Book review: Jack Daniel's Spirit of Tennessee Cookbook

I recently read the book, Jack Daniel's Spirit of Tennessee Cookbook Volume 1, by Lynne Tolley and Pat Mitchamore. This book is not you everyday, average cookbook. It is so much more than that. It features recipes traditional to the Southern United States but is also filled with numerous historical stories and facts. The book explains about the culture and traditions associate with cooking in the South.

I really enjoyed reading this cookbook. The stories are heartwarming and interesting.I really enjoyed reading the stories about Miss Mary Bobo's boarding house. The recipes all sound delicious. My favorite that I have prepared so far is the Wash Day Casserole. It turned out great. I also like that some recipes incorporate Jack Daniels, while other do not. That way families who do not cook with alcohol can still use this cookbook.

My concern with the book is that the recipes are jammed together very closely on each page and there are not pictures of the recipes prepared. I love looking through cookbooks at the pictures to see which recipes look really delicious and also as a reference to what the recipe should look like.

I highly recommend this cookbook to everyone.

Book Review: A Man of His Word

I was pleasantly surprised with the book A Man of His Word, by Kathleen Fuller. This book is about an Amish woman named Moriah who is marrying her childhood crush Levi. Levi has an identical twin named Gabriel. Gabriel has always been secretly in love with Moriah but refused to stand in the way of his brother's and Moriah's love for one another. When Levi abandons Moriah, Gabriel feels the burden left by his brother and tries to step in to care for Moriah. Gabriel stops at nothing to prove to Moriah his devotion and love for her. Moriah is terrified to give her heart again after feeling so betrayed by her husband.

I really enjoyed reading this book. I am a total sucker for love stories so this was right up my alley. When I began reading this book, I thought the first chapter or two were slow reading and I didn't get drawn into the plot right away. Once I read through more of the book, I was hooked. I stayed up all night to finish the story. I really enjoyed the love story between Moraih and Gabriel. I could feel the love and angst that Gabriel felt for Moriah. The feelings the author envokes in the reader is very powerful. Kathleen fuller is a very talented storyteller.

I actually found the story between Tobias and Rachel to be my favorite part of the book. Tobias is Moriah's sister and Rachel is a member of their Amish community. I loved their teasing nature with one another and the obvious unspoken passion. I almost wish the entire book had been devoted to their story.

While I am not a very religious person, I found the religious aspect to the story very heartwarming and I felt it really added to the love between the characters. The devotion and faith they had in god and his ability to see them through their challenges really helped to make me get to know the characters and feel their emotions with them.

I would defiantly recommend A Man of His Word to readers who enjoy a good romance. It is a story about love, family, faith, and never giving up hope.

http://www.thomasnelson.com/consumer/product_detail.asp?sku=1595548122&title=A-Man-of-His-Word&author=Kathleen-Fuller

Book Review: Read and Share Toddler Bible

I recently received to read and review The Read and Share Toddler Bible with bible stories retold by Gwen Ellis and illustrated by Steve Smallman. I was very impressed with this children's book. First, I must say it is a great idea. Children love hearing about bible stories but hearing them read aloud from an actual bible can be hard to understand and follow along. This stories are shortened and summarized using child friendly vocabulary and concepts. I loved the story about Adam and Eve and the Sneaky Snake. In this story, God tells them that eating fruit off a certain tree is a "no-no". I loved the use of the phrase "no-no", because so many of us parents use it on a daily, sometimes hourly basis. I think children can relate to this vocabulary better than telling them it is a forbidden tree.

I read this book in segments to my 11 month old daughter. She really just wanted to play with the pages but overall enjoyed our time reading it together. I think this book will be a great opportunity for us to read and bond together as she grows up. I prefer to read her books that are educational or have moral values. I love concept of taking bible stories and making them into short children's stories. This is exactly the type of reading material I enjoy sharing with her. I wish the book could have had pages made of cardboard so my daughter could read it alone, otherwise she will tear out the pages. I realize this is unreasonable for such a long children's book, but I have to criticize something about it.

I really enjoyed the illustrations by Steve Smallman. They are beautifully colorful and detailed. My daughter kept touching the pictures on each page as we were reading it. The people in the pictures have a cartoon like quality about them that make them more fun and appealing to children while they still look like real people with historical significance.

I definitely recommend this book for children.

New Book Review

I recently read Jungle Jack's The Wackiest, Wildest, and Weirdest Animals in the World by Jack Hanna. I have to say it was a fabulous, entertaining piece of non-fiction. My husband and I sat for hours reading through the book and discussing all the interesting facts about each unique animal. I loved how educational it was. There were animals in this book that I have never even heard of, let alone seen pictures and know details about. This is a great book for children to read because they will really enjoy all the fun facts about these strange animals.

The book is organized by putting a different animal on each page. Each page contains pictures of the animal and neat facts and trivia. I found the layout and structure of the book to be very easy to follow and very read friendly to children. I have a baby at home so I don't get a lot of time to sit and read uninterrupted but I was able to stop when I finished reading about one animal and pick up where I left off next time. This will again keep children interested in reading because they can easily follow through the book and pick which animals they feel like reading about.

I really enjoyed the pictures in the book. They were colorful and detailed. I have never seen a picture of a Naked Mole Rat and I loved seeing how ugly they are. There were a couple of pictures that I would have liked to be more focused and detailed. I am terrified of snakes and the picture of the anaconda gave me goosebumps.

Jack Hanna wrote an educational, interesting, and surprising book that will fascinate children and adults alike. I was extremely pleased with this book and recommend to all animal lovers. Hanna really found some wacky, wild, and weird animals to share with us.

For more information visit.
http://brb.thomasnelson.com/blogger/resources/57

Book Review: The Rivers Run Dry

I was pleasantly surprised by the book, The Rivers Run Dry, by Sibella Giorello. I do not normally read books from the suspense genre but I really enjoyed this book. It was hard to put down.

The book is about an FBI agent named Raleigh Harmon who has been relocated to Seattle. She lives with her mother and aunt, who are both fabulous characters in the story. I can picture these women in my mind and I love the eccentricities they bring to the story. She is investigating the disappearance of a woman. The crime unfolds into a unpredictable and suspenseful story. I consider myself pretty good and predicting the end of books, but this one was hard to guess. I loved that the book was suspenseful and chilling, without being gruesome or overly graphic.

I would have loved for their to be a bit of romance in the plot. Raleigh is such a like able character and I am a sucker for a love story. I also felt some of the interactions with Raleigh and the other FBI agents were somewhat cliche and predictable.

I think that Sibella Giorello is a very talented author who has a bright literary career ahead of her. I look forward to reading additional novels written by her. I would love to see Raleigh turned into a series.

Here is a link to more information about this book
http://brb.thomasnelson.com/blogger/resources/48

My summer reading list

I have some books I would like to read this summer. They include

The entire collection of Stephanie Laurens Bastian Club
The Crowning Glory of Calla Lily Ponder by Rebecca Wells
The Scenic Route by Binnie Kirshenbaum
The Physick Book of Delverance Dane by Katherine Howe
The House of Night series

I guess a lot of what I will read will depend on what my small town library has to offer.

My baby trees

My husband and dad planted 2 trees in our yard at the end of last summer. One of them is a plain old maple tree that was planted in our front yard. The second tree is a flowering pear tree that we planted in the back yard. I am going to measure how tall they are so I can see how much they have grown by the end of summer.

Here are their current stats. I wish I had measured them when we planted them.
Maple tree- 9feet 9 inches
Pear tree- just under 6feet

Update! September 27th, 2009
Maple Tree- 11 feet
Pear Tree- 7 feet 5 inches