All copies of this title, including those transferred to portable devices and other media, must be deleted/destroyed at the end of the lending period.
Description
Ruth loves to bake cakes. When she is alone, she dreams up variations on recipes. When she meditates, she imagines herself in the warm, comforting center of a gigantic bundt cake. If there is a crisis, she bakes a cake; if there is a reason to celebrate, she bakes a cake. Ruth sees it as an outward manifestation of an inner need to nurture her family - which is a good thing, because all of a sudden that family is rapidly expanding. First, her mother moves in after robbers kick in her front door in broad daylight. Then Ruth's father, a lounge singer, who she's seen only occasionally throughout her life, shatters both wrists and, having nowhere else to go, moves in, too. Her mother and father just happen to hate each other with a deep and poisonous emotion reserved only for life-long enemies. Oh, yes indeed!
Add to this mix two teenagers, a gainfully employed husband who is suddenly without a job, and a physical therapist with the instincts of a Cheryl Richardson and you've got a delightful and amusing concoction that comes with its own delicious icing.
Jeanne Ray's lead character, Ruth, finds escape and solace in her frantic cake-baking. Ruth's world falls apart when her husband loses his job and her long estranged and newly disabled father announces his plans to move in with them--in spite of the fact that Ruth's mother already resides there. Ruth is forced to take things in stride and save her family's world. Ray reads her own work with relish, clearly enjoying the antics of her characters. Even better, she captures the unwritten nuances of each word, breathing humor and compassion into the novel. With all of their faults, Ray's cast is eminently likable, and her own reading, though a bit unpolished, fits perfectly with the makeshift domestic life she has created. H.L.S. (c) AudioFile 2004, Portland, Maine
About the Author
The author of three previous novels, Jeanne Ray works as a registered nurse at the Frist Clinic in Nashville, Tennessee. She is married and has two daughters. Together, she and her husband have ten grandchildren.
