letters

I'll devour tasty literary fiction like any book-loving foodie, and Delicious! mixes in equal parts history, mystery and human interest for a full-bodied novel. Add to that an all-but-forgotten library that cryptically hides a series of old letters between unexpected pen pals, and you've got the cherry on top for this Librarian reviewer! 

The story opens with Billie Breslin trying to land a job at the world-renowned culinary magazine Delicious! On the surface she's just taking the first steps in a budding career, but soon it becomes obvious she's moved across the country to avoid facing

Sixty-three authors and artists have written letters to their younger selves, including major names like Gregory Maguire, Jacqueline Woodson, David Levithan, and Armistead Maupin along with many others, to form this Bookbent selection for July through September.

"If I only knew then what I know now," is a common lament. With good reason. While this collection  of letters cannot reach the intended recipients, with luck they'll fall into the hands of other people equally in need of a comforting word of advice from the future.

I think everyone can find at least one letter in this collection

In letters to each other written for a school assignment Christina and Elizabeth share their lives; the happy, the sad, the confusing and the hurtful. My initial reaction was that the letter-writing device was a bit over-used, but soon became absorbed in the story. Moriarty brilliantly uses letters from such entities as The Association of Teenagers and The Society of People Who are Definitely Going to Fail High School (and Most Probably Life as Well!) to convey insecurities that only Elizabeth can know.  Notes to and from her mom and postcards from her best friend gone missing fill in the