This is a nice little story that explains simply that God is the creator and one of his creations is light. Some of it reads more like a tongue twister, but children will enjoy the lighthearted story. I didn’t, however, care for the illustrations. The pictures are water color style, but the children were just too odd looking. Large heads, and large bellies with an overly thin neck. It wasn’t a cute cartoon image. One picture looks like the child has had her eye ripped out. It was just an okay book for me.
A copy of this book was provided to me for an honest review.
Thursday, March 22, 2018
Saturday, March 3, 2018
Lullaby Road by James Anderson
While this book is a
bit of a rambler, the interesting characters made this book an
interesting read. A bit quirky, but definitely unique characters you
would expect to meet in a hideaway rural area. Don’t expect too
realistic of a story and just be entertained by where the story goes.
The main character of Ben is a warm, generous and caring person,
although he would never admit to it. The strong characters are
enhanced by the beautifully described locations.
The author has one
previous book, The Never-Open Diner, that
would best be read first. I received a copy of Lullaby Road from the
Blogging For Books program in exchange for an honest review.
Thursday, February 1, 2018
The Last Christians by Andreas Knapp
Andreas Knapp, a
German priest, traveled to Iraq to accompany a friend to his father’s
funeral. He brought back the stories of the suffering of Christians
and Muslims under IS (ISIS), as they have been driven out of their
homelands and are flooding the western countries as refugees.
There are many
heart-wrenching stories of the devastation and destruction of homes
and historic churches. He wrote of his experience with children
living and playing as if nothing has happened, a 75 year-old man
learning a new language, and some horrible frightening abuses. The
culture of both the Christians and Muslims of this area is difficult
for a westerner to understand. The women and children are left behind
as the men escape. In one case the author was going to be taken to a
dangerous area and the women and children were taken along so that
the men traveling together wouldn’t be suspicious.
This is very much a
political opinion book. There are criticisms of the United States
based on “investigations” that go without names, explanation or
footnotes. His conclusion is that there should be no borders, no
borders, or fences and countries should accept anyone, Christian and
Muslim. The insinuation that the United States is not doing enough is
insulting to someone who is living in an area that was flooded with
hundreds of thousands of Muslim refugees that have to be given food,
housing, and medical care.
Monday, July 3, 2017
Life after Heaven by Steven R. Musick
This is a
well-written book and a fast read. It is 187 pages, double spaced.
It is uplifting and encouraging to those living with and overcoming
a debilitating illness. I had high expectations after reading the
praise and good reviews for this book. The actual ND experience was
not really the emphasis of the story, but more about his ability to
see God working in his life through “Bubbles of Heaven.”
It had some very
good stories in it, and they emphasized some good life lessons.
However, when I read a non-fiction book that wants to influence me
spiritually, I expect every word of that book to be true. Perhaps the
lapse of time influenced the telling of the stories, but there are
some things that just don’t ring true.
The first was the
lack of knowledge about the specifics of his medical condition at the
time of his ND experience. Even if I can overlook that, there is a
story that I doubt happened as described. He tells of his witness of
child abuse when a big burly man hit a child in a restaurant. He
bravely confronted the man and told the cashier to call 911 and have
them send police and social services. After shaming the man, he said
to the cashier, “Tell the dispatcher it was a mistake. Everything’s
going to be okay.” Then they all went on with their meals. The
problem that immediately bothered me is that you can not reverse a
911 call. The police will come, especially if there was an argument
with swearing, as he states, in the background. There would be an
investigation of the incident.
The book has benefit
and it has good messages. I just did not believe some of it to be
true.
I received this book
as part of the Blogging for Books program in exchange for an honest
review.
Saturday, June 3, 2017
Long Black Veil by Jennifer Finney Boylan
Long Black Veil
started out more in the horror genre, but moved quickly to a mystery.
