Summertime and the Reading is Easy by Jenny Gardiner

Hey all!

I'm just back from sitting in a dark hospital room for a couple of days with our son, who got a nasty infection in his elbow joint a week after cutting his arm. Thank goodness he's fine, but had to spend a couple of days on IV antibiotics to try to knock out the infection so it didn't go septic, which is why we dropped everything to go up to DC to be with our boy! Hospitals are not the place you want to be, that's for sure.

Happy my baby is on the mend and we're back home. I'm now quite behind prepping for the release of my upcoming novel, Blue-Blooded Romeo, the latest in the Royal Romeo contemporary rom-com series, and trying to write Big O Romeo, which is due with my editor in two weeks.

So since I'm in the weeds and it's summertime and everyone loves book suggestions for those lazy, hot summer days, I'm going to just list a bunch of books I've enjoyed in the past several months. I always love to get book recs from friends, so hope this helps if you're in the market for some new reads! (and while you're at it feel free to check out the 25+ books I've read here!)

I'm currently reading American Fire: Love, Arson and Life in a Vanishing Land by Monica Hesse. I'd read a piece in the Washington Post about this crazy arsonist couple on the Eastern Shore of Virginia a few years back--one of those "you can't make it up" stories. The reporter has since written this book and it's a really compelling account of what happened, complete with all of the nutty local color you'll get with books like this. If you listened to the Serial podcast and liked it, you'll enjoy this.

My friend Karen Dionne has a fabulous suspense thriller out to rave reviews this summer: The Marsh King's Daughter. Highly recommend it. It'll keep you on the edge of your seat.

I LOVED Standard Deviation by Katherine Heiny. I have such metaphor envy after reading this novel. The author is extraordinarily insightful into the tiny nuances of the mundanities of life, and conveys them so wonderfully.

The Season by Jonah Lisa Dyer was great fun. The authors are a husband/wife screenwriting team, and the book reads like a well-crafted TV show or movie. About a tomboy young woman who plays college soccer and her mother forces her and her twin sister to be girly-girl debutantes. Good beach read.

The Assistants by Camille Perri was a fun beach read.

I LOVED The Hating Game by Sally Thorne. Great beach read.

Oh, The Nix is amazing. Fabulously talented writer, crazy ride of a novel--it goes down so many rabbit holes, you cannot imagine how they all connect, but they do!

A few books I've started but have to get back to (but was enjoying!): Eleanor Oliphant is Completely Fine by Gail Honeyman. Lillian Boxfish Takes a Walk by Kathleen Rooney. The Heirs by Susan Rieger. This is Your Life, Harriet Chance by Jonathan Evison. The People We Hate at the Wedding by Grant Ginder.

I just heard about Those Meddling Kids by Edgar Cantero and can't wait to read it. It's a dark take on the Scooby Doo-type kid detectives who survive a harrowing episode that involves ghosts and dead bodies but when they grow up they're psychologically scarred from the experience. When one of them commits suicide, the rest team together to face the demons of their past. Brilliant premise for a novel, right?

I hope you'll have a chance to check out my Royal Romeos series, which is a spin-off of my wildly popular It's Reigning Men series--please do check them out!

Happy reading!

    

  

 

Terri Reed: Gluten-Free At Christmas

Hi, Terri Reed here hoping your Christmas was merry and joyful. Mine was filled with laughter, chaos and food. Lots of food. Most of the food was gluten-free.

Gluten sensitivity runs in my husband’s family so we have made adjustments over the years to the foods we eat.  But it was not always this way. We had never heard of gluten or celiac disease until my daughter was born in 1993. She was a healthy baby and so full of joy. However, issues soon cropped up.  The pediatrician kept prescribing antibiotics but the medicine wasn’t helping.  A friend suggested a naturopath.  We’d never heard of a naturopath but at this point we were growing desperate to help our little girl.

Through a battery of test, the naturopath found that she had sensitivity to wheat products and dairy products.  So began a journey of living wheat free and diary free. This was in 1995 and the term gluten-free wasn’t a mainstream word yet. There were few wheat free products available.  It was easier to cut out dairy.  I remember how many people thought we were weird for thinking wheat and dairy was causing our daughter harm. Over the years others in the family have been diagnosed with gluten sensitivity, but we all are aware that careful monitoring is required as there is no guarantee that gluten sensitivity won’t turn into celiac disease. Now nearly twenty years later you can go to any grocery store and find gluten-free products from major companies, small start up companies and everything in between.  

Here are a couple of interesting articles on the subject.

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/11/27/magazine/Should-We-All-Go-Gluten-Free.html?pagewanted=all&_r=0

https://www.womentowomen.com/digestive-health/the-gluten-spectrum-from-sensitivities-to-celiac-disease/

My daughter loves to bake and has creatively modified recipes to make them gluten-free. Here’s one of her recipes.

Peanut butter chocolate kiss cookies

You will need:

1/2 cup granulated sugar

1/2 cup packed brown sugar

1 cup creamy peanut butter

1.5 sticks of butter

1 egg

1 XO Baking Co. all natural Gluten Free all purpose gourmet flour blend

3/4 teaspoon baking soda

1/2 teaspoon baking powder

Additional granulated sugar

About 36 Hershey's® Kisses® Brand milk chocolates, unwrapped

Directions:

Preheat oven to 375°F.

In large bowl, beat 1/2 cup granulated sugar, the brown sugar, peanut butter, butter and egg with electric mixer on medium speed, or mix with spoon, until well blended.

Stir in flour, baking soda and baking powder until dough forms. Chill for an hour.

Shape dough into 1-inch balls; roll in additional granulated sugar.

On ungreased cookie sheets, place about 2 inches apart.

Bake 8 to 10 minutes or until edges are light golden brown. Immediately press 1 milk chocolate candy in center of each cookie. Remove from cookie sheets to cooling rack.

Enjoy.

 

Leave a comment for a chance to win a copy of my Love Inspired Suspense series The McClain’s, plus some swag (a pocket calendar, a caramel black sea salt chocolate bar, book marks, recipe cards)

*** Terri's winner is Leni! Please email totebag@authorsoundrelations.com with your mailing details!***