Ricki Jill

Happy Literary Friday, My Lovelies! How has your first week of November treated you? I'm getting into holiday mode around here, but I have put aside a little time to read, including a new memoir written by Sara McDaniel, the founder of Simply Southern Cottage.

About The Bright Side of the Other Side: Notes from a Soul Restored

Publisher: Thomas Nelson

Publication date: October 13, 2026

Join home renovation expert and entrepreneur Sara McDaniel of Simply Southern Cottage on a journey that goes far beyond transforming old houses. In The Bright Side of the Other Side, she shares her own story of starting over after her life was leveled by a devastating divorce, a health crisis, and career loss. It was in the dust and grime of an abandoned 1926 cottage that Sara discovered a blueprint for her own restoration—and a powerful reminder that even from the most broken foundations, a beautiful new life can be built.

This is more than a memoir; it’s a field guide for finding hope in your hardest moments. With the southern charm and heartfelt honesty of a dear friend, Sara demonstrates how the principles of home restoration—seeing potential in the forgotten, having faith through the mess, and diligently working toward renewal—apply to the restoration of the human heart. If you’re walking through the wreckage of your own life, feeling abandoned or broken, this book offers you the tools and inspiration to start rebuilding, one day at a time.

Discover how to

find strength and purpose when your life plans have crumbled;
see God’s craftsmanship at work in the middle of your messiest moments;
embrace the difficult process of healing as a beautiful act of renewal;
cultivate resilience and hope, even when the future is uncertain; and
recognize the profound parallels between restoring a broken home and rebuilding a broken life.

Let Sara’s story of incredible faith and resilience show you that no matter how deep the demolition, there is always a bright side waiting for you on the other side of hardship.

About the Author

After a devastating divorce, Sara McDaniel moved to Minden, Louisiana, and walked away from her corporate career to rebuild her life. Restoring a dilapidated 1926 cottage became a powerful metaphor for her own healing—each nail and brushstroke echoing the faith and hope that guided her forward. Sara now shares this journey of resilience and transformation online, inspiring people to embrace second chances. Beyond renovating homes, she founded Phillip’s Cottage, a transitional haven for women and children in recovery, and opened Purvéy, a vintage emporium in historic downtown Minden. Furthering her mission to showcase beauty in the broken, Sara also renovated The Villas at Spanish Court: eight abandoned apartments turned into a boutique overnight stay experience just on the edge of downtown Minden. Her story proves that from broken foundations, new beginnings can rise.

My Review

I first learned about Sara McDaniel while reading an issue of Cottages & Bungalows Magazine (February/March 2023). The issue featured her project of restoring The Villas at Spanish Court in Minden, Louisiana. I think that the tiny villas were built in the 1930s. When Sara purchased them, they were dilapidated and had been neglected for decades. She kept so much of the original charm of the villas during renovation, and I absolutely fell in love with the apartments. I love her style, and she is not afraid of color. One of my favorite things about them was how each one had a distinct personality, and she has a way with wallpaper.

After reading the issue, I immediately went to Instagram and started following Sara. She had already made a name for herself due to her renovation of her cottage and the videos she made of her renovation projects. Through Instagram I started following her blog. Sara is a powerhouse, and I wish I had one-tenth of her energy. Since y'all read blogs already, you might enjoy reading hers if you don't follow her already.

When TLC Book Tours asked me if I wanted to be a part of their book tour for The Bright Side of the Other Side, I was so excited because I wanted to read more about her story. Sara's voice is so charming, and I was shocked at how much she went through in a short amount of time. Her resilience and courage is so inspiring to me. Her faith and determination got her through heartbreak, and not just from her divorce. I don't want to give away any spoilers, but she does share more heartbreak, and yet through her faith she is able to use her grief for good in order to help and encourage others.

As the book progresses, it's so easy to see God's hand in Sara's life. She suffers disappointments only to receive unexpected blessings. Stories like hers truly inspire me to keep trying and hoping on bad days.

Sara has done so much for her hometown of Minden, and I would love to visit one weekend. You can read about a few of her projects in her town, and there might also be a love story in it, too. But the main part of the story is maintaining faith during the valleys because they will eventually lead to mountaintop moments.

Have any of you been following Sara? Let me know in the comments below!

Disclosure: I received a paperback copy of The Bright Side of the Other Side from the publisher via TLC Book Tours in exchange for a fair and honest review.

