business: a powerful tool for change.

Whenever we think of big business, we immediately get our backs up and picture men in thousand dollar suits, sipping on scotch in the middle of the day, using all of the money they make to house their illegitimate children. Oh wait, that’s not what you picture? My bad.

Mission in a Bottle by Seth Goldman and Barry Nalebuff is a straight up story about the business they created called Honest Tea, and how they used it as a force of good, even as their brand became more and more successful. They designed a mission all those years ago, and it still holds true today. Told in comic-style, these two entrepreneurs understand that a successful business takes more than just a good idea, and they share advice and insights to anyone who’s interested in doing business differently, and succeeding.

a lovely series comes to an end.

My Hope is Found is the final book in the Cadence of Grace Trilogy by Joanne Bischof, so Lonnie and Gideon’s love story has come to an end, on paper anyway. And keep in mind that you absolutely need to read the books in order to enjoy this series.

After Lonnie and Gideon finally get together, a woman in Gideon's past comes back into his life, claiming she is his rightful wife, leaving him no choice but to return to her. As Lonnie tries to get past this news and move on with her life, she meets Reverend Tommy McKee and things start getting very serious. When Gideon returns, he is really going to have to fight to win Lonnie back, but he may be too little, too late to fix this mess and reunite his family.

science mystery for the middle grades.

11-year-old twins Nick and Tesla can always figure out the perfect formula for getting into trouble. These science buffs love mischief, and are constantly using their gadget making skills to help them solve mysteries.

Nick & Tesla’s High Voltage Danger Lab by Science Bob Pflugfelder and Steve Hockesmith is not just a mystery tale; it includes instructions on how to make the gadgets they build in the actual story. Each story in the series includes 5 detailed illustrated projects for the reader to try ranging from soda-powered mini vehicles and improvised burglar alarms to electromagnets and rocket launchers. Get your tween something fun and educational this Christmas!

from the midwest to the big apple.

Amy Thielen’s The New Midwestern Table: 200 Heartland Recipes is SO Midwest with recipes heavy on the cheese, potatoes, corn, beef, and fish. The recipes are super reasonable, with minimal amounts of weird ingredients. The ones I found most enticing were: Classic Beef Pot Roast, Fried Chicken and Gravy, and the ever popular Fresh Cheese Ball.

Theilen’s recipes are whatever the Midwestern equivalent for fabulous is; however, she delivers much more than a kick ass cookbook as she offers a brief history on the Midwest, cute stories, and her experiences cooking in Manhattan's fine-dining kitchens. I gotta say, girl makes Midwestern cuisine seem much more appealing than I had previously thought.

realistic fiction.

Sea Creatures by Susanna Daniel is a super relatable story to anyone who has faced any major trials, like the loss of a job, or a big move, while also trying to keep their family and lifestyle intact. Georgia and her husband Graham have been hit with a streak of bad luck. Graham’s sleeping disorder caused him to lose his job, their three-year-old son Frankie has decided to refuse to speak and Georgia’s dealing with her own business failure. They decide to pick up and move back to her childhood home of Miami and start fresh on a houseboat.

The story is told from Georgia’s perspective and Daniel really allows readers to get into this character’s head. This is a woman who has a husband with a serious problem, and a son who currently has issues communicating. Many readers can relate to balancing relationships between their spouse and their children, and will really enjoy this story of a strong woman who has to make some tough decisions for her family.

tune up your spirit.

We all want to be happy and successful. Most of us strive to be positive people on a daily basis, and Shawn Achor helps exponentially with his latest self-help title Before Happiness: The 5 Hidden Keys to Achieving Success, Spreading Happiness, and Sustaining Positive Change.

Achor breaks Before Happiness into 5 skills to help you get to happy, master the art of happiness, while also spreading happiness to others:

·         Choosing the Most Valuable Reality

·         Mapping Your Success Route

·         Finding Success Accelerants

·         Eliminating Negative Noise

·         Transferring Your Positive Reality to Others

Achor suggests that, these same principles can be applied everywhere: to one's personal life; to businesses, both small and large. There’s a lot to get out of this Harvard-trained researcher’s ideas. If you want to achieve a better life in general, this is exactly the book you should be reading.

smile, and put on your big girl panties.

Everyone and their brother's mailman's grandmother knows how much I enjoy reading anything by Janet Evanovich. So when Stephanie Evanovich (I'm assuming this is no coincidence) came out with her debut novel, Big Girl Panties, I was all over it. I wasn't prepared however, for how incredibly sexual my reading experience was going to be. We are talking phrases like "sweet creaminess" and "wet cavern" were used. I am super raunchy, but I still couldn't get myself to read all the gory details without some major blushing. My eyeballs are still scarred. Let me give you the low-down on the plot and such.

Holly Brennan is a thirty-two year old, overweight, widow who had sad childhood, so when she left home to go to college, and met Bruce, a super boring, but super caring guy, she married him without a single doubt. After eight years of marriage, Bruce was diagnosed with cancer and died, leaving Holly family and friendless in New Jersey, where Bruce had his treatments. After taking a trip to Toronto to close up a last business deal of her late husband's, Holly gets on a plane and meets Logan Montgomery, a super sexy personal trainer who decides to take her on as a client and change her life.

Logan is pretty famous, as he trains big shot athletes, and usually doesn't take on people like Holly who are just starting on their road to a healthy lifestyle, but there was something about her that made him want to help. Logan does end up changing her life, and their relationship becomes more than business when Holly begins to drop the weight, and other men begin to notice her. I don't think it's entirely realistic that a man as sexy as Logan is described, would change his taste from blonde models, to chubby red heads, but it sure was an entertaining read, and reminds us not to be so quick to judge.