Well-Seasoned Reader Challenge Wrap-Up

Today is the final day of the Well-Seasoned Reader Challenge. It was required that you read 3 books. The books had to have a food name in the title OR be about cooking/eating OR have a place name in the title OR be about one (or more) person's travel experience OR be about a specific culture OR be by an author whose ethnicity is other than your own. They also needed to be middle-grade on up.

I was able to do four books:

1. Lessons From San Quentin - Bill Dallas (Place name in title)
2. The Spring of Candy Apples - Debbie Viguie (Food in title)
3. Trail of Crumbs - Kim Sunee (about food/eating, food in title, and author different ethnicity than mine)
4. The Fruit of My Lipstick - Shelley Adina (Food in title)
   

This was a fun challenge and I am glad that I participated. Thank you Book Nut for hosting!

The Fruit of My Lipstick by Shelley Adina (Book Review)

Title: The Fruit of My Lipstick (Book 2 in the All About Us Series)
Author: Shelley Adina
Publisher: Faith Words/Hachette Books
Genre: YA/Christian fiction

First sentence: The New Year. . . when a young girl's heart turns to new beginnings, weight loss, and a new term of chemistry!

Christmas break is over and we are back at Spencer Academy with Lissa, Gillian, Carly, and Shani. Since Lissa was able to tell her story about Callum in It's All About Us (and Carly will share her story in book 3 - Be Strong and Curvaceous) it is Gillian's turn to come clean about her infatuation with Lucas Hayes - the smartest guy at Spencer Academy.

Lucas is working towards the Physics Olympiad when he and Gillian hook up. Gillian has never had a boyfriend before and is pretty quick to get swept up in the moment. While she likes Lucas, and always looks forward to seeing him, she doesn't always feel quite happy after her time spent with him - but it is nothing that she can put her finger on, so she just chalks it up to not having anything to compare it to. At the same time, though, she needs to concentrate on her own grads or her Type A dad will be coming down on her pretty hard!

Most of the other juniors are studying hard also, except for those that have been buying exam sheets from Source10. Nobody knows who this person is - but the whole junior class is going to be punished with F's if they are not caught!

First, one of Gillian's friends is suspended for the deed - then Gillian herself is put on house arrest as a suspect! They give their problems to God and pray that the truth will come out - but will it happen in time to save the semester? And where will this leave Gillian in her relationship with Carly, Lissa and Shani - not to mention Lucas!

I enjoyed this book as much as I did the 1st and 3rd books in the series. I like the way they gradually lead you into Christianity without being preachy. I think this series would definitely be good for those teens/young adults struggling with their faith.

The fourth book in the series - Who Made You a Princess? is due out in May 2009!

Trail of Crumbs by Kim Sunee (Book Review)

Title: Trail of Crumbs: Hunger, Love and the Search for Home
Author: Kim Sunee
Publisher: Hachette Book Group
Genre: Nonfiction/Memoir

First sentence: Let me start by saying where I am.

From the cover: Kim Sunee was abandoned in a Korean marketplace at the age of three and raised by adoptive parents in New Orleans. But by the age of twenty-two, her life was totally transformed - she found herself the companion of a French mogul, and mistress over his homes in Paris and Provence. Yet despite the glamorous trappings, Kim never felt quite at home. It was only in the kitchen, where she encountered exotic ingredients and fed crowds of friends, that she felt she truly belonged. Trail of Crumbs is a compelling personal narrative of the search for home pursued among the tastes, aromas, and sensuality of food across three continents.

This book was beautifully written! It led you through Kim's life - most of it centered in her 20's after she had moved out of the United States. It showed such a deep yearning to try to understand where she fit in, where she belonged, that you just wanted to reach into the book and take her in your arms to let her know that it would all be okay. By being "lost" by her mom, she grew up always searching, never quite feeling "at home."

