Review: The Vineyard at Painted Moon

The Vineyard at Painted Moon

About the Book

Mackenzie Dienes seems to have it all—a beautiful home, close friends and a successful career as an elite winemaker with the family winery. There’s just one problem—it’s not her family, it’s her husband’s. In fact, everything in her life is tied to him—his mother is the closest thing to a mom that she’s ever had, their home is on the family compound, his sister is her best friend. So when she and her husband admit their marriage is over, her pain goes beyond heartbreak. She’s on the brink of losing everything. Her job, her home, her friends and, worst of all, her family.

Staying is an option. She can continue to work at the winery, be friends with her mother-in-law, hug her nieces and nephews—but as an employee, nothing more. Or she can surrender every piece of her heart in order to build a legacy of her own. If she can dare to let go of the life she thought she wanted, she might discover something even more beautiful waiting for her beneath a painted moon.

My Comments

This is a starting over story and while it includes romance, the real story is Mackenzie choosing to leave the safe but unsatisfying world of her ex-husband's family business and striking out on her own.  She has it a lot better than a lot of divorcees--her husband is wealthy and writes a generous settlement check, much to her mother-in-law's chagrin--but she has spent her adult life living in their family compound and her sisters-in-law are her best friends.  The story explores how much life changes after even the most amicable of divorces, and how divorce not only affects the couple but the extended family as well in some cases.  

I enjoyed the book and thank the publisher for making a review copy available via NetGalley.  Grade B. 

 

Review: California Girls

 California Girls 

About the Book:

 Finola, a popular LA morning-show host, is famously upbeat until she’s blindsided on live TV by the news that her husband is sleeping with a young pop sensation who has set their affair to music. While avoiding the tabloids and pretending she’s just fine, she’s crumbling inside, desperate for him to come to his senses and for life to go back to normal.

Zennie’s breakup is no big loss. Although the world insists she pair up, she’d rather be surfing. So agreeing to be the surrogate for her best friend is a no-brainer—after all, she has an available womb and no other attachments to worry about. Except…when everyone else, including her big sister, thinks she’s making a huge mistake, being pregnant is a lot lonelier—and more complicated—than she imagined.

Never the tallest, thinnest or prettiest sister, Ali is used to being overlooked, but when her fiancé sends his disapproving brother to call off the wedding, it’s a new low. And yet Daniel continues to turn up “for support,” making Ali wonder if maybe—for once—someone sees her in a way no one ever has.

But side by side by side, these sisters will start over and rebuild their lives with all the affection, charm and laugh-out-loud humor that is classic Susan Mallery.

 

My Comments:

When couples break up it is easy to blame the other partner. Either the other partner did something to cause you to want out, or the partner initiated the breakup.  In this story, three sisters had break-ups with the course of a week, and we follow them as they move from blaming the other person to accepting their part in it, and moving on.  

I like the way Mallery not only looked at the couples' relationships but also the relationships each of the women had with people in general and how those relationship traits affected not only their romantic relationships but also the rest of their lives.  

I don't think I was every surprised about how things happened, but this was a light interesting read.  

I'd like to thank the publisher for making a review copy available via NetGalley.  Somehow this didn't make it to the top of my list near publication time.  Grade: B.

 

It's Monday: What Are You Reading

 

Is the weather as cold everywhere as it is here?  They are supposed to get snow about 50 miles north of us, but no snow in New Orleans.  I hear it raining and it just feels cold even in the house.  On the positive side, the Saints won today WHO DAT!  

We took down our Christmas stuff and I put up a few Mardi Gras decorations.  No parades this year.  

Reading?  Oh, that.  Most of my reading time this week has been spent reading Fundamentals of Louisiana Notarial Law and Practice.  Quick review:  Dry as dust, full of big words, very repetitive and not exciting at all.  Nevertheless it is the book I have to know if I want to pass the Louisiana Notary Exam in February, which I have decided I do want to do.  

My book of the year this year is going to be the Bible and I wrote a post comparing two podcasts I listen to:  Do You Prefer Your Bible Fast or Slow  In the fast podcast, several chapters of the Bible are read each day.  On the slow one, several days can be spent on a handful of verses.  

I'm in the middle of two books:  California Girls by Susan Mallery and Those Who Save Us which is about a young woman in Germany during WWII and a middle-aged woman in the US in the 1990's.  I'm enjoying them both. 

Join other book bloggers to see what they've been reading. 

Do You Prefer Your Bible Fast or Slow?

 

Despite the fact that it is probably the most read book on earth, one New Year's resolution many people have is to read the Bible, either all the way through, more, or some permutation thereof.  One way to do that is to pick up your Bible, or go to a website like Biblegateway.com and read.  Another way is to subscribe to one of many "readings of the day" email lists.  A way that has gained popularity the last few years is via podcast.  Today I'm going to review two podcasts I listen to--one fast and one slow.

