —Booklist

“Fans of Debbie Macomber’s Blossom Street series will find much to enjoy here.” —Library Journal

“Reflects the relationships among women in real life.” —The Omaha World-Herald

“For legions of readers awaiting a reunion with their friends from the bestselling novel The Friday Night Knitting Club...Kate Jacobs’s warmhearted sequel, Knit Two, is certain to be a cozy companion on a blustery winter night.” —BookPage

Praise for The Friday Night Knitting Club
#1 New York Times bestseller!

“If you are looking for an inviting group of gals to spend a few winter evenings with, pull up your afghan (you knitted it yourself, right?) and snuggle in...Reads like Steel Magnolias set in Manhattan.” —USA Today

“An absolutely beautiful, deeply moving portrait of female friendship. You’ll laugh and cry along with these characters.” —Kristin Hannah, #1 New York Times bestselling author

“Its simplicity and soothing repetition leave room for conversation, laughter, revelations and friendship.” —Detroit Free-Press

“It’s all here—dating, love, motherhood, career, estrangement, death and, especially, friendships that span generations…[A] quick, fun, poignant yarn.” —The Seattle Times

“A Steel Magnolias for the twenty-first century.” —Kirkus Reviews

“Impossible to put down.” —Booklist

“Readers will come to root for nearly everyone.” —Concord (NH) Monitor

“[The Friday Night Knitting Club] evolves into an unbreakable sisterhood as the characters learn from each other’s differences and bond over their love of knitting.” —Vogue Knitting

“It’s easy to forget that the characters aren’t your friends…But before you realize your emotional vulnerability, Jacobs does something unexpected—she changes things up, and it goes from being a good book to being a really great story.” —Marie Claire

“An urban counterpart to How to Make an American Quilt.” —New Statesman

From the Publisher

Augusta "Gus" Simpson, a cooking channel diva, is turning 50 and is in danger of losing her television show. She has to cope with professional struggles, like the beauty queen turned chef appearing on her program, and personal ones, like her daughters' complicated love lives. Barbara Rosenblat gives a flawless performance, creating voices for Gus and each of the characters. Rosenblat performs Jacobs’s hilarious scenes perfectly, capturing all the intended humor. Her skill as a narrator is highlighted by her ability to switch characters seamlessly, as demonstrated by her shifts from Spanish beauty queen Carmen to New Jersey next-door neighbor Hannah. A delicious performance from soup to nuts. R.F. © AudioFile 2008, Portland, Maine

OCT/NOV 08 - AudioFile