I guess I've always had a lot to say... hopefully you
will find things here that uplift, encourage and even
entertain. Why? Because "Stephanie Says So"
Hey, if you have never read any books by Josi Kilpack, you are missing out!! Anne Bradshaw is holding a contest for Josi's newest release, Lemon Tart, on her blog, "Not Entirely British." If you hurry, you can be in the contest too. But if you miss the deadline, go buy the book!! You won't be disappointed. Josi is charming and a delightful person. She writes extremely well. I still think about her book, Sheep's Clothing, which I read nearly two years ago. When a book has that kind of impact, you know the author is exceptional.
So, Lemon Tart is the first book in Josi’s new Sadie Hoffmiller culinary mystery series. It is a murder mystery, featuring a cooking afectionado-turned-amateur detective, Sadie. I can't wait to read it.
Don't you just LOVE the cover????
Follow this link to Anne's website for the details: http://annebradshaw.blogspot.com/2009/02/contest-for-signed-copy-of-lemon-tart.html ~ yeah, I'm sure there is some cool way to make this link super short, but I don't know how to do it inside of a blog post. I can do it on the sides of my blog, but not in the blog itself. I only know enough of this stuff to be dangerous. But I think you should check it out!!!
I've been meaning to write a follow up to Sun Wei's visit but have been so busy. But having her here was such fun. After staying here for ten days, Sun Wei and her students went on to L.A., Boston, and N.Y. and then returned to China. She said she didn't even want to visit those cities and would rather stay with us and enjoy "typical American Life" as she "liked it very much."
Before she left, she attended all 3 hours of church with us and we took her to the visitor's center where she saw the Christus and the words were in Chinese for her and I called ahead and reserved a theater where they showed "The Restoration" in Chinese with (English subtitles). Afterwards I gave her a Chinese Book of Mormon.
She was familiar with the Christian religion as her grandmother reads the Bible and has told her stories from it. As far as the LDS church goes, probably not much will happen now that she's back in her country but at least I exposed her to the gospel. And from her comments throughout the time she spent with us there is no doubt she felt the spirit. Sun Wei is so adorable (27 years old). She and all of her students are only children and she loved all the family things we did. I think the reason she wanted to stay was because she felt the spirit in our home.
Over half of the students who came with her were also placed in LDS homes. It was great experience. A few weeks ago we had the missionaries over for dinner. I told them all about Sun Wei (whom they had met while she was here as they frequent our house). Then Jim said he told about all I had done in his High Council meeting the night before because they were discussing missionary work. One of the high councilmen, who used to be our bishop, said, "When I was a bishop, Stephanie Abney was the best missionary we ever had." I look at my life now and wonder where that woman went. Guess I need to work on that!!!
I'm grateful that the Lord knows what different experiences we need and that the world is not really so big after all. When all is said and done, we are all His children and there is only room for love, understanding and respect.
~Some of the books I review are given to me by the author or the publisher, some I have purchased myself, some are gifts and some I get at the library. All books, regardless of how I came to read them, get my honest opinion. I also reserve the right to refuse books for review at my own discretion. Just thought you might like to know. (However, in the future, I expect most of my reviews will be on my book review blog: Stephanie's Book Reviews & Author Interviews)
I'm a writer, and observer of life. I grew up in Southern CA, graduated from Hollywood High School and met my sweetheart in a snowball fight at BYU. I love my remarkable and growing family (great husband, Jim, married in 1970; 5 kids - 4 living - 18 grandchildren and two great-grandchildren)!!