Where I share my love of books with reviews, features, giveaways and memes. Family and needlepoint are thrown in from time to time.

Wednesday, August 31, 2011

Library Loot (Aug 31, 2011)

Library Loot is a weekly event co-hosted by Claire from The Captive Reader and Marg from The Adventures of an Intrepid Reader that encourages bloggers to share the books they've checked out from the library.  If you'd like to participate, just write up your post - feel free to steal the button - and visit the above 2 blogs to see who has the Mr. Linky this week. Don't forget to check out what others are checking out!


Our library is closing soon for about 5 weeks to complete some renovations, so I have been stocking up!

Witches on the Road Tonight
by Sheri Holman

By the best-selling author of The Dress Lodger, Sheri Holman's new and most ambitious novel to date, Witches on the Road Tonight, uncovers the secrets and lies that echo through three generations of one Appalachian family.  It is a deeply human, urgent exploration of America's doomed love affair with fear.

On the eve of World War II, eight-year-old Eddie Alley lies in bed watching his first horror movie, hand-cranked and flickering on the bare wall of a backwoods cabin.  In 2011, Eddie's daughter, Wallis, an anchorwoman for a twenty-four-hour news channel, lies in bed with a stranger, spinning ghost stories.  Between these two nights winds the story of the Alley family -- Eddie's mother, Cora, an Appalachian mountain witch who slips out of her skin after nightfall; Captain Casket, Eddie's alter ego, a campy 1970's TV horror-movie host; and Jasper, the orphaned boy Eddie brings home, who is determined to destroy Eddie's illusions even if it means destroying himself.

Deftly moving from the rural, Depression-era South to modern New York City, Holman teases out the dark compulsions and desperate longings that can blur the line between love and betrayal.  Witches on the Road Tonight is an unflinching story that digs at the roots of myth -- both familial and societal -- and beautifully renders our perpetual yearning to make sense of the past in our present.



Left Neglected
by Lisa Genova

Sarah Nickerson is like any other career-driven supermom in Welmont, the affluent Boston suburb where she leads a hectic but charmed life with her husband Bob, faithful nanny, and three children -- Lucy, Charlie, and nine-month old Linus.

Between recruiting the best and brightest minds as the vice president of human resources at Berkley Consulting; shuttling the kids to soccer, day care, and piano lessons; convincing her son's teacher that he may not, in fact, have ADD; and making it home in time for dinner, it's a wonder this over-scheduled, over-achieving Harvard graduate has time to breathe.

A self-confessed balloon about to burst, Sarah miraculously manages every minute of her life like an air traffic controller.  Until one fateful day, while driving to work and trying to make a phone call, she looks away from the road for one second too long,  In the blink of an eye, all the rapidly moving parts of her jam-packed life come to a screeching halt.

A traumatic brain injury completely erases the left side of her world, and for once, Sarah must pay close attention to the details surrounding her, including her formerly absent mother.  Without an awareness of the food on the left side of her plate or even her own left hand, she is forced to search for answers in the void of this strange hemi-world -- both about the past and her uncertain future.

Now, as she wills herself to regain her independence and heal, Sarah must learn that her real destiny -- her new, true life -- may lie far from the world of conference calls and spreadsheets.  And that a happiness and peace greater than all the success in the world is close within reach if only she slows down long enough to notice.


Powers: A Novel
by John B. Olson

"Bury me standing.  I must be buried standing."

Deep in the swamps of southern Louisiana, Mariutza's beloved grandfather whispers his ominous last request -- and dies in her arms.  All her life he's looked after her, trained her in the old Gypsy ways and kept her hidden away in the swamp.  But now. . .

The Badness has found her.

Mari's only hope is to find Jaazaniah the Prophet, the legendary hero of her grandfather's bedtime stories.  But how can a girl who has never left the swamp survive the terrifying world of men long enough to find a saviour who may not even exist?

In the heart of New orleans, musician Jazz Rechabson runs for his life.  Everyone is out to get him. Soldiers, government agents, mysterious hoooded men.  What do they want?  And who is the beautiful young woman who haunts his waking dreams?

Can strangers from different worlds come together in time to unmask a horrifying enemy?  And if they do, will they be able to stand?



Mother's Milk
by Edward St. Aubyn

Celebrated English author Edward St. Aubyn's brilliant and scathingly witty family portrait examines the shifting allegiances between parents, children, husbands, and wives.

The novel's perspective carousels between each member of the Melrose family -- the same family featured in St. Aubyn's trilogy Some Hope -- starting with Robert, who provides an exceptionally droll and convincing account of being born; to Patrick, a hilariously churlish husband who has been sexually abandoned by his wife in favor of motherhood; to Mary, who's consumed by her children and an overwhelming desire to not repeat the mistakes of her own mother.  All the while, St. Aubyn examines the web of false promises that entangle this once illustrious family, whose last vestige of wealth -- an old house in the South of France -- is about to be permanently donated by Patrick's mother to a new-age foundation.

