You Had Me at Cake: "The Cake Therapist" by Judith Fertig

Last month I went to visit a friend in her kindergarten classroom. While I was there she handed me a box of children's books for my day job and a copy of a book she thought I might like.  At first glance I was totally drawn in because the title had the words cake and therapist in it plus it was a VERY cute cover design and we all know how that floats my boat! So, I made short order of the book I was reading at the time so I could "dig in" and read "The Cake Therapist" by Judith Fertig. This book was pure sunshine and I loved every minute of it! 

The main character of the book is a lovely baker named Neely. Neely has found herself in a place of starting over and leaves the hustle and bustle of New York City to open a cake shop in a small town near her grandmother. She has a bit of a magic in her method of cake-making, in that she tailors the flavor to what her intuition tells her about the consumer's personality. Each time she meets someone new she automatically thinks of what their "flavor" might be. It's adorable. Neely soon realizes that she is stuck in the middle of a town that has a bit of skeletons-in-their-closet going down and she can't quite figure out what that actually means.

One of the best elements of this book is the style it is written in..... also known as my favorite! What is that you ask?? Alternating point of view that connects together at the end like a happy little gift of awesomeness.  Oh, how I love reading books like this! Along with present day, this book takes us to the early 1940s and we are introduced to some characters who are just as complex and deep as the present-day characters. It's amazing! By the end of the book, the author tied up both plot lines very nicely and it made me swoon.  

The theme of this book is we all deserve the opportunity for a second chance.  Along with that, we owe it to ourselves to allow second chances to happen in our life. This is something that I've really had to remind myself of this year because life in "second chance land" is pretty damn hard. However, it has brought a new set of blessings and people in my life that make up for the super shitty, emotional stuff.  This book is about just that and survival with cake.  How could it get any better? Neely learns to maneuver through the messy, emotional stuff while finding a new and improved version of herself and the results are sweet.  

Overall, this book was exactly what I needed to read last month.  It was definitely an uplifting book and I was even more excited to learn there is a sequel. And I'll let you in on a little secret......it's already been ordered from Amazon Marketplace, is sitting in the cozy book nook at Chez Ray Big Sky and I can't wait to read it.  I have not doubt I will enjoy it just as much as this book.  

My recommended reading group would be age 16 and above.  It's a happy PG read with some mild adult thematic elements, but nothing crazy.  

The moral of the story: Anyone can survive the messy world of second-chance-land with lots of cake. 

Happy reading, my amazing, geeky lovelies!

-R

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Finding Sunshine on the Last Frontier: "O Rugged Land of Gold" by Martha Martin

Last fall my family was introduced to the inter-workings and rich history of Alaskan culture while my Dad spent a week in the Arctic Circle of the Last Frontier for a professional commitment.  From start to finish our entire family was inspired to learn of the culture and grit that is possessed by the people who live there full-time.  It was obvious they make the best of their circumstances including being so far away from food sources out of the lower 48 states, months of darkness and limited resources overall. Fast forward to this summer when my mother shared with me a used book she had purchased for her thrifting ginger because she suspected it would be something I'd really enjoy. It was a book set in Alaska and told a story of a woman who overcame harrowing trials while being stranded (and pregnant) in Alaska.  That book was "O Rugged Land of Gold" by Martha Martin. To say it was moving is definitely an understatement and I'm happy to share it with all of you this week.

"O Rugged Land of Gold" is a fascinating work of writing.  It is 80% factual and 20% fictional.  My mother discovered it because she had watched a movie interpretation of the story and decided to read the book.  The book itself was published in the late 1950s, but the story took place in the 1920s.  The writing style is very much a folksy style and you can tell it was written by someone more in a journalistic style than a commercial authoring style.

Martha Martin is a pen name for the main character, Helen Bolyan.  Helen is the wife of a gold prospector and has found herself stranded at their current prospecting camp. She is also pregnant and winter is setting in quickly.  She embarks on a journey that is absolutely miraculous and heroic.  The book begins with her being injured in a land slide that damages her leg. She is forced to make her own cast and crutch so she can make it back to her cabin where all the food is stored.  Somehow she manages to do all of this and the book is her journal entries of the faith she has that God will help her husband find her and come back before their baby is born.  So many times while I read this book and literally had to stop reading and thank God I wasn't pregnant and alone in Alaska.  Sometimes life can be super sucky and stressful (holy alliterations), but I know that I have it GOOOOOOOD living in the modern age that I do.

Helen shares some really profound thoughts on her relationship with God that I related to so well.  She shared some powerful words about the level of growth and appreciation she found for deity while living in the wilderness of Alaska and being alone.  Quite literally it was her and God on a daily basis.  She would talk to Him and the animals who would come to visit her for scraps. How could anyone survive? Well, she didn't have any other option, but to survive, and she chose to make the best of it.

One particular passage really touched my heart and I shared it on my social media platforms the night I read it.  It's an entire page's worth of text so I will share the photo here for you to read.

