The Peculiar Sadness of Lemon Cake by Aimee Bender

I read this book after seeing a good review in, I confess, People magazine. I don't belong to the Jonathan Franzen literary snob school of thought. And if that turns you off, so be it. If we can get more people to read whether through reviews in People, book clubs on Oprah or reviews in the New York Times, what does it matter?

Bender's book was good but not as great as I had expected based on the story premise -- namely a girl discovers in adolescence that she has the "gift" of detecting the cook's emotions when she eats the chef's food -- even if that chef is her mother, hired help at the local bakery or someone from afar.

Gifts, of course, do not always bring happiness. Through this gift, the child in Bender's book soon realizes the mother she had thought was so content is anything but that. Years, time passes, and her mother's food yields a different emotion, one of happiness, for she now has a lover that no one else other than the daughter realizes.

Along the way, the girl's brother reveals he has a special "gift," too. His gift is even more amazing and yet disturbing. And then there's the father and his "gift." What is it? Should he find out and reveal it? Before you say of course, remember: There are some things we are better off not knowing.