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Giveaway: Secrets To Parenting Your Adult Child Book

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While many of us are still knee-deep in diapers, or sorting through the ups and downs of the turbulent tweens, I don’t have to tell you how fast children grow. The blink of an eye, a weekend at the grandparents and it seems some mornings that you could almost swear your child looks an inch taller. From the time they are tweens, perhaps even from the time they start walking they begin the journey away from you. And while I know there are countless resources and parenting books for parents of toddlers and newborns, I’ve yet to see a tome dubbed the Teen Whisperer or the Young Adult Whisperer. In its place is this: Secrets to Parenting Your Adult Child, by Nancy Williams. Is this a book that is needed in the marketplace of parenting books? Oh yes, I would argue there is a great need and I wish frankly that it had existed a decade ago so my mother could have read it. Years ago we might have laughed at this notion: the adult child. We might have even shrugged it off as a thing that didn’t exist. But the economy took a dive and grown children began leaving home a lot later. Marriage began happening a lot later than in previous generations and married career couples began waiting often until their 40s before they had their own children. Emptynesters often waited longer to become emptynesters, parenting adult children still living at home. It was most unexpected. So what are the ground rules, or guidelines for this new phase of your relationship? How do you respectfully live under the same roof as two grownups? How do you guide this adult without overstepping your boundaries? How do you continue to nurture in a supportive way the emotional health of this person who is still struggling to become independent? Luckily Nancy Williams, a licenced counselor and life coach, has some advice. Williams, also a parent of two, offers some ideas such as: active listening means not interjecting into their conversations comments like “I know just how you feel.” In fact Williams points out, you probably don’t really know how they feel because this social phenomenon is quite new. “We must be careful to withhold comments that may appear judgemental and avoid comparisons with other children _ their siblings, their friends, our friend’s children.” This is so vital to maintaining a supportive relationship. We all know how awful it feels to be compared in a negative way to someone else’s accomplishments. It undermines our confidence and also makes us question how conditional the love of a parent is. Williams challenges parents to be listeners, to use their hearts while listening and to respect that each person is unique and know that your goal for that person, your adult child, might be entirely different than their goal. Respect their vision, she says. Good advice for any stage of parenting. Become a positive coach. Use phrases like: “Tell me more,” “How can I help you with that?” Also don’t forget simple communication tools like using I statements. Secrets To Parenting Your Adult Child is a great communication tool to have on hand in general for any person with a a child in their teens and beyond. Williams can help you get to that next level with your child. While she won’t be able to help your adult child find a job or move out on their own in an economy where jobs seem scarce, she provides some good solid practical advice.

Secrets to Parenting Your Adult Child is a $$$$ out of $$$$$. The price is right for this book which fills a niche that doesn’t really get much attention. Good communication skills are vital for all relationships and with your children you certainly want to be there throughout their lives, not just until they turn 21. It should be given to all parents when their children are 18 and up.

Secrets to Parenting Your Adult Child by Nancy Williams, Bethany House, US, $12.99 Christian Life and Parenting, 216 pages.

Giveaway: (Open to Canada and US. Ends June 15th)
Mandatory:
1.You must follow thriftymommasbrainfood on GFC (see side bar)
2. Leave me your email address so I can contact you if you win.
Extra ENTRY:
1.Tweet about the giveaway – once per day. One extra entry. The tweet can be like this: “I entered to win the Secrets to Parenting Your Adult Child on http://www.thriftymommasbrainfood.blogspot.com/”

