Her Not So Storybook Life - The Book

Twitter oh how I love you, let me count the ways in 140 characters. No really I love twitter. I don’ know why, I just do. So today I get a tweet from Mabel’s House.


Okay, so I didn’t know who Mabel was before today or that she even had a house. Today however not only was I introduced to her but I was invited to read an excerpt of her new book. I was so excited I almost peed myself. Which I guess if you think about it is a lot better than peeing someone else. I digress.

So I read the clip from My (not so) Storybook Life by Elizabeth Owen. I loved it. I lived it. No really I lived the same situation she wrote about. I was there with her holding my breath, praying for fresh air and trying to keep the poopacalypse from seeping into every aspect of my being.

Ms Owen did a wonderful job and I can’t wait to read the rest of her not so Storybook life as soon as it is available. You need to too.

The Winter's In Bloom

A couple of months ago Simon and Shuster sent me a request to review a book. I’ve been unusually busy lolling about and being lazy and really hadn’t given it another thought. One day last week Kahuna looked at me with that look in his eye and whispered those loving words in my ear “Surf’s up!” I of course instantly grabbed my beach bag and bikini, yes I still wear a bikini it may not be pretty but I still wear one, and headed out the door. I did pause long enough to grab The Winter’s in Bloom by Lisa Tucker.


I read this story with the waves crashing and the sea gulls squalling but was oblivious to anything but Ms. Tucker’s story of a young woman’s strife and life as an abandoned child.

The story begins with a young over protected boy and the world in which he lives with two highly smothering parents. Michael, the boy, relates his world of making sure he made his parents feel safe about him being safe, but was he safe? He was beginning to believe he had made a huge mistake going with the nice lady.

The story winds and twists telling each character’s insecurities, feelings of guilt and reaction to the little boy whose has mysteriously gone missing. Each person has their suspicion as to who has taken him. Each character then must deal with the skeletons in their respective closets and try and figure out how they and their past played a part in Michael’s disappearance.

I loved this book because it is much more than a mystery it also gives us a glimpse of what many in our society wrestle with every day. We all have feelings of abandonment and loneliness. Ms Tucker really delves into how it affects her characters and the fears we create because of those feelings. It made me stop and think about how many of my fears are based on my perception of events and not on truths.

Ms. Tucker kept me turning pages and wanting to know how this family could and would work through this horrific event. She did so beautifully with the right tempo and beat only revealing the facts as they were needed.

I recommend The Winter’s in Bloom by Lisa Tucker which is scheduled for release on September 13, 2011. Download it on your Nook, Kindle or Ipad or go all wild and old school and pick up the hard copy at your local bookstore. You will be glad you did.

Centuries Of June

A couple of weeks ago I was contacted by Crown Publishers to review Centuries of June by Keith Donohue. Although Mr. Donohue has published two other novels, The Stolen Child and Angels of Destruction, I was not familiar with him. I am always thrilled and excited to read new authors so I readily accepted.


It is difficult in this age of instant gratification and self publishing to find original and intriguing stories. You know how it is you pick up a book and start reading an instantly know you have read this story before except instead of Miami it was set in Milan and instead of the protagonist being Joe its Juan. Oh honestly I don’t blame the authors, especially if they are avid readers, it’s just a natural progress to begin incorporating other stories within your own. Not so with this story. He did incorporate other stories but he made them his own by entwining them into his own tale.

I began reading Centuries of June by Keith Donohue and immediately the movie began playing in my mind. I love it when an author can create a story so vivid I loose all sense of space and time and this is exactly what Mr. Donohue accomplished I had instantly cast each player as they appeared and I could see in my mind’s eye the whole scene play out.

A young man struck in the head and the 7 women who visit him through his stupefied state. The old man who protected and helped him through the journeys of his mind and who and what was he really? Each visit opened more questions with little resolve, each ghostly and beautiful visitor adding to the mystery as well as the question as to why our main character was bludgeoned in his own bathroom. The more you read the more you try to decipher who the old man is and why is he there, why are these women all trying to kill our poor architect and who is the woman asleep in the bed facing the wall.

