Eat Cake
By Jeanne Ray
Crown Publishers, 2003

(From the publisher) Ruth loves to bake cakes. When she is alone, she dreams up variations on recipes. When she meditates, she imagines herself in the warm, comforting center of a gigantic bundt cake. If there is a crisis, she bakes a cake; if there is a reason to celebrate, she bakes a cake. Ruth sees it as an outward manifestation of an inner need to nurture her family—which is a good thing, because all of a sudden that family is rapidly expanding.

First, her mother moves in after robbers kick in her front door in broad daylight. Then Ruth's father, a lounge singer, who she's seen only occasionally throughout her life, shatters both wrists and, having nowhere else to go, moves in, too. Her mother and father just happen to hate each other with a deep and poisonous emotion reserved only for life-long enemies. Oh, yes indeed!

Add to this mix two teenagers, a gainfully employed husband who is suddenly without a job, and a physical therapist with the instincts of a Cheryl Richardson and you've got a delightful and amusing concoction that comes with its own delicious icing.

About the author

	© Marion Ettlinger

(From the publisher) Jeanne Ray works as a registered nurse at the First Clinic in Nashville, Tennessee. She is married and has two daughters. (She is the mother of the novelist Ann Patchett.) Together, she and her husband have 10 grandchildren. Jeanne is the bestselling author of Julie and Romeo and Step-Ball-Change.