VAGUE SPOILER ALERT (although some of my points hint at story lines I don't think there are any direct spoilers.

How to Bake a Perfect Life was an enjoyable read, although I liked some elements of the story line much more than others. I loved reading about the relationships between Ramona and Katie, Ramona and Sofia, and Sofia and Oscar. On the flip side, I found the parts about Ramona and Jonah pretty dull, frankly. Perhaps because it smacked a bit "typical romance novel" whereas the other relationships and story lines were so much more real life, nitty-gritty, "bad stuff happens and we have to figure out how to deal with it." Those relationships all felt much more real and engaging--I wanted to see where each of them went. I found myself skimming the parts with Ramona and Jonah to get to the next scene with Katie in it. I liked that the question of what a perfect ending would be sort of shifted throughout the book until you realized "perfect" is no longer really a goal, but "livable" is. Made me think some about elements of my own life and where I'm at in some of those, "I'm in my mid-40s and where do I want to be next?" kinds of thoughts. I also have a niece married to a marine so issues of duty and injury have become part of our vocabulary--so I read those portions with a particular space in my heart for the characters.

And, of course, it did make me want to bake some bread (which my Mom did). Or plant some flowers (which my Mom did but my grandma even more so). The common theme between bread and flowers is that of nurture and making things grow spoke to me--especially as I finished the book on the same weekend my baby girl graduated from high school. Yes, I still have a little role in helping her grow (as a loaf of bread or a flower--your pick), but really, her growth is now much more at the mercy of the elements around her and how she deals with them, and less what Mom may be able to. So the whole idea of how you nuture someone at different stages in their lives was really key to me--nuturing an adult daughter, nurturing a relationship with a sister and your mother when you're the adult, an adult daughter now nurturing her own baby, as well as taking on a nurturing role with her husband; and then there's Katie, who finally receives nuturing by any number of people--and how do those rolls compare with one another: Ramona, Lilly, Sofia, Adelaide. And, yes, even Merlin. There's also the relationship of the "eccentric" aunts to consider--who were brought together explicitly over the impending birth of a new little girl.

I think that's part of my lack of interest in the Jonah storyline. The rest of the book was so female-centric; the males that periodically showed up were by and large bad guys, pretty useless, or self-serving. The women were all making their own ways, for good or ill. So Jonah didn't fit that mold--which made sense, he wasn't supposed to--but it just felt a bit interruptive every time he showed up on the scene. I don't have an issue with men myself--happen to be very happily married to a great one!--but this particular man just didn't seem to fit well in this particular story. He felt like a digression every time he showed up.

No more dissing Jonah. I'm sure he's a perfectly nice guy. I really liked Ramona and Sofia and feel like I could sit down and have coffee with either or both of them tomorrow and have a great conversation. I'd love to know more about the history of Lilly and her mother. I'd love to know why Adelaide is still hanging around the garden. I'd love to know more about Ramona's issues with her sister. So while I was happy enough with the ending--it just barely missed (and to me, this was a good thing) being a too pat happy ending. There are still a few loose ends hanging around out there that you know will eventually still have to be addressed in the characters' lives. That's pretty much the way it is in real life, isn't it?

I also liked the fact that Katie was more connected to flowers than bread and what that meant about relationships across generations, or what bread and baking symbolizes versus flowers and gardening. Some very interesting thematic discussions could be had there. Any book discussion groups want to take that one on?

Another thematic question: why was Katie the only one talking to Adelaide? And why did Adelaide want flowers planted just so at the front of the house?

And another thematic quiestion--or perhaps this is more a plot extension question: can we fill in the blanks about what might happen once Oscar's home? What kind of recovery needs will we have, and troubles given the mass of bodily infections babies are as a matter of course? And how will Katie fill out her relationship with her mother over the next years? And what will she have to work on in herself to be a strong sister to her little brother?

OK, so that means it's a pretty good book--if you can finish it and still wonder what might happen to characters later, that means the characters have taken root, at some level, in your brain. So if anyone wants to start a book discussion on this one and convince me that Jonah wasn't a literary digression, I'd be happy to join! :-)

How to Bake a Perfect Life - Likewise Book Reviews

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