Mr. Donohue’s writing style kept me turning the page and his story kept me enthralled. His dark humor and storytelling abilities kept me on the edge of my seat waiting for the punch-line. He took me into that cold tiled bathroom and then carried me from primeval forests of the pacific northwest through the gold rush and on into the early 20th century reminding me of the pain and suffering women have lived through to give me the freedoms I have today. More importantly he told the story of the man’s own insecurity and strife.

I thoroughly enjoyed my romp through the centuries with Mr. Donohue and his rough and primal ghosts. I highly recommend this to those with an adventurous spirit and an open mind.  Oh and I have taken to looking behind me when I enter the bath. 

Gladys Reviews How To Write a Book Proposal

I have a dream, a dream that someday… Oh wait, wrong dream. My dream is to someday be published. I know, you say “Gladys you are published. You are on the World Wide Web and that is published.” I mean published as in have a manuscript lingering on the New York Times Bestseller’s list for 50 bazillion months.

I decided to be proactive and do my research. Thomas Nelson publishing gave me the opportunity to review Michael Larsen’s How to Write a Book Proposal and I of course jumped on it.

I waited anxiously for the arrival of the text. When it arrived in the mail I tore into it like a fat chick into Oreo’s. I began ravenously devouring the years of knowledge Mr. Larsen has in the literary world.

He explained the basics of the proposal as well as infusing his text with stories from submittals he has seen both good and bad. He writes with a flow that keeps the work both interesting and absorbable.

He explains the importance of titles as well as what you can do to market your manuscript. He takes you all the way through from how to bring your idea to fruition to submitting your proposal. He includes examples of proposals and ideas for making your work rise above the fray.

Although Mr. Larsen’s book was aimed at the non-fiction genre it seems to be just as viable for the fiction world. I am excited to recommend this to other aspiring novelists who are struggling to get the perfect proposal sent to the best publisher for their work.

Disclosure of Material Connection: I received this book free from the publisher through the BookSneeze®.com book review bloggers program. I was not required to write a positive review. The opinions I have expressed are my own. I am disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission’s 16 CFR, Part 255 : “Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising.”

Uncle Sam's Plantation - A Book Review

First let me say that I am usually funnier than this but there are some things going on today that just aren't very funny.  I mean they are funny but they aren't ha ha funny.  You may or may not agree with my politics or dogma but I think we all agree that this country is broken and we need to do something different. 

I was recently sent “Uncle Sam’s Plantation” written by Star Parker and published by Thomas Nelson. I received this book and read what I already felt was true. She, Ms. Parker, drills down to the core the reality of the Welfare system and the prisoners it keeps.

Ms. Parker tells her story of being brought up in the strife of the civil rights movement. She relates how she was raised by hard working upstanding citizens but believed the lies that she was told. She believed she was owed something. She believed she could not succeed because she had been told she would not be allowed to succeed. She believed the blathering and blithering of uninformed politicians and social reformers who told her that she did not need to work, Uncle Sam would provide. She believed the lies and lived their life on Uncle Sam’s Plantation.

She had an epiphany while sitting in church one day when she felt the pastor spoke directly to her and asked “why are you living on welfare?” It was as if the sky opened up and she finally saw the light. Why was she living on welfare? Why was she not providing for her and her child? She could only answer “because I was told I would be taken care of.”

She saw what the welfare system had done to her and how it had kept her from achieving her highest potential. She broke free of the shackles and began preaching it from the rooftops. She became president and founder of the Coalition of Urban Renewal and Education (CURE) and self-proclaimed "former welfare queen."

