“An unassumingly beautiful story of human relationships and self-discovery … with a tremendous payoff.”
– People
Angela is 33 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 in New York is a photo, cut out of a magazine, of a tidy cottage on the coast of Maine — a talismanic reminder that there are other ways to live, even if she can’t seem to figure them out.
Angela decides to risk it all and move to Maine, but her new home isn’t quite what 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 coming to discover 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.
Reviews
“Kline has a perfect sense of character and timing, and her vivid digressions on food add sugar and spice.”
– Publishers Weekly
“The Way Life Should Be is the way a great read should be – incredibly moving, beautifully written, and with characters so alive you want them to come and visit. Kline’s lucid take on finding out who we really are, and what we really need in our lives, is nothing short of brilliant.”
-Caroline Leavitt, author of Girls in Trouble and Coming Back to Me
“Warm, witty, and wise. Christina Baker Kline has written a book about love and disappointment and risk and risotto, utterly appealing on every level.”
– Lauren Fox, author of Still Life with Husband
“Sardonic and self-deprecating humor … Seen through Angela’s eyes, what could have been stock characters on the road to self-discovery … turn out to be real people with pasts of their own. Recommended.”
– Library Journal
“What makes The Way Life Should Be worth reading is the food. Descriptive passages of Angela’s grandmother teaching her the basics of cooking Italian food: prepared with love, from scratch, they make you long for a stove and a sturdy pot. There are paragraphs reminiscent of the best cookbooks or a food writer’s memoir. Angela’s realizations about herself don’t come easy. Painful recognition of mistakes made multiple times over keep the novel on real emotional terrain, and the ending feels hopeful, not treacly … Elevated by a good writer, this stylized form of fiction can be every bit as revelatory as a high literary novel.”
– Powells.com (Review-a-Day)
“The key to this fine character study is the Italian cooking …. Fans will root for Angela as she learns that what she thought is the way life should be is not; the way life should be is what you bring to the table for others to partake.”
– BookCrossing.com
“The Way Life Should Be is a beautiful story. Angela is a warm, vibrant character who faces some heartbreak, happiness, and a chance for that sought-after ‘happily ever after,’ but not necessarily in the manner she has calculated. The Way Life Should Be is definitely a story for the ‘keeper’ shelf.”
– RoundtableReviews.com
“Angela Russo is the classic New York refugee: a perpetual “single girl” whose job in life has hit the dead end without a cul-de-sac. Fleeing to Maine on the strength of an ideal, Angela realizes that changing her surroundings has brought her face-to-face with her own worst enemy: herself. In The Way Life Should Be, Christina Baker Kline proves to us once again that she is not only a deft and snappy writer, but a true cartographer of the human heart.”
– Jacquelyn Mitchard, author of The Deep End of the Ocean and Still Summer
“First and most important of all, it’s a fun read – and probably should be required for all thirty-plus women out there who are beginning to feel they have a better chance of getting run down by a caravan of camels than of finding a meaningful relationship or fulfilling occupation … The only major complaint I have about Ms. Kline’s book is that there isn’t enough of it.”
– Bar Harbor Times (Maine)
“Christina Baker Kline has written a charming novel full of great tips about cooking, loving, and taking risks in the world. The Way Life Should Be is a story about the way life really can be, with a little bit of luck and just the right
seasoning.”
– Dani Shapiro, author of Black and White and Family History
“Christina Baker Kline can sum up a setting, a person, a room with a few, often funny, well-chosen details in a way that make this book sing.”
– Martha Tod Dudman, author of Augusta, Gone
“Christina Baker Kline writes as if she’s sitting next to you telling you about the adventures of her friends. Empathy, sympathy, romance and humor, mixed with Italian recipes, makes for a fast, fun read with something left over for later. A torta al Limone sounds like the perfect recipe for dessert. The only thing that would have made this book any better would have been to have the tart to eat while reading it. Now, that is The Way Life Should Be. Armchair Interviews says: Like the title, this is the way storytelling ‘should be.'”
– ArmchairInterviews.com
“She nails it. From the Impressionist view of land and sea from atop Cadillac Mountain on a foggy day, to the librarian who takes such an interest in one’s reading habits that it borders on invasion of privacy, Christina Baker Kline’s third novel, The Way Life Should Be, paints Mount Desert Island with such accurate detail that some of us might wonder if we sat for the portrait…. This novel, replete with witty repartee, is about family, about food, about sense of place. Ultimately, it’s an examination of what it takes to make a life. At one point, Angela, the protagonist of the story, muses on Maine’s state slogan – “The Way Life Should Be.” She turns it upside down, reading it as an existential question: what is the way life should be? The answer, of course, is one that each of us must puzzle out for ourselves. But in the telling of her tale of one woman’s wrestling with this central concern, Christina Baker Kline provides a roadmap for us all.”
– Mount Desert Islander (Maine)
“Christina Baker Kline has woven a charming, heart-warming story about life’s lessons, which we learn as we take risks or take that leap of faith. The main character, Angela, is a delight. Yes, she makes mistakes — sometimes big mistakes, but her courage and determination will keep you turning the pages. The secondary characters have just enough spice to grab your attention. (Have you ever wondered why so many interesting people end up in small towns?) Angela’s cooking will make your mouth water, and thank heavens the last chapter is dedicated to those tantalizing recipes. I highly recommend you find a cozy chair, turn the light on, and enjoy THE WAY LIFE SHOULD BE.”
-RomRevToday.com