Book Giveaway / The Pearls of the Stone Man

Hello Friends and Avid Readers!

Sourcebooks has given me the opportunity to give away 3 copies of The Pearls of the Stone Man by Edward Mooney Jr. Be sure to enter here.

Pantry-Friendly Mexican Cooking

Author: LeAnn Bird

Paperback: 100 pages
Publisher: Outskirts Press (November 23, 2009)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 1432740164

Book Description:

Mouthwatering Mexican Right from Your Pantry!Even if you don’t think you know how to boil water, you can create mouthwatering, authentic Mexican dishes — in less time than it takes to order out! Pantry-Friendly Mexican Cooking collects nearly 100 delicious recipes, each with its own unique story. And it shows you how to save money by buying exactly the ingredients you need and storing them correctly to easily make dozens of dishes. There are no exotic ingredients to buy, no special stores to visit. Just authentic, delicious and quick meals perfect anytime! You’ll discover:- Delectable starters: Throw together LeAnn’s Shrimp Shooters with Gazpacho or Black Bean Cakes for a crowd-pleasing appetizer.- Unforgettable basics: From Cheese Enchiladas to Chicken Chimichangas and Spanish Rice, these are the recipes that you will make again and again.- Authentic cuisine: Impress your friends with Carnitas, Meat-Stuffed Chile Relenos, and White Chile Bean Soup, like they’re straight from a Mexican cocina.- Do the salsa: Make your own fresh-peach salsa, mango salsa, pico de gallo and more!

(Thank you to the author for my review copy.)

Good Medicine (A Return to Common Sense)

Author: Carol Roberts, M.D.
Paperback: 164 pages
Publisher: Mercurius Press (December 14, 2009)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 0977931625


Book Description:

Attain a Healthier You-Naturally-With this Breakthrough and Doctor-Proven Guide Filled with the latest thinking on traditional, holistic and alternative care. Good Medicine: A Return to Common Sense represents a sea change in approaching illness and attaining optimal health. This authoritative and easy-to-understand book from renowned Dr. Carol L. Roberts offers a new perspective on how human beings are put together, integrating the physical body and the spirit within. Comprehensive chapters on nutrition, digestion, toxins, heart health and even sex make it easy to customize your own wellness plan. You'll learn:-How to break the habit of foods that can literally kill you, and replace them with nutrient-rich superfoods (it's easier than you think)-Why your digestive system is the gateway to optimal health, and how to give it a preventive tune-up-The man-made toxins that are causing millions to suffer from diseases like asthma and liver damage, and how to get them out of your life-Secrets to boosting energy and sexual performance that don't require an expensive prescription-Straight talk on vitamins-what works, why, and how much you should (or shouldn't) be taking-Why spirituality is as important as traditional medicine, and how to implement the right balance in your own wellness goalsIf you're tired of being sick, tired of taking expensive drugs-or just plain tired-this book will show you how to shape your well being with proven, practical techniques.



(Thank you to the author for my review copy.)

Happy Hour

Author: Michele Scott

Paperback: 318 pages
Publisher: CreateSpace (October 31, 2009)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 1449505570

Book Description:

Four friends working in Napa Valley, Sundays are for fellowship, good food and wine. Jamie is editor-in-chief at "Wine Lover's Magazine," and a single mother. Before her husband died, she lived a fairy tale life. Guilt from his death keeps her from moving forward. Kat is a sommelier, and co-owner of a restaurant with her chef husband Christian. Although deeply in love they deal with a myriad of issues, including ex-spouses, Kat's teenage sons and her new age mother Venus. Danielle is a vintner who finds herself entrenched in both an identity and family crises when her eldest daughter returns home from college with a bombshell of a secret. Alyssa is an artist and gallery owner. When a tragic past event catches up with her, she must face the skeleton in her closet and rely on her friends to see her through her darkest hours. These women discover that friendship is the right prescription to get through the hard times as well as for enjoying the wonderful moments together.

(Thank you to the author for my review copy.)

