Like Water for Chocolate by Laura Esquivel

Peppered with recipes, remedies and folky digressions, this novel is a treat. The heroine of this fantastical love story, Tita, the youngest of three Mexican daughters, is expected to devote her life to her widowed mother. When her lover, Pedro, asks her to marry him, her mother denies her permission and offers Rosaura, her sister, instead. Pedro accepts in hopes of living close to Tita, but she is unaware of his intentions. When her tears get baked into the cake, and everyone has a slice, they are moved--emotionally, erotically, and physically. ~review

About the Author

Originally published in 1990, Like Water for Chocolate, won Laura Esquivel international acclaim. The film based on the the book, with a screen play by Laura Esquivel, swept the Ariel Awards of the Mexican Academy of Motion Pictures, winning eleven in all, and then went on to

become the largest grossing foreign film ever released in the United States. In 1994, Like Water for Chocolate won the prestigious ABBY award, which is given annually by the American Booksellers Association to the book the members of the organization most enjoyed hand-selling. The book has been translated into thirty languages and there are over three million copies in print worldwide. Esquivel lives in Mexico City, Mexico. ~Salon Magazine Interview with Laura Esquivel

What does being "like water for chocolate" mean?

The book offers nothing further, but I feel something which has become my answer. I am like water for chocolate. I have been beaten, and boiled, and beaten again, and again - put through the crucible of the stove three times. Tita was heated to the point of boiling over, then beaten, then heated again, and beaten again. (Yes, in the story, every time she manages to take one good step forward in life something comes along and beats her back even further.) ~by Jesse Friedman

An Appetite for Passion Cookbook

Celebrities and restaurateurs, offer inventive recipes inspired by the film, Like Water for Chocolate, accompanied by a foreword by Laura Esquivel and quotes about food and love from famous writers. 25,000 first printing.

The Devil Wears Prada by Lauren Weisberger

A delightfully dishy novel about the all-time most impossible boss in the history of impossible bosses. 

Andrea Sachs, a small-town girl fresh out of college, lands the job "a million girls would die for." Hired as the assistant to Miranda Priestly, the high-profile, fabulously successful editor of Runway magazine, Andrea finds herself in an office that shouts Prada! Armani! Versace! at every turn, a world populated by impossibly thin, heart-wrenchingly stylish women and beautiful men clad in fine-ribbed turtlenecks and tight leather pants that show off their lifelong dedication to the gym. With breathtaking ease, Miranda can turn each and every one of these hip sophisticates into a scared, whimpering child. ~randomhouse.com

What is Haute Couture?

Haute couture French for "high sewing" or "high dressmaking"; refers to the creation of exclusive custom-fitted fashions. It originally referred to Englishman Charles Frederick Worth's work, produced in Paris in the mid-nineteenth century. In modern France, haute couture is a "protected name" that can be used only by firms that meet certain well-defined standards.

About the Author

Lauren Weisberger graduated from Cornell University. Her first novel, The Devil Wears Prada, was on the New York Times hardcover bestseller list for six months. It has been published in twenty-seven countries. Weisberger lives in New York City.

Cut to the Heart by Ava Dianna Day

In this atmospheric thriller set in 1863 amid the Gullah communities off the South Carolina coast, the author of the delightful Fremont Jones mysteries (The Strange Files of Fremont Jones; Fire and Fog; etc.) has real-life Union nurse Clara Barton, founder of the American Red Cross, playing detective as well as ministering to the sick and wounded. Day has a wonderful ability to evoke the past, here the world of Hilton Head Island with its eerie swamps and Gullah people with their distinctive folk medicine and customs. As the fight for Charleston heats up, Clara is working with the local poor until she again receives the call to go to the battlefield. As ever, she is beset by male, military and doctoral prejudice. In addition, her brother, David, a Union officer, is on hand trying to make a wife and mother of her, totally unable to understand the life of dedication to others that she's chosen to lead. And, unbeknownst to Clara, a sinister surgeon, the demented Dr. Chamberlain, is tracking her every move and awaiting his chance to avenge himself on her for reasons that even he's unclear about. Day tastefully and effectively handles Clara's romantic interest in another real-life figure, Colonel John Elwell, who joins the suicidal assault on the rebel redoubt, Battery Wagner. Although this obvious labor of love doesn't contain much mystery or suspense, Day's fans should relish it, along with readers who appreciate well-researched historical novels. ~Copyright 2002 Cahners Business Information, Inc.

