Kim Love Stump

Diet for the MIND is a book I HIGHLY recommend. The author is the researcher/creator of the MIND diet - a combination of the Mediterranean Diet and the DASH Diet (for heart health). It's encouraging and will make you feel like you can BOTH help your mind and eat delicious food! Bon Apetit!

The Skimm recommended Long Bright River, but I'm not sure I can do the same. Don’t get me wrong, it’s very well written and for those of us who are police procedural junkies (my particular poison is Law and Order SVU) it is definitely worth a read - it slowly builds into a fast, suspenseful read and I did enjoy it. I just don’t think it’s an unqualified “I loved it”! But if you want to check it out - and you may, it has 4.5 stars on Amazon - click the title above.

This Tender Land - First book of 2020! And it was an excellent read. From the very first page you can tell you’re in the hands of an excellent storyteller. Set in the midst of the depression and by the author’s own admission a bit of a Huck Finn book, I found it most excellent. 

For those of you who enjoy dark and twisty reads like Girl on the Tain and Gone Girl, Then She Was Gone is a great book. Sad, tragic, psychological, redemptive - it pretty much has it all. Well done, Lisa Jewell!!

Tried to buy the @reesesbookclubxhellosunshine April book selection, Happiness, but the bookstores were all SOLD OUT! I like my #memoirs as physical books so I will have to be patient for a couple of days! Until then.... the riveting Then She Was Gone by Lisa Jewell of the UK is keeping me excellent company!! #bookaday #kimlovelovestoread #authorsofinstagram

Happy #spring #easter and #springbreak one and all!! 🌸 🐣 🏖  = = #bookgiveaway #bookaday #kidlit #yalit#authorsofinstagram #fantasy#bookstagram #bookish

For a favorite children’s Christmas book on this ninth day before Christmas we have Jan Brett’s book Christmas Trolls. This one is particularly good if you have some kiddos who are all about the getting and not the giving! Funny and sweet with a message of giving AND receiving!

My favorite children's Christmas book for this second Sunday of Advent is "Christmas in the Barn" by none other than Margaret Wise Brown​ of Good Night Moon​ fame. It is a sweet retelling of the Christmas story complete with animals, shepherds, and wisemen. It's a newer edition with bright and engaging illustrations by Anna Dewdney​.

On this first Sunday of Advent I'm posting my most favorite retelling of the Christmas story, The First Christmas. It's a beautiful, quiet book and the black silhouette illustrations enable you to put yourself in the story without distractions. It uses text from Matthew and Luke from the King James Version so it is very lyrical.

Today’s favorite Christmas Book (#6) is Eric Carle’s Dream Snow. Which I know for a fact is a favorite at my friend Jennifer’s home. Happy reading all you mom and dads!

The first day of December brings The Night Before Christmas. This is a beautiful edition with intricate decorate borders on each page. Though tempted to hold this one until - well, you know - the night before Christmas, that would be far too late for you to get a copy! The Little Golden Book version was the staple at my home growing up and I LOVED it!

Favorite Children’s Christmas Book #4 was recommended by my daughter, Stuart Mullens (nee Stump), The Year of the Perfect Christmas Tree. And since it’s, at least partially, a daddy-daughter tale, it’s only appropriate that her Daddy is holding the book for this photo. Thanks, you two! 

Christmas Book #3 - It’s How the Grinch Stole Christmas! Who can resist little Cindy Lou Who? Or the Grinch, when he learns Christmas is so much more than "what comes from a store." You can keep track of the full list of my favorite Christmas books right here as it grows day by day. 

If yesterday’s choice of The Polar Express stands a good chance of making you cry, today’s book The Best Christmas Pageant Ever is guaranteed to make you laugh. And a shout out to Charlotte’s of Charlotte, NC for letting me borrow their Christmas tree for this photo!

Now that we're turning from Turkey to Tinsel (i.e. from Thanksgiving to Christmas), I thought I'd post some of my favorite Christmas books for you moms and grandmoms to read aloud to your little ones this season. I have to start with The Polar Express, which as my two children can attest, I could hardly ever read to the end without crying! The Polar Express​ contains its own special kind of Christmas magic - many thanks Chris Van Allsburg​.

Jodi Picoult’s book Small Great Things is an excellent novel that explores white supremacy and racial prejudice. I cannot recommend it highly enough.