An up-to-the-minute dissection of the mores of child-rearing, marriage, adultery, and assisted suicide, Mother's Milk showcases St. Aubyn's luminous and acidic prose -- and his masterful ability to combine the most excruciating pain with the driest comedy.  Once Mother's Milk is absorbed into the bloodstream of American culture, postpartum depression will never be the same again.



The Sea
by John Banville

The author of The Untouchable now gives us a luminous novel about love, loss, and the unpredictable power of memory.

The narrator is Max Morden, a middle-aged Irishman who, soon after his wife's death, has gone back to the seaside town where he spent his summer holidays as a child -- a retreat from the grief, anger, and numbness of his life without her.  But it is also a return to the place where he met the Graces, the well-heeled vacationing family with whom he experienced the strange suddenness of both love and death for the first time.  The seductive mother; the imperious father; the twins -- Chloe, fiery and forthright, and Myles, silent and expressionless -- in whose mysterious connection Max became profoundly entangled, each of them a part of the "barely bearable raw immediacy" of his childhood memories.

Interwoven with this story are Morden's memories of his wife, Anna -- of their life together, of her death -- and the moments, both significant and mundane, that make up his life now: his relationship with his grown daughter, Claire, desperate to pull him from his grief; and with the other boarders at the house where he is staying, where the past beats inside him "like a second heart."

What Max comes to understand about the past, and about its indelible effects on him, is at the center of this elegiac, vividly dramatic, beautifully written novel -- among the finest we have had from this extraordinary writer.



The Devil and Miss Prym
by Paulo Coelho

A community devoured by greed, cowardice, and fear.  A man persecuted by the ghosts of his painful past.  A young woman searching for happiness.  In one eventful week, each will face questions of life, death, and power, and each will choose a path.  Will they choose good or evil?

In the remote village of Viscow -- a village too small to be on any map, a place where time seems to stand still -- a stranger arrives, carrying with him a backpack containing a notebook and eleven gold bars.  He comes searching for the answer to a question that torments him:  Are human beings, in essence, good or evil?  In welcoming the mysterious foreigner, the whole village becomes an accomplice to his sophisticated plot, which will forever mark their lives.

Paulo Coelho's stunning novel explores the timeless struggle between good and evil, and brings to our everyday dilemmas fresh perspective:  incentive to master the fear that prevents us from following our dreams, from being different, from truly living.

The Devil and Miss Prym is a story charged with emotion, in which the integrity of being human meets a terrifying test.


Ripple
by Mandy Hubbard

Lexi is cursed with a dark secret.  The water calls to her, draws her in, forces her to sing her deadly song to unsuspecting victims.  If she succumbs, she kills.  If she doesn't the pain is unbearable.  To keep herself and those she cares about safe, she shuts herself off, refusing to make friends or fall in love -- again.  Because the last time she fell in love with a boy, he ended up dead.

Then Lexi finds herself torn.  Against her better judgment, she's opening up again, falling in love with someone new when she knows she shouldn't.  But when she's offered the chance to finally live a normal life, she learns that the price she must pay to be free of her curse is giving him up.

Mandy Hubbard spins a sea-ravaged tale of melancholy beauty, and the choices one girl makes between land and waves, love and freedom, her future -- and her heart.


Persepolis: The Story of a Childhood
by Marjane Satrapi

Originally published to wide critical acclaim in France, where it elicited comparisons to Art Spiegelman's Maus, Persepolis is Marjane Satrapi's wise, funny, and heartbreaking memoir of growing up in Iran during the Islamic Revolution.  In powerful black-and-white comic strip images, Satrapi tells the story of her life in Tehran from ages six to fourteen, years that saw the overthrow of the Shah's regime, the triumph of the Islamic Revolution, and the devastating effects of war with Iraq.  The intelligent and outspoken only child of committed Marxists and the great-granddaughter of one of Iran's last emperors, Marjane bears witness to a childhood uniquely entwined with the history of her country.

Persepolis paints an unforgettable portrait of daily life in Iran: the bewildering contradictions between home life and public life and the toll repressive regimes exact on the individual spirit.  Marjane's child's-eye-view of dethroned emperors, state-sanctioned whippings, and heroes of the revolution allows us to learn as she does the history of this fascinating country and of her own extraordinary family.  Intensely personal, profoundly political, and wholly original, Persepolis is at once a story of growing up and a reminder of the human cost of war and political repression.  It shows how we carry on, with laughter and tears, in the face of absurdity.  And, finally, it introduces us to an irresistible little girl with whom we cannot help but fall in love.


