The Southern Living Party Cookbook by Elizabeth Heiskell Book Review

                                                                         

I have been a long time Southern Living fan.  This cookbook is one that any Southern Living fan or cookbook fan would like and need in their collection.  The recipes are very easy to understand so this book would make a great first cookbook and gift.  A lot of the recipes were new to me and I loved the different menus for different occasions. I would rate this cookbook a 5!  Thank you to Netgalley for my free copy in exchange for my honest review.

Here is the description from Amazon.com:

This new essential guide to entertaining is divided by occasion, offering a fresh lineup of menus and ideas from Oxford, Mississippi’s go-to caterer for every celebratory scenario life serves up. In this update to the best-selling book of our mothers’ and grandmothers’ era, Elizabeth’s tell-it-like-it-is voice provides a twist to the classic Southern advice that is a refresher for entertainers of any age or experience. Packed with delicious recipes from the original book like Smoked Salmon Canapes, Hot Cheese Squares, and Brandy Alexanders, the book also includes popular picks from the current pages of Southern Living as well as Elizabeth’s treasured recipe box.
The Southern Living Party Cookbook is an entertaining handbook loaded with lifestyle tips and hilarious Heiskell stories, along with lush photography to help you get the look from table setting to plated dish.

A Spark of Light by Jodi Picoult Book Review

                                                               

I am a huge Jodi Picoult fan.  I have read all of her books and some of them multiple times.  Although I could not wait to see how Jodi Picoult would tackle and write about an Abortion Clinic shooting and the battle for legalized abortion. I was a little disappointed in this book. The book is written to go back in time by the hour.  At the beginning some characters were introduced but never heard about after that.  The ending left me wanting more answers.  I would give this book a 3.5 stars.

I will definitely continue reading Jodi Picoults books and highly recommend her previous books.

Thank you to Netgalley and the publishers of this book for my free copy of the book for my honest opinion.

Here is how Amazon.com describes the book:

The warm fall day starts like any other at the Center—a women’s reproductive health services clinic—its staff offering care to anyone who passes through its doors. Then, in late morning, a desperate and distraught gunman bursts in and opens fire, taking all inside hostage.

After rushing to the scene, Hugh McElroy, a police hostage negotiator, sets up a perimeter and begins making a plan to communicate with the gunman. As his phone vibrates with incoming text messages he glances at it and, to his horror, finds out that his fifteen-year-old daughter, Wren, is inside the clinic.

But Wren is not alone. She will share the next and tensest few hours of her young life with a cast of unforgettable characters: A nurse who calms her own panic in order to save the life of a wounded woman. A doctor who does his work not in spite of his faith but because of it, and who will find that faith tested as never before. A pro-life protester, disguised as a patient, who now stands in the crosshairs of the same rage she herself has felt. A young woman who has come to terminate her pregnancy. And the disturbed individual himself, vowing to be heard.

Told in a daring and enthralling narrative structure that counts backward through the hours of the standoff, this is a story that traces its way back to what brought each of these very different individuals to the same place on this fateful day.

One of the most fearless writers of our time, Jodi Picoult tackles a complicated issue in this gripping and nuanced novel. How do we balance the rights of pregnant women with the rights of the unborn they carry? What does it mean to be a good parent? A Spark of Light will inspire debate, conversation . . . and, hopefully, understanding.

Book Review: The Children's Train by Jana Zinser

My review:

I recently read the book "The Children's Train" written by Jana Zinser.  It is a book that I have not been able to stop thinking about.  The fact that there was a children's train and the circumstances behind it are terrible enough.  But the children's and families stories that are described in the book were so heartbreaking and so realistic.  The story of Eddie and his family, I will think about forever. there were many families featured in the book and how their lives were changed by the Kindertransport.  

I'm soo glad I read this book and will definitely be praising it to friends of mine.  The book was so well written that after I finished the book I wanted to delve into any information I could find about the children of the Kindertransport to see if I could find any other information about them. I highly recommend this book.  Thank you to Netgalley for the opportunity to read this book for my honest opinion.  5 out of 5 stars!!!

