who wants to turn on an oven in the summer? NOT ME.

Don't like to cook? Well do I have the cookbook for you! Just kidding, it's The No-Cook, No-Bake Cookbook: 101 Delicious Recipes for When it's Too Hot to Cook by Matt Kadey, which still requires the preparing aspect of cooking, just no ovens. Pretty much designed for you disenfranchised people with no central air.

There are literally 101 oven-free meals in this collection. including Breakfast and Brunch, Starters and Sides, Main Dishes, and Desserts, also featuring more than 80 beautiful photographs. Keep in mind that t’s not all salads and sandwiches, either, there are soups, pasta dishes, and pizza recipes. Kadey even has an overnight oats recipe that does not require you to cook the steel-cut oats, because you know ain't nobody got time for that in the morning. And let me tell you something about the Shrimp and Noodles with Sweet and Sour Sauce made with rice noodles on page 72, a MUST.  As a chick who recently became the lady of her own house, I believe this collection kicks ass, and I do have AC.

not as light and fluffy as one might expect from the prairie.

Prairie Song by Mona Hodgson is the start of a brand new historical fiction series which is set in 1866 on a wagon train. The novel instantly becomes a "can't put it down" type read as we follow eighteen-year-old Anna Goben, Caleb Reger, and a fabulous cast of characters as they travel on the Boone's Lick Company Wagon Train from St. Charles, Missouri to Sacramento, California.

After the Civil War killed her brother and turned her family's world upside down, Anna has decided to make a change not only for her, but for her mother and grandfather who are still heavily grieving the death of Dedrick. As the Goben family heads to Califironia via wagon train, Anna can't help but worry that the trip will kill them before it brings her family closer together. And then we have trail hand Caleb Reger, who bears secrets that keep him from settling down or releasing his heart to be loved again. I don't need to tell you where THAT is heading. To sum it all up, Hodgson is an excellent historical fiction writer, the story has a lot of spunk, and I highly recommend it.


*For a chance to win a FREE copy of Prairie Song, simply follow this blog and enter the contest by emailing your name, address, and this book title to: jenileerose@yahoo.com! Giveaway closes 9/6/13!

“Hi, I’m Ang Lee, and if I don’t make movies I’m going to die.”

After watching Life of Pi, I have become wildly intrigued with Ang Lee, who directed the film. It was so damn fantastic, not all thanks to Lee, but he did bring the novel to life. A few Lee lovers have put together a biography titled The Philosophy of Ang Lee (edited by Robert Arp, Adam Barkman, and James McRae), which examines this director's infamous works.

Lee is one of the most talented and diverse directors in world cinema. This cinematic bio is divided into two sections, The Eastern Philosophy of Ang Lee, and The Western Philosophy of Ang Lee, and covers films from Sense and Sensibility (1994), to Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon (2000), to Brokeback Mountain (2005), to present day Life of Pi. Lee has a reputation of pushing cultural boundaries in his films, the editors of his bio leave nothing out.

become the best version of yourself.

I still don't know my life's purpose, honestly. Not that I am super old and I should know, but I'm also not a baby anymore, so maybe I better get on top of this. Enter my personal life coach, Aila Accad and her new book, The Call of the Soul: A Path to Knowing Your True Self and Your Life's Purpose.

Accad explains that there are a number of chances each of us has for radical change in our lives. These changes can evolve during adolescence, at midlife or again in retirement. Don't look at me, I am not in adolescence or midlife, but if we can choose to live a joyous, passionate, purposeful, loving life at any stage, why wouldn't we? That's where this book and its tools come in to play. Accad lays out clear instructions on how to hear the call of your soul, so that you can begin to lie a life of authenticity and become who you really are.

we are all the authors of our personal stories.

I don't even know where to begin with N. D. Wilson's latest Death by Living: Life is Meant to be Spent. I laughed, I cried, and I still have no idea what genre to label it under. A major emphasis in this book is the idea that from the very second we are born into the world, we begin to die. Therefore we must pause and truly live this life we are blessed enough to be given. Once we accept nothing but God is permanent, we can open our hands and give of ourselves freely to the people and causes in our life that mean something. We all have a unique story to tell and a legacy we are leaving behind to future generations. Wilson shares stories from his own life in a memoir-type style, in his usual witty fashion. However, this book is absolutely not all about him. What will actually happen as you read is you will find yourself taking a look at your own personal experiences, and whether or not you are spending your life on others more than yourself. Already gotcha thinking, hm?

when raising your son, look to this.

Being a parent is the most important job in the world. Hands down, no one can really refute this, which is why it is super important that we access the right tools to help raise our children, or future children in my childless case. A Man in the Making: Strategies to Help Your Son Succeed in Life by Rick Johnson is exactly the type of manual parents with boys should pick up. Because God knows, we don't want your son to grow up to be a complete booger. So get it together mom and dad.

What I love about this book the most is that each chapter represents a character or trait or two that you hope your son will obtain. Along with that character trait includes a man in history who has lived that specific trait throughout his life. For example, Chapter 1 is titled Courage: Martin Luther King Jr. Chapter 8 is titled Common Sense and Wisdom: Benjamin Franklin. The layout is fantastic and every chapter holds a level of inspiration that will blow you away.

a title with a double meaning.

The Girl You Left Behind by Jojo Moyes is a novel with a two-part setting that intertwines two love stories 100 years apart. The first part of the novel takes us back to 1916 in St Peronne, a small French town occupied by the Germans. It is the middle of WWI, and the close-knit community of St Peronne are having to cope with the presence of the enemy amongst them. Our main character Sophie Lefevre's artist husband Edouard fighting in the war, so she has returned from Paris to help her family run their small hotel, where they are forced to feed the German's. Sophie's most treasured possession is The Girl You Left Behind which is a portrait of her, painted by her husband before he went away. And Moyes leaves us with a bit of a cliff hanger when one of the German Kommandant becomes strangely obsessed with the painting.

Part two transfers us forward 100 years to present day where thirty-year old widow, Liz Halston now owns The Girl You Left Behind, a wedding present from her late husband, David who bought it because the pictured Sophie reminded him of Liv. Liv still mourns her loss, and like Sophie she feels that the painting is the only real link she has to David, and she would do anything to keep it. Sophie and Liv's stories inevitably become intertwined as Liv fights to keep the painting, and Sophie's story is continued through the diaries and letters that she and her family members wrote all those years ago. An absolutely fantastic read.