Thursday, February 22, 2018

Books read Feb 22






The Forever Year (The Hearts of Men book 1) by Lou Aronica
Have read other works by the author and have enjoyed the books.
This one starts out with Mickey Sienna and he's 83 and his wife has been gone 4 years now and he's not himself. He ends up starting a fire in the kitchen and the neighbors rescue him while calling the fire department.
The grown children learn of it and they get together and decide it's time he goes into assisted living or a nursing home.
The youngest, Jessie, single says he will take him to live with him and the others sign off on it all together. Jessie is a writer who does feature stories and he has a girl Marina who is a schoolteacher.
Love how the father opens up about Gina-his first love because he nor any of the other siblings know anything about this. He confides in Marina and she does meet Mickey and they get along great.
Love the story inside the story and especially the care Jessie gives to his father while he's alive. Tragic at the end but also eye opening to understand what the father was trying to tell his son about his own life and how he wanted him to NOT walk in the same steps he had taken.
Excerpts from the authors other works are included at the end.
Received this review copy from the author and this is my honest opinion.




The Sneeze by Jennifer Johnston 
Colorful children's book about how to get one to sneeze.
Problem I have with this book is the letters are no dark enough to be able to read. Cute story but I think it sends the wrong message when you have to use pepper.
Rather a prank more than anything-to me.



Thai Takeout Cookbook: Favorite Thai Food Takeout Recipes to Make at Home by Lina Chang 
Table of contents broken up into meals, free gift, Intro about Thai cuisine, history, ingredients used most often and why. Lots of terms I'm unfamiliar with but there are descriptions of them and how they are used in the recipes.
Also list of equipment used in making the recipes is discussed, along with cooking methods.
Each recipe has a title  (English and Thai) servings, prep and cook time. Big color photo and list of ingredients.  How to make the dish but there is NO nutritional information.
Lots of ingredients and time to put it all together. Salmon Teriyaki would be our choice to make
Other works by the author are highlighted at the end.



Dessert Cookbook: Fast and Easy Recipes for the Mediterranean Diet (Free Gift): Mediterranean Cookbooks and Cooking (Healthy Dessert Cookbook for Busy People on a Budget 1) by Vesela Tabakova
Starts with table of contents and not in any special order and a short intro.
Recipes include a title, servings and list of ingredients which you should be able to substitute for your healthier dietary needs: low sugar, low fat, and low sodium products.
Directions are also included. There are NO pictures.
There is NO nutritional information.


Chicken Breast Recipes (Delicious Recipes Book 17) by June Kessler 
Starts with table of contents and a short intro.
Each recipe includes a title, short summary and  a list of ingredients which you should be able to substitute for your healthier dietary needs: low sodium, low sugar, and low fat products.
Not sure why you'd want to use a can of beans or diced tomoatoes when you can make the meal so much more healthier by using fresh items.
Directions are also included.
Servings listed at the end. NO nutritional information, NO pictures.
Recipes do not start at the beginning of a new page.
 



Chicken Wants to Roller Skate (J-Tech Creation Learn to Read Book 3) by Elsa Takaoka
Book starts out with chicken and he likes to do many things. He wants to do more so he makes a list of things he will need, to roller skate.
He doesn't do so well but he gets inspired when a cat comes along. Funny colorful children's story book.


Easy Stew Cookbook: 50 Delicious Stew Recipes (Stew Recipes, Stew Cookbook Book 1) by Chef Maggie Chow 
This book starts out with a free gift  and then author bio, an intro and a table of contents.
Notes and abbreviations charts are included.
Each recipe starts with a title, list of ingredients which you should be able to substitute for your healthier dietary needs: low sodium, low fat and low sugar products.
Directions are also given. Prep and cook and total times are listed in hart format.
Nutritional information is given-but NOT for what servings size: calories, fat-NOT broken up into good or bad, carbs, protein, cholesterol and sodium. 
Lots of variety and lots of different culuture from all over the world.
There are NO pictures.




and to all a good night by kaje harper
This book starts out with Mac and Tony and it's near Christmas and this year if Tony doesn't show up in FL at his moms for the holiday she will come find him.
She knows nothing of his love for Mac. We learn of the cases at the homicide dept that Mac is handling.
The cases and leads to solving them are discussed and things fall into place.
They are able to talk every day but try to keep busy while apart from one another.
What I really like about this book as this is not my genre is that the sex scenes are not explicit and are just mentioned-no details.
Looked for more from this author but again it's not my genre but appreciate the style of writing and I enjoyed the book.



