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Tuesday, February 26, 2013

David Sticker Book: My Review


About the Book:
David Sticker Book is a fun, interactive retelling of the story of David and Goliath, complete with four pages of stickers, so children can help illustrate the story and fill in the gaps. Kids will love the fun, reusable stickers and bright illustrations as they engage with this well-loved Bible story.

My Comments:
Sometimes things happen that remind you that your kids really are growing up.  When this book was offered for review, my thought was "How cute; my youngest will love getting a package in the mail".  Well, she was excited when the package came but then her face fell "I'm not a little kid any more".  Well, she did go back later and play with the stickers, so it wasn't a total loss.

However, to be fair to the book, the problem was with the owner, not the book, which was cute,colorful and  easy to read.

I'd like to thank the publisher for making a review copy available and I'd like to apologize for missing the posting dates.  Grade:  B

Monday, February 25, 2013

My Review: Three Sisters



About the Book:
After Andi Gordon is jilted at the altar, she makes the most impetuous decision of her life – buying one of the famed Three Sisters Queen Anne houses on Blackberry Island. Now the proud-ish owner of the ugly duckling of the trio, she plans to open her own pediatric office on the first floor, just as soon as her hunky contractor completes the work. Andi's new future may be coming together, but the truth is she's just as badly in need of a major renovation as her house. 

When Deanna Phillips confronts her husband about a suspected affair, she opens up a Pandora's Box of unhappiness. And he claims that she is the problem. The terrible thing is, he's right. In her quest to be the perfect woman, she's lost herself, and she's in danger of losing her entire family if things don't change. 

Next door, artist Boston King thought she and her college sweetheart would be married forever. Their passion for one other has always seemed indestructible. But after tragedy tears them apart, she's not so sure. Now it's time for them to move forward, with or without one another. 

Thrown together by fate and geography, and bound by the strongest of friendships, these three women will discover what they're really made of: laughter, tears, love and all.

My Comments:
I like stories about the relationships between women.  I like romance novels.  This book is both, and no, the romance is not between two women.  Andi has spent her life not living up to her parent's expectations/desires.  Even her fiancee was the guy her parents liked, and when he leaves her at the altar, she is as relieved as anything.  She's attracted to her contractor, but he's sure that she wouldn't like a blue collar guy like him.  Deanna and Boston are married, but going through rough spots, each for a different reason.  As the women grow closer they help each other find the love of their men.  Boston lost a child and is suffering from depression as a result.  Deanna has OCD.  I enjoyed watching them heal but the healing wasn't pat or easy.

There is non-marital intimacy in the book though it isn't real graphic.  

The book is loosely part of the same series as Barefoot Season (my review); however, there is no backstory from that book that is part of this one.  

I'd like to thank the publisher for making a review copy available via NetGalley.  Grade:  B+

How to Retire Happy: My Review



About the Book:
From financial decisions like when to take money out of an IRA to lifestyle decisions such as where to live, How to Retire Happy, Fourth Edition, provides accurate and expert advice, served up in easy-to-understand step-by-step style.

My Comments:
I remember when retirement was something almost hypothetical, something far in the future that I guessed I'd reach one day, but not anytime soon.  Well, I'm one of the old-timers in the office now.  I started there when I was the mother of one eighteen month old son; now I'm the mom of a six foot something almost 21 year old son, a daughter who is a senior in high school and a nine year old.  Retirement is still a ways away, but it isn't looking so hypothetical anymore.  Are we ready?  What can we do?  What decisions do we have to make?

While Stan Hinden certainly gives the standard advice of saving money early, often and in large amounts, he goes beyond that to look at decisions that will have to be made about pensions, Social Security and personal retirement accounts.  What are the choices about Social Security?  What are the advantages and disadvantages of each?  How should you take your defined benefit pension if you are lucky enough to have one?  What happens to your 401K when you retire?  

We all know it is important to save for retirement, and most folks understand that compound interest means that saving when you are young means you need to save less than if you wait until you are old.  Hinden acknowledges though that young adults are often unable to save because of the costs of establishing a home and raising young children.  I know we find it a lot easier to save now than we did twenty years ago--our incomes have gone up far more than our house payment has.  

Hinden was a newspaper writer and it shows in his writing style; in other words, it is clear and easy to read without a lot of technical jargon.  

