The Shape of Mercy October 10, 2008

I loved The Shape of Mercy by Susan Meissner!  I have already shared it with a friend and told her she’d love it.  The historical aspects of Mercy’s diary really appealed to me as did the reality of the characters.  Once I started reading, I couldn’t put it down.

Lauren Durough is a college student longing to break free of family expectations when she stumbles into a project for eighty year old Abigail Boyles—transcribing the journals of Mercy Hayworth, a seventeenth-century victim of the Massachusetts witch trials. Almost immediately, Lauren finds herself drawn to this girl who lived and died four centuries ago. The strength of her affinity with Mercy forces Lauren to take a startling new look at her own life, including her relationships with the mysterious Abigail, her college roommate, and a young man named Raul.  But on the way to discovering the candid truth, Lauren must earnestly ask if she is playing the role of helpless defendant or the misguided judge?  Can she break free from her own perceptions and recognize who she really is?

You can buy The Shape of Mercy on Amazon.com

The Road to Lost Innocence October 10, 2008

The Road to Lost Innocence by Somaly Mam was not a happy book, by any means.  It chronicles the struggles of the author as she grows from a young orphan, sold into prostitution, and escapes the life of a prostitute and devotes her life to help other women escape.

I would probably recommend this book to people who enoy reading autobiographies, but I wouldn’t read it again.  Honestly, I probably wouldn’t have finished it if I hadn’t felt obligated to do so.  It was a very sad story and seemed really repetitive in parts.

I salute Ms. Mam for the work that she’s doing and I feel for the very hard life that she’s lived, but I didn’t really like her book.

You can buy it on Amazon.com

August 20, 2008

Book: God Gave Us Heaven

Summary: Little Cub awakens one morning with some important questions on her mind: What is heaven like? How do we get there? Will we eat in heaven? Will we be angels?

During a delightful day spent wandering their arctic world, Papa gently answers each question, assuring Little Cub that heaven is a wonderful place, “a million times better” than she can imagine. He explains how God has made a way for those who love him to enter their heavenly home forever after their lives on earth are over.

Reuniting the best-selling author-illustrator team from God Gave Us You, this gentle story provides satisfying answers for a young child’s most difficult questions about heaven. Parents, grandparents, childcare professionals, librarians, Sunday school teachers, and others will appreciate the gentle approach to a topic that’s on the minds of so many “little cubs.”

Through captivating, full-color illustrations and tender, biblically sound storytelling, young readers and those who love them will find reasons to rejoice in knowing that God Gave Us Heaven.

Author Bio: Lisa Tawn Bergren is the award-winning author of nearly thirty titles, totaling more than one million books in print. She writes in a broad range of genres, from adult fiction to devotional. God Gave Us Heaven is Lisa’s fourth children’s book, following in the tradition of the best-selling God Gave Us You. She makes her home in Colorado, with her husband, Tim, and their children, Olivia, Emma, and Jack.

Illistrator Bio: Laura J. Bryant studied painting, printmaking, and sculpture at the Maryland Institute College of Art in Baltimore. She has illustrated numerous award-winning children’s books, including God Gave Us You, Smudge Bunny, and If You Were My Baby. Laura lives in Asheville, North Carolina.

Books: God Loves Me More Than That, and When God Created My Toes

Summary: In two new books from best-selling children’s author Dandi Daley Mackall, clever rhymes and delightful illustrations help young children, ages three and up, understand God’s huge love for them and his joy in creating them. These enchanting picture books from the writer-illustrator team of Dandi Mackall and David Hohn will instill awe in young children as they revel in each page. Parents alike will appreciate the engaging stories that communicate God’s perfect plan and his divine purpose for little hearts.

In God Loves Me More Than That, children learn that God loves them deeper than a wishing well, wider than a semi-truck, louder than thunder, and softer than a kitten’s sneeze. Each question, presented with charming child-like faith will help young ones grasp the great love of God through comparisons and descriptions they can easily understand. In short, they’ll discover that His love is bigger, wider, higher, and deeper than anything they could imagine!

In When God Made My Toes, kids are drawn into the wonder of their creation by God. Their masterful artist who fashioned them just right for amazing and delightful adventures, such as roller skating, finger-painting, doing flips, and drinking cocoa. Children will come to an understanding that God shaped each part of their amazing bodies with joy, delight, and humor.

