Jackfish, The Vanishing Village is a new novel by Sarah Felix Burns, published by Inanna Publications of Canada. The story is a mix of real historical events and places, combined with a fictionized storyline of a woman which reads like a memoir, moving back and forth between the past and the present day. Jackfish, The Vanishing Village is a deeply moving and haunting book that will stay in your thoughts long after you put it down. It is not an easy read, but it is one will help you understand the lives of others, and be grateful for your own life.

Jackfish, The Vanishing Village is divided into 4 parts, each section dealing with the emotional growth of Clemance, our narrator and main character. Clemance is trying to cope with a multitude of emotional baggage that all comes to a head when she is taken off her anti-depressant due to an unexpected pregnancy at 42. The book is dedicated to all those who “battle the demons of guilt, shame, addiction, and mental illness”, all of which are present in Clemance. Sarah Burns’ writing deftly brings us inside the mind of a woman trying to cope with her present life and her past life, as the demons of her past haunt her daily.
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For today’s Love Thursday, I wanted to celebrate the love between our girls and our dogs.

No human was feeling ill (except my normal chronic illness stuff), so the girls decided that Jack was sick. That meant putting him on the bed, laying him down, and putting him on pillows, and then putting warm blankets on him. Showing himself as a true love-addled dog, Jack just laid there, accepting everything they did because he wanted the petting and attention.

Kids and Dogs - perfect love

There are two book contests running right now you don’t want to miss, and the books couldn’t be more different, but they’re both fabulous.

5 Minutes for Mom is giving away a fabulous book - The Sky Isn’t Visible from Here: Scenes from a Life, by Felicia Sullivan. I raved about it in my review. I’m planning to go to a book signing on 3/3 in Cambridge. Leave a comment on this post for an opportunity to win a copy! This is an incredibly intense book, but ultimately very hopeful. Go comment!

Don’t forget to comment on my review of The Woman Who Is Always Tan And Has a Flat Stomach: And Other Annoying People- I’ll be giving away one copy on 3/3, and it will definitely give you a well deserved laugh during the bleak times at the end of winter. Keep your eyes on the book review site, as the authors agreed to do an email interview! I hear they are just as funny in person as in the book, so I’m looking forward to their responses. Go leave a comment! Check out this video of the authors - they’re hysterical!

Meanwhile, there are a bunch of book contests at WriterSpace - new ones each month, and lots of writers involved, so lots of chances to win great books!

While you’re in the contest mood, visit the current WantNot contest and check out Contests For Moms, with lots of contests.

For the Crazy Hip Blog Mamas Recipe Rally - Easy Lunches

What do you eat for lunch when you’re avoiding most of the top 8 allergens? (For newcomers, our family has Celiac disease (which means no wheat, rye, oats, barley), plus we have a dairy intolerance and severe berry allergy. We spend a lot of time around kids with other allergies, so we are very careful about food allergies.)

Our quickest lunches are sliced meat or a hot dog rolled in a corn tortilla (microwave the tortillas for a few seconds to make them soft). This is a frequent staple, so we buy the better quality (fewer additives) hot dogs and ham. We love to make peanut butter & jelly (or pb & fluff) sandwiches on corn tortillas when we aren’t around friends with nut allergies.

My favorite lunches involve shrimp or crab, when we aren’t around kids with shellfish allergies. I love adding good-quality crab meat to the chick pea and avacado salad or make the Crab and Avacado pasta salad. My darling daughters prefer sandwiches, though. The girls want their shrimp and crab in sushi, their absolute favorite easy (and expensive) lunch!

On weekends, we make brunch, and one of our staples is Faux Frittadas, a combination of meat, potato, vegetables, and eggs. It’s versatile, easy, and yummy even for folks (like me) who dislike eggs. It’s a lot like a quiche without a crust. Yum!

Another eggy quick lunch is Pasta Carbonara, which we have transformed into a dairy-free, allergy-friendly meal. This makes a great brunch, too. Just serve a fruit salad next to it (no berries!), and you’re all set.
The older girls will also make eggs for lunch - fried, scrambled, or “cheese” eggs, which they make with the Tofutti soy cheese.

WIN IT!!!

Leave a comment on the book review, and you could win a copy of The Woman Who Is Always Tan And Has a Flat Stomach: And Other Annoying People! Winner will be selected at 12 noon March 3.

Lauren Anderson and Lisa Perry have written the ultimate book to help imperfect parents feel normal - The Woman Who Is Always Tan And Has a Flat Stomach: And Other Annoying People. Have you ever felt like the only woman who doesn’t knit? Have you ever wanted to thwack your husband on the head for obsessive video camera use? Have you ever felt intimidated by the homes that are decorated for every holiday? Have you ever needed an antidote to the Martha Stewart factor in suburbia? Don’t worry - The Woman Who Is Always Tan And Has a Flat Stomach: And Other Annoying People is here for you!

