The Secret Ingredient / Review

Author: Sally Bee
Paperback: 160 pages
Publisher: Collins (January 21, 2010)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 0007344066

Cookbook Description:

Sally Bee's story of survival and recovery from three heart attacks in a week at the age of 36 is nothing short of a miracle. Sally attributes much of her remarkable survival to her delicious and achievable healthy eating plan, which she and her whole family enjoy. Now, in this beautifully illustrated cookbook, she shares her secret with you, and it might just save your life. Sally believes in living a full life, and that includes eating delicious food with all the family. She shares not only clean, vibrant recipes, but also her versions of comforting classics we all love. Even desserts! We all know the principles of eating a healthy diet, but actually translating that knowledge into an easy and affordable meal can be a challenge in a busy world. The Secret Ingredient meets that challenge head-on with gorgeous, tasty recipes that will feed the whole family, and tempt even the most novice cook. Sally tells her inspirational story throughout, and gives encouragement and support for changing your eating habits, and those of your children, without feeling deprived and in a way that works for life. She's living proof.

About the Author:

At the age of 36, Sally was in the prime of her life successfully juggling being a writer, TV presenter, wife and mum of three. Then, in 2004, she suffered three major heart attacks in the space of only one week. Sally defied all the odds and, 5 years on, is glowing with health. Sally is a spokeswoman for the British Heart Foundation, is a trained therapist giving regular talks to heart rehabilitation groups, and an NHS 'Expert Patient'.

My Review:

This cookbook was a delight to open. It has large, sharp color photos; easy, delicious recipes; and the author's story in her own words. I think that you will love it and it may just save your life.

5 stars.

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

Put on Your Crown: Life-Changing Moments on the Path to Queendom

Author: Queen Latifah
Hardcover: 208 pages
Publisher: Grand Central Publishing; 1 edition (May 6, 2010)
ISBN-10: 0446555894

Book Description:

Modeled after Maria Shriver's Just Who Will You Be, Queen Latifah's goal with Put On Your Crown is to help young women build a strong sense of self-esteem. A US Dept. of Justice survey found that females ages 16-24 are more vulnerable to partner violence than any other group, almost triple the national average. Cases like Chris Brown's assault on pop star Rihanna showed an ugly side of adolescent life. However, Queen Latifah has always been a shining example of a woman happy with herself and unwilling to compromise to fit into the "hollywood ideal" of what a confident beautiful woman should look like. The result: She's one of the biggest A-list celebrities in Hollywood.

(Thanks to Hachette Book Group for my review copy.)

Be The Noodle: Fifty Ways To Be a Compassionate, Courageous, Crazy-Good Caregiver

Author: Lois Kelly
Paperback: 126 pages
Publisher: World Audience, Inc. (March 14, 2010)
ISBN-10: 1935444697

Book Description:

Based on the author's three month odyssey helping her mother live at home while dying, Be The Noodle chronicles the crazy things that happen during this unpredictable journey, things that no medical, hospice, or traditional how-to-deal-with-dying books explain.From the gut wrenching, like not being able to call 911 during a crisis once you sign up with hospice and struggling to be kind and helpful when you feel like a sleepless shrew, to the mundane, like dealing with too many banana breads from well wishers and advocating for patient martinis with the oncologist.

Part love story, part how-to manual, part memoir, Be The Noodle shows readers how to find superpowers they never knew that had, stay sane, take comfort in sick humor, find compassion and become crazy-good caregivers, one of the most courageous jobs most of us never wanted or have ever been trained to do.

(Thanks to the author for my review copy.)

How To Never Look Fat Again / Review

Author: Charla Krupp

Hardcover: 264 pages
Publisher: Springboard Press; 1 edition (March 10, 2010)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 0446547476

Book Description:

The new groundbreaking style-guide from bestseller author Charla Krupp on how to look 10 pounds lighter, 10 years younger and 10 times sexier every day, all year--in summer, winter, at the gym, even in a swimsuit!

You'll never get dressed the same way again once you discover:

*smart, easy ways to hide arm flap, a big bust, a muffin top, back fat, Buddha belly, a big booty, wide hips, thunder thighs, and heavy calves-and that's only half the book.

*which fabrics, colors, and styles make women look fat

*absolutely the best shades, shapes, and brilliant buys to make the pounds invisible

*clever solutions for special fashion situations--workout gear, evening wear, and even swimsuits!

*which products, fashions, and services you shouldn't waste your money on

*the top ten tips that will make you look thinner by tonight! So, if you've ever put on a piece of clothing and asked "Does this make me look fat?"

Finally, here is the book that will answer your questions.

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

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.)