TLC review tour schedule:

Tuesday, October 13th: @dana.loves.books

Monday, October 19th: @readingpastdark.marcia

Friday, October 23rd: @teaandbookstoo and Reading, Writing, and Pondering

Monday, October 26th: @peachy.paperbacks – feature

Saturday, October 31st: @bookstoldbycourtney

Monday, November 2nd: @megsbookclub

Friday, November 6th: The Bookish Dilettante

Monday, November 9th: @beckys_bookshelves

Wednesday, November 11th: @the.joy.within.every.page

Monday, November 16th: @books_old_and_new

Friday, November 27th: @nissa_the.bookworm

Until next time...

Happy reading!

Ricki Jill

Literary Friday: The Bright Side of the Other Side

Friday, November 6, 2026

Hello, My Lovelies! Can you believe that it's November? The countdown to the Christmas Holidays is in full swing.

Today I'm sharing a Thanksgiving tablescape with you along with thirteen other bloggers. If you're hopping in order, then you're linking from The Dinner at Eight Blog. I'm the end of the line! ;P

I'd like to thank my friend Rita from the Panoply blog for hosting these blog hop parties.

Thanks so much, Rita!

Because I'm a new grandmother, I'm in full Christmas mode around here. I've already taken down almost all fall decor and all Halloween decor, and I've already started decorating for Christmas. I'm not hosting Thanksgiving this year, however I do want to have something festive for Thanksgiving in our home until Black Friday because I have so many things to be thankful for! So.... I put together a very casual Thanksgiving tablescape in our dining room.

Come on in!

I used these Le Jacquard Français placemats to break-up the busy pattern of the tablecloth.

I can't decide whether they help or hinder. I got tied-up playing with a lot of my table linens and ran out of time!

Full disclosure, I've been going through and editing our table linens, and I decided to use this really old garden-themed tablecloth. It's older than my oldest daughter, and I'm always confused about whether it's a spring or fall tablecloth because it has both spring and fall flowers on it along with vegetables. The colors remind me more of fall, though. I decided to keep it because I like how it's faded, and it reminds me of when we were first married.

Sometimes I like to use houseplants as centerpieces. I love the pretty colors in this rex begonia.

I'm very thankful for our family and home. We've lived in our neighborhood for over thirty years. Everyday when I come home, I drive by one of the neighborhood lakes that always has geese, ducks, and herons. Seeing the beauty of nature near my home is such a blessing to me.

I placed a few pumpkins, houseplants, floral arrangement, and rag banner on the sideboard just to zhush it up a little.

This is probably not my favorite tablescape for Thanksgiving, but I had fun putting it together. I'm thankful I felt like participating and doing the incredible chore of editing forty years of collecting linens. The ducks and geese make me smile, and we've been celebrating the milestones, holidays, and the everyday with MacKenzie-Childs since Mr. Bookish and I married.

Our florist at our local Pig is AH-mazing. She introduced me to these terracotta Lisianthus flowers, commonly called eustoma. Although they are usually summer flowers, I love the terracotta color of these for fall.

I might make Mr. Bookish turtle soup and use the tureen. The soup is usually served with sherry, and I can use the pumpkin gravy boat to hold it at the table. I can put water and tea in the pitchers.

Thank you for reading my blog. I am so thankful for YOU, my blog friends!

Resources

Tablecloth, matching napkins, gravy boat, tureen: Vintage from Williams-Sonoma

Duck and goose plates, dark green candlestick, small pumpkins: Pier1

Placemats: Le Jacquard Français via Christine's on Canterbury, Mountain Brook, AL

Chargers, sugar and creamer set, serving platter, napkin rings, pumpkin vase: MacKenzie-Childs

Banner: Etsy

Port crystal glasses: Waterford Lismore

Green etched and cut glasses: Green Row

Houseplants: The Houseplant Collective and Leaf and Petal

Vintage pitchers: Laura Ashley

Salt and pepper set: Anthropologie

Blog Hop Participants:

Panoply - A Thanksgiving Table of Endless Harvest Blooms

Everyday Living - A Bounty of Blessings

Life and Linda - A Ralph Lauren Thanksgiving

Me and My Captain - Thanksgiving!..."As for me and my house, we will serve the Lord".

Hyacinths for the Soul - Abundance ~ Thanksgiving Tablescape Hop

The Cat's Whiskerz - Thanksgiving with Feathered Friends

Mantel and Table - Friendsgiving After Dark: A Beautiful Fall Table

My Thrift Store Addiction - Friendly Village Vintage Thanksgiving Breakfast Table

The Little Yellow Corner Store - The Fall Harvest Tablescape for Thanksgiving

Olla Podrida - A Colorful Thanksgiving Table for Two

Corner of Plaid and Paisley - A Bundle of Thanksgiving Tablescape

Thrifting Wonderland - Thanksgiving with the Birds Thrifted Tablescape

Dinner at Eight - Styling a Simply Classic Thanksgiving Table

The Bookish Dilettante - Giving Thanks Tablescape

Until next time...

