Where I share my love of books with reviews, features, giveaways and memes. Family and needlepoint are thrown in from time to time.

Saturday, October 22, 2011

Hour 6 update and Mini Challenge

Well, I finished A Dog's Way Home - cute middle-grade book about a lost dog.  Made me cry - a little.  But I told my daughter it was just my dry eye watering - lol.  Started The Comforts of Home by Jodi Thomas.  

Foods so far - Donut w/sprinkles, snack bag of pretzels, 1/2 peanut butter and green olive sandwich (don't knock it til you try it!) and some Harvest Cheddar Sun Chips that just came in the mail from Frito Lay!  (Thanks Frito Lay!)   I have also drank 2 cups of coffee and a mountain dew.  That might explain the jittery fingers!

I think I have done every mini challenge so far - yay!   So here is the next one -

What are the Top 5 books that I am looking forward to reading in the next few months -

So - in no particular order - Here are 5 books off my TBR list that I would like to get to sooner rather than later!



Happy reading!

Mini Challenge - Book Puzzle

For this challenge, I had to create a Book Puzzle. Essentially, this is a series of pictures, graphics, or photos that you put together that will describe a book title.

Can you guess it?







I will let you know the correct answer later today!  

Character Photo Mini Challenge

The challenge  is to take a photo of something that represents a character in one of the books you are reading for the readathon.

I have two books on my list today - Ghost Trackers and Ghost Files - so I snapped this picture of a ghost that my son made at a party last night!

Readathon Morning Hours and Introduction Meme



Good morning readers!  Just checking in.  Got a little bit of a late start.  Stayed up later with my daughter last night as she thought she might be having contractions!   But, it was false labor so I am here reading with you all today! 

I am going to try to finish up A Dog's Way Home by Bobbie Pyron first.  I am about half way through it and it is an easy read (bigger print) book so should be okay on my eyes!

Introduction Meme
1)Where are you reading from today?
 North of Chicago near the Wisconsin border.

2)Three random facts about me…
I am going to be a grandma anyday now.
I am a library aide at my son's elementary school.
I keep chocolate hidden in the house for emergencies!

3)How many books do you have in your TBR pile for the next 24 hours?
I have a stockpile of 18 books so that I can always have something that interests me!  Here is my list.

4)Do you have any goals for the read-a-thon (i.e. number of books, number of pages, number of hours, or number of comments on blogs)?
I have no goals - just to read as much as I can.  I am going to try to keep track better of how much I read though.

5)If you’re a veteran read-a-thoner, any advice for people doing this for the first time?
This is not my first time, and everytime I want I see something that I want to do better - but most of all - just relax and enjoy yourself!.

Friday, October 21, 2011

Knit with Love by Lisa Bogart (Book Review)

Title: Knit with Love: Stories to Warm a Knitter's Heart
Author: Lisa Bogart Publisher: Revell
About the book:  The rhythm of knitting brings peace and joy to life.  Knitters love to share stories, skills and even their stashes of elegant yarn.  And they love finding new outlets for their talents.

Knitting can't feed the hungry, fight crime, or stop global warming, but a hand-knit sweater warms a cold child.  A cozy scar eases a homeless night.  A tiny hat comforts a new baby's head.  A lovely prayer shawl wraps a worried patient in peace.

Through inspiring stories and gentle encouragement, Knit with Love, reveals the many ways you can, with your own two hands, bring joy and comfort to those around you.

My thoughts:  This was a nice easy read for me this week.  It is filled with stories of how others use their knitting to bring themselves peace, or try to add a little peace to the world around them.  It is also great for inspiration and encouragement.

Of course, I also found it frustrating this week, as I just purchased some yarn to make blocks with my soon-to-be granddaughter's name on them (project picked out by my daughter) and then have to limit things I do with my eyes!  I am definitely not one of those knitters who don't have to look at their work.  I wanted to make her a blanket, but she is already getting one from MY mom, so she wanted me to do something different.  She set off for Hobby Lobby tonight and I told her to look for some more yarn for a blanket anyway.  So as you can see, this book is urging me to knit! 

Really though, what I think I liked best about it were all the stories, both big and small, in which people used their knitting to reach out to others.  It gave me tons of ideas for places to look where I might be able to help out, even in a little way. And the ton of websites that are listed is wonderful!  I think I especially like the woman who said to take a little time to think about the end recipient.  Don't send crazy hats to people in a war zone where they might become targets - or teddy bears to children in Africa, but maybe a different kind of animal toy.  And the idea of praying for the recipient as you stitch it is pretty neat too.

