Monday, May 16, 2011

Friendship Bread - A novel by Darien Gee

You might think I stopped reading because I haven't posted a book in a while. I am actually reading a few all at the same time so it kind of got bogged down a bit for finishing any of them.

Friendship Bread by Darien Gee. This book made me laugh and cry and it was hard to put down. I love books that come all the way around and fill in the parts from the beginning on the way to the end. This was one of those complete feel good books. No leaf was left unturned.

Amish Friendship Bread has been a fun part of different parts of my life through the years. You love it, you share it and you curse it. This was a fun book about all the parts of passing on The Bread Starter,remembering the starter and feeding it for a week or more, making the bread, sharing the bread and doing it all again. It started from the beginning and was tracked as it traveled through a small community, touching so many lives at so many different stages along the way. Friendships and enemies were made just like when I made the bread.

The stories of the people are creative and amazing. There is a small town that the friendship bread story gets interwoven with plus five main people and there individual stories. One lady is going through a terrible depression after loosing a child. My favorite character is her husband that doesn't give up on her despite many opportunities to just leave or have an affair. Another lady is going through a divorce, another is finally going to be a mom for the first time. Sisters that haven't spoken in years get an opportunity to make things right. An older lady starts a business and lends a listening ear as she reaches out to everyone through food and tea. In the story all of these people are separate at first but eventually are connected and in the end so many come together to help in a crisis. I just loved it!

The bad part of the book is the language. Sometimes you just don't notice it because it just goes with the situation but a few times it is not in character and completely extreme. I don't like books that use the F word when there are plenty of other colorful expressions to use instead. It lacks creativity. I think if you just fall back on the easy bad word it is just lame. Maybe sometimes it might be because someone thinks thinks the public likes this or it is cool to use these words, it isn't. It degrades the whole book to even have it one time. I can't even recommend this book to a dozen or more friends just because of this one word. They would be so offended and shocked. Too bad because the rest of the book is just great!

Falls in the category of : A Healing Book

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