While there are a lot of twists it was quite a let-down after the
tense beginning. The story revolves around an incident that happened
to a group of teens when one of them disappeared. There is a definite
lack of character development except for the transexual main character . He/She
is so self-absorbed that it is difficult to care much about all that
is happening. The other characters fade with little information. The
only thing I learned about Casey was that he was fat and liked to
eat.
There were too many
unresolved issues in the rather eye-rolling ending. One curiosity was
the odd spelling of miao, used instead of miaow or the most common
meow. It was weird and annoying, as was the character of
Quentin/Judith suddenly saying Miao. (Miao is a Chinese term
unrelated to cats.)
A story that started
off very well, but fell into a mediocre mystery.
Wednesday, May 3, 2017
I am No One by Patrick Flanery
This
is a very wordy book that goes off on long rambling thoughts that
lead to nowhere between small bits of storytelling. This could
probably have been a good novella or short story, but the
overwhelming wordiness is more of a distraction than an addition to
the story. There was one very long thought process on whether he
should consider himself an American or English because he was born in
the U. S., but had the accent of someone from England. It had nothing
to add and came across as rather silly. It was a painful read.
I
received the book as part of the Blogging for Books program.
Tuesday, March 28, 2017
The Acid Watcher Diet by Jonathan Aviv, MD.
After suffering from
reflux for many years and going through pills that rarely made me
feel better, I was hopeful that The Acid Watcher Died would have a
solution. It is a very informative book divided into three sections:
Acid Disruption and your diet, Food and lifestyle prescriptions, and
the 28 day blueprint for reducing acid damage, revving up metabolism,
and staying healthy for life.
The information on
acid and reflux conditions is extensive, informative, and written so
that it is easy to understand. The diet and Healing Phase section of
the book is also very extensive. There is a list of food and drinks
to eliminate from the diet that makes sense, but is not easy to
follow. I have eliminated those I can and limited a couple
drastically. Many people with reflux also have other digestive
ailments and some of the recommendations for added foods (including
about half of the vegetables) are not appropriate. For me, the major
problem with the diet is the heavy reliance on fish. Unless you live
in a coastal region, fresh fish is not fresh or tasty. You do have
the options of chicken and turkey. Red flags go up for me when
certain brands are mentioned, certain salts are considered better
than others, and have ingredients that can only be purchased online.
There is a selection
of recipes, but I did not bookmark even one of them to try. I can’t
even imagine why the Luxurious Chocolate Torte that contained 2
sticks of butter and full-fat Greek Yogurt in an 8” pan is
considered healthy.
This is a good,
informative book, but if you don’t live in an area with a Whole
Foods or fresh seafood, the recipes section won’t be of much help.
I received this book in exchange for an honest review.
Tuesday, March 14, 2017
You Carried Me, A Daughter’s Memoir by Melissa Ohden
A baby facing
serious medical challenges was adopted into a loving home. With much
love and support, Melissa flourished. When she was in 8th
grade, her sister made an angry comment about her birth and her
mother had to explain the horrible truth that Melissa’s birth
mother had aborted her, but she lived.
This is not exactly
a story about abortion, but more about searching for and reaching out
to her birth family and maturing into a young woman with her own
family. It is about an amazing spirit of forgiveness. The best part
of the book is that the way her story unfolds. The birth extended
family was reluctant, but little by little Melissa learned about her
birth family. She has faced numerous struggles throughout her life,
but her spirit of love and forgiveness shines all through the book.
The only thing that
bothered me about the book was that she told a story about a famous
person’s numerous abortions. I guess it had previously been made
public, but I thought it was not her story to tell, and it sounded
too much like gossip.
As sad as her story
is, it is a very uplifting book. She has overcome so much and has
come out of it as a positive, strong person.
Thursday, February 16, 2017
The City Baker’s Guide to Country Living by Louise Miller
I listened to this book because I received an audio version of The
City Baker’s Guide to Country Living with 8 CDs.
