The celebrated journalist, producer, and bestselling author takes us on a culinary journey from Italy to Afghanistan, from Mexico to Massachusetts, a memoir of travel, food, and personal (mis)adventure. In Vietnam, preconceptions collide with the soup; in France, lust flares with the pâté and dies with the dessert; in Bolivia, a very young missionary finds her food flavored with hypocrisy; while at the bottom of the Grand Canyon, an older woman discovers gorp is good, fear is your friend, and Thai chicken tastes best when you're soaked by rain and the Colorado River.

Poison Apple Books: Thrilling. Bone-chilling. These books have bite!Twelve-year-old Emma-Rose Paley has always felt different from her bubbly, outgoing parents. Unlike them, Emma-Rose has pale skin and jet-black hair, is quiet and moody, and prefers gray weather to sunshine. She also hates the taste of garlic, has very sharp incisors, and loves rare burgers. When Emma-Rose uncovers a dark family secret, she has a sudden revelation. Could Emma-Rose be a real, live vampire?

BIG APPLE TO BAY STATE is the 5th book in the continuing series called The Suppers Series. It is a meticulously-crafted fictionalized, real-life-based story of the life journey of a naturalized American citizen who was earlier born into a polygamous African family of a father, with eight wives and forty six children. Dege the principal character was the 3rd of 46 children of his father and the first of the six children of his mother. The series eloquently narrates Deges years growing up, going to school, passing through an excruciating civil war, then medical school, and ultimately his immigration to the United States of America where he took up citizenship and was to literally start life anew. He initially, on his own volition, ministered to the best but most challenged of America, the finest men and women who had unfortunately lost their minds to Alzheimers disease and who had to be confined in a facility. However, a new horizon was to open up to this adventurous son of Africa from some seven thousand miles away from home as from the sunny West coast he relocated first to New York City and later to Massachusetts. Interlacing with matching poetry, Big Apple to Bay State narrates the joys and vicissitudes of urban New York City with its congestion, subways, 24 hour ceaseless buzz, and dazzling neon lights and the sharp contrasts for Dege as he and his wife relocate to a more remote, yet highly sophisticated Western Massachusetts community with multitudes of cooperating if not competing higher educational institutions. The adventure continues as the senior goes back to school and and finds fulfillment rehearsing many unfamiliar volumes of books. Eloquent and captivating stories meticulously crafted like no other, subtly persuading, subtly challenging; stories which glue the attention of the reader from the beginning to the end. Although a continuing series, each book in the Suppers Series can stand independent of the others as each tells a unique and captivating story. The earlier 4 books in The Suppers Series are "Suppers of Many Dishes part 1", "Suppers of Many Dishes Part 2", "Coming Late to America" and "A Spot to Perch".

The tightly-knit Elevator Family In New York City! Walter, Winona, Winslow, Whitney Wilson, and their scruffy, gray dog, Cat, have been invited to the Big Apple to appear on the Not Too Late Show! Where does the Elevator Family choose to stay? In perhaps the most famous elevator of all, the one that goes up to the eighty-sixth floor of the Empire State Building. Book with Tunes! Scan the QR codes or click on links to hear the songs.

When Belle Lee, a vivacious, tart-tongued daughter of Mobile, Alabama, decides that the only way she'll ever make a name for herself as a journalist is to leave the family paper and head to New York,she soon realizes just how daunting life in the big city can be. An outsider desperate to carve a place for herself in the cutthroat world of New York journalism, Belle marches all over town in her kitten heels and her single Chloé suit to hand-deliver résumés and smiles, and to beg for a job from the indifferent or downright hostile office drones. She refuses to give up. With heroic persistence,a wicked sense of humor and a taste for the gourmet, Belle sees what it takes to become a New Yorker. She flirts with a gorgeous young man on the subway, only to learn later that he's stolen her purse; braves the judgmental stares of her neighbors; goes on a series of hilariously disastrous dates and then, finally, she catches her big break: a job as a production assistant at a conservative twenty-four-hour news network. Belle throws herself into her work, sure that her talents will be noticed. All the while, she suffers the sexually suggestive commentary of one of the station's better-known male anchors, doggedly fetches scripts and pulls footage in the wee hours of the morning while working the midnight shift. Belle even maintains her Southern charm, baking cakes for her coworkers and befriending the office security guard. Things start to look up when Paige Beaumont, the channel's star female news anchor, takes Belle under her wing. Paige shows Belle the ropes, dispenses career advice, includes her in the office gossip and also sets her up on dates at restaurants where, before, Belle had only dreamed of one day being inside. But when Belle uncovers the truth behind an illegal network deal that may jeopardize the election of female presidential candidate Jessica Clayton, she realizes that intelligent and ambitious women need to stick together -- and she has no choice but to take matters into her own hands. With thirty recipes for everything from Bribe-Your-Coworkers Pound Cake to Single-Girl Sustenance and how to make the perfect Manhattan -- all told in the delightful and plucky voice of a determined and saucy young woman -- Belle in the Big Apple is about finding love in the most unlikely places, following your dreams and staying true to yourself.

Poison Apple Books: Thrilling. Bone-chilling. These books have bite!Ashlee Lambert, the queen bee from THIS TOTALLY BITES, has had a tough time ever since she became a full-fledged vampire. But now that she's moving from New York City to sunny Los Angeles, she's excited to make a fresh new start.But Ashlee never counted on a clique of popular mean girls or awful sunburns. Keeping her huge secret is suddenly harder than ever. And when something -- or someone -- starts attacking people at her school, Ashlee realizes she's not the only vampire in town. It's up to Ashlee to figure out who's behind the attacks before her cover is blown forever!