Full Of Grace

Dorothea Benton Frank is another of my favorite authors. Just finished this book and it didn't disappoint!

Editorial Reviews
From Booklist
Meet the Russos: Big Al and Connie, former New Jersey-ites who, in their Hilton Head retirement community, stick out like cannolis on a plateful of biscuits; Nonna, Connie's mother, who took Cinderella's wicked stepmother as her parental role model; and Grace, their dutiful daughter living in nearby Charleston with her lover, Dr. Michael Higgins. Michael, however, has not met the Russos. More than his Irish heritage, Michael's work in stem-cell research and his lapsed Catholicism make him persona non grata at Casa Russo. Constantly at her mother's beck and call, Grace unselfishly travels home whenever there's a family crisis, but when Michael is diagnosed with brain cancer, Grace desperately needs her family's support. Will their devout faith prevent them from giving it, and can Grace resolve her own religious doubts in the face of this challenge? A masterful storyteller, Frank specializes in resilient characters who survive thanks to a saucy combination of grit and humor, and her vibrantly eccentric Russo clan may be her most endearing creation yet. Carol Haggas
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.


Product Description

The move from New Jersey to Hilton Head, South Carolina, wasn't easy for the Russo family—difficult enough for Big Al and Connie, but even harder for their daughter Maria Graziella, who insists on being called Grace. At thirty-one and still, shockingly, unmarried, Grace has scandalized her staunchly traditional Italian family by moving in with her boyfriend Michael—who, though a truly great guy, is agnostic, commitment-phobic, a scientist, and (horror of horrors) Irish!

Grace adores her parents even though they drive her crazy—and she knows they'd love Michael if they got to know him, but Big Al won't let him into their house. And so the stage is set for a major showdown—which, along with a devastating, unexpected crisis and, perhaps, a miracle or two, just might change Grace's outlook on love, family, and her new life in the new South.

Gooseberry Patch-Christmas In The Country

Product Description
Inspired by the magic of Christmas, Christmas in the Country celebrates our very favorite holiday occasions, from frosty morning breakfasts to dinner at Grandma's to a Christmas cookie exchange. It even includes a chapter of sweet holiday memories.


About the Author
In 1984, Gooseberry Patch began at the kitchen tables of two moms who wanted to create a business celebrating the country lifestyle. It grew into a thriving catalog company which creates and sells exclusive products. In 1992, they expanded their collection to include community-style cookbooks.
Product Details

* Plastic Comb: 224 pages
* Publisher: Gooseberry Patch; Spi edition (August 1, 2008)
* Language: English
* ISBN-10: 1933494239
* ISBN-13: 978-1933494234
* Product Dimensions: 9 x 7.1 x 0.9 inches
* Shipping Weight: 14.4 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
* Average Customer Review: 4.8 out of 5 stars

Autumn In The Country-Gooseberry Patch

Love the Gooseberry Patch books!




Product Description
Inspired by harvest hayrides, pumpkin picking and small-town festivals, Gooseberry Patch's cookbook, Autumn in the Country, celebrates the very best fall has to offer. It's filled with more than 250 delicious recipes and over 225 tips and ideas.


About the Author
Gooseberry Patch...your community cookbook experts since 1984. The Gooseberry Patch brand is synonymous with quality and value. With over 100 titles and over 7 million cookbooks sold, Gooseberry Patch represents America's real cooks...wives, moms and grandmas from across the nation. Real, everyday folks send in and share thousands of recipes from their own kitchens, the best of which are then lovingly selected by Gooseberry Patch for each new cookbook. Fast, easy, wholesome and delicious, Gooseberry Patch cookbooks deliver proven favorite recipes for today's busy families.

Old Yeller

Just finished reading this last night to Braden and Dalton (7). No matter how many times I've seen the movie, and I've seen it a lot, this book/movie gets me every time. I could barely read the last 3 chapters because I was crying so hard, which the boys thought was hilarious and didn't understand why I was taking it so hard since it's just a book,lol....they enjoyed the book as much as I did and looked forward to us reading it each night before bed.




Editorial Reviews
Review
"Exciting and heartwarming indeed. Recommended for adults and teenagers." -- Library Journal

"Occasionally, but very rarely, one reads a book with the increasing certainty...that a classic is unfolding before one's eyes." -- Chicago Sunday tribune


Review
"A moving segment of early frontier days."--Kirkus Reviews"Exciting and heartwarming..."--Library Journal
--This text refers to the Audio Cassette edition.


Product Description

When a novel like Huckleberry Finn, or The Yearling, comes along it defies customary adjectives because of the intensity of the respouse it evokes in the reader. Such a book, we submit, is Old Yeller; to read this eloquently simple story of a boy and his dog in the Texas hill country is an unforgettable and deeply moving experience.


About the Author
With Old Yeller,Fred Gipsin secured his place as one of the finest novelists in America. The book was published to instant acclaim and has become one of the most beloved children's classics ever written. Since its publication in 1956, Old Yeller has won countless awards, including the 1957 Newbery Honor. Mr. Gipson's other works include both fiction and non-fiction. He grew up in the Texas hill country and died in 1973.


From AudioFile
Actor Barry Corbin gives this classic story of an ugly, yellow stray dog a first-rate reading. Corbin's smooth, even-paced delivery and warm, friendly tone reflect the adventure, fun, and love shared by Old Yeller and 14-year-old Travis, and he thoughtfully communicates the heartbreak that comes when Travis must kill the loyal dog, who has been bitten by a rabid wolf. The abridgment is done well. The plot remains intact. What's missing is a small amount of the narrative that gives a strong sense of early frontier days in the Texas wilderness. This animal story is a good choice for families prepared to cry, as well as to laugh, together. C.R.A. (c)AudioFile, Portland, Maine --This text refers to the Audio Cassette edition.

