Six Degrees of Separation: Like Water for Chocolate

 

 

This month’s Six Degree’s of Separation chain starts with Laura Esquivel’s amazing Like Water for Chocolate. This book is a foodie’s romantic delight! I was sad to discover that I’d been on blogging breaks when I read several of these so I have no personal review to link to. You’ll have to make do with the link to Amazon, from which I receive no money.

 

The Easy Choices

The all-too-obvious first book that came to my mind was Joanne Harris’s superb Chocolat!

I made it thru the movie of this one, too!

 

The second book it brought to mind was Sarah Addison Allen’s wonderful Garden Spells–with it’s almost magical properties of food. Sigh, swoon, ahhhhh. Lovely.

 

The third book was a disappointing one. Here is part of my  review from my old blog:

I was very excited when I read the premise of this book–a girl can “taste” the emotions of the people involved in growing, processing and cooking her food. It made me instantly think of that little touch of fantasy or whimsy in Sarah Addison Allen’s fun novels. Sadly, this was not the case. In places it was just plain weird. While mostly “ok,” the prose often sounded like an over-reaching MFA student trying to stand out from the pack. Here are some choice examples:

1. a pepper “PILLAR” instead of shaker or cellar
2. “a purple-glassed” (votive candle)
3. “during the babysit” or even “in the babysits”
4. “[her] quicknesses”
5. [cheeks or lips] glistering

. The Particular Sadness of Lemon Cake by Aimee Bender

 

The remaining books took more thought.

 

I can only say this is one that usually comes to mind when I think of Water for Chocolate or vise versa. How The Garcia Girls Lost Their Accents isn’t even from Mexico, set in Mexico or populated by Mexican people. They are from the Dominican Republic! It must be the very common last name in the title. Or girls growing up? Or the feel of the book? I’m going with the feel of the book.

 

Another coming of age story, this time with a fruit in the title. Not very original but that’s my brain this week. The House on Mango Street by Sandra Cisneros.

 

Finally, thanks to numbers 4 and 5, I recalled this one. It has been compared to House on Mango Street.  It was brought to my mind by the hurricane and has stuck in my mind. Many of you may be looking for a “Puerto Rico book,” so here’s a good one to add to your Reading the World list. You can read my review here.

 

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Now, why not round off your weekend by reading one of these great books or at least watching one of the movies!