Usually there is always something I feel could be better, but in this case it is perfect as is. It was the first book in forever I didn’t want to end, and it even made my “favorites” list. I’m not familiar with Susan Jane Gilman’s non-fiction, but I read in the Q&A that she has always wanted to write fiction. She truly has made her place here, and I hope she writes more like this. This view of the character felt very disjointed with the young girl/young woman that I had just read about. I truly love tough, sassy old ladies (my Nana was queen of sassy ol' ladies!) but Lillian came off as much more of a clichéd, rich old dame who doesn't give a rat's patoot what anyone thinks of her. I also couldn't imagine my Grandma or Nana doing some of the things that Lillian does with her grandson. Lillian, the undisputed star of the first novel by Gilman (“Hypocrite in a Pouffy White Dress”), is a cheerfully unreliable narrator who never lets the truth get in the way of her business instincts. For example, her most-quoted story about coming to America from Russia is seeing the Statue of Liberty, to which she says she prayed to every night for months. The only trouble is: it didn’t happen. The only thing she actually remembers about New York Harbor is the man next to her crying and her sister losing her hat. For years it was believed that Agnes Bertha Smith was born on 24 August 1855 in Walthamstow, Essex, and was the daughter of John Smith, who worked as a clerk, and his wife Susan. [5] Gilman clearly did a tremendous amount of research into the birth of the ice cream industry in the US. Unfortunately, she sometimes can’t resist the urge to cram in one more fact or nugget of information, falling out of Lillian’s distinctive voice and into generic exposition. And secondary characters have a tendency to disappear and reappear, seemingly on a whim.

An immigrant fleeing the pogroms to leading an ice cream empire—a life broadened in unimaginable ways---shared with sensitivity and humor. I found the research very informative, and enjoyed the reading group guide and questions for discussion (ideal for book clubs). This poor, unattractive, smart, yet sarcastic and crippling Malka soaks up everything from Catholicism, and embraces the family business, while at the same time excels at school, and her life begins to change drastically for the better. Fueled by her grief and abandonment, she begins to redefine herself as Lillian, The Ice Cream Queen of America. (Lillian Dunkle) A car accident on a hot day ends up making the Dunkles’ fortunes. Lillian and Albert invent soft-serve ice cream after their entire inventory melts before they can get their generator hooked up (a la the real-life Tom Carvel). World War II and the invention of television bring with them new chances for charity and patriotism – or business opportunities, depending on one’s view. Lillian clearly has acting chops, since she pulls off playing a sweet, motherly lady with a peppermint-striped cane for 13 years on a Sunday morning kids’ show before it all comes crashing down. Too late, she realizes that her ruthlessness and ambition have deprived her of, well, some of the sweeter things in life. The recipe we demonstrate in the video above comes from Agnes Marshall's The Book of Ices (1885). As queen of Victorian Ices, Agnes was a fantastic entrepreneur, selling books, equipment and teaching lessons on how best to make and mould ice cream. She also travelled across Britain lecturing, and published two general cookery books. Her two ice cream books contain some of the best recipes for ices you will ever come across – yet sadly, she’s virtually forgotten today.

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Ever since my arrest at NBC, and my conviction for tax evasion, it has become open season on Lillian Dunkle. Never mind that the U.S. embassy was bombed in Beirut. Or that President Reagan has announced he's deploying a missile shield in outer space. Some weasel-faced journalists have nothing more important to do, it seems, than to dig up dirt about me."

THE ICE CREAM QUEEN OF ORCHARD STREET, a rags- to- riches historical fiction, of a Jewish immigrant, Malka Treynovsky, a determined six-year old girl from a poor childhood, set in 1913----flees Russia with her family, searching for the all American dream. This story….(the true historical parts) ….are partly inspired by Lillian Dunkle….the celebrated matriarch of the ice cream business: from a penniless immigrant to an American food tycoon. But be clear — this is a fiction story.Many things that end up” being meaningful, writes social scientist Joseph Grenny, “have come from conference workshops, articles, or online videos that began as a chore and ended with an insight. My work in Kenya, for example, was heavily influenced by a Christian Science Monitor article I had forced myself to read 10 years earlier. Sometimes, we call things ‘boring’ simply because they lie outside the box we are currently in.” Cover of Fancy Ices (1894; left) and an illustration from the book depicting various "fancy" examples of moulded ice cream (right)