I don’t know if any author starts out to write characters that are unlikable, but I didn’t find any character in this book of any real interest. The dialog was so overly descriptive that I frequently lost interest. If you think a lengthy description of the main character unwrapping of a stick of butter and how it “felt” on the knife sound interesting then you may love this book.
I found a lack of continuity of the story that seemed to jump from one scene to another suddenly. This, of course, may have been because I was listening to the audio book and would have been less confusing in the written version. For example, there was a very long description of a drive down the road and suddenly someone was offering her a tray.
The audio was read by Jorjeana Marie. I don’t know if she was attempting an accent or trying to hide one, but there were some odd pronunciations. The tray described above was pronounced “trah” and window became “wind-e”. A few words I just let pass because I didn’t want to back track the CD.
I received an audio copy from the Blogging For Books program.
I don’t know if any author starts out to write characters that are unlikable, but I didn’t find any character in this book of any real interest. The dialog was so overly descriptive that I frequently lost interest. If you think a lengthy description of the main character unwrapping of a stick of butter and how it “felt” on the knife sound interesting then you may love this book.
I found a lack of continuity of the story that seemed to jump from one scene to another suddenly. This, of course, may have been because I was listening to the audio book and would have been less confusing in the written version. For example, there was a very long description of a drive down the road and suddenly someone was offering her a tray.
The audio was read by Jorjeana Marie. I don’t know if she was attempting an accent or trying to hide one, but there were some odd pronunciations. The tray described above was pronounced “trah” and window became “wind-e”. A few words I just let pass because I didn’t want to back track the CD.
I received an audio copy from the Blogging For Books program.
Wednesday, January 18, 2017
Chase: The Hunt for the Mute Poetess by Thomas Dellenbusch
Type: KopfKino is a German
term for Theatre of the Mind and to describe a book that is a
movie-length-story with a reading time of between 60-180 minutes.
Enrique Allmers was
heading to a restaurant when a woman ran into him, quite literally.
He realized she was being chased and was in immediate danger. She was
quite the mystery because she was unable to speak, but “Rique with
the help of some friends, was able to help the young lady with her unfolding mystery.
A little different
from the books I normally read, this Theatre of the Mind places you
in a story without any foundation. So be prepared to start and hang
on for this fast-moving thriller beginning with the first words on the page. I
liked the variety of characters which were diverse in age and types. The story
is well-written and the translation was also done very well.
I received an
electronic version of the book in exchange for an honest review.
Tuesday, January 17, 2017
Faceless Killers, by Henning Mankell
After watching 4
seasons of Wallander on Netflix, I was left wanting more. I decided
to pick up a couple of Kurt Wallander mystery books by Swedish author
Henning Mankell that have been translated from the Swedish by Steven
T. Murray.
When an elderly farm
couple is brutally murdered with no obvious reason, Wallander and his
team have few clues to solve this crime. The character of Wallander
is a complicated character that can be unpredictable. He is far from
being the perfect police inspector, but he is dogged in tracking down
the criminals. Faceless killers is a constantly progressing police
procedural with a satisfying ending. I am looking forward to the
second book I purchased by Henning Mankel, The Pyramid.
Thursday, December 29, 2016
Photographs from the Edge by Art Wolfe
This is a book of photographs taken by Art Wolfe from 1983 to 2015
all around the world. Each photograph has a camera/film/exposure
guide, an explanation of the shot, the nature of the photo and a
photo tip. The photos are amazingly beautiful and the photographer’s
notes about the shot and locations give even more depth to the
subjects. The subjects are varied, with animals, people
and landscapes. Not quite large enough to be a “coffee-table” book, some
of the photographs get crossed over to the facing page by an inch or
two. I found it a bit of a distraction, but does not take away from
the overall beauty of the photos.
