It's all Good...

Hildy Good is direct descendant from Sarah Good---who was tried as a witch in Salem. She has lived in Wendover, Massachusetts all of her life. As the most successful realtor in the area, she knows everything about everybody in town. Hildy is also an alcoholic, somewhat recovering, mostly in denial, who is privy to a cache of secrets that is about to complicate her life. Her days become a pendulum of thoughts, actions, emotions and solace. The Good House: a novel by Ann Leary provides a compelling look at someone who struggles with an addiction in current everyday life. DB

A walk on the wild side

Sussex, England. A middle-aged man returns to his childhood home to attend a funeral. Although the house he lived in is long gone, he is drawn to the farm at the end of the road, where, when he was seven, he encountered a remarkable girl, and her mother and grandmother. He hasn't thought of
them in decades, and yet as he sits by the pond (a pond that she'd claimed was an ocean) behind the ramshackle old farmhouse, the unremembered past comes flooding back.
     Forty years earlier, a man committed suicide in a stolen car at this farm at the end of the road. Like a fuse on a firework, his death resonated in unimaginable ways. The darkness was unleashed, something scary and thoroughly incomprehensible to a little boy.
The Ocean at the End of the Lane written with skill and sensitivity, about the things that scare us. ML

Getting Wild About Food!

Eating on the Wild Side: The Missing Link to Optimum Health by Jo Robinson is all about how to “select and prepare food to reclaim the nutrients and flavor we’ve lost.”   There is a big difference in food we eat today versus the less selected and processed food of our past.   This book covers the history of food items and how to get the most from them for optimal health.  Did you know beets have more antioxidant properties than almost any other common vegetable?  They were used in Roman times as a healing food and were also used as an aphrodisiac! Buy beets with their greens on since those will be the freshest. Try steaming your beets to keep the nutrition content optimal and always cook them with their skin on (peel them after they are cooked and have cooled).  Try eating them with a sauce made from oil, onion, balsamic vinegar, lemon zest and blue cheese.  This book is chock full of information and great recipes.  You will never look at a carrot the same way again (they should really be purple). SG

Meow!

Are you a cat lover?  Check out this gorgeous book, The Elegance of the Cat, comprised of a history of various breeds from antiquity through modern day.  Accompanying the text are beautiful photographs that show up-close details like fur texture and markings.  A great book to take home and flip through.  HM

Fast & Easy

The Big Book of Weekend Woodworking: 150 Easy Projects by John and Joyce Nelson is chock full of great ideas for items to make and give as gifts.  I think the author's idea of what can be made in a weekend is a little ambitious for my skill level in woodworking but I really think even I'm capable of making the picture frame or wooden basket.  The toys are the best part as they all are based on adorable antique finds such as the rover pull toy circa 1935.  The walking penguin is my favorite but alas you need a lathe to complete this project.  The authors have contributed many articles (over 500) to magazines and this is their 60th book!! SG

A Stolen Identity

At first glance, Alexandra “Zan” Moreland seems to have everything going for her. She is a beautiful interior designer with a promising career in NYC. In reality she is an orphaned divorcee who has been the victim of a heinous crime. Her adorable toddler son Matthew has been kidnapped and the police have no leads after two long years. Now, as she competes with her former boss for an exclusive decorating job, she finds out someone is using her credit cards. Furthermore, on the anniversary of her son’s disappearance, new information surfaces and Zan becomes a suspect.  I’ll Walk Alone is a classic Mary Higgins Clark novel. It’s an intriguing story of child abduction, identity theft and revenge. DB

Rugged

Bell Elkins is the prosecuting attorney for Ackers Gap, West Virginia. A small and rugged town in the mountains, people there live hard. When a bright and beautiful teenage girl is found dead in Bitter River, Bell is involved in a haunting mystery set in the stark beauty and poverty of the mountains. Good writing and a strong sense of place make this a winner. ML

Show me the Money!

Brian J. O’Connor, an award winning columnist from The Detroit News, has published his first book. The $1,000 Challenge: How One Family Slashed Its Budget without Moving under a Bridge or Living on Government Cheese is funny but more importantly helpful.  While looking for fodder for his newspaper column, Brian launched the challenge idea to his editors and much to his surprised dismay they loved it. Now all he had to do was shave $1,000 off his annual family budget--Good Luck, Brian. The good news is he does it—and you can too! Brian finds creative ways to cut costs and takes a good hard look at his expenses. Grab this book and start crunching some numbers. You can most likely save some hard-earned $$$$. DB

Sew True!

The Peoples' writer is back! In Stitches: A Handbook on Meaning, Hope and Repair, Anne Lamott once again examines life’s ups and downs. She offers advice, anecdotes, and thoughts on getting through the worst experiences. She encourages you to “feel” your feelings and not rush through any grieving process. By reconnecting to others and stitching things together during recovery, Anne reminds us that life goes on and so should we. DB