Ms. Parker explains how the moral downfall of our modern society has taken its toll on the advances minorities had made through the years. It looks as if its one step forward and ten steps back. She admonishes us for not parenting our children, not sticking to promises and most of all trying to raise our children without two parents. I wish I could disagree with her, but I can’t. You see I have said for many years now that the downfall in our society happened when women burned their bras and men stopped wearing hats. We forgot what a family was supposed to be and became egocentric and selfish.

Ms. Star did a great job keeping not only my attention but making me re-think my opinions on many of our social and political programs. This is not a book to take lightly but read between the lines. It is not just about one race or the other; or one political party or the other, it is a book about our society and where we have gone wrong and what we can do to fix it.

Disclosure of Material Connection: I received this book free from Thomas Nelson Publishers as part of their BookSneeze.com book review bloggers program. I was not required to write a positive review. The opinions I have expressed are my own. I am disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission’s 16 CFR, Part 255 : “Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising.”

Be Careful How You Flap Your Wings

A couple of years ago someone sent me an email labeled “THE DASH” from the Simple Truth’s website.  I clicked on it and it took me on a journey that touched my heart and my soul.  Mac Anderson the originator of Simple Truths has recently sent out another touching video called “The Butterfly Effect”. I am a student of the human condition.  I believe that what we do individually effects us collectively.  Then I received an invitation from Thomas Nelson to review Andy Andres in his new book “The Butterfly Effect”. 

While this is a little book of 58 pages it speaks volumes.  Mr. Andrews takes the theory of Edward Lorenz’s 

“the Butterfly Effect”, a butterfly could flap its wings and set molecules of air in motion, which would move other molecules of air, in turn moving more molecules of air-eventually capable of starting a hurricane on the other side of the planet, and shows us that we are the butterfly flapping our wings.  He reiterates over and over that YOU DO MATTER.  What you do, say, think and feel affects each and every person. 

Kind of takes your breath away doesn’t?  Just think, you may have touched someone’s life and not even realized it.  Heck you may have not even been anywhere near them.  That bad mood you were in last week when you snapped at the barista resonated throughout the universe and may have even come back full circle to the snide clerk at Costco.  YOU CAUSED THAT.  Or the dollar you gave the man with the "What if You Were Hungry?" sign might be on his way to curing cancer and you just made it possible for him to go back to school and find that cure.  Makes you feel mighty powerful doesn’t it?  Now how are you going to use that power? 

I highly recommend this book.  It is a quick read.  It is a great “gift” book and it is one to keep with you just to remind yourself that what you do matters.

Now then go out there and be good to one another and remember thoughts become things, think good ones.

Resurrection in May or Maybe August

I’ve been all out of sorts lately what with all the doings and comings and goings.  No I don't need Flomax.  Isn't that just for men?  You know men who keep going and going and going?  Maybe that is a different drug like Seealice or viagrow or something.  I digress.


I have been so busy I haven't had time to read and for me that is like not having time to breath.    Resurrection in May, by Lisa Samson published by Thomas Nelson has been sitting on my reading shelf for some time.  I would walk past it and gently caress it as I walked by on my way to another seminar or mindless chore.  Finally I had a few spare moments.  I stole away into a nook with all intentions of reading just a few pages to get started.  The next thing I knew I was reading the words “the end”. 

May Seymour graduated from college misguided and misdirected.  She has spent her youth worrying way too much about what’s on the outside instead of what’s on the inside. She meets an older gentleman, Claudius Borne, who takes her in and gives her a new outlook. 


She didn’t know what else to do with her life, no job prospects and not sure about the world she decides on a mission trip to Rwanda.  May ended up in the wrong place at the wrong time and suffered through the losses and tragedies of Rwanda.  She lost everything including her faith in the genocide. 
She returns back to Claudius’ farm where she heals outwardly.  The story takes us through her struggles with her faith, herself and the outside world.  We learn with her to trust and love again.


