For many of us, the stress hasn't been just heightened, it's been completely disruptive to our normal habits and interests. In my case, I haven't been able to focus enough to read a lot, nor to read anything too heavy.
A friend and I decided to read Homegoing by Yaa Gyasi together with plans to do a virtual dinner date (we'd make the same dinner and then meet via Skype or Hangouts to discuss the book), but I started to find the serious nature and devastating scenes to be too much right now. I had to put the book down (I've since picked it back up).
Instead, I switched to something much easier to read in terms of subject matter, and a book I already have read and love: When in Doubt, Add Butter by Beth Harbison. This is city girl chick lit (can we make that a new category, like a sub category of chick lit?).
Title: When in Doubt, Add Butter
Author: Beth Harbison
Publisher: St. Martin's Press
Year published: 2012
ISBN: 9780312599096
Genre: fiction; chick lit
Pairs well with a big bowl of pasta,
cupcakes, comfy pajamas,
and your favorite comfort beverage.
Our protagonist, Gemma Craig, not to be confused with Jenny Craig of weight loss diet fame. Gemma is a single woman living in Washington, D.C., and a personal chef with a different client each night of the week. Two are what you might call wanna-be power women -- well to do women who care more about appearances than substance and who are clamboring to be among the D.C. elite. Then, there's the mysterious Mr. Tuesday, a bachelor that she never meets but flirts with by brief notes about the meals she prepares for him. Then we have Lex, owner of a department store and with a personality that's much like a doting and supportive uncle. Lastly, is the mysterious Oleksei family, owners of a lucrative dry cleaning business...or is that just a front for mafia ties? And, along the way, we also meet Willa, an obese, housebound gambler, and a few other supporting characters, not least of which are Gemma's cousin, Penny, and Penny's daughter, Charlotte.
When in Doubt, Add Butter, will definitely make you hungry -- maybe for dishes you'd never normally try (eggplant in pomegranate walnut sauce, anyone?) -- but it will also warm your heart as you follow along on Gemma's adventures and misadventures as a personal chef, a friend, and a one night stand.
While the book does not include any recipes (pretty much my only complaint...), it is delicious in other ways. I've read other books by Beth Harbison, and this one is my favorite. The characters and plot are just tight enough to keep me interested, but not so tight that I can't reasonably understand what's to come in the story, and the characters are all well imagined with strengths, weaknesses, and the other characteristics that make them feel real. If Gemma were an actual person, I'd want to be her friend (and not just for her cooking skills).
Overall, this is a good, light read and perfectly filled my need for material that wasn't depressing or too serious.
Get your copy of When in Doubt, Add Butter by Beth Harbison now via my shop on Bookshop.org -- you can find it and other chick lit novels I love HERE or click the image below.
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