The White Tiger
by Aravind Adiga
Narrated by John Lee

Balram Halwai is a complicated man.  Servant.  Philosopher.  Entrepreneur.  Murderer.  Over the course of seven nights, Balram tells us the terrible and transfixing story of how he came to be a success in life -- having nothing but his own wits to help him along.

Balram's eyes penetrate his native India as few outsiders can.  And with a charisma as undeniable as it is unexpected, Balram teaches us that religion doesn't create virtue, and money doesn't solve every problem -- but decency can still be found in a corrupt world, and you can get what you want out of life if you eavesdrop on the right conversations.

Sold in sixteen countries around the world, The White Tiger recalls The Death of Vishnu and Bangkok 8 in ambition, scope, and narrative genius, with a mischief and personality all its own.  Amoral, irreverent, deeply endearing, and utterly contemporary, this novel is an international publishing sensation.


A Discovery of Witches
by Deborah Harkness
narrated by Jennifer Ikeda

Deep in the stacks of Oxford's Bodleian Library, young scholar Diana Bishop unwittingly calls up a bewitched alchemical manuscript in the course of her research.  Descended from an old and distinguished line of witches, Diana wants nothing to do with sorcery, so she banishes the book to the stacks.  But her discovery sets a fantastical underworld stirring, and a horde of daemons, witches, and vampires soon descends upon the library.


The Knife of Never Letting Go (Chaos Walking, Book 1)
By Patrick Ness
Narrated by Nick Podehl

Prentisstown isn't like other towns.  Everyone can hear everyone else's thoughts in an overwhelming, never-ending stream of Noise.  Just a month away from the birthday that will make him a man, Todd and his dog, Manchee -- whose thoughts Todd can hear, too, whether he wants to or not -- stumble upon an area of complete silence.  They find that in a town where privacy is impossible, something terrible has been hidden -- a secret so awful that Todd and Manchee must run for their lives.  But how do you escape when your pursuers can hear your every thought?



The Ask and the Answer (Chaos Walking, Book 2)
by Patrick Ness
Narrated by Angela Dawe and Nick Podehl

Fleeing before a relentless army, Todd has carried a desperately wounded Viola right into the hands of their worst enemy, Mayor Prentiss.  Immediately separated from Viola and imprisoned, Todd is forced to learn the ways of the Mayor's terrifying new order.  But everything is shrouded in secrets.  Where is Viola?  Is she even still alive?  And who are the mysterious Answer?  And then one day, the bombs begin to explode. . .


Monsters of Men (Chaos Walking, Book 3)
by Patrick Ness
Narrated by Angela Dawe, Nick Podehl and Macleod Andrews

As a world-ending war surges to life around them, Todd and Viola face monstrous decisions.  The indigenous Spackle, thinking and acting as one, have mobilized to avenge their murdered people.  Ruthless human leaders prepare to defend their factions at all costs, even a a convoy of new settlers approaches.  And as the ceaseless Noise lays all thoughts bare, the projected will of the few threatens to overwhelm the desperate desire of the many.  The consequences of each action, each word, are unspeakably vast: To follow a tyrant or a terrorist?  To save the life of the one you love most or thousands of strangers?  To believe in redemption or assume it is lost?  Becoming adults amid the turmoil, Todd and Viola question all they have known, racing through horror and outrage toward a shocking finale.

Monday, August 29, 2011

First Wild Card Tour: Life-Changing Bible Verses You Should Know (Book Review)

It is time for a FIRST Wild Card Tour book review! If you wish to join the FIRST blog alliance, just click the button. We are a group of reviewers who tour Christian books. A Wild Card post includes a brief bio of the author and a full chapter from each book toured. The reason it is called a FIRST Wild Card Tour is that you never know if the book will be fiction, non~fiction, for young, or for old...or for somewhere in between! Enjoy your free peek into the book!



You never know when I might play a wild card on you!

My thoughts: Regardless of where you are in your spiritual walk, this book will no doubt be of some help.  If you have felt the desire to start memorizing scripture, but did not know where to start, this book will help you find some starting places.

Each chapter is about something that relates to Christian living, whether it be grief, redemption, temptation, anxiety - and gives you 1 or 2 verses that pertain to that topic.  The authors then explain why they think this verse(s) capture this subject.  At the end of each chapter are some discussion questions, which you can either contemplate on your own or use as the basis of a small group Bible study. 

There are 40 topics - so 40 chapters.  You can pick and choose which ones that you would like to memorize.  At the end of the book are some supplemental verses broken down under the topics. 

