Books, Movies, and Chinese Food

Summary from BN.com: Madeline, Avery, and Nikki are strangers to each other, but they have one thing in common. They each wake up one morning to discover their life savings have vanished, along with their trusted financial manager- leaving them with nothing but co-ownership of a ramshackle beachfront house. Throwing their lots in together, they take on the challenge of restoring the historic property. But just as they begin to reinvent themselves and discover the power of friendship, secrets threaten to tear down their trust-and destroy their lives a second time. Summer's winding down and I was in the need for a good beach read to end the season. I actually have not been to the beach this year so I figured that a book set on the beach had to be the next best substitute. I also read this book during Hurricane Irene so it added even more of a beachy feeling as well. The story focuses on three women: Madeline, Avery and Nicole. These three women couldn't be more d...

Former lawyer Melanie Hoffman lost half her body weight and opened a gourmet take-out café specializing in healthy and delicious food. Then her husband left her-for a woman twice her size. Immediately afterwards, she's blindsided by a financial crisis. Melanie reaches out to a quirky roommate with a ton of baggage and becomes involved in a budding romance with a local documentary filmmaker. In this warm and often laugh-out-loud novel, Melanie discovers that she still has a lot to learn about her friends, her relationships with men, and herself-and that her weight loss was just the beginning of an amazing journey that will transform her life from the inside out.. I'm sure there are many women out there who feel that they have to lose weight in order to either attract a guy or keep a guy's interest. So imagine the shock if you do happen to lose weight and your guy dumps you because he liked you better when you were bigger. It's not something someone would normally...

Amish schoolteacher Leah Beiler is content nurturing her young "scholars" and helping out on her large family's Pennsylvania farm in Pleasant Valley. She has long since recovered from the defection of her former fiance Johnny Kile, who left the Amish community several years ago. But now Johnny has returned. Working at a local medical clinic on research into inherited diseases common among the Amish, he asks for Leah's help in circumventing his "shunned" status and reuniting him with his family, in particular with his twin, Rachel, who is also Leah's best friend. Johnny also encourages Leah to help out at the clinic, working as a liaison with the Amish community. Is Johnny secretly hoping to convince Leah to leave the community and join him in an "English" life together? This book is one of few Amish books that I think really gets it. By it, I mean it allows the reader to enter the Amish world, yet does not try to push Amish beliefs on them, do...

I'm giving away a TWO BOOK set today: a hardback copy of today's book plus a paperback copy of the first book in the series, The Begotten! (For my review click here ) Leave a comment with your email address so I can contact you if you win. I'll pick a name and announce the winner on Monday, September 24. For this giveaway, the winner must have a US mailing address. Good luck! The next LOTR? The book starts off right where The Begotten left off. It is the year 1340. The members of the Gifted are searching for clues to help understand more about their gifts. Daria, the healer and leader of the group, is being watched by the evil Lord Amadei who wishes for her to use her powers for him. He tries to use her former ally Vincenzo to get her to bow down to his wishes. However her faith is too strong to allow her to bend towards his will. Unfortunately this causes not only her, but all the members of the Gifted to suffer and question exactly how strong their faith really is....

Middle Ages Version of X-Men A lot of times we like to play the what if question. This can lead to long drawn out debates on what could have happen if something had taken place. Sometimes we worry that things would have been radically different if things had changed. Other times times we speculate on the possibilities that could have taken place if only such and such had taken place. That is the premise of The Begotten. Paul had written many letters to churches. What if there had been another letter sent to a special group of people called The Gifted? Set during the time of the Inquisition, the secret of Paul's extra letter is trying to be kept hidden by the holy leaders. They are against females holding high authority and wish to keep any knowledge about it in secret. Years later however, individuals with secret powers find each other as they strive to help out those in need. They are Christians, strong in their faith, battling those who have turned to the dark side. This b...