The Art of Titanfall

This book has amazing graphics in it and is a real addition to my collection of video game art books.  The author does a excellent job of making you want to play the game immediately.  I couldn't be more impressed with what I saw and read in this amazing book.  It couldn't make the game look any better.  I will tell all my friends and family about this book and how amazing it is. If you are interested in a giveaway copy of this title please email destinyfallsbookreviews@gmail.com

Sassy Cookies: Sweet, Spicy, and Savory Treats with Swagger

This book has unique and different cookie recipes unlike anything I have ever seen before.  The author is extremely unique and the recipes are amazing.  The cookies I made were spicy and different everyone enjoyed them.  I want to read more books by this author and try new kinds of food.

Pickles, Pigs & Whiskey

This  book was amazing and the recipes in this book are so tasty I tried a couple of them and my favorite one was Steen's Syrup-Braised Pork Belly.  My entire family enjoyed this recipe and thought it was the best pork dish they have ever tasted.  This author is so excellent and describing the dishes and how to make all of them.  I give this book a 5 out of 5 and will tell my family and friends about it.

Creating Art at the Speed of Life: 30 Days of Mixed-Media Exploration

Creating Art at the Speed of Life is absolutely everything its predecessor (Art at the Speed of Life) could possibly lead you to expect, and then more.  It is well written and full of inspiring illustrations and techniques. It's great to see a comprehensive mixed media book which includes many other artists as well as the authors own work. This book is a must have for any art studio.  It is one of the best art type books I have ever read.  I am going to tell all my friends about this book and recommend it to my college to add to its class requirements

Mollie Makes Crochet: 20+ Cute Projects for the Home Plus Handy Tips and Tricks

This book has a lot of different ideas on what to crochet and how to do it.  I showed this book to my grandma and she was very happy with its content.  She made a couple of things from it and they look amazing.  I let her keep this book and she is going to show it to her bridge game players, 

Kate: The Future Queen

This book went very into detail about the life of Kate and how she became the wonderful and inspiration that she is today.  The author doesn't leave out much  about Kate's life and how important it is to follow your dreams and never give up on what you want to do in life.  I read this book from front to back in a few days, that is how good I thought it was.

Mastering the Art of French Eating: Lessons in Food and Love from a Year in Paris

The descriptions of the food in this book, makes me extremely hungry and amazed at how well this book is written.  The author makes you want to fly to France and eat the food.  I am amazed and enthralled at how amazing this book is and how well the author explains all the different kind of food they ate.  I love food books and this is one of my favorite ones I have read so far.

SDN: Software Defined Networks

The authors with a wealth of practical experience as well as with standardization work walk through the different aspects of SDN, provide structure and put things in context and perspective.  I found this book to be very informative, and one that cuts through the fog of SDN. This book is actually on SDN and what it is, versus what it could be. I highly recommend this read to anyone wishing to understand or deploy SDN technologies.

Head First C# 3rd Edition

I'm not typically a Windows person. But as someone who has been doing system administration and working with many operating systems for many years, I appreciate how Head First C# really makes programming make sense. The pace is great, and there are a lot of projects throughout the book. Especially the games, there are many game projects in the book, and they make video game programming make sense.

Windows 8 is way easier to use after this book.  The author does an excellent job of explaining everything and how to use the program more efficiently.  I will be telling my friends and family about this book,.

Galaxy S4: The Missing Manual

This manual was very helpful when it came figuring out how to use my new Galaxy S4.  This book taught me a lot about the phone and how to use it.  The author did a lot to make it easy to figure out this phone and all of its features.  I will be recommending this book to all of my friends and family who own this phone as well.

Emotionally Focused Couple Therapy For Dummies

I read this book to better help me with my marriage and it really did help.  It teaches you how to talk and become more open with your spouse.  This book could really help a lot of people.  I am going to tell my friends and family about it and how well it helped me in my struggles.  I give this book a 5 out of 5 stars.

Real Estate License Exams For Dummies

I read this book to see exactly what the real estate world was really all about and I found this book extremely interesting and insightful.  It helped me understand a lot of things about the real estate business and how exactly everything works in their world.  If you are interested in getting into the real estate business then this is the book for you. 

Military Flight Aptitude Tests For Dummies

I let my friend that is in the military borrower this book before his test.  He studied it for hours and he passed his test.  He couldn't stop talking about how amazing the book was and how useful it was to be able to help him pass the test.  He said he will recommend this book to all his military buddies and they will use it to help them pass their test as well.