If you know a knitter, or are a knitter, I think you would enjoy taking a look at this book.  If you are a wannabe knitter, this just might be the thing to push you over the ledge!   Take a chance!


Available October 2011 at your favorite bookseller from Revell, a division of Baker Publishing Group.

 
~I received a complimentary copy of this book from Revell in exchange for my review.~


Knit with Love: Stories to Warm a Knitter's Heart
Publisher/Publication Date: Revell, Oct 2011
ISBN: 978-0-8007-1970-8
171 pages

Dewey's 24 Hour Read-a-thon!


I almost missed it!  Dewey's 24 Hour Read-a-thon starts tomorrow  morning at 7AM CST and I almost missed it!(If you don't know what it is - go here to find out.)  I am going to read as much as I can, but with my dry eye I may find myself limited.  I will be reading more physical books than ebooks as my eye tends to dry more with the ebooks.  (This is from the Bell's Palsy that I developed earlier this week.)  I will be taking a break tomorrow night to go see a showing of the original Night of the Living Dead in a theater with my DH.



Possible books that I will be reading:



Or if I want to try reading on my Kindle or Nook, these are some of my choices:



We will just have to see how my eye holds out - but I am going to try to write up one review tonight and get to bed.  Night all!

Thursday, October 20, 2011

Winners!

I have a couple of winners to announce! 

Dawn M is the winner of My Life Undecided! - Congrats Dawn!

misskallie2000 is the winner of Love at Absolute Zero!  - Congrats misskallie!


Both winners have been notified by email!

Stay tuned for more giveaways!

Tuesday, October 18, 2011

It's Not Monday - But I'm Gonna Tell You What I'm Reading Anyway! (Oct 18, 2011)



Well, a trip to my doctor, who then sent me to the ER kept me from doing my post yesterday!  Spent a day in the ER, waiting for an MRI, because she was afraid that I had a stroke.  Last week, after my weekend of the 2 day headache,  I started having an eye twitch in one eye, and then my second eye started feeling like I had something in it. All week long when I ate, it also felt like I had burnt my whole mouth, or that there was some kind of film in my mouth. So Saturday I called and made an appt for yesterday.  Sunday morning when I woke up, the whole left side of my face was numb.  It felt as if I had gone to the dentist and was filled with novacaine.  It wasn't until I went to the doc, that she pointed out that I had lost some facial muscle on my right side (so, I really didn't have anything in that eye - it just wasn't shutting all the way so was drying out.)  Off to the ER. 

Five hours, one blood draw, one I.V. and one MRI later - turns out I didn't have a stroke, I just had an atypical presentation of Bell's Palsy.  Now that I have had a couple of doses of drugs, the numbness has gone down immensely on my left, but my right eye is still painfully dry.  I have to wear an eye patch at night so I won't scratch it and have eye drops to use during the day. If you don't know what Bell's Palsy is, it is just a virus that you can get after you have had been sick with an infection.  It clears up, but can take anywhere from days to months with no way to predict.  So, I can live with that!  So let's get reading!

What are you reading on Mondays is hosted by Sheila at One Person's Journey - You can hook up with the Mr. Linky there with your own post - but be sure and let me know what you are reading too!

Currently Reading:
Knit with Love: Stories to Warm a Knitter's Heart by Lisa Bogart 
The Kingdom of Childhood  by Rebecca Coleman
Love At Absolute Zero  by Christopher Meeks

Next Up:
The Comforts of Home by Jodi Thomas
A Dog's Way Home by Bobbie Pyron

Audio Book:
A Discovery of Witches: A Novel  by Deborah Harkness

E-Book:
Disrupted Lives by Brenda Youngerman

Next e-books up:
If I Tell by Janet Gurtler
An Accidental Mother  by Katherine Anne Kindred

Bathroom Book:
Good Graces  by Lesley Kagen


Reviewed Since Last Post:
Ding Dong the Diva's Dead by Cat Melodia
Love at Absolute Zero by Christopher Meeks
The "What's For Dinner?" Solution by Kathi Lipp



Waiting for Reviews:
 The Place of Belonging by Jayne Pearson Faulkner
The Blackberry Bush by David Housholder
The Girl in the Green Raincoat by Laura Lippman
Book Thief by Markus Zusak
Airmail by Naomi Bulger
Pie Town by Lynne Hinton
Chasing the Red Car by Ellen Ruderman
Whistling In the Dark  by Lesley Kegan
Darkness, My Old Friend: A Novel by Lisa Unger
Atonement by Ian McEwan
How Can You NOT Laugh at a Time Like This?: Reclaim Your Health with Humor, Creativity, and Grit by Carla Ulbrich

