Curled Up With a Good Book and a Cup of Tea

Andi felt blessed when at the age of thirty-seven, she finally found the perfect man.  Ethan is an amazing husband and devoted father to his two daughters, Emily and Sophia.  Andi was thrilled to become step-mother to the two girls and accepted them as her own.  But Andi struggled to accept the fact that she may never have children of her own.  Her dream of motherhood and raising a child may never come true. Complicating the situation is teenager Emily.  She sees Andi as an obstacle to her father's love and she will do everything she can to break up the family dynamic.  Just when it looks like Andi cannot handle the rebellion anymore and Emily may have won, a crisis hits the family.  The two find themselves at a crossroads, with everything they ever believed about family and motherhood coming into question.   Another Piece Of My Heart by Jane Green is a sweet novel about love, family and motherhood.  It raises the question of wha...

Annika Bengtzon is working as a copy editor at Stockholm's Evening Post when a call comes into the newsroom.  With her colleagues busy working on a story about a double murder at the docks, Annika takes the call.  It's from a woman who claims that her organization, the Paradise Foundation, can help people change identities and completely erase their pasts and she wants Annika to write a story about them. Shortly after meeting with her, Annika is contacted by another woman named Aida who has a connection to the double murder and whose life is in danger.  To help her escape, Annika puts her into contact with the Paradise Foundation.  But when Aida turns up dead, Annika decides to dig deeper into the organization and finds that it's not what it seems.  And as Annika and local council employee Thomas try to shed light on its activities, they find their own lives in danger. Vanished , by Liza, Marklund, is a fast-paced thriller by Scandinavia's Queen of c...

If these bookstores were in my corner of the world, they'd get all of my money just because of their beauty! Selexyz Bookstore in Maastricht, Netherlands. This bookstore was built inside a former Dominican Church ( source ) Livaria Lello in Porto, Portugal, built in 1906 ( source ) El Ateneo Bookshop in Buenos Aires, Argentina, built inside a former theatre ( source )

It all begins with a simple email: "Dear Sir, I am the son of an exiled Nigerian diplomat, and I need your help…" When Laura Curtis' father gets caught up in this con, he ends up losing his money, his home and his life. Determined to take revenge on father's killer, Laura sets off dangerous world of the Lagos underworld and into the heart of the 419 industry. But she soon discovers that this scam reaches much further than she thought. A pregnant young woman who appears out of a sandstorm in sub-Saharan Africa, a young man whose village has fallen prey to the destruction of the oil industry, these lives and more are all connected to Laura's through one of the worlds most notorious email scams. 419 , by Will Ferguson, is a fast-paced, sweeping novel that takes you into a world full of crime, suffering, greed, revenge and redemption. The 419 email scams (named for the section of the Nigerian Criminal Code dealing with fraud) are well known throughout th...

Who doesn't love a beautiful library??? Main reading hall of the City Library of Stockholm ( source ) Library of the Dutch Parliament, The Hague, Netherlands ( source ) Main reading room, Library of Parliament, Ottawa, Ontario ( source ) Uris Library, Cornell University, New York ( source ) Thomas Fisher Rare Book Library at University of Toronto, Ontario ( source )

Adria Vasil, Canada's straight-shooting green living expert, is back, and this time it's personal…care, that is. Ecoholic Body: Your Ultimate Earth-Friendly Guide to Living Healthy & Looking Good by Adria Vasil is the only book you will need to turn your personal care as green as you possibly can. It literally has you covered from head to toe to make sure you get chemicals out of your body and out of your life. This indispensable guide covers everything. It gives you the lowdown on the "mean 15" ingredients to avoid, the best skin care, all the latest eco-fashions, the scoop on nature's best for kids, and how to green your health care and feel your best. The book also includes labelling of Made in Canada products, a nation-wide store directory, do-it-yourself homemade body care, and something that is very important to ecoholics, money saving tips. The best feature of this book is Vasil's exhaustive testing of products from every type of personal...

Sadie Wagner will do anything for her family so when her stepfather is injured and can no longer work, as the eldest child she decides it is time for her to take on a job. The town of Goldtree, Kansas offers her everything she could ever want - a job as a clerk at the mercantile and the opportunity to become a professional singer at the local opera house. Though the opera house isn't what she thought it would be, she can't risk the money her family needs so she will do anything to keep her job. Thad McKane is the new sheriff in Goldtree. It's not quite what he wants to do but it will earn him the money he needs for training to become a minister. Goldtree isn't the type of town that would need a sheriff, but it has been plagued by bootlegging operations and the town council wants Thad to find the culprit before word gets out to the people living there. When Thad and Sadie meet, there is instant attraction. But when Thad hears Sadie practicing the bawdy tunes she sings at...

On the surface, Sharon Lewis is your average mother. She is the centre of a vibrant house full of three kids and a loving husband. She has a close-knit extended family and lives in a quiet, community-oriented neighbourhood. But Sharon keeps a secret from everyone but her husband. Everything is going well for Sharon until the day Heather Edwards, a pregnant teenager living down the street, commits suicide. This act, and the fallout from it, has a significant impact on the Lewis family and leads to the unravelling of Sharon's secret - she has DID, dissociative identity disorder. And the multiples who make up Sharon are aware of a secret that exists in Heather Edwards' family, one that threatens the life of Heather's surviving sister. Web of Angels by Lillian Nattel is a heartbreaking, haunting and beautiful story. It takes the painful and unfortunate reality of evil that exists in this world and deals with it in a kind and loving manner. The character of Sharon...