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Library | Call Number | Status |
|---|---|---|
Searching... Silver Falls Library | FIC RAY | Searching... Unknown |
Searching... Dallas Public Library | LARGE PRINT - RAY | Searching... Unknown |
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Summary
Summary
From the "New York Times" bestselling author of "Step-Ball-Change" and "Julie and Romeo" comes her newest work, now in trade paperback for the first time.
Reviews (4)
Publisher's Weekly Review
Ruth, a Minneapolis wife and mother, bakes to relax the way others do yoga. And it's a good thing she does, because a house full of cantankerous family members seriously challenges her ability to remain serene in this fluffy, enjoyable third novel by Ray (Julie and Romeo; Step-Ball-Change). Cake is Ruth's version of Zen, allowing her to lose herself in the ritual of familiar smells and precise measurements. She's dealing well with her moody teen daughter, Camille; college student son, Wyatt; and sometimes cantankerous live-in mother, Hollis. She's even handling husband Sam's recent unemployment. But when Guy, Ruth's oft-estranged father and Hollis's ex-husband, is left physically helpless after an injury and must join the chaotic household, just how much cake will she have to bake to save her sanity? The answer is predictably uplifting. Ruth falls right in line with Ray's past harried heroines: she is a cheerful and good-natured caretaker who doesn't neglect herself, but whose happiness and identity is utterly intertwined with her family's. Ray's dialogue is ripe with practical wisdom ("`Oh, there's order in the world all right. It just might not be the order you want'"), and her style is warm and lightly funny ("My mother looked at me as if I had told her I was going to move to Memphis and join an Elvis cult"). Ray has a proven talent for everyday dramas of family life, and her latest is as toothsome as its predecessors. 7-city author tour. (May) Forecast: A pleasantly demure jacket and an appendix of cake recipes make this an appealing package for fans of cozy domestic fiction. Ray's sales may be leveling off since her big hit with Julie and Romeo, but this should do solid numbers. (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved
Kirkus Review
Imagine you're inside a cake. . . . That's what beleaguered housewife Ruth Nash does whenever life gets to be too much for her. She can even catch a glimpse of the outside world from the open center of her favorite hideaway: a moist, rich Bundt cake. And these days, she's quite the baker (recipes included) now that her son Wyatt has left her with every pair of sneakers he ever owned and is off to college. His younger sister Camille, meanwhile, sighs a lot and makes snotty remarks. A crisis looms: their dad, Sam, just lost his job as a hospital administrator and has few prospects of getting another, though he's not going to let that get him down. He's a family man who puts up with a mother-in-law in permanent residence and goes so far as to drive to Iowa to pick up Ruth's ne'er-do-well father, an itinerant pianist who just smashed both wrists. Ruth's parents divorced many years before and still can't stop bickering: her mother, Hollis, is outraged that Ruth actually cuts her father's revolting yellow toenails when Guy can't do it himself and that Sam must help the old man pee (a task Hollis takes on, explaining grimly that she has seen that particular organ before). Now that he's unemployed, will Sam realize his cherished dream of becoming a boat-builder? Guy points out that it may be Sam's turn at last, and Ruth gets a brilliant idea: make money by selling her wonderful cakes. And so she does, with a little help from Camille, who has a flair for marketing, and a friend of Sam's who designs gorgeous gift boxes. And that's all, folks. A pleasant trifle but nothing more: the third from the author of Step-Ball-Change (2002) and Julie and Romeo (2000). Copyright ©Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
Booklist Review
Ruth, with a teenage daughter, a son in college, and her mother living with the family, finds her life complicated by her husband's sudden unemployment and news that her long-divorced father has been injured and needs a place to recover. Once again Ray, author of Julie and Romeo (2000) and Step-Ball-Change (2002), presents a heroine beset with sufficient problems to make her run screaming off the pages, but one also gifted with enough common sense and gumption to solve the problems she can, and cope with the ones she can't. Ruth's first step in solving anything is to bake a cake, and oh what cakes she bakes (recipes are included). As might be expected, the hidden talents of each family member emerge, surprising unions are forged, and relative success is achieved. And, yes, cakes are prominent in the solution. While it might be said that this is a predictable and undemanding book, it is also a comforting one, and perhaps signals a new genre that might be called "domestic fantasy." --Danise Hoover
Library Journal Review
Ruth's greatest comfort is baking cakes. Her family usually doesn't appreciate the effort, but she's doing even more of it now that her husband has lost his job; her father, a piano player (think hotel lounges) who has been estranged from her and her mother since Ruth was two years old, shatters both wrists and comes to stay with her; her mother, who lives with Ruth and her family, hates her father; her 16-year-old daughter thinks it is all just too much; and Ruth's stress level has risen immeasurably. How Ruth's baking talents-and the hidden talents of the others- combine to create something wonderful is at the heart of this funny, witty, and delicious novel. Ray writes with such love of the process of baking that most listeners will be inspired; her prose makes bakers want to rush to the kitchen. The author narrates her novel with humor and warmth. Her reading is sometimes not quite as smooth as a professional's, but that small flaw is overcome by her affection for the characters-their identity is always clear. A very comforting, entertaining, and enjoyable listening experience. Highly recommended.-Melody A. Moxley, Rowan P.L., Salisbury, NC (c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.