E-books waiting for review:
Sudden Moves by Kelli Sue Landon
This World We Live In (The Last Survivors, Book 3) by Susan Beth Pfeffer

Children's Books waiting for review:
Pearl's Wisdom by Auntie LuLu
Bug Meets His Friend (Bug's Adventure Series) by K.M. Groshek
Multiply on the Fly by Suzanne Slade
Ten for Me by Barbara Mariconda
Animalogy by Marianne Berkes
Prairie Storms by Darcy Pattison

READY - SET - READ!

First Wild Card Tour: The "What's For Dinner?" Solution (Book Review)

It is time for a FIRST Wild Card Tour book review! If you wish to join the FIRST blog alliance, just click the button. We are a group of reviewers who tour Christian books. A Wild Card post includes a brief bio of the author and a full chapter from each book toured. The reason it is called a FIRST Wild Card Tour is that you never know if the book will be fiction, non~fiction, for young, or for old...or for somewhere in between! Enjoy your free peek into the book!

You never know when I might play a wild card on you!

My review:  I loved this book - and I can't wait to have a chance to start using some of her organizing tips for a recipe book and the pantry!  Okay, so the first half of the book is dedicated to actually getting your kitchen ready, to make your actual cooking time, if not more pleasurable, then at least more manageable.  She tells what works for her in regards to how she sets up her menu and kitchen.   She tries to set up a monthly menu - but not based on what she will actually cook, but on the cooking style - like freezer food, or crock pot.  Makes sense when you actually think about - to plan your meals based on the amount of time that you have to cook them!  Her recipe binder is then set up according to the cooking style, so that she can easily find what she is looking for.

This might sound like a lot of work - and in the beginning it might take some time to get organized and on a system - but can you imagine the time you will save after you are up and running?  I think this will also make it easier for the rest of my family to jump in and help with meal prep as well. 

So after you have your kitchen organized, your pantry stocked and so forth - she gives you a whole bunch of recipes and tips in the second half of the book to get you going.  I love her chapter on freezer cooking, as this is always something I have wanted to try.  She gives you some good recipes as well as some tips on what should or shouldn't be frozen.  Another category that she has is LOOP (Left-overs on purpose) recipes.  This is one that probably wouldn't work for us, but we usually try to implement a Left over night - where we just take out all the left overs from the fridge and everybody picks what they want to eat.  This usually happens on a Saturday.  It cleans out the fridge from the week for us and makes me feel better for not throwing away food. 

So, pick up a copy of this book, see what works for you and develop your own style for your family.  If you are like me, and cooking isn't your number one pleasure, then I think you will find this book encouraging and informative!
Today's Wild Card author is:


and the book:

Harvest House Publishers (October 1, 2011)
***Special thanks to Karri | Marketing Assistant, Harvest House Publishers for sending me a review copy.***

ABOUT THE AUTHOR:


Kathi Lipp is a busy conference and retreat speaker, currently speaking each year to thousands of women throughout the United States. She is the author of The Husband Project and The Marriage Project and has had articles published in several magazines, including Today’s Christian Woman and Discipleship Journal. Kathi and her husband, Roger, live in California and are the parents of four teenagers and young adults.

Visit the author's website.

SHORT BOOK DESCRIPTION:

For many women, dread turns to panic around 4:00 in the afternoon. That’s when they have to answer that age-old question, “What’s for dinner?” Many resort to another supermarket rotisserie chicken or—worse yet—ordering dinner through a drive-thru intercom.

In The “What’s for Dinner” Solution, popular author and speaker Kathi Lipp provides a full-kitchen approach for getting dinner on the table every night. After putting her 21-day plan into action, women will

* save time—with bulk shopping and cooking
* save money—no more last-minute phone calls to the delivery pizza place
* save their sanity—forget the last-minute scramble every night and know what they’re having for dinner

The book includes real recipes from real women, a quick guide to planning meals for a month, the best shopping strategies for saving time and money, and tips on the best ways to use a slow cooker, freezer, and pantry.

With Kathi’s book in hand, there’s no more need to hit the panic button.

