Book Giveaway Time!

It has been a long long long time since I did a book giveaway. I'm going to fix that right now!

I'm a giving away two Karen Marie Moning paperbacks. Both are the first in two awesome series ( Highlander series and the Fever series)

If you haven't read these books or anything else by Karen Marie Moning...where have you been? The Fever series took over my life for an entire month in 2012! You definitely want to win these books!

Open to U.S. residents only.

Good luck and thank you for reading this blog! 

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Review: Wishes by Jude Deveraux

     Wishes was recommended to me over the summer by a new friend, who reads nothing but romances. She works in processing at BN and trust me, she knows her romances. I had a hard time tracking down a copy, but I was lucky enough to find a tattered edition at a yard sale for only 25 cents. Don't worry about reading the rest of the Montgomery series before Wishes (it is #12), each title can stand alone. 

     Wishes starts off with Berni, who is a vain and fashionable woman and also recently deceased. Berni is from the modern day era and instead of going to Heaven, she is sent to the Kitchen. The Kitchen is reserved for women who don’t deserve Heaven or Hell. Here, Berni is meant to play fairy godmother to Nellie.

     Nellie is from the late 1890s in Colorado. She is sweet, devoted to her father and sister, and also fat. Now enter in the handsome Jace, who instantly falls madly in love with Nellie. This astounds everyone, including Nellie. Jace’s mother is a famous opera singer, so he has always been around voluptuous women. The story surrounds the fact that Nellie’s family treats her no better than a slave and goes to extraordinary lengths to keep Nellie and Jace apart. Berni is suppose to help the couple, but she is a terrible godmother. 

    This is a beautiful love story that will tug at your heart the whole way through. You can't help but root for Nellie and Jace. It was so nice to see a male character that wasn't fooled by vanity and what society considers beautiful. Also, Deveraux did a great job of creating the character of Terel, who is absolutely despicable. 

     If you have the time and can find a copy, you won't be disappointed by Wishes. This book was so good that it has earned a coveted spot in my personal collection. 

Read All The Books: Week 3

As of the last count…

Number of books TBR (that I own): 89

I really need to stay out of the thrift store…but it is less than a mile from my house and I have an addiction to teapots, so I need to go there! And while I’m there I usually look at the books. I’m sorry, but I can find brand new, great quality books for as low as .39 cents. How could I pass them up? How could YOU pass them up?

Anyways, while I was browsing for books I found 3 books that I wanted to purchase. I found 2 reprinted Diana Palmer books, Diamond Girl and Rogue Stallion. I’m a huge Diana Palmer addict, though her work is always hit or miss with me. The 3^rd book I found was Smile by Raina Telgemeier, a middle grade graphic novel. I have seen this floating around and I really enjoyed Drama, so I thought for less than a dollar it would be a good buy.

That brings the total back to 92. This isn’t good.

I did a crazy amount of reading this week though. Over the weekend I finished up 6 books just by Sunday morning. Here is what I read this week:

Smile by Raina Telgemeier

Wishes by Jude Deveraux

The Billionaire’s Captive Bride by Emma Darcy

Silver Borne (Mercy Thompson #5) by Patricia Briggs

Be with Me by Maya Banks

Robot Dreams by Sara Varon

Days of Our Lives Better Living by Greg Meng

Stranger in my Arms by Lisa Kleypas

A Lady of the West by Linda Howard (currently reading)

I’m very happy with what I read this week because I read a lot of great books(and only one terrible one - Days of Our Lives Better Living)!

3 of the books came from my TBR bookcase (Smile, Wishes, and A Lady of the West). That brings the total down to 89, which brings me right to where I was last week. *Sigh*

Current Total: 89

Oh, look at the teapot I found at the thrift store this week! 

Discard Friday

Sorry John Hedgecoe, but after 20 years your book is slightly out of date. 

Serpentine

Have you ever purchased a book on impulse without knowing anything about it? Well I did (for my library).

I was placing an order recently and I realized I was off my estimate by about $100. I needed something quick to order. I keep 2 card boxes at my desk filled with possible titles, but for some reason I decided not to go to these. They were filled with hundreds of titles that I thought would be great to order...one day. Instead I went to Amazon and clicked on the Art and Photography category. This was not a random pick. Most of the order I had placed was photography, art, and decorative art books. My collection was lacking in art and photography materials and anything decorating related will get checked out by half, if not all, my coworkers. I decided to get something fresh and new. Luckily, Amazon had just listed their best picks for 2013 so I went with the top two: Beautiful Whale by Bryant Austin and Serpentine by Mark Laita.

     

As a child I loved snakes. Like most children I had a strange fascination with them that terrified my parents. As an adult, my fascination subsided and fear set in. What if I encountered a snake while walking through the woods? What is my dog was bit by one in the yard? I lost my enthrall.

When I saw Serpentine I knew it would constantly go out. Why? As I stated above, children love snakes. Anything on snakes is always going to check out. When it came in I was surprised to find that it was more of a fine arts book than educational. 

I decided to check this out and give it a good look through. I didn't just want to skim it. I really wanted to understand where Mark Laita was going with his work. All the photographs are set against a black backdrop. Laita featured the photograph on the right  page and the left side blank. The lack of image on the left side of the book reiterated Laita's goal of focus on the serpent. Occasionally Laita would include a quote on the left side that focused discussed the misinterpretation of evil. 

These quotes added a stimulating touch that gets the reader rethinking their perception of snakes. As I mentioned early that even though I loved snakes as a kid, I feared them as an adult. Nothing happened to me to earn this fear. I just lost my fearless nature as I grew into an adult. Ask anyone you know if they are scared of snakes and 9.5 out of 10 will say "HELL YES!" If you ask anyone in my family about snakes and they will say "Get my hoe!" (old family joke about my great-grandmother killing snakes with a hoe)

The photographs themselves are stunning. The various position of the snakes, the twisted movements of their bodies, adds to the artist nature of the images. Not only are these creatures created strikingly gorgeous, but Laita's photographs add a touch of elegance to these misunderstood serpents.