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This is the problem with having imaginative children who love books? Living with the repercussions and the imaginative play spawned off the books. For months, everything could be fixed with a swish of a wand a la Harry Potter, and they were certain that at 11 they would get a letter from Hogwarts.

Then there was the replaying the story of Wicked , either using themselves as characters, or replaying it with various toys. Plus lots of singing the songs.

Now? We are up to our ears in the world of Maximum Ride. Between me reviewing the March release of The Final Warning and reading Maximum Ride: School’s Out - Forever at bedtime, the girls are steeped in the world of Max and the flock.

They ask me to read Fang’s blog, LG starts talking about how things could be different for the flock, and now they come to me at dinner time saying that they want wings more than anything else. They are bouncing ideas off each other:

• “Maybe if we took off our shirts, our wings would pop out!”
• “We could cut holes in our shirts for the wings”
• “Maybe if we just jumped off something high enough they’d come out”
• “We weren’t born with wings. Maybe if we wish hard enough they’d come out”
• “Mommy, can you give us wings? I’d rather have wings than anything else, even a puppy.”

Great - the one thing my kids want more than anything else is the one thing I can’t give them. I did promise that if they sprouted wings, I’d have one of our sewing friends help with the necessary holes in their shirts, and in return they promised not to cut holes in their shirts.

After the haircuts they’ve given each other over the years, perhaps I should hide the scissors anyhow…

Ghost of a Chance is a paranormal mystery written by Kate Marsh, a pen name for the fantastic paranormal author Katie MacAlister. I have raved about Katie’s books previously, and I was thrilled to find a new book written by her. If you have read her Dark Ones (vampires) series, you will have a good insight into the background of Ghost of a Chance, as she uses the same paranormal world for both. If you haven’t read the Dark Ones books, you will be able to quickly pick up the vocabulary of the paranormal society inside Ghost of a Chance, but you should really pick up Katie MacAlister’s books; they’re great reads.
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Demon Envy is author Erin Lynn’s first foray into the Young Adult genre. Writing as Erin McCarthy, she has created some wonderful paranormal novels with romance, including Sucker Bet which we reviewed here. Demon Envy is just as well-written and fascinating as the adult novels, but with age-appropriate themes and activities. The stage is set when sixteen year old Kenzie Sutcliffe accidentally drops some of her prescription acne cream down the shower drain, and it opens up a portal to hell. Specifically a portal to one of hell’s prisons, and a prisoner escapes - appearing in her shower as she’s washing her face!
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LG had her first “alone” playdate today! She was very excited to go somewhere without her sisters!

In fact, she was so excited that she wanted to walk around outside in the snow while she waited to be picked up for her playdate! Never mind my frozen little fingers.

I showed her how to catch snowflakes on your tongue, and she started running around trying to catch them. The snowflakes are big and wet, and they were catching in her hair.

She ended up having a fabulous time, and didn’t particularly want to come home!

While she was gone, BG and MG took the dogs for a long walk and then played computer games together.  They enjoyed the little-sister-free time, but they were happy to have her home, too.

The snow is accumulating now - time to snuggle under the covers with some good books!

We’ve almost finished Maximum Ride: The Angel Experiment, by James Patterson. Up next is Maximum Ride: School’s Out - Forever, which we just received from Amazon (this is a series that is worth having and re-reading!).

After I reviewed the first three books, I have been waiting for the girls to be interested in the series. They are loving it, loving that unlike Harry Potter, there are 3 girls (and 3 boys) for their pretend play. When I recently received book 4 (The Final Warning), I reviewed the novel, and then we started talking about the theme of The Final Warning - protecting the world from global warming.  This is a good homeschooling subject, and it’s good for them to know what they can really do to help the Earth.

The Maximum Ride series rocks on any number of levels, but now I’m having some regrets. For example, now MG wants to know if she can fly jumping off the roof of our entryway.  LG keeps trying to use her mind to “push” me to buy her things, as Angel does. Plus, when asked why she wasn’t dressed, BG said, “it’s because of global warming!” So now she’s blaming everything on global warming. On the plus side, they work harder to turn off lights now!

Did I Expect Angels? is the intense first novel by Kathryn Maughan. This is a story that will require a nearby box of Kleenex, but it is ultimately an uplifting novel about the effect one person can have on another’s life. Kathryn Maughan’s book has inspired others to talk about unexpected angels who have helped them on her book’s website. In a way, the idea reminds me of the concept in Pay It Forward - the book and the movie, but rather than focusing on a wide range of people, Did I Expect Angels? focuses on the lives of two people - Jennifer and Henry. While the storyline discusses faith and angels, this is not a novel to be dismissed due to your own beliefs; there is no preaching, just two beautiful stories.
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