Product Description

Angela Russo is thirty-three years old and single, stuck in a job she doesn't love and a life that seems, somehow, to have just happened. Though she inherited a flair for Italian cooking from her grandmother, she never has the time; for the past six months, her oven has held only sweaters. Tacked to her office bulletin board is a picture torn from a magazine of a cottage on the coast of Maine, a reminder to Angela that there are other ways to live, even if she can't seem to figure them out.

One day at work, Angela clicks on a tiny advertisement in the corner of her computer screen—"Do Soulmates Exist?"—and finds herself at a dating website, where she stumbles upon "MaineCatch," a thirty-five-year-old sailing instructor with ice-blue eyes. To her great surprise, she strikes up a dizzying correspondence with MaineCatch—yet as her online relationship progresses, life in the real world takes a nosedive. Interpreting this confluence of events as a sign, Angela impulsively decides to risk it all and move to Maine.

But things don't work out quite as she expected. Far from everything familiar, and with little to return to, Angela begins to rebuild her life from the ground up, moving into a tiny cottage and finding work at a local coffee shop. To make friends and make ends meet, she leads a cooking class, slowly discovering the pleasures and secrets of her new small community, and—perhaps—a way to connect her heritage to a future she is only beginning to envision.

The Way Life Should Be is about the search for the right relationship and the right life, the difficulty of finding true love, and the yearning for the home that food represents. Laced with recipes and humor, wisdom and wit, it is at once a clear-eyed portrait of Maine, a compassionate look at modern life and love, and a compelling work of literary fiction that explores the gulf between the way life is and the way we want it to be.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #63060 in Books
• Published on: 2007-08-01
• Released on: 2007-07-31
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Hardcover
• 288 pages

From Publishers Weekly
Thirty-three-year-old New Yorker Angela Russo, dissatisfied with a career that amounts to gliding across a smooth plateau of predictability and fed up with abysmal blind dates, responds to an online personal ad written by Rich, a sailing instructor from Mount Desert Island, Maine. Angela begins to fall in love with the idea of Maine life just as much as she finds herself falling for Rich, and when her career suddenly goes up in flames, she moves to Mount Desert Island. Once she arrives, however, she learns that her vision of perfect New England life—and her perfect New England man—is far removed from reality. Rather than return to New York, Angela rents a rundown cottage and begins teaching an impromptu cooking class (based on recipes from her Italian grandmother). She befriends an eclectic handful of locals and carves out a new identity for herself. Initially, this tale of a lovelorn city girl out of her element feels like another foray into well-covered territory. But Kline (Desire Lines; Sweet Water) has a perfect sense of character and timing, and her vivid digressions on food (recipes are included) add sugar and spice to what could have been a stale premise. (Aug.)
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From Booklist
Angela Russo, a 33-year-old event planner in New York City, has a job she finds monotonous, a lackluster love life, and a best friend who suggests trying an online dating service. Angela signs up and, on a whim, extends the site's geography search to include Maine, picturing herself in a cozy, rustic cottage by the shore. Before the inveterate Italian cook can say cacciatore, she's met her Maine man—the handsome sailing instructor Richard Saunders. He sends her a flurry of haikus and flirtatious e-mails, and after a professional disaster befalls her, Angela finds herself driving up the coast to explore a new life with him. When she arrives in Maine, however, it is not the picture-perfect storybook scene she anticipated. But with her love of cooking and dreams of a cottage by the sea as guiding lights, Angela learns to live life and achieve success on her own terms. Boyle, Katherine

Publishers Weekly
"Kline has a perfect sense of character and timing."

Customer Reviews

Fabulous merging of "chick"lit with literary fiction
I am a newbie to Baker Kline, but was given this book by a great friend. I had sworn off all "chick lit", as I find most of it drivel, and was disappointed in the cover's likeness to Laura Moriarty's latest snooze fest, the Rest of Her Life. Do not be misled! Baker Kline is a serious writer with a real grasp of the life of young women today. Although Angela Russo (protagonist) is a New Yorker (by way of New Jersey), she is easily identifiable to people from all geographical regions. Further, the Maine setting, while compelling, is incidental. The point of this novel, as I see it, is what happens when you "go off the grid". Angela's original motivation is inherently flawed, but her learning along the way is poignant--it will apply to anyone who has ever questioned one's place in the world.

I also loved Baker Kline's use of food in this book. While it is not a cook book/memoir as in Amanda Hesser or Ruth Reichl, it introduces food into each situation naturally--it is totally uncontrived. Think Laurie Colwin if she merged her Home Cooking recipes with one of her novels-- heartwarming, authentic, and raw.

In terms of other authors with whom one could compare Baker Kline (from reading only this one book, I'm currently reading her first, Sweet Water), I think she has the accessibility of Jennifer Weiner, the intellect of Elinor Lipman, and the timeliness of Sue Miller.

A final observation about this book--I loved the fact that I had absolutely no idea what Angela looked like. Her appearance was entirely irrelevant to the story, and this omission, was fresh and made her more accessible to me.

I loved this book and am so looking forward to reading all of Baker Kline's work.

Too Far fetched
I purchased this book from the reviews I read. I will start with what I did like. The story between Angela and her Grandmother Nonna. The rest I thought was so un-realistic. I finished it quickly but there was no depth or real emotions for the main character Angela. I wanted to like it, but I found the writing a little trite. There are great recipes, so for that it gets 3 stars.

A fun, light read
This is a fun, light read. The highlights are really the descriptions of Italian food and Nonna, the grandmother. I also enjoyed the images of an emerging coffee house. The Maine scenery could be better developed. I read this book between moves when playing CandyLand, and something must me said for books that are fun, quick reads.