In the Library Bag

I started this post many, many days ago.  Weeks would be more accurate!  I had a picture of the books and it has since "disappeared".  No matter, I'm posting anyway. 

Some of these books from the library had been requested quite a while ago and others very recently and of course they all came in at the same time!

My favorite out of this stack is definitely Bread and Wine: A Love Letter to Life Around the Table by Shauna Niequist.  I love this book!

 I had really been struggling lately in the kitchen department.  Meal planning, food shopping, preparing, cleaning up.  Honestly,  I was just sick of it all.   

I am fully aware that I have no right to complain about any of it.  The alternative to all this would be to live alone and eat frozen dinners every meal.  That is not at all what I want!  I had been praying for an attitude adjustment and I believe this book was an answer to prayer.  This book has sort of revived me a bit.  The author goes on and on about cooking like a grandmother would go on about her first grandchild.  This woman loves cooking and she really loves food!  She made me feel normal about the way I feel about chocolate.  Although her food loves are different, I could totally relate!  There are recipes, and most of them look really great and I can't wait to try them (most of them are gluten free), but mostly it's a story about her life.  It's about showing hospitality (which I want to do more of so badly) and friendship.  If you need to be inspired in the kitchen, or just inspired period, I highly recommend it!

How the Heather Looks is the story of a family who traveled to England for a summer looking for all of the places they had read about.  From Tolkien's Lord of the Rings to A.A. Milne's Winnie the Pooh.  They travel all over discovering the Hundred Acre Wood and homes of authors and illustrators.  I came across it when looking for books for Callie for school next year.  It's written in a very engaging way and is quite interesting....if you are familiar with the books they are talking about.  There were several chapters telling about things I was not familiar with and those were a little harder to get through, but I'm glad I found it.

I still haven't finished Age of Opportunity.  I will, it's very, very good!!   I shouldn't have started Bread and Wine first.  But now I'm finished with that one so I can finish the first one.  I mean, which you would you rather read about, food or raising teenagers? ;)