OK, so there is a story behind this collection of soup, broth and stew recipes, which I know is going to be important to some – especially the creators – but I care not to bother with that here. I guess just mentioning it first, as opposed to, you know, the recipes, is evidence there is a lot of extraneous guff here. And yes, this really is eighty recipes, spread over two hundred pages, and spread very thinly at times, too – I swear the beginning gives you two recipes, then four whole pages of boring black and white photography, before getting back to what we actually came for. Oh, and every soup gets a haiku or similar three-line verse.

All this makes this book a little hard to like, although for me the vegetarian nature of all this kind of did that already. I seldom like anything too exotic in my veg, and blend anything that threatens my soup with its lack of meatiness. But even if you came to this with all the will in the world, and even if you could forgive the routine full-page painting (yes, painting) that each dish receives, you would find it hard to even locate your new favourite on first browse. Persevere and there are things such as Ethiopian lentil soup, a borscht with yellow beets and a whole lot more to completely confound Count Arthur Strong's soupover friends (obscure af cultural reference alert).

But then we make things to have alongside soup, and cookies. And then we're on to salads, and you think you might well have been mis-sold this completely. But then we're back to soups – the same batch as before, but refashioned for one of those American Insta-Pot things. It's going to warm the hearts of many, but I just could not include myself as one, what with the needless bulking-out and fripperies it carries. If it finds an audience then that's fine and dandy, but I can't pretend this volume was to my taste. Serves one and a half stars.

Soup Club boo is more of a memoir than a traditional recipe book. It is filled with photographs of people who have played a part in the journey rather than photographs of the soups. The pictures of the soups are illustrated in watercolour so are not really useful in seeing what you are cooking. To be honest I would have preferred a proper recipe book with soup pictures rather than photographs of unknown people. I think it is a very personal book and don't think it is for everyone. However I do think there will be lots of people who will love the book.

A bowl of soup is far more than just sustenance to this author. It's love, friendship, hope and more. It is obvious this book was threaded together with love and care. I appreciated the Soup Club Story very much. The watercolor pictures for the food was a different and lovely touch. While photos of the actual dish are more detailed, the watercolor art was specific enough that I feel anyone can create the dish as pictured. Actually the watercolor paintings were beautifully done. The Soup Lady Wisdom was extremely helpful to me, especially the about using filtered water. Why had I not thought to try that before?! None of the recipes require you to make or use broth because as the author states, "who wants to make... a pot of soup before making another pot of soup?" Each recipe is complex in flavor but simple in instruction. I appreciated having two methods for each soup, the slower stovetop method and the quicker pressure cooker method. The only thing I would change is to add each recipe to the table of contents and maybe put both methods of the recipe together, rather than having them separated.

I received this ARC for free from the publisher in exchange for my honest review.