Whole Foods To Thrive: A Runners Must Have Plus Free Recipes and a #Giveaway

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Brendan Brazier, a North Vancouver athlete and the best-selling author of the Thrive Diet, wasn’t actually on my radar until recently when Penguin sent me this book to review. Initially I was intrigued by the fact that he is a Canadian, and then I spotted the amazing endorsements on this book from world-renowned athletes and celebrities like Hugh Jackman. You don’t have to be a trend-watcher or buzz agent to know that the Whole Foods movement is hot right now. So the book had buzz, endorsements and a Canadian cool quotient that hooked me. But let’s face it these things are really more like icing on a cake or eye candy. So how about the book itself, or the cake if you want a food metaphor to follow? Is it every bit as yummy as the intial suggestions? The answer, in short, is yes. Whole Foods to Thrive is an amazing resource that I will keep in my kitchen for years to come. It is a self help book, crossed with a cookbook and lifestyle/diet guide. It is chock full of common sense science that supports the idea that people’s bodies get sick, physically and psychologically, because of the way we eat. Remove the processed foods, ditch the sugar and other stimulants and pay attention to how your body responds. Now I can’t actually say that I have hopped on this bandwagon yet. I aspire to get there eventually. Brazier’s recipes will help. The latter half of the book has the most remarkable whole food recipes like Zucchini Hummus, a recipe that is provided by Gorilla Food in Vancouver, British Columbia, and Pumpkin Gnocci from the Millennium Restaurant in San Francisco. There are over 200 recipes here and I can’t wait to get started making several. All of the recipes included are plant-based, allergen free and contain no wheat, yeast, gluten, soy, dairy or corn. Even if you had no interest in the rest of this book – which is highly unlikely if you pick it up and spend a couple of hours with it – the recipes alone are well worth the price. I love the natural approach and the science at the start of this book that explains how things like caffeine work on our bodies. This is a great educational tool for those remotely interested in nutrition and self change.
I learned from this book that despite my initial misgivings coconut oil is one of the healthiest and most easily digestible ways to fry food. It is the best and only way to fry according to Brazier, who notes that because it is so easily digestible it converts quickly to energy. This is smart eating and cooking and I can easily use much of this and pass the information down through my family.
The author Brendan Brazier
Some tips from the book:
“The consumption of chlorophyll-rich leafy green vegetables combined with moderate exercise is the best way to create a biologically younger body.”
“Squash – combined with the correct workout – will contribute to the process of muscle building.”
“Less energy spent on digestion equates to more available energy.”
      Two Free Recipes (Excerpts From the Book!!)
Ginger Pear Smoothie

                                             with Sunflower Seed Hemp Milk

                The riper the pear, the sweeter the smoothie. If you’d like it even sweeter, add one


                                or two fresh or soaked dried dates. Since ginger is a natural anti-inflammatory,
this is an ideal choice for a post-workout snack. (2 minutes, makes 3 cups)

                 1 banana


                                                                                                ½ pear, cored
                                                                                                    1 cup water
                                                                        1 cup Sunflower Hemp Seed Milk (see p. 126)
                                                                                         1 tbsp ground flaxseed
                                                                                        1 tbsp hemp protein powder
                                                                                        1 tbsp peeled, grated ginger
                                                       • In a blender, combine all ingredients and blend until smooth.

          Chocolate Almond Smoothie

                                                           with Sacha Inchi Milk

                                         Rich in protein and omega-3, this smoothie will keep you going for hours with


                                                sustainable, non-stimulating energy. (5 minutes) Makes 2 lg servings.

                                                                                       1 banana


                                                                     2 fresh or presoaked dried dates
                                                                                       1 cup water
                                                        1 cup Sacha Inchi Milk (or chocolate variation) (see p. 126)
                                                                 ¼ cup almonds (or 2 tbsp raw almond butter)
                                                                                 1 tbsp ground flaxseed
                                                                             1 tbsp hemp protein powder
                                                                             1 tbsp roasted carob powder

                                                   • In a blender, combine all ingredients and blend until smooth.

Whole Foods To Thrive: Nutrient-Dense, Plant-Based Recipes for Peak Health, is by Brendan Brazier, published by Penguin Canada, 288 pages, May 2011, Adult, Nutrition, $28.00

This one gets a $$$$$ out of $$$$$ because it is the whole package, no pun intended. The recipes and the healthy cooking and eating tips all combine for a great resource and healthy eating guide.
Luckily I have a prize to giveaway too thanks to Penguin, Vega and the author. Open to Canada only. This is ideal for runners.
The prize pack contains six Vega smoothie mixes (either Shake & Go Smoothie mixes or Complete Whole Food Health Optimizer mixes) in an assortment of flavours like Vanilla Chai, Bodacious Berry, and Choc-a-Lot.)
GIVEAWAY:
1.To win you must follow me on Google Friend Connect -( see side bar of my blog).
2. Leave me your email and tell me which package you would choose – Shake and Go or Whole Food Optimizer).
I will contact the winner and forward their email or address onto Bronwyn at Penguin. Winner will be chosen here by me on June 10th, with help of random.org.
Shake and Go Smoothie Mixes (Prize package)
Whole Food Optimizer Smoothie Mixes (Prize Pack) You can win one or the other