Here is description of the book on Amazon.com

In November 1938 on The Night of the Broken Glass, the Jewish people of Germany are terrified as Hitler's men shatter their store windows, steal and destroy their belongings, and arrest many Jewish fathers and brothers. Parents fear for their own lives but their focus is on protecting their children. When England arranges to take the children out of Germany by train, the Kindertransport is organized and parents scramble to get places on the trains for their young family members, worried about what the future will hold. Soon, trains filled with Jewish children escaping the Nazis chug over the border into Holland, where they are ferried across the English Channel to England and to freedom. But for Peter, the shy violin player, his sister Becca, and his friends Stephen and Hans, life in England holds challenges as well. Peter’s friend Eva, who did not get a seat on the Kindertransport, is left to the evil plans of Hitler. Peter, working his musician’s hands raw at a farm in Coventry, wonders if they should have stayed and fought back instead of escaping. When the Coventry farm is bombed and Nazis have reached England, Peter feels he has nothing left. He decides it’s time to stand and fight Hitler. Peter returns to Germany to join the Jewish underground resistance, search for the mother and sister he left behind in Berlin, and rescue his childhood friend Eva.

Book Review: Smokin Hot in the South by Melissa Cookston

Here is the description of the book from Amazon.com:
Melissa Cookston, the "winningest woman in barbecue," the only female barbecue world champion, and author of Smokin' in the Boys' Room, is bringing the heat with her second cookbook. Smokin' Hot in the South explores how to use fire in all its forms to craft more than 85 Southern-influenced recipes enhanced with the cultural flavors of Mexico, France, and Asia.

With the grill and smoker as her go-to tools, chef Melissa Cookston—named "One of the most influential pitmasters in America" by Fox News, and one of the "25 Super Women in Business" by the Memphis Business Journal in 2015—shares her all-new, modern interpretations of traditional Southern ingredients and recipes. Melissa explains how the culinary traditions of the South—long a bastion of slow-simmered vegetables and deep-fried everything—have expanded in the last decade to embrace Southwestern flavors, Asian spices, and the French palate.The nine chapters venture beyond the competition and barbecue principles of her first book and focus on instilling flavor with fire, using fresh herbs, and diversifying seasoning components in recipes that reflect the New South. She fire-roasts homegrown green tomatoes for a spicy take on a traditional pizza sauce and uses a barbecue smoker to add Southern nuance to porchetta. Also includes recipes for Butterbean Pate, Asian Pork Tenderloin with Watermelon Rind Pickles and Minted Watermelon Salad, Deep South Burgers with Pimento Cheese and Fried Green Tomatoes, Bacon-Wrapped Scallops with Blood Orange-Jalapeno Glaze, Mini Sage Biscuits with Homemade Sage Butter, and Caramelized Fig Clafoutis. She also covers the tools, techniques, and ingredients needed to be successful grillling or smoking at home. This book will not leave you hungry.

My Review:

This cookbook had some really good looking recipes from rubs to desserts.  Reading the book teaches a lot about techniques and the proper tools to use. Because of this cookbook we are going to have a very tasty summer of grilling  and smoking outside.

I received this cookbook from Netgalley for my honest review.

Nickie

Book Review: Believe Me by JP Delaney

Amazon.com's description of the book:
In this twisty psychological thriller from the New York Times bestselling author of The Girl Before, an actress plays both sides of a murder investigation.

A struggling actor, a Brit in America without a green card, Claire needs work and money to survive. Then she gets both. But nothing like she expected.

Claire agrees to become a decoy for a firm of divorce lawyers. Hired to entrap straying husbands, she must catch them on tape with their seductive propositions.

The rules? Never hit on the mark directly. Make it clear you’re available, but he has to proposition you, not the other way around. The firm is after evidence, not coercion. The innocent have nothing to hide.

Then the game changes.

When the wife of one of Claire’s targets is violently murdered, the cops are sure the husband is to blame. Desperate to catch him before he kills again, they enlist Claire to lure him into a confession.

Claire can do this. She’s brilliant at assuming a voice and an identity. For a woman who’s mastered the art of manipulation, how difficult could it be to tempt a killer into a trap?

