Book Review: Celebrations

Celebrations: Rituals of Peace and Prayer by Maya Angelou

My rating: 5 of 5 stars


Maya Angelou is a genius, plain and simple. Her words are like honey. They trickle down into the soul, little by little, slowly, soothing pain and lifting the spirit on their way. Every piece in this collection marks some special event, thus the title Celebrations. "On the Pulse of the Morning," read at President Clinton's inauguration; "Amazing Peace," presented at the 2005 lighting of the National Christmas Tree at the White House; "A Brave and Startling Truth," which marked the fiftieth anniversary of the United Nations, a poem for Oprah's fiftieth birthday, one for the bar mitzvah for Angelou's nephew, and several others.

As I set this book aside, a few stanzas stay with me, working their way through the maze of my mind and finding their permanent place in my soul. Definitely recommended.



View all my reviews

Foodie Friday: Chicken Bake

Chicken Bake

(Serves 8-10)

This recipe is cheesy and gooey and a definite comfort food in my house. In its original version (below) it makes a lot, but it's easy to cut in half!

2 cans cream of chicken soup
2 cans cream of mushroom soup (can use cream of celery if you prefer)
2 cups sour cream
2 cups grated cheddar cheese
8-10 boneless skinless chicken breasts
Paprika

Rice, prepared according to package directions.

Preheat oven to 350.
Sprinkle the chicken breasts with paprika and place in large baking dish.
Mix the remaining ingredients together and pour over top.
Cover and bake (at 350) for 2 hours.

Serve over rice.

Thirteen Things I Didn't Know About March

1. March is National Crochet Month. Seriously! I had no idea, and I love to crochet. The Crochet Guild of America (yes, it's real) is sponsoring Crochet-Along in March. Check out CGOA Now! for more details.

2. March 18th is the birthday of Sparky the Fire Dog, who is the official mascot of the National Fire Protection Association (NFPA). I am not making this up!

3. Each year the President of the United States designates March as Red Cross Month. Something tells me I should know this. Something else whispers that maybe I did once, a long, long time ago. But maybe I'm making that up. I really don't know. Go donate blood or something. It's the right thing to do.

Clip art courtesy of DailyClipArt.net

4. March is National Frozen Food Month. You probably already know that. I didn't. I'm going to buy some ice cream to celebrate. Again -- the right thing to do.

5. March is National Noodle Month. I kid you not. Not to be confused with National Pasta Month, which is celebrated in October of each year. What's a noodle, you ask? It's made from unleavened dough shaped either into thin, flat strips or round cylinders and cooked in boiling liquid. Derived from the German nudel.

6. March is National Irish-American Heritage Month, which should come as a surprise to absolutely nobody.

7. March is Music in our Schools Month. My heart aches every time legislators anywhere cut funding for the arts in our schools. I know I'm not the only one who feels this way. The website linked to here offers a few suggestions for what we can do to help, including following the organization on Twitter and "liking" it on Facebook.

8. March is National Craft Month. Use your spare time this month to learn a new craft. Make a collage. Learn how to make jewelry. Knit or celebrate National Crochet Month. Get off Facebook and Twitter and do something crafty!

9.  March is also National Nutrition Month -- a time for all of us to focus on eating right and making healthy choices. I guess that means I should buy frozen broccoli instead of ice cream for National Frozen Food Month. I'm not going to lie -- I'm disappointed.

10. March is Women's History Month. The theme for 2011 is: Our History is Our Strength.

11. March is Youth Art Month. I hope the Youth Art Month and Music in Our Schools Month folks are working together. I'd hate to think they're competing for the limited funding out there.

12. I did my research just in time. This week is National Bubble Gum Week! I can't believe I almost missed it. Thank goodness I have a couple of Blow-Pops on top of my fridge that I was saving for my granddaughters. If you're really ambitious, you can even make your own bubble gum. The recipe is here! Or, if you're not in the mood to chew your way to bubble-gum nirvana, check out this Bubblegum Martini recipe.

Photo of vintage Barbie dolls from Wikipedia

13. It's also Barbie's Birthday! My first Barbie looked like the one on the bottom row, far right. She was beautiful. I still have her, as a matter of fact. She's old. She's fragile. Her hair now looks more like the Barbie on the top row. So does mine. She and I have weathered some storms together. When my little brother was younger, he wrapped poor Barbie in Scotch tape, tied a rope around her waist, and lowered her into a mud puddle in the empty lot next to our house. I'm not sure why. I was too traumatized to ask, I guess. Anyway, she's safe now, so you can all breathe a sigh of relief. But please join me in saying Happy Birthday! to my dear, old friend.

100 Books: #18 An Affair Before Christmas

Coming in at #18 on the list of 100 Books I want to read is An Affair Before Christmas by the amazing Eloisa James. Okay, sure, I'm late putting this book on my list. But not as late as you might think. It's been on my extended list for a while. Now it's moving from the big, big, I'll-Never-Ever-Read-All-These-Books-if-I-Live-to-120 list to the much smaller list of the top 100.

