A beautifully written family drama told in the past and present. The writing is good, the characters well-written and the dialogue snappy. A wonderful story of regret, forgiveness and how our childhood defines who we become as adults. Highly recommend.

Go Ask Frannie was an enjoyed read that centers around family sibs who come back together after years apart and secrets are revealed. I loved the family dynamics of this one and who can't relate to a bit of family drama? I found it really easy to read and while the characters are flawed they are definitely ones we can all understand and see ourselves in. A great read!

I received an ARC of this book from NetGalley in exchange for my unbiased opinion.

Eighty-one-year-old Murray Blaire asks his three grown children to come over for the weekend, with the hidden agenda of getting Ruth and George to convince their younger sister Lizzie to dump her boyfriend. Ruth has her own ideas about the weekend and wants the family to determine what steps to take when Murray gets too infirm to take care of himself. Lillian, Murray's wife, and Daniel, the second of the four siblings, have long been dead, and their deaths have affected everyone in the family. The siblings quickly start arguing, as they always do, and the pleasant weekend Murray had hoped for seems unlikely to happen. To top it off, Lizzie shows up with their dead mother's cookbook ruined by her boyfriend.

This book is more character focused rather than plot driven. All the characters are three-dimensional with redeeming characteristics and not a few flaws. A lot of people will probably be able to relate to the dysfunctional dynamics within the family. The story was fine, but it just didn't grab me and hold my attention. A lot of other people have positive things to say about the book, so if the description sounds interesting to you, don't let my opinion stop you from reading it.

This was not a book I greatly enjoy, but I will certainly recommend to patrons who enjoy a light read.

Wow, I really enjoyed this novel. Go Ask Fannie refers to the Fannie Farmer Cookbook ( I wish Id had one to compare!) The cookbook became a quasi diary for the family matriarch. Elisabeth Hyde goes easily between time periods; then and now. I appreciated the compelling layered character profiles she created. I do like the dysfunctional family trope and I would compare her style to Anna Quindlen. The plot is tightly woven, and not telegraphed in any way. I will definitely look for more from this talented writer and share my recommendation easily.

I don't know where Elisabeth Hyde has been for the last 9 years, but I'm happy she's back and has written Go Ask Fannie. I really enjoyed her two prior books and wasn't sure what to expect with this new book, when reading the summary.
In Go Ask Fannie, we meet the Blaire siblings and their father, Murray. The siblings are all adults and at different stages of life while their father is aging alone in his home in New Hampshire. Once again, Ms. Hyde shows strength in capturing the family relationships and sibling dynamics - both present day and looking back as the siblings were growing up. The story unfolds over what's supposed to be a long weekend family visit and is likely to be especially impactful and relatable for those of us with siblings.
Thanks to Netgalley and The Penguin Group for the opportunity to read Go Ask Fannie.

Three siblings visit their father in New Hampshire. They all have different ideas about how to help him as he ages. They have different ideas about how to help each other (or not). What they have in common is love for their dad, and an ache in their hearts missing their mom.

I generally enjoy books about families and New England, so this was right up my alley. The siblings’ relationships with each other and their spouses was true to life, and I identified with the frustration of having so many opinions in one space!

My favorite part of the story was watching the mom’s secrets unfold. It really goes to show you that you can’t know everything about even your family. We all hold back a tiny part of ourselves — and unless we write cookbook marginalia or we have a secret room, well, those secrets might stay hidden forever.

Well done, Elisabeth Hyde.
https://randombookmuses.com/2018/05/10/review-go-ask-fannie-by-elisabeth-hyde/

This was a great family drama! Flawed characters trying to just get through life and survive each other. Really enjoyed it!

With the hype comparing the book to “This is Us”, the novel fell short. The Blaire siblings, George, Ruth and Lizzie all meet at their father’s house for a family weekend. Each has baggage from the loss of their mother and another brother. The story was okay, but the characters were unappealing.

This is a story of a family of six that became a family of four overnight when the mother and oldest son die in a car accident when the youngest daughter was six years old. It's present day and Elizabeth, the youngest daughter is now 38 years old. Elizabeth was in the back seat of that vehicle then and was not killed. Her and the remaining other two siblings are visiting their elderly dad. It's the first time they have been all together for a number of years.

The siblings LOVE to bicker. They are constantly aggravating each other and the oldest daughter (a lawyer who is doing very well) is forever telling everyone how they should run their lives.

