Where to buy like water for chocolate

I liked the characters, and I felt for all of them, in their difficult situations, although, I thought Pedro was a bit of a coward. John was the better man! I loved the recipes at the beginning of each chapter. It really worked for me, and to be honest, I don't think I've ever got through so much food while reading! This book was just sizzling with tempting smells and was steaming with orgasmic passion.

What a wonderful ride. View all 5 comments. Jan 29, Nicki rated it did not like it. The only good thing in this book was John!!! I loved him so much and lost all respect for Tita when she chose that man-whore Pedro over him. I respect Gertrudis too but man, Tita went so far down hill when she decided that Pedro, who only seems to show affection when he damn well pleases, was a better man than John, who is kind to everyone including the man-whore.

Basically the message of this book is that sensual passion is apparently greater than true affection. Basically it doesn't matter if The only good thing in this book was John!!! Basically it doesn't matter if you respect women just as long as your good in bed Tita will take you. Ughh this book, in the beginning I thought it was ok, the middle was great because Tita was happy again and John was such a nice caring person, but the ending Oh my that ending.

The ending is pretty much the stupidest ending I have come across in a really long time and trust me i have read a lot of terrible books in my time, but this takes the cake, erotic cake pun intended. Oct 05, Gretchen Rubin added it. Romance, recipes, and magical realism View 2 comments. Aug 31, Settare on hiatus rated it did not like it. This book was so excruciatingly, so disturbingly annoying. It doesn't mean that I didn't enjoy it in anyway, I did enjoy some parts.

However, the cons outweigh the pros. Here is why: occasional spoilers The first one is Melodrama. Whenever I see a "love at first sight" plot, I start to judge. In many cases I have been patient with the book and it has satisfied me, but not this time.

This is a melodramatic love story where I have a very hard time to see any reason for the protagonist to keep lov This book was so excruciatingly, so disturbingly annoying. This is a melodramatic love story where I have a very hard time to see any reason for the protagonist to keep loving her love interest. Pedro, the lover, is immature, stupid, whiny, selfish, and all in all an abominable, horrible human.

He rapes the protagonist at some point, which brings me to another one of the disturbing factors in the book: no one seems to care about consent. There is a scene where Tita is bathing and Pedro is looking at her from distance, despite having been rejected many times by Tita; later on, he grabs Tita into a dark room to have sex with her, despite knowing that she is engaged to another man and has rejected him.

In both of these scenes, in my opinion, he comes off as a rapist. However no one seems to care? Everyone seems to view these scenes as passionate burning love? And everyone seems to view these incidents as factors strengthening their relationship? I don't know what Tita sees in him. I was hoping for the story to be saved and for Tita to have some sense when John arrived, but apparently not.

The ending made everything worse. It was a horrible, horrible ending. This book is more like a folktale, rather than a prominent novel which is supposed to deal with women's problems.

I like myths and folklore, but not in the form of novels. Shelves: latin-american , hispanosphere , el , books , food-and-cookery , women-in-translation , , decades , contemp-alevel-texts , sff. I enjoyed this tremendously - which was unexpected. For the first quarter of the book - which I read quickly - I found the tone and the magic realism quite twee, in a way that reminded me a lot of Years of Solitude , or rather my perception of it nearly 25 years ago.

I was wondering what was wrong with me that I found this twee and unpalatably artificial, yet I loved a collection of Russian fairy tales I've been dipping into over the last couple of weeks. But something clicked, and I soon, at I enjoyed this tremendously - which was unexpected. But something clicked, and I soon, at timeswhen I wasn't reading Like Water for Chocolate , I couldn't wait to get back to it, in a way that I hadn't found with any book for a long time.

Perhaps perversely, one of these is more likely to be a 4-star than a 5-star book, as the latter can feel almost too profound or too rich.

The romance plot wasn't the main point of the novel for me, and nor did I find it obtrusive. It served a similar purpose to the investigation in a crime novel which has a strong setting: a framework for hearing about people in a particular place and time. And also about food! Two aspects of the book I now want to read more about are real people's attempts to make the recipes some recipes are vague about important proportions, so would require experimentation , and the idea that the whole novel is an allegory for the Mexican Revolutionary War and that it isn't simply part of the background to the story.