I'd like to thank the publisher for making a review copy available via NetGalley.  Grade:  B+

It's Monday: What Are You Reading


It's Monday What Are You Reading is hosted by Sheila over at Book Journey.  She asks what we read last week, what we reviewed last week and what we plan to read this week.
I read:
Rose Harbor in Bloom: A Novel

Saturday, February 23, 2013

Sunday Snippets--A Catholic Carnival

Hello, and welcome to Sunday Snippets--A Catholic Carnival. We are a group of Catholic bloggers who gather weekly to share our best posts with each other. To participate, go to your blog and create a post titled Sunday Snippets--A Catholic Carnival. In it, discuss and link to your posts for the week--whether they deal with theology, Catholic living or cute Catholic kids. I'm mostly a book blogger so my posts are generally book reviews, some Catholic, some not. Make sure that post links back here. Once you publish it, come back here and leave a link below.

We also have a yahoogroup; signing up for it will get you one weekly reminder to post.  Click here to sign up.

Only two posts this week: Lipstick in Afghanistan is a novel about an American aid worker in Afghanistan.  My Booking Through Thursday post is about my library use.  


Thursday, February 21, 2013

Booking Through Thursday


btt button
How often do you visit a library? Do you go to borrow books? Do research? Check out the multi-media center? Hang out with the friendly and knowledgeable staff? Are you there out of love or out of need?

I've gotten out of the meme habit but I saw this one on Holly's blog and thought I'd play.   The library has always been one of my favorite places, but over my life my use of it has changed.  As a teen it was my favorite place to go and I'd check out (and read) stacks of books.  I'd peruse those bound volumes of old magazines just for fun and I loved research assignments.  I'd get hooked on topics and authors and read my way though them.

In college the library was my favorite place to hang out if I had a break between classes.  I didn't read as many books at that time in my life, but I read a lot of journal articles, and not just in my field.  I had a large number of magazines I'd at least flip through, and every now and then  a journal totally unrelated to my field of study would advertise an article that caught my eye.  I may not have gotten any credit for the hours in the library, but I learned a lot.

As a young adult I lived in an area with a horrible library system and got out of the habit of using it.  However about the time I had kids, we built a beautiful new main library.  I'd take my kids to story time, and sneak away to grab books for myself.  Then I discovered the library website!  I can search the library's holdings across the whole system, reserve books I want and have them sent to the branch near my home.  I can search back issues of the newspaper.  I can peruse databases full of interesting information.  I can download audio or e-books.  How often do I visit?  Probably a time or two a month during the school  year; more often during the summer.  I don't hang out, but I do love going.

Sunday, February 17, 2013

Review: Lipstick in Afghanistan



About the Book:
Roberta Gately’s lyrical and authentic debut novel—inspired by her own experiences as a nurse in third world war zones—is one woman’s moving story of offering help and finding hope in the last place she expected.

Gripped by haunting magazine images of starving refugees, Elsa has dreamed of becoming a nurse since she was a teenager. Of leaving her humble working-class Boston neighborhood to help people whose lives are far more difficult than her own. No one in her family has ever escaped poverty, but Elsa has a secret weapon: a tube of lipstick she found in her older sister’s bureau. Wearing it never fails to raise her spirits and cement her determination. With lipstick on, she can do anything—even travel alone to war-torn Afghanistan in the wake of 9/11.

But violent nights as an ER nurse in South Boston could not prepare Elsa for the devastation she witnesses at the small medical clinic she runs in Bamiyan. As she struggles to prove herself to the Afghan doctors and local villagers, she begins a forbidden romance with her only confidant, a charming Special Forces soldier. Then, a tube of lipstick she finds in the aftermath of a tragic bus bombing leads her to another life-changing friendship. In her neighbor Parween, Elsa finds a kindred spirit, fiery and generous. Together, the two women risk their lives to save friends and family from the worst excesses of the Taliban. But when the war waging around them threatens their own survival, Elsa discovers her only hope is to unveil the warrior within. Roberta Gately’s raw, intimate novel is an unforgettable tribute to the power of friendship and a poignant reminder of the tragic cost of war.

