{"id":12187,"date":"2011-07-07T06:00:17","date_gmt":"2011-07-07T12:00:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs2.davenportlibrary.com\/reference\/?p=12187"},"modified":"2011-06-28T15:56:38","modified_gmt":"2011-06-28T21:56:38","slug":"joy-for-beginners-by-erica-bauermeister","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.davenportlibrary.com\/reference\/joy-for-beginners-by-erica-bauermeister\/","title":{"rendered":"Joy for Beginners by Erica Bauermeister"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

There’s something very comforting about Erica Bauermeister’s books — they’re sort of\u00a0 “stop and smell the roses”\u00a0 reminder.\u00a0\u00a0 For me, when she describes the smell of freshly baked bread, I swear I’m going to master making it from scratch, even though my past attempts at bread -baking have often yielded less-than satisfying results.\u00a0 Indeed, at times I’ve been too embarrassed to throw it out for the birds!\u00a0 (I mean, really, what if even they<\/em> didn’t eat it?) But enough about me.<\/p>\n

As in her first book, The <\/strong>School of Essential Ingredients<\/strong><\/em>, each chapter focuses on a different character.\u00a0 In her new one, Joy<\/strong> for Beginners<\/strong><\/a><\/em>,\u00a0 the characters are all women and all friends, even though they are different ages and at various stages in their lives.\u00a0 These women don’t live Pollyanna lives — loved ones still die, couples still divorce, some parent-child relationships stay strained — but through it all, their friendships remain strong and continue to provide the support and encouragement each of them needs.<\/p>\n

The book opens with a potluck dinner party, celebrating Kate’s recent victory over breast cancer.\u00a0 Kate agrees to try something she’s always feared– white-water rafting– but in return, each of them must also promise to do something they find difficult, though Kate\u00a0 gets to pick their challenges.\u00a0 In some cases, the task seems surprisingly simple, such as baking bread or discarding books left by an ex-husband.\u00a0 Still, Kate seems to have an innate sense as to what her friends need most.<\/p>\n

I really enjoyed this book.\u00a0 It’s a perfect gift for a good friend — or for someone who wants to make bread from scratch!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

There’s something very comforting about Erica Bauermeister’s books — they’re sort of\u00a0 “stop and smell the roses”\u00a0 reminder.\u00a0\u00a0 For me, when she describes the smell of freshly baked bread, I swear I’m going to master making it from scratch, even though my past attempts at bread -baking have often yielded[Read more]<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[10,8],"tags":[1672,681,420,679],"class_list":["post-12187","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-books","category-staff-picks","tag-challenges","tag-friends","tag-women","tag-womens-friendships"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pd0CXx-3az","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.davenportlibrary.com\/reference\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12187","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.davenportlibrary.com\/reference\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.davenportlibrary.com\/reference\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.davenportlibrary.com\/reference\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.davenportlibrary.com\/reference\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=12187"}],"version-history":[{"count":14,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.davenportlibrary.com\/reference\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12187\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":12338,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.davenportlibrary.com\/reference\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12187\/revisions\/12338"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.davenportlibrary.com\/reference\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=12187"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.davenportlibrary.com\/reference\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=12187"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.davenportlibrary.com\/reference\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=12187"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}