Particular Sadness of Lemon Cake - Aimee Bender

On the eve of her ninth birthday, unassuming Rose Edelstein, a girl at the periphery of schoolyard games and her distracted parents' attention, bites into her mother's homemade lemon-chocolate cake and discovers she has a magical gift: she can taste her mother's emotions in the slice. She discovers this gift to her horror, for her mother - her cheerful, can-do mother - tastes of despair and desperation. Suddenly, and for the rest of her life, food becomes perilous. Anything can be revealed at any meal. Rose's gift forces her to confront the secret knowledge all families keep hidden - truths about her mother's life outside the home, her father's strange detachment and her brother's clash with the world. Yet as Rose grows up, she realises there are some secrets that even her taste buds cannot discern. "The Particular Sadness of Lemon Cake" is a luminous tale about the heartbreak of loving those whom you know too much about. It is profound and funny, wise and sad, and Aimee Bender's dazzling prose illuminates the strangeness of everyday life.

******SPOLIER ALERT***********

How to be Lost - Amanda Eyre Ward

To their neighbours in suburban Holt, New York, the Winters family has it all: a grand home, a trio of radiant daughters, and a sense of security in their affluent corner of America. But when five-year-old Ellie disappears, the fault lines within the Winters family are exposed. Fifteen years later, Caroline, now a New Orleans cocktail waitress, sees a photograph of a woman in People Magazine. Convinced that it is Ellie all grown up, Caroline embarks on a search for her missing sister. As she travels through the New Mexico desert, the mountains of Colorado, and the smoky underworld of Montana, she devotes herself to salvaging her broken family. "How To Be Lost" is a spellbinding novel about sisters, family secrets - and love.

Gypsy Girl- Rosie McKinley

Imagine being born into a world where communities are constantly on the move, but freedom is not a birthright.Rosie grew up travelling all over England and Ireland in her family's caravan. She had an idyllic childhood roaming fields and meadows with her younger brothers and sisters - free from the trappings of modern life, but restricted by the expectations of her culture. When Rosie was 14, the family's happiness was shattered when her grandfather - who was loved and respected by the whole community - was killed in a tragic accident. Suddenly everything in Rosie's life unravelled and she was forced to abandon the traditional way of life she loved. Her family fell apart and Rosie tried her best to take care of her younger siblings and hold the family together.As life at home became unbearable Rosie met Stevie, a traveller boy who promised her a different kind of life. But, Stevie was battling his own demons and Rosie's journey to freedom had only just begun...

Don't Let Me Go - Catherine Ryan Hyde

Ten-year-old Grace knows that her mum loves her, but her mum loves drugs too. And there's only so long Grace can fend off the 'woman from the county' who is threatening to put her into care. Her only hope is...'Billy': Grown-man Billy Shine hasn't been out of his apartment for years. People scare him, and the outside world scares him even more. Day in, day out, he lives a perfectly orchestrated silent life within his four walls. Until now...'The Plan': Grace bursts into Billy's life with a loud voice and a brave plan to get her mum clean. And it won't be easy, because they will have to confiscate the one thing her mum holds most dear ...they will have to kidnap Grace.

When God Was A Rabbit - Sarah Winman

Elly's world is shaped by those who inhabit it: her loving but maddeningly distractible parents; a best friend who smells of chips and knows exotic words like 'slag'; an ageing fop who tapdances his way into her home, a Shirley Bassey impersonator who trails close behind; lastly, of course, a rabbit called God. In a childhood peppered with moments both ordinary and extraordinary, Elly's one constant is her brother Joe. Twenty years on, Elly and Joe are fully grown and as close as they ever were. Until, that is, one bright morning when a single, earth-shattering event threatens to destroy their bond forever. Spanning four decades and moving between suburban Essex, the wild coast of Cornwall and the streets of New York, this is a story about childhood, eccentricity, the darker side of love and sex, the pull and power of family ties, loss and life. More than anything, it's a story about love in all its forms.

Life and Times of the Thunderbolt Kid - Bill Bryson

Some say that the first hint that Bill Bryson was not of Planet Earth came when his mother sent him to school in lime-green Capri pants. In his deeply funny new memoir, he travels back in time to explore the ordinary kid he once was, and the curious world of 1950s America. It was a happy time, when almost everything was good for you, including DDT, cigarettes and nuclear fallout. This is a book about growing up in a specific time and place. But in Bryson's hands, it becomes everyone's story, one that will speak volumes - especially to anyone who has ever been young.

Short Reads

The Following two books were both short reads (took me an hour to read each of them) but as i'm writing a blog about all books i have read i thought its only fair to include these.

 My dads a policemen is one of Cathy Glass's fiction. You presume with her history of children in foster care she has some understanding of issues surrounding different child cases. This is the story of a young boy taken into care because his mum can no longer look after him, he doesn't know his dad so he tells people that his dads occupation is as a policemen. He doesn't want to leave his family or his little brother and tries to understand why he has been taken into care.

I Miss Mummy

I Miss Mummy is the story of Alice, a four year old girl that comes to Cathy's home as her foster child.  She is well kept, well behaved and very sweet, not your obvious care child.  She doesn't understand why she can't stay with her grandparent's and nor does Cathy, it doesn't make sense.

Running With Scissors - Augusten Burroughs

When Augusten was twelve his mother gave him away to his psychiatrist, and a man who may have benefited from a touch of therapy himself. This is the story of the bizarre years Augusten spent in the doctors dilapidated Victorian mansion, getting to know the pedophile in-paitent who lives in the shed, eating Valium tablets like other kids eat sweeties and resorting to vintage electric shock therapy machine to liven up those quieter moments.