A Child Called "It" by Dave Pelzer

This book chronicles the unforgettable account of one of the most severe child abuse cases in California history. It is the story of Dave Pelzer, who was brutally beaten and starved by his emotionally unstable, alcoholic mother: a mother who played tortuous, unpredictable games--games that left him nearly dead. He had to learn how to play his mother's games in order to survive because she no longer considered him a son, but a slave; and no longer a boy, but an "it." 

Dave's bed was an old army cot in the basement, and his clothes were torn and raunchy. When his mother allowed him the luxury of food, it was nothing more than spoiled scraps that even the dogs refused to eat. The outside world knew nothing of his living nightmare. He had nothing or no one to turn to, but his dreams kept him alive--dreams of someone taking care of him, loving him and calling him their son.

About the Author

Pelzer is the survivor of the third worst case of child-abuse in California's history, a case he vividly recalls in A Child Called "It". Here he tells of a childhood so horrific and, at times, so nauseating that while reading I found myself praying that there was a hell so Pelzer's parents could rot in it for all eternity. And not just hell, mind you, but a special place in hell designed specifically for people like this, a level of hell beyond anything Dante could imagine.

The tale starts with The Rescue, March 5, 1973. Having had his head smashed into the kitchen counter that morning for some minor offense, the 12-year-old Dave is sent to the school nurse upon arriving at school. It is a familiar routine for the child; he lies to the nurse about the bruise on his head, spouting the ridiculous explanation his mother has instructed him to recite. The nurse, once again, doesn't believe him and checks her file on the boy. Bruises, cuts, malnutrition, and, of course, the stab wound: it's quite a thick file.

On this day, March 5, the nurse has had enough and the school's principal and the local police are called. In no time, young Dave is in a police cruiser, being taken to the San Mateo Juvenile Department, never to return home. It is important that Pelzer begin his story here, with the event he credits for saving his life. Knowing that there is an end to the suffering Dave endures allows the reader to make it through some of the book's more difficult passages. By book's end, most readers will be amazed and grateful that Pelzer survived long enough to be rescued.

The young Dave's life wasn't always hell on earth. The third of four boys in the Pelzer family, he describes his early years as a "Brady Bunch" existence, full of family picnics, holiday frivolity, and his mother's wonderful cooking. Catherine, Dave's mother, loved to cook exotic meals for her family and decorate their home in creative and imaginative ways each holiday season. She was full of energy, often taking her kids on tours of downtown San Francisco while her husband was at work, exposing them to Golden Gate Park and Chinatown. Once, while on a family camping trip, young Dave was watching the sunset when he felt his mother embrace him from behind and watch the sunset with him over his shoulder. "I never felt as safe and warm as at that moment in time," he recalls.

But then, his mother changed. Slowly at first, but drastically. Her behavior became erratic and her drinking increased heavily. She became easily frustrated, and it seems that her biggest source of frustration was Dave, the loudest and wildest of her children. And thus, Dave's nightmare began. Pelzer is never clear on what caused this drastic change in behavior; most likely, he doesn't know and never will. This was the Sixties and people in suburbia didn't discuss things like mental illness and child abuse. Too often, family secrets back then stayed deeply hidden, as was the case in the Pelzer family. ~by Michael Abernethy

When We First Deceive by R.G. Shelton

The Lovely Bones by Alice Sebold

The book's narrator is 14-year-old murder victim Susie Salmon. Raped and killed by her neighbor, Susie ascends to heaven, where she observes how her death has affected those around her. Her father, who suspects the killer's identity, goes crazy with grief over the loss of his first-born, and his inability to do anything about it. Her mother, who never wanted children, withdraws from her family and into an affair. Susie's sister, Lindsey, fears the kids at school will forever define her by Susie's death, and their little brother, Buckley, struggles to understand the meaning of death.
~curled up review

From the Book
When we first meet 14-year-old Susie Salmon, she is already in heaven. This was before milk carton photos and public service announcements, she tells us; back in 1973, when Susie mysteriously disappeared, people still believed these things didn't happen. 

