"Fried Green Tomatoes at the Whistle Stop Cafe" by Fannie Flagg (Book 1 in Whistle Stop, AL series), physical book, 395 pages (not counting the recipes).
From the back of the book: Folksy and fresh, endearing and affecting, Fried Green Tomatoes at the Whistle Stop Café is the now-classic novel of two women in the 1980s; of gray-headed Mrs. Threadgoode telling her story to Evelyn, who is in the sad slump of middle age. The tale she tells is also of two women—of the irrepressibly daredevilish tomboy Idgie and her friend Ruth—who back in the thirties ran a little place in Whistle Stop, Alabama, a Southern kind of Café Wobegon offering good barbecue and good coffee and all kinds of love and laughter, even an occasional murder. And as the past unfolds, the present—for Evelyn and for us—will never be quite the same again...
I may have gone into this read with some MAJOR bias. This book was turned into one of my absolute most favorite movies of all times! That said, this is the first time I have ever read this book and all I have to say is WOW! We all know that books and movies are different and the way this book was different from the movie was incredible in all the best ways! We get more background on Ninny along with a whole slew of other characters. The story is told all over the place. You'll be at the nursing home with Evelyn and Ninny and then back in the 20s with a local weekly newsletter then back to the 80s and then the 30s and so on and so forth. At times I did get a little confused about the timeline because I wasn't really paying a lot of attention to the dates but I was trying. The copy I have is a first edition copy for Ballantine Reader's Circle from 1997. In addition to the recipes, my copy also has an interview with the author as well as book club discussion questions. I have heard that the narrator for Fried Green Tomatoes does a great job in the audiobook but I haven't listened to that one. This became the first book in a series when the second installment "The Wonder Boy of Whistle Stop" which was released in October 2020. This is more stories from our beloved southern town told by none other than Buddy Threadgoode Jr.! Definitely added to my TBR...which is inching closer to 700 books again! In case you haven't figured it out...this is a 5 star read for me. This is one of those books that I would even adjust the scale to a 10 out of 10 would 1000% recommend!
5/5 Stars
2024 Reading Challenge: 20/50 complete
