The Girls at 17 Swann Street written by Yara Zgheib Book Review

     Today is publication day for the book "The Girls at 17 Swann Street".  I just finished this book and had a very hard time putting it down.  The book is a hard and descriptive look at Anna's fight with anorexia and depression. Anna goes to 17 Swann Street for inpatient treatment where she meets other girls dealing with eating disorders.  Reading the stories of the other girls and their struggles with eating and how Anna rationalized giving up food and then her obvious struggle to gain some weight, really helped me to understand how easy it is to get the disease and how hard to overcome it. This is a very thought provoking book and would make a great book club selection. I definitely rate this book a 5 out of 5 stars.  Thank you to Netgalley and St. Martin's Press for the opportunity to read this book for my honest opinion.

Here is Amazon's description of the book-

The chocolate went first, then the cheese, the fries, the ice cream. The bread was more difficult, but if she could just lose a little more weight, perhaps she would make the soloists’ list. Perhaps if she were lighter, danced better, tried harder, she would be good enough. Perhaps if she just ran for one more mile, lost just one more pound.

Anna Roux was a professional dancer who followed the man of her dreams from Paris to Missouri. There, alone with her biggest fears – imperfection, failure, loneliness – she spirals down anorexia and depression till she weighs a mere eighty-eight pounds. Forced to seek treatment, she is admitted as a patient at 17 Swann Street, a peach pink house where pale, fragile women with life-threatening eating disorders live. Women like Emm, the veteran; quiet Valerie; Julia, always hungry. Together, they must fight their diseases and face six meals a day.

Every bite causes anxiety. Every flavor induces guilt. And every step Anna takes toward recovery will require strength, endurance, and the support of the girls at 17 Swann Street.

The Dream Daughter by Diane Chamberlain Book Review

   I have read most of Diane Chamberlain's books.  I was looking forward to reading "The Dream Daughter" but when I started reading it and it involved time travel I didn't think I would enjoy it.  But I think this is one of her best yet.  The book really made me think how I would handle some of the situations the main character Carly Sears had to get through. She was much more brave than I think I could ever be.  This is a great book club book, there will be a lot of discussion revolving this book.  Definitely a 5 out of 5 stars!!  Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher of this book for my ARC copy for honest review.

Here is Amazon's description of the book:

When Carly Sears, a young woman widowed by the Vietnam war, receives the news that her unborn baby girl has a heart defect, she is devastated. It is 1970, and she is told that nothing can be done to help her child. But her brother-in-law, a physicist with a mysterious past, tells her that perhaps there is a way to save her baby. What he suggests is something that will shatter every preconceived notion that Carly has. Something that will require a kind of strength and courage she never knew existed. Something that will mean an unimaginable leap of faith on Carly's part.

And all for the love of her unborn child.

The Dream Daughter is a rich, genre-spanning, breathtaking novel about one mother's quest to save her child, unite her family, and believe in the unbelievable. Diane Chamberlain pushes the boundaries of faith and science to deliver a novel that you will never forget.

We Never Asked For Wings by Vanessa Diffenbaugh Book Review

After reading the book The Language of Flowers, I was really looking forward to reading Vanessa Diffenbaugh's book We Never Asked for Wings. This book was definitely worth the wait. I highly recommend this book. The family had some hard struggles to overcome and I found myself cheering for the family and wanting to continue to read to find out how it would end. Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for allowing me to read this book for review. A 4 out of 5!

Here is Amazon's description of the book:

From the beloved New York Times bestselling author of The Language of Flowers comes her much-anticipated new novel about young love, hard choices, and hope against all odds. For fourteen years, Letty Espinosa has worked three jobs around San Francisco to make ends meet while her mother raised her children—Alex, fifteen, and Luna, just six—in their tiny apartment on a forgotten spit of wetlands near the bay. But now Letty’s parents are returning to Mexico, and Letty must step up and become a mother for the first time in her life. Navigating this new terrain is challenging for Letty, especially as Luna desperately misses her grandparents and Alex, who is falling in love with a classmate, is unwilling to give his mother a chance. Letty comes up with a plan to help the family escape the dangerous neighborhood and heartbreaking injustice that have marked their lives, but one wrong move could jeopardize everything she’s worked for and her family’s fragile hopes for the future.

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