This was such a sweet tale to envelope myself in for an afternoon of reading.  If you are looking for a sweet tale of reconnection then I recommend “Resurrection in May.”
Disclosure of Material Connection: I received this book free from Thomas Nelson Publishers as part of their BookSneeze.com <http://BookSneeze.com> book review bloggers program. I was not required to write a positive review. The opinions I have expressed are my own. I am disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission’s 16 CFR, Part 255 <http://www.access.gpo.gov/nara/cfr/waisidx_03/16cfr255_03.html> : “Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising.”

Gladys Reads Spit and Tunes - a book review

Sounds like a punk rock band doesn't it?  Well it is really named Venom and Song, but like everything else in my life I don't call it by it's real name.  You see I get things garbled up sometimes, like my daughter works at a place called Fred's.  I never can remember that so I invaribly call it Franks.  I do the same thing with the title of songs for example the old standard Faded Love turns into the Clorax song.  Oh and don't even get me started on food names, hush puppies turn into shut up dogs and Wesson Oil cake becomes Grease Cake.  See how bad I am at names?  I would blame it on getting old but heck I've been like this since birth.  I'm lucky if I remember by own name much less the names of books, songs, food or even my kids.  I usually just yell "hey you!"  I digress.  This isn't about me but about what I read.
When I was sent this book, Venom and Song by Wayne Thomas Batson and Christopher Hopper, I studied the hard back cover intently. There was a whole lot going on in the picture. A castle, giant flying birds with people riding them, a knight riding a giant dragonfly. I wondered what did I get myself into. This Thomas Nelson published young adult novel is just as imaginative on the inside as it was on the outside.

First let me tell you that this is the second in the Berinfell Prophecies. I know this because it says so on the cover. I wish I would have read book one, Curse of the Spider King, before I read this book but honestly it isn’t necessary. I was able to pick up the story and follow it through to the end. Mr. Batson and Mr. Hopper did a wonderful job of explaining who, what where and when. They even included a list of characters in the front of the book.  I didn't always remember who was what but with the handy guide it wasn't difficult to follow.

The writers create a world in another dimension that is magical as well as exciting and mysterious. Imagine yourself or better said your junior high self a lord in the world of Allyra on a rigorous and dangerous mission to conquer the Spider King. You find yourself being lead by your junior high teacher with a group of gifted and brave cohorts avoiding the whirlpools of Daladge Falls and the phantom army. You learn forgiveness, loyalty, love and faith along the way. This book has a great lesson for the young and old.

I highly recommend this book for not only young teens but for the parents of the same. Why not bring back the reading hour? Why not gather your pre-teen and teens and take turns reading passages instead of turning on the computer or your X-box?

Disclosure of Material Connection: I received this book free from Thomas Nelson Publishers as part of their BookSneeze.com book review bloggers program. I was not required to write a positive review. The opinions I have expressed are my own. I am disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission’s 16 CFR, Part 255 : “Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising.”

After the Hangover - A Review

I’ve Got A Political Hangover


I just had an epiphany. I am a liberal in the true sense of the word. I hope my daddy doesn’t read this and have a cerebral hemorrhage. What I mean is that I am a liberal in the sense that R. Emmet Tyrrell Jr. describes them in his new book After the Hangover, The Conservatives Road to Recovery, a Thomas Nelson Publication.

In his new book, After the Hangover, Mr. Tyrell takes us through the conservative theory and history by way of explaining how he progressed through his own conservatism roots. He explains that conservatives are what used to be considered liberals and that the New Liberals (his capitalizations not mine) are no where near their namesake's ideology. Mr. Tyrrell takes us through the history of conservatism, neo-conservatism, liberals and Liberals, all the while causing me to run for my Webster’s Dictionary. He throws out hundred dollar words like they were pennies.

He uses antidotes from his years in the conservative movement including wonderful insights into people such as William F. Buckley, Al Regnery and Bill Kristol. He explains the events of the last 4 decades of neo-conservatism’s rise and fall and the Liberals all too soon eulogy of the movement.