I interpreted the title "Trail of Crumbs" to be a metaphor for two things. First, she used to have a dream about her and her brother as Hansel and Gretel, just waiting for the moon to come out so they could see the trail of crumbs - only to find out that they had been eaten by the birds. Secondly, how she seemed to feel most comfortable in the kitchen, regardless of where she was, cooking wonderful dishes for friends. So as she traveled, she left her own 'trail of crumbs'. Her book is doctored with tales of wonderful foods in exotic (to me) places. At the ends of many of the chapters are recipes of what sound like delicious dishes. I hope someday to have the courage to try some of them. (There is an index in the back of the book listing these recipes.)

You must read Kim's story of loss and loneliness as she loved, in her way, Olivier, but could not come to accept the life he created for her.

"Somehow, I thought, he'll never realize that the everything he wants to give me will never take away the nothing that I've always had." (p66)

Join her as she searches for acceptance and family and discovers a strength to let go of what cannot be changed and move forward.

About the author: Kim Sunee has been featured in the New York Times, Ladies' Home Journal, People, Elle, and Glamour. She is the founding food editor of Cottage Living and the host of "Local Flavor with Kim Sunee" for MyRecipes.com. You can visit her website at http://www.kimsunee.com/.

The Spring of Candy Apples by Debbie Viguie (Book Review)

Title: The Spring of Candy Apples (Book 4 in Sweet Seasons Series)
Author: Debbie Viguie
Publisher: Zondervan
Genre: Teen Fiction/Christian

First sentence: Candace wondered how every couple of months she managed to wind up seated across the desk from a Zone executive.

The Spring of Candy Apples is the 4th book in the Sweet Seasons series, but it read well as a stand alone, as I have not had the opportunity to read the first three books.

We catch up with Candace during her interview for The Zone's college scholarship to Florida Coast College. The interview is with John Hanson, the owner of The Zone, an amusement park in California. Candace was entered into the running by her friend, Josh, for her rendition of a new amusement park ride called Balloon Races. During the interview, Candace also gets promoted from a seasonal employee to a regular part-timer working at The Candy Counter.

Candace's life is getting busy. She enjoys working at The Zone and is also involved in a talent show that is coming up there. Add to that the lead in her school play, Man of La Mancha, boyfriend, best friends, and her church youth group.

Over the course of the book we meet Tamara, her best friend and fellow castmate in Man of La Mancha. She and Tamara have been best friends for a very long time and have planned to go to UCLA together. Candace does not know how she is going to tell her friend that she is considering going to Florida Coast.

Kurt is her boyfriend whom she met after she started working at The Zone. He used to be Lisa's boyfriend, another Zone employee, and this has brought out a host of problems and animosity in Lisa.

She also met Josh working at the Zone and he quickly became a good friend. It also benefited her friend Tamara as she is seriously dating Josh's brother James. Josh always seems to be around when Candace needs reassurance or someone to talk to - and he is also a Christian.

Join Candace as she decides if Kurt is "the one", which college to choose, and how Josh figures into all this!

This was a very cute story and a quick read. It was definitely not preachy, but was able to get across the story of salvation through it's characters. It was a light read but covered romance, touched on family issues, values, and handling important choices. I would recommend for girls 14-18 years old.

John's Quest by Cecelia Dowdy (Book Review)

Title: John's Quest
Author: Cecelia Dowdy
Publisher: Heartsong Presents
Genre: Christian Fiction/Contemporary Romance

First sentence: The loud banging at Monica Crawford's front door awakened her.

Monica's life changed when her younger sister Gina dropped off her seven-year-old son Scotty in the middle of the night. She claimed she was going on the road with her circus boyfriend and needed Monica to take care of him while she was gone.

Monica didn't have a choice. She was a Christian and had always been the more responsible sibling. She had thought that at her age she would be married with children of her own - but it hadn't worked out that way. Kevin, her last boyfriend, had dumped her 2 years before, and was already married to someone else and had a baby.

