The Woman in the Photo by Mary Hogan

In The Woman in the Photo, Lee Parker digs into her family's history after her adoption records are unsealed and she sees a photograph of a woman. The photograph shows a woman, who looks like her, standing amidst a pile of rubble next to Clara Barton, the founder of the Red Cross. What she discovers will change her life forever.

I loved this book! It was inspired by a real life disaster in Johnstown, Pennsylvania, where a dam in the mountains above the town bursts and floods the town.

The story alternates between the past, 1889, and the present. The past features Elizabeth Haberlin, a young woman of privilege and her life at an exclusive country club in the Allegheny Mountains near Johnstown, Pennsylvania. The present features financially strapped Lee and her adoptive mother as Lee digs into her family's past.

I especially like the sections that take place in the past. The setting and the language used by the author felt authentic to the time period. I loved reading about how the wealthy lived and how the young people of the time were expected to behave. The story also highlights the disparity between the wealthy and the working class of the area.

This story features a person from real life, Clara Barton. I love it when real life people become characters into fictional stories. The author includes a lot about Barton's history and how she founded the Red Cross. All of this information was fascinating.

This edition of the book includes an additional section at the back of the book, which contains information about the author, and the real life story on which the book is based, a reading group guide as well as a book synopsis of Hogan's other book. It's definitely worth the read.

I've also read Two Sisters and really enjoyed it. Unfortunately, I haven't written my review yet.

Highly recommended. I hope to read another book by this author.

For more information about this book, please visit the HarperCollins website.

I'd like to thank those nice people at William Morrow for this review copy. Sorry the review is so late.

The Woman in the Photo by Mary Hogan William Morrow (HarperCollins), ©2016. ISBN 9780062386939(Trade paperback), 406p.

Star Wars: The Force Awakens - The Visual Dictionary by Pablo Hidalgo

Happy Star Wars Day!  May the 4th be with you.











Star Wars: The Force Awakens - The Visual Dictionary features characters, weapons, tools, and locations from the movie.

This is such an awesome book. As with other DK visual dictionaries, it's so beautifully presented. The book concentrates on the main characters (or groups of characters) and major locations. Each one is featured on a 2- or sometimes 4-page spread with tons of labelled/annotated photos and interesting and informative text . Many of the photos are large enough to really see the fine details.

Within the character and location pages, there's also information and photos of the tools, weapons and a few of the vessels from the movie. It's great that each of these is also labelled and/or explained further.

My favourite character photos are the dynamic ones. That is, the ones where they are doing something. For example: Kylo Ren's fighting pose with his plasma blade ligthsaber, and Rey with her quarterstaff in a defensive position. Both of these are so cool. Of course, sometimes it's just easier to see the details when the person is just standing there, so it's great that there's also plenty of those types of photos as well.

This book has so much information that each time I pick it up I see something I missed the first time I looked at it. I especially love that the photos with labels start on page one and continue right until the very last page.

It's fun to page through the book, but for those looking for something specific the book also has a table of contents as well as an adequate index.

By the way, I saw the movie and loved it.

Highly recommended for Star Wars fans.

For more Star Wars books from DK and for a downloadable activity kit, please see DK's website.

For more information about this book and/or a quick peek inside, please visit Amazon's website.

I'd like to thank Chris at DK Canada for this review copy.

Star Wars: The Force Awakens - The Visual Dictionary by Pablo Hidalgo, Dorling Kindersley (DK), ©2015. ISBN 9781465438164(Hardcover), 80p.

Start Where You Are by Meera Lee Patel

Start Where You Are is a little book filled with quotes and prompts that takes the reader on a journey of self-exploration.

This book is absolutely gorgeous! It pairs inspirational quotes with writing or drawing prompts that will help readers gain a deeper understanding of their personal journeys. The watercolour work is so lovely. Even the blotchy backgrounds for the quotes are stunning.  If I didn't think it would destroy the book, I'd rip out a couple of pages for framing.

I love that the quotes used are appropriate and fit nicely with the prompts. Here's a wonderful one from Harper Lee:

Real courage is when you know you're licked before you begin, but you begin anyway and see it through no matter what.

The accompanying prompt:

List four times you continued to try even though the odds were against you.

Another terrific quote, this time from Arthur Ashe:

Start where you are. Use what you have. Do what you can.

The accompanying prompt:

Fill these shapes with resources that can help you on your journey.

I've reviewed one other book by Patel, Daily Zen Doodles. I liked it as well.

Highly recommended. This would make a wonderful gift book for Mother's Day, birthday or graduation.

For more information about this book or to have a peek inside, please visit the Penguin Random House website.

For more information about the author and her other work, please visit Meera Lee Patel's website. There's a link to her Etsy shop, which features some of her awesome watercolours.  :)

I'd like to thank Angela at Penguin Random House for this review copy.

Start Where You Are by Meera Lee Patel, Perigee (Penguin Random House), ©2015. ISBN 9780399174827(Soft cover), 128p.

Energy Bites by DK Publishing

Energy Bites features bite-sized high-protein snack recipes. Each of the recipes contain good-for-you ingredients for "increased vitality and wellness".

