The heartwarming Richard and Judy Book Club favourite

I got used to the lack of quotation marks.... but why all the unnecessary commas and sentence fragments? Were they on purpose or doesn't she know how to punctuate? If is she doesn't, why didn't the editors correct it all? I was hoping after reading all these reviews that there was probably some hidden meaning that I didn't get..,.. evidently not. Strange book.

I was actually excited to read this book because it had an interesting plot where the main character can feel the emotions of the people who made her food. At first it was entertaining but the farther I got, the more I wondered where this book was actually going. Somewhere near the end it took an odd turn that really didn't align with the story. In the end, the main character somewhat used her ability to her advantage but I was left with the feeling that I just read about the lives of a dysfunctional family that had no climax. Unfortunately, I would not recommend this book.

The book began depressing and never moved on. The author missed a great opportunity to develop the story by delving into the father's family gift/curse, which was passed down to the children. Each of the main characters were presented and then left in confused sadness each with his or her own misery. On a positive note, the book is a quick read.

I really enjoyed reading this book by Aimee Bender. It will definitely stay with you after you have read it. The language was beautiful and simple. I really appreciated the premise of the book but it fell flat towards the end. I was wanting a little more resolution for Rose. I think this is a good book but I wouldn't call it great.

I found the novel interesting until the last couple of chapters. The disapperance of her brother was still left up in the air. He becomes furniture? It seemed a fantasy left unexplained. I was disappointed.

I actually really liked the book. It was wonderfully and vividly written. However, I was left feeling empty with the story lines about Rose's brother and father. I hope there will be a second book that will explore those lines in the future.

With a name like "The Particular Sadness of Lemon Cake", you have the understanding that there's going to be emotion in this story. When reading Rose's first person account of her unusual "talents" and the events in her family's life, I felt quite empty. Perhaps it's the author's sparse writing style, but I felt that the story was devoid of emotion. It read like Rose was "eh, whatever" about her family's interaction with one another -- which is where I would have thought the story would focus on. Of course, there were twists in the characters' relationships, but I didn't feel sympathetic toward them. Perhaps this was a study in emptiness, and it was meant to be written this way, but I found this to be an extremely disappointing and unfulfilling read.

I really really wanted to like this book. The premise seems so clever and who can't identify with how emotions can be wrapped up by the foods we eat? But I agree with other reviewers that this started out so well, yet ended so poorly. I kept rooting for the protagonist Rose and her family, and even though by the end of the book, Rose has come to terms with her ability (and begun to use it in a positive way), the sadness that threads its way throughout the story lingers overwhelmingly for the reader. There is a scene in the book where Rose just wants to wipe the taste out of her mouth after a particular meal; the heaviness of the emotions she tastes are just too much for her. Unfortunately, that parallels how I felt after finishing this book.

While I can understand that this book was probably not quite was several other reviewers were expecting when they opened the cover, I found it to be quite an enchanting piece of writing that was really well tied together and had fabulous characters. The novel reminds me strongly of _The Time Traveler's Wife_ (the book, not the movie) in concept and tone - you will have to suspend disbelief a bit to really enjoy the story (and some rudimentary knowledge of quantum physics helps!) and the story is poignant and somewhat tragic. That said, the storyline follows through well on the premise and the characters unfold through the story in a truly engaging way. This is one of the best quick reads I've had in a long while.

Many people warned me of the unorthodox lack of quotation marks in The Particular Sadness of Lemon Cake. I liked the lack of quotation marks; it made the text flow more easily.

However, I was irritated with the way the author tried to be poetic or romantic or abstract or whatever it was. Very obnoxious. For example, when the main character is thinking of the people she sees on the street she thinks: I wanted to erase them all. But I also wanted to be them all, and I could not erase them and want to be them at the same time.

What? I just didn't get it. Call me shallow... whatever it just seemed the author tried too hard to make the world obscure and abstract. I felt like I was reading a lot of rhetoric that was inserted to make the author look artistic but didn't really say anything or add to the meaning of the book.

I thouroughly enjoyed this book. Much of my enjoyment stemmed from the fact that the narrator in the book is a little girl. The author did such a wonderful job embodying her point of view and helped me remember what it was like to be a child. She reminded me that children have a very unique and intelligent way of interpreting the world and the people that surround them. In this book our young heroine discovers that she can taste the emotions of the people that prepare her food. The writing style in this book is fresh and humorus. I often found myself chuckling or even laughing out loud while reading. Through eating food prepared by her family members, the heroine learns how unhappy her mother is. This and many other tasty dilemmas arrive along her journey to learn to control this amazing new ability.

