Gringos in Paradise: Our Honduras Odyssey by Malana Ashlie is a delightfully amusing and lighthearted autobiography chronicling her move from Hawai’i to the Caribbean Coast of Honduras. When she and her husband decide to relocate to a more secluded paradise the fun begins. She shares the trials and triumphs of building a new life in Central America, in what can best be described as a spiritual journey of faith.

Of special appeal to the swelling ranks of expat retirees in Mexico and Central America (over one million strong, according to 2005 census estimates), Gringos in Paradise shares the adventures — and misadventures — two retirees face as they set off to the Caribbean coast of Honduras in search of financial freedom, personal fulfillment, and peace.

In My Opinion:

My initial draw to this book was the fact that it was set in Honduras.  I have been to Honduras myself 7 times and when I seen this book come up for review I wanted to read about Americans who actually live there.  As the book states, “Visiting a third world country is much different than seeing it as your home.”

I found the book a delightful look into an area I know, and found myself nodding as Malana describes what the driving is like I remember my first time there ( as a passenger in a van) I just closed my eyes I really couldn’t watch!   As Malana talks about not taking water for granted that is really an eye opener as well to be where you dont always have it.

Chapter by chapter I laughed and felt as though Malana had literally brought my along with her.  With a journal type flare, Malana shares the adventures and misadventures and  I walked beside her page by page and am thankful for the journey.

I received my review copy from Pump Up Your Book Promotion

I have always enjoyed a bit of fantasy mixed into my own world…. I like to imagine the possibilities ~ Sheila

One day twelve-year-old Tirissa discovers that everyone in her village is under a spell. Everyone but her! Then she sees a mysterious stranger change into a huge bird, a bird with a beak like a sword. Did he cast the spell? Desperate to find someone who can break it, she flees, leaving her village behind. An old herb woman tells her to seek help from a wizard who lives far away, and her journey takes her across the Three Kingdoms. Along the way she’s joined by a kindly troll and a short, fat palace guard. They are pursued by the twin princes of Kellayne, the best hunters in the Blue River Kingdom, as well as by the huge, dangerous bird. Meanwhile, an evil wizard watches Tirissa and her friends in his magic mirror and plans a second spell that will kill everyone in the Three Kingdoms.

In My Opinion:

I have really taken a liking to YA fantasy reads over this past year.  I honestly did not know what I was going to get with this book.  The cover reminds me of an older style book… it doesn’t really follow the trends of today’s covers that snap you to attention and cause you to pick up a book… yet something about it, something in the description, made me want to read it.

As I dove into a new fantasy world of wizards and trolls… and something about a necklace…. I found myself enjoying the pace that Willow had set for her readers.  There were parts that seemed to drag on a bit for me, but I can imagine reading this to a young girl and having her hang on the words as Tirissa makes her way around the Three Kingdoms.

Willow grew up in Albuquerque, NM, in the late 1940’s and 1950’s, always with her nose in an Oz book or else out under the peach tree in the back yard, looking for fairies. After she grew up, moved to CA, and graduated from Occidental College, a few aptitude tests suggested she should be a novelist, but she didn’t try her hand at it until her thirties. By then she’d forgotten her childhood love of fantasy and over the years tried her hand at a variety of genres. None of the stories really captured her imagination and each time her interest petered out. But the years passed and one day, in her fifties, she felt a yearning to read Lord of the Rings, which she had never read. Halfway through, she knew that all along it was children’s fantasy she wanted to write. And so she began writing the tale of Tirissa, who loved to be out under the trees, and it turned into Tirissa and the Necklace of Nulidor.

This review copy of this books was sent to my by Pump Up Your Book Promotions

Laugh out loud goodness in the pages of this delightful read about opening your heart… and even your home.  ~ Sheila

The neighbors of El Camino Street did not like pets.  They did not like kids.  They did not like people with big families.  They never had any guests and spent their day cleaning their houses, tending their gardens, and snoozing on their porches.

And so our story begins!  I turned the pages of this delightful book enjoying the wonderful illustrations of the people of El Camino Street.  When the new family moved in – a mom, a dad, three kids, and a fish- the neighbors kept an eye out for trouble…. and all was fine, until the visitors arrived.

And with every turn of the page more family arrives much to their neighbors dismay… they label each visitor from the noisy teenagers, to the off her rocker Grandma…. this book really shows how people can judge others before they really even know them.

I think this would be a wonderful read for children to discuss learning to accept others even if they are different from ourselves.  Who knows… you just might experience something incredible and new!

Susan Chodakiewitz is a writer, composer and producer. She is the founder of Booksicals Children’s Books- Encouraging the love of reading through the arts. She lives in Los Angeles in a lively household filled with music, three sons, a husband, a Dalmatian and lots of visitors. Susan loves picture books and she wrote a musical based on one of her favorites. She realized it was time to start writing her own picture books. Too Many Visitors for One Little House is Susan’s debut book. If you happen to see Susan sitting in the children’s section of the library reading picture books with a big smile on her face, do say hello.

