Ready Player One, by Ernest Cline, A Book Review
Ready Player One, by Ernest Cline, A Book Review. A Virtual Classroom? Would send your children to virtual school? Can you picture it? It sounds intriguing when you first think of it. No more bullying, less distractions, right? Yet in a virtual world would it be too isolating? Could there be a balance? Would class size matter then? Would teachers like it better? That is one of the considerations you will find as you read Ready...
All About Spinach in “The Spinach Collection” Cookbook
Leafy Green Power Plant Want your family to eat more vegetables? Leafy greens especially are considered the top food you can eat for nutrition. Excellent for heart health and brain health both, it is important to include it in your diet as often as possible. I started including spinach in more meals when I was reading up on Alzheimer’s Prevention. If you have experienced Alzheimer’s or dementia with a family member or friend, you...
The Lewis N. Clark Waterproof Magnetic Pouch
Lewis N. Clark Waterseals Magnetic Self-Sealing Waterproof Pouch A “Must Have” to Protect Your Phone From The Elements Summer is coming! Prepare now! If you enjoy the outdoors, you will appreciate this handy and effective waterproof case. Camping, biking, hiking? Those are each occasions where your phone might get wet. Going to the beach or for a swim? Between the sand and the water, this should be an essential. The case...
Gunmetal Gray, by Mark Greaney
Have You Met The Gray Man? Court Gentry, The Gray Man, has returned in another exciting, fast moving thriller from Mark Greaney. Book Six in the series is every bit as exciting as the first. What a delight it is to delve into another series book written by a favorite author. You know the feeling if you like to follow a character. Each book you start, you know you will enjoy the characters, the author’s writing, and the excitement...
Mangrove Lightning, by Randy Wayne White
Book 24 in the Doc Ford Series Randy Wayne White’s latest novel has arrived! Mangrove Lightning makes the twenty-fourth book in his bestselling “Doc Ford” series. Can you imagine how well he knows his characters by this time? Every quirk, every strength—and weakness—must come as naturally as it would if you were writing about family. The same must be true about the Florida setting. He lives where he writes, knowing all the little...
Fresh Lobster and Salmon Ravioli
Fresh Lobster and Salmon Ravioli recipe. This recipe is extremely delicious and very special. They make these ravioli in Genoa, on the Ligurian coast in Northern Italy, where my parents were born. If you’re looking for something really impressive for a special occasion, then this is the perfect dish. The very special main ingredients, lobster and salmon, speak for themselves, and anyone who loves seafood will love these. If you...
Who Was Ruth Snyder?
Who was Ruth Snyder? When you realise that the image above shows the final moments of Ruth Snyder’s life, then it becomes evident that she was a murderer. She was executed on January 12th, 1928 at Sing Sing. She was the first woman to be executed using the electric chair. Her lover, Henry Judd Gray, suffered the same fate. Together, they had murdered Ruth’s husband. The story had begun ten years before the executions....
Chicken Dijon with Snap Peas
A Delicious, Fast Chicken Dijon Dinner Tender, moist chicken breast with fresh sugar snap peas and mushrooms in a tasty light sauce. Sound interesting? It tastes wonderful! My husband was the creative cook in our household. He made a dish very similar to this. We would seriously sigh through every bite, it was so delicious. This recipe is similar only I’ve added vegetables and a slightly different flavor with dijon. I was so...
Goodbye Chuck Berry
To mark the passing of rock-n-roll legend Chuck Berry, Andy Royston takes another listen to the man’s first big hit. It was a spring day in Chicago’s South Side, just off 47th St, then the home of the blues. Some guy up from St. Louis walked in the door on a mission to see Leonard Chess, owner of Chess Records to see if he could make a deal. His name? Chuck Berry. The night before Berry had been watching Muddy Waters at...
Who Was Oleg Cassini?
Who was Oleg Cassini? Oleg Cassini and Grace Kelly If anyone today is familiar with the name of Oleg Cassini, that’s probably because he was the couturier of Jackie Kennedy; he designed those strange clothes she was so fond of that look so odd to us today. But what’s much more interesting – and slightly scandalous – is the affair he had with actress Grace Kelly before she became Princess Grace of Monaco. In...
Green Mint Chocolate Chip Cookies
When I saw this recipe I just had to try it. Mint chocolate chip is a favorite in our house. With St Patrick’s Day coming I thought I’d make a batch to see how they’d go over in case I need to make more. They turned out delish! I even shared some with my a neighbor who looks forward to my treats since I started sharing with them. These were fun to mix up. I’ve never made cookies with the green coloring in them...
St. Patrick’s Day: Books to Celebrate Ireland
If you’ve never been to Ireland, you probably have your own image of it in your mind. The view I see is one of green hills, windy cliffs, little cottages and villages, and smiling faces. Hopefully one day I’ll get to see it in person and pass some time there. Not being a city person, the wandering roads hold much appeal. While the beauty is undeniable, it hasn’t always had a happy history. It wasn’t so long ago that the IRA was...
The Lewis N. Clark Mini Cross-Body Bag
Lewis N. Clark Does It Again When my mini cross-body purse arrived today, I couldn’t wait to unpack it. I’d been looking for a smaller sized purse that would hold all I need, yet would be easy and light to carry. As you can see in the video below, the Lewis N. Clark mini cross-body bag is nylon, ideal for travel because it is lightweight. Perhaps as important these days, it offers RFID protection for your credit cards. Of course that...
