Friday Finds 27 August 2021 | Reviews, Recipes, & More
Welcome my friend. I hope you are having a wonderful week and making plans for a super weekend.
Around here we are finishing up the last of the garden canning. Today we did 6 quarts of diced tomatoes. I like doing diced tomatoes because they are so versatile. I can add them to soups, stews, recipes, or easily convert them to salsa or juice this winter. It looks like we won’t be traveling again this winter so they will definitely come in handy.
Let’s move on to the “Finds” for this week.
I hope you enjoy them and let me know your favorite in the comments.
Friday Finds 27 August 2021 – Books
The Love Songs of W.E.B. Du Bois by Honoree Fanonne Jeffers
The great scholar, W. E. B. Du Bois once wrote about the Problem of race in America, and what he called “Double Consciousness,” a sensitivity that every African American possesses in order to survive. Since childhood, Ailey Pearl Garfield has understood Du Bois’s words all too well. Bearing the names of two formidable Black Americans―the revered choreographer Alvin Ailey and her great grandmother Pearl, the descendant of enslaved Georgians and tenant farmers―Ailey carries Du Bois’s Problem on her shoulders.
Ailey is reared in the north in the City but spends summers in the small Georgia town of Chicasetta, where her mother’s family has lived since their ancestors arrived from Africa in bondage. From an early age, Ailey fights a battle for belonging that’s made all the more difficult by a hovering trauma, as well as the whispers of women―her mother, Belle, her sister, Lydia, and a maternal line reaching back two centuries―that urge Ailey to succeed in their stead.
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Beautiful World, Where Are You by Sally Rooney
Alice, a novelist, meets Felix, who works in a warehouse, and asks him if he’d like to travel to Rome with her. In Dublin, her best friend, Eileen, is getting over a break-up and slips back into flirting with Simon, a man she has known since childhood.
Alice, Felix, Eileen, and Simon are still young―but life is catching up with them. They desire each other, they delude each other, they get together, they break apart. They have sex, they worry about sex, they worry about their friendships and the world they live in. Are they standing in the last lighted room before the darkness, bearing witness to something? Will they find a way to believe in a beautiful world?
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This one isn’t exactly a book, but it looks so fun, I had to include it!
101 Lunch Box Notes with Laugh-Out-Loud Jokes for Kids by Rob Elliott
Why did the chicken cross the road? Find out when you pop one of the jokes from 101 Lunchbox Notes with Laugh-out-Loud Jokes for Kids into your child’s lunchbox. Each of the colorful tear-off lunchbox notes has a blank space on the back to write a message. Send your kids words of love and encouragement along with a joke that will brighten their day and is sure to make them giggle in delight. Share a laugh with your little ones even when you can’t be with them.
Friday Finds 27 August 2021 – QOTD
Today we have a question of the day up for discussion.
When you are stuck at home due to weather, covid restrictions, or illness, what hobbies do you turn to?
For me, besides the obvious answer of READING, I love to work on jigsaw puzzles, computer games, weaving, and knitting.
Leave a comment to share your favorites.
Friday Finds 27 August 2021 – Blog Roundup
I am shining a spotlight on several of the semi-finalists in this year’s BBNYA (Book Blogger of the Year Award) competition. There is no significance to which ones I feature. The coordinators divided them up among the panelist that could take part. It does not mean I have read these excerpts. You can search Twitter using the hashtag #BBNYA_Official to take a peek at many more. Scores are being tabulated as we speak and the finalists will be announced soon. I am so thrilled to be a judge again this year. Here is a list of my spotlights this week.
BBNYA Semi-finalist Spotlight on While Nobody is Watching by Michelle Dunne
BBNYA Semifinalist Spotlight on The Vatican Games by Alejandra Guibert
BBNYA Semi-finalist Spotlight on The Knight’s Daughter by S.H. Cooper
The following are the book tours and author/publisher review requests I did the past week.
The Other Side of Whale Road by K.A. Hayton | Spotlight
Dead as a Duck by Colleen J. Shogan | Review – Excerpt – $50 Giveaway
Cromby’s Axiom by Gary J. Kirchner | Book Review
Ghosts of New England: Skullery Bay | Review – $25 Giveaway
Espoused by Jean Marie Davis | Spotlight – Interview – $25 + Signed Book Giveaway
Friday Finds 27 August 2021 – Recipes
Since I have an abundance of tomatoes this year, I’ve been searching for new recipes to use them up. This one sounds delicious. I can’t wait to try it.
Tomato Mozzarella Parmesan Bake from Bunny’s Warm Oven
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Hostess Ding-Dongs are a favorite treat of mine, although I did love them more when they came wrapped in foil.
Ding Dong Cake by Gift of Hospitality
I’ve made a version of this in the past where you baked layers, hollowed it out, added the cream then frosted the whole thing. Yes, it looked like a giant Ding-Dong, but a lot of work. This recipe gives you the same great taste without the mess!
Friday Finds 27 August 2021 – Creative Project
Today’s craft project is a Wooden Barn Quilt Kit
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That wraps up this week’s edition. Be sure you scroll down to reply and let me know your favorite find this week.
I also share many of my reviews on the following websites:
- Lovely Audiobook’s Monthly Link-up (Not limited to audiobooks)
- The Inspire Me Monday Link Party
- Inspire Me Monday with Anita Ojeda
- Grammy’s Grid Unlimited Monthly Link Party
- Esme’s Salon Monthly Link-up
Love the tomato recipe! Do you have any good ones for salsa?
Hi Gina I just sent you a copy of a book that will be free for three days at amazon beginning Sep. 11th through 13th 2021.
I believe your readers will enjoy this work however please don’t feel obligated to endorse this work. All is Well MichaelMckinney
Loved the foil-wrapped Ding Dongs too. Wonder why the new ones taste different? Went to the recipe and it said don’t substitute butter for shortening. Huh? Wooden quilt project looks amazing! How fun! Knock- Knock jokes-OMG. So much fun. Had to Tweet!
Sometimes a recipe just needs good old crisco! Probably for the taste/color to match a Ding Dong?
Thanks for the mozzarella tomato bake. It reminds me of a tomato pie that I’ve had in Mount Pleasant, SC, and it was the absolute best! Just wish I had some Indiana tomatoes to make it with, because the tomatoes in Alabama are not very good.
That’s too bad about the Alabama tomatoes. Are you down there full time now? We”re still not traveling other than to WI to our daughter’s.
The tomato mozzarella bake looks scrumptious! Most of our tomatoes are still green, but when they’re ripe I plan to try that recipe! About what I do when I’m stuck at home—I like listening to a good audiobook while I do housework, and watching sitcoms or old classic movies.
Oh, I love classic movies too! It’s a Wonderful Life is my favorite but I enjoy them all.