So why do I want to read this one?

Several reasons. Beginning with the fact that it's Eloisa. And, as everyone in romance circles knows, Eloisa's a bit of a Shakespeare buff. And I happen to love Shakespeare's work. And I haven't read any historical romance for a while, even though for a few years way-back-when all I read was historical romance. And I'm in the mood for a good historical romance. But it has to be a good one because it's been a while and I want to remember why I once loved them. So no pressure Eloisa. No pressure at all :)

Inspiration: Phyllis A. Whitney

A quick blog post today. An thought that inspires me. I share it in case it may inspire some of you.

"You must want to enough. Enough to take all the rejections, enough to pay the price of disappointment and discouragement while you are learning. Like any other artist you must learn your craft—then you can add all the genius you like."  ~Phyllis A. Whitney

Book Review: Winter Garden

Winter Garden by Kristin Hannah

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


Meredith and Nina are sisters. Daughters of a kind and loving father and a remote, cold mother. Their mother's coldness affects both sisters, driving them away from her until their father dies and the girls are left to pick up the pieces, keep their promises, and make sense of their own cold lives by convincing mom to finish the fairy tale she told them as children.

The book is fabulous in many ways. I wept when the dad died. I wept when mom finally revealed the ending of the fairy tale. I wept in several places, in fact, but I won't go into detail about those.

I have to say that both Meredith and Nina seemed a bit too delusional to me in the beginning. None of us sees ourselves as others see us, I get that. But it was hard for me to believe that these two women could think how cold their mother was one minute and then fail to recognize that same coldness in themselves, even a little bit.

I really wanted to understand the fairy tale and find out what it meant in their mother's life, but there were times when the sections of fairy tale were a bit too long and detailed for me. Through the middle of the book, I found myself skimming the fairy tale so I could get back to the current story. That may have been because the sections of fairy tale seemed repetitive for a while. As a result of my impatience, I missed a couple of details along the way but none that were important enough to make me go back and re-read what I'd skipped.

But even with those two minor flaws I enjoyed the book. It's definitely worth reading, especially if you're in the mood for a good cry.



View all my reviews

Foodie Friday: My Mom's Meatballs with Spaghetti

Meatballs with Spaghetti

For Sauce:

1 onion chopped

8 Tbs oil

1 large can (approx 2 ½ cups) tomatoes (can use whole tomatoes or diced)

2 6 oz cans tomato paste

2 cups water

1 tsp salt

½ tsp pepper

1 Tbsp sugar

1 bay leaf

For Meatballs:

1 pound ground beef

1 cup fine, dry bread crumbs

½ cup grated Parmesan cheese

1 sprig parsley, chopped

1 clove garlic, minced

½ cup milk

2 well-beaten eggs

Salt and pepper

1 8 oz package of spaghetti, cooked al dente (meaning "to the tooth." When pasta is cooked al dente, you should find a slight resistance in the center when the pasta is chewed.) If you don't like your pasta al dente, cook it until it sticks when you fling it at the wall. One piece should do it. No need to fling the entire pot!

Brown onion in hot oil. Add tomatoes, tomato paste, water, and seasonings. Stir together and cook slowly 1 hour. 

Combine remaining ingredients. Mix thoroughly and form into small balls. Brown in hot fat.

Serve separately, or add meatballs to sauce and simmer until heated through.

Serve over cooked spaghetti.

Note: You can, if you choose, make this recipe using ground turkey. My mother started doing that a few years ago and she's very happy with it. If you like ground turkey, I'm sure the recipe is fine. If, like me, the taste of ground turkey cooked in your favorite spaghetti recipe on your birthday is a bitter, bitter disappointment from which you may never recover, stick with ground beef.

Thursday Thirteen: Websites

I ran across a blog meme the other day that prompted participants to list ten things they wanted to change about themselves. Now, I'm all for taking a good, hard look at myself. I do it too much, actually. But then I clicked on one of the links and read someone's blog containing five answers followed by a note that s/he was too depressed to continue and I thought wait a tick!  There's something wrong here!

There's enough negativity in the world. Too much, actually. There's always someone or something just lying in wait, ready to knock us down. So I decided today to list 13 places on the internet that lift my spirits when I click on them. After you've checked out my list, I'd love to know what sites are on yours. 

1. Operation Beautiful. The mission of Operation Beautiful is to post anonymous notes in public places for other women to find. The point is that we are all beautiful. 

2. Prettybooks on Tumblr.com. A collection of quotes, images and book reviews. The images make my heart happy.

3. Whitley Phipps singing "It is Well With My Soul" on YouTube. This is a relatively new song to me, but it struck a chord with me immediately. No matter how bad the day is going, if I listen to it, my spirits lift. It's not just the song that lifts me. The story he shares gives hope, especially when he says, "It is in the quiet crucible of your personal private sufferings that your noblest dreams are born and God's greatest gifts are given in compensation for what you've been through." 