Skinny Italian

Hello friends and good cooks!

Please see my review of the new cookbook, Skinny Italian, here.

Big Buy Cooking

Author: Editors of Fine Cooking

Paperback: 192 pages
Publisher: Taunton Press (February 16, 2010)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 1600851541

Book Description:

Buy a delicious ingredient in bulk, save money, and cook delicious meals. It’s not as easy as it sounds--if you want to make creative dishes and use all the food you buy. With the expertise of Fine Cooking you can do both.

This cookbook is not about cooking to stock your freezer, spending hours on the weekend cooking for the week, eating the same leftovers all week, or developing a new way to think about shopping for food. Food Lover’s Guide to Big Buy Cooking is about cooking great-tasting food for every night of the week and features 75 inventive recipes from 25 bulk food items readily available in warehouse clubs and supermarkets. While Food Lover’s Guide to Big Buy Cooking focuses on how to cook exciting, reliable recipes and make the most of the featured ingredient, the added benefit is keeping costs down thanks to purchasing in bulk and then using it all.

Accompanied by step-by-step instructions, helpful hints and tips, and full-color photographs, these original recipes will take your cooking to new levels.

My Review:

You will not be able to resist the delicious recipes that are found in this cookbook! There will not be a bite left over at the family table.

(Thank you to the author for my review copy.)

Secrets of a Skinny Chef

Author: Jennifer Iserloh
Paperback: 240 pages
Publisher: Rodale Books; Original edition (March 16, 2010)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 1605295884

Book Description:
With recipes that deliver great taste without adding inches to the hips, Secrets of a Skinny Chef shows you how to indulge your comfort-food cravings without the guilt. In this collection of 100 recipes, America’s favorites get the "Skinny" treatment with scrumptious offerings such as Maple Apple Waffles for breakfast and 7-Minute Salmon and Scalloped Sweet Potatoes for dinner. Even for those who are dieting, desserts such as Tiramisu Parfait and Crustless Apple Pie stay on the menu.

Iserloh understands that life’s demands mean one can’t always cook dinner, so to help readers fend for themselves in the real world, she provides simple swap-outs and cheat sheets.

My Review:
Now we can eat our comfort foods without quilt and Jennifer Iserloh shows us how. This cookbook offers practical, yet yummy foods from snacks to desserts and gives ways to enjoy life again without diets. Great cookbook!

(Thank you to the author for my review copy.)

It's Not A Diet, It's Creative Eating / Review

Author: June Lay M.S.

Paperback: 314 pages
Publisher: Outskirts Press (November 19, 2009)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 1432743597

Book Description:
THIS is CREATIVE Eating, a new concept of eating, thinking and behaving leading to permanent weight loss. Follow June through her personal journey of transformation with her inspirational story. Follow her through her professional experience as a fitness trainer, weight loss specialist and behavior specialist, with all the tools of her program, her best weight loss & fitness tips, recipes, menus and more. Featuring her philosophy of a "Salad a Day", start today to become leaner and healthier, no matter what your age or weight.Read this book cover to cover, and then use it as a tool, one tip, one chapter, and one day at a time. "Support is Key, Surround Yourself", is a Junefit tool, and when you become part of the Junefit program, June's voice will continue to give you support through her e-mail weekly tips. It will change your life.

My Review:

This book combines dietary education with personal experience. It is a great tool for getting fit and having the body you want. Not only does June give wise behavioral advice, but she also shares many yummy recipes and

weekly tips. 5 stars!

(Thank you to the author for my review copy.)

The Happiness Project

Author: Gretchen Rubin

Hardcover: 320 pages
Publisher: Harper; 1 edition (December 29, 2009)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 0061583251

Book Description:

Gretchen Rubin had an epiphany one rainy afternoon in the unlikeliest of places: a city bus. "The days are long, but the years are short," she realized. "Time is passing, and I'm not focusing enough on the things that really matter." In that moment, she decided to dedicate a year to her happiness project.

