I'll Bring the Chocolate: Satisfying a Woman's Craving ... (ISBN 159052957X)

Chocolate and a Friend:
I'll Bring The Chocolate Karen Porter ISBN: 978-1-59052-957-7 Multnomah Books, 2007 Reviewed by Debra Gaynor for ReviewYourBook.com Chocolate and a good friend 5 Stars Caution - reading this book could be hazardous to your waistline. I'll Bring The Chocolate by Karen Porter is a delightful look at friendship and chocolate. Karen Porter compares being a faithful friend with delectable, luscious, mouth- watering chocolate. Friends rescue each other, when one is sick. The other visits, brings food, offers to clean the house, and hopefully remembers to bring chocolate. MS Porter shares simple stories and life experiences to make her point. She skillfully describes a good friend, one that is willing to be there through the tears and laughter, one that is loyal and gives you strength when you need it. There are nine chapters. Each discusses a different aspect of friendship and a different type of chocolate--from Godiva to chocolate pie, from a box of chocolates to a chocolate fountain. MS Porter knows her chocolate and she knows what a good friend is. At the end of each chapter is a recipe for something, chocolate. From the moment I looked at the cover of this book I knew it would be special; after all the word "chocolate" is in the title. I enjoyed I'll Bring The Chocolate immensely. The cover is inviting, and the plot is easy to understand. MS Porter has added "Bringing the chocolate " suggestions at the end of each chapter. I'll Bring The Chocolate is filled with spiritual insight and written with a little humor and lots of truth. I was drooling for chocolate by the time I finished reading the whole book. I recommend this book to all Christian women.

A Book No Woman Can Resist:
Chocolate and Friends. What woman could resist that combination? I picked up this book expecting a shallow, pat yourself-on-the-back-feel-good little book. Was I surprised. Karen Porter asks tough questions, like this: Are you the object of your faith? That little sentence rose up and smacked me right between the eyes, and it didn't come with chocolate either. She has a lot of those sneaky questions that caused to do some self-evaluation about my Christian life. And she points out what a blessing friends are, too. Special people to treasure and treat well. Be there when they need us, rejoice with them, grieve with them, and sometimes forgive them. YOu can't have too many friends, and I'm going to take better care of the ones I have. A thought provoking book filled with hope and encouragement, and recipes too. Chocolate, of course. This one's a winner.

Friendships Plus Chocolate Equal Earthly Joy!:
In her delightful book, I'LL BRING THE CHOCOLATE, Karen's transparency is so refreshing and serves as a timely reminder to examine ourselves and our relationships with friends. Every friendship is a unique relationship and Karen reminds us to cherish and nurture those friendships. Her recipes for chocolate delights struck a chord of kinship with me because of my love for cooking and the wonderful "secrets" learned from my mother and grandmother. Be sure to read about her suggestions for neighborhood "get-acquainted" meals featuring chocolate fondue--could anything be any better than that? Thanks, Karen for the reminder that friendships are God's gifts to us and that He brings us together with other women sometimes for special purposes. And aren't we glad to know now that like friendships, chocolate is good for us, too!!!

A sweet book that could edify or satisfy women in all walks of life who are looking for friends:
I'LL BRING THE CHOCOLATE starts with a perceptive anecdote. As a guest speaker for a weekend retreat, Karen Porter assessed her Christian audience of "thousands of young, bright, beautiful" college coeds as "the most responsive" she'd ever addressed. That is, until the last session, when she talked about the need for encouraging, faith-building friendships. "To my dismay," she writes, "my words fell flat on their ears and hearts." In other contexts, some version of this talk had worked well. Porter analyzes the situation: "These girls...were still living the friendship dream!" When they left the close community of a college campus and moved into cities, suburbs or small towns, with "all the responsibilities of being an adult," would they be more hungry for the opportunity "to develop friendships and bond with other women"? After graduation, life does look different in the real world of real houses separated from others by highways and bridges. Porter is "vice-president of international marketing at a major food company," which helps explain the book's preoccupation with...food. As indicated by the title, I'LL BRING THE CHOCOLATE --- ultimately about faithful friendships --- is built on a foundation of chocolate, that word appearing in every chapter title and in nearly every, usually humorous, display-type quote (for example, "When the going gets tough, the tough eat chocolate" by that prodigious writer named Author Unknown). Porter says, "My hope is that by comparing relationships with the wonderful attributes of chocolate, this book will help you develop richer, deeper, more meaningful friendships." Chapters end with a "Bringing the Chocolate" section of reader questions, a Prayer, a "Dear friend..." sentiment under the heading "Offering Chocolate to My Friend," and finally an original recipe featuring substantial amounts of, you guessed it, chocolate. Having a keen interest in friendship but being immune to the lure of chocolate, I thought the confectionary vision was a bit overblown. (Okay, I admit I just went to the refrigerator to find a chocolate bar --- meaning year-old, leftover Halloween candy.) Using folksy anecdotes interspersed with exhortations and biblical teachings, Porter explores eight gifts friends can give one another, or qualities that enrich friends and friendships: faith, encouragement, sharing, forgiveness, loyalty, joy, freedom and hospitality. A few highlights? The loyalty chapter tells of a couple who split up for a while but then reconciled. The loyal girlfriends listened and prayed but didn't condemn. The good result? "When...the marriage-healing process began, their friends regretted nothing." In the freedom chapter, I hope I misunderstood Porter's seeming approval of a comment she overheard in a restaurant: "With friends there are no boundaries." The hospitality chapter includes a feel-good challenge to welcome friends into your home and feed them spiritually and physically, even if it's nothing more than soup or tuna sandwiches...or maybe hot chocolate. Porter --- a wife, mother, grandmother and career woman --- has written a sweet book that could edify or satisfy women in all walks of life who are looking for friends. --- Reviewed by Evelyn Bence