*NikkiBell*
Livin’ that DVC & AP life!
- Joined
- Jun 27, 2005
- Messages
- 13,552
Here we go, Round 5!!! 
I bring to you our next selection for the DIS Book Club Discussion Group...
The Particular Sadness of Lemon Cake: A Novel
Over the next several weeks, we will read and share our thoughts on the novel in this thread. Many, many DISers requested we discuss it next so I hope you are as excited as I am!
Anyone who is interested in joining us is welcome. You could be a first time poster or a regular visitor to the DIS. Either way, we'd love to have you!
Please check this post in the near future for updates including a reading schedule and any other goodies that may come our way.
See you soon!
Nikki
Novel Synopsis
On the eve of her ninth birthday, unassuming Rose Edelstein, a girl at the periphery of schoolyard games and her distracted parents’ attention, bites into her mother’s homemade lemon-chocolate cake and discovers she has a magical gift: she can taste her mother’s emotions in the cake. She discovers this gift to her horror, for her mother — her cheerful, good-with-crafts, can-do mother — tastes of despair and desperation. Suddenly, and for the rest of her life, food becomes a peril and a threat to Rose.
The curse her gift has bestowed is the secret knowledge all families keep hidden — her mother’s life outside the home, her father’s detachment, her brother’s clash with the world. Yet as Rose grows up she learns to harness her gift and becomes aware that there are secrets even her taste buds cannot discern.
The Particular Sadness of Lemon Cake is a luminous tale about the enormous difficulty of loving someone fully when you know too much about them. It is heartbreaking and funny, wise and sad, and confirms Aimee Bender’s place as “a writer who makes you grateful for the very existence of language” (San Francisco Chronicle).
Author's Biography
from www.flammableskirt.com (official website)
Aimee Bender is the author of four books: The Girl in the Flammable Skirt (1998) which was a NY Times Notable Book, An Invisible Sign of My Own (2000) which was an L.A. Times pick of the year, Willful Creatures (2005) which was nominated by The Believer as one of the best books of the year, and The Particular Sadness of Lemon Cake (2010) which is soon to be out, and so far made a couple people cry.
Her short fiction has been published in Granta, GQ, Harper's, Tin House, McSweeney's, The Paris Review, and many more places, as well as heard on PRI's This American Life and Selected Shorts. She's received two Pushcart prizes, and was nominated for the TipTree award in 2005, and the Shirley Jackson short story award in 2010. Her fiction has been translated into ten languages.
She lives in Los Angeles, where she teaches creative writing at USC.
Other Novels by Bender
The Girl in the Flammable Skirt
An Invisible Sign of My Own
Willful Creatures
The Third Elevator
Reading Schedule
The following reading schedule will be used as we have some dessert with The Particular Sadness of Lemon Cake. To help everyone keep track of their reading, I will break the text into sections based on the four parts to the novel. If you fall behind or want to go ahead, please do so! Read at your own pace and enjoy. These deadlines will just help guide our discussions as we go through the novel.
Obtain Copy of Book by August 4
Read Part One (pages 3-81) by August 14
Read Part Two (pages 85-192) by August 23
Read Part Three (pages 196-223) by August 25
Read Part Four (pages 227-292) by August 30
Book Club Discussions
One of the best parts about the DIS Unplugged Book Club is that we can share ideas about our reading here online. In order to keep our discussions moving, I will post conversation starters about each section. Feel free to post a reply with your thoughts or other ideas you had while reading that relate to a topic of your own.
If you read ahead of the above schedule, please change the text color to white so you do not give away parts of the plot that the rest of us have not read. Remember, your participation in the discussion will make this a more rewarding experience. Post away! Don't feel as if you need to wait for me to bring up a topic to discuss it. This is your group and there isn't such a thing as a reply that is too little or too big!
Happy Reading!!!
Discussion Point 1 - Your Impression of the Characters
Discussion Point 2 - Events & Happenings in "Joseph"
Discussion Point 3 - Father Figure
Discussion Point 4 - Negative Feelings
I bring to you our next selection for the DIS Book Club Discussion Group...
