books

Top 10 Tuesday: Books I Meant to Read in 2017 But Didn’t Get To

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Linking up with The Broke and the Bookish for Top Ten Tuesday . . .

10 Books I Meant To Read In 2017

But Didn’t Get To

(and totally plan to get to in 2018!)

Here’s a smattering of books I’ve been meaning to get to for oh, so long! I stuck to ten, but there are a whole lot more. Hopefully this list will keep me accountable. Some of these books I won as prizes. Others I downloaded on sale days, for free. One’s a classic I’ve never read. And one I’ve returned to the library, unread, at least once.

What books have you been meaning to read but haven’t gotten to yet? Continue reading →

Under the Catholic Child’s Christmas Tree: A Book-Giving Guide

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Child Xmas Book GuideDuring Advent, the Christmas books are slipped off of the shelves for bedtime reading. Our hodgepodge collection includes Christian and secular Christmas stories, old and new. Some are cheap Scholastic books about characters who are little more than a cog in the marketing machine. (Those, I try to avoid.) Others are classics we relish every year.

We also give each child a book as part of their Christmas gift. As the kids grow older, the books grow longer, and I’m more frequently looking for selections from my fellow authors at Catholic Teen Books.

Here are some ideas that I hope will find a spot under the Christmas tree of a child you love. Continue reading →

Catholic Christmas Book-Giving Guide: Ten Picks for Your Holiday Shopping

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Xmas Book Giving Guide
I perused the books I’ve read this year and have come up with ten that would make excellent Christmas gifts!

Six are fiction, and four are nonfiction, because fiction is my favorite (and I make no apology for that).

I noted whether a book would be best for a particular age or gender. The novels, written by Catholic authors,  would appeal to most anyone – whether of strong or little faith, Catholic or otherwise. The nonfiction books would appeal most to Catholics who practice their faith, at least to some degree. Continue reading →

Oh, the Places Your Art Will Go

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A couple of weeks ago, I endured a particularly grueling trip to the grocery store with my two youngest children. It started with the purchase of King Julian yogurt tubes instead of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle yogurt tubes and escalated to a shouting match over who would press the button to close the rear door of the minivan. An attempt was made at choking. An arm was bitten hard enough to leave a bruise. There was much wailing and whining as I slammed shut the vehicle to head for home. All I could think to do was crank up the car stereo. I didn’t care what song was on, only that it would drown out the pandemonium in my car. It happened to be Dustin Lynch’s “That’s Where It’s At.”

The song’s okay. I don’t have much feeling for it one way or another. But I started to pity Dustin Lynch. Someone slaved over that song. Every chord, each lyric, was the product of someone’s creativity. There were writers, performers, producers, and others. The grand sum of countless hours of creativity and work was, for me, finding its fulfillment in suffocating the noise of my children in meltdown mode. Continue reading →

Stay With Me: The Recipes, Part III

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Stay With Me will be available in only two months (Kindle pre-orders in one)! In May, I wrote about the music that inspired the book, and in April, I blogged about the settings. In June, I shared several of the recipes for the delicious treats mentioned in the book. The second round of recipes posted in July, and this is the final recipe installment!

Homemade Peach Pie

This seasonal treat serves as dessert for the first dinner Chris prepares for Rebecca. It is perfect for this time of year in Pennsylvania. Here’s a tip: Ripe peaches peel easily after being dipped in boiling water for 10-20 seconds.

I have not yet mastered the art of making pie crust from scratch. I admit I find it simpler to pick up a refrigerated, store-bought crust. That’s what I used for this recipe.

Peach Pie

Homemade Peach Pie a la mode

Direct link to Homemade Peach Pie. Continue reading →