Throwback Thursday - Where the Sidewalk Ends

Where the Sidewalk Ends by Shel Silverstein

Publisher - Harper Collins
Publish Date - 1974
Genre - Children's Book
Age Range - 8-12 years
Buy on Amazon
Goodreads

I mentioned one of my Aunts in my last Throwback Thursday post, and I’m going to lead with her again. Her name was Kathleen but we called her “Aunt Kack” or “Aunt Kackallack”. She was an elementary school teacher and so much fun – we loved when she came to visit. Unfortunately, we lost her way too young but I still think of her often, especially when I’m reading.

She had this tradition to always give each of us books for our Birthday or Christmas. As much as I loved reading as a child, this tradition really was something that I didn’t truly appreciate until I was older. I love it so much, that I’ve continued on her tradition with my own nieces. I make sure that I get them at least one book for their Birthday and Christmas. My hope is that it helps develop a strong love of reading for them that it did for me.

One of my favorite books to read when I was younger was Where the Sidewalk Ends by Shel Silverstein. Even John loved this book growing up too (which is saying a lot because he hates reading). So, this past Christmas we gave a copy of it to our niece. The poems are kind of silly and full of nonsensical language so I think some of it was lost on her right now. Hopefully though, she’ll come to love the fun poems as much as we did growing up!

Where the Sidewalk Ends isn’t just a collection of great children’s poems but the illustrations that accompany them are fantastic. They are full of imagination and perfectly bring to life the fanciful poems. I mean, you can’t really go wrong with Llamas, Crocodiles, monsters and silly little kids who don’t listen to their parents.

Here’s my favorite poem from Where the Sidewalk Ends:

It’s Dark In Here

I am writing these poems

From inside a lion,

And it’s rather dark in here.

So please excuse the handwriting

Which may not be too clear.

But this afternoon by the lion’s cage

I’m afraid I got too near.

And I’m writing these lines

From inside a lion,

And it’s rather dark in here.

Wine and Candy - Halloween Adult Style

Admittedly, Halloween is not my favorite holiday of the year. I've never really gotten into the whole costume thing (it take A LOT of effort, y'all) and unfortunately, lately more and more of the trick or treaters are rude and don't even dress up. I do enjoy walking the neighborhood with friends who have little ones. We usually have a wagon full of adult libations and we can totally sneak candy all night long. It's a good time.

Recently, I saw this article online about pairing Halloween candy favorites with wine. Say what!? I can't believe I had never seen this before. I immediately thought that this was an amazing idea and I absolutely needed to try this. 

Luckily, I also have really awesome friends who say “that sounds fun” rather than “you’re crazy” when I ask them to help me out with this crazy idea. It was a blast munching on the yummy candy and testing all the different wines alongside them. And of course, we finished ALL the candy and ALL the wine.

Here’s the pairings I put together for this Halloween festivity. While all of the pairings were good, the hands down favorite from the group were the Skittles with the Moscato. It was amazing!

Let me know what wines you pair with your Halloween candy this year!

Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups – Taylor Tawny Port $11.99

This is by far my favorite candy for just about any holiday. The crazy thing is though, I’ve never tried to pair a wine with them before. I’ll admit it – this pairing was difficult to figure out. I pretty much scratched reds off right away. They are too heavy to hold up to the rich flavors of a peanut butter cup. I tried Riesling which wasn’t terrible but not amazing either. Then it hit me – dessert wines. This Taylor Tawny Port was JUST what the peanut butter cup called for. It’s a medium-bodied port wine with a nutty aroma and rich flavors of caramel. It is potent though so sip carefully!

Smarties – White Hall Vineyards Viognier - $19.99

I took a hint from the article mentioned above and knew exactly where I wanted to go with this pairing. Virginia is well known for their Viognier so there are a ton of good ones to choose from. The Viognier from White Hall Vineyards is one of my favorites and a perfect pairing with Smarties. It has notes of peach and cantaloupe with an interesting hint of blood orange on the nose. It’s a medium-bodied wine with a delicious orange finish that I love.

