Butter's a fat kid. That's something no one would argue with and something he himself identifies with. But he's so alone, and he's sad about being alone. He hates knowing what it is that keeps him alone is that number. Over the last few months, he's made good friends with Anna online -- Anna goes to his school, fits in with the in crowd, and has absolutely no idea the boy she talks to online (who goes by the name JP) is really Butter.

Butter by Erin Jade Lange | Goodreads

Butter is the most insufferable person I’ve ever had the misfortune of reading about. A subplot of the story is that he has a secret online identity in which he is speaking to Anna, a pretty, popular girl he goes to school with, but Anna doesn’t know who he is on accounts he’s been weaving a web of lies for months, feeding her the wrong name (J.P.) and manipulating her to believe he’s a star athlete at a private school thirty minutes away from the one they both actually attend. I’ll get onto the dangers of the internet and how this can negatively influence impressionable readers soon, but this action alone made my blood boil. This girl is trusting this boy and he doesn’t even have the decency to shed an ounce of truth. He continues to lie to her over and over, having her fall in love with a person who doesn’t exist and if there’s one thing I cannot stand, it’s dishonesty. It's everything in balance and moderation”, says Martin. “We have this obsession in the UK, this up and down with weight, while the rest of Europe and the whole world eats butter. They consume more of it than us and they don’t have the issues that we do. At the end of the day, it's a natural ingredient, not manufactured”.But why would you want to? How does homemade butter differ from store-bought? Why you should make your own butter

Butter: A Celebration by Olivia Potts | Waterstones Butter: A Celebration by Olivia Potts | Waterstones

It contains up to 30 ingredients, half of which you won't even know what they are. Even doctors are saying that their advice in the Seventies to eat margarine was wrong. I don’t want to eat something when I don’t know what it is”, says Martin. “However, I will never lecture others and say, eat this, try this and do that. I've never been one of those people that stands with a placard and shouts and screams. People have a choice”. Shortbread, pic: John Carey In addition, homemade butter is soft and malleable before being chilled, perfect for making compound butter by stirring in some garlic, cheese powder, cinnamon sugar, or your favorite sweet or savory add-in. Can you do this with store-bought butter? Sure; it’s just less convenient since you have to soften the butter first. Final product: Softer and creamier than butter made using a mixer, since it retains more of the buttermilk. Let’s get on with things. This is the story of a boy called Butter. (I’ll let him tell you how he got that moniker.) . . . . The answer, thankfully (or not-so-thankfully, if you're into that sort of stuff), is no. After that initial scene, Lange does a really good job of making sure this book is NOT written for the feederism community to fap behind. It is not about binging and weight gain as a fetish and it's not gonna get anybody off and you aren't going to be uncomfortably wondering if you're gonna go to hell or not.The first thing to bother me regarding the diabetes research was that Butter, who plays saxophone and virtually only plays the blues, has never, ever, EVER heard of B.B King. Ever. The king of the blues just doesn't exist. Never mind that BB literally made ads to promote diabetes awareness and is basically the unofficial face of type 2 diabetes. Let's just ignore that BB King would go play shows on stage and sit the entire time--and I know this because I saw him do it. I was at the Indy Jazz Fest in like 2001, 2002, something like that, and I distinctly remember that he was sitting when the show started and he stayed sitting even when it ended. But in this book, apparently playing a musical instrument while sitting has never happened and is physically impossible. Obviously if you're overweight, well, you just can't play blues. No heroes for you, Butter. But Butter (the book, not the kid) surprised me. It's a deceptively insightful book into the mindset of the obese, and what comes with it - the looks, the stares, the fight to lose weight, the retreat into food for comfort, their enablers - all of it. It's also an interesting look into the demon-spawn hell-child that is High School, especially what it means for someone like Butter. The maliciousness of stupid teenagers knows no depth. A guy claiming to eat himself to death on the internet? That's a pretty unique idea although at first I felt that it wasn't pulled off very realistically..but then again, teenagers are pretty dumb these days so maybe all the sudden popularity that Butter suddenly received from his classmates is understandable. There's also the part where his doctor tells him to do exactly what he shouldn't do: eat more carbs. See, carbs are sugar. Carbs cause hyperglycemia, which is clearly Butter's problem. Yes, you need like 40% of your diet to be carbs if you're diabetic, but what you really need to focus more on is fiber and proteins and fats. He could have at least specified complex carbs, but nope, apparently empty calories are a-okay in this household.