Product Details:

List Price: $12.99
Paperback: 208 pages
Publisher: Harvest House Publishers (October 1, 2011)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 0736938370
ISBN-13: 978-0736938372

AND NOW...THE FIRST CHAPTER:

Girl Meets Kitchen, or Not

Necessarily a Love Story

“Happy and successful cooking doesn’t rely only on know-how;
it comes from the heart, makes great demands on the palate and needs enthusiasm and a deep love of food to bring it to life.”

Georges Blanc, from Ma Cuisine des Saisons


I was not the kind of kid who grew up at my mom’s knee, helping her chop carrots for Sunday night’s chicken soup. I never really helped with any meal preparation, preferring to turn my attention in the kitchen to baking. There was always some social event with friends or a youth group party where I needed to bring brownies. The one memorable time I tried to make instant potatoes? Instead of the specified one-quarter tablespoon of salt, I used a quarter cup salt. That incident happened over twenty-five years ago, and I have yet to stop hearing about it from my loving and encouraging family.

Suffice to say, I was a bit ill-prepared for the cooking adventures that lay ahead as I lived on my own for the first time. And to complicate matters? My first apartment was in Uji, Japan, approximately seven thousand miles from my mother’s loving embrace and her pot-roast recipe (as if I could afford beef in Japan).

The recipe cards were stacked against me. No cooking skills to speak of, living in a foreign land where most of the time I couldn’t identify what I was eating much less figure out how it was prepared, a kitchen the size of my coat closet back home, and an oven so small it made me long for the Easy-Bake one of my childhood.

I was terrified going to the supermarket without an escort and a translator. I didn’t speak the language (as a short-term missionary teaching conversational English, speaking Japanese was actually a disadvantage in my job), and as unfamiliar as I was with food shopping in the U.S., shopping in Uji was like watching a foreign movie without subtitles and then having to write a paper on the plot.

Oh, and eating out? So not an option. While my cooking skills were limited, my food budget was near nonexistent.

A few things were easy to recognize. The bread in Japan was amazing. It was buttery and flaky and perfect. And there was some really lovely cheese and ham. So, for the first three months of exploring this exotic new culture, I ate ham and cheese sandwiches every single night for dinner.

As I started to get to know some of my students and coworkers better, I had this urge to invite them over to hang out with me. But I had a sneaking suspicion they would want to be fed. I knew that my students would love some authentic American dishes. The question was, Who would I get to cook them?

Another short-term missionary, Diana, had a cookbook called More-With-Less. This wonderful little book produced by the Mennonite community had tons of recipes that used simple ingredients most cooks would have in their kitchen. While I didn’t have a lot of pantry staples in my four-story walk-up, I was now armed with a grocery list as well as an English-to-Japanese dictionary for my trips to the store.

I started to look for simple things I could make: salads, sandwiches, curries, and mini-pizzas out of English muffins and ketchup. (I promise, my culinary skills and taste have gotten better over the years.) As I grew braver in all things cuisine, I started to ask my mom to send some of my favorite recipes from back home.

In fact, when I threw a Christmas celebration with my friend Spenser in my micro-sized apartment, we managed to make a fondue-potless version of my mom’s Pizza Fondue. Shopping for the ingredients proved challenging, even for Spenser who spoke near-fluent Japanese. After several attempts to translate cornstarch into the native language (One would think corn + starch = cornstarch, right? Wrong. It’s pronounced korunstarcha.), we headed back to my kitchen and made one of the best meals I have ever eaten—lots of tomato sauce, some ground beef, loads of cheese, and just the right amount of korunstarcha.

Pizza Fondue
(Connie Richerson)

½ lb. ground beef

1 small onion, chopped

2 10½-oz. cans pizza sauce (I use marinara sauce)

1 T. cornstarch (or korunstarcha, if you prefer)

1½ tsp. oregano

¼ tsp. garlic powder

2 cups cheddar cheese, shredded

1 cup mozzarella cheese, shredded

1 loaf French bread

Brown the ground beef and onion; drain. Put meat, sauce, cornstarch, and spices in fondue pot. When cooked and bubbly, add cheese. Spear crusty French bread cubes, then dip and swirl in fondue. This is also delicious with breadsticks. Serves 4 to 6.

From that point on, I was hooked on collecting my favorite recipes. I bought my own copy of More-With-Less when I got back to the States, and when I got married a few months later, I received my very first copy of everyone’s favorite red-and-white-plaid Better Homes and Gardens New Cook Book, with every recipe an emerging home cook could want.

I think most of us home cooks have a similar story to tell. OK, you probably didn’t have your first significant cooking experience in Uji, Japan, but I bet the first few times you got dinner on the table all on your own, you might as well have been in a different country.