In this lively and compelling account of that year, Rubin carves out her place alongside the authors of bestselling memoirs such as Julie and Julia, The Year of Living Biblically, and Eat, Pray, Love. With humor and insight, she chronicles her adventures during the twelve months she spent test-driving the wisdom of the ages, current scientific research, and lessons from popular culture about how to be happier.

Rubin didn't have the option to uproot herself, nor did she really want to; instead she focused on improving her life as it was. Each month she tackled a new set of resolutions: give proofs of love, ask for help, find more fun, keep a gratitude notebook, forget about results. She immersed herself in principles set forth by all manner of experts, from Epicurus to Thoreau to Oprah to Martin Seligman to the Dalai Lama to see what worked for her—and what didn't.

Her conclusions are sometimes surprising—she finds that money can buy happiness, when spent wisely; that novelty and challenge are powerful sources of happiness; that "treating" yourself can make you feel worse; that venting bad feelings doesn't relieve them; that the very smallest of changes can make the biggest difference—and they range from the practical to the profound.

Written with charm and wit, The Happiness Project is illuminating yet entertaining, thought-provoking yet compulsively readable. Gretchen Rubin's passion for her subject jumps off the page, and reading just a few chapters of this book will inspire you to start your own happiness project.

About the Author
Gretchen Rubin is the author of several books, including the bestselling Forty Ways to Look at Winston Churchill and Forty Ways to Look at JFK. Rubin began her career in law, and she was clerking for Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O'Connor when she realized that she really wanted to be a writer. Raised in Kansas City, she lives in New York City with her husband and two young daughters.

(Thank you to the author for my review copy.)

The Case For Books / Review

Author: Robert Darnton

Hardcover: 240 pages
Publisher: PublicAffairs (October 27, 2009)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 1586488260

Book Description:

In The Case for Books, Robert Darnton, an intellectual pioneer in the field of the history of the book and director of Harvard University's Library, offers an in-depth examination of the book from its earliest beginnings to its shifting role today in popular culture, commerce, and the academy. As an author, editorial advisor, and publishing entrepreneur, Darnton is a unique authority on the life and role of the book in society. This book is a wise work of scholarship—one that requires readers to carefully consider how the digital revolution will broadly affect the marketplace of ideas.

A former professor of European History at Princeton University, Robert Darnton is Carl H. Pforzheimer University Professor and director of the Harvard University Library. The founder of the Gutenberg-e program, he is the author of many books. He lives in Cambridge, Massachusetts.

My Review:

I found this to be an interesting look at the printed page vs the digital age.

(Thank you to the author for my review copy.)

Bloodroot / Review

Author: Amy Greene

Hardcover: 304 pages
Publisher: Knopf; 1 edition (January 12, 2010)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 0307269868

My Review:

What a wonderful new book! Having grown up in East Tennessee, I totally identified with the people and culture found in Bloodroot. How rare to find an author who can represent, on the printed page, the language and beauty of such a beautiful region of the country, where family roots run deep and neighbors are trusted friends.

This story is told through the eyes and voices of a mountain family. It tells the story of the ties that bind them together, and the land they cannot forsake--at times magical, and at other times violent, mysterious, and unforgiving. I was caught up in the lives of its characters immediately. I loved it, and in many ways it took me back home to the Tennessee mountains.

This is one of the most enchanting books I have read in a long time. I highly recommend it. 5+ stars

(Thank you to Amy Greene for my review copy.)

New Year's Resolutions

My resolutions for 2010. What are yours?

1. Lose 5 lbs. (already lost 2 lbs./ideal weight is 128 lbs.)

2. Have the downstairs family room and guest bedroom finished by Feb. 15 (family room gets finished today! everyone is saying yea!!)

