Book Spotlight and GIVEAWAY: The Fever Tree By Jennifer McVeigh

THE FEVER TREE
A Novel

By: Jennifer McVeigh

Published: April 4, 2013 

Fiction 

This seems to be the season for debut authors, and I have another one to share with you today. I am sure we will be hearing more from Jennifer McVeigh in the future.

I have started reading THE FEVER TREE and am already wrapped into Frances's story.  I am just under one hundred pages which is my guide for whether I am going to finish a book or not.  If it hasn't grabbed me by then, I don't finish it.  I can definitely say I will be finishing this book, and hopefully soon.  Stay tuned for a full review.  In the mean time, check out the publisher's praise for the book and enter below to WIN YOUR OWN COPY of the book!

This giveaway is now closed. Thanks to all who entered. 

Now available in Trade Paperback, THE FEVER TREE by Jennifer McVeigh (Berkley Trade Paperback Reprint; 978-0-425-26491-1; February 4, 2014; $16)!  When it was first released in hardcover last year, Oprah.com raved, “Debut author Jennifer McVeigh has created a fully realized sensory tour of 19th-century South Africa: You feel the grit of each dust storm, taste the mealie Frances chokes down, hear the cicadas scraping through the heat-parched air along with Frances' plaintive piano playing.”  McVeigh’s charmed story of loss and love has also been featured in Good Housekeeping, Women’s World, USA Today,  Washington Post, The Guardian, Daily Mail, and more.

With a perceptive and penetrating narrative, McVeigh unspools the story of Frances Irvine, a young Englishwoman forced by hopeless circumstance to immigrate to the Cape in pursuit of a reluctant marriage. There she discovers a strange new world where greed and colonial exploitation are bringing vast wealth to some and dire misery to countless others. As she struggles to find her place in this inhospitable land, Frances tethers her fate to two very different men: one serious and idealistic, the other charming and ambitious. When a smallpox epidemic threatens the financial dynasty of the most powerful Englishman in South Africa, Frances will be cast into a vortex of dangerous consequences—and find an unexpected, purposeful path.

A sweeping novel of romance and South African history that has been compared to Gone with the Wind, The Thorn Birds, and Out of Africa, THE FEVER TREE is an epic, heart wrenching tale not to be missed.

Jennifer McVeigh - source

About the Author:

Jennifer McVeigh, who has herself traveled to remote areas of Southern and East Africa, also drew on firsthand accounts of life in colonial South Africa, as well as nineteenth century guidebooks and women’s magazines, in order to infuse Frances Irvine’s experiences with arresting verisimilitude.  You can find her on the web at www.jennifermcveigh.com.   


Now for the best part, you can WIN YOUR VERY OWN COPY! All you have to do is fill out the form below.  The giveaway is open to US residents only.  You may enter the giveaway only once.  The giveaway will end at 11:59 PM on Wednesday, March 5, 2014.  I will choose a winner on Thursday, March 6, 2014, using Random.org. I will email the winner and the winner will have 48 hours to respond or I will choose a new winner.  This giveaway is made possible by Berkley Books and Penguin Group. I am not responsible for items that are not delivered but will do my best to make sure you receive your prize. 

Book Review: Run Yourself Skinny By Michael Thomas

RUN YOURSELF SKINNY 
Lose Weight Fast Without Dieting

By: Michael Thomas

Published:  December 21, 2012

Non-Fiction





If you are like me and LOVE to eat, you have to find something that will combat those calories so they don't end up on your waistline.  RUN YOURSELF SKINNY is for those who are looking at beginning a habit of running.  By running, you can burn those calories without giving them up!

This book will teach you how to start running, whether you are running outside or inside on your treadmill.  It will show you how to begin running and maintain it so you can make it a habit.  It also offers suggested menus for runners so you are getting the fuel you need.  

The goal of this book is to get you running for 30 minutes as many as 4 days/week.  This is the best way to maximize your weight loss and make significant changes to your health. My favorite tip from the book was, "In the beginning, try to always run farther or faster than the day before."

When you are beginning a new routine, you need to decide what is going to motivate you.  Your goal is to make running a habit and what is going to motivate you to do that?  This book is full of motivational quotes and ways to keep you on track.  It includes links to charts and printables to keep track of your running as well as your eating.

