Award

by Carol10 Comments
Alice from Hello, My Name is Alice gave me this lovely award! Thank you so much! Now, the rule is nominate seven other bloggers for this and then tell everybody seven things about yourself. I would love to pass this on to all of you. You're each beautiful, but I'll follow the rules this time. Freda @ Freda's Voice She always goes out of her way to offer an encouraging word to Amber, my daughter, when I post one of her drawings. Esme @ Chocolate and Croissants I love her combination of reading and food, two of my favorite things. Ryan @ Wordsmithonia Not only does he read wonderful books, he also has a fictional character feature that often reminds me of old favorites. Jeane  @ DogEar Diary She reads the books I can picture my daughter reading as she gets older. Blodeuedd @ Book girl of Mur-y-Castell I love her taste in books. Stacy @ Stacy's Books She has fantastic quizzes, even if I never know the answers. Jen @ The Movieholic & Bilbiophile's...
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What Could Be Keeping Santa? by Marilyn Janovitz

by CarolNo Comments
What Could Be Keeping Santa? by Marilyn Janovitz (Suggested reading level: Ages 4-8) I love this Christmas picture book and we read it every year. The deer are just so cute as they look around the house. Everything's ready for Christmas, but Santa's still in bed. It's almost time for them to go. Finally they knock on the big guy's door and find out that Santa's not late, they're a day early. "Nothing would ever keep Santa!" As I said, the illustrations are adorable, and you can get the feel of them based on the cover above. The rhyming text makes it a perfect story to read aloud to youngsters who are just like the deer, anxiously waiting for Christmas to come. Our copy was given to us as a gift and the above is my honest opinion. I am an Amazon associate....
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Cook Once, Eat Twice from Better Homes and Gardens

by Carol5 Comments
Cook Once, Eat Twice from Better Homes and Gardens My brother and sister-in-law are great and got me a new slow cooker for my birthday. Since then, I've been wanting to try it out, scouring through my recipes and books at the library. I made my first meal in the new slow cooker yesterday, Rustic Italian Stew from Cook Once, Eat Twice.  What's great about this cookbook is that the first recipe in each pair makes enough to have leftovers and the second recipe uses those leftovers. Which means on Thursday, we'll be having Pasta Bowls. The Rustic Italian Stew was delicious. 2 medium yellow summer squash, halved lengthwise and sliced 8 ounces button mushrooms, quartered 1 15-ounce can navy beans, rinsed and drains 2 medium green sweet peppers, cut into 1-inch pieces 1 medium zucchini, halved lengthwise and sliced 1 large onion, cut into thin wedges 1 tablespoon olive oil 1 teaspoon salt 1 teaspoon dried Italian seasoning, crushed ¼ teaspoon crushed red pepper (optional) 2 14.5-ounce cans undrained stewed tomatoes, cut...
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S is for Skull

by Carol8 Comments
Vicki of Reading At The Beach hosts A-Z Wednesday. Today's letter is S. I'm going back to one I read in the spring of 2008. This is one of those books where the setting, Tibet, is just as important as the plot. It's a mystery, but also the story of the people and the place. I found it fascinating. The Skull Mantra by Eliot Pattison Winner of the 2001 Edgar Award for Best First Novel, Skull Mantra was a sensation when first published and received wide acclaim from critics and readers alike. The corpse is missing its head and is dressed in American clothes. Found by a Tibetan prison work gang on a windy cliff, the grisly remains clearly belong to someone too important for Chinese authorities to bury and forget. So the case is handed to veteran police inspector Shan Tao Yun. Methodical, clever Shan is the best man for the job, but he too is a prisoner, deported to Tibet for offending someone high...
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Teaser Tuesday

by Carol14 Comments
Grab your current read. Let the book fall open to a random page. Share with us two (2) "teaser" sentences from somewhere on that page. You also need to share the title of the book that you're getting your "teaser" from...that way people can have some great book recommendations if they like the teaser you've given. Please avoid spoilers! My teaser is from the same book as last week, three sentences this time: "The first chance the Indians had of seizing the Diamond was a chance lost, on the day when they were committed to the prison at Frizinghall. When did the second chance offer itself? The second chance offered itself—as I am in a condition to prove—while they were still in confinement." -pg. 308, The Moonstone by Wilkie Collins Teaser Tuesdays is hosted by MizB of Should Be Reading. Play along. My copy was purchased. I am an Amazon Associate....
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The Nutcracker based on the classsic story by E. T. A. Hoffman

by Carol4 Comments
The Nutcracker based on the classic story by E. T. A. Hoffman, illustrated by Julie Paschkis (Suggested reading level: Ages 4-8) Amber (9) and I read this together again this year. Remember this is based on the story, not the ballet. No sugar plum fairy shows up, there are no dancing snowflakes, but it does come with a CD of selections from Tchaikovsky's The Nutcracker performed by the London Symphony Orchestra, which we just started listening to in the car today. The music is beautiful. The story is familiar to us all. Clara finds a nutcracker under the Christmas tree. She learns how the toy got it's ugly face and hears the story of it's feud with the Mouse King. She finds the courage to help the nutcracker and breaks the spell he's under. The book is illustrated throughout in the same style as the cover, bright and colorful with just the right amount of detail. The Nutcracker is a holiday tradition and this...
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