Good Reads: Cropped To Death

Cropped to Death by Christina Freeburn
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

I enjoyed this well written mystery featuring Faith a young woman that was framed for murder by her con man fiancé while they were both in the Air Force. She was exonerated in that case, but can't forget the feelings of being accused of a crime she didn't commit and being betrayed by someone she loved.

Now she is back home in a small West Virginia town working in her grandmothers' scrap booking store. An innocent friend and coworker is accused of murdering her estranged husband. Faith is determined to prove her friend's innocence and sets off on a rather bumbling investigation.

The mystery part of the story is enhanced by Faith's two romantic interests, the investigating police detective and her neighbor, a prosecuting attorney. The other secondary characters are well developed and endearing.

This book would benefit from a good proofreader. The word omissions, and grammatical errors were too many.

I would recommend this author and book to anyone looking for a light read.

ARC provided by Netgalley.

Good Reads: Portrait of a Dead Guy

Portrait of a Dead Guy by Larissa Reinhart
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I enjoyed this book so much. It had some of my favorite things: small southern town, quirky secondary characters, off beat heroine (Cherry) and romance.

The author captured the vernacular of the south without overwhelming the reader by writing the conversations with strong accents or slang. The conversations were hilarious and I found myself giggling out loud.

The mystery involves solving a murder and had enough complexity to keep the reader guessing until the end.

There were several romantic interests for Cherry and one stood out as the main Hero, but they were all strong contenders. I can see romantic conflict happening in future books in the series.

I recommend this book for anyone that enjoys mysteries with amateur, female detectives. I'm definitely looking forward to the next book in this series.

ARC provided by Netgalley.

Weight Loss and Other Horror Stories

Last weekend I stepped on the scale and realized that I had done something that I always swore I would never do:  I now weigh more than 200 pounds.  I didn't get here quickly, rather it was a slow process over 16 years of one physical illness after another.  Forced inactivity morphed into voluntary inactivity.

I have every reason to want to lose weight.  It will certainly help with my blood pressure and joint issues.  But I also have medical problems to work around.  A combination of osteo and rheumatoid arthritis make exercise a win/lose proposition.  It's hard to motivate yourself to exercise when you know the result will be later pain and a wrong move will result in joint damage.

But it's time.  So, I'm setting Pam style goals for myself.  I want to walk into Target and buy something off the rack.  I figure I need to lose 80 pounds to reach my fighting weight, but have set a goal of weighing 155 pounds by the end of August.  That's about 10 pounds a month, but I'll be happy with 2 pounds a week.

I need weight loss buddies, so I will be posting updates and venting about my progress or lack thereof during the upcoming months.

Next week my daughter is going on her sixth grade trip to St. Augustine, Florida and I am going along as a chaperone.  Please pray for me to have physical strength and endurance.  I love history and am looking forward to seeing the historical sites, but being with a group of hormone surging preteens, not so much.

You have probably noticed the book reviews I have been posting lately.  As I find books that I can recommend as uplifting, educational, amusing and lacking overt sexual acts, I will be sharing them with you.  This may lead into a second blog, but we will see.

Take care.

God bless,
Pam

Good Reads: Born To Blog

Born to Blog: Building Your Blog for Personal and Business Success One Post at a Time by Mark Schaefer
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Whether you wish to start a business or personal blog, this book gives you the basic skills to get started. While not an indepth instruction manual; writing skills, advertising, publicity and software are some of the subjects covered.

I would recommend this book to a beginner blogger that needs how to information to get their blog off to a strong start.

ARC provided by Netgalley.

Good Read: An Equal Opportunity Death

An Equal Opportunity Death by Susan Dunlap
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I was pleased with this rereleased murder mystery. It had good character and place development. The heroine was a capable working woman living in a small California town. A town on the brink of change as tourists and developers start moving in.

The h is falsely accused of murder and must solve the crime herself since the sheriff is convinced that she committed the crime.

I loved the investigation carried out by the h and the ending was sad and dramatic.

This is definitely a book I can recommend.

ARC provided by Netgalley.

Leftover Fried Rice

Here's is a recipe I developed to use up leftover vegetables and meat.  It's for when you have those little bits that aren't enough to reheat by themselves.

INGREDIENTS:

4-5 cups cooked rice
Any meat or vegetables diced
1 small onion diced
1 1/2 tsps. finely grated ginger
2 minced garlic cloves
2 Tbsp. soy sauce
2 Tbsp. fish sauce
1 tsp. sesame oil
2 eggs
2 Tbsp. canola oil


INSTRUCTIONS:

Heat oil in nonstick wok or large nonstick pan.  Add onions and stir until translucent.  Add meat and vegetables and stir until cooked through.  Add garlic and ginger, cook stirring for a minute, then add rice.  Mix well, add soy, fish sauce and sesame oil, then stir.  Push everything to the side and break eggs into empty side of wok.  Slightly scramble eggs, then mix into other ingredients.

Do all of your prep work in advance.  This moves fast and you don't have time to chop or measure while cooking.  Enjoy!

God bless,
Pam

Good Reads: The Bracelet

The Bracelet by Roberta Gately
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

A look into some difficult subjects: human trafficking, life in third world countries and the corruption that exists at the highest levels of government and humanitarian organizations. Fortunately, these difficult subjects are presented in the form of an interesting novel with mystery, romance and intrigue.

This book is well written with good character and plot development. Sadly, I began to find the heroine to be annoyingly naive, but her clueless behavior is probably necessary for the plot. I just don't have much patience with that kind of person.

I will gladly recommend this book to my friends and blog readers.

ARC provided by Netgalley.