The Particular Sadness of Lemon Cake: A Novel
Over the next several weeks, we will read and share our thoughts on the novel in this thread. Many, many DISers requested we discuss it next so I hope you are as excited as I am!
Anyone who is interested in joining us is welcome. You could be a first time poster or a regular visitor to the DIS. Either way, we'd love to have you!
Please check this post in the near future for updates including a reading schedule and any other goodies that may come our way.
See you soon!
Nikki
Novel Synopsis
On the eve of her ninth birthday, unassuming Rose Edelstein, a girl at the periphery of schoolyard games and her distracted parents’ attention, bites into her mother’s homemade lemon-chocolate cake and discovers she has a magical gift: she can taste her mother’s emotions in the cake. She discovers this gift to her horror, for her mother — her cheerful, good-with-crafts, can-do mother — tastes of despair and desperation. Suddenly, and for the rest of her life, food becomes a peril and a threat to Rose.
The curse her gift has bestowed is the secret knowledge all families keep hidden — her mother’s life outside the home, her father’s detachment, her brother’s clash with the world. Yet as Rose grows up she learns to harness her gift and becomes aware that there are secrets even her taste buds cannot discern.
The Particular Sadness of Lemon Cake is a luminous tale about the enormous difficulty of loving someone fully when you know too much about them. It is heartbreaking and funny, wise and sad, and confirms Aimee Bender’s place as “a writer who makes you grateful for the very existence of language” (San Francisco Chronicle).
Author's Biography
from www.flammableskirt.com (official website)
Aimee Bender is the author of four books: The Girl in the Flammable Skirt (1998) which was a NY Times Notable Book, An Invisible Sign of My Own (2000) which was an L.A. Times pick of the year, Willful Creatures (2005) which was nominated by The Believer as one of the best books of the year, and The Particular Sadness of Lemon Cake (2010) which is soon to be out, and so far made a couple people cry.
Her short fiction has been published in Granta, GQ, Harper's, Tin House, McSweeney's, The Paris Review, and many more places, as well as heard on PRI's This American Life and Selected Shorts. She's received two Pushcart prizes, and was nominated for the TipTree award in 2005, and the Shirley Jackson short story award in 2010. Her fiction has been translated into ten languages.
She lives in Los Angeles, where she teaches creative writing at USC.
Other Novels by Bender
The Girl in the Flammable Skirt
An Invisible Sign of My Own
Willful Creatures
The Third Elevator
Reading Schedule
The following reading schedule will be used as we have some dessert with The Particular Sadness of Lemon Cake.
To help everyone keep track of their reading, I will break the text into sections based on the four parts to the novel. If you fall behind or want to go ahead, please do so! Read at your own pace and enjoy. These deadlines will just help guide our discussions as we go through the novel. Obtain Copy of Book by August 4
Read Part One (pages 3-81) by August 14
Read Part Two (pages 85-192) by August 23
Read Part Three (pages 196-223) by August 25
Read Part Four (pages 227-292) by August 30
Book Club Discussions
One of the best parts about the DIS Unplugged Book Club is that we can share ideas about our reading here online. In order to keep our discussions moving, I will post conversation starters about each section. Feel free to post a reply with your thoughts or other ideas you had while reading that relate to a topic of your own.
If you read ahead of the above schedule, please change the text color to white so you do not give away parts of the plot that the rest of us have not read. Remember, your participation in the discussion will make this a more rewarding experience. Post away! Don't feel as if you need to wait for me to bring up a topic to discuss it. This is your group and there isn't such a thing as a reply that is too little or too big!
Happy Reading!!!
Discussion Point 1 - Your Impression of the Characters
Discussion Point 2 - Events & Happenings in "Joseph"
Discussion Point 3 - Father Figure
Discussion Point 4 - Negative Feelings
) This is also the August selection for the Real Simple online book club, so I'll get lots of good discussions on this one. Woo!