I have to reiterate that more than once Mr. Tyrrell sent me scrambling for my well worn dictionary to look up words such as pulchritudinous and zeitgeist. I have to say thank you to him for that. You see I happen to agree with his and Bill O’Reilly’s opinion that America is becoming dumbed-down. They both site that Americans are lazy in their learning. We are no longer interested in discovering and uncovering the truth for ourselves. We instead are content to listen to mainstream media spew out it’s Kultursmog of half-truths and made up political dramas. We as a nation tend to believe whatever the popular celebrity-politician on either side of the line spits out in sound bites.

I would recommend this book to liberals, conservatives, New Liberals and neo-conservatives. It is thought provoking, with a unique perspective on the strength and weaknesses of both movements. Now go out there and practice your egalitarianism and challenge your thoughts and beliefs unraveling the mystery that is our political dogmas.

Hand Of Fate a Review

I have mentioned on here before that I love to read.  This last Saturday Apple introduced the I Pad in response to Amazon's Kindle. Did Apple send me an I Pad to review?  Did they want to know what Gladys had to say about it's brand new overgrown I Phone?   Was I standing in line waiting to be one of the first?  Nope.  Do I own a Kindle?  Well we've talked about that before when I wrote this post.  No I actually held a bound book in my hand and turned real pages and read Hand Of Fate.  Here is what I have to say about it.

The loud mouthed shock radio journalist, a terrorist attack and three determined professional women take you on a twisting and turning tale of life, mystery and fanaticism. The beautiful and hardworking news journalist, Cassidy, the stoic yet methodical F.B.I. agent, Nicole and the up and coming federal attorney, Allison all work together to get to the bottom of a terrorist attack, or was it?

I love a good mystery so I sat myself down and went to reading. Immediately several points stood out. Lis Wiehl could have taken the events right out of today’s headlines. She is an attorney as well as a television and radio commentator for the Fox News Network and National Public Radio. When not appearing on O’Reilly she is winding her way through intrigue with her co-author mystery writer, April Henry.

They have penned a previous mystery together called Face of Betrayal which was the first of what they call “The Triple Threat” series.

Hand of Fate, takes the fear of terrorism and mixes it with the trials and tribulations of three career women. They blend them together into a tale of mystery and intrigue with a life lesson woven into the storyline.

I read over 100 books a year which sometimes makes it difficult for me to find new and interesting writers. I believe that I have found a new series to keep me interested as it was well written. In fact it kept it going enough that I will seek out and read Face of Betrayal another Thomas Nelson publication by the same authors. Oh and for those of you who are into electronic books it is available on Kindle but not on EBooks for the new IPad yet.

Disclosure of Material Connection: I received this book free from Thomas Nelson Publishers as part of their BookSneeze.com book review bloggers program. I was not required to write a positive review. The opinions I have expressed are my own. I am disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission’s 16 CFR, Part 255 : “Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising.”

P.S.  Dear Apple and Amazon,
I wouldn't object to you sending me an e-book reader.  Either one or both, I will be happy to compare and review. :)

Who Won? Who Won? I KNOW!

I sat down at my computer this morning with all intentions of announcing the winner of Erin Bried’s book “How to Sew A Button…” but I couldn’t connect to random integer generator site. I took a swig of my perfectly made pumpkin spiced latte and decided to peruse the world wide web. I then decided it was time for a little breakfast and went to the kitchen and realized my faucet still looked like this. I sighed heavily and went back to bed.

I pulled the covers over my head and decided not to worry about the faucet or the mounds of laundry piling up. I decided to just stay in bed and watch sappy Christmas movies. I watched a couple of episodes of Dirty Jobs, drank another cup of coffee and made myself get out of bed but only because I had to pee.

