Monday, November 11, 2013

# book review # booksneeze

Book Review: Stones for Bread

"A solitary artisan. A legacy of bread-baking. And one secret that could collapse her entire identity.
Liesl McNamara’s life can be described in one word: bread. From her earliest memory, her mother and grandmother passed down the mystery of baking and the importance of this deceptively simple food. And now, as the owner of Wild Rise bake house, Liesl spends every day up to her elbows in dough, nourishing and perfecting her craft.
But the simple life she has cultivated is becoming quite complicated. Her head baker brings his troubled grandson into the bakeshop as an apprentice. Her waitress submits Liesl’s recipes to a popular cable cooking show. And the man who delivers her flour—a single father with strange culinary habits—seems determined to win Liesl’s affection.
When Wild Rise is featured on television, her quiet existence appears a thing of the past. And then a phone call from a woman claiming to be her half-sister forces Liesl to confront long-hidden secrets in her family’s past. With her precious heritage crumbling around her, the baker must make a choice: allow herself to be buried in detachment and remorse, or take a leap of faith into a new life.
Filled with both spiritual and literal nourishment, Stones for Bread provides a feast for the senses from award-winning author Christa Parrish."
As someone with a love of baking and a desire to work with bread, I couldn't resist saying yes when the chance to review this book came along.  I'm glad that I did. While parts of the book are entirely predictable, it was Liesl's past that made this book such an enjoyable read for me. I connected with her mother's story and her desire to know who she really was.  I fell in love with some of the characters. Trust me, if you read this book, it won't be hard to do.  My complaints? The book mixes biblical history with flashback scenes and present time.  It also has actual bread recipes and all of these are mixed into one book. I'd have rather seen the recipes at the end of the book in their own section instead of taking up multiple pages in the middle of chapters. While the biblical history of bread was interesting, it threw off the rhythm of the story and I'm not quite sure how to remedy that within the book. Over all though, this was a very enjoyable read and maybe someday I'll be brave enough to try out that chocolate sourdough recipe!
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I received this book from the Booksneeze blogging program. All thoughts and opinions are 100% mine.
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