Recent reads

Since Christmas, I've been devouring books at a rapid rate, and I've especially enjoyed two of them. They're very different to one another, but share a common element~ a girl who is different in some way, and feels like she doesn't belong.

The first is The Particular Sadness of Lemon Cake, by Aimee Bender. It's difficult to explain this book which is marketed as "magical realism", but I'll try. Rose is a 9-year-old girl who discovers within herself an extraordinary gift, the ability to taste in food the emotions of the person who prepared it. Unfortunately, the gift is more like a curse. The prose in this story is lovely, and the descriptions are vivid, especially those of Rose's Los Angeles neighbourhood. I loved it, but found it extremely confusing too. Without giving too much away, there are other members of Rose's family with similar "talents" and as they are revealed, the story unravels a bit. I'm still not quite sure what happened to Joseph, Rose's depressed brother. It left me feeling sad, and a little bit empty {which was perhaps the author's intention}. Have you read it? I'd love to hear what you thought.

I loved Saving CeeCee Honeycutt. It was a quick read, and absolutely lovely. I read a review that described it as being "light as air, but thoroughly pleasant reading," and I have to agree. This story does have a too-good-to-be-true feel to it, but after the heaviness of Lemon Cake {and another recent read, about a woman whose 4-year-old son was struck and killed by a car~ why did I read that?!}, I was glad for it. Cecelia lives with her mentally ill mother and mostly absent father in a depressing town in Ohio, but a tragic accident changes everything and she moves to Savannah, Georgia, to live with her Aunt Tootie. I loved the descriptions of the southern town with its grand old houses, and its wildly eccentric, strong female characters. I must admit that the problems that arise in the book are dealt with a little too quickly and then the plot moves on, but again, I didn't mind. Sometimes I don't want to struggle too much with a book. I just want to sit back and enjoy it. With this book, I certainly did. I cried and I laughed a lot. "It is truthful in its ugliness, but believable in its premise that life holds a plethora of promise," wrote an Amazon reviewer, and I tend to agree. But then, I love me a happy ending. I also think it would make a great movie. Have you read it? And if so, what did you think of Saving CeeCee Honeycutt?

Currently on my bedside table, and both very, very good so far... The Help by Kathryn Stockett and the children's novel Listening for Lions by Gloria Whelan. Do you know them?

With stacks of good books to read,  no wonder I'm having a hard time sticking to that early bedtime resolution!