Book Club Besties

This year, I pledged to read more books. Thus far I have succeeded and read about a book a week, sometimes two. It has been fabulous, and in the process of course I have stumbled upon some fantastic stories. The following books are some that I think offer a lot of discussion-worthy topics and interesting character layers to dissect. They are perfect for book clubs, or if you happen to read one of them, drop me a line and let me know what you thought.

Amazon.com $17

1. The Particular Sadness of Lemon Cake by Aimee Bender  

Synopsis: A young girl finds that she has a peculiar gift, to tell the exact emotions the preparer of food has in their soul at the time of preparation. IT creates problems for her as she realizes most of it is unhappy and she can't bear to eat anything but factory packaged "soulless" foods.

Review: The author captures such a melancholy feeling throughout the book. I adore the choppy but vivid interactions and descriptions. Such an amazing writer, with a very different story to tell. It reminds me a little of "Like Water for Chocolate", but only in the aspect of connecting the emotions of the cook, to the emotions of the eater. Make sure you have food nearby, as all the detailed food descriptions might leave you famished.
Like nothing you ever read before!

Amazon.com $12

2. The Bad Behavior of Belle Cantrell by Loraine Despres

Synopsis: Set in 1920's Southern America (one of my favorite periods) , Belle is left widowed and struggling to make it in a man's world. Yet she is different from her counterparts, spunky and modern and shocking people at every turn.

Review: Both the emotions of the South and the realities of the time are portrayed through strong characters and a quick-moving storyline. Belle continues to march to her own drum, and is strong and inspiring. I was lost in the world of southern plantations for a week, and when it ended was left wanting to read the story of her whole life!! This book presents conversations about how woman were treated, racial issues and morality. This author also wrote The Scandalous Summer of Sissy Leblanc, which I plan to read and hope it matches up to this fantastic novel.

Love and literature,
Kerry, the Momster

The Big 5

Today its official! My little baby is a bonafide five year old. One can't even classify her in toddler terms anymore in clothing, and she no longer has a car seat, but a booster! So grown up!

Of course, this rite of passage requires cupcakes at school. So she decided she wanted chocolate. I decided I did not want to make regular cupcakes- as often they are not that chocolate-y, but something more along the line of brownies. Brownies don't make for the same cute,colorful, celebratory indulgences as cupcakes however, and thus I made a new concoction. A hybrid of brownie and cupcake, ingenious!

It was as simple as mixing two recipes together, and the only real talent came in mathematically trying to figure out the bake time, as brownies have a shorter cook time. I was afraid that the cakes wouldn't rise sufficiently, and although they did not rise as much as regular cupcakes, they still came out spongy, but moist and speckled with Ghirardelli chocolate chips. The perfect choco-combo!

We dressed them in blue frosting, sprinkles and colorful toothpicks that I found on sale at Target. And my "big" little girl was off to school, looking all five and alive, leaving me with a whole bowl full of cake mix (I had double because of combining two recipes).But no fear, preggo-mama is here, and will certainly be ingesting the two-layer, choc-chip, brownie cake I was able to bake from the leftovers.

In conclusion, mixing the two recipes worked great and I baked at 325 for the number right in the middle of the two (35 minutes for the cake, and 25 minutes for the cupcakes).

Of course I sampled a few already...And by few I mean 9 ;)


Love and sugar
Kerry, the Momster