Captain's Log, Stardate 05.31.2009 Leave any prayer requests in the comments and I’ll be praying this week. You don’t have to be Christian to leave a prayer request. If you’d rather not advertise to everyone on the blogosphere, just leave an unspoken prayer request or e-mail me. If I forgot your prayer request, email me. Not to be mean or anything, but if you don't email me or comment to update your prayer request, I'm only going to pray ONE Sunday. I’m trying something new with my Sunday Prayer. I’m really bad about doing it on Sunday , so I’ll be updating it during the week. Dear Lord, thank you for your grace. I pray for complete healing for B., Malia, Cheryl, Sharon, Juanita, and Lorna. I also lift up any of my blog readers in need of physical, emotional, or spiritual healing and pray you will touch them. Be with any blog readers who are out of a job or whose loved ones are unemployed. Please provide for their families and give stability. I especially lift up K.B.’s hus...

Above All Things by Deborah Raney Steeple Hill Books Expecting their first baby, Judd and Evette McGlin are thrilled to become parents. But the couple faces the ultimate test when Judd learns he already has a child: a six-year-old mixed-race girl born amid secrets and lies. Now, Evette must decide if she can accept the child. She's always thought of herself as open-minded—until hidden prejudices threaten her marriage and the future of an innocent little girl. Above all things, this child needs acceptance and love, and Judd and Evette need to discover what it truly means to be a family. Raney has a knack for helping readers to look at difficult issues from many angles. ~4 STARS, RT Book Reviews Buy from Christianbook.com Buy from Amazon.com To read an excerpt of these new titles go to Chapter-a-Week . If you don't belong to Chapter a Week, it's free and easy to join. Just click here .

"ANGEL OF WRATH" by Bill Myers Burned-out Special Ops Agent Charlie Madison; Lisa, a friend who has been kicked out of the FBI; and Jaz, his quirky thirteen-year-old niece, must work together to find a ruthless serial killer. The madman systematically murders one "sinner" after another who attend a popular mega-church that is focused on increasing attendance. "Bill Myers is a genius. Not only is Angel of Wrath full of engaging characters and heart stopping suspense, but underneath it explores thoughts and truths that will keep you pondering long after the book is closed." —Lee Stanley, producer, Gridiron Gang On the heels of his interesting and unique story The Voice, Myers offers a tale that is at times terrifying, yet all too real. Readers will be drawn into the realm of the supernatural and pray that the characters can find a way out. With excellent writing that draws readers into the characters' lives, this is a must read. --Romantic Times (April 2...

Captain's Log, Stardate 05.29.2009 Who Made You A Princess? (All About Us Series, Book 4) by Shelley Adina Shani Hanna returns to SpencerAcademy for her senior year after an amazing summer spent with her friends Lissa, Gillian, and Carly. But the best part about summer was meeting Danyel Johnstone. Danyel is cute, smart, cool, and super nice. All Shani has to do is get him to see her as more than just one of the gang. But when the girls return to school, they find a new addition to the distinguished student body: Prince Rashid al Amir of Yasir, an oil-rich desert kingdom in the Middle East. Prince Rashid moved to California to prepare for an eventual MBA at Stanford . . . and to romance his future wife: Shani Hanna! It turns out, Shani's family and the prince's go back for generations, entwined in tradition, obligation, and family honor. In each generation, members of the two families have expanded their business interests through arranged marriage. Will Shani put ...

What’s all the hubbub about Amish fiction? Major media outlets like Time and ABC Nightline are covering it, and authors like Cindy Woodsmall are making the New York Times bestseller list regularly. What makes these books so interesting? Check out the recent ABC Nightline piece here ( http://abcnews.go.com/ Nightline/story?id=7676659& page=1 ) about Cindy and her titles When the Heart Cries , When the Morning Comes , and When the Soul Mends . It’s an intriguing look at Amish culture and the time Cindy has spent with Amish friends. And don’t forget that Cindy’s new book The Hope of Refuge hits store shelves August 11, and is available for preorder now.

Captain's Log, Supplemental I’m over at Faithchick today, going a little TMI, talking about running and detours (the life kind, not the running kind) and discipline and all the other stuff I suck at. :) Click here to read my post on Faithchick.com

Captain's Log, Stardate 05.28.2009 Rose House by Tina Ann Forkner A vivid story of a private grief, a secret painting, and one woman’s search for hope Still mourning the loss of her family in a tragic accident, Lillian Diamon finds herself drawn back to the Rose House, a quiet cottage where four years earlier she had poured out her anguish among its fragrant blossoms. She returns to the rolling hills and lush vineyards of the Sonoma Valley in search of something she can’t quite name. But then Lillian stumbles onto an unexpected discovery: displayed in the La Rosaleda Gallery is a painting that captures every detail of her most private moment of misery, from the sorrow etched across her face to the sandals on her feet. What kind of artist would dare to intrude on such a personal scene, and how did he happen to witness Lillian’s pain? As the mystery surrounding the portrait becomes entangled with the accident that claimed the lives of her husband and children, Lillian is ...

