The World Needs More Love Letters

I adore the title on this book! Filled with all in one stationery and envelopes, this book is a perfect one to have on hand to write notes to friends, family, and loved ones. The pages have gorgeous, modern designs on one side that is folded to be the envelope part, then a lined side for lovely notes to be written. I'm such a word nerd! My parents are moving, so I had to finally move the last of my childhood and high school items out of their house. When going through all the shoe boxes in my old closet, I found that I had saved most of the letters and notes I have received over the years. It was so much fun to go through them! (though it was a lot! lol) I'm especially glad that, when I realized my friendship with Andrew was going somewhere, that I asked him to switch from email to handwritten letters, since there is nothing sweeter than getting a handwritten note. So, I agree with the title. The world does need more love letters! This book is such a wonderful start to encourage those who have touched your life, from teachers to grandparents, mentors to friends. The world truly needs more love letters.
I received this book from http://www.bloggingforbooks.com/

The Miracles in You

Did you know that you are a miracle? Or that your life can be a miracle to people around you or even on the other side of the world?

Inspired by the powerful, true stories in The Miracles in You, you will begin noticing the amazing wonders in everyday life. And you'll see how God works His miracles through ordinary people–including you!

—Mark Victor Hansen, #1 New York Times Best-Selling Author of Chicken Soup For The Soul

My thoughts: I think we sometimes take the miracles around us for granted. The little miracles that are in the everyday living and even the bigger ones, where someone reaches out in our hour of need or there is an unexplained happy outcome when the circumstances were looking dire. Things that can only be explained as miracles. This book is an excellent, encouraging collection of just so stories that will open your eyes to those miracles that have been in your life and in those around you. Easy to read and enjoyable, this book is a great read!
I received this book from Worthy in exchange for my honest review.

Maggie Bright

England, 1940. Clare Childs knew life would change when she unexpectedly inherited the Maggie Bright—a noble fifty-two-foot yacht. In fact, she’s counting on it. But the boat harbors secrets. When a stranger arrives, searching for documents hidden onboard, Clare is pulled into a Scotland Yard investigation that could shed light on Hitler’s darkest schemes and prompt America to action.

Across the Channel, Hitler’s Blitzkrieg has the entire British army in retreat with little hope for rescue at the shallow beaches of Dunkirk. With time running out, Churchill recruits civilian watercraft to help. Hitler is attacking from land, air, and sea, and any boat that goes might not return. Yet Clare knows Maggie Bright must answer the call—piloted by an American who has refused to join the war effort until now and a detective with a very personal motive for exposing the truth.

The fate of the war hinges on this rescue. While two men join the desperate fight, a nation prays for a miracle.

My thoughts: I love Tracy Groot's stories! She had proved to be a versatile and eclectic writer, which is one I appreciate. From stories set in Biblical times (I was blown away by Madman!) to more recent history, such as this one. Her books are well researched and her characters come alive, making the stories hard to put down! I love that her books are so well detailed and researched, making events that I didn't know much about interesting to read on. This book is a wonderful story of faith and redemption during a dark time in history. I highly recommend it for readers who enjoy historical fiction!
I received this book from Tyndale in exchange for my honest review.

Homecoming

Kerana is being sent to Earth to begin her duty as an Eldurian. Hers are a perfect people, without flaw and without sin, never experiencing the fall of man. Created by God to shepherd His people on Earth, they remain in the shadows, unnoticed. Kerana looks human, speaks like them, and has been taught to act like them. Above all her mission is to serve the humans.

Arriving on Earth, Kerana meets Eli at school. He is an ordinary human, with a father suffering from alcoholism, and a past that threatens to ruin his life. A star scholarship lacrosse player, Eli has to forget his true passion and live in a shell that doesn’t let anyone in. Until he meets Kerana. They find themselves intertwined in a connection that neither can quite explain. When this connection puts the two of them in danger, they find comfort and protection from each other. When Eli discovers that there is more to Kerana than just her stunning looks and grace, the Eldurians and their home planet of Eden may not remain a secret for very long.

My thoughts: I never know what to expect from new authors. Sometimes it is a lot of hype, only to disappoint, while other times the quality of the story and characters blows me away. This book falls into the latter category! From the get go, it pulled me in, as the reader is introduced to the Eldurians, a race that lives in Eden and serves as guardians to the humans. When Kerana is sent to earth for her time as a guardian, things change for all of Eden.
I like the concept of another race, and I think that Kate did a fabulous job of making them unique and explaining their differences from humans. I like the little peaks we get into their lives and how they interact with humans. This is a fun, sweet story that is great for a variety of ages, since it is nice and clean. I look forward to reading the rest of the trilogy! I appreciate that it leaves off where you wonder what happens next, but this part of the story wraps up nicely.
I received this book from the author in exchange for my honest review.

Crave. Eat. Heal.

After struggling for many years with a raging sweet tooth and emotionally-driven cravings, author Annie Oliverio began the journey back to a healthy, balanced palate. This is a cookbook focused on plant-based foods that protect, nourish, and heal – yet satisfy “cravings” that can easily trip one up when striving to eat healthier foods or when feeling lonely, stressed or in the need of comfort.

My thoughts: I've been thinking of going refines sugar free for a bit now, since I can have quite the sweet tooth. So, I was thrilled to see this cookbook come up for review! I love that Annie Oliverio offers 144 recipes that are free of refined sugar, oil (or most of them are) and are either gluten free or have a GF option. I love that her recipes give one new ideas for what to do with more unique foods, showing the nutritional benefits of diversifying in our diets more.
This cookbook is a keeper!
I received this book from Cedar Fort in exchange for my honest review.