Bake Boss Cakes: 25 Imaginative and Creative Cake Recipes, Full color by Nik Holt
Book starts with table of contents which are broken up by flavors.
An intro about the word cake and the history of where it came from.
Each recipe starts with a title and short summary of the dessert. Small color photo of finished item.
Servings, prep and total time to make
List of ingredients which you should be able to subsititute for your healtiher dietary needs: low sodium, low fat, low sugar products but you will not get the desired taste.
Directions on how to make are included. There is NO nutritinal information.
One section is using liquors which don't interest me but might interest you. Quite the variety.


Seasonings - The Ultimate Recipe Guide by Jessica Dreyher
Book starts out with an offer of a free ebook. Table of contents where items are listed but not in any order.
Recipes start with a title, prep and cook time ready in along with yield.
list of ingredinets and how to mix them. There are no pictures.
There is no nutritional information.Like how they offer what food this is best served on top of.
Taco seasoning one is one we'd try as we have all the spices.
A KEEPER for me because it's what makes our food taste good these days.



Meals in Jars :The Ultimate Guide
This book starts out with a free gift and table of contents which are broken up into meals.
Recipe starts with a title, prep cook and ready in along with servings.
List of ingredients and you should be able to substitute for your healither dietary needs: low fat, low sodium and low sugar products.
How to mix and place in a jar til use later.
Blueberry pancakes for breakfast sound like a good idea for the micro when the kids are making their own meals.
There are NO pictures. There is NO nutritional information.


Credit Scoring Secrets (Credit Repair): How To Raise Your Credit Score 100 Points In 100 Days by James Paris (Author),‎ Robert Yetman (Author)
This book is good because it explains about credits and how many are misled when it comes to gettting the reports from the 3 agencies.
It's very important to have credit cards because if you maintain a good credit it effects a lot of other things in your life-how much your apr will be, car insurance rates, etc.
Like letters at the end as examples of how to get your reports corrected along with other useful information.





International slow cooker recipes by Brenda Finney
Starts out with a intro and then table of contents which are broken up into country dishes.
Each recipe has a title , prep and cook time and servings.
List of ingredients and you should be able to substitute for your healtier dietary needs: low sodium, low sugar and low fat products.
Directions on how to make are included. Suggestions for seasonings.
There are NO pictures. There is NO nutritional information.
Not sure why you'd use a can of diced tomatoes when you can make it more healthier chopping up fresh ones.
Same with green beans why use a can when you can buy them fresh at the store.



Burning with Desire by Patricia Fischer
Gabby and her teen daughter leave TX and arrive in Marietta, MT to start over again. She bought the diner and hopes to settle in.
Next door neighbor, Kyle is a firefighter among a lot of other jobs and he helps show them around.
Like how they fit in and help with community goals. She has special secret recipes and hopes the others in town will love them. She has some changes she wants to make to the diner but she wants all the waitresses to stay on.
She grows to like Kyle as he's just what she needs.  Learn more about Trinity and how she's welcomed in town and with the other teens. They are not used to the weather but Kyle's pitch in for outside clothing.
She also buys food from local shops and farms. We also learn more about his family that he keeps hidden because they are not who he is.
Predictable and lots of steamy sex scenes.
Like also how the town descriptions are displyed-as they are in other books-they are where they are, in right order.
Love all the charity work, calendars, cooking etc and learning what new things are going on with others in town as I do follow some of the other characters via other books by other authors.
Loved the confrontation at the end-make all things come together. Twists and turns. Other works by the author and bio at the end.
Received this review copy from the author as a free download and this is my honest opinion.