Skinny – A Fun and Frightening Look at Kid’s Camps

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Skinny, by Diana Spechler is as divine as a gourmet dessert. I suspect this is one novel that will be found on many beaches, and in the hands of many at the cottage, this summer. Skinny is delicious, smart and funny. Skinny is a unique story inspired by the author’s summer stint at a children’s weight loss camp. It is a work of creative non fiction. It takes a serious jumping off point and an austere subject – health issues, both physical and mental, relating to childhood obesity, and it spins that off into a tongue in cheek almost satirical look at an industry that is perhaps out of control. It is a savvy title that can at once refer to the weight loss industry itself and the ‘skinny’ or truth at the heart of the relationships people have with food. There were moments when Skinny reminded me of a Michael Moore documentary on food. There were other moments when the main character Gray also harkened back to the main character at the heart of the Margaret Atwood novel, The Edible Woman. As the novel begins Gray, the main character, 26, is dealing with deep grief and guilt. Her very obese father has recently died. “After I killed my father, he taught me that honesty is optional,” she states. In the wake of his death she finds that she is unable to stop eating. One day, as Gray hunts through her father’s financial papers and emails, she finds evidence she has a half sister, Eden. Eden’s private life is quite exposed through social media and so Gray already thinks she knows a lot about her half sister when she signs on as a camp counsellor at the weight loss camp Eden is attending. The characters in Skinny are composites, which shouldn’t be surprising as these characters are much too funny, ironic and colourful to be entirely real. Take Lewis, for instance. Lewis is the camp founder who, without spoiling the ending of the book is slightly hypocritical and completely full of himself. He is a full blown narcissist who takes $11,000 per child for a summer that promises to transform children from overweight, bullied, victims to svelte, healthy members of society. Sheena is the very comical former foster child from the wrong side of the tracks who ascends to activities coordinator and wins the love of all the campers. She is also slightly deranged. Mikey is Gray’s moody boyfriend back home and Bennett is the well sculpted summer fling, an assistant at the camp. Spechler is a talented writer effortlessly moving between flashback type scenes and present day. She writes with skill and expertise, and the flow of the narrative is never strained, despite the jumps back and forth in time. Her flashbacks are so organic that the reader hardly knows they are happening and isn’t ever jolted. Spechler is also the author of Who By Fire.  She lives in New York City and her writing has appeared in the New York Times, GQ, Details, Never and Glimmer. Skinny is contemporary in its topic matter and cultural references and somewhat horrifying in its harsh look at the obesity industry. If even a portion of this story is true as the author says it is, Skinny will be slightly horrifying for a whole group of parents that spend money sending their children to overnight camps. 

Skinny, by Diana Spechler, Harper Perennial, 368 pages, April 19, 2011, New York, Paperback $14.99.
Thriftymommastips gives this one a $$$$ out of $$$$$.
I received a copy of the book free for review.

Lazarus Awakening: Finding Your Place in the Heart of God: A Review and a Giveaway

