If we all could shine as bright as the moon....

I have to admit it I am a MOON lover. Finding this book on the list for February, The Girl Who Chased the Moon: A Novel by Sarah Addison Allen, I was so hoping I would love it and it would make me giddy.
I love the moon.... Love love La Luna.
If you know me you know it! To the MOON and BACK!!

THEN.... I picked it up and I just wasn't in love with the moon but I was more in LOVE with the delicious items coming from the kitchen of the local barbecue joint.

It wasn't so much about just one girl chasing the moon but HOW one girl led the path for other to face their true feeling, dreams and demons.

Ms. Allen introduced this small town and leads us down the main street into the front door of each character. I enjoyed the story and the magical touches brought into the story. And who isn't a sucker for True Love winning!!

Go ahead pick it up and try some of the delicious recipes like the Milky Way Cake recipe provided in the back of the book. If you try the recipe PLEASE PLEASE let me know what magic comes your way :)

Much Love and keep turning the pages,

Jennifer

The Girl Who Chased the Moon: A NovelBy Sarah Addison Allen

 Product Description (from Amazon)

Emily Benedict has come to Mullaby, North Carolina, hoping to solve at least some of the riddles surrounding her mother’s life. But the moment Emily enters the house where her mother grew up and meets the grandfather she never knew, she realizes that mysteries aren’t solved in Mullaby, they’re a way of life: Here are rooms where the wallpaper changes to suit your mood. Unexplained lights skip across the yard at midnight. And a neighbor, Julia Winterson, bakes hope in the form of cakes, not only wishing to satisfy the town’s sweet tooth but also dreaming of rekindling the love she fears might be lost forever. Can a hummingbird cake really bring back a lost love? Is there really a ghost dancing in Emily’s backyard? The answers are never what you expect. But in this town of lovable misfits, the unexpected fits right in.

Milky Way Cake
8 Milky Way candy bars (regular size)
2 sticks butter or margarine
2 cups granulated sugar
4 eggs, well beaten
½ teaspoon baking soda
2½ cups flour
1¼ cups buttermilk
1 cup pecans, chopped

Melt candy bars in one stick of butter or margarine. Cream sugar and the other stick of butter or margarine together. Add eggs, baking soda, and flour alternately with buttermilk. Add melted candy mixture and pecans. Bake in 3 (9-inch) pans, greased, at 325 degrees for 30–40 minutes or until done. Cool for 5 minutes, remove from the pans, and cool on racks.

CHOCOLATE ICING
2½ cups sugar
1 cup evaporated milk
1 stick butter or margarine
1 6-ounce package chocolate chips
1 cup marshmallow creme

Mix over low heat. Combine sugar and milk. Cook until it reaches a soft ball stage. Add other ingredients. Stir until chocolate chips melt, then remove from heat. Beat until cool.

Struggles and Triumphs, Wisdom and Beauty, Real and Hilarious and NY Social Scene

We found the books for March. Check out our Reading Page for a complete listing. Check out the PRODUCT DESCRIPTIONS from Amazon. I am so excited about these books and in my mind I think I know my favorite. But I am truly hoping for a surprise! Join me in our next Months books.

Much Love,

Jennifer

When We Were Strangers: A Novel
by Pamela Schoenewaldt

Product Description
"If you leave Opi, you'll die with strangers," Irma Vitale's mother always warned. Even after her beloved mother's passing, 20-year-old Irma longs to stay in her Abruzzo mountain village, plying her needle. But too poor and plain to marry and subject to growing danger in her own home, she risks rough passage to America and workhouse servitude to achieve her dream of making dresses for gentlewomen.
In the raw immigrant quarters and with the help of an entrepreneurial Irish serving girl, ribbon-decked Polish ragman and austere Alsatian dressmaker, Irma begins to stitch together a new life . . . until her peace and self are shattered in the charred remains of the Great Chicago Fire. Enduring a painful recovery, Irma reaches deep within to find that she has even more to offer the world than her remarkable ability with a needle and thread

The Tiger's Wife: A Novel
by Téa Obreht

Product Description
In a Balkan country mending from war, Natalia, a young doctor, is compelled to unravel the mysterious circumstances surrounding her beloved grandfather’s recent death. Searching for clues, she turns to his worn copy of The Jungle Book and the stories he told her of his encounters over the years with “the deathless man.” But most extraordinary of all is the story her grandfather never told her—the legend of the tiger’s wife.
Look for special features inside. Join the Circle for author chats and more.