Maybe it is melodramatic, but Tita, the heroine is aged about for most of the novel, living in a society where families were fearsomely strict, where there was no divorce, and there was a war raging locally: I think she can be forgiven for being melodramatic. I didn't like the very ending and felt it didn't suit the year old she had become, but it's not like I've lived in a similar society so I just found the whole thing very likeable in a way that might not be justifiable if set down as bullet points.

Apart from Pedro - Tita's attraction to him must be due to chemistry, as in personality he seems uninteresting and not very nice. And his name, combined with the chilli-filled recipes, meant I was also plagued with remembering Pedro Pepper, a character from ss children's series the Garden Gang, and that only made it harder to take him seriously. Whilst it's not stereotype free, especially about qualities Tita's sister Gertrudis seems to have inherited, it seemed less stereotyped than most popular women's fiction that I've read in English not a huge amount - and it may be that I simply don't know the territory of this Mexican novel.

It was from The Particular Sadness of Lemon Cake - a book I haven't read beyond a few pages - that I first heard of fictional food which transmitted the cook's emotions. Then I discovered it in a short story collection by Nicola Barker, and thought Aimee Bender had lifted it from there. Yet after all these examples, it feels like an idea that may have occurred much earlier too, in fairytales, but that is pure conjecture.

By the time I was half way through I was eager to find similar novels - but Esquivel's other books in English don't have very good reviews. There are recent sequels to Like Water for Chocolate but they have not been translated, and neither of them centres the most fascinating secondary story in the novel, that of Gertrudis. That might need a different author, one who was more blatant and assertive about sex and violence, and less romantic.

For many years I've looked at popular women's fiction such as this book and wondered what it would be like to be someone who enjoyed it as a genre. Would that involve being someone who found it easier to fit in? I am not sure whether enjoying Like Water for Chocolate means I've changed a little, or if it was the setting and unfamiliar history I liked as much as anything else, attractions that a UK-set equivalent wouldn't have.

But alongside enjoying the book itself, I find a strange satisfaction in perhaps having been "normal" enough to like it. And it was gratifying to find out, after more than half a lifetime of seeing the title in shops, libraries, media and all over the place, what it actually means: "at boiling point". Recommended to Amanda by: Zeke, regarding lovers and pie. Shelves: If all the lights inside you can be lit at once, your heart will burst, and infinity becomes permanent.

My heart is beating hard these days. Poor Tita makes it beat harder. A beautiful sad story of forbidden love and orgasmic passion, Tita and Pedro's tale is the hope that love IS enough after all. At that life is worth living Three stars for the book in general, plus one because I'm feeling so "in love" these days.

View all 13 comments. Feb 08, Tammy rated it it was amazing Shelves: romance , magic-realism , adult-fiction , favorites. Warning: This recipe may induce plenty of gushing. See notes below to see how severely affected this reviewer was Take one book 2.

Add a few sumptuous recipes 3. Infuse with touches of magic realism 4. Add a heap full of fragrant flavours 5. Pour in a cupful of earthy, human emotion 6. Mix in a healthy dose of unresolved lust, tension and heated gazes Pour in a bowl, mix them all together and watch as the perfect love story unfolds.

Allow it to simmer, heat and send your system into Warning: This recipe may induce plenty of gushing. Allow it to simmer, heat and send your system into a seductive frenzy that will leave you feeling dizzy with its luscious writing and mouth-watering recipes.

Side notes: Be sure to flush out all superfluous ingredients such as jealous sisters, forbidding, spiteful mothers and outdated, traditional rules that threaten to spoil and get in the way of a happy ending. Chained to Mexican tradition at the time, Tita, the youngest of three daughters is gifted with an exquisitely unique cooking skill. Confined to a dreary future of serving and attending to her mother's needs till her death, she is forbidden the right to marry according to the staunch rules amongst traditional Mexican families at the time.

Naturally tradition finds itself flailing in mid-air upon the arrival of the forbidden - which just so happens to come in the form of the very delicious Pedro. Enchanted by the utterly beguiling Tita, it doesn't take him long to fall in love with the extraordinarily talented cook. When he tries to win her hand in marriage, his request is vehemently refused by Mama Elena, Tita's staunch, unyielding and spiteful mother. To try and soften the blow, Mama Elena offers her older daughter Rosuara to him instead.