Maybe your mom had you peeling potatoes before you could walk. Maybe you have a rich heritage of recipes passed down from your grandmother. None of our cooking histories are going to look the same, but we do have one thing in common: We all need to get dinner on the table.

I am not a professional cook. Tom Colicchio will never be critiquing my braised kale and chocolate with bacon foam on Top Chef. But over the past twenty years I have put dinner on the table almost every single night. And while my family still likes a pizza from the neighborhood shop, our kids who have left home really look forward to coming back for a home-cooked meal.

That is all the reward I need.

Why This Book?

So, you discovered my deep dark secret—I’m not a professional chef. I don’t have my own show on Food Network, my own brand of spatulas, and I’m not going to be appearing on any morning show making a frittata for Kathie Lee Gifford.

Still, I’m required to feed our large family almost daily. So when I come across a cookbook, I have an unnatural need to own it. I’m always looking for new recipes to keep dinner interesting at our house. I have an entire bookshelf in my kitchen for my ever-growing collection.

But to be honest with you, most of the money I’ve spent on those cookbooks could have been better spent on a good set of knives or a heavy iron skillet.

I have found that most cookbooks are aimed at the fantasy life many of us aspire to—entertaining regularly, having unusual and exotic ingredients on hand, and hours and hours in the kitchen to create these masterpieces, from scratch.

And then there is my reality. Yes, sometimes I like to spend a Saturday afternoon cooking up a big feast for friends and family. But most days? I want to get a delicious, healthy meal on the table quickly.

My test when I’m purchasing new cookbooks? I flip to a half dozen or so recipes throughout the book and ask myself, Can I imagine cooking this recipe in the next couple of weeks? If most of the recipes fail the test, the book stays at the store.

I want the reality. I want dinner on the table every night without being seduced by pictures of stylist-arranged food that—let’s be honest—I’m never going to prepare.

While those books offer up a lot of grilled-chicken-in-a-peanut-sauce-in-the-sky dreams, I need some reality. It’s not just about the recipe; it’s about all the aspects of getting dinner on the table.

By the end of this book, my hope for you is that you will be able to:

save time, money, and energy when it comes to
preparing meals
have less stress when it comes to shopping
get your kitchen prepared for battle
learn some stress-free ways to get dinner on the table
get out of your cooking rut
This book is all about the process, the how of getting dinner on the table. It reflects the collective wisdom of hundreds of women who don’t have prep cooks or a crew of interns trying out new recipes. We are the women who spend a significant part of our days thinking about, shopping for, and preparing dinner. And all these wise, wonderful women are going to show you a better way to get dinner on the table no matter what your cooking background or skill level.

This is the book I wish I’d had when I first started cooking, as well as when I was raising my brood of pint-sized food critics.

Don’t worry, there will be plenty of recipes. We all love to find that one recipe that is going to become a family favorite! But this book has much more than that. My hope is that you will be able to use the recipes you already have, the ones in this book, and the new ones you find along the way to set a big, bountiful table for your family.

Saturday, October 15, 2011

Mailbox Monday (Oct 17, 2011)


 Mailbox Monday's host for October is Savvy Verse and Wit. In My Mailbox is hosted Sundays at The Story Siren. Please visit these posts and take a look at what packages everybody else got this week! 



The Night Eternal
by Guillermo Del Toro and Chuck Hogan

It's been two years since the vampiric virus was unleashed in The Strain, and the entire world now lies on the brink of annihilation.  There is only night as nuclear winter blankets the land, the sun filtering through the poisoned atmosphere for two hours each day -- the perfect environment for the propagation of vampires.

There has been a mass extermination of humans, the best and the brightest, the wealthy and the influential, orchestrated by the Master -- an ancient vampire possessed of unparalleled powers -- who selects survivors based on compliance.  Those humans who remain are entirely subjugated, interred in camps, and separated by status: those who breed more humans and those who are bled for the sustenance of the Master's vast army.

The future of humankind lies in the hands of a ragtag band of freedom fighters -- Dr. Eph Goodweather, former head of the Centers for Disease Control's biological threats team; Dr. Nora Martinez, a fellow doctor with a talent for dispatching the undead; Vasiliy Fet, the colorful Russian exterminator; and Mr. Quinlan, the half-breed offspring of the Master who is bent on revenge.  It's their job to rescue Eph's son, Zack, and overturn this devastating new world order.  But good and evil are malleable terms now, and the Master is most skilled at preying on the weaknesses of humans.

