British Baking, Part 4: What's all the buzz about? Devonshire Honey Cake

British Baking

Part 4: What's all the buzz about?

Devonshire Honey Cake





Dedicated to that wonderful mom

&

in honour of The Secret Life of Bees by Sue Monk Kidd

Not bad for a cell phone shot, I'd say

Before we left to come abroad, my friend surprised me by dropping by one evening with a bag of books. "Chick Lit." she called it. I smiled wide, hugged her, and told her I'd miss her while we were away. I was touched by her kindness and was eager to see what gems were awaiting my perusal. She had already lent me a book that I thoroughly enjoyed, saying "she reminds me of you." Which not only was flattering, but turned out to be true, I did have quite a lot in common with the author. So given this, I knew she would have wonderful new books for me to explore. Her selections included: The Jane Austen Book Club by Karen Joy Fowler, Divine Secrets of the Ya-Ya Sisterhood by Rebecca Wells, and Sue Monk Kidd's The Secret Life of Bees. Chick Lit. indeed.

I packed them carefully with me and hoped to have time to read at least one of them. I'm not quite sure why I chose The Secret Life of Bees first. Despite it being widely praised, I have hesitated to read it. To be perfectly honest, I read Kidd's second novel, The Mermaid Chair, first, years ago, and while her writing is vivid and her topic interesting, I did not like the book. Well, the fact that we have been here only slightly more than a week, and that my husband stole it out from under me, and we have both finished it should say something about this book. The Secret Life Bees is phenomenal. My husband will be mad at me for phrasing it thusly (being convinced that men and women feel and perceive things the same way), but you will especially enjoy it if you are a woman. Hence "Chick Lit." At the risk of over-simplifying, it is essentially the story of the complicated, multi-faceted relationship between mother and daughter, and of the power women and friendship, in general.

The story was rewarding enough in and of itself, but there was a sweet added bonus that I stumbled upon. Not only does my friend writing her name in each and every book still, just like you did in high school, but she underlines passages as well. My husband and I do the same, but we do it for dramatically different reasons. I underline passages I find particularly moving, funny, or that have touched me in one way or another. My husband underlines for work: underline, underline, underline- parallelism. Underline, underline, underline- foreshadowing. I wonder why she underlines hers: business or pleasure? I don't know, but after reading this story of the bond between mother and child, she penned this note:

"I'm so thankful for such

a wonderful Mother!

I want to be a

wonderful Mother"

I assure you that you ARE such a wonderful mother, and friend.

Note on the anonymity: I consider writing, books and stories to be very personal. It took me weeks to get the courage to share even this blog with people. In books, I underline and make notes all the time, but don't end up lending the books out. It's a window into my brain, and sometimes I don't want people poking around up there. So, not to read into her passage too much, especially since this particular friend finds anonymity annoying (ha, ha, ha), I just didn't want her name put out there, unless she wants it to be is all.