Here is what I reviewed this week:
Sunday, September 30, 2012
My Review: A Season of Love
About the Book:
In the fifth and final novel of the Kauffman Amish Bakery Series, three young women are about to change their lives. Lizzie Anne and Samuel have decided to get married, and Lindsay is about to be baptized in the Amish faith and is courting Matthew. While Katie Kauffman is happy for her friends who seem to have settled their futures, she is also finding herself something of a fifth wheel. When Lindsay's sister Jessica returns to Bird-in-Hand, she finds that Jake Miller has moved on with his life. He lost hope that Jessica would ever be satisfied to settle in rural Pennsylvania and takes comfort in becoming close friends with Katie. However, it's not an easy road as Jake is Mennonite and Katie has just been baptized in the Amish faith. Her father forbids them to see each other, adamant that his daughter marry an Amish man. A Season of Love is filled with surprising twists that will grip you to the very last words. As the stories of your favorite Amish community draw to a close, join Lindsay, her friends, and all the people of Bird-In-Hand for one last volume.
My Comments:
This NetGalley has been on my Kindle for a long time,and I finally was in the mood for another Amish story. While this book can stand alone, "knowing" the characters from the other books makes it easier to understand them in this book. I enjoyed watching these young people make choices about their lives and settling into adulthood. Details about the Amish were interesting though I found the generous sprinkling of Amish words to be more distracting than anything--it made it sound like the Amish speak English with a sprinkling of Germanic or "Deutsch" words thrown in, rather than, as I understand it to be, speaking a different language all together. In short, if you like Amish fiction, you'll probably like this one; if not, there is nothing particularly noteworthy about it. Grade: B-.
My Reviews of Other Amy Clipston Books:
Saturday, September 29, 2012
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.
Lots of reviews for me this week. Many of you have probably read Sarah Reinhard's blog, The Snoring Scholar. This week I reviewed her A Catholic Mother's Companion to Pregnancy.
The Shortest Way Home is about a man who has Huntington's disease in his family. I'd love to get a discussion going about the pros and cons of testing for Huntington's. See the post for more info.
The Accidental Bride was a silly romance but fun read.
Love Anthony is about the mother of a deceased autistic child and a woman who recently learned her husband was cheating on her.
Outlaw's Christmas is just what it looks like.
We also have a yahoogroup; signing up for it will get you one weekly reminder to post. Click here to sign up.
Lots of reviews for me this week. Many of you have probably read Sarah Reinhard's blog, The Snoring Scholar. This week I reviewed her A Catholic Mother's Companion to Pregnancy.
The Shortest Way Home is about a man who has Huntington's disease in his family. I'd love to get a discussion going about the pros and cons of testing for Huntington's. See the post for more info.
The Accidental Bride was a silly romance but fun read.
Love Anthony is about the mother of a deceased autistic child and a woman who recently learned her husband was cheating on her.
Outlaw's Christmas is just what it looks like.
Friday, September 28, 2012
Review: A Catholic Mother's Companion to Pregnancy
Popular Catholic blogger and speaker Sarah A. Reinhard presents the first book to accompany expectant mothers from conception to baptism with weekly reflections and prayers rooted in the mysteries of the Rosary and related to the baby's physical development.
Designed to help expectant mothers embrace pregnancy as an opportunity for spiritual growth, A Catholic Mother's Companion to Pregnancy prepares mothers for the trials and joys of pregnancy, childbirth, baptism, and, ultimately, motherhood. Each week of pregnancy is paired with a mystery of the Rosary, a personal, down-to-earth reflection from Reinhard, advice for living the sacramental life, and a prayer to help the reader grow in faith as she bonds with her unborn child.
My Comments:
When I was pregnant with my first child (who is twenty now), I read What to Expect When You Are Expecting and some book that had film plastic overlays showing how the various systems in the baby's body developed. I suspect I got some other books about pregnancy and childbirth from the library(this was before my internet days). I was blissfully happy being pregnant (at least until morning sickness hit) and wanted to know all I could about this wonderful process happening inside me. When I was pregnant with my third, my dad gave me a book for Christmas--The Girlfriend's Guide to Pregnancy which was much better considering the attitude I had at that time. One suggestion in that book was to stand on the scale backwards and tell the nurse you didn't want to know your weight. They said that if your weight was a problem, your doctor would tell you; if it wasn't, you didn't need to know every pound if it just made you upset. Anyway, while these books were good for telling me what was going on inside my body (or in the case of The Girlfriend's Guide, commiserating with me) they didn't prepare me to be a Catholic mom. Sarah Reinhard's A Catholic Mother's Companion to Pregnancy covers the nuts and bolts of pregnancy and helps a woman prepare spiritually to be a Catholic mother.
My Comments:
When I was pregnant with my first child (who is twenty now), I read What to Expect When You Are Expecting and some book that had film plastic overlays showing how the various systems in the baby's body developed. I suspect I got some other books about pregnancy and childbirth from the library(this was before my internet days). I was blissfully happy being pregnant (at least until morning sickness hit) and wanted to know all I could about this wonderful process happening inside me. When I was pregnant with my third, my dad gave me a book for Christmas--The Girlfriend's Guide to Pregnancy which was much better considering the attitude I had at that time. One suggestion in that book was to stand on the scale backwards and tell the nurse you didn't want to know your weight. They said that if your weight was a problem, your doctor would tell you; if it wasn't, you didn't need to know every pound if it just made you upset. Anyway, while these books were good for telling me what was going on inside my body (or in the case of The Girlfriend's Guide, commiserating with me) they didn't prepare me to be a Catholic mom. Sarah Reinhard's A Catholic Mother's Companion to Pregnancy covers the nuts and bolts of pregnancy and helps a woman prepare spiritually to be a Catholic mother.
There are books that give more vivid descriptions of fetal development but this one is adequate for most people, giving the size of the baby each week by comparing it to common items (as big as an eggplant) and some developmental milestones. Chapters include articles about our faith, about mothering, about pregnancy or about family life. Also, as noted above, Sarah takes a different mystery of the rosary every week and writes a meditation relating it to pregnancy. For example, for week 24, the mystery is the Annunciation and the mediation talks about not being afraid. I loved an article for week 27 that talked about how much stuff you really need. Like me, she found that you don't need near as much as what you have for the first baby. The Faith Focus section of each chapter introduces some traditional Catholic devotions, tells about Saints and teaches you prayers.
If you know a Catholic woman who is expecting a baby, A Catholic Mother's Companion to Pregnancy would make a wonderful gift. Grade: B+.
I'd like to thank the publisher for making a review copy available via NetGalley. I was not obligated to write a positive review.
Update:
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