Tales From the Pantry: Random Rants & M...
by Shari Owen Brown

Product DescriptionTales From the Pantry: Random Rants & Musings of a Stay-at-Home Mom is a collection of witty, funny, and sometimes gut-wrenching stories told by a 40-something mother of two small children. Based upon the popular blog 'Don't Make Me Count to Three!', Shari Owen Brown uses humor to navigate the daily slings and arrows of motherhood. Many parents can relate to the often unspoken challenges of child rearing. And for those who have yet to have children...consider yourself warned! Shari found herself the last of her friends to have children and was then SHOCKED to discover all of the lies she had been told! Why hadn't anybody mentioned these things before?!! It was like a secret club of parents who dared not tell the truth or else none of their friends would have children, leaving them all alone in their own private nightmare! Shari blows the lid off of these unspoken challenges & discusses daily life in a funny and entertaining way that still manages to speak the truth. It is a great outlet for parents to laugh at themselves through Shari, and realize that they are not alone or crazy (well, maybe just a little!) for feeling the way that they do.

Rules of Civility: A Novel
by Amor Towles

Product Description
WHAT THEY SAID about RULES OF CIVILITY: 'Everything about this novel, set in 1930s New York, is achingly stylish - from the author's name to the slinky jacket design. Katey Kontent, daughter of Russian immigrants, and Evie Ross, from the sleepy midwest, are an ambitious, wisecracking pair who, despite lack of money and connections, aim to set the city alight. A fortuitous meeting with the apparently wealthy Tinker Grey on New Year's Eve, 1937, will change the course of both their lives.' - Guardian 'If you want shopping at Bendel's, gin martinis at a debutante's mansion and jazz bands playing until 3am, RULES OF CIVILITY has it all and more ...While you're lost in the whirl of silk stockings, furs and hip flasks, all you care about is what Katey Kontent does next. Another one bartender, please.' - Observer 'Irresistible ...A cross between Dorothy Parker and Holly Golightly, Katey Kontent is a priceless narrator in her own right - the brains of a bluestocking with the legs of a flapper and the mores of Carrie Bradshaw.' - Telegraph 'Towles creates a narrative that sparkles with sentences so beautiful you'll stop and re-read them. A delicious and memorable novel that will leave you wistful ...and desperate for a martini.' - Stylist 'My book of the year. If the unthinkable happened and I could never read another new work of fiction in 2011, I'd simply re-read this sparkling, stylish book, with yet another round of martinis as dry as the author's wit.' - Herald

This is where being a Mama takes center stage

It seems that this whole month everyone has been sick at the house. We are all in need of chicken soup. So the night stand books have been sitting and the tissues and medicines have taken over.

I hope to have more to say about these wonderful stories. But turning the pages have been hard some nights.

Try this classic Chicken Soup From Real Simple

Serves 4| Hands-On Time: 15m | Total Time: 1hr 05m

Ingredients

• 1 3 1/2- to 4-pound chicken
• 6 carrots, peeled
• 4 celery stalks
• 1 large yellow onion, quartered
• 2 1/2 teaspoons kosher salt
• 1 teaspoon whole black peppercorns

Directions

1. Place the chicken in a large pot. Cut 3 of the carrots and 2 of the celery stalks into 1-inch pieces. Quarter the onion. Add the cut vegetables to the pot with the salt, peppercorns, and enough cold water to cover (about 8 cups). Bring to a boil. Reduce heat and simmer, skimming any foam that rises to the top, until the chicken is cooked through, about 30 minutes.
2. Transfer the chicken to a bowl and let cool. Strain the broth, discarding the vegetables. Return the broth to the pot. Thinly slice the remaining carrots and celery. Add them to the broth and simmer until tender, about 10 minutes. When the chicken is cool enough to handle, shred the meat and add it to the soup. Ladle into individual bowls.

Much Love,
Jennifer

Below is my update status I am trying to finish if not promise to send at least my partial recap. Because Marches books look AMAZING!!

Currently Reading

Poison Study , by Maria V. Snyder

update status

p. 200 of 409 (49%)

The Girl Who Chased the Moon , by Sarah Addison Allen

update status

p. 100 of 269 (37%)

Classics for 2012 a little late but added to list!

I wanted to include a list of Classics to be read this year. Currently trying to decide which list to read so I did a quick search and decided  on the Wikipedia List. I created a table in my excel sheet and entered my handy dandy RAND formula and presto :: No decision needed technology made the selection. Below is the list for 2012. I hope you enjoy.