Scotty, her nephew, was blind and Gina hadn't made it a priority to see that he attended school regularly. Monica soon found out that he was behind. She promptly hired a tutor.

John was an agnostic, but had spent most of his free time during the last 10 years working with blind children. Scotty immediately took to him and Monica also felt a pull towards him.

As their friendship grows, Monica is torn as she knows she cannot date a non-believer. John is struggling with his beliefs also. His parents had raised him to be an agnostic, but then they had accepted Christ six months before they were killed in an auto accident. He had never gotten to talk with them about why they changed their beliefs.

Can Monica handle raising a blind child? How will she deal with her growing attraction to John? Will John come to understand and accept Christ? And when Gina comes back in the picture, will she take Scotty and run?

I liked this book and it was very quick to read. I wish that it would have dug deeper into John's issues with Christianity and how/why things ended the way they did with him (not going to spoil it for you!) It was fun to read a Christian romance though!

Lessons From San Quentin by Bill Dallas with George Barna (Book Review)

Title: Lessons From San Quentin: Everything I Needed to Know in Life I Learned in Prison
Author: Bill Dallas with George Barna
Publisher: Tyndale House
Genre: Nonfiction/Personal Growth

First sentence: When I entered San Quentin for the first time, I was only thirty-one years old.

This is the story of Bill Dallas' journey from high-flying real estate magnate to prisoner H64741 in San Quentin. Bill Dallas was a "boy wonder" in the real estate market in the late 80's, but when the market crashed in the 90's, so did his life. He was found guilty of commingling of funds (using money from one project to fund another one without the investor's knowledge).

During his legal battles he started to question his faith - or lack thereof. In 1991 he even asked Jesus into his heart. But he tried to "earn" his salvation by memorizing scripture and reading the Bible rather than having a real relationship with Christ.

Upon his conviction, he was sent to a minimum security prison where he learned fire-fighting techniques - with the plan that he was to finish his sentence at a fire camp. Due to circumstances out of his control he was sent to maximum security at San Quentin.

In San Quentin he had to hit rock bottom before he could start his climb out. With the help of the Lifers at San Quentin he discovered what faith in God really means and begins to discover what he calls his "transforming principles".

I loved this book and found so much that I can apply to my life - and my own "prisons". My plan is to copy down his transforming principles and hang them somewhere in my house where I can read them often! I highly recommend this book for anyone looking for a deeper relationship with Christ and more fulfillment in their life. You can go here to read the first chapter.

Well-Seasoned Reader Challenge

I like those challenges that make you find something in a title or book, etc - so this one should be fun to hunt down books for!

Here's how it works:

Rule #1: The challenge runs from January 1 to March 31. (No cheating and starting before!)

Rule #2: You must read three books. After that, it's up to you how much you want to read.

Rule #3: The books must: have a food name in the title OR be about cooking/eating OR have a place name in the title OR be about one (or more) person's travel experience OR be about a specific culture OR be by an author whose ethnicity is other than your own. I'll leave it up to you to choose how the three books you read fit the criteria.

Rule #4: They must be middle-grade on up, but can be either fiction or non-fiction.The purpose, this winter, is to take yourself someplace out of the ordinary, to go on a literary trip, whether that be challenging your expectations, discovering a new place, or enjoying the experience of reading about good food, places, and people.

Sign up using the Mr. Linky at challenge host website - Book Nut.

1. - The Joy Luck Club - Amy Tan (author different ethnicity than mine)
2. - Drinking Coffee Elsewhere - ZZ Packer (food in title)
3. - Trail of Crumbs - Kim Sunee (about food/eating and different ethnicity than mine)

Books read:

1. Lessons From San Quentin - Bill Dallas (Place name in title)
2. The Spring of Candy Apples - Debbie Viguie (Food in title)
3. Trail of Crumbs - Kim Sunee (about food/eating, food in title, and author different ethnicity than mine)
4. The Fruit of My Lipstick - Shelley Adina (Food in title)