My Irish Table: Recipes from the Homeland and Restaurant Eve by Cathal Armstrong & David Hagedorn is a love letter to Chef Armstrong’s homeland and to his parents. The cover invites the foodie reader to open it up and savor the memories and flavors of Ireland with it’s bowl of mashed potatoes and copper pot of Irish Stew.

If you love Ireland – either through virtual or actual travel – you’ll truly appreciate Chef Armstrong’s homage to recipes of his homeland. To know that leg of lamb is traditionally served on St. Patrick’s Day made me smile. Discovering that Irish …

I’ll admit it right up front, I had a very different Monday Musing planned for today. Perhaps if I weren’t such a procrastinator and had written and prepped it yesterday, the planned topic would appear. But something happened that’s bugging me and unfortunately it’s not an isolated incident.

In this digital world where we can communicate with one another so easily and quickly, not just by email, but social media, texts, private messages, sometimes it’s easy to just type something and not realize the words can hurt.

But they can.

Having made my living for years in public communication, I’m …

Some months you know are going to be great. This July ROCKED, not just because it’s summer, but because readers were able to catch up with the Molly O’Keefe’s Boys of Bishop in not one, but TWO books!

First of all, if you haven’t yet read the first book in the series, Wild Child, you should grab it now. No, it’s not necessary to read this series in order as these are stand-alone titles, but you should. You. Really. Should. I loved Wild Child when I read it last fall (see my review) and have been counting …

I love reading about Scottish lairds and ladies, be they historical, paranormal, or contemporary tales. Give me a shifter in kilts, as in Vonnie Davis or Terry Spear’s recent titles, and I’m a very happy girl!

Reflecting on this love of all things Scottish, I realized that one of the first sweeping historical books I ever read was The Scottish Chiefs by Miss Jane Porter. I used to borrow this book from my school library each year to reread the fictionalized sweeping history of William Wallace.

I remember loving this book, not just because of the engrossing story, …

Some months you know are going to be great. This July ROCKED, not just because it’s summer, but because readers were able to catch up with the Molly O’Keefe’s Boys of Bishop in not one, but TWO books!

First of all, if you haven’t yet read the first book in the series, Wild Child, you should grab it now. No, it’s not necessary to read this series in order as these are stand-alone titles, but you should. You. Really. Should. I loved Wild Child when I read it last fall (see my review) and have been counting …