Confections of a Closet Master Baker

I picked this book up at the library a week or so ago.   The author is Gesine Bullock-Prado.  Recognize part of the last name?   She's Sandra Bullock's sister.  It's a quick read about her decision to leave her sister's production company, move to Maine and open a bakery.  Her life as a "closet baker" was in Hollywood where she at first baked for friends and then started baking for colleagues, for gifts and for the person who hadn't had a strawberry-rhubarb pie since childhood.  She does a good job of bringing her characters (especially those who work in her bakery) to life.

The quote from the beginning of the book that I particularly liked was this:

"I didn't want more stuff.  I wanted to be more happy.  I wanted to be good.  I wanted to stop hating people and start understanding.  And the only way I knew how to feel like a good and kind person was through baking."

Another favorite part of this book was Chapter 15 called The Sacred Time 3pm.   For the author, growing up, 3pm was time that her mother and grandmother (both German) would stop for cake and coffee.  

When I traveled with my mom to Germany in 2003 for us to visit the villages where our great-great grandparents lived we made a conscious effort to stop for cake or ice cream.  Every day.  Sometimes more than once. 

"Before you have to go home and make dinner for your family but after you've given blood at the office, sneaking away in the late afternoon is one of life's great pleasures.....

...Occasionally I'll even pour myself a cup of coffee and join them.  I said to her, that what I had always wanted was to bring 3pm to America.  Where coffee and cake weren't inhaled but savored with a lovely setting and kind people."

Maybe instead of bringing sexy back, we should bring 3 pm back.   What do you think?