Softly & Tenderly

 Jade lives in Tennesse in a small town dominated by her in-laws, under presseure from her lawyerhusband to get pregnant. But she keeps having miscarriges. Then she finds out her in-laws' marrige is a wreck under the surface. Her husband is addicted to perscription pain-killers. Jade mother, who has come to stay with her, is dying of Leukemia. It sounds like she's living a Southern soap opra. But at least her husband is faithful.

Or is he? Turns out he has a son who is younger than their marrige. Not only that, but the child's mother is dead. Her husband wants custody of his son, age 18 months. Full of conflicting emotions, Jade takes off to Iowa with her mother and mother-in-law. Her mother just wants to die in the old homstead Iowa. Now there's nothing preventing Jade from taking her there. But in Iowa a temptation for her- her first love, who still pines her. They hang out and play midnight football. Jade knows she is not suspposed to be with her first husband but she breaks the rules anyway. Later on, she goes home and tells her husband the truth. He is uset with her but still forgives her. He decides that Jade should help parent his son. Jade says she would not keep any secrets from her husband and he sys the same thing. So Jade and her husband parent the child and they live a better healthier relationship.
-----------------------------------------

Disclosure of Material Connection: I received this book free from Thomas Nelson Publishers as part of their BookSneeze.com book review bloggers program. I was not required to write a positive review. The opinions I have expressed are my own. I am disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission’s 16 CFR, Part 255 : “Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising.”

The Cleaner Plate Club

This is another book I borrowed from the library.  As I was looking for some other books, I came upon this and it looked healthy and interesting.  And, I was totally correct.  This cookbook not only has recipes, but it gives a lot of great information.

This is not a vegetarian cookbook, but the emphasis is to get more vegetables into our children.  It gives the background of the vegetable and pictures of all different varieties of that vegetable in color.  It tells you how to select and store them, the nutritional goodness, then, some recipes that are typically easy to make. 

In a different section, it does things like Soups, Desserts, etc. which combine a variety of vegetables, fruit, and meat/poultry/fish.  It's really informative, which I absolutely love.  The layout of the book is great.  It gives you healthier alternatives to the traditional stuff - for example, sweeteners are resigned to white sugar, rather you can use maple, honey, stevia, agave nectar, etc.  And, the alternatives they give are natural, not yucky synthetic.

All the recipes look to be kid-friendly.  If you have kids, you know how things like peer pressure or changing taste buds can wreak havoc on a family's meal times.  They also give suggestions for packing school lunches that are healthy.  I think at some point in the future, I will purchase this book when I can find it for under $5 with shipping. 

The Noticer

This is another book that I checked out at the local public library.  I wish they had all his books, but I was glad that I got to find 2 books that I had not read.  After reading The Lost Choice, I was anxious to read this.  Thought this book would be just as impactful, but it wasn't.

The premise of this book's message is about PERSPECTIVE.  How life can go for us, the choices we make, our attitudes all depend upon our perspective, regardless of the circumstances. 

The Noticer is an actual person named "Jones" or he could be "Garcia".  He's a man that notices a lot of things that most people don't.  He seems to come right in time in a person's life to help them change their perspective and get back on track by suggestions.  He does leave it up to each individual.

I'm not sure if part of the book is true, the part of Andy being the down & out person at the beginning of the book and is one of the main characters of the book.  If so, he came a long way from his homeless beginnings to author & speaker.  This book still referenced people briefly in history that made a big difference, like George Washington Carver.

Having read quite a few of Andy's books, he's used George Washington Carver's biography in a number of them.  Though I wasn't as entranced in this book, it's still a good, short read.  It has a good message, but I prefer the books where he really entertwines historical facts with his fictional story.  This one really didn't do it, so it just didn't touch me as much.

The Lost Choice

I did not get this book from Book Sneeze, rather from the public library.  I really loved this book.  Andy is really good with putting actual historical stuff into his fictional books.  So, there is a lot of truth in the fiction.

It did not take me really long to read this book, as it kept me mesmorized.  The chronology of the book seemed to be all over the place, but it's with regards to an ancient relic and though it holds no power in it of itself, it's the choice that someone makes to make a difference.

This relic was probably a couple thousand years from current day.  Loved how the storyline was.  So, it starts off a long time ago, but you don't really know when.  There is mystery as to what the relic is and there is tragedy at the beginning of the book, possibly.

This relic gets broken purposefully into 4 sections.  So, fast forward to current day when one of the pieces is found by a little boy.  But, then the mom (a journalist) and the dad (a detective) get involved with finding out the history of the piece that they had.  It leads them to this really old woman whose great grand uncle or something like that was George Washington Carver.  It goes through some of the choices Carver made while he had possession of one of the other parts of the relic.

Each part of the relic had a different "theme" and it seemed that all those who possessed the relic made a significant difference in history for whatever that "theme" for that specific piece of the relic was.  The book goes throughout history dating to probably before Christ.

Anyway, I found this book fascinating, but it showed the power of the choices we make.  It really shows "The Butterfly Effect".  Totally LOVED this book.  Very powerful message for me.