Butter by Erin Jade Lange | Goodreads Butter by Erin Jade Lange | Goodreads

As we near New Year's Eve, Butter constructs a final menu, and considers measures to make sure he succeeds in this attempt. He is has an anaphylactic reaction to strawberries? Onto the menu they go, but not too early - he wants to put on a good show. It is macabre and absolutely gut-wrenching. Salt (and season) to taste: Do you like your butter salted, or not? I prefer baking with unsalted butter (to best control the salt level in the recipe) and using salted butter as a condiment: on toast, biscuits, scones, pancakes, and slices of crusty bread, to name just a few favorites. When you make your own butter, you can add just the amount of salt you prefer. (To replicate the salt level of store-bought butter, use a scant 1/4 teaspoon table salt per 4 ounces (113g) of homemade butter.)

Here's my preface: I know some people are naturally heavier than others. I'm aware that some people have medical issues. I know, as cliche as it sounds, that what's on the inside matters much more than what's on the outside. When the night of the livestream came, the author does a pretty good job of building tension: Butter says good-byes, he makes apologies, he cries. I felt so tense when reading about that night that I had to set the book down more than once to calm down before continuing. Even though you might imagine that French butter is the best in the world,Martin endorses The Edinburgh Butter Company, which launched in 2018.

Running The World: My World-Record-Breaking Adventure to Run

I will say that I did not like Butter the character. I found him manipulative and just generally nasty. However, I loved Butter the book. I loved it for its realistic feel, the way it confronted issues about obesity, bullying and the way social media can wreak devastating damage on some people. But even if I hadn't connected with Butter, I would have kept reading, because the concept makes this book impossible to put down. The whole idea is morbid and disgusting and just wrong - and completely intriguing. I was disgusted and horriefied, but I couldn't stop reading; I needed to know whether Butter would actually go through with it. There's an underlying sense of tension and fear of what Butter will do, the knowledge that there is no way this could end happily, that had me on the edge of my seat throughout. I was just that pathetic – that pitiful. Most people couldn’t bring themselves to be cruel to me . . . . at least, not anymore.” I really didn't like Butter as a character, either, and it wasn't just because of the inadequate writing. He was mean. He lashed out at everyone, even people that truly cared about him. And understand that being as obese as he was can have psychological symptoms like depression, but that doesn't mean he's has the right to be an asshole. He just wasn't a very nice guy.

You certainly couldn’t use spread to make the beautifully crumbly-looking shortbread that’s in the book. Unfortunately, other Scottish butter-heavy treats, like rowies and tablet, didn’t make it to the final cut, though Martin insistshe loves those too. Almost as much as our produce, which he’s always happy to wax lyrical about. Oh, but this book had so much potential! Unfortunately, BUTTER’s casual treatment of its characters’ actions and motivations lessened the quality of what could have been a thought-provoking YA contemporary novel on the highly relevant issues of bullying, obesity, and body image. The main character, Butter, is a likable guy. Any reader, male or female, who has experienced adolescent insecurities in any form will want to reach out to him, to let him know that he is not alone. Deep down he really is a gentle soul with a heart of gold, one who has unfortunately been the victim of a narrow-minded and apathetic society. As I close, I’d like to reiterate; you can get help. It’s not easy, but you can do it. Just start asking. And keep asking until you get it. I believe in you. The butter-making process takes several minutes, but the final separation of butter solids and buttermilk happens quite suddenly at the end. Be prepared for some splashing! Making butter with a handheld electric mixer