The Particular Sadness of Lemon Cake, by Aimee Bender

“I lavished in a forkful of spinach gratin on the side, of how delighted the chef had clearly been over the balance of spinach and cheese, like she was conducting a meeting of spinach and cheese, like a matchmaker who knew they would shortly fall in love.”

- excerpted from The Particular Sadness of Lemon Cake

Forgive me if I seem less excited over The Particular Sadness of Lemon Cake (published in 2010 by Doubleday) than I should. It’s just that, even though I finished reading this book before I finished The Prince of Tides, I reversed the order in which I wrote the reviews, and now I can’t possibly make Aimee Bender’s novel sound like it should.

The premise of Bender’s book (a much faster read than Conroy’s) is that Rose Edelstein discovers the night before her ninth birthday that she can taste feelings. That is, when she bites into a forkful of spaghetti, she can not only discern exactly where the pasta and sauce were made and manufactured, but also the mood of the cook that put together the meal. Unfortunately, this is an unwanted gift. Rose immediately discovers that her mother is restless and unhappy (and having an affair) and that people all around town are angry and rushed and unsettled.

Meanwhile, Rose’s brother, Joseph, also has a gift, a gift that makes him disappear for long periods of time – and only Rose knows about his gift.

Bender’s novel is fun and imaginative and worth a read, but I can’t say I’ll ever read it again. Then again, maybe I’m just bitter because my jaw is wired shut from a recent break and reading about foods I couldn’t eat was excruciating. So take my opinion with a grain of salt.

(Note: Even though I didn't love the book, I'm very excited about why I read this book in the first place. I'm part of an online book club that "meets" once a month to discuss - via posts - the book chosen for each particular meeting. Jana, the founder and host of the book club, also posts a recipe to make prior to the day of the meeting so we can all be munching on the same treat while we write our posts. I don't know any of the members of the club personally, but it has been such fun these last couple of months to "talk books" in this no-pressure environment. Last month we read Julia Child's My Life in France, which I absolutely loved, and made beignets, French doughnuts that I never would have tried making if it weren't for this occasion! ...And they were delicious. Anyone's free to join...just saying!) 

The Prince of Tides, by Pat Conroy

When I first saw The Prince of Tides on display at a local bookstore, I assumed it was a new release. I read the dust jacket and it sounded intriguing, so when I got home, I put it on hold at the public library (I wasn’t yet ready to commit to buying it, never having read any of Pat Conroy’s work).

Now I want to consume everything Pat Conroy has ever written.

The Prince of Tides (published in 1986, it turns out, by Houghton Mifflin) is the heart-wrenching story of growing up in the south. Told from the perspective of Tom, now grown, who temporarily escapes from his own failing marriage to help his suicidal sister in New York City, we learn the complete story of Tom and his siblings’ childhood in Colleton, South Carolina (as told to his sister Savannah’s therapist).

It is the story of parents trying to do the best they can to raise their children, failing miserably the entire time.

It is the story of growing up with domestic violence in a home that seems to attract the worst sorts of tragedies.

And it is the story of being taught to hold it all inside and the way in which this forced denial is manifested in each of the three children as they grow into adulthood.

There are parts of this novel that are difficult to read, and there were times when I needed a break because the depth of the sorrow was too much to take in at one time, but I can honestly say this is one of those books that will stay with me forever.

(And it’s now on my list of books to buy.)

Books That Have Changed Me

I just finished reading a fabulous, thought-provoking, difficult book (in that it doesn't sugarcoat life, which can be just as hard to read as to live sometimes), and it made me think about all of the fiction and non-fiction books (because poetry is another post completely) that have really changed my perspective and caused me to be a different kind of person in some way or another. So here goes. I am sure I will leave out some incredibly important ones, but it's late and I'm just going to think off the top of my head here.

{In no particular order...}

1. the Bible
2. Roots, by Alex Haley
3. A Prayer for Owen Meany, by John Irving
4. The Help, by Katherine Stockett
5. The Red Leather Diary, by Lily Koppel
6. The Prince of Tides, by Pat Conroy
7. The Catcher in the Rye, by J.D. Salinger
8. Franny and Zooey, by J.D. Salinger
9. Redeeming Love, by Francine Rivers
10. East of Eden, by John Steinbeck
11. Honestly, by Sheila Walsh
12. Brave New World, by Aldous Huxley
13. Cutting for Stone, by Abraham Verghese
14. My Life in Paris, by Julia Child

(Admittedly, as I look back over this list, I realize that what impacts me most are stories of incredible and unbelievable forgiveness and redemption, as well as stories that inspire me to get out there and do something.)

