Eggnog Murder/ Leslie Meier, Lee Hollis, Barbara Ross/ 343 pages

The Eggnog Murder is a collection of three stories written by Leslie Meier, Lee Hollis and Barbara Ross.  Each is a murder mystery that revolves around eggnog.  Each author features a series heroine in her story. In the Eggnog Murder did someone really want to murder a retired Tinker's Cove postal worker?  Or was it meant as a bad joke?   Lucy Stone is ready to solve the mystery.  Death by Eggnog deals with the demise of the town's cranky librarian.  Was it an accident or was it intended?  Hayley Powell lends a hand to the investigation.  In Nogged Off is it really a jinx that stirs up trouble for Julia Snowden?  In the midst of all the mayhem someone's boyfriend turns up murdered in Julia's moving van.  Is Imogen really that unlucky, or is something else going on?  All three stories go a good job of introducing their characters and tempting the reader to indulge in more of their crime solving antics.
 

Food: A Love Story / Jim Gaffigan / 340 pgs

I have loved Jim Gaffigan ever since I was introduced to him in college about five years ago. I watched him joke about Hot Pockets, Cinnabon, bacon, and cheese and could not stop laughing. I will admit that I have yet to read Dad is Fat but when I realized I needed to read a food memoir for the #ReadHarder challenge I've been doing, I went straight for this book.


“I don’t know much about grammar, but I think kale salad is what they call a “double negative.”




Gaffigan does not miss a thing. He wrote a book that touches on every single food item you can think of, and a lot you probably did not. His scope goes from talking about food from different areas of the country (yes, he does talk about St. Louis style pizza and toasted ravioli) to all the different food categories out there (fruit, vegetables, seafood, breakfast foods, fast food, even crackers). Even when you don't agree with him - how can anyone hate seafood? - you still can't help but crack up.

Breaking the Food Seduction / Neal Barnard 324 p. Self-help book

Breaking the Food Seduction / Neal Barnard 324 p.  Self-help book

Trying to stay on a healthy diet may be proving to be difficult. Dr. Neal Barnard has suggestions and the medical research to back them up.  He shares

• insights into the chemical reasons behind your cravings, 

• seven simple steps to break craving cycles and tame your appetite

• important advice for kids' sugar cravings and how to halt them

He suggests following his plan for three weeks to break the craving cycle.  He has a chapter on dining out.  His recipes seem easy to prepare.  Read this if you want to lose weight, lower cholesterol, get energized, and quiet the food cravings.

Dying for a Cupcake Devereaux's Dime Store Mystery/ Denise Swanson/ 264 pages

Dying for a Cupcake is the fourth offering in Denise Swanson's Devereaux's Dime Store Mystery series.  Kizzy Cutler is returning to Shadow Bend after twenty years absence.  She is bringing a cup cake contest to her hometown.  The contest could bring good publicity to Shadow Bend, until a young woman's death and two murder attempts on Kizzy put a damper on the festivities.

This book would appeal to mystery readers and fans of Denise Swanson's original Scumble River Series.  For more information and read a likes visit the SCCCLD website.

The Glass Kitchen/ Linda Francis Lee/ 375 pages

When Portia Cuthcart was seven years old, her mother and grandmother knew she had "the knowing." The knowing is what her grandmother called her intuition that led her to bake and cook what was needed by the customers of her café, The Glass Kitchen. Portia and her sisters end up living with her grandmother after their parents die, and Portia learns to cook with her grandmother. After her grandmother's death, she marries and her husband's disapproval of her instinct makes her learn to suppress it until it nearly disappears. Fast forward three years, Portia's husband has divorced her in favor of his pregnant girlfriend, her ex-best friend. Portia moves to New York from Texas to join her sisters who made the move years before. She decides to live in the garden apartment of the building her aunt left to the three sisters. Olivia and Cordelia have already sold their apartments in the building to Gabriel Kane who also wants to buy Portia's. She backed out of the sale at the last minute and intends to live there. Soon, she finds that she can no longer suppress the knowing and begins to make plans to open a restaurant.


Complete with recipes, The Glass Kitchen is a whimsical story of magic, food, family and relationships. The conflicts between Gabriel and his daughters strike a cord, and the relationship between the Cuthcart sisters rings true as well.

Eat Cake/Jeanne Ray/253 pages

Whenever Ruth is stressed, she thinks about cake. Then she bakes a cake or two. Her family loves her cakes, but they are ready to see less of them. But Ruth has stress in her life with a child in college, a sullen 16-year-old and her mother living with them, so they have cake regularly. When her husband comes home from work one day with the news he's been let go by the new management of his hospital, how can it get worse? By getting a call from another hospital that her pianist, ne'er do well estranged father has fallen and broken both his wrists and needs to come live with her indefinitely. Her parents haven't been together since she was 2 years old, and her mother has never hidden her anger at the man from anyone. Cake may be what ends up saving Ruth and her family.

A sweet, light-hearted story. Ray also seems to have a theme about really listening to the people around you running through her stories. Good advice for most people and families. Interesting cake recipes included.

Apple Turnover Murder / Joanne Fluke 292 p.

Hannah Swensen makes her 13th appearance in this cozy mystery. The Mayor and his wife commission Hannah to bake 1100 cookies for a three day charity fundraiser. Lisa, her partner at the Cookie Jar, volunteers them to bake Apple Turnovers too. Hannah's very former love interest will be the MC from her grad school days. Hannah is dating dentist Norman Rhodes and local sheriff Mike Kingston. So she's not interested-- she hopes he has forgotten her. She warns off her former graduate school advisor when he turns his attention towards her sister. Naturally she stumbles over him backstage dead -- holding her apple turnover (recipe included). Hannah narrows down the suspects hopefully before anyone else turns up dead. A delightful mixture of murder and scrumptious recipes include mocha nut butterballs and chocolate marshmallow cookie bars. I'm hoping to make the turnovers.

Readers of Fluke's culinary mysteries may like Diane Mott Davidson works (lots of good recipes with Davidson too).

Check the library catalog

Treasury of Christmas Crafts & Foods / 384 p.

Everything Christmas is featured in this work. I loved all the ways to make creches at least a dozen plus. Everything needed to develop lovely Christmas traditions is here. There seems to be something for everyone. Food for the holidays along with the table decorations, ornaments, Christmas trees, it's here. And here's a secret the source for the treats to winners of the Show Your True Colors is this.