Have your cake and eat it too

Always the Baker Never the Bride by Sandra D. Bricker
Emma Rae Creation # 1

Publisher: Abingdon Press
Number of pages: 288 pages
My copy: ebook ARC from Netgalley

They say you can’t have your cake and eat it too. But who would want a cake they couldn’t eat?

Just ask Emma Rae Travis about that. She’s a baker of confections who is diabetic and can’t enjoy them. When Emma meets Jackson Drake, the escapee from Corporate America who is starting a wedding destination hotel to fulfill a dream that belonged to someone else, this twosome and their crazy family ties bring new meaning to the term “family circus.” The Atlanta social scene will never be the same!

* * *

It’s kind of funny that the next NetGalley ARC I read is another book that has recipes and other cooking tips in them, but this time, the characters are way older than Ariel, M and Nicki from The Crepemakers’ Bond were. I guess it’s fate, or maybe even divine, as far as books go, because reading them almost consecutively gives me an idea on how different YA/MG chick lit is to adult chick lit.

You know another funny thing? There seemed to be a lot of Christian chick lit that is set in the South. Atlanta, specifically. Maybe it’s because there are more writers from that area? Or is it because it’s just a charming place to set a story in, because in this book, I am charmed. :)

Emma Rae Travis is an award-winning contradiction — she’s the best baker in town, but she’s also diabetic, so she isn’t allowed to eat more than three bites of her baked confections. But the real point of the story isn’t her diabetes, but her baked goods and how it helped her meet Jackson Drake, owner of the new Tanglewood Hotel. Pretty soon, Emma is a part of the hotel staff and with Jackson’s crazy and efficient sisters, her semi-goth best friend Fiona and her separated parents…well, it’s a circus, alright.

I love myself a good chick lit, obviously, as it’s the genre I really started loving in the first place. I found that I hardly get to read much chick lit though, because there doesn’t seem to be many quality chick lit out there. It’s easy for chick lit to be stereotyped because it seems like there’s only one story line for all books like that. I beg to differ, though, because there’s a plethora of stories that can be written under that genre. You don’t need a fashionista girl with a gay best friend living in a busy city working as a writer promoting weight loss pills and looking for Mr. Right for a book to be chick lit!

This is why I liked Always the Baker, Never the Bride because it doesn’t fall under the usual chick lit stereotype. Sure, the leading man is handsome, and sure there’s a crazy family, but I liked that Emma is her own person, and she’s not a fashion slave. Emma is a bright and strong protagonist, one that I can’t help but get attached to as I read the book. The best thing I loved about Emma? She’s a baker! I bake, too, so that is definitely something I can relate to, but I am sure I won’t be as good as her because my cakes tend to fall apart before I can even get them out of the oven. :P

The Christian aspect of this novel is well written, too, and I liked how it wasn’t preachy. Prayer was subtly incorporated, and Jackson’s grief and fears were real for a guy his age and with his experience. Emma’s religious conflict, though, felt a bit blurry. By blurry, I wasn’t sure why she was having the conflict in the first place — maybe I missed it in the first few pages? I wasn’t sure if it was because she didn’t grow up in that environment or she lost it along the way, so her religious transformation didn’t leave a mark in me as much as I wanted it to. I do like the romantic dynamics explained in this novel, though, especially the concept of After Care. Ever wondered why some guys act so sweet and do something special and then disappear afterwards (and it drives us crazy that we over think so much)? That is after care. :P I’d leave you to read the book to understand what it is, but if you’re really curious, I may just explain it off the review. :P

This is a cute and fluffy read, and the romance was nice and well-developed, too. However, I felt a bit underwhelmed by the end. I was waiting for a big “oomph”, a big conflict that would wreak havoc with Emma and Jackson and everything they worked for, but I felt like it never came. I also felt that Emma’s diabetes wasn’t properly spotlighted, but maybe that wasn’t really the point of the story, so I could let that go. I just didn’t find the game-changing (and sometimes tears-inducing) climax that I found in the other Christian chick lit books I read this year in this one, so that part just kind of made this just okay. It wasn’t bad, I wasn’t disappointed, but I felt that it needed a bit more to make it more memorable.

Always the Baker, Never the Bride is already out paperback. Thanks to Netgalley for the ebook ARC!

Rating: [rating=3]

 

Books vs. Ebooks

Saw this image over at Because We’re Curious and thought this is pretty much accurate. :P I’m not sure who the source is, so if you know, please leave a comment so I can link it properly. :)

Books vs. Ebooks

Click to embiggen

Well, I’m definitely not one who will give up print books — I’ve just bought a couple earlier. But I do love my Kindle, and I think it’s a really nice gadget for bookworms.