Email Susan

With a sense of humor and identification to the characters, Veronica Walsh created the illustrations for Too Many Visitors for One Little House. Veronica studied art and design at California State University, Long Beach, and worked as a graphic designer for many years. She lives in Southern California with her husband and three cats.
Email Veronica

Enter here for Nanny’s Strudel recipe

I received my review copy of thes book from Dorothy with Pump Up Your Blog Tour

Being friends with a frog, a lion, and a giraffe has never been more fun!  ~  Sheila

Charlie and Mama Kyna is a sweet tale of three friends – Charlie, a frog, Leo, a lion and Joe, a giraffe – who embark on a journey to find a good home. In this delightful children’s picture book written by Diana Rumjahn, we are all taken on an enchanting journey in which Charlie, “a sweet green frog with a red bow tie with white polka dots,” finds Leo and Joe sitting in an orange tent in front of Mrs. Cupcake’s Bakery.  Soon they tire of living out of a tent and not having a real home, so Charlie takes them back to his house in which he had run away from for breaking his mother’s vase and not wanting to get in trouble over it.  The three form a bond as they travel through creeks and over hills on their way to Charlie’s mother’s house.  Instead of being upset over the vase, Charlie’s mother is extremely happy to have him home again and welcomes his new friends into her home.

The more childrens books I read the more I really appreciate them.  In this book, Charle and Mama Kyna, I am introduced to three lovable characters that your young kids are going to love.  A wonderful story about the importance of forgiveness and friendship.  The words to this book roll off your tongue and just make it a fun read! I loved the beautiful illustrations of this book I would believe to be be an anytime favorite!

I received my review copy of this book from Dorothy of Pump Up Your Book Promotions

Laugh out loud… Mp Kavanaugh writes in a style that caused me to open up the book, read the first page and my legs gave out from under me as I hit the couch and did not put it down until the end. ~  Sheila

Synopsis

Family Plots is a fresh and funny autobiographical novel about a young mother trying against all odds to create a normal family life with her new husband, a criminal attorney, who—it turns out—is committing a few crimes of his own. The novel offers readers a wry, unsentimental account of a marriage barreling toward calamity. In an attempt to find romance, family, and financial stability, its struggling heroine stumbles into a world of pseudonyms, fake weddings, and hidden bank accounts. Events that land many of the players into the family cemetery plot also reveal unexpected secrets and stashes that manage, in small ways, to transform a tale of seeming tragedy into one of surprising healing and redemption.

My Thoughts:

So here I am again… tiptoeing into a book that makes me wonder what I am about to read.  With a title like Family Plots, Love, Death, and Tax Evasion… I admit I am concerned yet intrigued.  As I started reading chapter one I relaxed into what I can say is a pleasant and easy read.  The words flowed off the pages and I was instantly there – with Mary – at the mailbox, studying her neighbors whose life she envisions as near perfect, and I am there as she pulls the letter out of the mailbox on page 4:

Dear Mary,

I am very sorry to hear that you still haven’t set any kind of wedding date.  You surely must want to give your darling Rachel a family name, or just what is it today?  Are you one of the turncoats of today?  There is just no morality any more and soon the United States will be a mess, as you will probably live to see.  I thought you said your college boyfriend Kevin was a wonderful man.  Also you told me that he was a catholic.  You are 27 years old and a mother!  What on earth is wrong with you?  Get yourself married and be decent.  You’ll be lot happier.

Love and prayers, Grandma Hazel

I thought about showing the letter to my “college boyfriend Kevin” also known as the Impregnator-a nickname I’d invented recently, after struggling to find a proper title when asked if he were my husband.

Ok – ha ha…. I was in!  When I picked up this book the plan was to to just read a few pages to get the flow of the read and then get back to it later.  Instead, I found myself sinking on to the couch in the position that I was going to get back up any minute and read on later.  Uhhh… yeah… about that… 2 hours later I am still onthe couch but now curled up and engrossed deeply into this delightfiul read.

M P Kavanaugh writes in a style that reached out from the pages and pulled me in.  As our main character mary leaps out of one relationship into another, changes career choices and finds herself in a situation that is spinning her out of control.  I laughed out loud many times (thank goodness I was usually alone while reading!) and have to say that the publishers that passed on this one made a mistake.

M P Kavanaugh says that much of this book is based on actual happenings….  well, whatever it was that made this book happen – I am all for.

The Author – Mary Patrick Kavanaugh

Mary Patrick Kavanaugh has a lively work history that includes time served in a wide range of professions, ranging from private investigator to Avon Lady. Being bossy and entrepreneurial by nature, she has spent the majority of her adult career providing executive management and strategic marketing planning for start-up businesses and organizations.

