The winner is What Alice Forgot

So the winner of the 2012 Books and Beaches Best Discovered Book of the Year is What Alice Forgot by Liane Moriarty. It's good. Funny. Well written. Witty. Touching. Memorable.

Bet you didn't even know there was a BAB BDB of the year award. But there is. Guernsey's on it. These is my Words is on it . . . and now What Alice Forgot.

Find a copy. You will like it. All of you will like it.

Laura, yes on book club read. I think your mom will like it, too. Jenny, this is another good book worth reading for one of the very last paragraphs . . .

You'll all know when you find THE paragraph. It's at the end. It's about marriage, and what having a good marriage is. You'll know it when you find it because you will think, "YES! That is true."

Great recommendation, Mel. I can see why your book club discussed it for two hours. Wish I would have been there.

French Kids Eat Everything by Le Billon

I've long been a fan of the book French Women Don't Get Fat by Mireille Guiliano. Guilino offers a common sense approach (the French way) it turns out, to eating and enjoying food. Not a diet, but a healthful way to eat that's full of flavor. Love it.

So I was intrigued by French Kids Eat Everything, in which Le Billon, a native Canadian writes, "How our family moved to France, cured picky eating, banned snacking, and discovered 10 simple rules for raising happy, healthy eaters" . . . her journey, literal and figurative, into French foodways and raising kids.

I think I will buy a copy and keep it on my shelf next to Mireille's book. Although I don't agree with everything in the book (French women don't nurse their babies for long, turns out), I think there are some good, basic tips and tricks about how to get kids---families, really---to eat better. Again, not a diet, but an attitude of enjoying healthful food and teaching kids to enjoy healthful food as well.

And since I've read it, I've been more aware of what/how often my kids snack and what/how much I'm giving them at meals. Good reminders. And Le Billon is a good writer, witty, and not preachy. Real. She writes conversationally, peppered with current research and cultural commentary. Just very well done.

The Willow Tree

If you like foreign film you should try The Willow Tree, a lovely Iranian film about a blind man whose sight is restored.

I found it profound, quite frankly.

But foreign film REALLY has to be your thing if you are going to like this. There's no violence or "scenes"---about as rough as it gets is that a man throws some papers off his veranda (but he does it intensely!) . . . it's all about character development. So if no/low action and low/no humor and low/no fast-paced anything is your speed, and you can handle long scenery scenes and long episodes of a man's grieving face (which I fast forwarded through, I can only handle so much grieving face), try it.

If not. Pass. You will think this movie is weird.

Bake the Bread, Buy the Butter by Jen Reese

I liked Bake the Bread, Buy the butter by Jennifer Reese. It's a cookbook, but it's a fun read. She examines what to cook from scratch and what to just go ahead and buy.

By "read" I mean I read the parts that I was interested in. Not so interested in curing meats, didn't go there.

She's a good writer, recipes look interesting. Might even buy a copy to keep on my shelf.

My other favorite cookbook to read is Fannie Flagg's Original Whistle Stop Cafe Cookbook. Good Southern cooking and good solid writing. There are days when I have no intention of cooking any recipe in the book but I'll pull the book off my shelf for a good laugh.

Courageous, the movie

So I'm on a Christian movie kick . . . it came after my British mystery kick . . . my Monk phase . . . my foreign film phase . . . after I saw The Shunning, I was intrigued to watch more movies by the same filmmakers.

Courageous is the latest on my list. And I would recommend it. It's about four police officers, fighting crime and saving the day. But the real heroes they become are when the decide to make fatherhood, and being good fathers, the priority in their lives.

Yes the script is sometimes cheesy. Yes the acting is occasionally too forced.

But the message is fantastic. Fatherhood is important---man up, take responsibility and be a good dad. Inspiring to see a movie with this message.

It's police work, so there's some violence. A true PG-13, too much for kids. But I thought it was worth watching for adults.

The Covenant by Beverly Lewis

I read The Covenant by Beverly Lewis because I couldn't find The Shunning in our library.

Lewis weaves beautiful dramas about life in the Amish community. I really liked The Covenant, about four daughters of marriageable age. Usual conflicts: what to believe, who to marry, when to rebel, when to submit. Nice! Lewis isn't Wilde (or wild for that matter) as far as word choice and description, but she tells a good tale and keeps the story moving.

Part of the appeal was the "otherness" of the Amish, and Lewis neither grandizes them or demeans them. Not a complex work, but good for readers who want a good story.

Good for a church book club? Maybe. Clean enough. Good pick for a book club that wants a non-Twilight "YIKES-what was that two pages of kissing?"benign read. Not a stellar choice if you have a book club looking for the next Jane Austen.

But. I liked it. This is the first in the series and I'd read the rest if the mood struck me.

The Family Nobody Wanted by Helen Doss

I breezed through The Family Nobody Wanted by Helen Doss, who writes about her journey as she and her husband adopt 12 children into their family during the 1940's. Doss and her husband are unable to conceive children on their own, so they adopt the "unwanted" children of the time---children of different races and ethnicities.

It's a lovable story about acceptance in a time that was unaccepting. There are very, very dated references to old ideas about color of skin and race. It was almost laughable in parts where I knew Doss was being very, very serious, when she talked about how un-white children were viewed. Ah, times have changed. Or have changed in many places.

I thought about my son attending school, now in 2012, where he's the minority because he's one of two white boys in his class. When I ask him about his friends, he doesn't see color or race. He just sees his pals. Black hair, brown eyes, udon for lunch, light skin, blue eyes, PBJ, it's all the same to him. To my son, there is no "them" and "us". There are just kids.

But I think the story of family love here is timeless. Families who are considering adopting children would be especially endeared.

Great recommendation, Meg in Sheridan!