Heavenly Icebox Pies

Nothing says spring to me like a cool slice of pie!  Tempt your tastebuds (and your culinary skills) with Icebox Pies:  100 Scrumptious Recipes for No-Bake No-Fail Pies!  Author Lauren Chattman's book gives lots of examples of delicious, make-ahead desserts for the beginner to advanced cook.  The recipes are imaginative, fun, and perfect for entertaining, special occasions or as an everyday treat. Besides your usual lemon and chocolate pies, the book includes instructions for making Gianduia Pie (with hazlenuts and nutella), a couscous and apricot pudding pie and a fig and walnut pie!  There is even a handy end section on "Dressing Up" your pie which includes directions on how to make a variety of sauces and fun things such as sugared nuts and nougatine (almond brittle).  With great photos and detailed directions, this book is a sure winner for any pie lover!

Meet James Meredith and Celebrate National Library Week 2013!

Celebrate National Library Week, April 13-19, 2013 at the Warren County-Vicksburg Public Library!  This year's theme is:  "Communities Matter @ Your Library."  Our featured event this week is a book singing by author James Meredith on Wednesday, April 17, 2013 at 12:00 PM.  The program will be a Brown Bag Lunch--you are encouraged to bring your lunch to the event and drinks and dessert will be provided by the library.  Born in Mississippi in 1933, James Meredith was raised on a farm with nine siblings. He joined the military after high school and attended an all-black college before becoming the first black student at the University of Mississippi in 1962. Meredith graduated with a degree in political science in 1963. He wrote an account of his experience, titled Three Years in Mississippi, which was published in 1966. He went on to receive a master's degree in economics from the University of Ibadan in Nigeria, and a law degree from Columbia University in 1968.After he graduated, he earned a law degree and became involved in politics. He continues to be active in civil rights and lives in Jackson, Mississippi with his wife Judy Alsobrook.  James Meredith witll be disussing his newest book, A Mission from God:  A Memoir and Challenge for America.  Part memoir, part manifesto, the book is James Meredith’s look back at his courageous and action-packed life and his challenge to America to address the most critical issue of our day: how to educate and uplift the millions of black and white Americans who remain locked in the chains of poverty by improving our public education system.

Eight Habits of Love

8 Habits of Love:  Open Your Heart, Open Your Mind by Ed Bacon teaches you how to take the first steps on a life-changing journey toward self-discovery, creativity and healing, by celebrating and sharing the love that already lives inside you!  This will help you free yourself from the fear, anger and sadness that causes so much suffering in your life.  Using stories to illustrate his points, Bacon reveals how the reader can create a full and meaningful life by developing the habits of generosity, sillness, truth, candor, play, forgiveness, compassion and community.  By learning how to develop these habits in our daily lives, the reader learns how to reject fear's hold and embrace the power and grace within his/her self.  Author Ed Bacon has served as the rector for All Saints, an urban Episcopal Parish in Pasadena, CA with over 4,000 congregants, for over fifteen years.  His church services have attracted visits from many famous figures and he has been a frequent guest on Oprah's Soul Series on Oprah Radio and been a panelist in the "Spirituality 101" segment of The Oprah Winfrey Show.  Bacon lives in Pasadena, CA with his wife, Hope. 

Surviving Disaster

The Disaster Diaries by Sham Sheridan explores how he learned to stop worrying and love the apocalypse.  Sam Sheridan has traveled the world as an amateur boxer and mixed martial arts fighter; he has worked as an EMT, a wilderness firefighter, a sailor, a cowboy at the largest ranch in Montana, and in construction under brutal conditions at the South Pole.  If he isn’t ready for the apocalypse and the fractured world that will ensue, we are all in a lot of trouble.  And yet, despite an arsenal of skills that puts many to shame, when Sam became a father he was beset with nightmares about being unable to protect this son.

With disaster images from movies, books, and the nightly news filling his head, he was slowly driven to distraction:  If an earthquake hit tomorrow and the power grid went down, how much food and water would you need for your family?  If you’re forced outside the city limits, what would it take to survive in the wilderness?  And let’s not even talk about plagues, zombie hordes, and attacking aliens.  Unable to quiet his mind, Sam sets on a quest to learn the things that just might come in handy if our world takes a turn for the worse.

The problem is that each possible doomsday requires a different skill set.  Trying to navigate a clogged highway when everyone has the same bright idea to leave town?  Better prepare by attending the best stunt driving school in the country.  Need to protect your family but have run out of ammunition?  Better learn how to handle a knife.  Is your kid hurt or showing signs of serious mental stain?  Better brush up on emergency medicine and study the psychological effects of trauma.  From training with an Olympic weightlifter to a down-and-dirty apprenticeship in stealing cars with an ex-gang member, from an intense three-week-long gun course in the hundred-degree heat of Alabama to agonizing lessons in wilderness survival, Sam leaves no stone unturned.  Would it be enough if a meteor rocked the earth? Who’s to say?  But as Sam points out, it would be a shame to survive the initial impact only to die a few days later because you didn’t know how to build a fire.

Explore New Family Traditions

The Book of New Family Traditions by Meg Cox examines how to create great rituals for holidays and every day.  Quality family togetherness—everyone wants it, but it seems increasingly harder to get.  In a busy world where kids and parents are bombarded with all sorts of distractions, family rituals can offer a sense of home and identity that is good for the whole family.  In this expanded and updated edition, Meg Cox has gathered hundreds of memorable, meaningful traditions that can make very day special, providing inspiring ideas for mealtimes & bedtimes; problem-solving rituals that soothe squabbles and stop tantrums; milestones, birthday and holidays.  As well as:  tech tips for using social media and other technology to bring the family together; special considerations for divorced families and stepfamilies, and fun craft activities. This book is for a whole new generation of families, and is an essential resource for sparking the fun into family life.

In leafing through this book I read some of the best ideas and wished I had known some of these sooner, most especially in the Hello & Good-bye Rituals.  The Day Care Drop-off Magic Words would have been great when taking my nephews for the weekend.  In the Chore Rituals sections, I loved the mix a duty with a privilege  and the Monster Spray in the Section on Bedtime—pure genius!