Winter

Lunar Chronicles #4

By Marissa Meyer

Princess Winter is admired by the Lunar people for her grace and kindness, and despite the scars that mar her face, her beauty is said to be even more breathtaking than that of her stepmother, Queen Levana. Winter despises her stepmother and knows Levana won’t approve of her feelings for her childhood friend, Jacin. But Winter isn’t as weak as Levana believes her to be and she’s been undermining her stepmother’s wishes for years. Together with the cyborg mechanic, Cinder, and her allies, Winter might even have the power to launch a revolution and win a war that’s been raging for far too long.

~Crystal

Very Merry Cookie Party: How To Plan And Host A Christmas Cookie Exchange

By Barbara Grunes

Today's busy bakers want to make a gorgeous variety of delicious Christmas cookies without spending days upon flour-smudged days mixing, rolling, and baking. This is a guide to the Christmas cookie exchange, where everyone shows up with a few batches of homemade cookies to swap. It's all the variety without the fuss, with 120 recipes to choose from, plus tips for decorating, planning, and throwing the party.

~Crystal

First Sight

By Danielle Steel

At the center of the storm and avalanche of work that is Fashion week, that is four cities on four continents in a month, is American Timmie O’Neill, whose renowned line, Timmie O, is the embodiment of casual chic, in fashion and for the home. She has created a business that inspires, fills, and consumes her life.  Timmie has built an international empire in the last two decades that has brought her enormous satisfaction and success. Yet as blessed as she feels by her success, Timmie harbors the private wounds of a devastating childhood and past tragedy. She is too smart, too experienced, and too hurt to want much in her personal life beyond a succession of convenient, very limited relationships. Always willing to take risks in business, she never risks her heart.

But despite her well-ordered and highly controlled world, it turns out that Timmie O’Neill is not immune to magic when it strikes in Paris during Paris Fashion Week, when an intriguing French doctor comes into her life when she gets sick. At first, Timmie and Jean-Charles Vernier are only patient and physician. They become confidants and friends, corresponding at a safe distance between Paris and Los Angeles once she goes home. There is every reason why they must remain apart. But neither can deny their growing friendship and the electricity that sparks whenever they meet. 

~Crystal

Déjà Dead

By Kathy Reichs

Her life is devoted to justice; for those she never even knew. In the year since Temperance Brennan left behind a shaky marriage in North Carolina, work has often preempted her weekend plans to explore Quebec. When a female corpse is discovered meticulously dismembered and stashed in trash bags, Temperance detects an alarming pattern and she plunges into a harrowing search for a killer. But her investigation is about to place those closest to her, her best friend and her own daughter in mortal danger.

~ Crystal

Staff Favorite Christmas books from years past!

  

Friday, November 21, 2008

An Irish Country Christmas

An Irish Country Christmas

by Patrick Taylor

The wonderful characters of Dr. Fingal Flahertie O’ Reilly, his young protégé Dr. Barry Laverty, and their housekeeper Kinky are brought to life again in An Irish Country Christmas. Share their warmth, humor, and holiday traditions, and get to know the patients and people living in the cozy Irish village of Ballybucklebo.

Other delightful books by this author are An Irish Country Doctor andAn Irish Country Village. You will enjoy reading how Dr. Laverty came to Ballybucklebo to join Dr. O’Reilly’s medical practice and how he gained the trust and respect of Kinky, the village, and Dr. O’Reilly.

- Rose

Monday, December 29, 2008

The Stupidest Angel: A Heartwarming Tale of Christmas Terror

The Stupidest Angel: A Heartwarming Tale of Christmas Terror

by Christopher Moore.

If you are NOT in the mood for a sappy Christmas tale, try the The Stupidest Angel. It isn't brand new (published 2004) but it is definitely worth a look if you enjoy black comedy. It's the story of Christmas in tiny Pine Cove, California. Though Pine Cove is a typical small town, where everyone knows everyone else's business, this particular Christmas is anything but typical. An angel's blunder makes this year's Christmas celebration go terribly, terribly wrong. I liked this laugh-out-loud tale very much - just be aware that, if books were rated like movies, this would be rated R!

- Linda

Friday, December 5, 2008

Christmas on Jane Street

Christmas on Jane Street
by Billy Romp with Wanda Urbanska

This is an uplifting, real-life tale of the Romp family from Salisbury,Vermont and their annual trek to Manhattan, New York to sell Christmas trees on Jane Street. They arrive the day after Thanksgiving and leave just in time to make it home for Christmas morning. For a few weeks, this family transforms a corner of the Big Apple into a Frank Capra-esque small town alive with heartwarming holiday spirit. An ideal Christmas story, it is about the lasting and profound difference one person can make to a family and one family can make to a community.