Out of sheer desperation Pedro agrees to marry her - only doing so to remain close to Tita. For the next 22 years, Tita and Pedro are forced to move in the same circle, swathed in their unconsummated passion for each other — and kept apart by ensuing events which affects everyone in the family… Review: This book is the book that introduced me to a genre that to this day still leaves me enchanted.

I actually read this years ago, but the contents of it are still as vividly imprinted into my mind as if I just finished it yesterday. One has to marvel at a book with the capacity to instantly transport you into its earthy, vibrant and voluptuously decadent world, even though you haven't read it in years.

The element of magic is a very strong feature in this novel and is written in monthly instalments of magical and sumptuous recipes — each of which plays a pivotal part in the events that follow within the story.

Each dish that Tita prepares speaks of the emotions that she cannot always express when around her family and is used as a means to express her love to Pedro and often has comic and heartbreaking effects on everyone else who consumes her dishes. The writing, the characters - everything about this novel has a sensuality about it that always leans on the precipice of something greater.

It's not what is said that makes the novel so fantastic, but how the author invites you to use your imagination with her sensual, decadent words. Every word is smooth as velvet chocolate, melts on your tongue and lulls your system into a drug-induced state of hazy, hedonistic pleasure. In short, the book is an aphrodisiac.

And if you don't quite believe me, I'd highly recommend reading that shower scene. What I can say though, is that their love story is a story I would want for my own Part mythical and partly historical, Like water for chocolate is an enchantingly magical, sumptuous feast of a novel touched with a quality of earthiness and idiosyncratic grandeur that makes for a delicious read… Yes, yes I abuse the word earthy.

It's completely and utterly the book's fault. Still, you should go out and read it this instant. It's a timeless classic every die-hard romantic should experience. View all 4 comments. I have come across this book many times on GR but never considered reading it. But then I find it hard to resist BRs, so when a friend suggested this as weekend BR I jumped in right away and finished this in few hours.

It's a short and easy read. Like Water for Chocolate tells us the story of Tita and her family. Her falling in love and then a heartbreak because of a stupid family tradition. But at the heart it is story of Tita and her love affair with cooking.

How she finds solace in food and ho I have come across this book many times on GR but never considered reading it. How she finds solace in food and how it helps her to overcome the grief and misery in her life. Language of the book is simple, like grandma telling a bedtime story minus all those sensual and erotic details.

Each chapter starts with a mouth watering recipe. I wanted to transport myself into this story and help Tita in kitchen in spite of the fact that I don't like to cook and gobble down all those delicacies.

Since it's magical realm, I loved how Laura Esquivel used Tita's culinary skills to express emotions. Tita was an introvert but her food did plenty of talking. She showed love, anger, pain, ecstasy, lust and many other emotions through the food that she made. While reading this book I kept thinking about The House of the Spirits , which I think was not a good sign.

It meant that this story was not good enough to have all my attention. Though the story was likable I didn't like the characters. Tita was stupid and easily scared. Pedro was arrogant and selfish. Rasura was a cry baby and Mama Elena was a tyrant. Most all I hated the ending. It was confusing. I don't think I will recommend it to my friends. View all 3 comments. This is a lovely book served in 12 courses of meal. When it came out, it became a best seller right away; a 'first timer's luck' for Laura Esquivel.

Even 2o years after being first published, it is still an intriguing story, knowing that many young girls around the world are still forced to obey illogical rules of tradition. The saddest part is; these undertakings are done by women onto women, mostly mother to daughter.. Esquivel's novel written in Magic Realism style, tells us the story of de This is a lovely book served in 12 courses of meal.

Filled with recipes, longing and bittersweet humour, this charming story of one family's life in turn-of-the-century Mexico has captivated readers all over the world and was made into an award-winning film. Laura Esquivel. Laura Esquivel is one of Mexico's most celebrated writers. She now divides her time between Mexico City and New York. Originally a screenwriter, she wrote the script for the award-winning film of her first book, Like Water for Chocolate.

Search books and authors. Like Water For Chocolate No. Buy from…. View all retailers. Also by Laura Esquivel. Originally published in , Like Water for Chocolate Como agua para chocolate won Laura Esquivel international acclaim. The film based on the book, with a screenplay by Laura Esquivel, swept the Ariel awards of the Mexican Academy of Motion Pictures, winning eleven in all, and went on to become the largest grossing foreign film ever released in the United States.

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