But who is the decoy . . . and who is the prey?


My Review:

I really liked this book and highly recommend it,  Just when I thought I knew how the book was going to end and who the murderer was JP Delaney throws a twist into the story and I was wrong.  I like the actress Claire, she was such a good actress it was hard to tell if she was acting or not and if she was capable of being the murderer.

This is the second book I have read of JP Delaney's and even though The Girl Before was a very good book I think this one is even better. A new favorite author!!!

This book will be released on July 24, 2018.  Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher ofr the advanced copy for my review.

Nickie

Book Review: A Literary Tea Party by Alison Walsh

Here is Amazon.com's description of the book-

Tea and books: the perfect pairing. There's nothing quite like sitting down to a good book on a lovely afternoon with a steaming cup of tea beside you, as you fall down the rabbit hole into the imaginative worlds of Alice in Wonderland, The Hobbit, and Sherlock Holmes . . . 

Fire up your literary fancies and nibble your way through delicate sweets and savories with A Literary Tea Party, which brings food from classic books to life with a teatime twist. Featuring fifty-five perfectly portioned recipes for an afternoon getaway, including custom homemade tea blends and beverages, you will have everything you need to plan an elaborate tea party. Cook up and enjoy:

Turkish Delight while sipping on the White Witch’s Hot Chocolate from The Chronicles of Narnia

Drink Me Tea with the Queen of Hearts’s Painted Rose Cupcakes from Alice in Wonderland

Eeyore’s “Hipy Bthuthday” Cake with Hundred Acre Hot Chocolate from Winnie the Pooh

Hannah’s Sweet Potato Bacon Pastries and Jo’s Gingerbread from Little Women

Tom Sawyer’s Whitewashed Jelly Doughnuts from Tom Sawyer

And more!

Accompanied with photographs and book quotes, these recipes, inspired by the great works of literature, will complement any good book for teatime reading and eating.

My Review-

This is a cookbook that has the name of a classic book then a quote from the book with a recipe for a food that was mentioned in the book. 

I liked the concept of the book and was excited to get  copy from Netgalley for my honest review.  There is a few recipes I would like to prepare.  I really want to try the Turkish Delight, it looked delicious!

Thank you to Netgalley and the publishers of this book for my free copy for my honest review.

Nickie

Book Review: The Language of Flowers by Vanessa Diffenbaugh

Amazon.com description of the book:

The Victorian language of flowers was used to convey romantic expressions: honeysuckle for devotion, asters for patience, and red roses for love. But for Victoria Jones, it’s been more useful in communicating mistrust and solitude. After a childhood spent in the foster-care system, she is unable to get close to anybody, and her only connection to the world is through flowers and their meanings. Now eighteen and emancipated from the system with nowhere to go, Victoria realizes she has a gift for helping others through the flowers she chooses for them. But an unexpected encounter with a mysterious stranger has her questioning what’s been missing in her life. And when she’s forced to confront a painful secret from her past, she must decide whether it’s worth risking everything for a second chance at happiness.
 
My review:

This book is about a girl named Victoria who is shuffled through the foster care system and proves to herself that she is stronger than she thought. Through learning the Victorian language of flowers she is able to turn her life around.

I enjoyed the story and also how the author included a dictionary of the language of flowers in the back of the book.  This is the first novel written by Vanessa Diffenbaugh and I can see why it became a New York Times best selling book.  I look forward to reading more of her books.

Nikki

Book Review-- The Promise Between Us by Barbara Claypole White

Here is the description of the book on Amazon.com:

Metal artist Katie Mack is living a lie. Nine years ago she ran away from her family in Raleigh, North Carolina, consumed by the irrational fear that she would harm Maisie, her newborn daughter. Over time she’s come to grips with the mental illness that nearly destroyed her, and now funnels her pain into her art. Despite longing for Maisie, Katie honors an agreement with the husband she left behind—to change her name and never return.

But when she and Maisie accidentally reunite, Katie can’t ignore the familiarity of her child’s compulsive behavior. Worse, Maisie worries obsessively about bad things happening to her pregnant stepmom. Katie has the power to help, but can she reconnect with the family she abandoned?