A must read!

Stained Glass Hearts

I've now lost track as to what number of eBooks I've gotten from Book Sneeze.  One thing I've found when I go to Amazon to find out how long the books are, whatever it says, getting it in eBook format the pages are by far fewer.  Amazon said this book is 208 pages, while my Adobe reader on my laptop says there are 141 pages.  So, I don't know where the discrepancy is.  Hopefully I can finish this book in a couple of hours.

Though this book was not very long, it was harder for me to get interested in.  Not sure why.  There are elements of Patsy's life that I could totally relate to, and many things I could identify with.  Perhaps I expected it to be partially humorous and the other part serious. 

When I think of Stained Glass, I think of beauty and elegance.  She had beautiful words written through this book, very descriptive.  The book was well-organized.  She has Scriptures and references different stories in the Bible and mixes it with her story mainly, but also the stories of others.

She shares of her foibles and the many challenges of her life, as well of that of her family, and how her challenges impacted her family, both present and the one she grew up in.  This book is filled with so much grace & sweetness.  I found the book very open & honest.  However, I wasn't moved as I had expected.  Maybe because the past couple days I've been incredibly tired.

Anyway, I'm giving it 4 stars for all the great things about the book and maybe I'll reread it again sometime in the future when I'm feeling more alive.
------------------------------------------
Disclosure of Material Connection: I received this book free from the publisher through the BookSneeze®.com book review bloggers program. I was not required to write a positive review. The opinions I have expressed are my own. I am disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission’s 16 CFR, Part 255 : “Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising.”

Rumors of God

I'm starting to lose track of how many eBooks I've gotten from Book Sneeze, but eBooks are cool.  Though I cannot highlight, it allows me to read the book and if I really want the print version, I can get it later.

Okay, I was hoping I would've finished this book 2 weeks ago, but that didn't happen.  This book is a fairly easy and quick read words wise.  It took me about 2.5 hrs to read at a comfortable pace.

However, though an easy read, the message is very power.  I like how the book is structured.  There are 10 chapters, each about 10-15 pages.  Somehow reading this as an ebook allows me to finish books faster than if I had the actual physical book.

This book really convicted me, challenged my thinking and perspective on things regarding my own walk with God.  The authors touch on 10 different topics:  1)  The Abundant Life, 2) God's Dreams for Our Lives, 3) Generosity, 4) Love, 5) Grace, 6) Freedom, 7) Commitment, 8) Community, 9) Justice, 10) Hope.

There was not a chapter that I did not see where I needed improvement on from where I am to where God possibly wants me to be.  I've been learning about God's Justice and I got a bit more enlightenment with what the authors talked about.  Justice is really finding the root cause and fixing that, rather than band-aiding a situation.  That was such a good description and I can see where I've had that tie to God's Justice my whole life and didn't realize it.

Then, the topic of Grace, which I thought I understood, but I didn't as much as I thought.  Though I knew some brief stuff about the Assyrians, what I did not know was that Ninevah was an Assyrian City.  What the authors talked about made a lot of sense and gave me a much better understanding of Jonah's attitude here.  Grace is undeserved favor and what was impressed most in this chapter is that it is undeserved, meaning there is nothing we can do to earn it.  So, even with the people who commit the most atrocious crimes, they can be forgiven, too.  Doesn't seem right, does it?  Grace.

I didn't keep track of which author was writing or not, but since there were 2 authors for this book, Jon and Darren, they would identify who was writing.  That was helpful.  The whole book contained Biblical stories as well as the stories of either their own personal stories or that of other people.  They were all very poignant and impactful in conveying their points.

The use of the word "Rumor" is something that drew me in, as if I have a choice to believe it or not, or at least I should investigate it more to see if the "Rumor" could be true.  So, there is a level of ownership, if you so choose to answer the questions that are posed.  Very cool of the authors.  A very well thought out book.

This would be a good book to do in a small group and there is a section at the last part of the book that is a guide that allows you to do this.

------------------------------------------

Disclosure of Material Connection: I received this book free from the publisher through the BookSneeze®.com book review bloggers program. I was not required to write a positive review. The opinions I have expressed are my own. I am disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission’s 16 CFR, Part 255 : “Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising.”

Women of Faith

I am so excited to be going to the Women of Faith Conference 2011.  I've never been and have wanted to go for quite some time.  I've heard some really good things about this.   Thank you to Book Sneeze for selecting me from my city to be able to attend this event.  I am very grateful.  God bless Book Sneeze.  They have been so generous to give away so many free books to myself and many others. 

Though I won't be able to go this year to my church's women's retreat, it will be great to go to at least one women's extended event this year.  I praise God.



They have a fantastic 2011 Lineup.  I am big fans of the authors - Andy Andrews, Steve Arterburn, Henry Cloud.  If Luci Swindoll is as good as her husband, this should be a treat.  I love the music of Natalie Grant, Mandisa, Mary Mary, Laura Story, Selah, Sandi Patty, and Sheila Walsh.  I remember watching the "Facts of Life" series growing up, so it will be great to hear Lisa speak.