There are humorous moments, sad moments and very sad moments. A family memoir in which a Fannie Farmer cookbook is a big deal for the family as the mother used it to write a lot of personal notes which the family cherished. When the family asked what was for dinner, the mother would always reply "Go ask Fannie" hence the title of the book.

I found this to be a very entertaining book and thoroughly enjoyed reading it. While the kids did bicker a lot, it wasn't enough to get on my nerves and at times was sort of humorous.

Thanks to Penguin Group Putnam and Net Galley for providing me with a free e-galley in exchange for an honest, unbiased review.

{My Thoughts}
What Worked For Me
The Past – Part of Go Ask Fannie took place in the 1980’s when the Blaire family suddenly changed from six people to four. Theirs had been a typical family in many ways: a mom who stayed at home, an attorney dad, and four children spread over ten years. What made them unusual was that Murray was running for a seat in Congress and Lillian had a secret writing life that the family knew little about. A devastating car accident took Lillian and the family’s older son, Daniel. I’d have loved for this part of the book to have been the main focus. For me it was by far the most compelling.

Concern for an Aging Father – As we all know, one child’s relationship with a parent can be very different from that of their siblings. Such was the case in Go As Fannie. Ruth loved her father, but felt like the family decision maker. She had little faith in his ability to continue caring for himself, so saw red flags everywhere. Ruth was determined to convince her siblings that it was time for Murray to move into assisted living. Lizzie, who lived closest to Murray, always felt like she was trying to prove herself to him. She worried her siblings were blaming her for not doing enough, but thought her father could mange. And George, cared deeply for his father, but always felt like “the other son.” He knew he should help more, but just couldn’t seem to manage.

What Didn’t
Constant Bickering – I love a good dysfunctional family story. In fact that’s one of the things that drew me to Go Ask Fannie, but this dysfunction played out as over the top bickering. These “children” ranged from 48 to 38, yet they squabbled like toddlers vying for attention. They hung onto petty resentments and actively searched for ways to be slighted by each other. Even when one tried to be nice, fault was found. I found it incredible frustrating and far from authentic.

Their Mother’s Writing – All three kids expressed a great deal of curiosity about their mother’s writing. She’d never been published and they always wondered what her writing had been all about. They knew it had to be somewhere in their father’s house. And yet, for the 20+ years they’d been adults, they’d never actually looked for it. When another tragedy finally compelled them to search, they found her writing in no time. Ridiculous!

Saccharine – Yes, I found Go Ask Fannie to be overly sweet despite all the bickering. At the end it became ridiculously neat and tidy, with the story’s “villain” becoming its savior.

{The Final Assessment}
I found Elisabeth Hyde’s Go Ask Fannie to be a book of extremes: extremes in discontent, extremes in reconciliations, extremes in timing. For me all that added up to a less than satisfying read. Even the Fannie Farmer cookbook tie in felt forced. I’ve seen other reviews for this book that were overwhelmingly positive, but for my tastes Go Ask Fannie just didn’t work.

Go Ask Fannie by Elisabeth Hyde is a book about family, the Blair Family. Murray Blair, an older gentleman with his farm of sunflowers has invited his children for a weekend. Ostensibly, to help break his younger daughter up with an older man who is a player. In reality, the weekend turns into a series of memories from when his family was younger, before the death of his wife and a son.

The children all come with various concerns and issues. His daughter, Lizzie lives nearby and is a tenured professor just broke up in a rather radical fashion with the boyfriend. George, his son, is a nurse and a marathon runner with commitment issues. The oldest daughter is Ruth, a lawyer who lives down near Washington and is unhappily married. The weekend starts with an unhappy note as Lizzie brings her mother’s old battered cookbook by Fannie Farmer that was ruined by the ex-boyfriend.

Each characters shares memories from when they were younger that ties the past to the present. As the stories are relayed more information is gained about the importance of the cookbook and their mother and brother.

The story is about a family and the stories that connect them. I found the setting in New Hampshire with the various locals mentioned fun. Go Ask Fannie is a well written and poignant novel allowing the reader an intimate view into the family and the ties that bind them. I enjoyed Go Ask Fannie by Elisabeth Hyde and found the book to be a good read.

Thanks so much to NetGalley, GP Puntnam's Sons, and Elisabeth Hyde for the opportunity to read her novel - a really good story with intriguing, realistic characters.