To protect Maisie, Katie must face the fears that drove her from home, accept the possibility of love, and risk exposing her heart-wrenching secret.

My Review:

This book is a realistic look into how it is to live with OCD and not be diagnosed.  It is also a terrifying look into an estranged  mother's desperate attempt to help her daughter with the beginning signs of OCD. 

I was familiar with OCD before reading this book but I only had a limited amount of  knowledge of how OCD can control your whole life.

Barbara Clayton Poole told the story of a woman's struggle and also of how her daughter, ex-husband and ex brother- in- law are trying to figure out how to deal with a mental illness they are not prepared for.

I give this book 5 stars and highly recommend it for a book club or just for yourself.  I love a book that has a very interesting storyline and also teaches me or helps me to better understand.  

Thank you to Netgalley and also to the publishers of this book.  I look forward to following Barbara Claypole White on Facebook and reading her other novels.

N.

The Language of Flowers by Vanessa Diffenbaugh -----What I reading Now

Tonight I am starting to read the book, The Language of Flowers.  I have had this book on my bookshelf for a few months now.  I bought it at Goodwill which is a great place to find books. One of these days I'll take a picture of my 3 bookshelves to show you all of my
 to -be- read books.  I also have sooo many books on my Kindle.  Can you really have too many books?  I don't think so.

Even though I have soo many books I can not go into ANY store that has books or magazines and not look at them and most of the time buy one or two or more.

I have heard good things about this book but hopefully I will not be up all night reading.

N.

Ina Garten Foolproof Cookbook and Lidia's Family Table Cookbook

I recently went to my local library and checked out Ina Garten's Barefoot Contessa Foolproof cookbook and Lidia's Family Table cookbook.  I love to cook AND I also love to read books.

I have been looking for a good homemade Marinara sauce recipe and Lidia's Family Table did not disappoint.  There was also a complete step by step recipe for making pasta that really made making pasta look easy.

I love all of the cookbooks by Ina Garten that I have but I did not have the Foolproof cookbook.  I really admire Ina Garten because she practices and practices making her recipes until they are perfect.  Ina's cookbooks also have tons of tips throughout her book .

After reading through the books I decided I definitely want to buy Ina Garten's Foolproof cookbook. There was soo many recipes that I want to make. I found the recipes I was searching for in Lidia's cookbook.  I cook more of an American version of Italian food so most of the recipes in Lidia's cookbook just wouldn't work for me right now.

Using the Library was a good way for me to be able to read the books and decide which one I wanted to add to MY library.

I hope you get to read both of these cookbooks and maybe add one or both of them to your collection.

N.

Book Review: Every Note Played by Lisa Genova

My review:

This is the second book I have read of Lisa Genova's. The first was Still Alice, which I read twice and watched the movie.  Both of these books share a first hand experience of living with a devastating disease. 
    In the book Every Note Played, Richard a concert pianist is diagnosed with ALS.  The book shows how Richard has to live with the fast progressing disease and also how it effects his ex-wife Karina and his family. Every note played is not just about ALS it is also a story of a broken family struggling to get past the hurt and help each other through a very difficult time. When I started reading Every Note Played I thought I knew about ALS. But, thanks to Lisa Genova this book has taught me there is so much more to learn.
   This book would make a great Book club selection and I hope to see it in a movie soon.  I look forward to reading the other books by this author.
    Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for the opportunity to read this book for my honest review.

Amazon.com summary of the book:

From neuroscientist and New York Times bestselling author of Still Alice comes a powerful exploration of regret, forgiveness, freedom, and what it means to be alive.

An accomplished concert pianist, Richard received standing ovations from audiences all over the world in awe of his rare combination of emotional resonance and flawless technique. Every finger of his hands was a finely calibrated instrument, dancing across the keys and striking each note with exacting precision. That was eight months ago.

Richard now has ALS, and his entire right arm is paralyzed. His fingers are impotent, still, devoid of possibility. The loss of his hand feels like a death, a loss of true love, a divorce—his divorce.