Canon EOS Rebel SL1/100D For Dummies

I own this amazing camera and this book has taught me so much about how to use and navigate it.  I read so much about this camera and learned how to maintain it properly.  The author does a excellent job of teaching you how to use the camera to its full potential. 

Starting an Online Business For Dummies

This book is an excellent tool in creating an online business and it has everything that you need to create an online business.  This book has all that you need to be able to create any kind of business you want online.  The author does an excellent job of being able to describe and offer assistance in creating a business.

Facebook For Dummies

This book was amazing I gave book to my grandma to read and she just started using Facebook and she said it helped her out a lot.  She said that she has never learned so much from a book.  She is going to tell all her friends about it who is just started using Facebook.  I really enjoyed reading it as well and I learned some new things as well. 

Jane Austen's England

This is another excellent book written by Jane Austen and I truly enjoyed it.  It's very well written and I enjoyed every minute of it.  It is very interesting.  You learn a lot from this book about the British people and the way they live their every day life.  I have always been interested in England and this book made me more interested.

The Bone Season

This book is extremely intense and interesting.  It keeps the reader involved and interested from the first page to the last page.  The author does an excellent job.  It is a story that takes place in the future and makes you wonder what the future is really going to be like.  I will tell my friends and family about this book and recommend them to pick up a copy. 

Promise to Return: A Novel

This book is excellent, it is about the 1940's and Amish culture.  It is a very interesting story with lots of great people in it, its an excellent historic romance novel.  Elizabeth Younts is an excellent author and I love her style of writing.  I will be reading a lot more books written by her in the near future. 

Preemptive Love: Pursuing Peace One Heart at a Time

This book was excellent.  It is a great feel good story and I enjoyed reading it.  It is about saving kids in Iraq that have health problems.  It is nice to see people still supporting Iraq after all the things that have happened in the world in the past 10 years.  These children are getting a chance at a future because of these wonderful people and it this story is very touching and one of the best books I have read in a while. 

Yes, And....Daily Meditations

I'm a cradle Catholic, and throughout my life I've seen many devotions of older Catholics as just that... something the "old school" Catholics did, not anything relevant to my life. After all, some of those practices are exactly what confuses our protestant friends.  For many years I thought it was just easier to stay away from these kinds of devotions all together.   This book changed my mind.  The author's insights are thought provoking and challenging on many levels.  This devotional is worth the time and effort to read daily and to reflect upon to improve your spiritual life.

Eyewitness Travel: Sicily

          

I have been to Italy several times, but never visited Sicily, but on this trip I plan on doing just that.  I wanted to make sure that I would have the most recent information on pricing and quality for lodging, eating, shopping, and sight seeing, so I made sure to get this Eyewitness Travel Guide!  I was not disappointed.  It makes my planning so much easier and its handy size makes it easy to take along with me.  I found it particularly helpful when it came to choosing the region of Sicily that has the best beaches!  I highly recommend it.

A Survival Guide for Life

We all have our own personal mountains to climb and obstacles to overcome. This book takes that cliche' and turned it into a real life experience for me. The author offered his experience and turned it into life lessons that I could apply to my own life. It was full of great advice and guidance and I found it to be very thought-provoking, leading me to meditate on what I want out of life.  It is an excellent book to share with young adults.

Beyond Bacon

                        

I purchased half a pig and then had a "now what" moment. This book has been a very useful guide and, with it's help, I look forward to getting another side of pork when this one is done. This book is fun to read and well written. And what photos! Each one is clear, detailed and nicely laid out. We have made many of the recipes and they are easy to follow. It is my go to book for everything pork. You won't be sorry you bought it because it contains recipes for every taste. It really helps to have something to reference for pork recipes that goes well beyond barbeque sauce - although if that's what you love you will find plenty of things to choose from.  This could become your pork Bible. And pork, your "other white meat"

Dining Out at Home Cookbook

This book is great.  You will find lots of recipes for major restaurants. It is always fun to re-create something I enjoyed at a restaurant in my own kitchen. The recipes really do taste amazingly similar to the restaurant fare. Using this book is a great way to save money and still enjoy the tastes and flavors of your favorite restaurant chains.

Between Giants

                         

This was a very interesting and informative book.  Being American, I usually read books on the WWII that pertained to my own country and never really thought about the effects of WWII on the Baltic States.   The book was very well researched.  It gives an unbiased look at the complexities of the various ethnic, religious and social values of the inhabitants of the Baltic region as it relates to this deva

Contagious Optimism

This author is one of most direct, clear and decisive self-help writers you can read. I took extensive notes from this book that I know I will find helpful in the future as I digest what I read.   Each chapter gave me encouragement and new tools for finding my passion for life again. Both the wisdom and stories shared here are absolutely amazing and this is one of the more useful, applicable and approachable books I have ever read.
 