Author Bio: Dandi Daley Mackall has published more than 400 books for children and adults, with more than 3 million combined copies sold. She is the author of WaterBrook’s two other delightful Dandilion Rhymes books, A Gaggle of Geese & A Clutter of Cats and The Blanket Show. A popular keynote speaker at conferences and Young Author events, Mackall lives in rural Ohio with her husband, three children, and a menagerie of horses, dogs, and cats.

Illistrator Bio: David Hohn is an award-winning illustrator who graduated with honors from the Maryland Institute College of Art. He has worked as both a staff artist and an art director for a children’s software company in Portland, Oregon, a position which led to his art directing an award-winning project for Fisher-Price. Hohn’s recent projects include Lisa Tawn Bergren’s God Gave Us Christmas.

I thought all three books were really cute and understandable for little ones. I would suggest this for kids under 6 years of age. The pictures were all lovely and I’ve recommended these to several of my friends with little ones.

With Endless Sight June 10, 2008

This was a quick read for me, and although I found it a bit predictable, I did enjoy it and would definitely recommend it to my friends.

With Endless Sight by Allison Pittman

Summary:

Belleville, Illinois and Wyoming Territories, 1861

Born into a life of privilege, fourteen-year-old Belinda never questions her security, even as she leaves Illinois with her family to discover new adventures in the Oregon Territory. But when disaster falls, Belinda is left wounded, weak, and alone. Her faith in God gives her the only strength she knows in a harsh new world.

Belinda’s journey takes her to a snow-covered mining camp and a red-roofed brothel in the Wyoming mountains, but not before she must spend a lonely winter with the man who took away the life she knew. Throughout the grief and hope of a strange land, Belinda must decide if her faith is big enough to allow her to forgive.

The satisfying conclusion to the Crossroads of Grace series, With Endless Sight offers a rich story of family, new beginnings, and the freedom that grace can bring.

Buy With Endless Sight at Amazon.com

Fatal Deduction May 22, 2008

I enjoyed this novel. It was well written, witty and believable. I kept trying, but never was able to guess “who done it.” I would absolutely recommend this to a friend.

Fatal Deduction by Gayle Roper

Libby Burton longs to be close to her twin sister, Tori, but their lives have taken them in different directions. Forced to share Aunt Stella’s old Philadelphia home in order to receive their inheritance, Libby hopes for a change, but it isn’t looking good so far.

First, Tori tries to steal the affection and allegiance of Libby’s thirteen-year-old daughter, Chloe. Then when a crossword puzzle with a hidden warning shows up on their doorstep, Tori refuses to take it seriously—in spite of the dead man who delivers it.

Libby finds comfort in neighbor Drew Canfield, but he hesitates to trust her after his disastrous marriage. As Libby struggles to act faithfully in the midst of these confusing relationships, she must also deal with a stolen diamond and a botched kidnapping. The answer to her problems lies in the riddles of the crosswords, if only she can solve the puzzle before it’s too late.

You can purchase Fatal Deduction at Amazon.com

Skid May 22, 2008

This was not one of my favorites. It seemed like a lot was missing. There was a bit at the beginning about the family, but it didn’t really come into play later. Pretty much everything we learned in those pages was reiterated later. We never do find out what happens to the characters on the plane. They weren’t very realistic “people” to me, but I still felt the need for some closure.

Skid by Rene Gutteridge

Blissfully unaware that Atlantica Flight 1945 from Atlanta to Amsterdam is about to make aviation history, First Officer Danny McSweeney focuses his energies on navigating the turbulent personalities of an eccentric female captain, a co-pilot with a talent for tactless comments and conspiracy theories, and a lead flight attendant with an outsized attitude that definitely exceeds the limits for carry-on baggage.

On the other side of the cockpit door, the unscheduled in-flight entertainment includes a potbellied pig, a jittery diamond courier, and the recently jilted Lucy Meredith, whose personal mantra of “What Would Oprah Do?” will be challenged by the sudden appearance of her ex and his new traveling partner. On her left sits Hank Hazard, whose unusually polite but constant requests–prompted by his covert role as a spy for the airline–test the limits of the crew’s customer service.

But as Lucy and the rest of the crew discover, Hank’s odd behavior is linked to a quiet faith that may play a key role in the fate of everyone on board. Especially when an unexpected traveler sets this already bumpy flight on a course toward the unfriendly skies.