If you have a goal of running a 5K, then find one coming up in your area and set a goal for yourself to run and finish it.  Then once you do that, set a goal to finish quicker than last time.  This is one way to stay focused and motivated to keep running.

Even though this book didn't have a lot of new information for me, I did find it to be very encouraging and helped me focus on my own goals with running and exercise.

To learn more about Michael Thomas and his other books, visit his website, http://www.runharderworksmarter.com/

Books by Michael Thomas

I read this book for free on my Kindle with Amazon Prime.  This book is currently available on Kindle for $3.97.  If you have Amazon Prime, you can access thousands of books for free as well as music and videos. Try Amazon Prime for One Month for FREE.

A Little Monday Inspiration - LOVE

Since February is the month of LOVE, I wanted to share my favorite quotes on LOVE from the Bible every Monday.

May you feel God's LOVE today!

1 Corinthians 13:13
And now these three remain: faith, hope and love. But the greatest of these is love. 

Some Great Romantic and Fun Reads For Your Weekend

Did you receive a gift card to Amazon or a local bookstore for Valentine's Day?  If you are looking for some suggestions for romantic reads this weekend, I have some great ideas! 

THE LANGUAGE OF FLOWERS

By Vanessa Diffenbaugh

I reviewed this book back in September 2001.  See my review, HERE.  I absolutely LOVED it! This story has romance, flowers, and forgiveness for those you care about.

THE FAULT IN OUR STARS 

By John Green

I reviewed this book back in October 2013.  See my review, HERE.  This is written for the younger generation, but is a story for everyone.  The love between the two teenagers in this story is one you won't be able to forget.  Keep a box of tissues close by.  The movie version of this book comes out in June and you will want to read the book first and then see the movie.  See the movie trailer, HERE.

THE MAGIC ROOM 

By Jeffrey Zaslow

I reviewed this book back in January 2012.  See my review, HERE. I love this nonfiction story about a bridal shop and the family that has owned it for years as well as the different brides who have shopped there for their dresses.  Ultimately, this book is about a dad writing this book to share his love, as well as, hopes and dreams for his daughters.  There is no greater love than that.  Sadly, Zaslow died February 10, 2012, in a car accident without seeing his daughters marry.  Read my post HERE.

SH*T MY DAD SAYS

By Justin Halpern

Ok, I know this isn't a romantic book, but this is the book I gave my husband for Valentine's Day.  It came highly recommended by some friends and I know, if nothing else, it will make him laugh! If you are a parent of teenagers, you might want to check this one out! 

Book Review: 303 Kid-Approved Exercises and Active Games By Kimberly Wechsler

303 KID-APPROVED EXERCISES AND ACTIVE GAMES
Ages: 6-8

By: Kimberly Wechsler

Published:  July 30, 2013

Non-Fiction

Kids are spending way too much time indoors, sitting in chairs watching movies and playing video games.  Kimberly Weschsler has come up with various exercises and games that will get your kids moving. There are stretches and exercises that you can do with your child in your own home.  She has included ways to motivate them and keep them having fun.  Even having them do their chores while walking backwards, or making laundry a game by shooting their clothes into the baskets all encourage activity and fun while doing regular chores.

In fact, all of the exercises in this book will not only benefit the kids but the adults as well.  There are plenty of basic exercises and stretches that you can incorporate into your daily routines.  Some of them even require you to do them as partners like the Towel Tug of War.

Besides focusing on fitness and exercise for individuals, there are several group activities that encourage kids to be active.  This was the part of the book I was most interested in because I run an after school program for kids and we are always looking for ways to keep them active and busy.  One of my favorites was one I had forgotten about, the Back-to-Back race.  Several of these would also be great for family reunions or summer camps. There are also ideas for making your own obstacle courses which are perfect for the summer months.

If you are looking for fun, new ideas for getting your kids moving both indoors and out, check out this book and be ready to get active with your kids!

Kimberly Wechsler - source

Kimberly Wechsler is a nationally recognized Family Fitness Specialist and published author. She is the founder of Fit American Families, a Nutrition, Wellness and Fitness practice based in Texas. Fit American Families focuses on the pressing health and health care issues facing our country and is devoted exclusively to improving the health and health care of all American families to identify solutions and achieve comprehensive, meaningful and timely change to raising healthy children into healthy adults. She has dedicated her career to creating services and promoting education through her Fit American Families brand.

