The Reader's Shelf: A Bread Basket of Sweet and Savory Reads, November 1, 2010 

There’s a certain comfortable feeling in a thick slice of homemade cake or a warm peanut butter cookie fresh off of the cooling rack, and that feeling carries over to books centered on baking. Many writers have discovered the magic of bakers and baking, either in their own lives or in the lives of the characters that inhabit their novels. As the weather grows chilly, settle down with this delicious mix of fiction and nonfiction, perhaps with a cup of tea and a homemade baked treat.

In Baking Cakes in Kigali (Bantam. 2010. ISBN 9780385343442. pap. $15), Gaile Parkin’s protagonist, Angel Tungararza, embodies the image of the baker-as-caretaker while her neighbors, friends, and multiple grandchildren feast on her elaborately planned cakes. Angel doesn’t just bake a cake, she builds it to embody special significance for its recipient. While there is a great deal of sadness in her everyday life in Rwanda, including the deaths of her children and the omnipresent shadow of the Rwandan genocide, Angel’s positive outlook and her intense focus on creating meaning through her cakes help her rise above life’s greater challenges.

Julia Glass’s resounding second novel, The Whole World Over (Anchor: Random. 2007. ISBN 9781400075768. pap. $15), follows baker Greenie Duquette as she departs New York City—leaving her husband behind—for a new job as pastry chef for the governor of New Mexico. Duquette takes her time under the wide open Southwestern skies as she struggles to make sense of her marriage, keeping in close touch with her New York City confidantes. Glass creates an intimate world among her characters, even when many of them are thousands of miles apart. The book ends as the post-9/11 era begins, leaving the reader with a sweet taste of a less serious time.

Sarah Addison Allen adds some magical realism to her mix in The Girl Who Chased the Moon (Bantam. 2010. ISBN 9780553807219. $25). Secrets haunt the residents of Mullaby, NC, and when Emily arrives in town to live with her grandfather, the past is slowly, and sometimes painfully, revealed. Making her way through some very adult situations, the teenaged Emily is befriended by Julia, whose own deep secret drives her to bake a cake each day. Allen deftly weaves the unbelievable into everyday life in a tale that is sure to win over fans of Alice Hoffman and Brunonia Barry.

There’s nothing more delicious than a good mystery starring a banker-turned-baker! In Kerry Greenwood’s Earthly Delights: A Corinna Chapman Mystery (Poisoned Pen. 2008. ISBN 9781590585146. pap. $14.95), Corinna Chapman takes her sourdough starter and leaves behind her number-crunching to start her own bakery. It’s not long before the quiet life she’s imagined for herself is out the door, replaced with a cast of junkies, nerds, and a dominatrix named Mistress Dread. This series debut will feed mystery lovers who hunger for a fresh, new amateur detective.

In Jeanne Ray’s Eat Cake (NAL: Penguin Group [USA]. 2004. ISBN 9780451211972. pap. $14), Ruth Nash already has her hands full with two teenagers and an unemployed husband when her long-divorced parents complicate matters by moving in with her family. Baking cakes is easier than trying to juggle the endless needs of her household, so Ruth loses herself in the sweet simplicity of following a recipe in anticipation of a predictable result. Ray’s novels always end on a high note, and this one is no exception. Recipes are included to satisfy a sweet tooth.

Ah, Paris! In The Sweet Life in Paris: Delicious Adventures in the World’s Most Glorious—and Perplexing—City (Broadway. 2009. ISBN 9780767928885. $24.95), food blogger and former Chez Panisse pastry chef David Lebovitz recounts his spontaneous move to fulfill a lifelong dream to live in the City of Lights. Integrating recipes both sweet and savory, Lebovitz takes the reader through the highs and lows of la vie Française, from excessive ironing to the joys of French banking. Lebovitz has parlayed his leap of faith into a full-time career, including leading dessert tours of Paris, writing a regularly updated blog with Parisian restaurant tips, and publishing Ready for Dessert: My Best Recipes.

In the same vein as Steve Almond’s Candyfreak, Let Me Eat Cake: A Celebration of Flour, Sugar, Butter, Eggs, Vanilla, Baking Powder, and a Pinch of Salt (S. & S. 2009. ISBN 9781416588733. $25) is a tour of the wide, wide world of cake. Leslie F. Miller takes on the daunting yet enviable task of chronicling the history of cake from cake-baking competitions to the wedding-cake industry, interjecting her own personal cake history along the way.

This column was contributed by Meganne Fabrega, a freelance writer and member of the National Book Critics Cricle. She lives in Portsmouth, NJ