Captain's Log, Stardate 05.27.2009 I had so much fun with this before that I decided to do it again! You guys are just too good! RULES: 1. Pick 15 of your favorite movies. Or movies that you have seen 2. Go to IMDb and find a quote from each movie. 3. Post them here for everyone to GUESS (please don't Google it or do a search on IMDB--what's the fun in that?). 4. When someone guesses correctly, put who guessed it and the movie. 1. I do anything and everything Mr. Stark requires. Including occasionally taking out the trash. Will that be all? Ironman kalea_kane 2. Cassie, his heart will stop at the sight of you, or he doesn't deserve to live. And, yes, I am aware of the contradiction embodied in that sentence. 3. The code is more what you'd call "guidelines" than actual rules. Pirates of the Caribbean: Curse of the Black Pearl Ruth 4. I don't LIKE food. I LOVE it. If I don't love it, I don't SWALLOW. Ratatouille Danica/Dream and Charity Lane...

Captain's Log, Stardate 05.26.2009 I grew up eating octopus, also called tako in Japanese, so for any of you grossed out by that, you have to realize that it doesn’t seem strange to me since I’ve eaten it all my life. We know lots of people who go spear fishing, and we’d often get fresh tako to eat. We don’t eat it raw, it’s always boiled. Here's grandma cutting the tako into bite sized pieces. This is a piece of the tako before cutting. I'm not sure what part of the body it is. Here you can kind of see the tentacles. Captain Caffeine obligingly took this photo so you can see the suckers. And here he is eating it. Yum! It's a little chewy but usually pretty soft. It doesn't taste fishy like, well, fish, but tastes a bit like abalone. It also doesn't have that metallic flavor of clams or oysters. The Captain and I both love it.

Today's Wild Card author is: T.L. Higley and the book: City of the Dead (Seven Wonders Series) B&H Books (March 1, 2009) Up from the sands of Egypt rises the Great Pyramid, where Hemiunu, Pharaoh’s Grand Vizier, commands the historic building project as he orders his life—with justice, truth, and precision. But when a series of murders at the site threatens chaos, Hemi must abandon his legacy to hunt down the killer who may be closer than he would like to think. Can he restore justice to the city before his careful life and work are destroyed, or will a mysterious people and their strange God uncover the secret past that Hemi has tried to forget? ABOUT THE AUTHOR: From her earliest childhood, there was nothing Tracy loved better than stepping into another world between the pages of a book. From dragons and knights, to the wonders of Narnia, that passion has never abated, and to Tracy, opening any novel is like stepping again through the wardrobe, into the thrilling unknown. W...

Captain's Log, Stardate 05.25.2009 For my dad’s 70th birthday party, my grandma made shrimp tempura. She makes the BEST tempura! She knows just how long to cook it so the shrimp is tender and the outside golden crispy. Here is her setup. She uses a combination of the tempura batter, dry flour, and panko (Japanese) breadcrumbs. I'm not sure why, but she always fries it on the propane cooker. Maybe for easier cleanup, or faster cooking than the gas stove. Yup! She uses chopsticks to fry! Don't they look delish??? They tasted good, too! And, of course, Kuro haunted the kitchen to gaze longingly at the good smells coming from the countertop, hoping for some random droppage.

Captain's Log, Stardate 05.25.2009 The Night Watchman by Mark Mynheir Eleven months ago, Ray Quinn was a tough, quick-witted Orlando homicide detective at the top of his game–until a barrage of bullets ended his career…and his partner’s life. Now medically retired with a painful handicap, Ray battles the haunting guilt for his partner’s death. Numbing the pain with alcohol and attitude, Ray takes a job as a night watchman at a swanky Orlando condo. But when a pastor and an exotic dancer are found dead in one of the condos in an apparent murder-suicide, Ray can no longer linger in the shadows. The pastor’s sister is convinced her brother was framed and begs Ray to take on an impossible case–to challenge the evidence and clear her brother’s name. Ray reluctantly pulls the threads of this supposedly dead-end case only to unravel a murder investigation so deep that it threatens to turn the Orlando political landscape upside down and transform old friends into new enemies. A...

SHADOWS ON THE RIVER (Steeple Hill/Love inspired Suspense) by Linda Hall SHADOWS ON THE RIVER is the story of Ally Roarke. When she was a young teenager she saw her best friend pushed to her death. Here are Ally's own words: "I was only fourteen when I witnessed a murder on the riverbank. A murder that went unpunished. Unless you count what happened to my family. We were forced out of town by the teenage killer's prominent parents. And the murder was forgotten—by everyone but me. Now, the killer is a respected businessman. I can't let him get away with it. But I'm a single mother with a child to protect, what can I do? The new man in my life, Mark Bishop, warns me to be careful. For there's already been another murder. Close to home." A bit about Linda: Award winning and twice Christy-nominated author Linda Hall has written fifteen novels plus many short stories. She has also worked as a freelance writer, news reporter and feature writer for daily newspap...