The Ice Cream Queen of Orchard Street (Hardcover)

from Alphawoman

Some parts a little heavy handed but over all enjoyed it immensely. Practiced my speed reading ... or rather my attempt to read faster. Perfect book for that sort of thing. Lots of memorable characters, plot moved fast, used the past and present to tell the story, the protagonist was a stitched t...

from Kimaoverstreet

To use a bad ice cream analogy, this book was not my usual flavor, but it was quite a tasty change of pace! Alternating between past and present, aging ice cream magnate Lillian Duncan tells her tale. In the present, she is watching her ice cream empire flail, facing tax evasion charges, and a pe...

from ozzer

Susan Jane Gilman has created a fascinating protagonist, Lillian Dunkle, who narrates the familiar American rags-to-riches immigrant saga. By incorporating abundant historical detail, some of which is unfamiliar (e.g., the history of ice-cream), developing multiple quirky characters, and telling ...

from melopher

Everybody loves an underdog story, right? The whole rags-to-riches thing supports the main arc of this story, which is typically something I enjoy, but I found the main character too oppressive for the story to be fully enjoyed. Her little sayings peppered each page, making them repetitious and t...

from curvymommy

This was a good end-of-summer read. Lilian (Malka) Dunkle did not have an easy life growing up in the tenements of New York City after her family immigrated from Russia, but through luck, determination, and hard work, she becomes the 'Ice Cream Queen of America'. But not everything is wine (ice c...