About the Author: If there is an unnamed, undiagnosed condition where one suffers from planning, thinking about, and anticipating future breakfasts, lunches, and dinners while eating breakfast, lunch, or dinner, then I have it. And I don’t want to be cured. But I wouldn’t be opposed to having this ailment named after me.

I was fortunate to be raised in a home with two excellent cooks: my mom and dad. Mom covered the basics of breakfasts, lunches in brown paper bags, and a square meal at night. She also covered Thanksgiving and Easter dinners. Dad took over on Christmas Eve or whenever an ingredient—be it a stinky cheese or olives or eggplant or artichokes or polenta—caught his fancy. Sauce splatters and piles of pots and pans in the sink were guaranteed. Between mom and dad, my three siblings and I ate eclectically and well.

My own culinary journey got off to a rocky start when I began living on my own post-college. I went for convenience and speed (and sugary, fatty, salty) rather than quality. Slowly, however, I began buying more fresh and whole foods to make my own meals. At the same time, I was learning about what foods are best for our bodies. Long story short, my plodding and indirect journey led me to plant-based eating. I no longer rely on packaged, frozen, or prepared meals, and instead make everything we need right here in our own kitchen.

What about the non-food part of my life? Before escaping the mean city streets for the wild, windy plains of Oklahoma, I was an administrative assistant and office manager at a subscription fulfillment company in Boulder, at a think-tank in Santa Monica, at a university in Cambridge, MA, in the Green Zone in Baghdad, and at a non-profit in Washington, D.C.

I now spend a good deal of time walking the pastures trying to identify different types of grasses and insects, feeding hummingbirds, writing and reading, struggling to solve crossword puzzles (with a pen and a lot of Wite-Out), and blogging at An Unrefined Vegan and Virtual Vegan Potluck. I live in blissful satellite- and cable-free isolation with my husband, Kel, and our only son, Ike (part dachshund, part Labrador).

The Pharaoh's Daughter

You will be called Anippe, daughter of the Nile. Do you like it?” Without waiting for a reply, she pulls me into her squishy, round tummy for a hug.
I’m trying not to cry. Pharaoh’s daughters don’t cry.
When we make our way down the tiled hall, I try to stop at ummi Kiya’s chamber. I know her spirit has flown yet I long for one more moment. Amenia pushes me past so I keep walking and don’t look back.
Like the waters of the Nile, I will flow.

Anippe has grown up in the shadows of Egypt’s good god Pharaoh, aware that Anubis, god of the afterlife, may take her or her siblings at any moment. She watched him snatch her mother and infant brother during childbirth, a moment which awakens in her a terrible dread of ever bearing a child. Now she is to be become the bride of Sebak, a kind but quick-tempered Captain of Pharaoh Tut’s army. In order to provide Sebak the heir he deserves and yet protect herself from the underworld gods, Anippe must launch a series of deceptions, even involving the Hebrew midwives—women ordered by Tut to drown the sons of their own people in the Nile.
When she finds a baby floating in a basket on the great river, Anippe believes Egypt’s gods have answered her pleas, entrenching her more deeply in deception and placing her and her son Mehy, whom handmaiden Miriam calls Moses, in mortal danger.
As bloodshed and savage politics shift the balance of power in Egypt, the gods reveal their fickle natures and Anippe wonders if her son, a boy of Hebrew blood, could one day become king. Or does the god of her Hebrew servants, the one they call El Shaddai, have a different plan—for them all?

My thoughts: This story is such an interesting, historical tale! I love how Mesu Andrew's weaves what we know about the time of Moses and fiction into one seamless story that is hard to put down! I love how Mesu brings out the history behind our beloved Bibles stories that we have grown up, but puts them in a new light that gets the reader to see the stories we take for granted through a whole new light.
The characters in this book are interesting. I also found it fascinating how the Egyptians viewed their Pharaoh, which is evident in this story, since it starts before Anippe's brother becomes pharaoh.
If you enjoy Biblical based fiction, this book is a wonderful one!
I received this book from Blogging for Books in exchange for my honest review.

Take Ten

1. “Safe?” said Mr. Beaver; “don’t you hear what Mrs. Beaver tells you? Who said anything about safe? ‘Course he isn’t safe. But he’s good. He’s the King, I tell you.” The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe

2."Not all those who wander are lost" The Fellowship of the Ring

3. “It isn't Narnia, you know," sobbed Lucy. "It's you. We shan't meet you there. And how can we live, never meeting you?"
"But you shall meet me, dear one," said Aslan.
"Are -are you there too, Sir?" said Edmund.
"I am," said Aslan. "But there I have another name. You must learn to know me by that name. This was the very reason why you were brought to Narnia, that by knowing me here for a little, you may know me better there.”
The Voyage of the Dawn Treader

4. "We none of us expect to be in smooth water all our days." Persuasion

5.

6. "You can't get around what's right, though. When we stop loving them, that's when they win." Black Like Me

7. “Men of sense, whatever you may choose to say, do not want silly wives.” Emma

8.“I cannot make speeches, Emma...If I loved you less, I might be able to talk about it more. But you know what I am. You hear nothing but truth from me. I have blamed you, and lectured you, and you have borne it as no other woman in England would have borne it.” Emma

9. "We must not cease from exploration. And the end of all our exploring will be to arrive where we began and to know the place for the first time. T.S. Eliot

10. "How beautiful a day can be when kindness touches it." George Eliot

This one has to be one of the easiest lists for me, since I collect the quotes I like.;) I have for years, starting with a little notebook that I would jot them down in, then moving on to just writing them on the inside flaps of my journals, so I could enjoy them time and again. It was hard to keep it at ten!