When I was a teenager, I was on a Bible quiz team and so memorized verses all the time.  Can't say that this has been a large part of my life since then.  I am one of those people that need a list to work off of, and this gives me a great list to start with.  I usually write the passage out on a 3X5 card with the Chapter and verse reference on the back.  Then I stick it in my purse or on my mirror or on my fridge - somewhere that I will see it alot. Hopefully by the end of the week I have it memorized.

How do you memorize Bible passages?




Today's Wild Card author is:



and the book:

Harvest House Publishers (August 1, 2011)
***Special thanks to Karri | Marketing Assistant | Harvest House Publishers for sending me a review copy.***



ABOUT THE AUTHOR:



Dr. Erwin W. Lutzer, Senior Pastor of The Moody Church since 1980, is an award-winning author of more than 20 books including Walking with God. He’s a celebrated international conference speaker and the featured speaker on three radio programs that are heard around the world. Rebecca Lutzer has used her gifts of hospitality, mercy, and teaching to minister to many women. She is an RN and enjoyed working as a surgical nurse for several years. They coauthored a book on the women in the life of Jesus and how He changed their worlds titled Jesus, Lover of a Woman’s Soul. They have been married for 35 years, live in the Chicago area, and are the parents of three married children.





SHORT BOOK DESCRIPTION:





Erwin Lutzer, senior pastor of the Moody Church, and his wife, Rebecca, encourage readers to reap the blessings of memorizing Scripture in this gathering of relevant verses, 35 topics, insightful explanations, and engaging questions. This foundation of wisdom inspires readers to experience God’s Word in powerful ways.







Product Details:



List Price: $12.99

Paperback: 208 pages

Publisher: Harvest House Publishers (August 1, 2011)

Language: English

ISBN-10: 0736939520

ISBN-13: 978-0736939522



AND NOW...THE FIRST CHAPTER:




Adversity



Psalm 46:1—God is our refuge and strength, an ever-present help in trouble.



1 Peter 1:6-7—In all this you greatly rejoice, though now for a little while you may have had to suffer grief in all kinds of trials. These have come so that the proven genuineness of your faith—of greater worth than gold, which perishes even though refined by fire—may result in praise, glory and honor when Jesus Christ is revealed.





When we think back to the devastating earthquake in Haiti that killed nearly 200,000 people, many images come to mind, but one image that stands out well above the others is that of a young mother being interviewed on television as she held a baby in her arms.



“I lost my son…he died in the rubble.”



“Did you get to bury him?”



“No, no chance; his body was crushed in the rubble; I just had to throw him away.”



Just then the camera zeroed in on her backpack as she prepared to board a bus. Stuffed in a side pocket was a Bible. As she boarded the bus she could be heard, speaking to no one in particular, saying, “God is our refuge and strength, an ever-present help in trouble…” Her voice trailed off as she disappeared from view.



When the report was over we just kept staring at the television for a while, pushing back tears and letting what we’d just seen sink into our souls. A dead child with no chance to plan a funeral and pay respects to her precious little one, a baby in her arms, and she was boarding a bus that was going she knew not where. Yet she still expressed belief; she still trusted that God is her refuge and strength.



Faith in adversity!



This mother—God bless her—began quoting Psalm 46, which was written as a praise song after God spared the city of Jerusalem from an invasion by Assyrians who were threatening to annihilate the inhabitants. In the midst of a harrowing escape, the Israelites found God to be an unshakable pillar.



God is our refuge. A refuge is a safe place you can run to for shelter when life’s storms are swirling around you. No wonder this dear mother found solace in this psalm, which continues, “Therefore we will not fear, though the earth give way and the mountains fall into the heart of the sea, though its waters roar and foam and the mountains quake with their surging” (verses 2-3).



Yes, the mountains did give way and fall into the heart of the sea, but God is unaffected by the fluctuation on events of earth; He is always there, solid, unmoved. When the mountains are shaking and the ground beneath you is quaking, run to God, and He will meet you. Yes, even when our world falls apart in the aftermath of a horrendous natural disaster, God is unchanging and remains with us.



In the midst of the devastation, God is our source of supply. The psalm continues, “There is a river whose streams make glad the city of God, the holy place where the Most High dwells” (verse 4). Most likely that refers to a tunnel that had been built some time earlier to bring water into the city in case it was ever besieged. The people of Jerusalem saw this provision as God giving them specific help at their time of their need.



Then the psalm gives us a command: “Be still, and know that I am God; I will be exalted among the nations, I will be exalted in the earth” (verse 10). Let us cease striving and let God be God. Even in adversity He is there; or perhaps we should say especially in adversity He is there!



Adversity should not drive us away from God; rather, it should drive us into His arms. He is there for the grieving mother, and for the family that has experienced indescribable loss. The psalm ends, “The Lord Almighty is with us; the God of Jacob is our fortress” (verse 11).