A writer since the age of eight, Mary’s award winning creative non-fiction has been published in Alligator Juniper, Room of One’s Own, San Jose Mercury News, and the San Francisco Chronicle. Her professional writing has appeared in numerous trade journals. Mary is the 2003 recipient of the nonfiction award from the Soul Making Literary Competition sponsored by the American Pen Women, and winner of a 2004 honorable mention. She was awarded writing fellowships at The David and Julia White Artist Colony, Hedgebrook: Women Authoring Change, and The Vermont Studio Center. She recently published her first book, Family Plots: Love, Death, and Tax Evasion.

Despite public displays of disappointment over the rejection of her novel, the author celebrates having one perfect daughter, one happy marriage with a loving (but now dead) husband, one well-adjusted cat that prefers to live with her aunt, a great day job, and a confusing, yet fun, personal life. She has an MFA in Creative Writing from University of San Francisco (2003), a BA in History from San Francisco State University (1988), good teeth, and an excellent credit rating. Mary currently serves as director for an educational peer networking organization at the University of California at Irvine.

Talk about your author with a great sense of humor!  After her book was rejected by sixteen (16!) top NYC publishers, Mary self published her book and then had a funeral for her dreams of landing a mainstream book contract.  The following video clip is this funeral.

This book was given to me for review from Pump Up Your Book Promotions

Cindy Woodsmall writes an Amish love story… a story of heartbreak and restoration… written in a way that touched my heart as well. ~  Sheila

My Thoughts:

I read Cindy Woodsmall earlier this year when I had the opportunity to review Hope For Refuge.  Once again I find myself in an Amish setting as I relaxed into a book of a world so different than my own. Beth is a single woman in the Amish country who does not know where she fits.  She feels she is too old to sit with the young single girls, but does not fit with the married groups either.  She lives her days in a state of mourning a loss that has gone on too long, and her family is worried about her future.

In this book I was surprised at the reaction to Beth’s time of mourning being a concern t o those around her.   It seemed that the Amish had a strong feel for the importance of being married.  At first I was thinking that was the Amish way, but as I read more, I know it was more the family not wanting Beth to drown in her grief, and certainly to not live her life alone.  That I would think would be the case for any of us.

A book on grieving and loss hits home for me.  I felt Beth’s need to mourn in her own way in her own time.   I know first had that you can not put a time limit on grief and I think that is where I became sort of stuck in this book.  This book reminds me of forgiveness in yourself… and caused me to take pause, take a deep breath and read on.  When Jonah steps into the book, you are given a romantic interest for Beth and a connection of hearts.   A quick light Christian read with a pleasant flow.

Cindy Woodsmall is a veteran homeschool mom. As her children progressed in age, her desire to write grew stronger. After working through reservations whether this desire was something she should pursue, she began her writing journey. Her husband was her staunchest supporter as she aimed for what seemed impossible.

Her first novel released in 2006 to much acclaim and became a Christian Book Association best seller. Cindy was a 2007 ECPA Christian Book Award finalist, along with Karen Kingsbury, Angela Hunt, and Charles Martin.

I received this book for review from Liz Johnson Publicist
Multnomah Books, a division of Random House

Written with a witty pen that caused moments of out loud laughter and an occasional wipe of the eye, Jess Walters writes a book that takes the pain of financial destruction and twists it into a novel of a man pushed too far and trying to make his way back.  ~  Sheila

Meet Matt Prior. He’s about to lose his job, his wife, his house, maybe his mind. Unless . . .

Following Matt in his week long quest to save his marriage, his sanity, and his dreams, The Financial Lives of the Poets is a hysterical, heartfelt novel about how we can reach the edge of ruin—and how we can begin to make our way back.

In the winning and utterly original novels Citizen Vince and The Zero, Jess Walter (“a ridiculously talented writer”—New York Times) painted an America all his own: a land of real, flawed, and deeply human characters coping with the anxieties of their times. Now, in his warmest, funniest, and best novel yet, Walter offers a story as real as our own lives: a tale of overstretched accounts, misbegotten schemes, and domestic dreams deferred.

A few years ago, small-time finance journalist Matthew Prior quit his day job to gamble everything on a quixotic notion: a Web site devoted to financial journalism in the form of blank verse. When his big idea—and his wife’s eBay resale business— ends with a whimper (and a garage full of unwanted figurines), they borrow and borrow, whistling past the graveyard of their uncertain dreams. One morning Matt wakes up to find himself jobless, hobbled with debt, spying on his wife’s online flirtation, and six days away from losing his home. Is this really how things were supposed to end up for me, he wonders: staying up all night worried, driving to 7-Eleven in the middle of the night to get milk for his boys, and falling in with two local degenerates after they offer him a hit of high-grade marijuana?

