3/5
Eh. This book was alright. I was interested in it, especially towards the beginning. However, the main character, Alice, is just so dang unlikable. She's manipulative towards her husband, she's not really a great friend. Although, I will say that her husband is kind of a loser as well. He forced her into a home in the suburbs, pressures her constantly to start having babies and make a family. Meanwhile, she goes behind his back and gets an IUD, which, while she definitely has the right to do, she should've told her husband. The whole relationship just seemed really unhealthy and unstable to me, and I was rather disappointed that they ended up together.
The recipe books, however, I really ended up liking. I really enjoyed reading the little cards from '50's housewife Nellie. Her relationship with her husband is also unbalanced, but only because he is a terrible, abusive person. He constantly pressures her into having children, and gets ridiculously angry when she can't/doesn't get pregnant. When he finds out she lied about being pregnant, he hits her. It's a terrible story, but I guess it kind of ends happy? No spoilers!
Overall, half of this book is good. That's my conclusion. Nellie's half is great and tragic and rebellious; Alice's half is...decent, but had me rooting against her. I suppose Alice is a normal human being, and normal human beings do things like that...but nevertheless, I was not a huge fan of Alice. I would recommend this for somebody to read in between reading other books. For people who are a fan of books that highlight the power dynamics between wives and their husbands.