Whiskey in a Tea Cup

 A pink cover with Reese Witherspoon sipping a cup of something from a beautiful tea cup is the kind of cover that entices me into reading a book for the cover alone. As a huge fan of the work Reese has been doing with Hello Sunshine and her work as an actress I could not wait to read this book.

However, this is not an in-depth memoir on Reese’s life.  The stories she shares are light hearted and tend to be there more to help her make the point that she wants to make.  She does not provide anything in depth about her life. Really what she succeeded in writing was a lifestyle book, not a memoir. In spite of this, I really enjoyed reading it after finishing an emotionally intense collection of short stories. (I really loved Shelf Life and could not put it down. Sometimes I just need a book that helps me breath between horror stories, this book fit the bill for me)  In order to appreciate this book I'd approach it more like a cookbook or a coffee table book. I also agree with the criticism that a lot of the recipes are very basic recipes that can be found in many different places, but I did enjoy having the collection in one place.

The visuals in this book are one of its biggest strengths. The pictures in the book are gorgeous and provoke a feeling of relaxation.  I love that Reese has the antidotal stories in the book to give the recipes and tips about southern living more personality. One of the reasons why I really enjoyed Whiskey in a Tea Cup is because I find cookbooks with beautiful pictures to be very escapist. I know that the book lacked depth, but the pictures provided a portal to help imagine a more luxurious southern lifestyle. And I just loved the things she said about her grandmother Dorthea. My favorite Dorthea quote was “Only wear sweatpants when you are supposed to be sweating.” That’s something I would quote in conversation!

I got a physical copy of this book from the library.  While it took a fair amount of patience, I would not have wanted it any other way. An e-book would have not done the visuals in the book justice. If I bought a hardcover copy of this book right away I would have been immensely disappointed for how shallow it was. If I am still excited about it in a few months I would consider purchasing a used copy of it to have a basic collection of southern recipes at home. In the meantime, I am going to need to make sure to write down the recipe for cheese wafers before I return it back to the library.

(I also posted this on review on Goodreads)