The Ten Minute Bible Hour

The Ten Minute Bible Hour  is hosted by Matt Whitman.  According to what I've been able to figure out via Google, Matt used to be the pastor of an Evangelical Free Church.  He was a history major at Trinity College in Chicago, and then went to Trinity Evangelical Divinity School.  Now he is a podcaster, Youtuber and speaker.  

In The Ten Minute Bible Hour podcast, Matt is going through the book of Matthew, one piece at a time.  How long is a "piece"? It depends, but anywhere from a sentence to a paragraph, or sometimes he takes a bigger chunk but spends more than one day on it.  To put things in perspective, the podcast is now on episode 298 and he is on Matthew 13:24-30, the parable of the wheat and tares, and this is the second day he is talking about it.  The podcast has five episodes per week, and Matt takes off for a week when there are five Mondays in a month. 

Matt's background as a historian comes out in that he is purporting to tell us how the original audience would have received this text--both the original audience who heard Jesus and the audience who first read Matthew.  What he does not do is follow up with "and here is what it means for you today and what you should do about it".   He mostly leaves listeners to draw their own conclusions about the message that passage has for them.  It's Matt's basic thesis that Jesus came to establish a new Kingdom with new "Kingdom Values" as listed in the beatitudes.  

I've been listening to this podcast from the beginning and it has given me historical insight into Matthew and the Bible in general that I did not previously have. 

Matt generally starts the podcast with a life story or similar and then says "Likewise, in Matthew chapter..." He can be funny at times and serious at others.  Each episode is about 10 minutes long.  

Matt Whitman is also a Youtuber.  His channel is called The Ten Minute Bible Hour, though most of the episodes go well over ten minutes.  He has done video series on the Book of Luke and on The Acts of the Apostles.  He has also covered various topics related to reading the Bible and Bible versions, but my favorite of his videos cover his visits to various churches.  He has toured and spoken with clergy from Catholic, Orthodox, Coptic, Lutheran, Seventh Day Adventist and Assembly of God churches (and probably some other ones I can't remember off the top of my head).  He also has a series where he speaks with a Catholic theologian from a college near his home.  

Fr. Mike Schmitz:  Bible in a Year

The Bible in a Year podcast of Fr. Mike Schmitz moves through the Bible much more rapidly that Matt Whitman does.  It follows Jeff Cavin's Great Adventure reading plan. The basic thesis of the plan is that the Bible is the story of our salvation history, and that rather than trying to read it from front to back, to put things in the proper context we need to read by historical periods.  The first such period is "pre-history" and covers the first few books of Genesis, through the tower of Babel.  The second is "the patriarchs" and goes through the end of Genesis.  

Each day's episode is 20-30 minutes long and in it Fr. Mike reads from the narrative books and some complimentary texts from elsewhere in the Bible.  You can download a copy of his reading plan.  In the episode I listened to today, he read from Genesis, Job and Proverbs. 

Fr. Mike reads quickly and well.  Following the reading, he gives a short reflection which pulls a lesson from the text.  In response to the story of the Tower of Babel, he talked about the difference between striving for excellence and striving for glory.  With respect to the story of Job, and Abram, he talked about trusting God.  

Before beginning each of these historical periods, Fr. Mike is going to have Jeff Cavins, who developed the Great Adventure series, on for a "bonus" episode where they give an overview of what to expect during that time  

Fr. Mike is also on YouTube and when my high school daughter walked in on my tonight when I was listening to him, she said she thought she recognized the voice--her religion teacher uses his videos in her class.  I've watched a few and they are interesting and engaging.  

My Comments:

I'm enjoying both of these podcasts.  If you happen to be like I was not too long ago, and need to know what a podcast is or how to access it, podcasts are pre-recorded audio programs that are uploaded to internet sites so that you can download them and listen to them when you want. You can use any number of apps to do so--I use Spotify, but you can use Stitcher or Google Play or .....

Listening to Fr. Mike read is like listening to an audiobook and it slows me down, as opposed to the speed at which I read to myself.  I like his reflections and I feel reasonably confident that what I'm hearing from him comports with Catholic teaching.  

On the other hand, I've never delved as deeply into any book of the Bible as I have into the book of Matthew during the last thirteen months.  I've learned about Pharisees, about Capernaum,  about the organization of Matthew around four big speeches by Jesus and even about the acoustics that would have helped Jesus be heard when he went a short way offshore in a boat to speak.  

I'm sure Matt's beliefs color some of his interpretation, but he's pretty open about when he is interpreting.  He purports to be talking to people who are "all in" to Christianity and to those who are interested in the Bible but don't believe there is a God behind it, and to be leaving it up to us what to make of it.  

In short, I recommend both these podcasts for different reasons and give them both and "A".  

I have received no compensation for writing this review--and you can get your free review copy of either or both podcasts simply by downloading them--actually there is no charge for either one whether you review them or not.  Matt would like you to support  him on Patreon.com and I'm sure Fr. Mike (or more precisely the sponsor of the podcast, Ascension Press) would like it if you would purchase Great Adventure Bible materials.  I reviewed some years ago.