What do you think? :)

A Grief Observed

A Grief Observed by C.S. LewisA Grief Observed by C.S. Lewis
Harper, 112 pages

Written after his wife’s tragic death as a way of surviving the “mad midnight moment,” A Grief Observed is C.S. Lewis’s honest reflection on the fundamental issues of life, death, and faith in the midst of loss. This work contains his concise, genuine reflections on that period: “Nothing will shake a man — or at any rate a man like me — out of his merely verbal thinking and his merely notional beliefs. He has to be knocked silly before he comes to his senses. Only torture will bring out the truth. Only under torture does he discover it himself.” This is a beautiful and unflinchingly homest record of how even a stalwart believer can lose all sense of meaning in the universe, and how he can gradually regain his bearings.

Just yesterday, I was chatting with one of my best friends who is also my old household head in Youth for Christ (YFC). She was telling me about her latest Kindle purchase (if you’re curious, it’s Cassandra Clare’s Clockwork Angel). I told her about how I was reading A Grief Observed in my Kindle, and added that I wanted to buy other C.S. Lewis books there, too, because I realized that his books are a bit too expensive if I buy it here in full price, and I don’t really have the patience to dig for them in bargain bookstores. My friend laughed (as much as you can online, anyway) and she said she’s not ready for C.S. Lewis, at least not yet now. This is coming from my friend who would spend her spare time watching Hillsong United worship videos, mind you.

Today I realized that I’ve read so many Christian books but I’ve never really read any of C.S. Lewis. It’s not that I don’t have his books, too. I have Mere Christianity and the boxed set of The Chronicles of Narnia but I haven’t finished any of them. Strange? In a way, yes. But thinking about that and my conversation with my friend yesterday, I think it may not be that strange, because I realize that I may have not been ready to read C.S. Lewis’ books back when I first got them.

Truth be told, I wouldn’t have gotten A Grief Observed if it wasn’t one of the books for discussion in our Goodreads group. It’s been a long time since I actually cracked open a non-fiction book, and whenever I do, I never finish them. Another reason why I would not have gotten this by myself is because I can’t relate to grief, at least, not yet.

I am a stranger to grief. Sure, I know some people who have passed away and I have shed tears for them, but I have never really felt the same kind of grief that I know other people have felt. The last closest relative I know who passed away was my maternal grandmother, and that’s ten years ago, and all the other deaths I’ve heard about is not close enough to me for me to actually grieve the way other people do.

But I’m not taking this one lightly. I still feel afraid, because I know that as I grow older, the closer I am and everyone I know and love and care for is to death. It’s a fact of life. And then I remember: it’s not a matter of growing older. Everyone is close to death, myself included. No one can escape it, and the only question we can ask (and will probably never get the answer until we are right there at that moment) is When?

A Grief Observed doesn’t have an answer to any of what I said, unfortunately. I knew C.S. Lewis was a great writer, but this book is not like any book I’ve read before. I can’t empathize because like I said, I haven’t lost anyone very close to me to death just yet (and I’m very grateful for that of course), so I read this as if I was a spectator. It almost feels like I was intruding into something very private, as if I wasn’t supposed to be reading them. These are the thoughts of a man who has lost the love of his life to something he can’t fight. These are the ramblings of a man who has a solid foundation for his faith yet he couldn’t find foothold now that he experienced this big blow. This is a man who is grieving, period.

I don’t think anyone can ever explain how it is to grieve. I believe, like falling in love (yes, I have to connect it to that), everyone has their own process of grieving. Crying, writing, hiding yourself — what works for you. Like death, no one is exempt from grief, but I think we do have a choice on what to believe while we grieve. Do we believe that the other person is already in a better place? Do we believe that he/she is at peace? Do we believe that God has them? Do we believe that death actually exists? What would you believe in?

I’ve written so much, but I think this is one of the hardest reviews I’ve ever written. There’s so much in A Grief Observed that can be said, that can be quoted, that can be criticized, even, but not so much words to write on what it is really about.  It’s unlike any other non-fiction book I read, and maybe this is because it’s raw, and it really comes from the author’s heart. This is probably the first book that I couldn’t really relate to, yet I also could at the same time. Perhaps C.S. Lewis wasn’t just grieving about his wife, but maybe he is also grieving about his faith, and his primitive notions of how he sees God and His love? I’m just speculating. But if that is right, then I also grieve with him for the same reasons.

Kuya Doni is right: this book is heartwrenching. I’m glad I read it.