3. Put in a new kitchen sink (this is a must do!)

4. Put in new kitchen flooring (badly needed)

5. Practice patience (this is going to be a big challenge)

6. Save money wherever I can (this is an even bigger challenge!)

7. Read 100 books this year (remember, I do book reviews)

8. Exercise every other day (every day is asking too much of myself)

9. Cut back on sugar (I'll try to cut back, but I can't give it up completely)

10. Visit my out-of-town children at least once each month (they live 2 hours away)

The Swan Thieves / Review

Author: Elizabeth Kostova

Hardcover: 576 pages
Publisher: Little, Brown and Company (January 12, 2010)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 0316065781

My Review:

Robert Oliver, a troubled, yet distinguished painter, has attacked a painting at the National Gallery of Art--an action which has landed him in a mental institution under the care of psychiatrist, Andrew Marlowe. Marlowe, who is an art enthusiast and painter himself, becomes deeply fascinated with his patient and the history behind Robert Oliver's strange behavior. As he attempts to heal his patient, the doctor is met with obstinence and silence; Oliver will tell him nothing. Determined to find answers, Marlowe not only becomes involved in his patient's past life and relationships, but also with the life of forbidden lovers, Beatrice de Cleval, and her mentor, artist Olivier Vignot, from the 19th century. Who is Robert Oliver and what is his connection to the painting? This book kept me guessing.

Kostova brings, once again, something wonderful to the written page--something that will enthrall readers from start to finish. It is superbly written, multi-layered, containing all the elements of a great story: desire, passion, obsession, forbidden love, mystery, historical romance, and the determination of the human spirit. It is an extraordinary book that I believe, not only mystery lovers will like, but artists or lovers of art will enjoy, as well. I found it to be an elegant, tender, highly psychological read, with lots of talk about the world of art.

(Thank you to Hachette Book Group for my review copy.)

Snow Ice Cream

When I was a child, my folks made snow ice cream every winter. Just at the right time, when the snow had freshly fallen, and the ground ascended in fluffy white mounds, my grandmother, dressed in black rubber boots, and a long coat over a fresh apron, would take her shiny metal dishpan out to the backyard to gather the fresh delight. That was many years ago and as you might imagine the recipe has long been forgotten. I believe she added white sugar, vanilla extract, and cream. Does that sound right? However it was made, we thought it was absolutely delicious.

Do you remember eating snow ice cream when you were a child and/or do you make it today? Does anyone have a delicious recipe for it? I would love to hear from you!

Lunch In Paris / Review

Author: Elizabeth Bard
Hardcover: 336 pages
Publisher: Little, Brown and Company (February 1, 2010)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 031604279X

Book Description:

In Paris for a weekend visit, Elizabeth Bard sat down to lunch with a handsome Frenchman--and never went home again. Was it love at first sight? Or was it the way her knife slid effortlessly through her pavé au poivre, the steak'spink juices puddling into the buttery pepper sauce?

LUNCH IN PARIS is a memoir about a young American woman caught up in two passionate love affairs--one with her new beau, Gwendal, the other with French cuisine. Packing her bags for a new life in the world's most romantic city, Elizabeth is plunged into a world of bustling open-air markets, hipster bistros, and size 2 femmes fatales. She learns to gut her first fish (with a little help from Jane Austen), soothe pangs of homesickness (with the rise of a chocolate soufflé) and develops a crush on her local butcher (who bears a striking resemblance to Matt Dillon). Elizabeth finds that the deeper she immerses herself in the world of French cuisine, the more Paris itself begins to translate. French culture, she discovers, is not unlike a well-ripened cheese-there may be a crusty exterior, until you cut through to the melting, piquant heart.Peppered with mouth-watering recipes for summer ratatouille, swordfish tartare and molten chocolate cakes, Lunch in Paris is a story of falling in love, redefining success and discovering what it truly means to be at home. In the delicious tradition of memoirs like A Year in Provence and Under the Tuscan Sun, this book is the perfect treat for anyone who has dreamed that lunch in Paris could change their life.

My Review:
I love anything that involves a life or vacation in Paris, so I couldn't wait to read this one. Although, Lunch in Paris wasn't as richly written as I would have liked, it was entertaining with great recipes. I'm giving it 4 stars.