The School of Essential Ingredients by Erica Bauermeister I picked this up during one of my visits to Borders. It was on the 'buy one, get on 50% off' table. The book follows a pattern that seems to have gotten popular over the past two years--a book about a group of people with a common interest who meet weekly and learn and share their lives. The writing in the book was beautiful, very descriptive and melodic. The one negative, which might be a consequence of the genre, was that the 'story' ultimately did not go anywhere. I apparently am getting tired of the genre. Will try to hold off from the pull of these books for a while.