God wants to be believed. And our faith is more precious to Him than gold, which perishes. When we continue to trust Him even when there appears to be no reason to do so—and we go on believing God’s bare Word, our faith will “result in praise, glory and honor when Jesus Christ is revealed” (1 Peter 1:7).



Reverend Henry F. Lyte was a pastor in Scotland who battled tuberculosis most of his life. On his final Sunday, September 4, 1847, amid many tears the congregation sang a song he himself had composed, “Abide with Me.” It spoke of the unchanging God in an ever-changing world:



Abide with me; fast falls the eventide;

The darkness deepens; Lord, with me abide.

When other helpers fail and comforts flee,

Help of the helpless, O abide with me.



Swift to its close ebbs out life’s little day;

Earth’s joys grow dim; its glories pass away;

Change and decay in all around I see;

O Thou who changest not, abide with me.



Hold Thou Thy cross before my closing eyes;

Shine through the gloom and point me to the skies.

Heav’n’s morning breaks, and earth’s vain shadows flee;

In life, in death, O Lord, abide with me.



The young mother in Haiti—who was clutching an undernourished baby in her arms and had no time to mourn the tragic death of her son—found solace in the God who was still beside her when the earth gave way. “God is our refuge and strength,” she said amid her grief and uncertainty of the future.



In times of adversity, our faith can hold fast. And God is both honored and pleased.





Taking God’s Word to Heart



Reflect on the account of the Haitian mother who tragically lost her son. How has Psalm 46 been a source of strength for you during adversity? What other Scripture passages do you turn to for help in difficult times?

What does it mean to you that God is your refuge? In life’s journey, why is God’s unchangeable nature a source of strength for us?

Recall an instance when God provided timely help for a specific need. What did that experience teach or confirm for you about God’s character?

What are some ways God has used adversity to shape your life?

Why is God honored and pleased when we exercise faith in times of adversity?

Sunday, August 28, 2011

It's Monday! What Are You Reading? (Aug 29, 2011)




What are you reading on Mondays is hosted by Sheila at One Person's Journey - You can hook up with the Mr. Linky there with your own post - but be sure and let me know what you are reading too!  First week of school, and first week of my new dream job is behind us.  Can't believe my baby is in first grade!

Currently Reading:
Stray Dogs, Saints and Saviors by Alexander Russo
Chasing the Red Car by Ellen Ruderman
Whistling in the Dark by Lesley Kagen

Next Up:
In Search of Rose Notes by Emily Arsenault
Good Graces by Lesley Kagen


E-Book:
Singular by David Porteous
Colin Preston Rocked and Rolled by Bert Murray


Bathroom Book:
Pie Town by Lynne Hinton

Reviewed Since Last Post:
Route 66 by Krish Kandiah
Reversible Skirt by Laura McHale Holland


Children's Books Reviewed Since Last Post:



Waiting for Reviews:
 White Sleeper by David R. Fett and Stephen Langford
The Place of Belonging by Jayne Pearson Faulkner
The Blackberry Bush by David Housholder
The Girl in the Green Raincoat by Laura Lippman
Book Thief by Markus Zusak
Airmail by Naomi Bulger


E-books waiting for review:
Sudden Moves by Kelli Sue Landon
This World We Live In (The Last Survivors, Book 3) by Susan Beth Pfeffer

Children's Books waiting for review:
Pearl's Wisdom by Auntie LuLu
Bug Meets His Friend (Bug's Adventure Series) by K.M. Groshek
Multiply on the Fly by Suzanne Slade
Ten for Me by Barbara Mariconda
Animalogy by Marianne Berkes
Prairie Storms by Darcy Pattison

READY - SET - READ!

Reversible Skirt by Laura McHale Holland (Book Review)

Title: Reversible Skirt
Author: Laura McHale Holland
Publisher: Wordforest

Synopsis: When the mother of three little girls commits suicide, their father wants more than anything to keep his family together. He remarries in haste and tells his daughters his new wife is their mother. The youngest, Laura, believes her mother must have gone through a kind of magical transformation.

 Reversible Skirt is written from Laura's perspective as a child sifting through remnants of her mother's existence and struggling to fit into a community where her family's strict rules are not the norm. When Laura's father dies, her stepmother grows increasingly abusive, which propels Laura and her sisters into a lasting alliance. Their father's wish that they stay together comes true, although not in the way he'd imagined.

My thoughts:  Laura has done a great job in portraying her life as a child from a child's perspective.  I could easily picture her and her sisters in different situations.  Many times I wanted to grab their stepmom and just shake her 'til her teeth rattled!  I could not believe some of the things she said to these little girls.  There was a little physical abuse, but it was the mental/emotional abuse that was just horrendous! The stepmom actually told them that their real mom committed suicide because of them!  How do you say that to children that are under 10 years old?? It seems like the step mom picked on each of the girls about different things, and then would be all sugar and cream when their dad or anyone else was around. 

