Always the Baker, Never the Bride by Sandra D. Bricker

Do you ever have those days where you just want to go back to being a little kid because everything in your life requires you to be adult and responsible?  Me neither.  But sometimes you just need a break from all of the stress of daily life.  I picked this book up out of the pile of books my mom gave me a couple years ago that I hadn't gotten around to reading yet.  The cover looked cute so I gave it a read.

I definitely think that this book is geared toward younger readers than myself, like preteens and teens, however it was a nice "fluff" book to read in between heavier novels (check out my next post on The Time Traveler's Wife).  It is super easy to read and I finished it in less than a week, even with being in school 4 days a week.  Sometimes its nice to just read a book that doesn't require you to look up fancy words or think about the hidden meanings.

The main character is Emma, a baker who ends up working for a business tycoon who recently left corporate life and bought a hotel in honor of his late wife who used to work there.  The author centers around God and how God is trying to repair Jackson's heart from the devasting passing of his late wife by introducing Emma into his life.  Basically a love story, this book takes a new path to exploring the love concept by tying in Emma's 'divorced' parents.  A perfect read with Valentine's Day fast approaching!

I really liked this book because at the end of each chapter, there is either a recipe or tips on cake decorating.  Some of the recipes are definitely some I will have to test out such as the recipe for Espresso Fondant.  Overall, I would recommend this book to any Christian women who needs a break from serious and heavy books.  Plus it's nice to get lost in a fictional characters problems rather than dwell in your own.

Happy Reading!

The Blue Plate Special by Kate Christensen

Recently I have been reading a new book that I picked up in the Seattle airport coming back to Michigan from a family trip to Alaska.  My mom and I were originally drawn to it because of the cover, depicting a gloriously lopsided stack of pancakes covered in melting pats of butter and dripping with syrup.  I had never read anything by Kate Christensen before, but now I will definitely look into some of her other books.

This book is unlike any book I've ever read before.  It's written with such detail and passion and it made me wonder if I could recollect my own life as well as Kate did hers.  I love books that feature food along the plot line, making your mouth water with every turn of the page.  Passages like the following are the type of writing that made my stomach gurgle in hunger as I devoured this book.

"One night the entire supper consisted soley of boiled zucchini, boiled potatoes, and homemade bread and cheese.  They called the zucchini courgettes, but they didn't fool me: I knew that stuff when I saw it.  I remembered a;; too well the horrible stuff from our Phoenix backyard, the zucchini bread at the Threefold guesthouse.  I sat down with disappointment and dread.
And then I tasted the zucchini.  It was sublime, subtly multidimensional in flavor and velvety in texture, not like succhini at all but some fair like, delicate thing of palest green, very fresh, with an herblike essence." -- An excerpt from Blue Plate Special by Kate Christensen

Sometimes I had to remind myself that this was an autobiography and not a novel.  In a way, reading this book was like having a chat with an old friend.  Each chapter was its own little one-sided conversation over a meal or a great cup of coffee with a friend.  Because of this, I often enjoyed this book with a pot of strong espresso and a dash of heavy cream while reading.

This book reminded me of how food plays a huge role in shaping every person's life, even if you don't think so.  Food is nourishment, it soothes us, or for some, it can be a source of pain.  Everyone can relate to food in some way.  Food brings memories, little flashes of our past captured in tastes and flavors.  And it brings people together, uniting them in a common source of love.