The story takes place over one weekend when Murray invites his 3 children to his New Hampshire farm. Ruth is a married attorney from Washington DC; George is a nurse who lives just an hour away; and Lizzie is a professor at a college nearby her dad's home. Besides having the family all together, he has an ulterior motive to have Ruth talk to Lizzie about her relationship with a much older married man. With all that, he just wants his kids to get along for the weekend. We all know that sibling relationships take on a life of their own and how far do we really get from this ingrained childhood patterns? Ruth is still in charge and wants to control everything; George has always taken care of Lizzie to the detriment that he's scared of another relationship like that; and Lizzie lives up to her reputation as being the wild one.

Intermixed with the weekend's happenings, including Lizzie possibly contemplating a jail stay because of an incident with her boyfriend involving the loss of the family copy of the Fannie Farmer Cookbook, the backstory of the family as well as the mom and other brother Daniel, come out.

Just an enjoyable read with lots of family dynamics to ponder. Would be great for a book club - I'm sure lots of sibling stories would come out of that discussion!

Go Ask Fannie was such a beautifully written family drama that I tore through it and couldn't put it down. Murray Blaire invites his 3 children to his home to spend the weekend together, something that hasn't happened in a long time. As Ruth, George, and Lizzie come together old hurts are brought to the surface and family secrets are revealed. Told through various perspectives, we see each child and their father muck through family trials and find a way to come together as a family over the course of this weekend. The story of their mother, long deceased, is also told and I thoroughly enjoyed the insights from all of these perspectives. The past and present is told in an intricately woven tale and I very much enjoyed this beautiful story. Thank you @putnambooks for this advance reader in exchange for my honest review.

First, I'll start with the title of the book. While I loved the story, the title has nothing whatsoever to do with what I read. At least for the most part it seems separate. The story however is a tender tale of family, damaged and broken by trauma. In this story an elderly man is desperate to bring his children back to himself, and back together as a tribe. The store flows back and forth from a time prior to the accident, and then to present day. Each of the children has a strong role to play both in the family and the story. It was a fairly quick read and over all I really enjoyed this tale of family redemption.

Did not read this, maybe pick it up at a later time at the library.

If you have siblings, you will understand the vibe of this new novel by Elizabeth Hyde. All the adult children of Murray, who is eighty-one years old, gather at his house in New Hampshire for the weekend. Ruth, the eldest, has an agenda: talk about assisted living for Dad, and the other two siblings, George and Lizzie want to avoid just that. They both resent Ruth's bossy attitude and how she kind of looks down on them from a wealthy lawyer's perch. Lizzie teaches English at a state college, and George is an ICU nurse at a New Hampshire hospital. Murray loves his kids, but he also likes his solitude.

This novel covers all the issues that arise when fathers are very busy early in their careers and perhaps very ambitious. Lillian, his wife, gave up her career aspirations with the arrival of the children and devoted her life to taking care of Murray, the house, and the kids. She adored them, but she too would have liked more time for herself to discover what she wanted in life. She and Murray married at a young age, and while he was able to continue on his life trajectory, Lillian became the satellite around which everything revolved. There is much sadness in this story and lots to think about for us who have survived a middle-class upbringing.

Even though the period of this novel was the eighties, I was surprised that the husband's career was the primal force that drove the entire family dynamic. This one factor, as vital as it had to be for this family, created a story that had an uneven mixture of success and failure. GO ASK FRANNIE is a story of the eighties, but is also a story that fits the persistent patriarchy we live in today.

I truly enjoyed this beautiful and haunting novel. The family dynamics are so true to life- holding secrets, resentments, fear and ultimately redemption. Thank you so much for letting me read this.

This book was a well-developed story of family dynamics as shown from the varying perspectives of all members of a nuclear family. We see the patriarch of the family trying to be there for his adult children, even as he struggles with his own health issues. We flash back to incidents in the life of the mother, long deceased, as she struggled to balance her role as a mother with her aspirations as a writer. Each of the siblings is shown with all the complexity of human nature, both strengths and weaknesses. The inevitable sniping and outright battles among the sisters and brother are a continuation of the roles they assume in the family as children -- care giver, rebel, disappointment. The verbal battles grow tiresome but create a mood that is clearly the author's intention. Can these siblings ever break the bonds that imprison them and value each other as fully functioning adults? It is the slow reveal of the secrets of the long-dead mother and brother that bring the story to a head. The ending surprised me by its abruptness, but in thinking about it, I realize the author had said all she wanted and left at just the right time.

secrets, family bonds and drama.. what more could you want? the characters were relatable and well developed. i liked the whole cookbook and the mother's notes. this was a very realistic, well written and enjoyable book.

i also received this book from first to read and had already read it when received from netgalley, hence the quick turn around.