AMAZING SNACKS & APPETIZERS: 27 recipes for perfect party by Karen Ray
Start with a free gift offer, other works by the author and table of contents where dishes are broken up into meal categories.
Introduction about holidays and what makes them special. Each recipe starts with a title, prep time and servings. List of ingredients and you should be able to substitute for your healthier dietary needs: Low sugar, low sodium and low fat products.
Directions on how to make the dish.
There is a color photo after the recipe.
There is NO nutritional information.
Offer of the free book is also listed again at the end.


The Tomato Cookbook (2nd Edition): 33 Amazing Tomato Dishes That You’ve Never Thought About! by Olivia Rogers
Starts out with a table of contents, in no specific order.
Introduction is next and talks about tomoatoes, many different facts about them.
Each recipe starts with a title, color photo and a short sentence about the food.
List of ingredients, no amounts shown. How to make the dish. Also has a tomato trivia tip at the end.
There is NO nutritional information.
Other recipes have the amounts of ingredients listed.
Free book link in the recipes section.
Then back to the recipes.
Lots of different ways to prepare tomoatoes for a snack food or part of a meal.
Offer of the free book again at the end of the book along with table of contents again as well.




Crock Pot Express Cookbook: 500 Healthy Crock Pot Recipes to Cook at Home by Jeff Jones
Starts with table of contents where the recipes are listed by meals and a free gift and an intro.
Each recipe starts with a title, prep and cook time and servings.
List of ingredients and you should be able to substitute for your healthier dietary needs: low sodium, low sugar and low fat products.
Directions are included and there are NO pictures.
THere is some nutritional information but no serving size listed: calories, fat-NOT broken up into good or bad, fiber, carbs, and protein. No sodium is listed either.


Italian Cookbook: 100 Italian Recipes to Make at Home by Jack Johns
Table of contents broken up by meals then introduction about Italian dining and customs. Each recipe starts with a title and prep and cook time and servings.
List of ingredients and you should be able to substitute for your healtiehr dietary needs: low sugar, low fat, low sodium products.
Directions are given. There are NO pictures.
Some nutrtional information but no serving size listed: calories, fat-NOT broken up into good or bad, fiber, carbs and protein. NO sodium is mentioned.
Lots of spices used and time consuming.



I love you valentine by cindy brancken
Colorful rhyming children's book about Valentine's.
There are numbers, animals, shapes and a lot of other fun things to teach a child.
Other works by the author are highlighted at the end.



Don't Be Mine Valentine by Barbara Bartholomew
Starts out with Jackson Spurlock and we find out what he doesn't like and things he does like.
His mom will bake cupcakes for his school party and he doesn't want to write out Valentine's for each of the students.
He has a hard time with the one for Maddie-they dislike one another. Mike and Maddie come over in the afternoon and he's told he has to be nice to her.
Like how it all ends...



The Cutest Little duckie by victoria valentine
Cute colorful children's book about a duck and where he lives, very descriptive and shows you via the pictures above the words.
They wander off to another area and she investigates all the new things. She compares them to herself.
The monkey becomes his friend and they learn a lot from one another over the time they spend together. Loud noises occur and they scurry up the tree with help from the monkey.
The big brown creature is after them til they get to talking to learn more about him-a bear cub who is lost.
They meet so many other animals in the story and I'm glad they each get a spot that you can learn about them.
Winter is coming and they will join up in the spring as Duckie flew south.



Opening Act / Be Mine, Miss Valentine by Patricia Kay
Starts out with Alex Sumemrfield getting stopped in upstate NY for speeding. The officer is a female and he has some particular words to say to her that make her angry.
She knows if she was a male she wouldn't have to put up with that. Her relative interrupts her paperwork about the new tenant who's locked his cat in the broom closet. Yep it's alex, again.
She doesn't get along with him and all he can think about are sexual fantasies.
They keep running into one another as she lives upstairs from her cousin and Alex is renting the carriage house. They do spend a lot of time together over the summer months and she is even able to offer her opinion of the play he's writing.
He has to leave abruptly as his ex wife is back in town with a child-his child. Things get messy and Veronica knows they can never be a thing as she lives in Juliette, NY and he lives and works in the city. Good descriptions of the areas.
Other excerpts from the authors other works are included at the end.