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Joanna Weaver’s latest book is an honest look at moving faith beyond your head to your heart. For those who need to periodically reexamine their faith and their role in accepting religion, this book is a must read, especially for women. Lazarus Awakening is a look at how to open your heart to God’s voice and to his actions. It is not a ten quick steps guide to living through God or anything quite so simplistic. In a world that seeks so much scientific proof to back up theory, it is a compelling essay on how to move beyond that to a place where a Christian can see the actions of God and trust that he is there even when those desperate times appear and he seems absent. In many ways this is a book about trust.
Weaver speaks of her childhood and her intuitive knowledge that God was there guiding her and accepting her as something that was almost a nursery rhyme in its familiarity. And yet, she notes that while she knew this to be true and she felt safe in God’s love, she also experienced this as a somewhat threatening and heavy-handed type of love. As she writes: “I saw my heavenly Father as a stern teacher with a yardstick in His hand, pacing up and down the classroom of my life as He looked for any and all infractions…Most of the time I lived in fear of the yardstick.”
Lazarus Awakening: Finding Your Place In The Heart of God is the third book in a series by Weaver that started with Having a Mary Heart in a Martha World and then followed with Having a Mary Spirit. The poetic title Lazarus Awakening is a reference to the Biblical character Lazarus, brother to Mary and Martha, who falls ill and dies. Mary and Martha bury him and Jesus comes back to show them his power and ressurect Lazarus from the dead. The stones in front of Lazarus’ grave are also metaphors for blockages in our lives impeding belief and faith. The three stones, according to Weaver are: unworthiness, unforgiveness and unbelief.
And in many ways Lazarus is a metaphor here – a smart one – for the absence of something and the experience of faith. Lazarus is mostly known in the Bible for his absence, his death and then his reawakening. The parallel of course is that God’s love is like that, and so is faith. Weaver sees the reader as Lazarus and the intention within this book then must be to reawaken the audience.
There are interesting little snippets of scripture and also some quizzes to help readers access more self knowledge throughout the process of reading this book. There are also some cultural references the author draws on to make a point and a nice study guide is in the book for Bible study groups and Christian women’s groups who may choose this book to explore further. All in all this is an easy read and relevant. I liked the metaphor and also found the writing style accessible. I think this author is quite appealing because she draws on the universal childhood experience of religion being taught to you as something that is done to a child and for a child, but not necessarily internalized by the child. Lazarus Awakening is a guide that helps explain the process of growing from that passive child into an active adult relationship with God.
Lazarus Awakening by Joanna Weaver, published by Waterbrook Press, US $19.99 and Canadian $22.99 Christian Living, Women, Non Fiction, Self Help, 221 pages
Thriftymommas rating is $$$1/2 out of $$$$$. An easy read. This would make a great choice for a Christian women’s book club.
I received a copy of this book for free to facilitate this review. This in no way impacts my opinion.
I enjoyed this book so much I would like to share a copy with my readers.
To enter this giveaway:
1. Follow me on GFC and leave a comment as to why you’d like to win.
2. Don’t forget to leave me your contact information so I can get the book to you.
I will draw for this one on April 25th.

Money and Marriage by Matt Bell

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I have been reading excellent bloggers this week on how to smartly title a blog post so that it gets noticed. Now normally I would think that a literary title about money might be savvy, but it turns out that I am wrong. All the smart bloggers I admire say simple is best. Apparently Google doesn’t really get literary flowery post titles. So what does that have to do with Money and Marriage? Well clearly this title is succinct. But essentially it tells you everything you need to know to buy the book. Money and Marriage. There is arguably no greater issue in a marriage than money. It can make your relationship challenging to say the least. Luckily author Matt Bell is here to help.
“Couples who disagree about finances at least once a week are over 30 % more likely  to divorce than couples who disagree about finances a few times a month.”
Money and Marriage: A Complete Guide for Engaged and Newly Married Couples contains many excellent guides, charts and activities designed to help new couples discover more about each other’s financial goals, debts and worth. Remember that marriage course you had to take before you walked down the aisle? Well Money and Marriage is like that course, neatly contained in a book, for your finances. Matt Bell begins by outlining the many ways in which men and women are different in terms of spending, saving and investing. Men, for instance, follow business news more often than women. Men cite investing and entrepreneurship as high on their list. Women cite saving and spending as key issues with money. Women are more likely than men to give time and money to charity. If our approaches to money are so different, then is it any wonder than most couples argue about it a lot?
Financial literacy is nothing if not a hot topic these days in light if such severe economic woes in much of North America. Bell, also the author of Money, Purpose, Joy and Money Strategies for Tough Times, provides a helpful guide to start couples on the right track in their new lives together.
There are some helpful practical and common sense tips here, that I like. For instance, continue learning outside the workplace for as long as your are able, especially before children arrive. You increase your worth as a worker if you are always on top of trends and information. Also many workplaces have some sort of tuition reimbursement or cost savings program. Accelerate your payments whenever possible. Avoid debt and where you have debt prior to your marrige be honest with each other about it. Also contact the bank or credit card company to ask for a lower interest rate on your credit cards. Often this is a simple phone call and this is a practical strategy I use here as well.
For this review and book tour there is also an excellent contest going on. I hope every one of my readers takes time to enter. Thanks to Matt Bell for the great giveaway!

Matt About Money Nest Egg Giveaway 

Money and Marriage, by Mat Bell NavPress, 2011, $14.99 softcover, 219 pages

Thriftymommastips rating is $$$1/2 out of $$$$$. The price is right for this book about money. I learned a lot about how spending habits and investing strategies differ by gender.This is clearly an American book with US references throughout. That’s perfectly fine and Canadians can still use a lot of the common sense information here. I am unsure that prayer and money belong together in a book.

I received a free copy of this book to review. This, in no way impact my honest opinion.

