Vibrant India

From the acclaimed chef and owner of Brooklyn Delhi, a debut cookbook focused on the celebrated vegetarian fare of South India.

Lifelong vegetarian and chef Chitra Agrawal takes you on an epicurean journey to her mother’s hometown of Bangalore and back to Brooklyn, where she adapts her family’s South Indian recipes for home cooks. This particular style of Indian home cooking, often called the “yoga diet,” is light and fresh, yet satisfying and rich in bold and complex flavors. Grains, legumes, fresh produce, coconut, and yogurt—along with herbs, citrus, chiles, and spices—form the cornerstone of this delectable cuisine, rooted in vegetarian customs and honed over centuries for optimum taste and nutrition.

From the classic savory crepe dosa, filled with lemony turmeric potatoes and cilantro coconut chutney, to new creations like coconut polenta topped with spring vegetables 'upma" and homemade yogurt, the recipes in Vibrant India are simple to prepare and a true celebration of color and flavor on a plate. Chitra weaves together the historical context behind the region’s cuisine and how she brought some of these age-old traditions to life thousands of miles away in Brooklyn during the city’s exciting food renaissance.

Relying on her experience as a culinary instructor, Chitra introduces the essential Indian cooking techniques, tips, and ingredients you’ll need to prepare a full range of recipes from quick vegetable stir frys (corn, basil, and leeks flavored with butter, cumin, and black pepper), salads (citrus red cabbage and fennel slaw with black mustard seeds, curry leaves, and chile), yogurt raitas (shredded beets and coconut in yogurt), and chutneys and pickles (preserved Meyer lemon in chile brine) to hearty stews (aromatic black eyed peas, lentils, and greens), coconut curries (summer squash in an herby coconut yogurt sauce), and fragrant rice dishes (lime dill rice with pistachios). Rounding out the book is an array of addictive snacks (popcorn topped with curry leaf butter), creative desserts (banana, coconut, and cardamom ice cream), and refreshing drinks (chile watermelon juice with mint). Chitra provides numerous substitutions to accommodate produce seasonality, ingredient availability, and personal tastes. The majority of recipes are gluten-free and vegan or can be easily modified to adhere to those dietary restrictions.

Whether you are a vegetarian or just looking for ways to incorporate more vegetarian recipes into your repertoire, Vibrant India is a practical guide for bringing delicious Indian home cooking to your table on a regular basis.

My thoughts: We have a huge garden and I am always looking for ways to use up copious amounts of vegetables, so I was thrilled to get s copy of this cookbook to try out. I love that the flavors are so different, but the recipes aren't ridiculously hard. If you are looking for more ways to fix your vegetables, then I highly recommend this one!
I received a copy of this book from Blogging for Books in exchange for my honest review.

Are My Kids on Track

Tools for Identifying and Developing Spiritual, Social, and Emotional Growth

From birth to adulthood, our children's physical and intellectual development is carefully tracked and charted. But what about their hearts? After all, how our children develop emotionally, socially, and spiritually will determine who they become as husbands and wives, fathers and mothers, friends and co-workers.
Are My Kids on Track? helps you identify and measure 12 key emotional, social, and spiritual milestones in your children's lives. Moreover, you will discover practical ways to guide your kids through any stumbling blocks they might encounter and help them reach the appropriate landmarks. Along the way the authors pinpoint the different ways boys and girls develop, so you can help your child flourish in his or her own way.
Filled with decades of experience from three practicing counselors, speakers, and writers, this book provides you with valuable, current research and user-friendly, hands-on practices to make supporting your kids' soul
development a seamless part of family life. Don't just raise smart kids--raise courageous, compassionate, resilient, empathetic, and smart kids.

My thoughts: This book should be on every parents shelf, since it is a wonderful guide for parents or guardians to evaluate if their child is on track emotionally. I enjoyed the information immensely and will certainly be referencing this book for years to come.
I like that the authors have so many years of experience between the three of them and that this is a easy to read and apply guide. I highly recommend this one!
I received this book from Bethany House in exchange for my honest review.

Sandpiper Cove

Hope Harbor police chief Lexie Graham has plenty on her plate raising her son alone and dealing with a sudden rash of petty theft and vandalism in her coastal Oregon hometown. As a result, she has zero time for extracurricular activities--including romance. Ex-con Adam Stone isn't looking for love either--but how ironic is it that the first woman to catch his eye is a police chief? Yet wishing for things that can never be is foolish.

Nevertheless, when Lexie enlists Adam's help to keep a young man from falling into a life of crime, sparks begin to fly. And as they work together, it soon becomes apparent that God may have a different--and better--future planned for them than either could imagine.

Lauded by Library Journal as "a master at character development," Irene Hannon welcomes readers back to this charming Oregon seaside village where hearts heal--and love blooms.

My thoughts: Readers are invited to once again visit Hope Harbor with this charming story of second chances. I enjoyed getting to know the characters and like how Irene has not only told a story at this point in their "lives" but has also taken the time to give both main characters depth with their background, showing the reader how they arrived at the point they are at in the story. It was interesting to get a glimpse of how difficult it is for Adam to adjust to life after prison, which includes not trusting the police and dealing with prejudices and vandalism. I love how Lexie's mom encourages her to see past Adam's labels early on. This is a wonderful story of grace and second chances!
I received this book from Revell in exchange for my honest review.