It wasn't just the stepmom though, but pretty much her entire family.  Her father (their step grandpa) was also pretty mean to them, and the extended family didn't really accept the little girls at all.  They did have some good times when their father was alive, but after he dies there homelife was rarely pleasant.  I think it is amazing that they survived and thrived and were able to stay close after they left home. 

This book pulled me in almost immediately.  I really liked it that she wrote it from her perspective as a child and didn't write it as an "adult" sharing her memories.  I commend her for growing up so wisely so as to recognize the circle of abuse and not perpetuate it.

~I received a complimentary ebook of Reversible Skirt from Author Blog Tours in exchange for my review.~

About the author: Laura McHale Holland is a writer, editor and occasional storyteller living in southern Sonoma County. Her award-winning memoir, Reversible Skirt, was recently released by Wordforest, and her short fiction has appeared in The Best of Every Day Fiction Three, as well as the 2009 and 2010 Vintage Voices anthologies. She has also been a feature writer for such local publications as NorthBay biz, the Noe Valley Voice, and the original San Francisco Examiner. She is posting new flash fiction weekly in 2011 at http://lauramchaleholland.com.




Reversible Skirt Publisher/Publication Date: Wordforest, March 2011
ISBN: 978-0982936504
268 pages/1339 KB

Mailbox Monday (Aug 29, 2011)


 Mailbox Monday's host for August is Staci at Life in the Thumb. In My Mailbox is hosted Sundays at The Story Siren. Please visit these posts and take a look at what packages everybody else got this week! 