My Comments:
Ever since 9/11 Afghanistan has been in the news.  Unfortunately, the news has rarely been good.  The news has been especially bad for women and the place has the reputation as being one of the worst places to be a woman particularly.  Lipstick in Afghanistan is the story of an American nurse who grew up on the wrong side of the tracks in Boston who was moved at the plight of refugees she read about in the news.  She volunteered with an aid group and was sent to Afghanistan where she works alongside an Afghani couple, both of whom were physicians.  She makes friends with some locals, and with some American soldiers stationed in the area.  As readers we see the life of the women of Afghanistan through the eyes of Elsa.  

I enjoyed the book, but the ending left me unsatisfied.  Perhaps I'm not brave enough, or perhaps I haven't been in a position of just being sick of all the restrictions on me, or maybe I haven't become immune to the horrors of war or the dangers of it, but I just found the climax scene  unrealistic.  I'm surprised the women put themselves in that position. I'm surprised that things happened like they did.    I don't want to say more because I don't want to give any spoilers.  Still, the book is a worthy read and I'll give it a B. Thanks to FSB for sending me review copy.

Saturday, February 16, 2013

Sunday Snippets--A Catholic Carnival


Hello, and welcome to Sunday Snippets--A Catholic Carnival. We are a group of Catholic bloggers who gather weekly to share our best posts with each other. To participate, go to your blog and create a post titled Sunday Snippets--A Catholic Carnival. In it, discuss and link to your posts for the week--whether they deal with theology, Catholic living or cute Catholic kids. I'm mostly a book blogger so my posts are generally book reviews, some Catholic, some not. Make sure that post links back here. Once you publish it, come back here and leave a link below.

We also have a yahoogroup; signing up for it will get you one weekly reminder to post.  Click here to sign up.

I'd like to ask for prayers for Kathy and her family.  I "met" Kathy over ten years ago on an AOL message board for Catholic moms.  At the time those of us who were regulars on that board were pretty much thirty-something moms of young kids.  Quite of few of us have stuck together through the years and now are part of a facebook group.  I've met a few "in real life" but most are "just" cyber friends.  Kathy and I used to IM late at night about our special needs kids, among other things.  She was on of the most compassionate yet sensible people I knew.  Unfortunately this week she lost her battle with lung cancer.  She leaves behind a married daughter who is expecting her first baby in a couple of months, a special needs high school junior and a disabled husband.

Oh, and let me add a proud mama brag:  My older daughter just received a scholarship offer from her college of choice, Northwestern State University of Louisiana.  It will cost us less than $4,000 next year for tuition, room, board, and books!

My only post this week was a review of Catholics Come Home.   However, since it is Lent I'd like to call a couple of old posts to your attention:
Review of Sunday Snippets regular Kathleen Basi's book Bringing Lent to Life
Interview with Kathleen regarding Bringing Lent to Life
Lenten Activities for Children

Thursday, February 14, 2013

Review: Catholics Come Home


About the Book:
God has something extraordinary planned for your life . . . 

In our fast-paced, highly technological world, this statement might sound a bit lofty, but the lives of millions of souls who have come before us attest to this simple truth: 

God has a wonderful plan in store for you.

With these words, Tom Peterson, founder and president of Catholics Come Home, a nonprofit multimedia organization dedicated to promoting Catholic evangelization, offers inspiration for believers from all walks of life, whether lapsed or practicing, to deepen their faith and draw them closer to Jesus and His Church.

In a series of moving stories and personal anecdotes, Tom relates how after rediscovering his faith, he experienced God's unfailing love, and soon found his true purpose in life.  You can too! Drawing from scripture, his own struggles and discoveries, and the lives of the saints as well as ordinary individuals, the author offers seven ways to enter into a more deeply personal relationship with Jesus.  These are pearls that you can share with others to illuminate the importance of the Catholic faith and open wide the door to a homecoming celebration.

My Comments:
I probably watch less television than the vast majority of people, yet even I have heard of Catholics Come Home and their ads.  Our parish has a banner on the fence proclaiming our welcome to Catholics who Come Home.  It is clearly a trendy thing in the American Catholic church today.  Whether it is here to stay or becomes another of the "must-do" programs that is done and forgotten in a few years (remember RENEW?) is yet to be seen but clearly it addresses a real need.  Far more baptized Catholics do not participate in the life of the Church than do.  Mass attendance is under 30% of baptized Catholics.  If "ex-Catholic" was a denomination, it would be one of the largest.  In short, we as a church need to evangelize to our friends and neighbors as much as we need to evangelize to those in non-Christian countries.  

