Book Review: The Particular Sadness of Lemon Cake by Aimee Bender

The Particular Sadness of Lemon Cake by Aimee Bender

My rating: 5 of 5 stars


I'm a fan of 'the gimmick' and Aimee Bender's book applies a pretty fascinating one: its protagonist, Rose, is able to taste people's deepest feelings in the food they prepare. Maybe you're skeptical though. The threat, I know, is that the whole novel will have to kowtow to this central plot device--putting undue weight on Bender's ability to write a decent, unpredictable ending. Well lay your fears aside.
From page five, when I was running the book to my copy machine to save a particularly well written scene, I knew this was going to be something more. Bender, somehow, manages to make Rose's 'special skill' into something less interesting than the humanity it helps her to recognize: her father, hiding blind in his nostalgic idealism; her mother, inexpertly trying to see a place in a family that makes her feel like an invisible student among prophets, a brother who wanders in and out of rooms like a ghost, taxed by the weight of knowing too much without the means to express it, and George, the friend who brings the light, but also takes it with him when he goes. And scattered along the way are numerous tinier allegories, stories, and clues that help you to imbibe this world, taste it as Rose does, and discover it, and her, and yourself along the way. Allow this book to spread over your palate, and it may just reveal to you, I hope, your own special gifts, that you, also, too often dismiss as a curse, because they require you to grow and make something of them.

"Food is all those substances which, submitted to the action of the stomach, can be assimilated or changed into life by digestion, and can thus repair the losses which the human body suffers through the act of living."
-The Physiology of Taste, Brillat-Savarin
(epigraph to The Particular Sadness of Lemon Cake)

Rose on Doritos:
"What is good about a Dorito, I said, in full voice, is that I'm not supposed to pay attention to it. As soon as I do, it tastes like every other ordinary chip. But if I stop paying attention, it becomes the most delicious thing in the world...
...a Dorito asks nothing of you, which is its great gift. It only asks that you are not there."
(pp. 127-8)



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Book Review: Mockingjay by Suzanne Collins

Mockingjay by Suzanne Collins

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


My friend Amy and I have been speculating on which district we'd like to be from, and while I won't spoil it for anyone, I will say that I came away feeling like one of the hairdressers from district one-- a little bit idealistic and naive. The final book turns on you in a way that makes the message hit home, but the love story not so much. It wasn't what I was expecting, but I feel like I learned something in a gut-wrenching way.



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First Lady Hair

Let's play a little game. It's called match the First Lady to the hair. Alternative game: which First Lady had the coolest hair? My votes go for Ellen Arthur.

Key after the break! (click to enlarge)



Hair-Portraits of First Ladies. From left to right:
1st row: Martha Washington, Abigail Adams, Martha Randolph, Dolley Madison, Elizabeth Monroe, Louisa Adams
2nd row: Rachel Jackson, Hannah Van Buren, Anna Harrison, Letitia Tyler, Julia Tyler
3rd row: Sarah Polk, Margaret Taylor, Abigail Fillmore, Jane Pierce, Harriet Lane
4th row: Mary Lincoln, Eliza Johnson, Julia Grant, Lucy Hayes, Lucretia Garfield
5th row: Ellen Arthur, Frances Cleveland, Caroline Harrison, Frances Cleveland, Ida McKinley
6th row: Edith Roosevelt, Helen Taft, Ellen Wilson, Edith Wilson, Florence Harding
7th row: Grace Coolidge, Lou Hoover, Eleanor Roosevelt, Bess Truman, Mamie Eisenhower
8th row: Jacqueline Kennedy, Lady Bird Johnson, Pat Nixon, Betty Ford, Rosalynn Carter
9th row: Nancy Reagan, Barbara Bush, Hillary Clinton, Laura Bush, Michelle Obama.

NY Times Published July 4, 2009
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Top 5 Worst Movie Adaptations of Books I've Read

5) Devil Wears Prada: If you hadn't read the book then you probably enjoyed the movie. It had all the makings of a fun girl flick. The only problem was that the book wasn't really about shopping and glamor. It was actually more edgy than the movie made it seem. My big problems with this were that my favorite part of the book, the fuck you! ending was changed obviously because the movie needed a pg13 rating. And also I didn't understand why they changed the love interest's name.

4) Vanity Fair: This adaptation of William Makepeace Thackeray's novel of the same title. Though in truth his work would seem better suited to a lengthy and multi-episode mini tv series (889 pages in the paperback edition). This movie had all the promise of being a true adaptation but perhaps went awry in the casting of the delightful Reese Witherspoon to play the devious yet charming Becky. The whole feeling of that character was thrown off and therefore the whole feeling of the story.

3) The Other Boleyn Girl: Perhaps this movie was doomed to be a failure in my mind. I mean this is the book that spawned my Obsession with Tudor England. ANd yet I feel even so the film relied way too much on it A-list celebs and its admittedly great costuming. It had none of the amazing depth that the book had. You didn't cry when Anne was beheaded but were happy. They tried but just fell short. Thank goodness for Showtime's The Tudors. Though it strayed from the facts a fair amount of the time it at least was entertaining as hell.

2) ALL LMN adaptations of Nora Roberts books, ESPECIALLY Montana Sky: Terrible, but then again it is Lifetime Movie Network. What can you expect? I'll tell you what, a Lot more! It wouldn't have been that hard to make a great story like this be a great movie.

1) Ella Enchanted: Worst movie ever!!!!!!!!!! Seriously, I can't even believe that someone could have made a movie this bad from such a truly amazing book. It was the biggest let down I've ever experienced in a movie viewing. I mean there was way inappropriate costume choices. It looked like a high schooler had designed them all. Then there were the strange musical numbers. Who thought that was a good idea? And even though I'm sure i could go on with more examples but obviously I never bothered to watch it again so I've forgotten most of its many offenses. The one redeaming factor was probably the fact that Hugh Dancy was in the male lead.

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