From the Kitchen of Half Truth

Novel by Maria Goodin

My daughter is officially a book gobbler. I told her the other day that buying books for her is a waste because she reads them so fast. But what did I do today but buy her two new ones at the book fair at her school (they were buy one get one free, what else could I do?)  And I am fully aware that her book gobbling ways are inherited straight from me, and I inherited it from my mother, and her mother as well. We should all be banned from Amazon and required to use only our library cards or the earth will soon be depleted of trees.

I read this book in three days. That's not a brag, more of a confession, since it means I really have no life outside of reading-writing-teaching-eating-parenting. Oh well. This is also an incredibly easy book to read. I don't really know why it's so gobble-able, actually. It's the writer's first novel and a tad awkward (though I should be careful not to judge, as I'm currently working on my slightly gangly first manuscript). It's also about an intense life event--a college student returns to her childhood home to take care of her dying mother and discovers her childhood was not really what her mother made it out to be. Despite those factors, it's just very readable, especially coming after the last literary giant I tackled (Crossing to Safety).

The dying mother is a self taught cook and both real food and food metaphor figure heavily in this story. It reminded me of The School of Essential Ingredients, which I previously blogged about, and Garden Spells, which I read recently and loved, but must have been during my blogging hiatus. There's a certain snappiness from School and a dreaminess from Garden Spells that are lacking in this book, but it gave me my other must-haves: set in another place (England), characters who grow and change, a happy ending. It also made me eat a lot. Don't count the number of ice cream sandwich wrappers in my garbage can.