Book 2012: Practice Cake

After finishing The Hunger Games trilogy, I really needed something a little lighter and less likely to give me crazy on-the-verge-of-nightmare dreams...not that I didn't fully love The Hunger Games, I did. To the point of dreaming them. And they are not made of sweet dream material.

Anyway, I read this cute and quick story which  reminded me so much of my own high school days in a bakery - minus the cute male co-worker, dramatic and attractive owners, reality TV show, crazy mom and nearly-famous-friends...but you know, basically the same life.

Practice Cake by Dalya Moon

My rating: 3 of 5 stars


This was a cute and quick read geared toward young adults/teenage girls. Taking place in a bakery, this story provided me my own memories of high school and the types of lessons learned during that stage of my life. As other reviewers mentioned, there is a great dose of surprise events and I definitely couldn't have predetermined the entire course of events although I was entirely satisfied with the way things culminated by the end of this read.

For me, the quotes and lines that stood out, were lines that I could relate to and found amusing:

"When your eyes are boring, dark brown, nobody comments on how your boring, dark brown sweater matches them." (Location 693)

"Something about me wasn't lovable and Parker found it." (Location 1280)

"They said I was charming, and mature for my age. What they didn't know was I'd run out of clean laundry that morning. Underneath the dressy black skirt I'd borrowed from Melanie, I wore blue-flowered bikini swimsuit bottoms." (Location 1308)

"Her hair was dyed that specific shade of purple-red favored by animal-print ladies" (Location 1401)

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A few other notes:

I primarily read this on the bus to and from work. Each chapter was the perfect length to get me from one bus stop to the next, which was awesome. I really did enjoy being reminded of my days in a bakery and might just do some post eventually on how dearly I loved that first job...

Additionally, this book, as with a few cookbooks I've read recently, got me a bit amped about baking and creating new dishes. That culminated last night in the creation of Orange Creamcicle Rice Pudding - so friggin' divine. Can't wait to share the recipe with you over at 519kitchen !

Also, thinking about playing around with Microsoft Publisher or some other program to create quote-graphics...simply because I'm bored and it'd be a fun way to remember my favorite lines from the books I've read this year. - Hence the big brown square on this post ^^

(Typed having just drank the afternoon cup of water from a special brown bone china mug)