Gap Creek-Robert Morgan

Loved this book. Excited to read more by this author.

Audio version:




Amazon.com Review
Oprah Book Club® Selection, January 2000: Robert Morgan's Gap Creek opens with one wrenching death and ends with another. In between, this novel of turn-of-the-century Appalachian life works in fire, flood, swindlers, sickness, and starvation--a truly biblical assortment of plagues, all visited on the sturdy shoulders of 17-year-old Julie Harmon. "Human life don't mean a thing in this world," she concludes. And who could blame her? "People could be born and they could suffer, and they could die, and it didn't mean a thing.... The world was exactly like it had been and would always be, going on about its business." For Julie, that business is hard physical labor. Fortunately, she's fully capable of working "like a man"--splitting and hauling wood, butchering hogs, rendering lard, planting crops, and taking care of the stock. Even when Julie meets and marries handsome young Hank Richards, there's no happily-ever-after in store. Nothing comes easy in Julie Harmon's world, and their first year together is no exception.
Throughout the novel, Morgan chronicles Julie's trials in prose of great dignity and clarity, capturing the rhythms of North Carolina speech by using only the subtlest of inflections. Clearly the author has done his research too--the descriptions of physical labor practically leap off the page. (Suffice to say, you'll learn far more about hog slaughtering than you ever dreamed of knowing.) Yet he resists the temptation to make his long-suffering characters into saints. Julie simmers with resentment at being her family's workhorse, and Hank flies into a helpless rage whenever he feels that his authority is questioned. In novels like The Truest Pleasure and The Hinterlands, Morgan proved his ability to create memorable heroines. In Gap Creek, he writes with great feeling--but not a touch of sentimentality--about a life Julie aptly calls "both simple and hard." --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

The Secret Life of Bees-Sue Monk Kidd

A few years ago I read The Secret Life of Bees and really enjoyed it:



Yesterday I rented the movie and Ashlyn and I watched. From what I can remember, it follows the book very closely. I loved Dakota Fanning in it, she does an amazing job as well as Queen Latifah, Alicia Keys and Jennifer Hudson. We both loved this movie and I can't remember the last time I cried so hard watching a film!




This is definately a movie that I am adding to my collection :)

Review from Amazon.com
Amazon.com
Headed by an all-star cast of women, The Secret Life of Bees is the heartwarming and well-told story of a young girl who finds love and acceptance from a trio of independent sisters. The Secret Life of Bees is based on the bestselling book of the same name by Sue Monk Kidd and centers around the plight of 14-year-old Lily (Dakota Fanning). Assuming the burden for her mother's premature death, she has a precarious relationship with her abusive father T. Ray (Paul Bettany). Lily's only friend is her caregiver Rosaleen (Academy Award winner Jennifer Hudson). Set in South Carolina in 1964, when civil rights wasn't a given, Rosaleen's life is threatened by racists who'd just as soon see her dead than exercise her right to vote. Lily runs away with her to a town she believes may hold the secrets of her mother's life. There the pair meet the Boatwright sisters August (Queen Latifah), June (Alicia Keys) and May (Sophie Okonedo)--who produce the area's famous Black Madonna honey. They eventually provide Lily with the unconditional love she never felt she had and also show Rosaleen that being a black woman in the South doesn't mean she can't have a sense of worth. The Secret Life of Bees doesn't try to pass itself off as a historical documentation of race relations in the 1960s. But the fictional slice of life still resonates because of the feelings of injustice that it stirs up. Though the film is written to show the disparity between blacks and whites, there is always a strong sense of hope, thanks to the lead actresses who bring empathy and dignity to their roles. Hudson exhibits some of the same quiet grace that Regina Taylor brought to her role as the family housekeeper in the superb TV series I'll Fly Away. Latifah has the part of wise matriarch down pat, even when she's playing a sister rather than a mother. And it's clear that Fanning is making a seamless transition from kid to young adult roles. Whether she's giving an impassioned monologue or listening thoughtfully, Fanning brings nuance and intelligence to her role. --Jae-Ha Kim

Queen Of The Big Time-Adriana Trigiani

Audio version:




Just finished and now it's another favorite from one of my favorite authors.

From Publishers Weekly
Set in early 20th-century smalltown America, Trigiani's fifth novel (after the Big Stone Gap trilogy and Lucia, Lucia) tells a heartfelt but clumsy story of strong women enduring the rigors of farm life and the trials of romantic and familial relations. At its worst, the novel is a morass of incomplete story lines, underdeveloped characters and inconsistent tenses. Still, readers who've fallen for Trigiani's hallmark personages—Italian immigrants living the American dream in rural Pennsylvania—in previous books will delight in meeting these new ones. Nella Castelluca has brains and ambition; she hopes to someday become a teacher. Alas, when her father is injured at work, she must quit school and stay home to help on the family farm. Her first dream slips away, but working farm life turns out to be not so bad, and Nella eventually falls for the dreamy poet Renato Lanzara. But when he skips town, dream two is crushed, and Nella faces a tough reality: marry another man, and move on. Easier said than done, of course, and Trigiani spends the rest of the book drawing out the saga. The novel paints a thorough picture of Italian-American family life and the deep pain of lost love.
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.