Candy Corn – Smoking Loon Steelbird Unoaked Chardonnay - $9.99

OK, let’s be honest here – candy corn is delicious (in a weird, artificial sugary sort of way) but it tastes horrible when you eat it alongside anything else. I was munching on some of this the other night and happened to have a glass of Petit Syrah in my hand as well. This is a TERRIBLE idea – please don’t try this at home. It almost ruined this perfectly lovely wine for me forever. So, what in the world WOULD taste good with candy corn? Turns out that the Viognier mentioned above is a pretty good choice but I wanted to change it up. Since the Viognier worked well, I decided to go for a Chardonnay. I knew I wanted an unoaked Chardonnay because I didn’t think the oakiness would pair well with the odd candy corn flavors. This Chardonnay from Smoking Loon was perfect. It’s a clean, crisp wine with hints of pineapple and melon and is just sweet enough to compliment the sweetness of the candy corn.

Raisinets – El Cortijillo Tempranillo - $6.98

I also knew exactly where I wanted to start my pairing with this candy. Again, taking a hint from the article I wanted something rich and smoky to pair with this chocolate treat. I knew my favorite wine region – Spain – would have just what I was looking for. This Tempranillo is one of my favorite finds and it did not disappoint when paired with the Raisinets. This Tempranillo is a fresh, complex wine with hints of blackberry and cherry. It’s rich and a bit sweet to start and drier on the finish, but not enough to drown out the flavor of the candy. I recommend this wine even if you aren’t eating candy!

Skittles – Middle Sister Sweet and Sassy Moscato - $9.99

With Skittles, I knew I needed to head back into the realm of sweet, fruity white wines. After some research, I decided to go with a Moscato. I don’t drink much Moscato wines so I decided to go with a relatively inexpensive brand that hasn’t disappointed me thus far – Middle Sister wines. Middle Sister has a special place in my heart since I am a middle sister! They have a Moscato that really hit the spot with this sweet candy. This one is smooth and sweet, but not too sweet as some Moscato’s tend to be. It has floral aromas and fruit flavors like pear and peach.

The Last Hero Trilogy - Books 1 & 2

The Last Hero Trilogy (Books 1 & 2) by Nathaniel Danes
Publisher - Solstice Shadows
Publish Date - 10/14/14
Genre - Science Fiction
Buy on Amazon
Goodreads

My Rating:

I really don't read a whole lot of science fiction but when I was contacted by the author about reviewing this trilogy, I decided to give it a shot. The main reason I wanted to read these was because of the first thing you read when you go his website - "Mostly blind, he writes to create universes where he has no limitations.".

I knew that someone who is not able to experience the beauty of the world around him each day would create amazing universes inside his imagination. I was right. Danes manages to create a massive world within his trilogy that is full of life, excitement and deep characters.

The Last Hero starts out on Earth, much farther into the future than today and revolves around Trent Maxwell. Trent was a war hero in the last war Earth experience before a group of pacifists made contact and convinced humans to leave violence behind forever. Then an alien species attacks Earth and forces mankind back into its militaristic ways. Trent finds himself forced to leave behind his wife and young daughter to lead the mission against this new enemy. Because of the laws of space and time, Trent will not return home for over a decade, missing his daughter's entire childhood. He finds himself traveling back and forth through space on multiple missions that span an entire century, Earth time. Trent must deal with the loss of his family and what he gave up while fighting for the future of mankind.

Book 2 of the trilogy is The Last Revenge. Now that Trent has lost just about everything that was important to him in life, the only thing keeping him going is revenge for the people of Earth. Trent continues the war against the Kitright but faces challenges as other underhanded plans reveal themselves to him. The largest armies that the universe has ever seen converge on the battle field but it's difficult to determine if a victor will be decided.

The Last Hero books are full of military space action and take you on a ton of twists and turns as the plot unravels. What I really loved about these books, and what I think sets them apart from other Science Fiction novels is the emotion. Danes manages to create thoughtful, complex, emotional characters that truly pull at your heartstrings. While the battles are exciting, the struggles, sacrifices and victories that the characters go through truly keep you on the edge of your seat and leave you wanting more.

If I had one criticism, it would be that some of the battles were a bit too drawn out for my taste. I found myself skipping over some of the sentences to get through the "military" action pieces. I wish that some of the description that went into the battles would have been utilized to better describe the worlds and enemies the characters encountered.

Overall, these were fun, exciting books. Even if you aren't a science fiction fan but are looking for something different to read, you should give these a try. This weekend is the perfect time to pick these up - starting Friday, The Last Hero will only be $0.99 on Amazon! Go get them so you are ready for the third book when it comes out. I know I'll be waiting!

Pair This With: Alamos Malbec

This is a great, everyday wine to keep stocked on your shelf. It's from Argentina and I love Malbecs from this region. The Alamos Malbec has a rich, deep color with hints of stone fruit flavors. You get a lot of black raspberry and currant in the front with a long, sweet finish.