Be Mine by Brenda Ponnay
Children's colorful book about Valentine's using animals and some traits they have. Problem is the words are too small to read and it's hard to enlarge them on a tablet.
Like lobster one the best as I'm from the northeast. Colors don't blend into the background very well.  19 different animals are featured.
Other works by the author and friends are highlighted at the end.



Valentine's Day On A Dime by Jill Cooper
Free ecourse is offered. Author bio's are included.
Table of contents and introduction. Lots of free and innovative ideas. Like the idea of a treasure hunt if the holiday falls on the weekend-like rhyming clues they offer for this.
We don't go big on the day ourselves. Make a special meal one day and dessert the next day-spread it out to make it last longer.
Kids things to do is also included, lots of ideas.
Recipes are included along with ideas for food.
Each recipe starts with a title and has list of ingredients-most often it's prepackaged items so not a lot of time to make the dish.
No pictures and no nutritional information. Dinner for two is also included that starts out with a title for the recipe.
Ingredients and you should be able to subsittute for your healthier dietary needs: low fat, low sugar, low sodium products. How to prepare the dish. There are NO pictures. There is NO nutritional information.
Reader's tips have also been included. Other works by the authors is highlighted at the end.
Good book and could be essentially used for any holiday that you want to celebrate and save money by doing it yourself.


Bakery Cookbook: 150+ Great Cake Recipes Everything That You Need for Tasty Day (Healthy Food Book 61) by Teresa Moore
Starts with a free gift andtable of contents, in no order and a very short intro.
Recipe start with a title list of ingredients and you should be able to substitute for your healither dietary needs: low sodium, low sugar and low fat products.
Directions are given. There is  NO nutritional information.
There are NO pictures.
Some recipes are written in American format, some in England, some are mixed.




Good Night Little Turtle by David Cunliffe 
Colorful children's book. Hard to read with some pages that have a dark background as the letters are also dark. On the tablet you are forced to view the book in landscape mode.
This book shows many different animals and birds as they say good night to one another.
Cute pictures of where they sleep.


Early Readers book set: Pam the puppy and her big ball, animal stories by Leela Hope
Colorful rhmying children's book about Pam the puppy and she has a big ball.
Offer of a free gift. Pam's brothers won't let her play ball, she just watches them. She found a ball herself and it was shiny and so pretty.
Her brothers then wanted to play with her and she allowed them to play. She liked to share and got others to share with her.
Other works by the author are highlighted at the end.


Good Night Jungle: Children's Book by Leela hope
Colorful children's book about the animals in the jungle. Love that there are many animals shown and where they sleep in the jungle.
They try to help others with advice about how to go to sleep, some are scared and don't feel safe.
Free gift is included. Other works by the author are highlighted at the end.



Children's Book: How Do I Stop My Baby Brother From Crying (Childress Children's Book Series 1) by Geryn Childress
Colorful children's book that should help an older child with calming a younger one.
They think of the obvious: diaper, food and he keeps going on and on.
Try playing and piggy back rides to no avail. Parents will have the solution.


15-Minute Meals (2nd Edition): An Everyday Cookbook of 140 Tasty Last-Minute Recipes That Are Quick & Easy to Make! by Olivia Rogers
Book starts out with table of contents where dishes are not in any order.
Intro about how nutritious the meals are and contain basic things the body needs.
Each recipe starts with a title, color photo and summary of the dish. List of contents and you should be able to substitute for your healthier dietary needs: low sugar, low fat, low sodium products.
Don't understand why you'd want to use a can of beans when you can make them fresh and it'd be so much healthier. How to prepare the meal and tips are also included.
Some dishes require a crockpot, some a skillet. Offer of a free gift is among the recipes.
Will try corn muffin recipe and the offer of a free gift is also at the end of the book along with the table of contents.