Tom Peterson is an advertising guy.  He made lots of money in advertising and then felt the call of God to move his life away from worshiping the almighty dollar and towards the Almighty God.  Peterson was always Catholic, he always attended mass weekly, but God wasn't a priority in his life until some friends convinced him to attend a retreat where he had a conversion experience.  Catholics Come Home tells that story and tells us how he tried to properly order his life after that experience.  It also gives the reader a roadmap to evangalization, starting with getting your own house in order.  Peterson states that most of us are not called to preach on street corners but rather to witness to those in our lives, primarily through our lives, but also through lovingly spoken words--not arguing with people but sharing what God has done for us.  

In a lot of ways the book reads like an ad--quick and easy to follow, it makes its points and gets out.  It doesn't use complicated theological terms and is unfailingly positive.  The spiritual advise he gives is the old tried and true--daily mass when possible, frequent reception of the sacraments, daily prayer and scripture reading, spiritual reading.  While he gives some general advice for responding to peoples problems with Church teaching, this isn't an apologetics book nor does it really delve into the common reasons people leave the Church.  He does say that many who come back do so because they were invited, and he tells the stories of some he invited.  

I read the book in a couple of hours and found some food for thought.  If you want to ease into spiritual reading for Lent this may be a good book for you.  Grade:  B.  

I'd like to thank the publisher and B&B Media Group for making a review copy available for a First Wildcard tour.  You can check back on March 27 to read the first chapter.  

Saturday, February 09, 2013

Sunday Snippets--A Catholic Carnival


Hello, and welcome to Sunday Snippets--A Catholic Carnival. We are a group of Catholic bloggers who gather weekly to share our best posts with each other. To participate, go to your blog and create a post titled Sunday Snippets--A Catholic Carnival. In it, discuss and link to your posts for the week--whether they deal with theology, Catholic living or cute Catholic kids. I'm mostly a book blogger so my posts are generally book reviews, some Catholic, some not. Make sure that post links back here. Once you publish it, come back here and leave a link below.

We also have a yahoogroup; signing up for it will get you one weekly reminder to post.  Click here to sign up.

Two book reviews for me this week:  One Sunday is Christian fiction, and not really a romance.  Countdown to First Night is a collection of romance and they are all clean.  

I'd like to wish all of you a happy Mardi Gras and a blessed season of Lent.  To help you celebrate Mardi Gras, I gave you a King Cake recipe.  

King Cake Time!



For those of you who will spend this Tuesday like any other; celebrating the fact that it isn't Monday, you have my condolences.  Here in New Orleans its Carnival time.  Look what my youngest and I made today.  It is really good and here is a recipe so even those of you whose bakeries aren't filled with King Cakes this time of year can celebrate Mardi Gas on Tuesday.

King Cake
2 tubes of crescent rolls
Sugar cinnamon mix (about 1/4 cup total)
2 Tablespoons butter

Form the dough from each tube into a long thin rectangle.  Pinch the triangles together to make one piece of dough.  Brush of drizzle melted butter on the top of each rectangle.  Sprinkle with the sugar/cinnamon mix. Roll each rectangle into a rope, and move to a cookie sheet, forming half the ring with each rope.  Bake per the package directions, about 12 minutes. 

Put about a cup of powdered sugar in the remaining melted  butter.  Thin with milk to make a thick but spreadable icing. Mix a couple of spoonfuls of sugar with purple, green and yellow food coloring (separate bowls for each color).

When the cake comes out of the oven, spread with icing. Sprikle with sugar.  

Happy Mardi Gras!

One Sunday: My Review


About the Book:
At age thirty-seven, Alice Ferguson has everything an ambitious, intellectual, self-made woman could want. She has captured a career as an editor of a tabloid magazine, launched her own website full of Hollywood gossip, and even clawed her way into a second-hand pair of Prada shoes. She has also finally landed a husband—no small feat, as it required getting pregnant with his baby.

But when Alice becomes pregnant and experiences health problems, her world is turned upside down. To save her life and the life of her unborn child, she must leave Los Angeles and the stress of her bicoastal career, exchanging the late-night parties of sunny California for the suburbs of Nashville. With a weak smile and an even weaker heart, she soon finds herself living with a husband she barely knows, ensconced in a gated community brimming with perky, plastic, pony-tailed housewives. And then, at the gentle urging of a new friend, she agrees to attend church one Sunday afternoon.

