Grab a Book & Play Booktivity! discussion

Read any good books lately that fit our monthly theme?

Here's the place to share your opinions / reactions / recommendations.

Our February 2023 theme was suggested by Beverly

* Great American Pie Month: Read a book with pie on the cover OR in which a character bakes a pie. Post cover or quote the text..

Don't forget to post your review.

Happy reading!

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Arctic Heat - Annabeth Albert - (Alaska)
Frozen Hearts series Book #3
Genera: M/M Romance
5★
I usually spent a great deal of the cold winter months indulging in my favorites with rereads along with the new to me reads. Annabeth Albert is always an author that I find to be worthy of a reread. I have read and reread almost everything available by her. The Frozen Hearts series is a favorite of mine and they always have a happy ending. Owen and Quill were made for one another from the start, despite Quills fighting tooth and nail to ignore Owen. Owen was perfection personified and did everything in his power to just be his Quill's friend with the hopes of something more. Imagine Quill's surprise when the person he was supposed to be partnered with through the winter had to withdraw... and you guessed it...was replaced by Owen. Now what is he supposed to do now? Owen certainly had an idea or two, or three for him. Sometimes in "opposites attract" situations, it almost feels as though one character has had a personality transplant somewhere along the way and we weren't aware of it, but...not in this one. Quill remained somewhat taciturn and reserved and Owen remained bubbly and outgoing. Eventually they somehow managed to meet in the middle enough to make a perfect, safe space for both of them. In a nutshell... it's steamy! Sweet and sad but as all of Annabeth Albert's offerings...simply wonderful. It's my favorite of this short 3 book series.

Quote From The book:
"Owen remembered how his mother would make anything better with a fresh baked pie. Quill certainly needed to be cheered up so...one cherry, strawberry pie coming up., even if it did have to come from a can."

Note: It helped Quill's outlook on life tremendously:)

The county picnic has all the ladies cooking and baking: "...chicken salads, potato salads, sausage and biscuits, breads, cornbread, cakes and pies." A few pages later Elsa (narrator) states: "I was serving apple pie to women who still wore hats that matched their dresses."

The Four Winds – Kristin Hannah – 4****
As she did in The Nightingale , Hannah uses female characters to tell a bit of the history of a time and place. In this work, the timeframe is 1920s to mid-1930s, and the place is America, specifically the Great Plains and California. I loved the three central women in the books: Elsa, her daughter Loreda, and her mother-in-law Rosa. Very reminiscent of Steinbeck’s masterpiece The Grapes of Wrath
LINK to my full review

One Poison Pie by Lynn Cahoon
Pie on the cover--probably poisoned...FINISHED 2/12

This was a fun, cute, quick read. I wish I had read her book Chili Cauldron Curse first (.05 in the series) which I think would have eased me into what was going on a little quicker, but you can read the book and catch up quickly enough to enjoy it. Mia Malone, a kitchen witch, has come back to her grandmother's to recover from a broken relationship and ready to start a new catering business. When a good friend of her grandmother, one of her first clients, ends up dead the same day that Mia should be catering her birthday gala it makes her fear that a successful future is just not in the cards for her. A whole small town full of magical people to entertain your mystical side.

The 19th Wife by David Ebershoff

Page 61 "Why didn't you eat all your pie? Go on, finish up. I baked it for you."
FINISHED 2/12

I have waited so long to read this book and now that I have, I'm a bit disappointed. Although I appreciated the interesting aspects of this historical fiction and the more current attempt to solve a murder mystery in a Mormon family, I felt like they were almost 2 separate books. Maybe what I really mean is that I think the murder mystery side of the story would have been improved if it could have been expanded a bit and omitted so much of the historical aspect of the Latter Day Saints. Anyway, I'm glad that I finally read it and I enjoyed it...in starts and stops...it just wasn't what I expected it to be.

Ava works at a girls’ school for a time as their cook: “She kept to simple fare for the nuns and their students, potato soup with leeks, cheese, pie, chicken stew… and apple tarte made with the fruit she had collected in the woods.”

The World That We Knew – Alice Hoffman – 4****
. Hanni Kohn recognizes the imminent danger the Nazi’s pose, so she goes to a rabbi for help. But it is the rabbi’s daughter, Ettie, who offers to make the mystical golem who will protect Hanni’s daughter, Lea. Once Ava is brought to life, she will join with Lea and Ettie to escape to France. Although separated their paths are fated to intersect. I was skeptical about reading another WW2 story, but Hoffman’s writing captured my attention and kept me interested and engaged throughout
LINK to my full review

Sister Mimi prides herself on the homemade pies she serves in her restaurant. There are several references: chocolate cream, banana, apple, and key lime to name just a few.

The Chicken Sisters – K J Dell’Antonia – 3.5***
Two competing chicken restaurants founded a century ago by sisters are the subject of a reality-TV “food war.” In addition to the long-running family feud continues with a current “feud” of sorts between sisters Amanda and Mae. There are some family secrets that come out, a new hunky chef, a manipulative TV producer who wants more conflict, and more than one effort to sabotage the competition which all serve to keep the plot moving forward with surprises, twists and insights into the family dynamic. There can only be ONE winner of “Food Wars” and in this case, it’s the reader.
LINK to my full review

The Summer I Learned to Dive by Shannon McCrimmon

Page 160 "We entered the kitchen. He started the coffee and then opened the refrigerator pulling out the cherry pie Nana had made days before."

Just a random selection off my TBR list and I really had no idea what it would be about. I ended up really enjoying this quick and easy read. It actually strikes me almost as a YA book...I haven't checked the main page genres yet. The story of a young high school girl who has had her plans for her life in place for many years. When she discovers that some aspects of her life were misrepresented to her by her mother, she heads out on her own to ferret out the real truth of her past. Good read with a fairly predictable ending but I liked it.

“[Edith] had just taken a strawberry-rhubarb pie from the oven, and was …”

The Lager Queen of Minnesota – J Ryan Stradl – 4****
Helen and Edith are estranged sisters. Helen convinced their father to leave her the farm, and she and her husband started a very successful brewery with that nest egg. Edith lives quietly, working two jobs and raising her granddaughter, Diana. Stradal reveals the intergenerational story through multiple points of view. At its core this is a story about family. About the ties that bind us whether we recognize them or not. About perseverance and strength of character. About facing our fear of failure and taking risks. It’s about love and forgiveness.
LINK to my full review