I just finished The Particular Sadness of Lemon Cake by Aimee Bender. In my mind, there is a genre called "Ordinary Magic"--those books that might be wildly fantastic, or might be taking place right next door to you and you'd never know.
Rose's mother makes her a lemon cake for her 9th birthday, and the first bite is delicious. Then it changes, and Rose realizes that she's feeling all her mother's emotions--and her mother may not be as happy as she seems. Rose spends the rest of her life eating carefully, because she absorbs the emotions of all the people who made her food as she eats it. (Oreos are her favorite--factory made, so there is very little emotion packed between those wafers. Doritos are also good.)
I loved this book; it looked honestly at the emotions and challenges we all face to some degree, and although it may be fantastic, it was also simple and straightforward and completely believable in all the ways that matter.
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