a few extras...

Some housekeeping to do around here...

Recipes!
I need more. As soon as the busyness of back-to-school dies down, I have to start piecing together the cookbook and deciding if we have enough recipes to warrant printing it up and making an actual book out of it for all of us. So far we've been through appetizers, soups, salads, veggies/sides, and grill recipes. Please continue to send me more of those if you have them! And pictures!!
Next up will be main dishes/casseroles. I putting out a call... give me your faves! Email me your recipes ASAP!!


And
Books!
I'm sadly behind on my book passing promises. I'm ashamed to admit I never even picked a winner from the last give-away.
Let's remedy that.
Without further ado... wandering on over to random.org... picked for me comment #2: Anne. Have you won before?? I'm thinking for some reason I might have your address... nevermind, I wouldn't be able to find it if I had it anyway. Get me your address and I'll send the book out ASAP. (and sorry it only took me all summer!)

And I have several books sitting on my shelf just waiting to be passed on...
I don't really have the time or the motivation to "book report" them as I normally like to do, so we're going to do this super efficiently: (actually this probably isn't super efficient, but I don't have the brain power to spare on a better way so this is it) I'm going to list the books -with a quick general thumbs up or down from me- and throw them all together... y'all can leave a comment if you're interested (let me know if there's one you already have or have read so I don't send you that one) in being the new owner of any of them. Then I'll draw a name, one at a time, and blindly pick a book for each name I draw.
I know it's random, but it'll be kind of fun... you never know what you're going to get! Surprises are fun, right? And hey, it's a free book.

In no particular order, here are the books: (I linked them so you can read about them if you like)

Julie & Julia; My Year of Cooking Dangerously by Julie Powell
I thought this would be an interesting book... we picked this one in our book club so we could go see the movie together as well. Ended up, most of us were pretty meh about the book. I really liked the movie though, a lot more than I thought I would. And in the end, I think I liked the movie better having read the book. If you like food, cooking, blogging and books, it's probably worth a read.

The Pact by Jodi Picoult
Typical Jodi Picoult. It was good... I found it a little predictable, but again, as always, I'm amazed at how Picoult can seemingly get so inside these characters thoughts. She's so good at portraying the emotions in these stories. I love how real it feels.

Those Who Save Us by Jenna Blum
Amazing book. Loved it. Couldn't get enough of it, and was sad (and left wanting a sequel) when it ended.

Expecting Adam by Martha Beck
I liked this one. I missed our book club discussion on this one, but I enjoyed the read. A little heavy at times, but an interesting peek into a story I wouldn't normally stop to think about.

The Elegance of the Hedgehog by Muriel Barbery
Um, yeah. I didn't read this one. I got all of a couple dozen pages into it and gave up. For one, I got the book really late (like the day before book club) and I knew I couldn't make it. I was interested in the story... it was just too... hard. It's not a quick, last minute read. It's a french novel, translated, and I just couldn't get in that mindset. I felt it was all going over my head and I didn't have the time or energy to get into it at that point. Hopefully someone else can enjoy it and maybe, if it turns out to be really good, I'll get it back from you to read! :)

The Story of Edgar Sawtelle by David Wroblewski
I have to admit I never finished this book. Other book clubbers said they were disappointed in the ending... I don't know what happens, but I was really enjoying it as far as I got. I was actually thinking it was one of my favorites this year. I'm not really sure why I never finished since I loved it so... I just hate how time gets away from me. That and it's not really a portable book- at 560+ pages, hard backed. I've determined that if I haven't by this point, I probably never will wrap it up, so I'm just going to hand it off.


If you like to read and you're game to trying a new (and random!) book, leave me a comment here on this post before next Tuesday, September 1st (September already?!?!!) and I'll send one (or more) your way. Be sure if I don't know you that I have your email address, blog address, or some way to get ahold of you!
(Past recipients welcome as well!!)

((and what is with my overuse of parenthesis lately???))