Rating: [rating=5]

2010 Challenge Status:
* Book # 77 out of 100 for 2010

My copy: Kindle version from Amazon Kindle store

Cover & Blurb: Goodreads

Part of your culinary world

The Crepemakers' Bond by Julie CrabtreeThe Crepemakers’ Bond by Julie Crabtree
Publisher: Milkweed Editions
Number of pages:  288
My copy:  ebook ARC from Netgalley

Ariel is the head chef in her family kitchen. Cucumber salads, fettuccine carbonara, fish tacos, and peanut butter pie are just a few of the dishes she crafts when she’s feeling frustrated by the world. And it’s turning into a frustrating year. Ariel, Nicki, and Mattie have been inseparable friends since they were little kids, but now Mattie’s mom has decided to move away. It’s the girls’ last year in middle school, and they can’t fathom being separated. The friends concoct a plan that will keep Mattie in the Bay area she’ll move in with Ariel and her family. But before you can say “bff,” the party is over. Everything Mattie does gets on Ariel’s nerves, and it’s not long before the girls are avoiding each other. This was supposed to be their best year ever, but some painful lessons are threatening to tear their friendship apart. Can the girls scramble to make things right before the bond crumbles?

* * *

I am a cookbook person. By that, I mean, I can only cook if there is a cookbook involved. I’m not the type of person who can mix everything they can find in the fridge and make something absolutely amazing with it. I guess this is why I know I’m more of a baker than a chef because baking needs precise steps and ingredients and you just cant throw everything in a mixing bowl and stick it in the oven to see if it would work. In the kitchen, I follow instructions, I don’t give them or make them.

But that doesn’t stop me from watching cooking shows and marveling at the food they make nor reading books that has a lot of food involved. I think that’s one of the reasons why I got attracted to The Crepemakers’ Bond while I was browsing NetGalley — it’s a foodie book. Thrilled with the prospect of reading a novel with food involved, I totally glazed over the fact that this is a book with eighth-graders in them.

Is this where I say uh-oh?

Well, not really. I guess I have been too used to reading books where the characters are already in high school that I expected this book to be one and didn’t read the blurb properly. For the first few pages of the book, I felt confused at how young everyone seemed to be in the book, and at some point, immature. Then I realized that the characters weren’t even in high school yet. Not that high school students are the most mature people in the world (I know I was pretty immature back in high school — don’t you deny you weren’t!). I do have to remind myself every now and then while the characters were making kind of stupid decisions that they are still young and they don’t really know better.

The Crepemakers’ Bond is a pretty good book about changes and friendship. I liked how the author focused on the fact that things change when the person you thought you get along with very well who isn’t in your immediate family starts to get in your nerves when you start living together. There’s a reason why your best friend doesn’t live in the same house as you do (if your best friend isn’t anyone you’re directly related to) if you’re not old enough to have separate activities with them: living with them will drive you nuts. I’ve had my share of living with roommates and we had good relationships because we don’t see each other 24/7. This was a hard lesson for Ariel to learn especially since she really loved M as a sister, but I liked how the author let her go through it with all the rotten feelings that having a fight with a friend entails.

As for the characters, Ariel (named after The Little Mermaid) is a pretty well-rounded protagonist, given her age. She isn’t perfect, but she felt like the perfect and realistic eighth-grader, as compared to the ones I grew up reading in Sweet Valley. I also liked that Ariel had a hobby to take her mind off things, which is cooking. I loved that this book had recipes in between chapters, and they all seemed yummy, too. That seemed like a pretty healthy hobby for a girl her age, both physically and emotionally. I also liked that the recipes had creative and fun names based on when Ariel made them, like Crepes of Wrath or Achy Breaky Artichoke Hearts Dip or Once Misunderstood Twice Baked Potatoes. Plus points, too, for the cooking references at the end of the book — totally useful for non-cooks like me. :P

As much as I liked Ariel, I wasn’t really crazy about her best friends, M and Nicki. M’s single letter nickname kind of got on my nerves after a while in reading and I kept on calling her Mattie in my head. I thought Nicki felt a bit underdeveloped, and I felt that she was very inconsistent as a character. I never felt any connection with her, but perhaps the author really meant for it to be that way? Research in Goodreads tells me that M has her own book, cutely titled Discovering Pig Magic. So maybe Nicki will have her book soon?

Reading this book made me realize that I really am over that stage of my life. While I like reading Young Adult fiction, I don’t think I’d go back to middle grade anymore. This is still a good book, but I may have outgrown it. I guess it’s because I don’t have the same concerns as they do, and I am really just way past that stage of my life. Sure, it’s pretty clean fiction (no sex, drugs or acne treatments here), but it’s kind of hard to relate to their concerns right now.  If I had a younger sister or cousin or niece at that age, I’d recommend this book to her, though, because of the friendship lessons it gives, and borrow it every now and then to try out the recipes. :P

Rating: [rating=3]

The Great Perhaps

Looking for Alaska by John GreenLooking for Alaska by John Green
Publisher: Puffin
Number of pages: 256
My copy: ebook, bought from Amazon Kindle Store

Before. Miles “Pudge” Halter is done with his safe life at home. His whole life has been one big non-event, and his obsession with famous last words has only made him crave “the Great Perhaps” even more (Francois Rabelais, poet). He heads off to the sometimes crazy and anything-but-boring world of Culver Creek Boarding School, and his life becomes the opposite of safe. Because down the hall is Alaska Young. The gorgeous, clever, funny, sexy, self-destructive, screwed up, and utterly fascinating Alaska Young. She is an event unto herself. She pulls Pudge into her world, launches him into the Great Perhaps, and steals his heart. Then . . . After. Nothing is ever the same.

