Hello, dear hearts. Are you like me, and get recommendations of books that look quite interesting, excitedly jot them down on the nearest piece of paper, and then promptly lose the paper? Thank goodness, new recommendations are always coming.

If You Dare, by Barbara Meyers. I highly recommend this book to my romance and women’s fiction readers. It grabs from the beginning and does not stop. The story plays like a movie on the screen, in fact the hero remains in my mind after all these weeks. Who wouldn’t be captivated by a man in mid-life suddenly with the responsibility of a newborn? A man trying to turn his life around? We’ve all been there at sometime, doing our best and still falling short. Ms. Meyers brings the characters alive on the page. They are good people struggling with their foibles that get in the way. I especially enjoyed the young teens and felt Ms. Meyers handled them just right.

My current read is Fannie Flagg’s latest: The Wonder Boy of Whistle Stop. This book takes characters from her great Fried Green Tomatoes at the Whistle Stop Cafe novel and lets us see what happened to a few of them. Reading one of Flagg’s books is like eating popcorn–you just can’t stop. You keep reaching for another piece and another piece, and pretty soon you are deep into the book and forget the present. Sunday afternoon, I sat reading for magical hours on my porch. As usual with a Flagg book, there really is no plot. It’s all about people and life as it used to be. Now, I am not that old, but I remember so much of what I soaked up from my mama and grandmother that I know what it was like in the 30s, and I lived in the 80s. I live in Alabama now. So grateful to Ms. Flagg for writing.

While our church was closed because of COVID, our pastor formed a class for studying Bible doctrine. We were blessed to have streaming video instruction from a university professor and used the book Bible Doctrine, Essential Teachings of the Christian Faith, by Wayne Grudem. Wow! I learned so much about creation and God and faith. My faith grew by leaps and bounds. I’m still, far after the class, studying this book. I have a sense that I will be for a long time. Mr. Grudem has a friendly and easy way of drawing one in–not unlike Ms. Flagg.

Now it’s your turn. What books can you recommend? Heaven knows we need reading get-aways.