An Amish Kitchen - Clipston, Long, Wiseman

This was three short stories in one book. I love that it was three of my favorite Amish authors:

Amy Clipston, Kelly Long and Beth Wiseman.

Each story stood alone with a quick one liner at the very end. There was the Our Daily Bread that all three stories had in common.

The first story was about Fern who was learning from her grandma about home remedies  The neighbor who was watching his siblings while his parents were gone had to come by often with the children and their predicaments 

The second story about Hannah and a stranger who came to stay at her Bed and Breakfast. He quickly was hired by the brother to help out with repairs and such.

The third story had to do with mending relationships between mother and daughter. Definitely a little humor in this one with George.

For short stories I do not feel that I missed out on them being longer, they did a great job of making the stories complete with the bonus of recipes in the back.

Where we Belong - Emily Griffin

I enjoyed this book.

Kirby is adopted and when she turns 18 she gets the name of her birth mom and heads to New York to meet her.
As this relationship starts and grows Kirby is then interested in her birth dad.

This story is told in Chapters by Kirby and her birth mom, Marilyn.


I think it is well done and we learn a lot about how adoptions can be a positive experience.

Most books that I  have read make the birth mother always regret giving the child to a family that was ready when they were not. I give Emily huge kudos for that. As a person that has this story in my life it was good to see it in a positive light.

The letter Darlene Shortridge

Things that define a great book to me:

Tears, Laughter, feeling like you are a part of the family, surprises.

And every child deserves another day with those they love, if only to hear the
words ‘I love you’ once more.”

This book was about love. Jessi, was raised by her aunt and uncle. This is the story of her going back home (with her family) for her dad's funeral and her mom sharing her dad's story. Jessi never felt like her dad loved her and through chapters written by her dad as he was a young man, became a husband, businessman, etc we learned how much James did love her.

Although a novella I savored this book because I didn't want it end. I felt connected to James , Will, Jessi.

Well done Darlene, well done.