This is such a great book. It's small in size and only contains 15 recipes, but it's filled with nutritional information and suggestions for recipe variations. The possibilities seem almost endless. I love the contemporary layout.

The book starts off with an ingredients section. It's not just a list, however. It explains the nutritional importance of the ingredients used in the recipes. Next, there are general directions on how to make the no-bake and baked/pan-fried balls. In addition, there are directions on how to prep (soaking, boiling, roasting, etc.) some of the ingredients before the ball making can begin.

For each of the recipes, there's a list of ingredients, directions for making the balls, some nutritional information, as well as a gorgeous photograph of the finished product.

All of the recipes sound great and I've already made a list of ones I have to make for sure. There's really only one that doesn't appeal to me: Carrot & Red Beet Buckwheat Balls (page 24). I adore beets, but I don't like buckwheat...at all. I'm sure if I substitute another grain, though, they'll be yummy.

Because the recipes look so good, I immediately had to try a couple of them. Both the Peanut Butter & Banana Balls (page 44) and Sweet Potato Spicy Bites (page 34) turned out great. We ate the sweet ones for a snack, and the savoury ones with chicken and Brussels sprouts for supper. My husband thought the sweet potato bites needed a little something and since they are a bit spicy, I quickly made a dip out of Greek yogurt. Yum. My only complaint is that the recipe called for one sweet potato. No size or measurement mentioned. If you've ever bought sweet potatoes, you know they come in varying sizes...from those that fit neatly in the palm of your hand to others about half the size of a football (see Superstore for these ones).

Most of the recipes call for a food processor to chop up or incorporate the ingredients. However, if you don't have one, the book provides some alternatives so that the balls can be made by hand. I like this idea because cleaning out a food processor isn't my favourite job and sometimes mixing by hand is just easier.

There's one other thing I should mention about the book. It contains some ingredients that might be a little hard to find. Things like acai powder, bee pollen, moringa powder, and spirulina, probably won't be on your grocer's shelves. A health food store or online might be the a good place to find these. Don't worry, though, those ingredients don't make up the bulk of the balls. In fact, for one of the recipes I tried, I just omitted the ingredient.

As an added bonus, DK, the publisher, has a page on their website dedicated to one of these delicious sounding bites: Tropical Immune Boosters (page 42). Click here for a video and PDF download of the recipe. These look so delicious and are definitely on my list to try. The only reason I haven't made them yet is because I didn't have all of the ingredients on hand.

The book also contains a table of contents, glossary, and index. I really like the table of contents a lot. It starts with a list of general items, then uses pictures and page numbers for the recipes. Cool idea.

Highly recommended.

For more information about this book, please visit Amazon's website. To take a quick peek inside, click on the book cover!

I'd like to thank Chris at DK Canada for this review copy.

Energy Bites by DK Publishing, Dorling Kindersley (DK), ©2016. ISBN 9781465451538(Hardcover), 61p.

The 8th Circle by Sarah Cain

In The 8th Circle, Danny Ryan is still grieving over the loss of his wife and son when a friend of his drives his vehicle into a pond after being shot. The pond happens to be in Danny's front yard and Danny immediately becomes a suspect. Both Danny and Michael are (or were) journalists and now Danny suspects that Michael's last story may have gotten him killed. As he investigates to clear his name and get to the truth, Danny realizes that Michael was about to uncover a deep, dark secret that involved some very powerful people, who would do anything to keep that secret under wraps.

While I mostly enjoyed this book, I didn't love it. The story was good with plenty of twists and turns and progressed at a good pace. . I especially liked that just when I thought it was over, the story continued with more twists that I didn't see coming. However, there was something about the writing that bothered me. Also, the story was quite depraved at times and made me cringe more than once.

I thought Danny was a great main character. His life experiences, background, and upbringing definitely shaped him as a journalist. I really enjoyed reading about his experience in his profession as well as his upbringing. I'm not sure why, but there was a slight disconnect for me in his grieving and his now romantic pursuit.

For me, the author used a couple of words a little too often. Rather than unifying the story, they grated on me and seemed repetitive. One of those words was "lost". Lost girls, lost boys, he was lost, they were lost. The other was "ghost". Half a ghost, ghostly, desolate ghosts. Also, for some reason the color green stuck out. I wondered if the author liked green and used it a lot or she hated green and used it to represent evil or vile things. I didn't even really notice it until one of the characters showed up in all green. I thought that was an odd fashion choice even for this guy. Perhaps it was prominent in the story because some of the characters were Irish.

The title, The 8th Circle, was totally lost on me. Apparently, it's a reference to Dante's Inferno and the circles of hell. There is one brief reference to it in the book and many references to the word "inferno", but that wasn't enough to enlighten me. I finally looked it up after finishing the book.

I don't think I'd recommend this book to my friends, but I might pick up the next book the series to see how the series progresses.

For more information about this book, please visit the Crooked Lane Books website.

For more information about the author and to see her blog, please visit Sarah Cain's website.

Thanks to Julia from Kaye Publicity for this review copy.

The 8th Circle by Sarah Cain, Crooked Lane Books (The Quick Brown Fox & Company LLC), ©2016. ISBN 9781629534855(Advance Uncorrected Proofs), 326p.