Now, at this critical hour, there is evidence of a traitor in their midst. . . And only one man holds the answer to the Master's demise, but is he one who can be trusted with the fate of the world?  And who among them will pay the ultimate sacrifice -- so that others may be saved?


The Comforts of Home
by Jodi Thomas

In Harmony, Texas, twenty-year-old Reagan Truman has found her place, and found her family. But with her uncle taken ill and her friend Noah lost and disheartened with his life, Reagan is afraid of ending up alone again, and she's not the only one. Harmony seems to be full of people yearning to make a connection.  Like funeral director Tyler Wright, who longs to take his relationship with his friend Kate to the next level, but doesn't know how.  And Ronelle Logan, a woman frightened of everyday human interactions, until she meets an angry, lonely man -- someone just like her. 

When a terrible storms threatens the town, the residents of Harmony are forced to really think about what they truly want. Because making the connections they so desperately desire means putting their hearts at risk...



Guardians of the Gate
by Vincent N. Parrillo

It is August of 1895 as Dr. Matt Stafford's ferry nears Ellis Island. His spirits soar as he approaches the island filled with immigrants pursuing their dreams. Seeking a change from the routine of his hospital surgical practice, he decides to take a temporary leave to provide medical care to those who left their homelands in pursuit of the American Dream.

Eager to interact with the newcomers, Dr. Stafford is quickly intrigued by their personal stories of struggles, courage, and determination. Soon though, everything is about to change on the island; major conflicts unfold, immigrants are exploited, and a riot takes place. Becoming entangled in a secret passionate relationship, Dr. Stafford witnesses President McKinley's assassination and a societal backlash against the rising tide of immigration. As he valiantly struggles to find emotional fulfillment, a series of events will lead to dramatic changes-both at Ellis Island and in his own life.

Based on actual events, Guardians of the Gate shares the intriguing tale of the people and provocative occurrences that occurred at Ellis Island during the 1890s and 1900s-through the eyes of a dedicated physician on a compelling quest for fulfillment.



The Crown on Your Head
by Nancy Tillman

We know our children are special, and now the incomparable Nancy Tillman expresses this universal feeling in the most touching of ways: Every child is born with a crown. The crown is everything that gives us unique value. Our crown will always be with us wherever we go, whatever we do.

The follow Books I won!


Haunting Jasmine
by Anjali Banerjee

Divorcee Jasmine Mistry is intent on restarting her life when she gets the chance to do just that.  A call from the past brings her home to Shelter Island, a green dot in the middle of Puget Sound, to run her beloved aunt's bookstore.  The familiarity is heartening -- the rocky beaches, pewter skies, country boutiques, and above all, Auntie's Bookstore, nestled in a quaint Queen Anne Victorian, and believed, not incidentally, to be haunted.

With that knowledge, Jasmine embarks on a mystical journey, urged along by her quirky family, guided by the highly emotional spirits of long-dead authors, and moved to heal her broken heart when she unexpectedly falls in love with an enigmatic young stranger.  He knows about blurring the lines between reality and illusion.  He opens new doors between truth and fantasy.  In redefining the meaning of everlasting love, he urges Jasmine to reinvent herself in a place she calls home.  All she has to do is close her eyes and say yes.


A Perilous Conception
by Larry Karp

1976: Dr. Colin Sanford, a brilliant, ambitious obstetrician practicing in the Pacific Northwest, resolves to become the first to produce a baby by in vitro fertilization.  Never mind all the controversy raging over the ethics of human reproduction.  The super-confident Sanford, no stranger to hubris, will be the man.  He recruits Dr. Giselle Hearn, an experienced laboratory geneticist-embryologist at the University who's frustrated by the ultra-conservative policies of her puffed-up department chairman.  Drs. Sanford and Hearn, working secretly, set out to put their names in history books. Not to mention cash in.

In due course, a Sanford patient, Joyce Kennett, gives birth to a healthy boy.  There is rejoicing all around.  So why then does Joyce's husband erupt in rage, fatally shooting both Hearn and himself?

Emerald Police Detective Bernie Baumgartner doggedly seeks the answer.  Pressure is on from many sides to declare the double death the act of a mentally unstable man and close the book, but Baumgartner is not diverted from his quest.  A double cat-and-mouse game develops between the detective who refuses to be bested and the doctor determined to be the best, even if he's forced to hide the secret of Baby Kennett's conception.