Or, he thinks, could this be the solution to all my problems?

My Thoughts…

In all honesty, the title of this book, the cover too… this would have been a book that I more than likely would have passed on if I had seen it in the book store.  I am here now writing this review telling you not to do that!  When Matt Prior loses his job he finds himself wallowing in reruns of The Rockford Files and becoming more paranoid about his wife’s on line flirtations….  when Matt winds up with an opportunity to sell drugs to help out his financial woes, at this point only days away from losing his home and pulling his kids out of a private school… he jumps into a humorous look at what people will do at the breaking point.

I would say in today’s world of economic uncertainties this book is surely a timely fictitious story of riches to rags… to living with the knowledge that it is possible to take a deep breath and live within our means… even if our means isn’t what we had hoped and dreamed.  There are more important things than money, big homes, and two cars…. and Matt Prior takes the long way around to finding this out.

Jess Walter is the author of five novels, including The Zero, a finalist for the 2006 National Book Award and Citizen Vince, winner of the 2005 Edgar Allan Poe Award for best novel. He has been a finalist for the L.A. Times Book Prize and the PEN USA Literary Prize in both fiction and nonfiction. His books have been New York Times, Washington Post and NPR best books of the year and have been translated into twenty languages.

Jess Walter’s Website

I received this book for review as part of a TLC Book Tour

I would rate this book R for some strong language

An interesting look into the game of football and relationships ~  Sheila

Can learning about football be sexy? According to Football is for Lovers, when it comes to your love life, football can be better than oysters.

The good news is that Football is for Lovers makes the basics so . . . well, so basic that learning the game is easy as eating an ice cream cone. And just as much fun.

With anecdotes, illustrations, and a lot of laughs, Football is for Lovers not only makes it easy to understand the game, but also shows you how to put an end to the TV clicker wars, improve your relationship, and spice up your love life.

It just takes looking at the game of football a little bit differently.

Then again, since Football is for Lovers contains references to football great Jerry Rice in a pink tutu, images of paintings by French artist Jean Dubuffet, an alert about the dangers of speaking Northeastern Mandarin, an explanation of the value of M & M’s in a relationship, and a Burma Shave sign, to say it looks at football “a little bit differently” may be something of an understatement.

But if your football-obsessed partner has been making you a ‘football widow’ from August NFL pre-season through the February Super-Bowl, thus convincing you that you hate football, this little book may be just the ‘different look’ you need to discover that, after all, Football really is for Lovers!

My Thoughts….

Uhhhh…. well, hmmmm… Ok.  For those of you who read this blog on any normal basis would know that this book is way out in left field for me (no pun intended).  When it arrived in the mail I looked closely at the cover and had to question myself as to what I thought I was getting.  A book on football that was suppose to explain the game and in a humorous way was my response.  AND… in all honesty, that is what I did get… with just a bit more…

Football is For Lovers is a book about football – and it is also about how to draw your significant others attention back your way during the season that makes many of us women feel like we are on the outside looking in.  The book does cover information on the game itself that I did not know and that was helpful for the few games I have tried to watch and be excited about.

The more intimate parts of the book are actually minimal and I can see where this book would be a great gift for newly weds who are also sports fans.  This book is more about getting to know the game of Football and being able to enjoy it together.  Bob and Kaye share the how tos of football in a light and fun manner that even made sense to someone like me who knows very little about the game.

Bob Brooker and Kaye O’Dougherty have been adventuring together for a lot of years now. They first met at a recording studio on 42nd Street. Yes, that 42nd Street. They recorded a commercial for E.J. Korvette’s, who went out of business soon thereafter.

Bob is an old saloon singer who, as Bobby Brookes, recorded for Victor and Capital back in the day. Kaye has trouble carrying a tune in a bucket. Nevertheless, over the years, as Brooker and O’Dougherty, the two have collaborated on a variety of theater projects, performing, writing, directing, managing, and producing. In keeping with the changing times, they have even created a cyber alter-ego named eBobb.

Recently, Bob and Kaye both took long-overdue turns at being rather mature college kids. Kaye now holds a Bachelors Degree in the Humanities from St. Peter’s College in Englewood Cliffs, NJ. Bob was graduated magna cum laude from Montclair State University with a BA in Theater, and is a member of Phi Kappa Phi Honor Society.

What I Learned…

I actually learned quite a bit about the game of football.  On page 104 there is a great page of a little cartoon referee who shows what each of the penalty signs mean.  I even picked up on a few facts that the guys may not know such as the width of the field…

You can visit their website by going to FootballforLovers.com or their blog by clicking here.

I received my copy for review from Jaime from Pump Up Your Book Promotions

I would rate this book as PG13,  for references to sexual activity