Mendicino Fire by Elizabeth Tallent

Just reading "No One You Know", tells me author Tallent knows us all very well. The story of a hidden affair and divorce, and then the moving on... but not quite...
Very well written short stories about relationships of all kinds. It's time to make a winter reading list, and you can start with this one:)

Read what the publisher, Harper Collins, has to say...

The long-awaited return of a writer of rare emotional wisdom.
The son of an aging fisherman becomes ensnared in a violent incident that forces him to confront his broken relationship with his father. A woman travels halfway across the country to look for her ex-husband, only to find her attention drawn in a surprising direction. A millworker gives safe harbor to his son's pregnant girlfriend, until an ambiguous gesture upsets their uneasy equilibrium. These and other stories—of yearning, loss, and tentative new connections—come together in Mendocino Fire, the first new collection in two decades from the widely admired Elizabeth Tallent.
Diverse in character and setting, rendered in an exhilarating, exacting prose, these stories confirm Tallent's enduring gift for capturing relationships in moments of transformation: marriages breaking apart, people haunted by memories of old love and reaching haltingly toward new futures. The result is a book that reminds us how our lives are shaped by moments of fracture and fragmentation, by expectations met and thwarted, and by our never-ending quest to be genuinely seen.

the Art of Memoir by Mary Karr

I have always thought my life would make a great book, and I am even more sure that I could write it  after reading Mary Karr's Memoir. She's an inspiring teacher.

Harper Collins says :

Credited with sparking the current memoir explosion, Mary Karr’s The Liars’ Club spent more than a year at the top of the New York Times list. She followed with two other smash bestsellers: Cherry and Lit, which were critical hits as well.
For thirty years Karr has also taught the form, winning teaching prizes at Syracuse.  (The writing program there produced such acclaimed authors as Cheryl Strayed, Keith Gessen, and Koren Zailckas.) In The Art of Memoir, she synthesizes her expertise as professor and therapy patient, writer and spiritual seeker, recovered alcoholic and “black belt sinner,” providing a unique window into the mechanics and art of the form that is as irreverent, insightful, and entertaining as her own work in the genre.
Anchored by excerpts from her favorite memoirs and anecdotes from fellow writers’ experience, The Art of Memoir lays bare Karr’s own process. (Plus all those inside stories about how she dealt with family and friends get told— and the dark spaces in her own skull probed in depth.) As she breaks down the key elements of great literary memoir, she breaks open our concepts of memory and identity, and illuminates the cathartic power of reflecting on the past; anybody with an inner life or complicated history, whether writer or reader, will relate.
Joining such classics as Stephen King’s On Writing and Anne Lamott’s Bird by Bird, The Art of Memoir is an elegant and accessible exploration of one of today’s most popular literary forms—a tour de force from an accomplished master pulling back the curtain on her craft.

miniOrganics Skin Care

Organic skincare products from Australia, award-winning certified organic products for moms to be and babies...BUT they are really just wonderful for anyone with sensitive skin.
For baby there are gentle washes and oils,  infused with delicate lavender and chamomile, these products are as gentle and soft as a baby's skin. For mom, gentle skin care for skin that has gone through so many changes during pregnancy, oils and moisturizers to help get skin back to normal after the baby is born. Go to miniorganics.com to see all of the great products. They make wonderful gifts for mom and baby:)

Kensington Apothecary Rose Oil Cleanser

My skin has always been oily, prone to break outs if I wasn't careful. I have used  many products for oily skin that would dry it out, I  thought that was what I was supposed to be doing. I read a beauty article about rose oil cleanser, but I never in a million years would have thought I would use one.
Until an opportunity came to sample and review Kensington Apothecary's Rose Oil cleanser.
It comes in a nice pump bottle. The ingredient list is loaded with organic oils: apricot kernel, olive seed oil, sunflower oil. and of course rose otto (oil). The fragrance is very delicate rose and while you are taking a few minutes to massage the oil all over your face, you get a bit of aromatherapy, too.
What I did was fill my bathroom sink with nice warm water and using a white cotton facecloth, I began removing the oil and removing all my make up with it! It feels like you are having a mini spa moment. The oil lifts out dirt and makeup and traps it..the warm water and cloth remove all of it from your face, leaving it sooo soft and ready for your nighttime serum. You have just got to try it !
Have a look at their website kensingtonapothecary.com to order products.