So, if anyone is following this blog yet, I'm curious: what books have changed you?

Messy Thrilling Life, by Sabrina Ward Harrison

I first read Sabrina Ward Harrison when I was in high school. I was drawn to her art and her words and the way she blended them together on the page in one thick, confusing, and messy book. I was a perfectionist who tried to straighten out the tangles in my life; Sabrina was an artist who let her tangles exist for everyone to see. It was love at first sight.

Ten years after picking up her first volume, Spilling Open, I have just read Messy Thrilling Life (published in 2004 by Villard Books) in one sitting. This is the kind of book that is much better read outside where there are no walls to confine you as you read, so I propped myself up in a lounge chair and soaked up each page of Sabrina’s book, a sort of art museum of her life in New York where she transplanted herself just prior to September 11, 2001.

In Messy Thrilling Life, Sabrina quotes American mythologist Joseph Campbell, who once wrote, “We must be willing to get rid of the life we have planned, so as to have the life that is waiting for us.” This is how I would sum up Sabrina’s art memoir of her time in New York. She ventured from California to the city, knowing New York was the city for serious artists, and wound up in a fast-paced environment where she admits she was “a woman who sometimes [forgot] about poetry and reading in the shade.”

While it is clear Sabrina has matured from one book to the next, the basic premise of her art remains the same: this is a woman who is willing to reveal the messiness of real life – both because there’s no way around it and because it is the only way to free herself (and others) from it.

Matched, by Ally Condie

“What is the point of having something lovely if you never share it? It would be like having a poem, a beautiful wild poem that no one else has, and burning it.”

- excerpted from Matched

We all know not to judge a book by its cover, but that is exactly how I picked up Matched, by Ally Condie (and, truth be told, that is exactly how I choose at least half of the books I read). A student of mine had the book out on her table as she was working in my classroom, and I couldn’t help but do a double-take when I saw the glossy cover depicting a girl in an enchanting green dress, pushing her arms out against the bubble in which she is trapped. Luckily for me (because I have the patience of a two-year-old when there’s a book I want to read), my student was planning to return the book that day, so after she gave me a synopsis of the plot, I immediately requested that the book be put on hold at our school library, and before the day was over, the book was in my possession.

This new young adult fantasy novel (published in 2010 by Dutton Books) reminded me of Brave New World, 1984, and especially The Giver. Cassia lives in a world where her choices are made for her, dictated by “the Society.” It is a world where marriage partners are pre-arranged based on DNA (increasing the probability of healthy offspring) and where every inhabitant carries a green pill to ward off anxiety.

On Cassia’s seventeenth birthday, she attends her Match Banquet, where she will discover who she is to marry when she turns twenty-one. She is delighted when she realizes she already knows her Match... until she is accidentally given another boy’s data, that is, and finds herself falling for the one person she can never marry.

As the story progresses and Cassia’s forbidden love grows, her society’s secrets begin to unravel, revealing a dystopia where poetry, art, and all forms of self-expression are stifled in the Society’s effort to ward off rebellion. Condie’s novel urges readers to hold tight to freedom because it can be stolen away in the blink of an eye.  

In Print

In the last few months, I've had this urge to write book reviews. I don't know where it came from, but I'm embracing it while it's here! At first I was looking around at literary magazines so I could apply to write reviews for an actual publication, but then it occurred to me that I could just start a blog and write reviews for fun, without having to write a specific number of words or meet any deadlines! (And let's be honest: very few people are actually paid to write book reviews anyway.)

So here I am, writing a review whenever I finish reading a book. I promise to be honest. If I don't like a book, I'll say so.

And sometimes maybe I'll just write about other bookish things, like how I'm in love with the smell of a good book or how there's something beautiful to me about coming across dog-eared pages in a library book because it shows other people have been here. So please, join me, and always feel free to recommend a book of your own!