Why Wait to Be Great?

 
This is a fantastic inspirational book that was very hard to put down.  It offers great advice and the author was very accessible so that you felt like you were meeting with a friend. There were so many stories shared that I really related to and I came away feeling empowered.  It was a great read.

Raising Respectful Children in a Disrespectful World

Once in awhile you discover a book that truly changes your worldview. This is such a book!  If you've ever wondered how to raise thoughtful, respectful, honest and peer-resistant kids in a breaking-down society this is the book for you. Rigby offers practical, user-friendly, easy-to-apply tips for any parent who seeks a better way to sanely and safely nurture children to adulthood. You'll enjoy her real-life scenarios and step-by-step approach to successful parenthood.  This is a must-read for every parent!

Amaze Us O God!

                                 
This is an inspirational book that reminds us that God is amazing and He wants to bless us. While the author may be accused by some as preaching a "Health & Wealthy" gospel, I believe his teaching is much deeper than that.  Hanby clearly wants to remind us that God loves us and wants the best for us.  We need to remember just who we are in HIM and be ready to accept his favor and blessing on our lives.  This was a great reminder for me!

Data Center Virtualization Fundamentals

  I've been looking for Data Center material that could help me getting in touch with these technologies for such a long time. I've always felt the DC world was too advanced for me because of the distinct protocols and the lack of readings for beginners. This book takes us from VLANs to Cloud Computing in an engaging and logical way. I especially enjoyed the "evolution" chapters because of the vendor-independent concepts concerning networking, storage, and server technologies. Great read!

CTS Certified Technology Specialist Exam Guide

As a recent college graduate who did quite a bit of work with signal processing in college, I found this book to be very informative and a great study resource.  It was a good supplement to my working knowledge.  The book covers everything you need to know to pass the certification test.  It was an integral part of my prep process

Firsthand

 
This book is a must read for anyone who grew up in a Christian home and never truly felt that it was a faith that belonged to them. Religion needs to be sought and explored.  It's exciting to see something that steps out of religiosity and gets real. People cannot live on their parent's faith, they must develop their own. Great book - wonderful truth.  Great advice. Great read.

Moving Forward

I felt led by Spirit to read this book and I am glad I followed through. As if speaking directly to me, the author began to guide me gently out of that feeling of being stuck.  Each chapter gave me encouragement and new tools for finding my passion for life again. Of all the points, I got the most out of the chapters on  forgiving myself for thinking negative thoughts when there should not be any. Good stuff

Detroit City

Steve Miller provides an insider's look at the city of Detroit and its unrecognized role in the music industry by compiling the stories of participants such as Iggy Pop, Bob Seger, Alice Cooper, and more.  Each story is captivating and full of all sorts of details; everything from drugs to fights to betrayals. Major events are told from several perspectives, allowing the voices of each individual to come through. Band members discuss their beginnings and their eventual breakups over the years. This book reminds all that while Detroit wasn’t New York or LA, yet it created some of the best bands during the past 50 years.

Cowboy Tales Along the Trail

This was a very interesting look at the life and value of a cowboy, written from the perspective of the author's grandfather.  This book brings you back to a day where a man's integrity was important and his word was better than a contract.  If you believed in something you weren't too busy to take a stand and patience definitely was a virtue.  The stories were short and interesting and I found the book very enjoyable.

Mastering Peyote Stitch

I have several beading books but this is really one of the best. There are 15 projects  and I actually like all of them! Usually, with beading books I'm lucky if there's more than a couple of things from the book that I actually want to make. I love using peyote stitch so this is a good book to use for ideas. It has wonderful patterns and the instructions are clear and the great photos and illustrations make them easy to follow. This book is great for beginners and experienced beaders. Highly recommended! 

Relentless Pursuit

This book addresses the needs of those who feel like outsiders in their worlds.  The author takes a look into the Bible, history and even his own personal experiences  and offers a message of hope to those who are stand on the fringes.  The book was interesting to read and I enjoyed the various stories the author shared of those who were pursued by God.  The book has a very powerful message and I found it inspiring.

