Plenty by Alisa Smith and J.B. Mackinnon

Plenty: One Man, One Woman, and a Racous Year of Eating Locally
Rating: 3/5 Stars

Hardcover: 272 pages
Publisher: Harmony; 1 edition (April 24, 2007)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 030734732X

Genre: Non-Fiction

Received book in Shelfari Book Chat Book Swap

The authors of this book memoir their journey of eating locally (with-in 100 miles radius) for a year. This idea comes into fruition one day when they are in a remote location and only have a few items on hand and can't get to a store. They must feed themselves and their guests on what they can find locally. They fish and forage for mushrooms and veggies from their old garden and come up with a meal that proves you can make something good from seemingly nothing (of course you really need to know how to cook first - and be a little adventurous).

At the first of Spring they start their journey with only eating foods the come from with-in 100 mile radius of their home and it starts out a little bumpy. Sure they can find food, living in the Vancouver area, but it's expensive and again, you must have a creative cooking bone to accomplish this task. Their first meal cost them $128.87. This is when they realized the challenge they were facing. Being able to sustain this lifestyle will be harder then they imagined.

There were alot of good scenes in this book, I felt it honest and interesting. There were parts about the food itself that bored me a bit, but the relationships and the events were great. I really liked how they gave themselves a free pass when they were invited to a neighbors house for dinner (not alienating their friends) and when they travelled. I love the idea also of being able to bring food home from 100-miles of where they travelled to as well. Now, I am not one who would normally consider doing something like this but as soon as I finished Chapter One (March) I was sold on the idea. I started looking at local eating websites and all of a sudden this is something I'd really like to try to do. Living in Southern New Jersey should make things easier for me, right? We have so many farmers markets right near me. Well, Im seriously considering trying it. I think that the ramp of this task would be tremendous but once you got the hang of it (Canning, freezing, etc) it would end up being very rewarding.

This books fits the following Categories/Challenges for me:

• Hogwarts Reading Challenge
• Truth is Stranger than Fiction Reading Challenge
• RYOB Challenge
• New Authors Challenge

Eat, Pray, Love by Elizabeth Gilbert

Rating: 4/5 Stars

Pub. Date: February 2006
Publisher: Penguin Group (USA)
Format: Hardcover, 334pp
ISBN: 0670034711
Genre: Non-Fiction
Library Loan
Coming to Theaters: August 13th, 2010

Author Elizabeth Gilbert has been through an emotionally exhausting divorce and the breakup of a tumultuos love affair in a very short time period. After which she realizes, as most women do in relationships, she has lost her own identity and her own way in life. This realization leads her on a year long spiritual journey like no other that she shares with the reader along her way in Eat, Pray, Love. This memoir is written in three sections: Italy (Eat), India (Pray) and finally Indonesia (Love).

With raw emotion and a window into her soul, Elizabeth Gilbert shares with the reader her amazing journey to spiritual self acceptance. I loved the way the book was written and how it felt so emotionally true. My favorite of the three locations was Italy and at the end of Italy I was sure I would have given the book 5 stars. After India, although I still enjoyed the story, I was down to 4.5 and after Indonesia I was down to 4. All three segments of her journey are very good stories and very well written but the story of her in Italy was just so amazing and touching and relatable to me that it would have been very hard to beat honestly. I felt for her, I felt like I understood her and I felt like at times she understood me and parts of my life that are unsatifactory to me. This story makes the reader want to go on their own journey of spiritual enlightenment, at least it did for me. The fact that this is a true story makes it all the better in my eyes.

Favorite Quote: "Stop wearing your wishbone where your backbone ought to be."

I didn't go into much detail in my review because this book was chosen to be the WoWO book club selection for the end of July, so I will be reposting this review along with the WoWO discussion at that time with more details (So Check back!!). Gilbert has another book out called Committed, which is a continuation of her life once she returns home. I believe that I will be reading this book, maybe even if the other girls in the book club are interested we will make it a book club read. Also plan to see the movie, hopefully with some of the WoWO's!

This book fits the following Categories/Challenges for me:

• Hogwarts Reading Challenge (Charms)
• Truth is Stranger Than Fiction Challenge
• Monthly Mixer Mele Challenge
• New Authors Challenge
• PBT BINGO - Poetry tag
• PBT June tag (Travel)

Why My Third Husband Will Be a Dog by Lisa Scottoline

Rating: 5 Stars - Favorite

I am a fan of Lisa Scottoline's Legal Thrillers, where she writes her women protagonists to be strong, human and real or as she would say "extraordinary ordinary women." Since I am local to Philadelphia, the setting for these books hit close to home as well and it adds an extra special component for me. I have not read them all yet, but I have read several of them out of order and I enjoyed them enough to go back and start from the beginning of the series. Which I'm still in the process of going through and just realized that I will make this series by final series choice for my Finish the Series Challenge this year. But I am off track now... let me get back to why were are here! When I saw the title, "Why My Third Husband Will Be a Dog", and I saw that Lisa Scottoline wrote this book there was no way I was leaving without it. Besides the title being entirely fitting to my state of mind, I just knew it would be a worthwhile read.