What begins as an experiment beyond her comfort zone sparks something much bigger, as Alice begins to look deep within herself only to find insecurity, fear, and loneliness. One Sunday charts an endearing character’s journey from moral ambiguity through madness, tears, laughter, and heartbreak to a connection with the only One who can help heal her.

My Comments:
This book does what I think Christian fiction does best--it tells the story of one woman's spiritual life and how getting her spiritual life in order helped get the rest of her life in order as well.  Alice suffered some tragedies in her early life and has learned to drug away the pain of life.  She has learned that the only one on whom she can really depend is herself.  When pregnancy complications make her move in with the baby's father she comes to know an ex-NFL player turned preacher and his family.  Through conversations with them and other experiences in the book she comes to the point of making peace with God.  

The story bounces around to various times in Alice's life, and while each section is dated, sometimes I had to check back to orient myself.  Still, for the most part, the technique worked.

What didn't I like?  Well, maybe I'm quick to take offense, but I found the book mildly anti-Catholic.  Basically, Alice was raised Catholic, and after a particular experience in her life when she was fourteen, her father sent her to see a priest, who didn't take it seriously.  While she doesn't say what her spiritual life had been like before that, after that, she checked out of Catholicism in spirit if not immediately in body.  When she regained her spiritual footing it was in an evangelical megachurch with the praise band, the video projector, sermon props and "dunk tank" (her words, not mine) baptismal font.  Why could it not have been some generic pastor of some generic church who turned away a young teen who had a spiritual experience?  What purpose, other than to suggest that Catholicism is spiritually lacking, was there for making her original religion Catholicism?  On the other hand, I will say that at some point it is noted that a priest told Alice that we don't get into heaven on our own merits but because of God's grace.  As someone who has been told by non-Catholics that Catholics think they have to earn their way to heaven, I'm glad to see our beliefs more accurately represented.  

Without the anti-Catholic sections, I would have given this book a B+, as it is, I'll give it a B-.  

Monday, February 04, 2013

New Love for New Year: My Review of Countdown to First Night


About the Book:
Ten, nine, eight, seven…
Winter's Heart by Jillian Hart

Shelby Craig comes to Snow Falls for a First Night job, but secretly hopes it will be a respite from her grief and a haven for her two young kids. A sympathetic cop becomes the determined widow's staunchest ally—though helping her may break his heart.

Six, five, four…

Snowbound at New Year by Margaret Daley

This was supposed to be a done deal! Children's book author Ellie Summers came to the festival to meet her new illustrator. She didn't expect him to turn down her proposal. And then to find the obstinate man so charming… Is it wrong to hope his matchmaking twin daughters succeed?

Three, two, one…

A Kiss at Midnight by Brenda Minton

Pride is a hard thing to swallow, but Jolie Godwin does her best to ignore her grievances with Jake Wild this one time. The man is graciously letting her exhibit her artwork in his luxury resort for First Night. He seems like a good person and a devoted uncle. If only he'd always been so perfect. Because his kiss is something she can't forget….

Cue the fireworks!

My Comments:
I enjoyed these sweet clean romances, all set in a small Colorado town around New Year's Eve.  They were short and really had no subplots, just the main plots of learning to trust, taking a chance and gaining new love for a New Year.  If short sweet reads are  your thing, you'll like this book.  Grade:  B- (about the best I give formula romances).  Thanks to the publisher for making a review copy available via NetGalley.

Saturday, February 02, 2013

Sunday Snippets--A Catholic Carnival


Hello, and welcome to Sunday Snippets--A Catholic Carnival. We are a group of Catholic bloggers who gather weekly to share our best posts with each other. To participate, go to your blog and create a post titled Sunday Snippets--A Catholic Carnival. In it, discuss and link to your posts for the week--whether they deal with theology, Catholic living or cute Catholic kids. I'm mostly a book blogger so my posts are generally book reviews, some Catholic, some not. Make sure that post links back here. Once you publish it, come back here and leave a link below.

We also have a yahoogroup; signing up for it will get you one weekly reminder to post.  Click here to sign up.

I reviewed a book of Mother Teresa's teachings this week.  I also reviewed The Long Way Home and When Summer Comes, which are both romances.