Tags
Beaucoup Bakery, Book, Book Review, Cookbook, Food, Jackie Kai Ellis, Memoir, non-fiction, Paris, review, The Measure of My Powers, The Measure of My Powers: A Memoir of Food Misery and Paris, The Paris Tours
Initial Thoughts: Recently, I have been trying to read books I wouldn’t normally read, especially non-fiction. It is easy, for me, to just read novels without even touching a non-fiction book. The Measure of My Powers: A Memoir of Food, Misery and Paris was my way of challenging myself to get out of my (reading) comfort zone. [I ended up winning a free advanced copy of this book from the Goodreads giveaway.]
Summary
A story about one woman’s search for self-love, experienced through food and travel.
On the surface, Jackie Kai Ellis’s life was the one that every woman–herself included–wanted: she was in her late twenties and married to a handsome man, she had a successful career as a designer, a home that she shared with her husband. But instead of feeling fulfilled, happy, and loved, each morning she’d wake up dreading the day ahead, searching for a way out. Depression clouded each moment, the feelings of inadequacy that had begun in childhood now consumed her, and her marriage was slowly transforming into one between two strangers: unfamiliar, childless, and empty. In this darkness, she could only find one source of light: the kitchen. Inspired by the great 20th century female food writer M.F.K. Fisher’s works, it was the place Jackie escaped into herself, finding life, peace, comfort, and acceptance.
This is the story of how, armed with nothing but a love of food and the words of M.F.K. Fisher, one woman begins a journey–from France to Italy, then the Congo and back again–to find herself. Along the way, she goes to pastry school in Paris, eats the most perfect apricots over the Tuscan hills, watches a family of gorillas grazing deep in the Congolese brush, has her heart broken one last time on a bridge in Lyon, and, ultimately, finds a path to joy. Told with insight and intimacy, and radiating with warmth and humour, The Measure of My Powers is an unforgettable experience of the senses.
The Review
The Measure of My Powers is a memoir of Jackie Kai Ellis, the founder of Beaucoup Bakery & Café in Vancouver, British Colombia in 2012. Beaucoup Bakery features French style pastries, including croissants (their staple item), cinnamon scrolls, chausson aux pommes, and more. After reading this memoir, I took a virtual journey to Beaucoup Bakery’s website, and my mouth began to water. Suddenly, I became very hungry for croissants. I was surprised to learn that Jakie Kai Ellis, as of 2017, no longer owns Beaucoup Bakery. Instead, according to my research, she is focusing on The Paris Tours, a 3-4 hour walking tour of the culinary experience in Paris. Continue reading
Initial thoughts: When I was about four years old, my parents decided that it was a great time to expose me to Star Wars. I became a fanatic during my childhood. I even made my own Princess Leia costume (minus all the sewing). I even began wearing my hair in the Princess Leia style with the two cinnamon rolls attached to my head a month before Halloween… Oh, what was I thinking… But, I did not know the person behind Princess Leia. Carrie Fisher, to me, was just another actress. It was only, unfortunately, when she passed away that I became interested in finding out who Carrie Fisher was.
Initial thoughts: Who doesn’t love Betty White? Honestly, whenever I see her appear in a movie or television series, I find myself grinning from ear to ear. For decades she has been sharing her acting talents with the world. Even now, at her age, she is still going strong. I ended up listening to the audiobook version of Betty White’s autobiography If You Ask Me (And of Course You Won’t). 
Initial Thoughts: Now that I am a young adult, I have begun to feel a self-imposed responsibility to learn about how the world works. It is not that I have been turning a blind eye to the world around me. Rather, I found myself shuddering at the events in the news without really trying to understand WHY these things occur. And so, I ended up challenging myself to read more non-fiction books. A year ago, I would have said “non-fiction books are so boring.” Some of them are. But… many aren’t, and they can make you appreciate the life you have. This is one of such books.