CLASSICS 2012

- The Princess and Curdie	George MacDonald
- The Moonstone	Wilkie Collins
- The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and  Mr. Hyde	Robert Louis Stevenson
- The Deerslayer	James Fenimore Cooper
- Gulliver's Travels	Jonathan Swift
- The Napoleon of Notting Hill	G.K. Chesterton
- Othello, The Moor of Venice	William Shakespeare
- Middlemarch	George Eliot
- The Princess and Curdie	George MacDonald
- The Count of Monte Cristo	Alexandre Dumas
- Kidnapped	Robert Louis Stevenson
- Tanglewood Tales for Girls and Boys	Nathaniel Hawthorne

 

I am looking forward to turning these pages.

Much Love,

Jennifer

Fairies and Fear. Do you want to meet the Fairy King?

SCARED :: Couldn't look under the bed!

Yup that is what I told everyone I was when I was reading this book. I am the one to watch FRIENDS all night, give me a Joey line and I am laughing on the couch. Give me a scene from Hannibal or SCREAM or THE SHINING and you might not see my face as it is covered possibly with a blanket or hands covering my eyes peeking through the fingers and every light on in the house.

All closet doors shut and no looking under my bed at night.

So picking up this book and not putting it down I thought would be a challenge but it was not too difficult because Jennifer McMahon made me want more I had to figure out who was the Fairy King. What were all of these clues being dropped, wrong names, weird license plates, the friends from the past, how did they all tie together?? What happened to that town? Where is this girl?

Did I expect the ending? Kind of, but not the last page. Do I believe in Fairies? NAH but just maybe I do believe in that shadow.

Ms. McMahon is a talented writer. Pick up the book and let me know if you believe in Fairies.

Much love, 

Jennifer


Title: DON’T BREATHE A WORD
Author: Jennifer McMahon
Genre: Literature & Fiction, Mystery
Theme: Family, Fairies, Family Saga
ISBN-13: 978-0061689376


About the book (Amazon)

One summer night in Vermont, 12-year-old Lisa went into the woods behind her house and never came out again. Before she disappeared, she told her little brother Sam about a door that led to a magical place where she would meet the King of the Fairies and become his queen.

Fifteen years later, Phoebe is in love with Sam , a practical, sensible man who doesn’t fear the dark and doesn’t have bad dreams—who, in fact, helps Phoebe ignore her own. But suddenly they are faced with a series of eerie, unexplained occurrences that challenge Sam’s hard-headed, realistic view of the world. As they question their reality, a terrible promise Sam made years ago is revealed and could destroy them all.

Reviews

“[A] strange and unsettling shocker ... With the tale’s outcome utterly unforeseeable even as it races along, “Don’t Breathe a Word” leaves you breathless.” (Wall Street Journal )

“Jennifer McMahon’s novels are like the perfect winter truffle: dark, rich, earthy, and an absolute, decadent pleasure. Don’t Breathe a Word is a haunting page-turner that kept me up, spine shivering and enthralled, way past my bedtime.” (Joshilyn Jackson, NYT bestselling author of Gods in Alabama and Backseat Saints )

“Jennifer McMahon never flinches and never fails to surprise as her stories twist down unexpected roads. Don’t Breathe a Word balances love and horror as McMahon weaves a young couple into a perverse fairyland where Rosemary’s Baby could be at home.” (Randy Susan Meyers, author of The Murderer's Daughters )

“Beautifully written and spooky, Don’t Breathe a Word wraps around you and pulls you into a dark world of fairies and family secrets.” (Chevy Stevens, New York Times bestselling author of Still Missing )


Biography :: Jennifer McMahon (Amazon)
I was born in 1968 and grew up in my grandmother's house in suburban Connecticut, where I was convinced a ghost named Virgil lived in the attic. I wrote my first short story in third grade. I graduated with a BA from Goddard College in 1991 and then studied poetry for a year in the MFA in Writing Program at Vermont College. A poem turned into a story, which turned into a novel, and I decided to take some time to think about whether I wanted to write poetry or fiction. After bouncing around the country, I wound up back in Vermont, living in a cabin with no electricity, running water, or phone with my partner, Drea, while we built our own house. Over the years, I have been a house painter, farm worker, paste-up artist, Easter Bunny, pizza delivery person, homeless shelter staff member, and counselor for adults and kids with mental illness -- I quit my last real job in 2000 to work on writing full time. In 2004, I gave birth to our daughter, Zella. In 2005, we left the woods (for now), and moved to Barre, Vermont -- producer of one-third of all the granite gravestones and mausoleums in the US.

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