An Amish Love: Three Novellas and Something Unexpected Review/Giveaway

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Drug addictions, forced marriages, deadly accidents, a fall out with the church and spouses who disappear mysteriously. An Amish Love contains three lovely novellas, set in Amish country-side, with a big dash of the unexpected. The novellas are all tied to place and characters flit in and out of each separate story. The prominent themes are: alienation and love. This is a perfect book for my February I Heart Books Event. An Amish Love is a triple threat. Usually in acollection like this, there is at least one weak link. But all of these stories are really well done and enjoyable. Each is a treat on its own.

Take for instance the first novella: A Marriage of the Heart by Kelly Long. Joseph Lambert has been away from his Amish ways for several years and has come back to live with a local doctor. Abigail Kauffman, motherless, lonely and a beautiful flirt, sees a way out of her ‘boring’ Amish life that she no longer wants to be part of and she tricks him into marriage. Well, as the plot progresses in this really charming story, she comes to love her husband and slowly reveals to her father that she has always felt lonely and unloved and was deceitful in claiming Joseph made advances towards her before their marriage. Joseph carries his own secrets. When an ex-girlfriend shows up with a vial full of painkillers and an old hold on his heart, the relationship is tested. 
In the second novella, What the Heart Sees, written by Kathleen Fuller, Ellie Chupp, who lost her sight in an accident, finds her jam business growing and her idenpendence tested with overprotective parents. Her friend is about to marry the young Amish man who is known to have been responsible for a deadly car accident. Ellie’s good friend is dead as a result and Ellie’s fiancee broke up with her, unable to handle her blindness. When Christopher Miller returns to town after being shunned, Ellie finds herself feeling romance again. But how could this individual love her, now that she is blind? And will Miller be able to forgive and return to the Amish life in time for his sister’s wedding?
And finally in Healing Hearts by Beth Wiseman, the father of a large brood returns home to his wife after being absent one year without explanation. While Naaman Lapp was not shunned, his family remains perplexed as to why he left. His son Adam is particularly angry and finds it difficult to forgive despite the Amish teachings. Naaman’s wife, Levina, has moved on and found a degree of independence despite the chatty gossip in town and the speculation that Naaman might have had another woman in Ohio. Eventually he will realize he needs to court his wife again and earn her trust back.

The end of this book contains a reader’s guide and some excellent Amish recipes from within the novellas. I cannot wait to try some out here. Yum!                 
 Am Amish Love, by Beth Wiseman, Kathleen Fuller and Kelly Long is a Thomas Nelson book. $14.99 US, 391 pages and is classified Fiction, Christian, Romance.
All books are provided free from the publisher but that in no way affects my review.
For this giveaway also Feb. 27th.
1. Follow me on GFC.
2. Follow @inkscrblr on twitter
and leave me your contact information so I can reach you if you win.
Extra two entries if you tweet this contest. “Amish Love book giveaway – not what you expected – enter on http://www.thriftymommasbrainfood.com/ ”

Barrio Bushido: The Next Trainspotting? Review and a Giveaway

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Barrio Bushido is disturbing and violent and poetic and a profound social statement. Barrio Bushido is Ben Bac Sierra’s first novel and, as graphic and absolutely horrific as it was at times I couldn’t stop reading or envisioning this as a really great movie script in the same vein as Trainspotting or Fight Club. Barrio is the gritty realistic sad tale of three gang members, growing up in a Latin ghetto area of California. The main character is Lobo, the wolf, leader of the pack. He is a strange disenfranchised soul with the heart of a poet. He spends his days in a drugged haze knowing he is inevitably headed towards a fate that involves self destruction. The bull, Toro, is babysat by a television when his mother goes to work cleaning office buildings and homes. While his sister can come along on the jobs, he cannot because he is too rough and so on one of these occasions when he is left home, as a five-year-old, he falls out the window of his apartment building. He waits and wanders after the fall searching for help that doesn’t come. As a youth he will find a place in the marines where he tries to earn respect and the love of his mother. He endures the Gulf War and is little more than a young adult when he learns to wear the scars of his many battles with pride. Santiago is the third pillar of the odd triad of brothers. He pulls the drooping needles from his parent’s arms and feeds his brothers and sisters. Benjamin Bac Sierra is an intense writer. He manages to create empathy for characters that are completely vile outlaws. Bac Sierra knows his topic well. He is a former homeboy himself and a veteran of the Gulf War. The author himself, a former homeboy and a veteran of the Gulf War, clearly knows his topic well. He grew up in San Francisco’s Mission, joined the Marine Corps at 17 and saw front line combat in the Gulf War. In an incredible transformation he managed to complete a Bachelor of Arts at U.C. Berkeley after an honourable discharge from the marines and is now a professor at City College in San Francisco. Bac Sierra’s characters are nothing if not realistic. They jump off the page fighting. Bac Sierra is a masterful storyteller with a true strenth for characterization. Lobo is no cliche; instead he is a gangster with a weakness for his girlfriend Sheila and a strangely romantic soul. He is placed in an impossible situation when a rival gang member, he is supposed to kill ends up kidnapping Sheila to turn the tables on Lobo. Lobo is a strange contradiction, speaking in swear words and poetry at the same time. These characters are remarkable and magnetic. The story is gritty and compelling in the same way some traffic accidents are. But this story isn’t for everyone. It is a fiction story with a high degree of realism and extreme violence. This is a brave first novel rooted in some reality. It will be very interesting to see where the author goes next, also if someone options this as a script.

