Friendship Bread by Darien Gee

It all begins with a loaf of Amish Friendship Bread with an anonymous note left on Julia Evarts' doorstep.  A grieving and depressed mother, Julia takes one look at the bag of starter and wants nothing to do with it.  That is until Julia and her daughter are finishing off the crumbs from the loaf of deliciously sweet bread and want more.  After the requisite ten days to make Amish Friendship Bread she realizes she's left with three extra bags of starter and doesn't know what to do with them.  And so starts this "edible chain letter" where the small community of Avalon are inundated with a gooey substance that will explode if left ignored. 

Friendship Bread is a touching, albeit somewhat predictable, story of love, forgiveness and of course friendship.  It left me with a crazy need to make friendship bread and I was very pleased to find the recipe for the starter, the basic recipe for the bread, and a dozen variations at the end.  I can't wait to get started!

Go The F**k To Sleep by Adam Mansbach

Written by an exhausted and fed-up parent, this is a hilarious children's book for adults.  Mansbach has struck gold by publishing what every parent has thought at some point about getting their child to sleep.  You don't even have to be a parent to be entertained by this book, although I think it's a great gift for first time parents.  Extra funny is this YouTube clip of Samuel L. Jackson reading the book.  As a warning though, if you don't like swearing, you probably won't like this book.

Girls in White Dresses by Jennifer Close

Girls in White Dresses is hands down my new favorite book and I will be recommending it to anyone who will listen.  By the way, thanks for reading my blog!  This novel is incredibly smart, sarcastic, and laugh out loud (and annoy everyone around you) funny.  I read the majority of this book in one sitting and was so sad to see it end.  I felt like all the women in the book just became my best friends and then got up and left me alone on my crappy couch.  Any female post-college living through the wedding and baby stage, whether themselves or enduring their friends' stages, will relate to this book.  Or for those women who have been through it all and wisely never want to repeat it.  Jennifer Close hilariously tells it like someone who knows.  I'm depressed it's over but so excited to read it again. 

Of course, I highly recommend getting it from your library however here's the Amazon link if you can't wait to read it!

The Hunger Games and Graceling

If you haven't read The Hunger Games yet, stop whatever you are doing and go get a copy of it! 

The Hunger Games is an annual death match in the post-apocalyptic world Panem.  The overruling Capitol seeks to prove their power when they choose one boy and one girl from each of the 12 districts to compete against each other in a death match.  Each book in this trilogy is action packed and you'll easily get hooked to the characters.  Better yet don't just get the first book, get them all!  (The Hunger Games, Catching Fire, Mockingjay)

If you have already read The Hunger Games try out Graceling. I recently started reading Graceling and it immediately reminded me of Hunger Games.  Both have strong female characters at the center of their stories.   I have yet to finish it but it's been great so far.