I enjoy fanciful stories so The Particular Sadness of Lemon Cake suits my taste buds perfectly. This was the first novel i downloaded to my new Kindle and I devoured it within a day. I will think of Rose and Joe if I find myself eating while seated in a folding chair anytime soon.

I was really looking forward to this book because of the great reviews I read. However, I was dissapointed by the flow of the story. I also felt that the writer tried too hard to be deep. The characters' unique abilities were very interesting, but I was hoping for more.

I had high hopes when this book was a recommended summer book from the Wall Street Journal but along with the other "less than stellar" reviews, this book lost all credibility when Joseph "disappears" into a chair. If I could give this book a 'meh" rating, I would.

It started with the promise of every whimsical piece... but the last bite was unsatisfying as it became more and more abstract. I felt disconnected to the main character and the ending is unredemptive. A would be fun quick read that takes itself way too seriously. Imaginative but ungrounded.

The Particular Sadness of Lemon Cake was an interesting read, but it left me feeling as if there should have been more of something. Sections of the novel were beautifully written and enjoyable to read, but other parts left me feeling the sadness of the lemon cake... as if it were lacking an ingredient or two.

The synopsis sounded quite promising but upon reading the book it was a huge disappointment. Seeing that it was a NY Times Bestseller, I was sure that I would like it. I wish I had sampled the book before I purchased this dud. The authors writing ability is elementary and the plot gets more and more rediculous the further you get in. Do not read!

Started out great, then took a turn for the worse, then ended, in my opinion, terribly. Felt like a huge waste of my time and I'm sorry I took the time to finish it. I won't be reading this author again.

An intriguing premise, though some may consider it gimmicky, I think her writing is strong enough to refute this.
However I have a sense she wrote herself into a corner.
Was the last half of the book thrown together under the shadow of an impending deadline?
It just seemed to have lost its way.
Too bad there was so many promising possibilities.

A different, very different take on growing up and trying to find yourself while struggling with your family secrets. Rose can taste people's feelings through food. At a young age she feels her mom's loneliness through the cake she bakes Rose for her birthday. Rose isn't the only one in her family with a secret talent. In the end, will Rose accept her talent?

I enjoyed the book. Took a little getting used to, the lack of quotes and punctuation. But like others, really thrown off by the brother.

***********Spoiler Alert***************

I'm actually looking for discussion about Joseph. I initially thought he was autistic. But then when the father explained that "gifts" ran in the family, I was trying to think what was it that Joseph felt that made him suffer so? The only thing I could think of was that he felt everything through everybody, and it was sensory overload. That he could handle George's company because George was so centered. But everybody else - he could sense every unbalanced or hollow emotion about them, whether by touch or visually, and it was too much for him. So he "ground" himself through generic, metallic (lifeless, no warmth) furniture?

I'd read some book club discussions, to include ideas of time travel? That Rose marked the one chair she asked him to specifically come back to each time?

Initially I just thought of the chair's "grounding" aspect because Rose made the correlation that she managed to live through her sensory issue thanks to "factory" food. But now the time travel idea seems more in line with the last sentence of the book? "Was it so different than the choice of a card-table chair, except my choice meant I could stay in the world and his didn't?"

Thoughts?

It started out interesting enough, but it went sort of nuts in the middle and end. Is it supposed to be sci-fi, or are we actually to believe that Joseph can do what he does? If it's a "skill," it's not one that I'd want to have.

Overall, this is just a depressing, confusing book.

I have always been intrigued by the dynamics of dysfunctional families, so I read this book in the hope of further enlightenment on this subject. But I, along with the members of my book club found ourselves befuddled when attempting to rate the book. One expects some degree, however small, of resolution in a story such as this, but we found none--no apparent attempt on the part of the author to explain how the members of this family each demonstrated some degree of abnormality.

However, we all agreed that the author was masterful at characterization and description. She took you to the scene, you saw it, you felt it in all of its aspects. Really talented writing, but an ending without resolution.

I found the novel interesting until the last couple of chapters. The disapperance of her brother was still left up in the air. He becomes furniture? It seemed a fantasy left unexplained. I was disappointed.

The premise of this book was very intriguing to me. To be able to taste the emotions of the person who cooked the food is such an interesting idea. Aimee Bender takes a seemingly normal family and deconstructs it, not only through Rose's unique talent, but through an examination of how we communicate and interact with the people in our lives. Rose's talent is a burden to her, at first, and one that she can't really explain to her loved ones. She gets by through eating packaged food and confiding in only a few people. By the end of the book, Rose finds a way to make peace with her gift and discovers that she isn't the only one in her family with unique talents.

I love the way that Aimee Bender writes. Her style of prose is very soft and lyrical and the way she writes about food would make anyone hungry. This book inhabits the genre of magical realism. It is a world that you know, but with a twist.