The Winters in Bloom
by Lisa Tucker
Every marriage has three stories: the husband's, the wife's -- and the one they create together.
Kyra and David Winter are happier than they ever expected to be.  They have a comfortable home, stable careers, and a young son, Michael, whom they adore.  Though everyone who knows the Winters considers them extremely overprotective parents, both Kyra and David believe they have good reasons for fearing that something will happen to their little boy.  And then, on a perfectly average summer day, it does, when Michael disappears from his own backyard.  The only question is whose past has finally caught up with them:  David feels sure that Michael was taken by his troubled ex-wife, while Kyra believes the kidnapper must be someone from her estranged family, someone she betrayed years ago.
As the Winters embark on a journey of time and memory to find Michael, they will be forced to admit these suspicions, revealing secrets about themselves they've always kept hidden.  But they will also have a chance to discover that it's not too late to have the family they've dreamed of; that even if the world is full of risks, as long as they have hope, the future can bloom.
Lyrical, wise, and witty.  The Winters in Bloom is an enchanting, life-affirming story that will surprise readers and leave them full of wonder at the stubborn strength of the human heart.
A Thousand Lives
by Julia Scheeres
In A Thousand Lives, New York Times bestselling memoirist Julia Scheeres recounts the chilling story of the Peoples Temple members who followed Jim Jones to Guyana.  They went for the promise of a better life, yet the Jonestown community that started as a Utopian dream soon devolved into a terrifying work camp run by a madman, ending in the mass murder-suicide of 913 members in November 1978.
A Thousand Lives gives voice to the people who followed Jim Jones to Guyana -- including an English teacher from Colorado, elderly African American sisters raised in Jim Crow Alabama, a troubled young black man from Oakland, and a working-class father and his teenage son.  Each went for different reasons -- some were drawn to Jones for his progressive attitudes toward racial integration, others were dazzled by his claims to be a faith healer.  But once in Guyana, Jones's mental imbalance and substance abuse quickly overcame the idealistic spirit of the community.  Scheeres chronicles the disturbing path that Jim Jones led his congregants down, piecing together rare firsthand interviews with the diaries, letters, and tapes collected by the FBI after the massacre.
Scheeres's own experiences at a religious rehabilitation camp in the Dominican Republic, detailed in her remarkable debut memoir Jesus Land, allowed her to gain the trust of survivors who had never spoken about their experiences on the record before.  Vividly written and impossible to forget, A Thousand Lives is a story of blind loyalty and daring escapes, of corrupted ideals and senseless, haunting loss.
Living Beyond Your Feelings
Controlling Emotions So They Don't Control You
by Joyce Meyer
The average person has 70,000 thoughts every day, and many of those thoughts trigger a corresponding emotion.  No wonder so many of us often feel like we're controlled by our emotions.  Our lives would be much improved if we controlled them.
In Living Beyond Your Feelings, Joyce Meyer examines the gamut of feelings that human beings experience.  She discusses the way the brain processes and stores memories and thoughts, and then -- emotion by emotion -- she explains how we can manage our reactions to those feelings.  In doing so, she gives the reader a toolbox for managing the way we react to the onslaught of feelings that can wreak havoc in our lives.
In this book, Joyce blends the wisdom of the Bible with the latest psychological research and discusses:
  • The four personality types and the influence of each on one's outlook.
  • The impact of stress on physical and emotional health
  • The power of memories
  • The influence of words on emotions
  • Anger and resentment
  • Sadness, loss, and grief
  • Fear
  • Guilt and regret
  • The power of replacing reactions with pro-actions
  • The benefits of happiness
In Living Beyond Your Feelings, Joyce gives you the tools to live beyond emotions, make proactive choices, and regain control of your life.
Grace for the Good Girl
by Emily P. Freeman
You're strong. You're responsible.  You're good.  But. . .
. . . as day fades to dusk, you begin to feel the familiar fog of anxiety, the weight and pressure of holding it together and of longing left unmet.  Good girls sometimes feel that the Christian life means doing hard work with a sweet disposition.  We tend to focus only on the things we can handle, our disciplined lives, and our unshakable good moods.
But what would happen if we let grace pour out boundless acceptance into our wornout hearts and undo us?  If we dared to talk about the ways we hide, our longing to be known, and the fear in the knowing?
In Grace for the Good Girl, Emily Freeman invites you to release your tight hold on that familiar, try-hard life and lean your weight heavy into the love of Jesus.  With an open hand, a whimsical style, and a heart bent brave toward adventure, Emily encourages you to move from your own impossible expectations toward the God who has graciously, miraculously, and lovingly found you.
Death in the City of Light
by David King
Death in the City of Light is the true story of the hunt for Marcel Petiot, a respectable physician by day and brutal serial killer by night in Nazi-occupied Paris.  Petiot was charged with twenty-seven grisly murders, though his victims -- many of whom were Jews seeking to escape the Nazis -- may have numbered in excess of one hundred.  Petiot was not only skilled at evading detection and capture, he was also expert at dismembering his victims beyond any chance of identification.  The investigation was led by commissaire Georges-Victor Massu of the Homicide Squad (himself the partial inspiration for Georges Simenon's Maigret), who became entangled with a cast of captivating characters leading him through the shadowy world of the Gestapo, gangsters, nightclub owners, Resistance fighters, pimps, prostitutes, spies, and other nefarious figures of the Parisian underground.
This is a gripping story of adventure, glamour, intrigue, and abhorrent decadence on the eve of disaster.  It is also an empowering tale of men and women braving great dangers to reveal the horrors of the Nazi regime.
Le Freak
by Nile Rodgers
Today’s pop music—genre-crossing, gender-bending, racially mixed, visually stylish, and dominated by dance music with global appeal—is the world that Nile Rodgers created. In the 1970s and 1980s, he wrote and produced the songs that defined that era and everything that came after: “Le Freak,” “Good Times,” “We Are Family,” “Like a Virgin,” “Modern Love,” “I’m Coming Out,” “The Reflex,” “Rapper’s Delight.” Aside from his own band, Chic, he worked with everyone from Diana Ross and Madonna to David Bowie and Duran Duran (not to mention Mick Jagger, Debbie Harry, Bob Dylan, Eric Clapton, Michael Jackson, Prince, Rod Stewart, Robert Plant, Depeche Mode, Paul Simon, Peter Gabriel, Grace Jones, Bryan Ferry, INXS, and the B-52’s), transforming their music, selling millions of records, and redefining what a pop song could be.
But before he reinvented pop music, Nile Rodgers invented himself. He was born into a mixed-race, bicoastal family of dope-fiend bohemians who taught him everything he needed to know about love, loss, fashion, art, music, and the subversive power of underground culture. The stars of the scene were his glamorous teenage mom and heroin-addicted Jewish stepfather, but there were also monkeys, voodoo orishas, jazz cats, and serial killers in the mix. By the time he was sixteen, Nile was on his own, busking through the sixties, half-hippie and half–Black Panther. He jammed with Jimi Hendrix, rocked out at Max’s Kansas City, toured with Big Bird on Sesame Street’s road show, and played in the legendary Apollo Theater house band behind history’s greatest soul singers. And then one night, he discovered disco.
During pop’s most glamorous and decadent age, Nile Rodgers wrote the biggest records and lived behind the velvet rope—whether he was holding court in the bathroom stalls at Studio 54, club hopping with Madonna, or scarfing down White Castle burgers with Diana Ross. Le Freak is the fascinating inside story of pop and its tangled roots, narrated by the man who absorbed everything in his topsy-turvy life—the pain and euphoria and fear and love—and turned it into some of the most sparklingly ebullient pop music ever recorded. Nile Rodgers is a brilliant storyteller who gives readers the surprising behind-the-scenes tales of the songs we all know, and lovingly re-creates the lost outsider subcultures—from the backstreets of 1950s Greenwich Village to the hills of 1960s Southern California to the demimonde of New York’s 1970s and 1980s discos and clubs—that live on in his music and in the throbbing, thriving world of pop he helped to set in motion.
Eleanor Roosevelt's Life of Soul Searching and Self Discovery
by Ann Atkins

