Friendship Bread

February 21, 2011
Baked goods conquer profound grief in Gee's by-the-numbers debut. The sorrow felt by Julia Evarts and her husband, Mark, over the death of their son, Josh, six years earlier has chipped away at the foundation of their marriage, but after Julia finds a starter batch of Amish friendship bread on her porch one day, the yeasty surprise helps patch up some spiritual wounds. She shares the recipe starter with a few people in her town, and pretty soon everyone is making it and finding their own simple narratives of bread-driven healing. But none have a harder path to the foregone conclusion than Julia and her sister, Livvy, who was with Josh when he died and has yet to be forgiven by Julia. Yes, the premise is hokey, but Gee's women characters are written with affection (much more so than the men in their lives, who are essentially decorative). Readers looking for a quick, easy fix of heartwarming optimism could do worse. And, of course, the recipe is included.

May 15, 2011

Another addition in the recent trend in popular fiction: Small groups of women improve their lives by engaging in a domestic comfort. This time it's bread making.

Julia and her small daughter Gracie find a gift on their doorstep—a plate of bread, a note and a bag of starter dough. Though Julia is not a baker, and has little interest in...life (more on that later), Gracie convinces her mother to follow the instructions and make Amish Friendship Bread. Part of the requirements are to split the bag of starter into three, bake one loaf for yourself and pass on the rest to someone else—a culinary chain letter. The novel traces the effect of the Friendship Bread on a small town, jumping from neighbor to neighbor, but focuses on a small group of women whose lives need mending. Julia's son Josh died five years ago, and since then life is a daily struggle and her marriage is a mess; Hannah is soon to be divorced by her husband, a famous classical musician (as she once was before an injury); Madeline is struggling to run her tea shop and come to terms with the kind of stepmother she was; Edie is pregnant and is sure it will ruin her career as an investigative journalist; and, finally, Livvy is also expecting, but her husband has just lost his job, and her sister Julia won't speak to her—she's still blamed for Josh's death. Gee admirably weaves the various lives together, linked more often than not by sadness and disappointment, and demonstrates that simple companionship is a powerful balm. The novel's title, and even its conceit, promises a kind of homespun sappiness that the narrative thankfully avoids, delivering instead thoughtful portraits of women on the brink of finding better versions of themselves.

A satisfying first novel by Gee; perfect for the book-club circuit and beyond.

(COPYRIGHT (2011) KIRKUS REVIEWS/NIELSEN BUSINESS MEDIA, INC. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.)

March 15, 2011

The magic of Amish friendship bread grips the small Illinois town of Avalon when Julia Evarts, grieving from the loss of her young son, finds friendship bread starter on her front porch. Julia meets Hannah, her soon-to-be best friend, when they both wander into Madeline's Tea Salon. Julia, who just happens to have a couple of bags of starter with her, gives one each to Madeline and Hannah. The three women all have issues--Madeline would like to reconnect with her stepson, Hannah's husband has left her, and Julia is estranged from her husband, sister, and parents. Baking allows them to make new connections, through which they find the strength to mend fences and heal old wounds. VERDICT This entertaining series debut by Gee (who also writes as Mia King) will appeal to fans of tearjerkers like Kristin Hannah's Winter Garden or novels dealing with the loss of a family member, such as Lolly Winston's Good Grief. It's also ideal for book clubs and readers who like stories about small-town life; it expertly weaves together numerous characters and narratives and even includes recipes and directions for making friendship bread. [Author tour; the next Avalon book, Memory Keepers, will be published in 2012; see Prepub Alert, 11/1/10.]--Karen Core, Detroit P.L.

Copyright 2011 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

March 15, 2011
Madeleines struggling tea shop in Avalon, Illinois, is frequented, tentatively at first, by Hannah, a young woman unmoored after the end of her marriage and her career as a professional cellist, and Julia, a withdrawn housewife. The story really belongs to Julia, whose son died in an accident five years ago, and whose grief threatens her relationships with her doggedly faithful husband, Mark, their young daughter, and her infuriatingly needy younger sister, Livvy. A random batch of bread-starter launches Julia and the many characters around her on a familiar but very pleasing path to healing. Like the ingredients that go into bread, the number of characters in Friendship Bread keeps growing, but patient readers will be rewarded by a satisfying ending. This novel will fit comfortably in womens fiction collections and please fans of Kristin Hannah, Susan Wiggs, and Debbie Macombers Cedar Cove series. For book groups who like to bake, recipes are included. Gee, author of several books as Mia King (Table Manners, 2009; etc.), is working on a second novel set in Avalon.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2011, American Library Association.)