Barrio Bushido, by Benjamin Bac Sierra, El Leon Literary Arts, $20.00 US., 282 pages. Fiction.
Thriftymommas rating $$$ out of $$$$$. Excellent characterization and dramatic plot, but too much hostile language towards women and the violence, while understandable in this context is really over the top.)

I am giving a copy of Barrio Bushido away this month as part of my I Heart Books Event.
Mandatory:
1. Follow me on GFC (google friend connect.)
2. Leave your contact information so I can reach you if you win.
I will draw for this one on Feb. 27th. Open to Canada and US.

Reviewed by Paula Schuck

The Lake of Dreams: Kim Edwards

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Fans of the mega-best-selling The Memory Keeper’s Daughter will be thrilled to know that Kim Edwards has a new novel out this week. The Lake of Dreams is a worthy second novel from an author that is quite skilled at spinning a good yarn. The Lake of Dreams is a lovely story, a tale I initially thought had little in common with the first novel, which was the story of a doctor who helps birth his own twins, one of whom is born with Down’s Syndrome. In The Memory Keeper’s Daughter, the doctor with a perfect life, gives his child with special needs up to a nurse he works with, tells his wife the one twin died and never really expects to be bothered by the whole affair again. But, as I began to write this review I realized the many similarities between the novels. The Lake of Dreams is also a book centring on themes of secrecy, betrayal, grief and family relationships. The Lake of Dreams begins in the past, a scene in which the main character rebuffs her father, shrugging off a fishing trip as a rebellious teen, only to wake in the middle of the night to the news that he has drowned. Grief propels Lucy though life and her many thwarted careers and relationships. As an adult, Lucy lives in Japan, temporarily between jobs, living with her lover Yoshi, until news that her mother has had an accident forces her back home again for a visit. Transported to the sprawling home of her childhood on The Lake of Dreams, Lucy will question her place in her family and confront her grief as she grapples with the idea that her mother may be ready to sell their home. But, as she does this, she stumbles upon a secret, a package of odd items, and letters hidden in a window seat within the home and sealed up for many decades. The discovery leads her to a distant relative, a woman named Rose whose story unravels bit by bit to intertwine with that of Lucy’s own family. Edwards is very talented at crafting beginnings that grab you by the throat and haul you into the first chapters of her books. Less talented at maintaining that momentum, I think. Perhaps, not surprising as her books centre on the inner workings of character’s minds and the complicated relationships we have with other human beings, especially those who are related to us. There are glimpses of brilliant imagery here, with the stained windows used as a unique metaphor, that would on the surface seem obvious as a reference to a window to the past. But there is a lot more here, contained within the puzzle of the windows themselves. On finding the tackle box that went missing after her father’s death, Lucy describes the many fishing lures they made: “They were like gemstones, smooth and spherical, and trailing feathers, streamers, bits of lace.” I enjoyed this book very much, and could even see genius at work in the crafting of the chapters and the story, but in some ways it was more appealing to me academically than emotionally. Edwards is an associate professor of English at the University of Kentucky. She has also written one collection of short stories: The Secrets of a Fire King.

The Lake of Dreams by Kim Edwards, fiction, Viking, Jan. 4, 2011, $26.95 US Hardcover and $33.50 Canada, 378 pages.
Thriftymommastips rating is $$$$ out of $$$$$. A nice read, with moments of brilliance, but falls slightly short of superstar status, perhaps because it lacks emotion on some levels.