4. The Happy Writer. The writing life is a hard life. Staying positive is freakishly difficult. Go here. Be Happy. 

5. 1000 Awesome Things. This blog, updated every weekday, reminds me to find joy in the little things, whether it's #299: Finally pulling out an ingrown hair or #899: The smell of frying onions. 

6. Christian the Lion. This isn't a website, but it's a wonderful video. If you haven't seen it yet, rush right over. If you have, watch it again. It makes me happy every time. John Rendall and Anthony Bourke bought Christian as a lion cub from Harrods in 1969. They raised him in their London home for several years, then set him free to live in the wilds of Africa. A year later, against advice from experts, John and Anthony traveled to Kenya, hoping to reunite with their old friend. "They" said Christian wouldn't remember.

7. Gives Me Hope. The optimist's answer to FML. Some of the experiences people share are big -- dealing with cancer or grief. Some seem small -- one woman paying another's bus fare. But all give hope and light in a world that seems to be growing increasingly dark. 

8. Greater Good Network. Their websites bring together communities that care, giving all of us the power  to make a difference in the world with simple, every day actions. 

9. The art work of Liz Lemon Swindle. It always touches me. At this stage in my life, I'm really touched by Mother

10. Poetry.com. For me, words can be soothing. Words used beautifully, succinctly, correctly, are like music to my soul. 

11.Military Homecoming videos on YouTube. Is there anything better than seeing spouses and children surprised by a returning soldier? I start sniffling within seconds. So touching. 

12. 365 Project. The 365 project is a photography project where you document a year of your life by taking a daily photo. I'd love to join in but my camera was ruined in a downpour last year and I haven't been able to replace it. The shots I get with my old camera phone just aren't that good. 

13. Bible Gateway . A searchable online Bible in over 50 languages and 100 versions, featuring a verse of the day. 

You may not like all 13 of my choices. You may not like any of them. But they're the places I go when I need a lift. Now ... what are your favorites?

.

100 Books: #17 Dipped, Stripped, and Dead

I love cozy mysteries. Absolutely love cozy mysteries. My first conscious thoughts about wanting to be a writer stirred inside me while I read the Nancy Drew series. I wasn't even a tween when I identified the desire to become a novelist. And when I became a novelist, I wanted to write mysteries.

Of course, as I grew up and my reading tastes broadened, I also realized that I wanted to write classic romance stories and the great American novel. And one of these days, that epic love/adventure story set around the American Revolution is going to show up on my book shelf. Just you wait and see.

But no matter how many other types of books I add to my list of favorites, the cozy mystery stays at the top of the heap. I love the current wave of hobby/foodie cozies, which is why I'm currently writing one. And that love of cozies is what lands Dipped, Stripped, and Dead by Elise Hyatt at #17 on my list of 100 Books I Want to Read. 

Divorced and strapped for cash, Candyce "Dyce" Dare starts up Daring Finds, a furniture refinishing business. But when she goes dumpster diving for discarded furniture-and uncovers a corpse-Dyce may find herself redecorating a jail cell. 

A body a a dumpster! Does it get any better than that?

The Return of Some Old Favorites

I'm very excited to learn that Harlequin wants to reissue a third book from my backlist as part of its Heartwarming miniseries project. They'll be reissuing some favorite romances by several authors--books that aren't necessarily inspirational, but that celebrate traditional values and true love. 

I think this is a great idea since I frequently hear from readers who don't like a lot of sex in their romances. They love reading romance. They believe in the healing power of love and celebrate romantic love, but they wonder why there aren't more books available that might appeal to them. For the past few years, it seems that the only way to avoid lots of graphic sex in your romance is to read books from the inspirational category. But many readers have been wanting something in between and the books Harlequin is reissuing in its Heartwarming miniseries should fill that need.

And who knows? If the response is strong enough, maybe they'll even decide to publish new books for this reading demographic. If you're a reader looking for great romances without graphic content, give the books being reissued as Harlequin Heartwarming a try.You might just influence their future publishing decisions.


The first reissue from my bookshelves is titled NEW YEAR, NEW LOVE (the book formerly known as "A Man for Mom.") I don't have permission from HQ to use the artwork on my website yet so click on the link to check out the cover. I love it! It's going out to subscribers in March (almost, like, now!) and will be available in WalMart and other retail locations in May.

The second book is titled PICTURE PERFECT. No artwork yet, but I'll share that as soon as I can. It will be mailed to subscribers in May and available via retail locations in July.

And just yesterday I got the news that they'd like to include THE CHRISTMAS WIFE in the lineup. It will get a new title and a little updating and be available in time for Christmas. I'll keep you posted with more details as they're available.

Three of my favorite books from my backlist. Three reader favorites getting new life. I couldn't be more pleased! I hope you are too.