- Ann

Monday, December 21, 2009

Christmas Tale

Christmas Tale
(DVD - French with English Subtitles)

Catherine Deneuve stars as Junon, matriarch of the troubled Vuillard family. The family gathers at Christmas after Junon discovers she needs a bone marrow transplant from a family member. However, a family holiday with the Vuillard family is no ordinary gathering.

I loved this French Christmas film. It's funny, sad, dramatic, emotional & unpredictable. In other words - very French.
-Holly

Monday, October 20, 2008

A Cedar Cove Christmas

A Cedar Cove Christmas

by Debbie Macomber

It's the holiday season and Mary Jo Wyse is single and pregnant. The baby's father, David Rhodes, has not contacted Mary Jo but she remembered he was spending Christmas with his father and stepmother is Cedar Cove. Mary Jo goes to Cedar Cove to find David, but instead finds comfort with strangers who open their hearts and homes to her. This is a delightful Christmas story that will warm your heart.

- Rose

Thursday, June 26, 2008

Kissing Christmas Goodbye

Kissing Christmas Goodbye
By M. C. Beaton

Agatha Raisin is a private investigator who owns her own detective agency in the Cotswolds of England. The only joy in her life is the anticipation of her upcoming Christmas festival and hopeful reunion with her ex-husband, James Lacey.

Excitement begins when a wealthy widow hires Agatha because she is afraid a member of her own family is about to murder her. Her premonition comes true and she drops dead after high tea is served at her manor with her family in attendance.

Follow Agatha and her teenage detective trainee, Toni, as they uncover clues in and around the quaint and sleepy village of Gloucestershire. Will they solve this murder in time to finish planning her Christmas party? Read on and find out!

- Ann

Wednesday, October 12, 2011

1225 Christmas Tree Lane

1225 Christmas Tree Lane (A Cedar Cove Novel)
by Debbie Macomber

It saddened me to learn this is the final book of the Cedar Cove Series. I eagerly waited for each sequel and looked forward to reading about the families, how they grew, and solved their problems.

I decided not to write a summary about 1225 Christmas Tree Lane but to let the you, the reader, enjoy the final chapter of the town of Cedar Cove and the families we intimately came to know and love. A good read for the holiday season!

- Rose

Monday, December 13, 2010

An Amish Christmas

An Amish Christmas
by Cynthia Keller

Follow Meg Hobart and her family as they go from being rich and successful in Charlotte, North Carolina to being penniless and homeless, brought on by her husband's bad decisions and lies.

Forced to go live with Meg's parents, they head north with only the shirts on their backs, when a frightening twist of fate forces the Hobarts to take refuge with a kind Amish family in Pennsylvania.

I highly recommend this holiday story, where forgiveness, hard work, and the power of love overcome a desperate situation.

- Ann

                

Girl Waits with Gun

By Amy Stewart

Constance Kopp is a farm girl who becomes a pistol packing dame with a flair for detective work.  She lives with her sisters on a farm near Hackensack, NJ, and when their buggy collides with gangsters, she learns to fight back with the help of the local sheriff.  Little did she know how much she would enjoy outsmarting the bad guys.

This book is based on actual events involving Constance and her two sisters, Norma and Fleurette.  Amy Stewart's fictionalized account brings to life all the characters.  I fell in love with fearless Constance, carrier pigeon trainer Norma, and fashion designer Fleurette.  I can't wait until the sequel comes out next summer.

-Holly

First Sight

By Danielle Steel

At the center of the storm and avalanche of work that is Fashion week, that is four cities on four continents in a month, is American Timmie O’Neill, whose renowned line, Timmie O, is the embodiment of casual chic, in fashion and for the home. She has created a business that inspires, fills, and consumes her life.  Timmie has built an international empire in the last two decades that has brought her enormous satisfaction and success. Yet as blessed as she feels by her success, Timmie harbors the private wounds of a devastating childhood and past tragedy. She is too smart, too experienced, and too hurt to want much in her personal life beyond a succession of convenient, very limited relationships. Always willing to take risks in business, she never risks her heart.

But despite her well-ordered and highly controlled world, it turns out that Timmie O’Neill is not immune to magic when it strikes in Paris during Paris Fashion Week, when an intriguing French doctor comes into her life when she gets sick. At first, Timmie and Jean-Charles Vernier are only patient and physician. They become confidants and friends, corresponding at a safe distance between Paris and Los Angeles once she goes home. There is every reason why they must remain apart. But neither can deny their growing friendship and the electricity that sparks whenever they meet. 

~Crystal

Very Merry Cookie Party: How To Plan And Host A Christmas Cookie Exchange

By Barbara Grunes

Today's busy bakers want to make a gorgeous variety of delicious Christmas cookies without spending days upon flour-smudged days mixing, rolling, and baking. This is a guide to the Christmas cookie exchange, where everyone shows up with a few batches of homemade cookies to swap. It's all the variety without the fuss, with 120 recipes to choose from, plus tips for decorating, planning, and throwing the party.

