The Particular Sadness of Lemon Cake by Aimee Bender

 
I loved this book.  I turned the last page as though I was tasting the last bite of the most perfect meal I've ever eaten. You know how it is-the food is delicious and you could go on eating it forever but you know you can't because you wouldn't love it as much unless you knew what it was like to miss it when it was gone.  Okay, I'm waxing poetic. But this was a really good story.  Well-paced, beautifully structured and carrying a sense of magical realism, sadness, a hint of mystery and a pretty deep understanding of the human condition.  This writer is probably very good at sitting quietly and just observing, listening and soaking people up.  Otherwise, how could she understand so much?

If you only read the Wall Street Journal, then DO NOT read this book.  It will be wasted on you.

292 pp

The Replacement by Brenna Yovanoff

Little kids are being taken and someone, or something, is being left behind in their cribs.  If you live in Gentry, you accept that this happens, whether you like it or not, because it's a cycle you can't break...
This is the story of a freak named Mackie Doyle, of a sister who loves him anyway and friends who accept him as he is.  It's a story filled with horror, mystery, sadness, love, pain, and an unlikely champion who changes the course of events in Gentry forever.  If you like stories that mete out answers in little bits and drips and leaves you wondering at the end, then this one is for you. 343 pp

Getting my Mark Twain on...

It's time to read all the new Mark Twain, Truman and Gateway nominees.  Anyone else? 

My Antonia by Willa Cather

I had to read this book for the Republic Branch book discussion.  I think I would have liked it more if we hadn't read The Awakening by Kate Chopin last month.  When I researched, I found that Willa Cather made some very scathing remarks about Kate Chopin's amazing book and it turned me off so much, I had a hard time reading this one without thinking of that. 
It is a classic and I think does a great job of glamorizing the American Expansion across the country.  Cather does a good job of showing how tough it was for immigrants but I don't think she went far enough.  And calling the book My Antonia when Antonia only appears in three of the five "books" of the novel seems odd.  I also think it was pretty contrived when she starts the book pretending to be someone else and pretending that Jim is really the writer.  Whaaa?! 
The first time I read the book, I loved it.  Maybe the third time I'll love it again but not this time.

The Irresistible Henry House by Lisa Grunwald

This was the first book of 2011 for me.  The book's origins come from a photograph the author found.  She discovered the photo of a naked baby and found that the child in the picture was a "practice baby" for a home economics program.  She wondered what ever became of that baby and the result of her musings is The Irresistible Henry House.  It's the story of one practice baby among many but this one was special because the teacher kept him.  What kind of grown up would you be if you had eight moms who took turns taking care of you and if you saw other babies come and go while you stayed behind?  What kind of attachments would you form? if any?  I thoroughly enjoyed this book.  It was a quick, fun read and appealed to the Psychology Major in me.  I recommend it.