Eat, Read, and Be Mommy

I tried to call and pay the dentist’s bill over the phone and realized, as it rang, that the office is closed on Thursdays; I called to excuse my sick son from school and no one answered, necessitating a message (I’m always leery of just leaving a message there). I did throw away an expired Sam’s Club coupon book, but now I’m back to reviewing.

I realized recently that I needed to swap out some of my graphic novels waiting to be previewed with others that are stronger candidates for possible Christmas/birthday gifts; unfortunately, in a spectacularly terrible example of timing, I chose Meredith McClaren’s Crumble as the first of those to read. Emily, her mom, and her aunt Gina share a family bakery where they sell desserts with emotions baked in. Emily’s mom travels a good bit, lecturing about the process, but aunt Gina is always there to be with Emily and run the bakery–until she dies in a car accident. Baking bad feelings into anything is against the rules, but baking has always made Emily happy before. Surely it’ll help with this?

Spoiler alert (except not really, because it’s right there on the back of the book): it doesn’t. In fact, it makes things worse in the long run. How is she going to fix things now?

Reading about dealing with a death in the family was really not the way to go this month, but that’s hardly the author’s fault. It does frustrate me as a parent to read about parents who are so wrapped up in their own feelings that their kids are drifting; Emily’s mom is facing significant financial worries as well as grief, however, and so it isn’t fair to judge. They do ultimately figure things out, and that’s the most important thing, right?

On to more cleanup now…