Always Put in a Recipe and Other Tips for Living by Evelyn Birkby

     I really enjoyed this book. It's the best thing I've read in awhile. It was written by an Iowa homemaker who lives in a rural community of southwest Iowa and has written a weekly column for the local newspaper for years. I guess what I liked most about it was the fond memories it evoked from my own childhood growing up on the farm. Cold winters, hot summers, animals and vegetables, playing in the grove, cooking, mowing, and the happy times with family.
     The book consists of a compilation of Evelyn's best columns. Her style is open and down to earth. She shares mostly the good times, although like any life, there were sad times too. There are recipes included, because as Evelyn says: "Food serves a much broader purpose than just feeding the body. It is a conduit to friendship, a setting for fellowship, a way to receive recognition when certain dishes are praised, and a connection with generations through shared recipes."
     Her adventures as a writer started when she had young children. So a record of her life flows though the columns. Now, sixty-three years later, she is still recording the lives and interest of those around her, and has put those columns together in this book for our reading delights!

The 5 Love Languages of Children By Gary Chapman and Ross Campbell

In this follow-up to “The 5 Love Languages”, Dr. Gary Chapman and Dr. Ross Campbell collaborate to help us learn how to show our children they are loved in a way they best understand.  This book is based on the idea that love can be communicated in different ways; through physical touch, words of affirmation, quality time, gifts, and acts of service.  Each of us has one way that speaks most clearly to make us feel we are loved.  The authors guide us through these five love languages by giving examples of different parent/child interactions. They also show us how to use this to be more effective in discipline, learning, and anger issues.  I found this book to be helpful in navigating parenting issues.

Whiskey Beach by Nora Roberts

Eli Landen is suspected of murdering his adulterous wife, but there is no evidence to convict him.  Needing to escape, he returns to his family's ancestral home of Bluff House.  Eli finds himself caught off guard by his attraction to Abbra Walsh, the house's caretaker.  Then Abbra is attacked at the house by a mysterious intruder.  Eli knows that somehow this is connected with his wife's murder and other accidents that have been happening at Bluff House.  He realizes until he can solve the mystery he will never be at peace.  This was a very good romantic suspense novel with the mystery playing out to the very end.  I really liked it and would definitely suggest.