~Crystal

Devil’s Bridge

By Linda Fairstein

Detective Mike Chapman is met with his toughest case yet. His girlfriend is kidnapped and he can’t sleep or think of anything but finding Alex Cooper. At first he thinks the abduction is due a case she has prosecuted in the past, and then he realizes that she has been abducted for a totally different reason. Listen to this book on CD or you can enjoy it in print, I think you will find it intriguing and have you on the edge of your seat.


~ Beckie H.

The Owl Who Liked Sitting on Caesar

By Martin Windrow

Martin Windrow’s older brother and his wife own a farm in the countryside of England near the town of Kent called Water Farm.  His brother is a falconer and his wife has a pet owl that she keeps in the house.  After an extended visit to his brother’s farm, Martin couldn’t resist the desire to have an owl of his own.  His first attempt ended with his owl flying away from the ‘bird sitter’ when Martin was out of town.  His second attempt was a fifteen year success story.  What a delightful book!  This type of relationship with a wild bird is every child’s dream (and mine).  This book is very eye opening regarding what life would be like with a wild bird.  Some aspects are life changing and wonderful and some are a bit disgusting.  It is very obvious that Martin felt that the wonderful aspects far outweighed the less wonderful.  Fiction is fun but a true story such as this tops any imaginary story.

~Beckie

The Sparrow Sisters

by Ellen Herrick

When Henry Carlyle, the new young doctor, moves to a tiny seaside town, he catches everyone's attention in the tight-knit community--including that of Patience Sparrow, local healer, who runs a garden and nursery with her sisters, Sorrel and Nettie. Patience has a knack for knowing just what people need, whether it be an herb or tincture, or just a good chat, and her moods are revealed through the mystical scents of her garden that seem to follow her around. Just as the two most skilled at mending people begin to grow closer, a tragedy and an accusation against Patience stir up the townsfolk and lead to a legal battle that will reveal where loyalties truly lie. The fears that threaten to tear the town apart--both literally and figuratively--may actually bring everyone closer together. Written with a touch of magical realism, this first novel from Ellen Herrick is rightly called in a review "a haunting, magical, modern-day fairytale. A feast for the senses."

~Kaleena

Birding for the Curious: the easiest way for anyone to explore the incredible world of birds

by Nate Zwick

Written by an editor for the American Birding Association blog, this entry level birding manual focuses on the fundamentals of bird-watching.  Chapters discuss which guides are best, how to buy binoculars, birding with friends,  how to ID birds, and attract birds to your backyard.   Nate is very informed.  His ability to condense information is invaluable to the beginner birder.

If you want to try a new hobby, this book is a great place to start.  It would also make a nice Christmas gift for that family member that has everything.

-Holly

Death Comes to Pemberley

TV Mini-Series based on the book by P.D. James

It is October 1803, the eve of a ball hosted by Mr. and Mrs. Fitzwilliam Darcy. On their way to the ball late that evening an argument breaks out between George Wickham and Captain Denny in the carriage, with Wickham's wife (and Elizabeth's sister), Lydia, also present. The two leave the carriage in anger and disappear into the woodland, where two gunshots are heard. Upon hearing the news, Darcy sends out a search party and Wickham is found distraught and hysterical holding Denny's body, blaming himself for his murder.

We get to see most of the major characters from Pride and Prejudice once again and see how they all weather through this murder trial and how it effects their lives.

~Crystal

The Hands on Home: a seasonal guide to cooking, preserving, and natural homekeeping

by Erica Strauss

This book, written by a famous blogger,  is an ingenious book that everyone should own.  It is chock full of recipes and advice that could make the most reluctant housekeeper confident and frugal.

The recipes cover everything from homemade ricotta to rhubarb syrup.  The homemade cleaners include Greasy Grime Spray and Fizzy Bath Bombs.   Erica Strauss is an intrepid domestic.  Check this book out for inspiration.

-Holly

Wicked Lovely (Wicked Lovely #1)

By Melissa Marr

Rule #3: Don't stare at invisible faeries.
Rule #2: Don't speak to invisible faeries.

Rule #1: Don't ever attract their attention.

Aislinn has always seen faeries. Powerful and dangerous, they walk hidden in the mortal world. Aislinn fears their cruelty and wishes she were as blind to their presence as other teens. Now faeries are stalking her. One of them, Keenan, who is equal parts terrifying and alluring, is trying to talk to her, asking questions Aislinn is afraid to answer. Suddenly none of the rules that have kept Aislinn safe are working anymore, and everything is on the line: her freedom; her best friend, Seth; her life; everything.

~Crystal