I love a good three-day weekend. And I can't tell you how excited I am that after today, I won't be in the office again until Tuesday. It's been a rough few weeks here at work, between being sick and just not feeling it, and being stuck in a rut. It will be good to get out this weekend. Plus, it's David's 26th birthday tomorrow! So lots of excitement happening over the next three days. I'm going to be very busy, but I can't wait.
And...I finished another book! Number 44 for the year...we're getting to the halfway point! No hopes of getting to 50 before the beginning of June, but I'll definitely be there (or past there) by the month's end!
Aimee Bender's The Particular Sadness of Lemon Cake is by far one of the quirkiest, most bizarre novels I've ever read. Our heroine, Rose Edelstein, is only nine years old when she takes a bite of her mother's special chocolate lemon cake, and realizes that she has a strange gift -- the power to taste the feelings of other in the food that they prepare. Daunted, Rose treats her secret like the affliction she believes it is, feeling utterly alone in the world and in her special knowledge that she find herself incapable of sharing with the world. But through the years, Rose begins to understand that she is not alone with her "gift". Though she believes it to be a curse, Rose realizes that there are many, many people who have abilities that they cannot share with others. The book begs the question of the reader...is having a special power or talent a gift, a burden, or a liability?
To say that I found this book bizarre is a rather large understatement. When I picked it up and began reading it, I believed that I was reading contemporary literature. Yet by the end I realized that I was reading contemporary fiction with a touch of fantasy or the supernatural -- not something I was expecting. Bender's writing style is very fluid and elegant -- I was reminded of Janet Fitch's White Oleander several times -- and my one complaint is her lack of quotations, a la Frank McCourt, of which I have said before I am not a fan.
The twist in the plot really stunned me, to the point where I was thinking I must be crazy, this isn't where this book is going, is it? Am I nuts? When I finished Lemon Cake, I hopped onto Goodreads and checked the other reviews, and lo and behold, I was right. Bizarre, but interesting.
This is a book really requires a second reading. Unfortunately, with my goal to read 100 books in 2011, it's going to have to go on the shelf until 2012 along with my other "to be re-read" books, such as The Hunger Games series, Bumped (I feel like I missed a lot when I read it the first time around, and I want to check and make sure I didn't miss stuff) and Into Thin Air by Jon Krakauer (which I just loved). Fifty-six books left to go before I can re-read.
Rating: *** and 1/2
And...I finished another book! Number 44 for the year...we're getting to the halfway point! No hopes of getting to 50 before the beginning of June, but I'll definitely be there (or past there) by the month's end!
To say that I found this book bizarre is a rather large understatement. When I picked it up and began reading it, I believed that I was reading contemporary literature. Yet by the end I realized that I was reading contemporary fiction with a touch of fantasy or the supernatural -- not something I was expecting. Bender's writing style is very fluid and elegant -- I was reminded of Janet Fitch's White Oleander several times -- and my one complaint is her lack of quotations, a la Frank McCourt, of which I have said before I am not a fan.
The twist in the plot really stunned me, to the point where I was thinking I must be crazy, this isn't where this book is going, is it? Am I nuts? When I finished Lemon Cake, I hopped onto Goodreads and checked the other reviews, and lo and behold, I was right. Bizarre, but interesting.
This is a book really requires a second reading. Unfortunately, with my goal to read 100 books in 2011, it's going to have to go on the shelf until 2012 along with my other "to be re-read" books, such as The Hunger Games series, Bumped (I feel like I missed a lot when I read it the first time around, and I want to check and make sure I didn't miss stuff) and Into Thin Air by Jon Krakauer (which I just loved). Fifty-six books left to go before I can re-read.
Rating: *** and 1/2
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