Get Ready To Read PIE!

When Alice's Aunt Polly, the Pie Queen of Ipswitch, passes away, she takes with her the secret to her world-famous pie-crust recipe. Or does she? In her will, Polly leaves the recipe to her extraordinarily fat, remarkably disagreeable cat, Lardo . . . and then leaves Lardo in the care of Alice.

Suddenly, the whole town is wondering how you leave a recipe to a cat. Everyone wants to be the next big pie-contest winner, and it's making them pie-crazy. It's up to Alice and her friend Charlie to put the pieces together and discover the not-so-secret recipe for happiness: Friendship. Family. And the pleasure of doing something for the right reason.

Elizabeth’s review of PIE in December, 2013 when she was already visioning that it might make a good community read!

Back in the day, I loved Mrs. McNosh so I wanted to see how the author would do with a longer story. This was great! The book channels us to a simpler time and place (1950s; Ipswitch, Pennsylvania) where Polly owns a pie shop. When she dies, her niece Alice is grieving and also sorting out some mysteries in the neighborhood. With her friend, Charlie, they do some sleuthing with some laughable and interesting results. A pet phrase of Charlie's is "good gravy" which is a good example of how quaint the story is. Each chapter begins with a pie recipe and hints about pie making are sprinkled through out. The book ends thirty years later with an update on all of the characters. It also ends with the sentiment that it is the simple things that carry great joy--so true!