Happy Thanksgiving!

Ricki Jill

Giving Thanks Tablescape

Tuesday, November 3, 2026

Happy Literary Friday, My Lovelies! Today I'm sharing with you a dual timeline novel set partially during World War II entitled The Hanford Necklace by Shannon St. Hilaire.

About The Hanford Necklace

Publisher: She Writes Press

Publication date: October 6, 2026

Gilmore Girls meets Oppenheimer in this dual-timeline family saga, set in a Manhattan Project town, about a granddaughter who uncovers her grandmother’s nuclear-age secrets and her own toxic inheritance.

What is the half-life of O’Toole family secrets?

In 2013, Saige is stuck living with her Granny Rosamond in her beige wasteland of a hometown. Desperate for a diagnosis and cure for her mysterious ailments, she uncovers more than she bargained for—a hot rock that shouldn’t exist and a past Rosamond refuses to explain.

That past takes place in the 1940s, when 50,000 people move to an eastern Washington town that doesn’t exist to build something they can’t name. Rosamond is one of them, eager to do her bit for the war effort—and find a husband. When she falls for a charming engineer, she envisions a perfect life. But as the hot war turns cold and her ever-expanding family becomes increasingly troubled, she discovers this nuclear town is no utopia, and she must decide whether to cling to the destructive facade of domestic bliss or face the truth that could save them all.

When Rosamond’s past collides with Saige’s search for healing, half-buried secrets—from the most contaminated place in the Western Hemisphere to the wounds within their own family—can no longer be ignored. Can Saige discover the truth and heal herself without destroying her grandmother’s life?

“The Hanford Necklace is an absorbing and haunting novel—one that will linger long with readers . . . A truly heart-rending, revelatory work.”—Maryka Biaggio, author of Gun Girl and the Tall Guy and Margery and Me

“A visceral page-turner about a granddaughter uncovering the plutonium-laced secrets of her grandmother’s past and a complicated family legacy created at the intersection of science and patriotism, secrets and lies, violence and love, and what happens when home is the thing that’s slowly killing you.”—Ellen Baker, author of The Hidden Life of Cecily Larson

About the Author

Shannon St. Hilaire writes about forgotten histories and the fascinating women who lived through them. She is the author of To Look Upon The Sun, The Ones Who Stayed, and The Hanford Necklace. Her short work placed first in the 2020 Forge Flash Nonfiction Competition and has appeared in literary journals such as New Delta, X-R-A-Y, HAD, and Five South. She serves on the board of directors for The People’s Colloquium, a non-profit that supports free education in the arts and humanities, and lives just outside of Portland, Oregon.

My Review

First of all: Isn't the cover pretty? I'm always a sucker for pretty covers, I'll admit it.

When I agreed to review this book for TLC book tours, I thought that it was a family drama/saga (which it is), and that it must involve some type of family heirloom (a necklace). Boy was I ever wrong!

Spoiler Alert

A Hanford necklace is the scar someone has after having their thyroid removed due to thyroid cancer. It refers to the Hanford site in Eastern Washington State on the Columbia River. Established in 1943 as part of the Manhattan Project, the site was home to the Hanford Engineer Works and B Reactor, the first full-scale plutonium production reactor in the world. Supposedly it's the most toxic site in the Western Hemisphere. I have not confirmed that, though, so do your own research.

End Spoiler

This novel was as if Erin Brockovich was historical, giving a World War II reason why people in Washington State are developing thyroid cancer among other ailments. What I found to be most compelling was that this dual timeline, and from the points of view of those living through this - like Saige, who's sick and facing walls and secrecy when she wants answers about her illness. And she's in the more current timeline, generations later. This is so interesting, delving into the underreported consequences of historical action.

I wouldn't say that this is as cozy as the Gilmore Girls meets Openheimer as stated in the book blurb, but this is a truly fascinating part of our history that is presented in such a clear and relevant way! This is certainly a great pick for historical fiction readers, and I would rate it five stars on Goodreads.

I sort of wish I had trigger warnings before having started reading this book because I have a Hanford necklace. I experienced sinking feelings while reading it.

Disclosure:

I received a pretty Advanced Readers Copy of The Hanford Necklace from the publisher via TLC Book Reviews in exchange for a fair and honest review.