I wandered through the house and went back to bed and picked up the remote control and flipped through the 5000 stations and decided there was nothing to watch. How can that be? When I was a kid we weren’t allowed to watch a lot of television. Nurse Meme would say “get the hell out of this house! You kids are driving me crazy!” We three would look outside at the sleet or rain or blowing dust and say “but MAWWMA it’s awful out there.”

She would shake her head and say “go on outside and play. It’s good for you. It will build character.” She would then wrestle us out the door and she would lock it, smile at us from the window and sit down and smoke her cigarette and drink her coffee in relative peace and quiet. Well except for the fact that she had three crumb munchkins with their pitiful faces pressed up against the glass watching her. She had an easy remedy for that though, she just closed the curtains. I digress.

Remembering what Nurse Meme said I decided to go outside; actually Boz decided to go outside. The poor guy was standing with his legs crossed doing the peepee dance. I hooked up the leash and he took me outside where I was hit in the face with a big glaring sun. What the heck? Doesn’t mother nature know it’s almost Christmas? Doesn’t she know that it should be cold and grey? Did she decide to take all of her Christmas weather and dump it on the east coast? It was eighty degrees outside for Pete’s sake. Hey have you ever wondered who that guy Pete is and why it is always for his sake? What makes him so ding danged special?

Since the weather was so gawdawful wonderful I decided to hang some laundry on the line and then perhaps grill out doors.

Am I making those of you covered in snow a little jealous? Yeah don’t be. Last year at this time I was sitting in a snug little cabin buried under six feet of snow. The world was white and pristine. It was gorgeous. It looked like Christmas is supposed to look.

Then I walked back into my kitchen and saw my faucet, again. I decided to do the only thing I could do. I sat down at my computer wrote this and went back on Random Integer Generator and put in the parameters. Then I pushed the button and this is the result it came back with.

Generated Result:

Who you ask is # 22 it’s faithful reader Angela. Now Angela the ball is in your court. You need to e-mail me your contact information so I can get this book sent off to you as soon as I get through being lazy. Angela you out there? Angela! Is that you with your nose pressed against the window?

Oh and just so you know.  Kahuna repaired the faucet and I once again have a functioning faucet without that lovely electrical tape.  We replace faucets around here like Tiger Woods picks up women, all the time.

Gladys Gives Away Grandmothers kind of

I got a call from my twenty-something niece, Tooter the other day. We were chit chatting and she said Aunt Gladys how do you make stew. Well I launched in to my diatribe of how you dust the meat and so on and she stopped me and said “Is the meat dirty? Is that why you dust it?” Then I realized I was speaking another language and that she had not yet learned. You see I learned things from my mother who I think just instinctively learned them because she didn’t really have a mother to teach her things. It was like Nurse Meme instinctively knew how to fold a fitted sheet or wash a cashmere sweater and then passed that knowledge down to Matilda and me.

Nurse Meme would set her hair with beer.

My Grandmother yes the same Grandmother who jumped in the number five washtub with me also was a wealth of knowledge. There wasn’t anything that woman couldn’t do. She could sew, sing, cook, mend, crochet, garden and since she passed away when I was only five she could have taught me all those things but well she went too soon. I am left with remnants of her though a homemade apron, a picture painted on an old canvas window shade because she didn’t have canvas, her flour sifter and her chocolate pie recipe.

I get calls from my daughters and others often wanting to know the secrets of pie crust and how to bleach out your white clothes without turning them yellow. I love getting these calls because it gives me the chance to pass on the knowledge with which I was blessed. I have always said I would have made a great 1940’s housewife because I can make one roasted chicken into five or more meals, I know how to compost my kitchen waste and can put up my own vegetables.

This brings me all to the point of my post. Yes I have a point and yes it’s a good one. The other day I received an email from Erin Bried wanting to know if I would be interested in giving away one of her books “How to Sew a Button and Other Nifty Things Your Grandmother Knew”. Now I had never heard of Erin even though she had been featured in O magazine, yes as in OPRAH. Did you just hear a choir of angels sing? Yeah me too. Now I feel like I know Oprah personally what with all that six degrees of separation and all. She is also a senior staff writer at Self magazine and has been featured in Redbook among others, Erin not Oprah.