The Complete Book of Gimp

The Complete Book of Gimp is a massive volume which gives the GIMP user all the info they need to assist them while they are using GIMP. GIMP is used for photo editing as well as art design. It is very much like Photoshop without the high price tag. GIMP is free, and the users can download brushes and plug-ins right off of the net. This book allows you to have a detailed manual in hand to take away the mystery of using GIMP. This book works well for the novice or those with little knowledge of GIMP as well as for those who want to dig a little deeper.  Since there is so much information, I wouldn't try to read the book cover to cover, but refer to it as needed. It is an excellent resource.

Forgive & Forget

Honestly, I have never read a romance novel where the heroine was in the armed forces.  But when I was asked by the publisher to take a look at this book I was excited to read something a bit different.  I am glad I did.   The author is a Navy veteran, which evident as the book is impeccably researched and Ashby gives the reader insight into the ins and outs of working on a naval vessel, which I found very interesting.  The characters are well-developed and it delivers us a strong female hero who is self-sufficient yet, is tender enough to desire romance.  The storyline was intriguing and there were some twists and turns that I didn't expect.  All in all it was an entertaining read.

Why Wait to Be Great?

 
This is a fantastic inspirational book that was very hard to put down.  It offers great advice and the author was very accessible so that you felt like you were meeting with a friend. There were so many stories shared that I really related to and I came away feeling empowered.  It was a great read.

The Great Vegan Bean Book by Kathy Hester

Fabulous. Who knew there were so many options! Great for all occasions and all seasons - summer salads, winter soups, main dishes, side dishes. Over 100 recipes in this bean cookbook that covers the foods of every continent ranging from very simple to sophisticated.  The recipes cover the spectrum from appetizers through hearty casseroles, even some sweets using beans. The many sidebars, some more than a page long, give useful information, facts, quotations, personal stories and even folk songs.

Gender, State, and Medicine in Highland Ecuador

This book was so interesting.  If you are interested in women's issues across the globe, you will want to get a copy of this book and see how one woman, Matilde Hidaglo changed the playing field for women in Ecuador. The author tells the stories of Matilde and other women who forged the path for women in their culture to not only enter the workforce, but have access to education and professions that were previously off limits to the female gender.  The book is well-written and informative.  I found my heart swelling with pride as these women became one of "History's Women".

You can purchase the book on Amazon by clicking here.

Everyday Paleo

Eating Paleo is all the rage.  When I began over a year ago the resources were slim, but now you have many choices.  I highly recommend this cookbook to entice your family to go along with your choice to eat Paleo. The recipes are easy to follow. I know from experience as I have cooked many of the recipes and my family can't believe this way of cooking tastes so good.  Easy, step-by step directions and the author offers great dialogue as well.  It was a real treat!

The Empress Has No Clothes by Joyce Roche

I definitely recommend this book! It is a highly-readable book that shares Joyce’s extraordinary personal story, combined with accessible information from the research about this psychological experience and compelling, deeply-personal interviews with other remarkable leaders.            

Bread & Wine by Shauna Niequist

This book brought me many tears of joy, gratitude, memory, hope, and healing.  It also inspired me to get myself into the kitchen and around the table!  Shauna writes in such a way that you forget you are reading words on a page and instead feel as though you are sitting across from a dear friend, laughing and sharing insights and stories together over a delicious glass of red wine and the yummiest blueberry crisp.  Can't recommend this book enough.  It is perhaps the icing on her three layer cake of books.

And the Mountains Echoed

The author is such a wonderful storyteller. This man knows how to weave a story. I read Kite Runner and A Thousand Splendid Suns years ago and still remember the characters so well. I was so happy to read his latest offering and was not disappointed! He does a great job creating unique voices for each of his nine different characters. Beautiful!
                                   

Barbed Wire Baseball

As Americans, we often want to shield the parts of our country's history from our children.  The story of this book is a part of history that we often left untold.  The author does a wonderful job of bringing history to light and introducing the topic of WWII internment camps to children in a gentle way.  It is an inspiring, true story of how one man made the best of an awful situation during one of our dark days of American history.

Against All Grain

I love this book. I'm trying very hard to eat healthy. Paleo works for me. This gave me so much information as to why it's good to eat Paleo.  There are a bunch of great tasting recipes and what's even better is that they are easy to make. They are very few, if not any, weird, obscure ingredients. Whenever anyone asks me about good paleo recipes,I always suggest this book.  

A Little Salty to Cut the Sweet

I just finished reading A Little Salty to Cut the Sweet and I was sorry that it had to come to an end. I had never heard of the author before and was not a previous reader of Sophie's blog, but when I was given a copy to review, I found it intriguing so I dove right in.  I loved it so much I started checking out her blog!  I can't recommend this book enough. It is heartwarming, funny and thought provoking about all kinds of family relationships.