Speaking of books, Volume Two of my personal home cookbook is just about complete! I have been working on gathering all the recipes I have made over my adult years that we enjoyed and putting them all together as well as all new recipes I make and are keepers. Volume One turned out to be huge; two cvolumes in 4-inch binders. Volume Two is a much more manageable size. I always feel pleased when I have completed one of these cookbooks.
As I think about books I have read and re-read recently I can come up with these at the moemnt:
1. "Eating Heaven" by Jennie Shortridge - This book was given to me orignally by my SIL Merle. I recently re-read the book. It's about the reality of what it takes to care for an ailing relative, a passion for food and cooking, a love story, and a woman becoming all see wants to be. I love this book.
2. "Wicked, the Life and Times of the Wicked Witch of the West" by Gregoray Maquire - This book is delightfully over the top at times, a page turner from the beginning, and definitely a stimulus for thought.
3. "More Than You Know" by Beth Gutcheon - I don't feel that many authors can pull of twelling two stories and not lose the reader before entwining them together. Gutcheon can.
4. "A Year in Provence" by Peter Mayle - This ia a warm-hearted and witty account of living ones long-cherished dream of moving into a 200-year old farmhouse in a remote country of the Luberon with wife and dogs. This book transports us into all the earthly pleasures of Provencal life and lets us live vicariously at a tempo goverened by seasons, not by days. Another favorite.
5. "The House of Mondavi, the Rise and Fall of an American Wine Dynasty" by Julia Flynn Silver - A fascinating chronical of the Napa Valley wine family. The Mondavi's are in a sense the Kennedy's of the wine world. You do not have to be a lover of wine to be entralled by this account of ones family's rise and fall.
6. "East of Eden" by John Steinbeck - I never tire of re-reading this book that was amazingly first published the year I was born. It is a definite masterpiece set in the Salinas Valley in CA oof two brothers raised alone by their father. Really it is a modern retelling of the book of Genisis.
7 - 20. The Stephanie Plum Series "One For the Money," "Two For the Dough," "Three to Get Ready" "Four to Score" "Five High" "Hot Six" "Seven Up" "Hard Eight" "To the Nines" "Ten Big Ones" "Eleven on Top" "Twelve Sharp" "Lean Mean Thirteen - by Janet Evanovich - My SIL Deb got me hooked on this series. What can I say about Stephanie Plum? She is outrageously funny. She's a sassy Trento, New Jersey, bounty-hunter in-training who's less than perfect and always stirs up action and amusement with her wit and "colorful" circle of family and friends. The books are laugh-out-loud funny. Fun reading.
21. Healthy Mind, Healthy Body Handbook" by David S. Sober MD & Robert Ornstein, PhD - Definite reading for learning new tools to have more control over your life and health.
22. "A New Earth Awakening to Your Life's Purpose" by Eckhart Tolle - This is a spititual manifesto for a better way of life and for building a better world. Transcend your ego-based state of unconsciousness.
23 - 48. "Caroline and the Raider" "Corbin's Fancy" "Courting Susannah" Daniel's Bride" "Deadly Deceptions" "Deadly Gamble" "Emma and the Outlaw" "Just Kate" "Lilli and the Major" "McKetterick's Choice" "McKetterick's Heart" "McKetterick's Luck" "McKetterick's Pride"Never Look Back" "Second Hand Bride" "Sierra's Homecoming" Springwater" "Springwater Season's" "Springwater Wedding" " The Last Chance Cafe" "The Legacy" "The Man From Stone Creek" "The McKetterick's Way" "The Women of Primeose Creek" "Two Brothers" by Linda Lael Miller - My hubby turned me on to her books this year and I enjoy her writing for easy fiction reading. Oddly, I especially enjoy her books set in the old west which has never really intrested me before. However her characters are delightful; the women with minds and strengths of their own, and good men at heart who work hard.
49. "Bouchon" by Thomas Kellar - I recently re-read this cookbook. I love Thomas Keller and his recipes. He is of French Laundry restaurant fame. His cookbooks are gorgeously put together.
50. "The Secret" by Rhonda Byrne - A very good book and I do reccomend it. However didn't we all really know this already?
51. "The Witch of Portobello" by Paulo Coelho - I loved this book but then I love the writing of Coelho. "The Alchemist" is an all-time favorite book of mine, and this offering didn't disappoint me.
52. "Three Cups of Tea" by Greg Mortenson & David Olivier Relin - Yes, on person can make a very big change. This true story of a man bulding schools in Afganistan and Pakistan is a real motivator. and page turner.
53. "Eat, Pray, Love" by Elizabeth Gilbert - This is a delightful memoir of Gilberts journey through Italy, India and Indonesia searching for everything. The lessons she learns along the way in her years journey, lucky for us, are entirely importable.
2 comments:
We've read so many of the same great books. What did you think of "A New Earth?" I loved, "Eat Pray Love" and "Three CUps of Tea." Both are such great stories!
I only get to read in such massive amounts when I am traveling. :)
Love the cookbook idea!
My girlfriend gave me a copy of her family cookbook and I use it all the time.
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