It wasn’t Oprah that impressed me though it was something else or I should say somebody else. It was the fact that Erin interviewed grandmothers, yes other people’s grandmothers, and compiled all of their knowledge in this book. One of the women she interviewed is Mildred A. Kalish the author of Little Heathens.

I read Little Heathens awhile back and loved it so much I shared it with my family. You see I don’t believe we can hear enough about what life was like before we had all these modern conveniences and she describes her life growing up in the early part of the last century so well.  I recommend you read Little Heathens as soon as you finish with Erin's book.

I received Erin's book earlier this week and I sat down and was mesmerized by the topics, like how to fold a fitted sheet; yep she does it just like Nurse Meme taught me. How about how to wear red lipstick? I shy from red lipstick even though I love it because I’ve never been sure how to choose the right shade for my complexion. This book is a wonderful wealth of knowledge. You must get one for yourself and for all your domestically challenged friends and relatives.  My Sisters Farmhouse is having a contest to give away one of Erin’s books and so am I.

Yes I am giving away a copy of Erin’s book which goes on sale December 18. I have preordered copies for myself, my daughters, my nieces and of course myself because believe it or not I do not know everything.

Here is how you win, leave me a comment of something your grandmother or mother heck let’s not be biased your grandfather, father, uncle, brother or aunt taught you. I will throw all your comments in the random integer hat Saturday morning and come up with a winner. The one who wins will win a copy of Erin’s book and….This. So sign up and learn things your grandmother knew.

What I've Been Reading

I have said before that I love to read. I love all types of books from nonfiction to science fiction. I just love a good story. Well recently I read a couple of books that are pretty much what you would call “chick” books. I know it is a lot like going to a chick flick either you love them sappy or you don’t. I have to tell you neither of these books was sappy.

The first book I read was “Deep Dish” by Mary Kay Andrews. It is a cute story about a couple competing in a cooking competition and well you just need to read it to find out what happens. I must admit I have read every book that M.K. has written and I feel like we are old friends. Her books are based in the south and bring to mind the sights, smells and sounds of her roots. I strongly recommend all of her books beginning with “Savanah Blues” and working right through “Hissy Fit”, but I have to admit so far “Deep Dish” has been my favorite.

Mary Kay is also a junker and has just put the finishing touches on her beach house. Go to her blog and check it out.

I then moved on to another of my favorite authors, Deanna Raybourn. She has written a series of books on the Lady Julia Grey. The series begins with “Silent in the Grave” that flows into “Silent in the Sanctuary” and which brings us into her latest release “Silent on the Moor”. I literally read the first book in about 8 hours which is no small feat since it is the size of a small country. It is however that riveting. If you enjoy a good mystery, mixed with a good love story and you throw in some gypsies and a couple of strong willed personalities then you’ll love her work. She too has a wonderful blog that is not only entertaining but fun to follow.

I am now on to a more manly type story in Stuart Woods’ latest Stone Barrington novel. I again have read all of them in the series and was pleased when I saw the latest “Hot Mahogany” in paperback. Stone Barrington is a New York attorney who does the dirty work for a big name firm. He and his best friend a NYPD detective get themselves in many interesting predicaments. I am anxious to see how he pulls himself out of his next tight spot. Think James Bond meets Dirk Pit. He is a witty and prolific story teller.

Now if you will excuse me I have some beach sitting and reading to do. I don’t care that it’s only 58 degrees and it’s cloudy. I came to the beach to read and that’s what I’m going to do damn it!

Oh and I have crummy reception on the beach so there will be little to no internet surfing only the old fashion kind. You know hanging 10 or in my case 20 because I am usually hanging on with my toes and my fingers.