Professional Reader

Saturday, February 1, 2020

Update

Been away for sometime. On  July 6 th , I had a heart attack and died. The steam were able to resuscitate me . I spent nearly a month in hospital. Recovery has not been smooth at all.
I now walk with a walker outside of home . There are many other things I once took for granted but can’t do yet. I say yet because there is still hope that will change.
I am still reading a lot and reviewing and this has kept me going for now. It’s a pleasure to be able to step out of my difficulties and enter other worlds.

Sunday, June 16, 2019

Time After Time by Lisa Grunwald

Available June 11 on :Amazon and Barnes and Noble

A rather unusual, paranormal tale. The reader is taken through  a number of years , starting with the 1937 on through the years of WW2 in the setting Grand Central.  
A working class man meets a ephemeral beauty that he falls for , the better part of the story is about their romance.
 The characters face war time and the losses that come with that.
   It’s not your typical romance HEA .
 It is a satisfying read . 
The language is clean and the romance scenes are not graphic.
Thank you to NetGallery, The author and publisher Random House Publishing for the chance to preview this book.



Old Recipes~~Pork Spareribs

Cleaning through some collected things I found a delightful treasure, that I forgot I had.  It was a book of recipes typed up by my grand aunt when she was in school learning to type. Inside the book, there were also many loose pages of handwritten and saved recipes.
She would have been in school in the early part of the 20th century.
Many of the pages are starting to fade and crumble away so I thought I might post them here to save them. 
Perhaps someone will enjoy them.







Pork Spareribs

2 cloves  Garlic
2 oz. Oil 
1 Onion, sliced
1 Green Pepper
3 oz. Tomato Sauce
4 oz. Vinegar
1 tsp Cayenne Pepper
1 tsp Tarragon
1 Tblsp Worcestershire Sauce
                                         Lemon juice

Boil together for 15 minutes.
Pour on ribs and bake 350  for about 1-1/2 hours.

Book Review: Attracted to the Earl by Bronwen Evans


Available on Amazon and Barnes and Noble 

My review: My review for this title is short and sweet. This was an entertaining, light read. The storyline was fairly typical for the genre, but the characters were likeable and couldn’t help but find myself invested in their story.

Personal Message

  I try to keep my blog to not so personal things, but I have gotten far behind on book reviews as of lately.
  Life has a way of shaking things up a bit.
 A year ago at a regular doctor's visit, it was discovered through blood work that my kidneys were failing. 
 They reached the point where dialysis has become necessary, I have now been on Peritoneal Dialysis for a little over a month and learning to live this new path that fate has sent my way.
 End-stage renal disease is not for the faint of heart. Dialysis is not a picnic. Although well-meaning people seem to think it's a breeze that you just go on dialysis and get a new kidney through transplant just like that. 
  What it really means is every night, being attached to a machine that filters the toxins from the body, the way the kidneys used to do. It means having frequent visits to the lab for blood work and infusions of many things. 
  It's been difficult getting into a new routine with all these changes.
Things are starting to seem a little more routine. Hopefully, I can catch up going forward.

Book Review:The Winemaker's Wife by Kristen Harmel

                                       Publish date : August 13th  and can be purchased on Amazon or Barnes and Noble Books.

 My review:

It took a few days after completing this book to consider reviewing this . It’s not a book that I could say that I loved, but it was interesting, sometimes heartbreaking. I found it difficult liking the characters, they are full of flaws that make them hard to like. 
 I found the switching back and forth between time and characters a bit distracting.
However the story is worth a read.
Thank you To the author , Simon and Schuster and NetGallery for the ARC.
       


Friday, January 4, 2019

Book Review: The Lost Letters Of William Woolf

                         
              Available on Amazon and at Barnes and Nobles . January 4th.

    This book was interesting the description is inviting and the story, once you get into a few chapters, draws you in. I found a love-hate relationship with the couple. I really disliked the character of Clare and her attitude towards William's laid-back way of approaching life in his way. He comes across as solely devoted to her, while she changed and became something he did not recognize or understand. I think I felt the same about them as I would standing on the outside of a couple that I knew personally and couldn't help but take sides as to who was the injured party in the relationship. For that reason, the story had a feeling of being real life to me. It is a rare occasion for me to find a couple in a novel that seems "real life like." In the end, the story is a satisfying read.