Irish Ice Cream and Chocolate
Irish Ice Cream and Chocolate recipe This is our absolutely favourite dessert. And that’s not just because it’s delicious. It takes only a few minutes to make and yet it’s elegant enough to serve at your next dinner party. It’s also a wonderful finale to a romantic dinner a deux. You can make this ahead by assembling the ice cream and the chocolate in attractive glassware and then keep them in the fridge...
Honoring our Military and Police Dogs
Today is National K9 Veteran’s day. As much as we love our pets, it’s a day we should all honor. The tasks our military and police dogs take on are some of the worst, and some of the most effective. Today, I’d like to honor them with some excellent books that feature these K9’s. While they’ve been used, probably throughout time, for various tasks from carting things, patrolling boundaries, etc., today they are honed into such...
Odette Sansom: WW2 Spy
Odette Sansom Hallowes: Odette was tortured by the Gestapo in the Second World War and sent to a concentration camp where she was sentenced to death. She never gave in and managed to survive – and save others – purely by her wits. In 1942, she had made sure that her three daughters were safe and well-cared for and left England to risk her life helping others. Odette was French by birth.She had married an Englishman and...
Don De Lion – Don Drummond and the Skatalites
Andy Royston takes another listen to one of Jamaica’s pioneer musicians and the scandal that shook the music. Extrovert, eccentric and self-taught Don Drummond’s trombone style has an earthiness and songlike quality that makes it immediately identifiable. His melodies are so simple, so perfectly constructed and memorable. Don Drummond was able to channel emotions from gentility to absolute rage through his music with as...
A Fine Year For Murder, By Lauren Carr, A Review
And “A Fine Year for Murder” It Is What fun it is to be back with Jessica Faraday and Murphy Thornton. The newlyweds in Lauren Carr’s newest series, The Thorny Rose Mysteries, are a hit with fans! This time Jessica and Murphy will find their still new relationship tested as violence from the past invades their present. The Story The Past: As the book begins, a young girl is hiding, cowering in terror. Another is screaming. Present...
Cauliflower, Spinach and Turkey Meatballs
Delicious in a Submarine Sandwich. Suggestion for the day: Add cauliflower to meatballs next time you make them! It’s fantastic! Adding fresh vegetables to ground meat is an excellent way to use less meat yet have more servings. It is also a great way to get more veggies into your diet. Wednesday was one of my marathon cooking days. While I was cooking up a few dishes using ground turkey to stash in the freezer, I decided to...
India, by Debra Schoenberger
Spotlight on “India” A Nation Within The Pages of a Book Join us in the virtual book tour for “India,” the newest photography book from Debra Schoenberger. Her tour from March 6th through the 24th, hosted by iRead Book Tours. You can find interviews, reviews, and articles by the author at the numerous stops. The full schedule is at the bottom of the page here. Step into another world It was a treat to have the...
The Police Search for Charlie Chaplin’s body
Who stole Charlie Chaplin’s body? Charlie Chaplin, the Little Tramp, died on December 25th, 1977. He was buried in Switzerland, where he had lived since the nineteen fifties. In March 1978, his body disappeared from its grave. The grave had been marked with a simple, engraved oak cross which the police took away to fingerprint. They did not reveal whether prints had been found. It’s assumed none were because the police...
Comparing ‘One Hundred Years of Solitude’ & ‘The Shadow of the Wind’
Can we really compare Carlos Ruiz Zafon to Gabriel Garcia Marquez? I first read One Hundred Years of Solitude a long, long time ago and I’ve re-read it many times since then. In April 2014, I read The Shadow of the Wind. One of the things that attracted me to the book is that the blurb on the back cover compared these two books. I enjoyed Shadow and, on the evening I finished the book, was determined to read more of Carlos Ruiz...
She Captains by Joan Druett
She Captains: Heroines of the Sea. Prize winning historian and author Joan Druett has created a fabulous book which is chock-full of fascinating about women at sea throughout history. Seafaring was a dangerous business in times gone by and yet many women were attracted to life aboard. Some were captains – and even pirates – in their own right.Others went to sea with their husbands. All their stories are fascinating....
BOAC Flight 911
BOAC Flight 911, Ninjas and James Bond What is it about the number 911? As well as the obvious connotation that we know nowadays, it was also the number of a scheduled passenger airliner that crashed in 1966. Then there was also the mysterious disappearance of Flight 19 just after World War Two. The numbers 9 and 1 are beginning to get a bit spooky to me. The BOAC crash was certainly tragic. The plane, which had only been airborne...
Hollywood’s Finest Redheads
An appreciation of big screen redheads by Andy Royston “I would always hesitate to recommend as a life’s companion a young lady with quite such a vivid shade of red hair. Red hair, sir, in my opinion, is dangerous.” P.G. Wodehouse – Very Good Jeeves “Once in his life, every man is entitled to fall madly in love with a gorgeous redhead.” ― Lucille Ball In 2014 something extraordinary happened. A rubescence of...
Lou Reed: A True Transformer
Written on October 27, 2013 I learned, just now, that Lou died today. I never met him or even saw him perform. But in so many small ways he made my life bigger and brighter and sharper and more inspirational. I was just eleven years old and living in a small Yorkshire village miles from Lou’s great New York City. He opened my eyes to a new world. It took just one song – Walk On The Wild Side – to opened my ears to...
The Whizbang Machine, by Danielle A. Vann
Secrets in A Typewriter An intriguing title to a surprising novel that will appeal to adults and teens alike. What is there about the supernatural that inspires such interest? The imagination it involves? The suspense of learning what exactly it is? Perhaps simply fear of something we aren’t sure we believe. Whichever it might be for you, The Whizbang Machine includes all three. A typewriter that is meant for only one person, responds...