Noble cause?
Have a dream that needs direction?
Whatever the scale of your rendezvous with destiny, the fact remains it is up to you to live it.  Eleanor's story is a 'do it yourself' guide that shows us how to:
  • Persevere in the face of betrayal, critics and exhaustion
  • Leverage media tools to educate the public
  • Discern core issues behind the raucous babble
  • Forge friendships for just causes and personal support
  • Maintain a noble heart in times of trouble
From a childhood plagued with drunks and drama queens, Eleanor must now discard her dependency on Franklin and face off with her grand dame mother-in-law.  Refusing to cave in to society's rules, Eleanor's exuberant style, wavering voice and lack of Hollywood beauty are fodder for the media.
First Lady for thirteen years, Eleanor redefines and exploits this role to a position of power.  Using her influence she champions for Jews, African Americans and women.
Living through two world wars Eleanor witnesses thousands of graves, broken bodies and grieving families.  After visiting troops in the Pacific she says: 

"If we don't make this a more decent world to live in I don't see how we can look these boys in the eyes."

She defies a post-war return to status quo and establishes the Universal Declaration of Human Rights within the U.N.  She earns her way to being named "First Lady of the World."

The audacity of this woman to live out her own destiny challenges us to do the same.  After all, it's not about Eleanor.  HER STORY is history.  HER LIFE shows us how to live.


E-Books:
Welcome to Fred
by Brad Whittington

Mark Cloud has his doubts. He's not sure if he'll ever feel at home in Fred, Texas. He's not sure that he can work up the nerve to declare his love to the girl of his dreams. He's not sure he will survive another ride with Darnell Ray, Terror of the Back Roads. And he's not really sure he buys the whole God thing. Which is an uncomfortable position for the son of a Baptist preacher.

This award-winning novel is a moving and hilarious tale set against the vibrant backdrop of the 1960s and rural America. It is the timeless and classic story of Everyteen in the hands of a master storyteller.



In the Brief Eternal Silence
by Rebecca Melvin

Enter into the world of the Duke of St. James in Victorian England, 1863. . .Lizzie Murdock has heard of this Duke, derisively known as merely 'St. James' in an ironic twist to the title he holds versus his lifestyle known to be anything but saintly. The fact that he is rich and once considered 'the catch of the decade' holds no attractions for her.When he offers her an astounding proposal, she is more offended than flatteredand vows to rebuff his determined advances. Little does she know that their continued sparring over her future will lead to the revelation that he believes he won't be sharing in it for very long. "I simply believe there is a very good possibility that you shall become a widow at an extremely young age," he tells her. "Now doesn't that make the prospect of marrying me much more pleasant?" With those words, Lizzie is sucked into his world, a world where one would expect to find a self-centered man enjoying privilege and ease, but where instead she finds a man of uncommon character fighting for his life and prepared to make the ultimate sacrifice for those he loves.With her involvement will come consequences that neither of them can foresee,and an arranged proposal meant to flush out evil produces much more until their very survival will depend upon their love for each other.


BOOKS WON:
Hard Whispers
by Pamela Martin and Carl Henegan

After recently graduating from college, Pamela Graham, heir to the Graham publishing empire, sets off to fulfill a humanitarian goal of volunteering at a russian orphanage.  When Pamela impulsively takes one of the children out of the country to avoid an otherwise grim future, she inadvertently sets in motion a series of dark events.  While evading the Russian authorities by flying to Spain, she meets a biologist from Maryland who reveals a sinister American government conspiracy.  This knowledge takes her on a time-sensitive race to survive long enough to expose the truth before the clock runs out for a vast number of unsuspecting victims.  A gripping saga of covert government action, classism, and modern espionage, Hard Whispers runs at full speed with a spellbinding intensity that dances on the edge of reality.


The Venus Fix (ebook)
by M.J. Rose
As one of New York's top sex therapists, Dr. Morgan Snow sees everything from the abused to the depraved. From high-profile clients with twisted obsessions to courageous survivors, the Butterfield Institute is the sanctuary to heal battered souls.

Morgan Snow's newest patient is a powerful, influential man — secretly addicted to watching Internet Web cam pornography. He's not alone in his desires. She's also working with a group of high school teenagers equally and dangerously obsessed with these real-time fantasies.

Fantasies that are all too accessible.

Then the women start dying online, right in front of their eyes.

Now it's all about murder.



What books came home to you this week?

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