Adventures in Winemaking - Part 1

All of you who read my blog know that I love wine. Something you may not know is that my husband John (who has a background in Chemistry) loves to brew beer. To me, the next obvious step would be to take his talents, and my love of wine and make our own homemade wine.

A few years ago, we made a really lucky discovery. John's parents live on a farm out in a more rural part of central Virginia. It just so happens that they have a row of beautiful GRAPE VINES on their property! Imagine my excitement over this discovery and then multiply it by a thousand and you'll have a good gauge of my reaction. Not only do they have grape vines, but they planted them over 25 years ago. Established grape vines are even better!

I was a little bit disappointed to find out that they were Concord grapes but figured it would still be a fun way to get ourselves into making some homemade wine. About 2 years ago we cleaned up the vines (or so we thought) and waited patiently. Nothing. Remember my excitement over finding the vines? Well, getting ZERO grapes resulted in the exact opposite reaction. Sheer disappointment.

So, we did a bit more research and kindly asked for my mother-in-law's help to care for the vines - she can seriously grow a rose garden in a desert. We cleaned the vines up again this past fall - doing it the right way this time around. With her help, we cared for them all throughout the growing season. We made sure we kept the bugs away as best we could and pruned when necessary. I waited all summer with bated breath to see what would happen.

And guess what?! WE GOT GRAPES!! 

Here's me in my best grape harvesting outfit.

It's hard work snipping those grapes off the vines!

Unfortunately, we got to the harvest about a week too late and we did lose a lot of our grapes to the bees. Lesson learned. Grapes wait for NO ONE.

Look at our beautiful grapes!!!

But, we did get grapes and I can't wait to share this journey with all of you as we attempt to make our very first batch of homemade wine.

Stay tuned for Part 2 - coming soon!!

Taken Away - Patricia Yager Delagrange

Taken Away by Patricia Yager Delagrange
Publisher - Ravenswood Publishing
Publish Date - 6/1/15
Genre - Contemporary Fiction
Buy on Amazon
Goodreads

My Rating:

Every so often, I get the opportunity to be part of Blog Tours or Amazon Review Campaigns for up and coming authors and/or recently released titles. It's a great way for these authors to get some exposure and get word out about their book. I love being a part of these because it lets me discover books that I most likely would never have read otherwise. This book was one of those!

This book was yet another novel outside the genres and storylines I typically gravitate towards but it intrigued me enough to spend the time to read it. Well, I read it in one night. It's not terribly long so that wasn't as difficult a feat as it may sound. The writing style really flowed and the plot really did drag you in pretty quickly so it made for a quick read.

Taken Away focuses on the story of Jessee Bradford, a young veterinarian who gets a job at a practice that his father-in-law owns in California. He is married to a young, carefree artist, Serena, whom he met in college. One day he returns home to find both Serena and their baby daughter Sofia missing. An investigation ensues with the FBI but they are no where to be found. The FBI tells Jessee that Serena most likely abandoned them and wanted to disappear without a trace. 

After some months go by with no breaks in the investigation, Jessee moves back home to Iowa where he takes over his grandfather's veterinary practice. His family and the new environment provide the distraction he needs from his terrible tragedy. He eventually meets Laura and falls in love. One evening they attend an art gallery with works by a mysterious painter that reminds Jessee of Serena's paintings. This sets him off on a search to find out the truth that results in a bunch of crazy twists and turns along the way.

Since I read this book in one night, the plot obviously captured my attention. Jessee's story was so tragic and I enjoyed seeing his emotional progression as he tried to move forward with his life. It was of course, a bit of a Lifetime movie "perfect" plot but sometimes those just make good stories, right? Laura was the perfect compliment to Jessee and all of the characters who were introduced into his life added a new dynamic to the story.

Without giving anything away, I have to say that I was incredibly disappointed with the ending. The story could have ended at Chapter Forty and I would have been perfectly content. Unfortunately, there were 2 additional chapters added on that I felt were unnecessary. They added another "twist" to the plot line that wasn't needed. These last 2 chapters dropped a HUGE bomb that only lasted for a few pages. The book ended in the same place that it would have anyway and I wish they weren't there. That being said, I would still recommend reading this book. Just maybe stop after Chapter 40.


Pair This With: WYSIWYG Rose

I've really been craving Rose's lately and this one hit the spot. First, it has a cool label and name - What You See Is What You Get. This is a very floral wine with hints of strawberry. It's light and fresh and easy to drink.