Baking Cakes in Kigali in Around the World

Mar 05, 2011 Teelei rated it really liked it

I wanted to give this one 3 1/2 stars but since that wasn't an option, went with 4.
On its surface, this seems like a light-hearted book about a cake maker in Kigali and her many chats over tea. What I enjoyed most through the course of the book, was how very difficult situations/topics/political turmoil/relationships/etc were boiled down to their essence by this woman and the people in her life. If only we could all have someone like her to help us sort things out!
This book reminded me of feelin ...more

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Sep 01, 2010 Supriya rated it liked it · review of another edition

This is a lovely, evocative book about life in Rwanda after the genocide. I know, "lovely" doesn't go with "genocide," but this story is told from the point of view of a grandmother who is raising her grandchildren under sad circumstances while running her home-based cake business. As customers come and go, we learn about life in Kigali now and the types of problems the locals face. The narrator is a big-hearted, positive person whose outlook on life rubs off on her patrons as well as the reader ...more

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Aug 28, 2009 Toni rated it really liked it

Shelves: general-fiction, multi-cultural, rwanda, africa

This was a slow starter for me - very reminiscent of Alexander McCall Smith, which I have always found a little too cute. However, the further I got into Baking Cakes the more it (and Angel) grew on me. Beneath the humor and sweetness is a very moving story of tragedy and the ability of the human spirit to rise above it.

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Aug 28, 2009 Lynne rated it liked it

Shelves: audiobooks

This would be a great vacation book. It's light without being total fluff. Oddly enough for a book set in Rwanda, it is fundamentally positive. ...more

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