Boston Magazine named Kimberly’s Kids Fitness Camp as ‘Best of Boston’. She writes for several magazines, blog sites and has been in Fox News. She also had her own television show, ‘Healthy Lifestyles’ and is a radio host of ‘Fit American Families‘. For more about Kimberly Wechsler and her other books on fitness and health, visit her website, http://www.fitamericanfamilies.com/. You can also follow Kimberly on Twitter, HERE and Facebook, HERE. 

Books By Kimberly Wechsler

I will be linking up this post with other Children's Book Reviews on Booking Mama's Kid Konnection linky. To see other great reviews of Children's Books, click HERE. 

Thanks to Librarything for sending me this book in exchange for this review.  This review is my honest opinion.  I was not compensated in any other way for this review.  If you choose to purchase the book through the above link, I may receive a small compensation without you paying a cent more for your purchase. Thanks for supporting SincerelyStacie.com reviews. 

App Review: Figure O'Speech

Are looking for a new app that will challenge your brain? 

If you have a Kindle or Android device, 

this FREE app might just be for you!   

FIGURE O'SPEECH is from App-titude Games, a company that creates fun and challenging apps that test your app-titude.  When playing FIGURE O'SPEECH, you are trying to solve visual word puzzles.  With categories such as proverbs and idioms, people, movies, songs, etc, you work to figure out the phrase depicted by the picture.  If you get stuck, you are offered 3 hints per puzzle.  There are also dashes to show you how many letters/words are included in the phrase.  

As you work through the puzzles, you will unlock new sets of phrases.  There are no time limits and no in-app purchases, which I appreciate.  You can just open the app and play.  You will likely find yourself thinking about a puzzle you are stuck on throughout the day, trying to solve it so that you can move on to the next one.  One feature I like is that even if I do get stuck on a puzzle, I can just choose a different one to work on.  I don't have to stay on the one that is challenging me.  I can always come back to it later.  If you notice in the above photo, the puzzles completed are the ones with the check mark.  The other puzzles are available for you to come back to at any time.   

As someone who feels that keeping the brain active is important no matter what age you are, this is a great app to challenge your brain and enjoy.  

To get this FREE app on your Kindle or Amazon devices, click HERE.

To get this FREE app on your Google or Android devices, click HERE. 

Start 2014 Write - My Pen Pal

Do you love to get letters in the mail? So much of our mail is junk.  Catalogs, credit card applications, political ads, and coupons arrive in my mailbox every day.  Then there are the bills. No one likes getting bills in the mail.  But, what I do get excited about is something that is hand written.  When something arrives hand written, you know it is a card, an invitation, a thank you, or....maybe....a letter.  When is the last time you received a letter, a hand written letter from someone?

The ESTELLA SOCIETY blog decided to encourage writing by asking for bloggers to sign up.  By signing up, I agreed to be assigned to another blogger, anywhere in the world, and write letters to that person over the course of the year.  I remember having a pen pal at some point in my childhood.  I can't tell you the person's name or where they lived, but I remember writing letters to someone.  I think I signed up through a magazine or something.

Our ancestors only had letters to communicate with each other.  I know my mom still has her letters from my father.  I love finding postcards from the early 1900's and reading what someone wanted to share with a friend or family member that lived maybe in the next town or maybe across the country.  I also love books written in epistolary form.  One of my favorites was The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society: A Novel. I also loved I Love You, Ronnie: The Letters of Ronald Reagan to Nancy Reagan. I just recently purchased Letters to Jackie: Condolences from a Grieving Nation. I love reading letters.

Last week, I received my pen pal assignment and I am super excited to get to know and share letters with Carey of careysbookproject.wordpress.com .  In reading her blog and following her twitter feed, HERE, I've noticed that we have several things in common.  I am excited to learn more about her through our letters to each other.

If you haven't written a letter to someone in awhile, I highly recommend getting out some paper and a pen and writing to someone you haven't talked to in a long time.  You may just start an exchange that will bring joy to both of your lives.