Probably my favorite sentence in this passage is, "for me contact with God comes through his creation; air, the creeping things upon the earth and the fishes in the sea, the starry heavens, the loyalty of a friend, love and devotion, faith and work, honor and awe." This is so true for me.  I'm in awe of God's creations every day.  I'm so grateful for spectacular sunsets across the Big Sky of Montana that I can see out my kitchen window that remind me that He is there and He is blessing me with beauty in nature. I'm grateful for friends who give unconditional love and devotion in times when I need it most aka when I'm the conductor of the Hot Mess Express. And most of all, I'm grateful for my faith and honor to a God on high who has kept me safe from my own doubts and fears.

My recommended reading group would be age 16 and above.  It's a PG-13 read with themes of survival and fear while living in the wilderness of Alaska in the 1920s.

The moral of the story: God's creations are all around us. A starry night sky or a breathtaking sunset after a crappy day are his physical reminders that He is there, He cares and He is blessing us all the time.

Happy reading, my amazing, geeky lovelies!
-R

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Therapy Book Club is Totally a Thing: "Furiously Happy" by Jenny Lawson

Not long ago, my friend/professional colleague and I went to dinner and the topic of mental health came up over chips, salsa, too much Diet Coke and one beautiful margarita.  We shared our stories with each other and found that, while we had a lot of different events, our similar events were much too similar and no coincidence that we related well to each other in the professional world. Her professional realm is on the therapy side of things and I shared how challenging it has been to find a new therapist who even begins to compare to my amazing therapist in Utah.  I also shared that sometimes I just need to have a solid night of laughs, snacks and girl talk then I'm fine. Generally, that is cheaper than therapy, but just as hard to come by in the sticks of eastern Montana. And then my friend had a brilliant idea......we should start a book club.....and not just any book club, but it should be THERAPY book club.  The announcement I made on Facebook said, "As it is with therapy chips and salsa, the universe has called for a therapy book club as well. The requirements are simple: nonfiction that inspires and makes us laugh and is likely off-color." And that, my friends, is what we did and it is a gift from the laughter gods on high. Each month I will add a review on le blog to share what book we are reading so you can follow along as well....if you need some therapy book club in your life.....ha, ha Raylynn....who said anything about "if".....how about WHEN.

The inaugural book for our club is "Furiously Happy" by Jenny Lawson.  For those of you who may not be familiar with Jenny, she is hysterical! She is also certifiably crazy and has embraced it while she sits comfortably on the New York Times bestseller VIP list.  "Furiously Happy"  is her second book and is a collection of short stories about her life in the fast lane of mental health battles.  The sub-title of the book is "A funny book about horrible things." She presents a wide-range of experiences from her life about the roller coaster that is living with serious mental health conditions.

Even before I got to the actual meat of the book, I had already worn down my coloring pencil from highlighting.  The author's notes were absolutely fabulous and hooked me because I knew I'd be reading a book written by someone who actually gets it.  Here is an example that really resonated with me. "When you come out of the grips of depression there is an incredible relief, but not one you feel allowed to celebrate. Instead, the feeling of victory is replace with anxiety that it will happen again, and with shame and vulnerability when you see how your illness affected your family, your work, everything left untouched while you struggled to survive. We come back to life thinner, paler, weaker....but as survivors. Survivors who don't get pats on the back from coworkers who congratulate them on making it.  Survivors who wake up to more work than before because their friends and family are exhausted from helping them fight a battle they may not even understand."

One of my greatest challenges from living with my bestie named depression is finding people who get it. There is nothing WORSE than some insensitive dip shit who says to me (in late January or in month 4 of yet another bout of unnecessary unemployment) "oh you can just get over it."  Mmmmmm hmmmmm, here's your sign and get the hell out of my life.  It's incredibly hard to function at times and this book is a cool glass of lemonade on a hot summer's day because it helps me feel like I'm not alone in my adventure.  A few pages after the quote above the author concluded her notes with this, "I celebrate every one of you reading this. I celebrate the fact that you've fought your battle and continue to win. I celebrate the fact that you may not understand the battle, but you pick up the baton dropped by someone you love until they can carry it again. I survived and I remind myself that each time we go through this, we get a little stronger. We don't struggle in vain. We win. We are alive."

The level of gratitude I have for this newfound group of women in my life is infinite. We have laughed like the crazies that we are sharing our stories and finding joy in our mental health battles.  I've made new friends that I never imagined which I've been praying for since I move back to my Podunk home town.  No matter what, having a group of people in you life who GET IT is the best type of self care a person could ever give themselves.  I'm so blessed to have weekly chips and salsa, girl talk and unfiltered therapy on my own red couch every week.

My recommended reading group would be age 18 and above.  It's straight-up Rated R and talks about a lot of life experiences, sprinkled with the F-bomb, that accompany mental health roller coaster rides.

The moral of the story: We are all crazy....some of us just embrace it better than others. Find your group of crazies and start a therapy book club. You'll thank the laughter gods too.  I promise.

Happy reading, my amazing, geeky lovelies!
-R

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More Books by Jenny Lawson

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