 

 
Push
by Sapphire

Precious Jones, an illiterate sixteen-year-old, has up until now been invisible: invisible to the father who rapes her and the mother who batters her and to the authorities who dismiss her as just one more of Harlem's casualties.  But when Precious, pregnant with a second chid by her father, meets a determined and highly radical teacher, we follow her on a journey of education and enlightenment as Precious learns not only how to write about her life, but how to make it her own for the first time.


I got a ton of Ebooks this week:


Bonjour 40
by Karen A. Chase

If Karen A. Chase absolutely had to turn forty, she decided she could do it gracefully in Paris… for nearly forty days. What began as a blog to communicate with friends and family, became a travel journal filled with over a months’ worth of humorous and insightful glimpses into her Paris adventures, each of which could be read in about forty seconds. Journal entries are interspersed with Chase's own inspiring photography. Additional, longer stories richly fill in details allowing readers to reflect upon her experiences with food, travel, photography, Parisians, writing, and love in the City of Lights. Through her Parisian- and self-exploration, comes a book that brings to life the richness of Paris as seen through the eyes of a romantic travel junkie. Chase shows readers the joys of turning 40, and with her magical view of Paris, they'll be ready to board a plane before they've turned the last page.




Unto These Hills
by Emily Sue Harvey

Unto These Hills is an unforgettable novel of love, scandal, family, and roots by one of the most emotionally authentic authors of our time. Taking us into the deep South's Tucapau Mill Hill, it introduces us to the unforgettable Sunny Acklin. Betrayed, abandoned, and violated, Sunny faces one seemingly insurmountable challenge after another. But she never loses her spirit or the memory of the love that once so richly illuminated her world. As years go by, Sunny does everything she can to make something of her life until at last an opportunity arises, one charged with promise...and undeniable risk.

From its vivid evocation of mill hill life to its pitch perfect rendering of the complexities of family and relationships, Unto These Hills is at once epic and intensely intimate. It is the richest novel yet from a writer who fluently speaks the language of our deepest feelings.



It's Murder, My Son
by Lauren Carr

What started out as the worst day of Mac Faraday’s life would end up being a new beginning. After a messy divorce hearing, the last person that Mac wanted to see was another lawyer. Yet, this lawyer wore the expression of a child bursting to tell his secret, which would reveal Mac as heir to undreamed of fortunes, and lead him to the birthplace of America’s Queen of Mystery and an investigation that will unfold like one of her famous mystery novels.


Soon after she moves to her new lakefront home in Spencer, Maryland, multi-millionaire Katrina Singleton learns that life in an exclusive community is not all good. For some unknown reason, a strange man calling himself “Pay Back” begins stalking her. When Katrina is found strangled all evidence points to her terrorist, who is nowhere to be found.


Three months later the file on her murder is still open with only vague speculations from the local police department when Mac Faraday, sole heir to his unknown birth mother’s home and fortune, moves into the estate next door. Little does he know as he drives up to Spencer Manor that he is driving into a closed gate community that is hiding more suspicious deaths than his DC workload as a homicide detective. With the help of his late mother’s journal, this retired cop puts all his detective skills to work to pick up where the local investigators have left off to follow the clues to Katrina’s killer.



The Dressmaker
by Kate Alcott

Just in time for the centennial anniversary of the sinking of the Titanic comes a vivid, romantic, and relentlessly compelling historical novel about a spirited young woman who survives the disaster only to find herself embroiled in the media frenzy left in the wake of the tragedy.
Tess, an aspiring seamstress, thinks she's had an incredibly lucky break when she is hired by famous designer Lady Lucile Duff Gordon to be a personal maid on the Titanic's doomed voyage. Once on board, Tess catches the eye of two men, one a roughly-hewn but kind sailor and the other an enigmatic Chicago millionaire. But on the fourth night, disaster strikes.


Amidst the chaos and desperate urging of two very different suitors, Tess is one of the last people allowed on a lifeboat. Tess’s sailor also manages to survive unharmed, witness to Lady Duff Gordon’s questionable actions during the tragedy. Others—including the gallant Midwestern tycoon—are not so lucky.


On dry land, rumors about the survivors begin to circulate, and Lady Duff Gordon quickly becomes the subject of media scorn and later, the hearings on the Titanic. Set against a historical tragedy but told from a completely fresh angle, The Dressmaker is an atmospheric delight filled with all the period's glitz and glamour, all the raw feelings of a national tragedy and all the contradictory emotions of young love.