* * *

I have been seeing John green’s novels for a while now, but I never had the time to pick them up. I think I saw Paper Towns first, but they reviews were saying that Looking for Alaska has more awards, so I was always on the lookout for it. Of course, I promptly forgot all about it, until I saw other book bloggers I am following posting reviews on his books. After one particularly boring night at work where I wrestled with the urge to buy a new book, I got this one, thinking his first novel should be a good place to discover if John Green is really as good as people say he is.

I guess I wasn’t sure what I was expecting in this novel, except maybe for a dorky guy character to fall in love with a cool but not exactly popular girl, and will turn his world upside down as he tries to get out of his shell to impress her. I can’t remember where I read this, but I hear John Green is the king of nerdy guys in contemporary YA. I have yet to prove that, but with Looking for Alaska, I was very surprised. I can’t say pleasantly, but I was surprised.

I won’t say much about the story, so as not to ruin a reading experience of those who haven’t read this yet. Looking for Alaska is about Miles “Pudge” Halter, who transfers to Culver Creek Boarding School in search of The Great Perhaps. Here he meets new friends Chip “The Colonel” Martin and Takumi, and Alaska Young, the girl across the hall that rocks Miles’ world and ultimately divides his world into a “Before” and “After”. I wasn’t sure about what “After” meant in the book until I got to it, and that was where I experienced John Green’s magic with words.

The question that readers will get here is the same question that Alaska and the other characters wrestled with: How will I get out of this labyrinth of suffering? I admit that it’s not a question that I would ask myself. I’m generally a cheerful and happy person, with random bursts of sentimentality and sadness every now and then. I can relate to Miles a lot in the sense that his life is generally okay: good parents, good school, and no big traumatic problems in his past. Save for the lack of a group of friends (or even just a single friend), we’re pretty much the same. I guess I can say his approach to the labyrinth would be essentially the same as mine: pretend it doesn’t exist, and live in a self-sufficient world. But one can only live like that for so long, until the suffocation of living on my own will crush me and break me, just as like those people who get lost in their own labyrinths. I don’t think there is ever one answer to this question, because I think every person has their own labyrinths, and it’s never the same with others. I thought that Miles’ answer to the question was brilliant, though, and it may be one of good exit plans that other people (myself included) use in their own labyrinths.

I don’t know if that paragraph made sense, but I hope it does when you decide to read this book. Looking for Alaska is more than your nerdy guy meets cool girl and things change story. This is a surprisingly heavy book that deals with a lot of growing up issues, yet John Green’s prose made it somewhat light and funny, and poignant all at the same time. This isn’t the same world I grew up in (with all the smoking and sex and all that going on. And by smoking, it’s real cigarettes and not the fake ones, so no one is wondering about the taste of an electronic cigarettes), but this world felt real and their situations were something that I know other teens can get into, and it’s something that I appreciate. John Green doesn’t sacrifice dialogue for it to sound real (one that I think Take Me There by Susane Colasanti kind of failed in), but instead makes use of the setting and the situations to bring us all into Miles’ world.

I think my favorite lesson in Looking for Alaska was how you never really own a person, regardless of your relation to him or her. I don’t know about you, but I know I have a tendency to feel like I own the person just because we’re friends, or because I like the person. It’s like their world should revolve around me, because my world can easily revolve around them — it’s just fair, right? But the truth is, we never own anyone, and there’s always something we don’t know about the other person even if we feel like we know them, like we’ve figured them out. We may be important to the other person, but that doesn’t mean they don’t think other people are also important, or that other people think the world of them like you do. The best thing we can do for the people that mean a lot to us is to love them and accept them and forgive them and be content at the fact that they will always surprise us. It may not always be in a good way, but it was what made Miles like, love and forgive Alaska for in the end.

This isn’t my favorite, but I liked Looking for Alaska. It’s left me hopeful and smiling and thinking of things that I have never really thought about, or at least, never really bothered to think about. I am definitely going to read the rest of John Green’s novels.

Rating: [rating=3]

2010 Challenge Status:
* Book # 71 out of 100 for 2010

My copy: ebook, Advanced Reading Copy from Netgalley

Cover & Blurb: Goodreads