Good Reads

The quilting has been set aside for a couple of days while I caught up on some reading.  Here's what's been keeping me happy lately:

I knew I would probably like Delicious! just because of the author.   It's not always fair to decide that quickly about a book but certain authors have a reputation and so you can make a good guess about whether to allow them into your life.

This is not a book studded with recipes (though we are teased with a particular gingerbread throughout the book.) Delicious! is the name of a foodie magazine in New York.  Billie (Wilhelmina) Breslin moves there to work at the magazine and this is the story of the people she works with and who become her friends.  Shortly after arriving, the magazine folds and Billie is offered the job of maintaining the problem recipe hotline.  While enduring the boring days she happens upon a cache of letters written during WWII by a 12 year old girl to James Beard.  The letters are hidden very carefully but clues are written throughout a card catalog.  As Billie finds the letters she opens up a whole new world of people into her life.

This story has more ingredients than I thought it would have when I started it. But as I read I saw each new element, each new ingredient in the story added depth to the whole, like finishing something delicious and savoring with your eyes closed what you just tasted. I knew I had truly read something Delicious! and could have licked the plate.

Tangled Lives reveals the hidden fears in all of us.  Where do we belong? Who do we belong with? Are we loved? Are we sure??

What would you do if you opened the door one day and found your past staring you in the face?  Forcing you to deal yet again with a decision made long ago?

An unexpected pregnancy, an adoption, a life, and now they all come together and beg to be dealt with.

What would you do?
I would categorize this one as a 'girl book' but summer is coming on and it would tuck nicely into a vacation bag.

Just plain laugh out loud fun.  If you're a city person and don't own chickens (but secretly would like to), if you're a chicken owning wannabe or if you have a whole flock, this is absolutely just plain fun.  Laugh-out-loud-at-l a.m.-because-you-don't-want-to-stop-reading-this fun.  Your children would love reading this.  Your mother would love reading this.  Your reluctant reader would love reading this.  For pete's sake, even vegetarians would love reading this!