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.