In the sweet, untroubled voice of a precocious teenage girl, Susie relates the awful events of her death, and her own adjustment to the strange new place she finds herself. (It looks a lot like her school playground, with the good kind of swingset.) 

With love, longing, and a growing understanding, Susie watches her family as they cope with their grief -- her father embarks on a search for the killer, her sister undertakes a feat of amazing daring, her little brother builds a fort in her honor -- and begin the difficult process of healing. -excerpt from the book

Lucky
When Sebold, the author of the current bestseller The Lovely Bones, was a college freshman at Syracuse University, she was attacked and raped on the last night of school, forced onto the ground in a tunnel "among the dead leaves and broken beer bottles." In a ham-handed attempt to mollify her, a policeman later told her that a young woman had been murdered there and, by comparison, Sebold should consider herself lucky. That dubious "luck" is the focus of this fiercely observed memoir about how an incident of such profound violence can change the course of one's life. Sebold launches her memoir headlong into the rape itself, laying out its visceral physical as well as mental violence, and from there spins a narrative of her life before and after the incident, weaving memories of parental alcoholism together with her post-rape addiction to heroin. In the midst of each wrenching episode, from the initial attack to the ensuing courtroom drama, Sebold's wit is as powerful as her searing candor, as she describes her emotional denial, her addiction and even the rape (her first "real" sexual experience). She skillfully captures evocative moments, such as, during her girlhood, luring one of her family's basset hounds onto a blue silk sofa (strictly off-limits to both kids and pets) to nettle her father. Addressing rape as a larger social issue, Sebold's account reveals that there are clear emotional boundaries between those who have been victims of violence and those who have not, though the author attempts to blur these lines as much as possible to show that violence touches many more lives than solely the victim's. Copyright 2002 Reed Business Information, Inc. 

The Secret Life of Bees by Sue Monk Kidd

Lily tells her remarkable tale of longing and love in an idiom and accent heard far south of the Mason-Dixon Line, but the lessons learned during her odyssey into the world of bees and their "secret life" are universal and everlasting. Fourteen-year-old Lily Owens lost her beloved mother when she was only four—under tragic circumstances clouded by time and secrecy. She later found a fiercely protective "stand-in," her abusive father's outspoken housekeeper, Rosaleen. Ignoring differences in age and color—and the fact that racial hatred seethed during the summer of 1964 in rural South Carolina—these two unlikely companions set off on a seemingly aimless pilgrimage that ends at the home of a trio of eccentric bee-keeping black sisters.

Bee Yourself

August said, “Listen to me now, Lily. I’m going to tell you something I want you always to remember, all right?” Her face had grown serious. Intent. Her eyes did not blink. “All right,” I said, and I felt something electric slide down my spine. “Our Lady is not some magical being out there somewhere, like a fairy godmother. She’s not the statue in the parlor. She’s something inside of you. Do you understand what I’m telling you?” “Our Lady is inside me,” I repeated, not sure I did. “You have to find a mother inside yourself. We all do. Even if we already have a mother, we still have to find this part of ourselves inside.” ~Sue Monk Kidd, from "The Secret Life of Bees"

Crazy Secret Bee Fans and the Things They Do!

A book club in Atlanta held a "Daughters of Mary" party the evening they discussed the book.  They showed up wearing grand and outrageous hats that would have made the "daughters" in the novel proud.

After reading the book a psychotherapist in Washington D.C. built a "wailing wall" on the property behind her office, so her clients, like the character May, could have a means to engage in private rituals of expressing their grief and suffering.

A reading group in South Carolina created jars of Black Madonna honey, complete with the Black Madonna label.

A Favorite Writers Quote

When studying the craft of fiction writing, I came across a quote by Leo Tolstoy that made a big impression on me. I copied it down, saved it. A few years later when I started The Secret Life of Bees, I pulled it out of my old notes and kept it on my desk throughout the writing: ~authors website

“The aim of an artist is not to solve a problem irrefutably, but to make people love life in all its countless, inexhaustible manifestations. If I were told that I could write a novel whereby I might irrefutably establish what seemed to me the correct point of view on all social problems, I would not even devote two hours to such a novel; but if I were to be told that what I should write would be read in twenty years’ time by those by who are now children and that they would laugh and cry over it, and love life, I would devote all my own life and all my energies to it.” ~Tolstoy