About the Author
ART WOLFE’s photographs are recognized throughout the world for their mastery of color, composition, and perspective. He is a recipient of the Photographic Society of America’s Progress Medal, the coveted Alfred Eisenstaedt Magazine Photography Award, and the Lifetime Achievement Award from the North American Nature Photography Association. Wolfe’s award-winning television series, Art Wolfe’s Travels to the Edge, airs on PBS stations throughout the country and worldwide. He is a popular educator and speaker for such companies as Microsoft, IBM, and Sheraton Hotels, and is the author of many books, including The New Art of Photographing Nature and The Art of the Photograph. For more information, visit artwolfe.com.Monday, December 12, 2016
The Gospel in George MacDonald, Selections from His Novels, Fairy Tales, and Spritual Writings - Plough Publishing
The
Gospel In George MacDonald, perfectly titled, is a wonderful
collection of stories by a man in whose life you could see the
Gospel.
Divided
into 5 sections and 23 topical sections, each contains a variety of
sources, including a
section from a sermon, a letter, or favorite writings of other
authors. This book can be used as
a devotional, or to find a special section when your heart is in need
of encouragement concerning one of the topics
covered.
It is a hopeful, Christ centered life in words filled with hope and
enthusiasm.
Just
as an example, I spent considerable time reading and rereading a
short paragraph at the beginning of the chapter on Prayer. It was a
simple passage from a novel by Wilfred Cumbermede: “I looked up to
the blue sky, wept, and for the first time fell on my knees. “O
God!” I cried, and that was all. But what are the prayers of the
whole universe more than expansions of that one cry? It is not what
God can give us, but God that we want.”
From
the back of the book: George
MacDonald (1824-1905) was born in Aberdeenshire, Scotland. After
sparking controversy as a preacher, he left the ministry to pursue a
literary career, writing over fifty books to support his family of
eleven children. To this day, MacDonald’s novels, fantasies, and
children's stories are cherished for their literary quality and
spiritual insight; C. S. Lewis has said that MacDonald’s influence
can be found in every book he wrote.
Wednesday, November 23, 2016
SkinnyTaste Fast and Slow by Gina Homolka
I had not heard of SkinnyTaste before but understand now
that the author has a website http://www.skinnytaste.com/ with really good recipes. This cookbook, Skinnytaste
Fast and Slow, has a lot of good points, but over all did not appeal to me.
Let me cover the good first.
All of the recipes are labeled as Quick (Q), Pressure Cooker (PC), Slow
Cooker (SC), Vegetarian (V), Gluten-Free (GF), Dairy-Free (DF) or
Freezer-Friendly (FF). There is a good
variety of each. One recipe I want to
try is Crustless Slow Cooker Apple Pie A la Mode.
The photographs are very good, but the general appeal of the
recipes is lacking. Most of the dishes looked like a variety of chopped ingredients
dumped on a plate and sprinkled with other ingredients. The simply did not look
appetizing to me. I was also a little surprised to see under the “Healthy
Mornings” chapter a recipe for Brussels Sprout Hash with Bacon and Eggs. Brussels
Sprouts for breakfast? There is one section called “Zoodles, Sqashta, Pasta,
and sauce. You will need a kitchen tool called a spiralizer for these recipes.
I will say this cookbook is good, but not great.
I received a copy of SkinnyTaste Fast and Slow in exchange
for an honest review.
Tuesday, November 8, 2016
Everything Beautiful by Waterbrook Multnomah Publishing
Grown-up coloring books have become very popular of late and
Everything Beautiful is a welcome addition.
On the cover, it says it is a coloring book for inspiration and
reflection.
There is a wonderful variety
of designs with some with sharp lines and triangles, some with flowers and
leaves, hearts, scenic, lacy and much more. In the center of each is an inspirational
message or Bible verse in lovely fonts. Some examples:
- You really are loved. Just as you are. More than you know.
- I have learned the secret of being content in any and every situation. Philippians 4:12
On the backs of each design page are other verses,
information about the author of the quotes, or song lyrics.
I found these color pictures to be very relaxing, with not
too much intricacy, and even my granddaughter (5) enjoyed coloring one. It is a lovely book and I highly recommend it.
http://waterbrookmultnomah.com/
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