Lost and Found

The “right” homeschooling philosophy. The “right” brand of theology. The “right” meal-planning, home-managing, keep-it-all-together parenting. Kendra Fletcher, homeschooling mom of eight, had it all “right,” until it all fell apart. In the course of eighteen months, Kendra found her baby in a coma, ran over her five-year-old, and nearly lost her eight-year-old to a septic ruptured appendix. Lost and Found is the story of how God used those events to transform her family’s self-righteous religion into freedom in Christ.

Fletcher’s debut book is the gripping true story of how God used suffering to save her family from empty religion. As wave after wave of crisis hit, the Fletchers discovered that getting religion “right” wasn’t a good substitute for a living relationship with a loving God. Through their suffering, they learned about misplaced identities and false hope, and they threw themselves wholly into the arms of Jesus—where they found the grace they needed.
Fletcher, a well-known writer and conference speaker in Christian homeschooling circles, addresses the quiet legalism that so easily infiltrates Christian communities and exposes the dangers of focusing our hopes on the “right” ways of worship, work, and family life. More than a memoir, Lost and Found invites all of us to give up the things that hold us in bondage and find our value, worth, significance, hope, and identity in Christ alone.

My thoughts: Wow! It was so interesting to read about the Fletchers and their journey through trials to a deeper relationship with the Lord. I can't believe just how much they went through in and 18 month period. As a mother, it confronted some of my worst fears, and yet I was so blessed by this book to see how God blessed them through the hard times and how their heartbreak was used for good. Having been homeschooled, I found the patriarchal group they were a part of interesting, since some of my friends were in groups like that growing up.
I received this book from Litfuse in exchange for my honest review.

The One True Love of Alice Ann

Living in rural Georgia in 1941, sixteen-year-old Alice-Ann has her heart set on her brother's friend Mack; despite their five-year age gap, Alice-Ann knows she can make Mack see her for the woman she'll become. But when they receive news of the attack on Pearl Harbor and Mack decides to enlist, Alice-Ann realizes she must declare her love before he leaves. Though promising to write, Mack leaves without confirmation that her love is returned. But Alice-Ann is determined to wear the wedding dress her maiden aunt never had a chance to wear--having lost her fiance in the Great War. As their correspondence continues over the next three years, Mack and Alice-Ann are drawn closer together. But then Mack's letters cease altogether, leaving Alice-Ann to fear history repeating itself. Dreading the war will leave her with a beautiful dress and no happily ever after, Alice-Ann fills her days with work and caring for her best friend's war-torn brother, Carlton. As time passes and their friendship develops into something more, Alice-Ann wonders if she'll ever be prepared to say good-bye to her one true love and embrace the future God has in store with a newfound love. Or will a sudden call from overseas change everything?

My thoughts: I adored this coming of age story! It was so refreshing to read a book where the main character had more substance to her, since Alice-Ann is delightful and *gasp* doesn't look like a model. Eva Marie does a fantastic job of breathing life into the story of a young woman from a small town in Georgia who grows up when her love goes to war. I highly recommend this one!

Her Secret

New York Times and USA Today bestselling author Shelley Shepard Gray begins a new series—The Amish of Hart County—with this suspenseful tale of a young Amish woman who is forced to move to a new town to escape a threatening stalker.

After a stalker went too far, Hannah Hilty and her family had no choice but to leave the bustling Amish community where she grew up. Now she’s getting a fresh start in Hart County, Kentucky…if only she wasn’t too scared to take it. Hannah has become afraid to trust anyone—even Isaac, the friendly Amish man who lives next door. She wonders if she'll ever return to the trusting, easy-going woman she once was.

For Isaac Troyer, the beautiful girl he teasingly called “The Recluse” confuses him like no other. When he learns of her past, he knows he's misjudged her. However, he also understands the importance of being grateful for God’s gifts, and wonders if they will ever have anything in common. But as Hannah and Isaac slowly grow closer, they realize that there’s always more to someone than meets the eye.

Just as Hannah is finally settling into her new life, and perhaps finding a new love, more secrets are revealed and tragedy strikes. Now Hannah must decide if she should run again or dare to fight for the future she has found in Hart County.

My thoughts: Amish fiction has kind of exploded in recent years, so it's easy to over look this one and think that it is just another story along the same lines. But it's not, since it deals with a young Amish woman who's family had to relocate due to a stalker going to far. The suspense and character development keeps the story going and makes one look forward to the next book in this series! The secrets and mysteries in this story make the reader long for the next book to already be out, as you finish the last page!
I received this book from Litfuse in exchange for my honest review.

Unchained

Christians are free in Christ, yet Christianity can feel like a prison.

Unchained helps Christians who don’t feel that grace has changed their lives.

Often when people follow Jesus, they feel more guilty instead of more free. A powerful book for the spiritually restless, Unchained shows readers how to have a robust faith that celebrates their freedom in Christ without compromising their holiness as God’s followers.

Unchained turns to the person and work of Jesus Christ as the source of freedom—not just his work 2,000 years ago but also what he is doing today. As readers dig into the meaning of the freedom that Jesus offers, they will understand, perhaps for the first time, what true freedom in Christ means.

My thoughts: This book is wonderful! As Christians, we talk a lot about how we have been made free from our sins through the cross, and yet a lot of us are not living like we are truly free. This is an excellent book for everyone to read! I really enjoyed the thought provoking discussion questions at the end of each chapter.
I received this book from Litfuse in exchange for my honest review.