The Christmas town by Donna VanLiere
This holiday read is about Lauren, she's lived a hard life with her mother in jail and then later in foster homes.
Now she's in her 20's and lives with another girl.
Story also follows Ben who's mentally challenged and he puts notes in grocery bags at the store. Very inspirational uplifting notes that he selects for everyone.
Ben's mother Stacy meets Lauren at the police station so they can point out who hit her car and left. After they stop at local bakery where they talk and Lauren tells her she works at the grocery store.
She has a suggestion for Gloria's Place-a local place for mothers, children and those in need. They love her suggestion and her help.
Love how the community takes care of the people in need. 
  


Weight Watchers Crock-Pot Smart Points Cookbook by Abdul King
Starts out with table of contents where recipes are broken up into meals and categories of main dish.
Introdcution is very long and talks about a lot of different things: weight watchers system, cooking in a crock pot and why and smart points.
Each recipe starts with a title, summary of the dish, servings, prep and cook times and smart points.
List of ingredients and you might be able to substitute for your healthier dietary needs: low sodium, low fat, and low sugar products.
Not sure why in some recipes they use canned tomatoes when you can use fresh and cut them up yourself-lot more healthier.
Dirrections are given along with some nutritional informaiton. Doesn't state how big of a serving but calories, protein, and fat which is NOT broken up into good or bad, and carbs. No sodium is mentioned.
Some of the ingredients in a recipe use England measurements along with other ingredients that call for American measurements-NOT sure why the author can't convert it so the whole recipe is using one or the other.


Children's Book:Roy The Messy Boy: Early reader book Stories for Children's funny bedtime story collection illustrated picture book for kids by Leela Hope
Colorful children's rhyming book about Roy.  He just won't clean his room. His mother told him one day the pixies would take his things away.
He just laughs at her til one day...
 He is so hurt that he vows to keep things clean....it's a wonder how long that will last.
Free gift is included and other works by the author are highlighted at the end.


tell me how you say good night by angie dickens
Coloful children's story about animals and how they say good night.
Very big pictures and few words that are sometimes hard to read on a dark background.
Each animals just wants a hug before going to sleep.
Good night in different languages also.
cute-don't let the bed bugs bite-phrase we say to our grandson.
Glossary at the end on how to pronouse the foreign phrases.



Rexy the Dinosaur and a New Bike: (Children's book about a Dinosaur Who Learns that Sharing is Caring, Bedtime Story, Picture Books, Ages 3-5, Preschool Books, Kids Books, Dinosaur Books) by Ellie J. Woods 
Book starts out with offer of a free gift.
Children's colorful book about Rexy the dinosaur and he's very happy today.
He's got a new bike and he wears his helmet around the yard. Trixie the female dinosaur neighbor and she wants to ride his bike.
Rexy is not very friendly and as he rides it the tire pops and Trixie just runs home.
He is able to fix the bike and heads over to Trixie's where he's a lot more friendlier now.
Other works by the author are highlighted at the end.



The yellow envelope, one gift, three rules, and a life-changing journey around the world  by Kim Dinan
Love hearing of the locations and things they learn at each new location.
Starts in India where Kim and Wendy are traveling through.  Like this author already as she's straight forward and descriptive about things that matter to me.
Back in time we find Kim quitting her job and her husband Brian are going to travel the world.
Three years prior she wanted to just write from Oregon as her run calms her. 
Like the time they spend together searching for themselves and discovering themselves alone and apart.
Feel like this is two stories in one: one about the trips around the world and the other story is about them as they travel around the world.
From NLS for my BARD



The Christmas promise by Donna VanLiere
Love how each chapter starts out with words of wisdom from other famous people-touching!
Starts out with the past when she lost her son and husband within a few short weeks of one another.
Grace will prevail. Story then goes back a year and we find Gloria and she's been a widow for 7 years cleaning out a frigerator that one has dropped off in her driveway.
She cleans it out and then donaes it to another in town who is in need of one=she has contact with a church in town.
Love hearing of how things work in this town-it's a community effort.
She gets others in town to donate huge boxes of clothes to those in need and she loves that she's able to do this for others.
Love memory of Mt. St. Helens as we've visited there-new life all around.
Like hearing from the author herself about how this book and series came about. Books that help others, they reach out to you.
Love the characters and how they turn out during the Christmas stories. Promise of love and grace that makes Christmas.
From NLS for my BARD


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