The bake

I haven’t been baking as much lately, and it’s all because of the changing seasons. When the weather is nicer, I want to be outside more, and I can’t say I love turning the oven on when I’m already sweating. Also, I have been eating a lot of ice cream, so it’s not as though I’ve needed to satisfy my sweet tooth with some baked treats. But I did feel the urge to try this lemon blueberry yogurt loaf from Jo Cooks the other day. The yogurt, along with the lemon syrup, made it so wonderfully moist. The glaze added even more lemon flavour with a bit of sweetness to balance it out. (But I do wish I’d made the glaze a little bit thicker.) The result was a light cake bursting with flavour that wasn’t too sweet. I recommend it for late spring or early summer evenings when you want to take a break from all of the ice cream you’ve been eating (although I’m sure a scoop of vanilla alongside a slice would be quite delicious).

The book

I recently finished Heaven by Mieko Kawakami, a short coming-of-age novel translated into English from the original Japanese. The book centres on a 14-year-old boy called “Eyes” by his bullies (a reference to the protagonist’s lazy eye) and describes the isolation and torment he experiences. The boy becomes secret friends with a schoolmate–a girl who is also being bullied. The two friends never speak in school and communicate primarily through letters and by occasionally meeting in private. The depictions of the bullying can be quite intense–it might be quite triggering for some people. Reading about the trauma these two young teens endure was difficult, to say the least. There is a lot of pain in this book, but there is a lot of beauty, too. I particularly liked the relationship with the boy and his stepmom. And, honestly, I am just in awe of any writer who can provoke so much feeling in a reader with such a short work.