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I just finished True Confections by Katharine Weber, the thoroughly enjoyable story of a fictional family-run candy company.  There is plenty of “history”, family secrets, and intrigue, which would make for an enjoyable book discussion (it’s also a short, quick read).  For some reason when I finished it, it made me think of a nonfiction history of candy-making I did as a book club selection in the past – The Emperors of Chocolate:  Inside the Secret World of Hershey and Mars by Joel Glenn Brenner.  Brenner’s book is a fascinating, reads-like-fiction history of the two American candy giants and the years of competition and bad blood between them.
How about pairing up books for your group?  I could see reading a nonfiction title one month, then the fiction title the next month (or vice versa) – this might add a whole extra dimension to the discussion as you compare and contrast.

In any case, if you’re going to read either of these particular titles (and I suggest you do!), make sure you have a candy stash on hand.  Somehow,  just reading the descriptions of the various sugary confections will make you desperately want a sweet treat!

This entry was posted on Wednesday, February 24th, 2010 at 2:07 pm and is filed under In the News. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.