He knows his left arm will go next.

Three years ago, Karina removed their framed wedding picture from the living room wall and hung a mirror there instead. But she still hasn’t moved on. Karina is paralyzed by excuses and fear, stuck in an unfulfilling life as a piano teacher, afraid to pursue the path she abandoned as a young woman, blaming Richard and their failed marriage for all of it.

When Richard becomes increasingly paralyzed and is no longer able to live on his own, Karina becomes his reluctant caretaker. As Richard’s muscles, voice, and breath fade, both he and Karina try to reconcile their past before it’s too late.

Poignant and powerful, Every Note Played is a masterful exploration of redemption and what it means to find peace inside of forgiveness.

N.

Book Review: I Was Anastasia by Ariel Lawhon

My review:  

This book is not going to be released until March 27th 2018, but I was lucky enough to receive a copy from Netgalley for my honest review.  First off, this book would make an excellent book club choice!  I have been interested in the legend of Anastasia Romanov for a long time and as soon as I saw the description of this book I knew I wanted to read it.  I found myself drawn into Anna's story and did not want to put the book down until I finished. I would definitely rate this book 5 stars!!  Thank you to the publishers and Netgalley for the opportunity to read and review this book for my honest review.

Amazons description of the book:

In an enthralling new feat of historical suspense, Ariel Lawhon unravels the extraordinary twists and turns in Anna Anderson's 50-year battle to be recognized as Anastasia Romanov. Is she the Russian Grand Duchess, a beloved daughter and revered icon, or is she an imposter, the thief of another woman's legacy?
 
             Countless others have rendered their verdict. Now it is your turn.
 
Russia, July 17, 1918: Under direct orders from Vladimir Lenin, Bolshevik secret police force Anastasia Romanov, along with the entire imperial family, into a damp basement in Siberia where they face a merciless firing squad. None survive. At least that is what the executioners have always claimed. 

Germany, February 17, 1920: A young woman bearing an uncanny resemblance to Anastasia Romanov is pulled shivering and senseless from a canal in Berlin. Refusing to explain her presence in the freezing water, she is taken to the hospital where an examination reveals that her body is riddled with countless, horrific scars. When she finally does speak, this frightened, mysterious woman claims to be the Russian Grand Duchess Anastasia. 
     
Her detractors, convinced that the young woman is only after the immense Romanov fortune, insist on calling her by a different name: Anna Anderson. 
     As rumors begin to circulate through European society that the youngest Romanov daughter has survived the massacre, old enemies and new threats are awakened. With a brilliantly crafted dual narrative structure, Lawhon wades into the most psychologically complex and emotionally compelling territory yet: the nature of identity itself.
     The question of who Anna Anderson is and what actually happened to Anastasia Romanov creates a saga that spans fifty years and touches three continents. This thrilling story is every bit as moving and momentous as it is harrowing and twisted.

Book Review: Secrets of Married Women by Carol Mason

Amazon's description of the book:

When Jill’s husband discovers he can never have children, it tears a hole in their marriage that Jill doesn’t know how to repair. Frustrated, she seeks comfort in her friends: fierce Leigh, with her high-powered career and doting family, and sweet, uncomplicated Wendy, who has a rock-solid marriage any woman would envy.

Leigh and Wendy’s lives seem perfect. But beneath the surface are secrets that could tear their friendship apart.

Leigh has grown tired of her stay-at-home husband and is looking for excitement—outside of the marriage bed. And after seventeen years of marriage, Wendy can’t shake the sense that there is something missing in her life.

As Jill is drawn deeper into her friends’ relationships, she is confronted by a temptation of her own: an intriguing stranger whose good looks and charm spark an instant connection.

Full of the realities of modern-day marriage, The Secrets of Married Women asks the question: how well can we ever know our husbands, our friends, or even ourselves?

My review:

The Secrets of Married Women book was everything I hoped it would be and more! It is a story of friendship, loss and love.  Throughout the book I was cheering for different characters for different reasons. The book really shows how one decision can impact so many different lives.

Thank you to Netgalley for the opportunity to read this book for my honest review.