As I mentioned before this is more of a fine arts book, but I don't want you to think that there was no educational material. At the end of the book, Laita created a visual glossary where every image is represented again (in a smaller version) and the basic information is provided: Name, Family, Binomial, Other Names, Location, Habitat, Length, Feeding, and Breeding. Though this information is basic it does answer the basic questions people might have: Is this snake poisonous? Where does it live? How big does it get?

If you are able to view Serpentine, I highly recommend it. Please be sure to take the time to study the photographs and also the format of the book. Laita does a wonderful job of presenting these creatures in a beautiful light. You won't find any fang shots or a scary striking serpent. Whether or not your perception of these creature changes, you might find yourself admitting their magnificence and the beauty of the nature that created them. 

3 down, 89 to go

Read All The Books - Week 2

I made some progress...unintentionally.  I was going through the TBR shelf and was excited to find that I could remove 3 of the books from the shelf. 

In the last post, I had to add ten books to the total because I bought a bunch of old Johanna Lindsey books. Well it turns out that I already had a copy of Defy Not the Heart on the shelf. So yay for that! I haven't read it yet, but it counts for something right?

The 2nd book, Before Sunrise by Diana Palmer, I had actually read this week as an ebook. Diana Palmer has soooo many books and they all pretty much have the same plot (older man, younger woman who is usually his ward) so it is impossible for me to tell them apart. So I was quite surprised to see it on the shelf and very happy to be able to make a teeny tiny dent in the collection.

The 3rd book is a Harlequin Presents by Jennie Lucas, A Night of Living Dangerously. HP are brain candy for me and I can devour through one in a short time. 

I think I need a better way of organizing my personal collection. Can anyone recommend a library app that helps you keep track of what books you own? 

Let's talk about food...

Usually I just post about books...occasionally movies and television, but 90% of my posts are book related.

So I am going to change it up. Let's talk about food....especially all the food I cooked this weekend.

First, let me tell you about cooking in my family. I am a southerner and when we cook dinner there are usually 4 to 5 side items. I have even seen my maternal grandmother have 7 sides once at a meal. Growing up though, my mother didn't do much cooking. She fixed dinner every night, but she mainly threw things together. She only gets recipes out at Thanksgiving or Christmas...and that's only if we aren't going to my grandparents. After my parents divorced, she said she just lost all interest in cooking. One of her biggest regrets she says is that she didn't teach me or my sister how to cook.

In the last 2 or 3 years, my grandmother and I have done nothing but share recipes. We call each other at least once a week and share different recipes we have found, were given, or thought might work well. I love it.

I can't stick to a recipe though. I am constantly adding different ingredients. Turns out my paternal grandmother does this as well. I never thought much about it until my mom pointed out that I never make a recipe the same way.

I don't do a lot of cooking or experimenting. I wish I did more, but the grocery store is my downfall. I always spend way too much money in there. I use to do all my cooking on Sunday and portion up tupperware containers with food for each day. This kept me from running to the store really quickly and instantly spending $20 or $30. This method worked great for me!

Since BF moved in I have found that the food I would cook on Sunday to last me an entire week would be gone by Tuesday or Wednesday. Where I could make one chicken breast last for two meals, he could easily eat 2 chicken breast for one meal. It has taken me a while to get use to this. Fortunately, he does fend for himself a lot when it comes to food. Whereas I rarely purchase fast food, he routinely orders food on his way to work or after. He also has a tendency to forget about leftovers. He has no problem eating them...he just forgets that they are in there.

Ok, now for some recipes. On Saturday I did some major cooking, which I probably shouldn't have done since I was going to the Greek Food Festival that afternoon. I have been inspired by Adventures in Life, Love, Librarianship's Eat All the Food challenge. The goal is to utilize the food already in your pantry before going out to by more. I wanted to find a recipe for chicken in a crockpot, but I wanted to use ingredients that I knew wouldn't get used everyday. I searched through some cookbooks at my house when I found one for Chicken in Honey Sauce.

From the book, Crock-pot: The Original Slow Cooker, 3 books in 1.

Chicken in Honey Sauce
 Ingredients

• 4 to 6 boneless, skinless chicken breasts
• salt, pepper
• 2 cups honey
• 1 cup soy sauce
• 1/2 cup ketchup
• 1/4 cup oil
• 2 cloves garlic, minced
• sesame seeds

1. Place chicken in crockpot, season with salt and pepper.

2. Combine honey, soy sauce, ketchup, oil and garlic in medium bowl. Pour over chicken. Cover; cook on LOW 6 to 8 hours or on HIGH for 3 to 4 hours.

3. Garnish with sesame seeds before servings. 

Why I picked this recipe: 

1. I had all the ingredients (except sesame seeds, which I omitted)

2. It would give me the chance to use the soy sauce and ketchup (both which I hate) up.

What I changed:

Remember how I said I couldn't follow a recipe? Well I can't.

I realized that I only had 1 1/2 cup of honey instead of 2. I decided to add some honey mustard dressing to the mix, along with a little honey bbq sauce. Don't ask my why. I just thought this might be a good combination and they were in the fridge. That's how I roll. 

I didn't have sesame seeds so I decided to top the chicken off with a little mozz. cheese.

The chicken came out good, but with a little too much of a soy sauce taste for me. I would cut down on the amount of soy sauce (unless you really like it). Boyfriend seemed to like it a lot and it was very easy to make. 

I made squash croquettes and a spinach and tortellini casserole to go along with it. I will post those recipes later on this week.