 

A Winter Discovery
by Michael Baron

Returning to the characters of his first novel, When You Went Away, Baron takes us again into the world of Gerry Rubato, a man who has been marked by loss and revived by love, and his son Reese, now five, who celebrates life at a remarkable level but is only now starting to understand that he was robbed of the chance of ever knowing his mother. Reese is old enough now to get caught up in the excitement of the Christmas season and he throws himself into it with abandon. His sense of celebration takes on entirely new levels of meaning, though, when it leads him to an unexpected and most remarkable discovery.

At once buoyant and poignant, and filled with irrepressible spirit, A Winter Discovery is a story of that will take you to new places in your heart.



Hold Me
(Caldwell Sisters Series, book 1)
by Lucianne Rivers

Still reeling from her mother’s death, news anchor Jane Caldwell’s life is upended further when she learns the father she lost twenty years ago is still alive. Her mother’s will unleashes a manhunt—the Caldwell sisters must find their father, or their mother’s estate will not be settled, and their questions about his disappearance will remain unanswered.

Jane’s search leads her to Guatemala to investigate a man who claims to be her father and heir to the family fortune. Needing a translator, she enlists enigmatic Harrison DeNeuve, a sexy ex-patriot with a penchant for wearing dark sunglasses in public.

As Jane struggles to reunite with her would-be father, Harrison fights to suppress his desire for Jane. He has a secret—one he’s sequestered himself in a third-world jungle hideaway to keep safe—and falling for Jane puts more than his heart at risk.

Jane finds two men in Guatemala—a father and a lover—but can she trust either of them?



Thrill Me
(Caldwell Sisters Series, book 2)
by Lucianne Rivers

Santa Fe Police Detective Margo Caldwell needs a vacation, but the wild goose chase her mother’s death triggers isn’t quite what she had in mind. Margo and her sisters must locate their father, or the Caldwell estate will remain unsettled—and they’ll never know why their father didn’t return from the Gulf War.

Pursuing a lead, Margo heads to the Virgin Islands in search of Zach Caldwell. To navigate the waters of the Caribbean, she needs a boat and a captain. Too bad Captain Adrian Prince, with his mesmerizing muscles and wicked grin, may be gunrunner.

Adrian takes Margo on his delivery route to small islands near St. Thomas that hide more than wildlife, booze, and sexy boaters. On a remote, mangrove-ridden patch of sand, they find gun-toting Zach Caldwell. When their mission turns deadly, Margo must save Adrian’s life—and her own—even if she loses her heart in the process.



Entice Me
 (Caldwell Sisters Series, book 3)
by Lucianne Rivers
 
Heartsick over the untimely death of her mother, Allison Caldwell is blindsided again by the secret revealed in her mom’s will. Her supposedly dead father is alive, and she and her two sisters must find him in order to settle the Caldwell estate.

Robert Rivera, private investigator and former Navy SEAL, alerts Allison to new intel identifying her father as a P.O.W. in Afghanistan. With her sisters out of the country pursuing leads, Allison insists on heading to the war-ravaged country to find him. Robert doesn’t want his naïve client to take the risk. He knows what danger lays in that godforsaken land…he’s lived through it. Barely.

But Allison is determined to go, and Robert can’t let her travel alone. Reluctantly appreciative, Allison quickly realizes how much she needs his guidance and protection, and how deeply she longs for his love. Robert struggles to understand her effect on his battle-weary heart.

The path to Allison’s father is blocked by terrorists, traps and treachery—all demons of Robert’s past. Can he survive a second round with the enemy and keep Allison out of harm’s way?



Come Back to Me
by Melissa Foster

Tess Johnson has it all: her handsome photographer husband Beau, a thriving business, and a newly discovered pregnancy. When Beau accepts an overseas photography assignment, Tess decides to wait to reveal her secret—only she’s never given the chance. Beau’s helicopter crashes in the desert.

Tess struggles with the news of Beau’s death and tries to put her life back together. Alone and dealing with a pregnancy that only reminds her of what she has lost, Tess is adrift in a world of failed plans and fallen expectations. When a new client appears offering more than just a new project, Tess must confront the circumstances of her life head on.

Meanwhile, two Iraqi women who are fleeing honor killings find Beau barely alive in the middle of the desert, his body ravaged by the crash. Suha, a doctor, and Samira, a widow and mother of three young children, nurse him back to health in a makeshift tent. Beau bonds with the women and children, and together, with the help of an underground organization, they continue their dangerous escape.

What happens next is a test of loyalties, strength, and love.




What books came home to you this week?

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