Chocolate Humor You Can Eat Up

Your Chocolate Priestess has been a book reviewer for several years now.  Even the official book reviewer for an online bookstore for a few years.  Thus books are very common gifts I receive and gifts I give myself.  At my recent birthday I acquired several about chocolate.  One of them is a classic of humor and some useful information from Sandra Boynton.  Not only had the gift giver, the Milk Chocolate Acolyte, read this when he was young but so did several guests.  I had been deprived of the joys in this book so I was anxious to read it.

Sandra Boynton is the illustrator and author of many children's and non-children's book, this one Chocolate: The Consuming Passion was her first outside of the children's genre published in 1982 and continously published until 2002.  Sadly this means you'd have to find it in a used bookstore if you wanted your own copy.  Or you might want to ask relatives if they have one stored away somewhere.  Oh, yeah, she's done other things as well and is currently working on short films so check that website link if you want to smile.

The book is a very humorous and often opinionated look at chocolate in all it's varieties.  White Chocolate Lovers may be rubbed the wrong way but the message I saw was that we have a love affair with chocolate and we need to be both more serious about it and less serious about it.  That's heavy philosophical stuff, maybe.  Perhaps it's all just an attempt to get you to smile and break out in laughter.  I did both for me in parts labeled "The Many Faces of Chocolate" and "The Physiology and Psychology of Chocophilia" plus "Knowing Your Chocolate" and finally "Where to Get It".

As both the front and back covers I hope show, the illustrations are delightful with or without the words.  Hidden in all that humor though are some facts about chocolate though you'll want to double check before you tossing out some of the silly words made up for this book.  There are also insightful questions lurking in the humor as well if you want to find them.

I enjoyed this book very much and all of you can find or borrow a copy to read.  Sisters and Brothers, may you too take the time to slowly appreciate what the Divine and human ingenuity have offered you in chocolate.