I did not know that Lisa Scottoline wrote a "Chick Wit" column for The Philadelphia Inquirer. I feel like I missed out when I wasn't subscribing to the paper - had I known I may have subscribed. Which is what this book is composed of, the articles (I believe with additions) from her column. Anxious to dive into the book, I opened it right up and started to gobble down the pages. When I was about 1/3 of the way into the book I realized that I wasn't noting all the things I loved about this book. I felt like I was sitting down and eating the best prime rib I ever ate and I wasn't savoring the taste; I was like a starving animal gorging on the meal without even taking the time to really taste it. So, I started over and savored each article. I have so many pages marked that if I gave you samplings of each one you would have no need to buy the book yourself.. and you should!

I would however like to give you a little sampling of some of my favorite entries. Before I do that let me first say that this book touched me in so many ways. Lisa Scottoline is raw and honest and absolutely hilarious. There were parts when I thought that this woman was absolutely crazy; like when she talks about going out without a bra or the reasons to love hot flashes. However, there were many more times while reading this book when I felt like we were kindred spirits; Like when she talks about how her dog sleeps on her pillow (My baby does the same thing!), being suggestible to everything I see (especially food), UnResolution Number Two (Yes I kiss my dogs on the lips - what of it??), UnResolution Number Seven (Yes I do need all those books overflowing on my shelves) and so many others.. too many to list! I certainly don't feel alone in my craziness anymore - Thank you Lisa! I found myself laughing out loud from so many of her stories, being able to relate. And I also found myself tearing up with some of her more sad stories; like her my estrogen is overflowing and I cry at everything.

Getting Religion was my favorite of the columns but if I quoted from it, it would be the whole column, so that's just one that you'll have to read on your own - but trust me it's worth it. Lets just say when she starts the religion, Sign me up! I'll tithe all day for that one!

These are not anywhere near all the excellent quotes in the book but here are some of my favorites:

• From Everything is Nude Again: about Squeezing into Spanx, "From the front, I looked like a Tootsie Roll with Legs. From the back, instead of having a buttocks, I had buttock. In other words, my lower body had been transformed into a cylinder. I no longer had hips where hips are supposed to be, or saddlebags where God intended. I was a cardboard in the roll of toilet paper. And another detail. I couldn't breathe."
• From Have It My Way: "I used to think of myself as low maintenance. I used to believe I was easy to please. But now I know better. Starbucks taught me the truth."
• From Dream Job: "Its fun to do something dumb. Not something really dumb, like my second marriage. That was really really dumb."

I can't say enough about this book, it was refreshing and fun and I'm very glad I read it, I would recommend it to any woman.

This books fills the following Categories and Challenges for me:

• Truth is Stranger than Fiction Reading Challenge 2010
• PBT Feb Tag: Relationships
• Mostly Books Monthly Theme Challenge
• Monthly Mixer Mele Challenge

Truth is Stranger than Fiction Reading Challenge 2010

Ok.. so I know I said no more challenges but Tenia, my friend from shelfari, keeps posting about new book challenges and I can't resist when they fit with books I need to read.. so here it goes.

Welcome to the Truth is Stranger Than Fiction Reading Challenge!

Sure, we all like to read fiction, but there's lots of great non-fiction out there, too!

Here at Truth is Stranger Than Fiction, the goal is to encourage everyone to read more of it.

The Rules:

Only non-fiction books apply! These can be anything you're interested in: memoirs, history, geography, politics, religion, sports - whatever non-fiction you've put your hands on and your nose into.

Overlaps with other challenges allowed!

Post a list of choices if you want, or make it up as you go along.
Any book format is allowed. There are four levels:
Just the Facts - Read two non-fiction books.
The Scoop - Read four non-fiction books.
**The Whole Story - Read six non-fiction books. **<-- my choice
Nothing But the Truth - Read eight (or more) non-fiction books.

The challenge will run from February 1, 2010 through February 28, 2011.

Interested? Just sign up on the nonfictionchallenge blog.

Please use the link to the post where you'll be listing your books. If you want to list your books on your sidebar, that's okay, too - just link back to the sign-up so other people can join in, too!

Ok, so now you know what it's about and that I'll be choosing "The Whole Story" and will be reading 6 non-fiction books.

Here are my reading plans:

• Open by Andre Agassi
• The LIfe and times of the thunderbolt Kid by Bill Bryson
• Bright Lights Big Ass by Jen Lancaster
• Fight for your money by David Bach
• When Elephants Weep by J. Mason
• Why my third husband will be a dog by Lisa Scottoline

Check back for ongoing progress!

1) Why My Third Husband will be a dog by Lisa Scottoline (3/19)

2) Eat, Pray, Love by Elizabeth Gilbert (6/24)

3) Plenty by Alisa Smith and J.B. Mackinnon (7/12)