You can purchase Skid at Amazon.com

My Soul to Keep May 17, 2008

I very much enjoyed this novel. It’s the third in a series and I think it would have been slightly more enjoyable had I read the first two as well. It was suspenseful and funny. I could see the characters clearly in my head and found them believable even if the plot was not quite so…

My Soul to Keep by Melanie Wells

As nasty as I knew Peter Terry to be, I never expected him to start kidnapping kids. Much less a sweet, funny little boy with nothing to protect him but a few knock-kneed women, two rabbits, and a staple gun…

It’s psychology professor Dylan Foster’s favorite day of the academic year–graduation day. A day of pomp, circumstance, and celebration. And after all the mortar boards are thrown, Dylan and some of her best friends will gather around a strawberry cake to celebrate Christine Zocci’s sixth birthday. But the joyful summer afternoon goes south when a little boy is snatched from a neighborhood park, setting off a chain of events that seem to lead exactly nowhere.

Police are baffled, but Christine’s eerie connection with the kidnapped child sends Dylan on a chilling investigation of her own. Is the pasty, elusive stranger Peter Terry to blame? Exploding light bulbs, the deadly buzz of a Texas rattlesnake, and the vivid, disturbing dreams of a little girl are just pieces in a long trail of tantalizing clues leading Dylan in her dogged search for the truth.

You can buy My Soul to Keep on Amazon.com.

Healing Promises May 12, 2008

I enjoyed this book. The characters were pretty realistic and the plot flowed smoothly. It was a bit predictable, but that was just fine with me. This is a novel I would recommend to my friends.

Author: Amy Wallace

Facing a new threat.
When FBI Agent Clint Rollins takes a bullet during a standoff, it might just save his life. But not even the ugly things he’s seen during his years working in the Crimes Against Children Unit could prepare him for the overwhelming powerlessness of hospital tests revealing an unexpected diagnosis. If only Sara weren’t retreating into doctor mode…he needs his wife now more than ever.

Frozen in fear.
Sara Rollins is an oncologist with a mission–beating cancer when she can, easing her patients’ suffering at the very least. Now the life of her tall Texan husband is at stake. She never let the odds steal her hope before, but in this case, the question of God’s healing promises is personal. Can she hold on to the truth she claimed to believe?

Faith under fire.
As Clint continues to track down a serial kidnapper despite his illness, former investigations haunt his nightmares, pushing him beyond solving the case into risking his life and career. Clint struggles to believe God is still the God of miracles. Especially when he needs not one, but two. Everything in his life is reduced to one all-important question: Can God be trusted?

You can purchase Healing Promises at Amazon.com

A Mending at the Edge April 21, 2008

A Mending at the Edge is the third book in the Change and Cherish series. It tells the story of feisty Emma, a woman who has grown up in a religious commune and is sent from Missouri to Oregon with her husband and several other scouts to find a new commune home.

I really enjoyed this whole series. The books were based on an historical figure and were believable. These are the first blog tour books that I passed on immediately to a friend. I was disappointed when I reached the end. Jane Kirkpatrick hit several home runs in a row with this series.

A Clearing in the Wild

Spirited young Emma Wagner chafes at the constraints of her 1850s religious community, which values conformity over independent thought, especially in women. Skeptical of the colony’s growing emphasis on preparing for “the last days,” Emma clashes with their increasingly autocratic leader—and faces the unexpected consequences of pursuing independence.

A Tendering in the Storm

This lyrical novel, based on an historical figure of the 1800s, follows the spirited and intelligent Emma Giesy, who achieves her goal of separating her family from the repressive religious community in which she grew up. But unexpected and dire consequences leave her family—and her faith—struggling to survive.

A Mending at the Edge

This richly textured novel, the third in the acclaimed Change and Cherish series, follows the historical figure of Emma Wagner Giesy, who chafes under the restrictions of her 1860s religious colony. When her bid to belong in her unique way unravels her most precious relationships, she seeks new ways to stitch meaning into her life.

You can buy A Mending at the Edge on amazon.com.

Family Squeeze March 20, 2008

I enjoyed Phil Callaway’s Family Squeeze. It was a quick and (mostly) fun read. I felt like it was really a collection of stories for his family more than a book meant to be read by the world. My daughter is far from her teen years yet, so I couldn’t really relate to all of the teenage happenings in the book, but we have ill parents on both sides of our families, so I could relate to the progressive debilitating illness and Alzheimer’s portions of the book. I’ll likely pass this on to a girlfriend of mine, who is also in her early 30s with a young daughter, but I think she’ll find Mr. Callaway’s wittiness and knack for storytelling as enjoyable as I did.

Purchase Family Squeeze at Amazon.com.