For more information, or to buy see amazon link on side bar or  visit http://www.penguin.ca/nf/Book/BookDisplay/0,,9780670022175,00.html?THE_LAKE_OF_DREAMS_Kim_Edwards

Bite Me: Not Your Granny’s Betty Crocker Cookbook Review and Giveaway

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My copy of Bite Me. Keep Your Hands Off. It’s Mine, All Mine
This is not your Grandma’s or your Mama’s Betty Crocker Cookbook. It is so much more. Need proof?
1. The title: Bite Me: A Stomach Satisfying, Visually Gratifying, Fresh-Mouthed Cookbook.
2. The hysterical drawings:
Like this one which tells a little about the sisters that created the book, Julie Albert and Lisa Gnat. One brings the funny and the other brings the palate. (No that’s not them in the picture)



And this one. Which prefaces the appetizers section of the book.

3. And the incredible recipes. (From traditional with a twist – Rustic Meatballs in Marinara Sauce to oddball unique – like Julie’s Tabbouleh – (I made the meatballs on our snow day here last Wednesday and I’ve got to say they are the yummiest meatballs I’ve ever made. My whole family agreed)
4. I am no foodie, but I can make these recipes. They are easy to follow and delicious. They make me laugh and they make me feel competent in the kitchen (which can be a stretch some days)
5. Smart tips that I tested and tried here. Luckily I had some very hard brown sugar rehabilitated thanks to the sister’s tip about bread.
 

 Tonight I made my fourth recipe from this amazing new cookbook and I am in culinary love with this extremely funny and irreverrent collection. The style of this cookbook reminded me a wee bit of that runaway success Looney Spoons by the sisters from Ontario that created a mini empire based on their funny cookbook and savvy sense of style that caught the eye of finance guru David Chilton. Bite Me is a funnier cookbook that makes you chuckle while tossing ingredients together. Frankly anything that helps me view cooking as less of a chore is a great investment for my whole family. The white chocolate chunk cookies in Bite Me, were the two sisters’ signature item, Chunky White Chocolate and Cranberry. Easy to bake and delicious. There’s nothing my kids and I love to make more than scrumptious cookies. The Balsamic chicken with sweet peppers will be a new staple in my regular rotation of dishes. This one will be a great gift book for pretty much any occasion.
Bite Me is by Julie Albert and Lisa Gnat, 2009, Pinky Swear Press Inc. Canada, $29.95, 272 pages can be purchased at http://www.bitemecookbook.com/
or http://www.pinkyswearpress.com/ and this one gets a $$$$$ out of $$$$$.
I was provided with a copy of this cookbook for free to review. The opinions on this blog are all my own. Bite Me!
My copy of Bite Me is mine I am not sharing. But the lovely authors will.
TO WIN: You can win a signed copy of Bite Me, a reusable Bite Me shopping bag and a Bite Me hat (you can enter until Feb. 15th)

1. Follow thriftymommasbrainfood on Google Friend Connect (it’s right there on the side of my blog) or tell me that you already do.
2. Follow @inkscrblr on twitter, or tell me that you already do.
3. Visit one of the sites above either http://www.bitemecookbook.com/ or http://www.pinkyswearpress.com/
and tell me something you learned from either site.

Extra entry (Not mandatory at all, but gives you more chances to win)
1. (1 extra entry) Follow one of my other blogs: http://www.thriftymommastips.blogspot.com/
or http://www.thriftymommagogo.blogspot.com/
2. (I extra entry for each tweet. Comment each time.)Tweet this or something like it:  “I just entered to win a copy of Bite Me cookbook with http://www.thriftymommasbrainfood.com/ ”
3. Blog about the giveaway once and earn 5 extra entries. Leave me the link.
I will draw for the winner with random.org and announce the winner Feb. 16th at 9 a.m. Please remember to leave your email address.

Tales From the Treehouse: Jane and The Raven King

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Jane and The Raven King is by Stephen Chambers, Sourcebooks, Jabberwocky, published last month Dec. 2010, $6.99 US and $8.99 Canadian, paperback, 256 pages.

My full written review is at New York Journal of Books.

This one gets five $$$$$ out of $$$$$. We thoroughly loved this character and her quest to save the world. Great strong plot and compelling adventure fantasy fiction for ages nine to 12.
I received a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.