Thursday, April 25, 2013

When God Makes Lemonade by Don Jacobson

When God Makes Lemonade by Don Jacobson.
When God Makes Lemonade is a collection of real stories of people’s lives of God’s intervention when He was needed.  Some of these are miracles.  Some of these are times when God used another human to do His work.  All are times when the teller was at the end of their rope and ready to give up and God sent help.  Some are funny and others will have the reader crying.  Some are Mr. Jacobson’s own stories but most are stories of other people’s life.  All show the hope of living daily with Christ.  All of these people are not “good” people who prayed and good happened.  Some of them had bad things happen to bad people and God brought peace and hope in order to bring them to Him.
I liked this book but I warn you don’t read it without tissues handy.   I was in tears more than once and had to get to the bathroom to get one so plan ahead.  These stories are not all miracles that happened whenever anyone prayed. 
I received this book from Booksneeze for this review.

When God Makes Lemonade by Don Jacobson

When God Makes Lemonade by Don Jacobson.
When God Makes Lemonade is a collection of real stories of people’s lives of God’s intervention when He was needed.  Some of these are miracles.  Some of these are times when God used another human to do His work.  All are times when the teller was at the end of their rope and ready to give up and God sent help.  Some are funny and others will have the reader crying.  Some are Mr. Jacobson’s own stories but most are stories of other people’s life.  All show the hope of living daily with Christ.  All of these people are not “good” people who prayed and good happened.  Some of them had bad things happen to bad people and God brought peace and hope in order to bring them to Him.
I liked this book but I warn you don’t read it without tissues handy.   I was in tears more than once and had to get to the bathroom to get one so plan ahead.  These stories are not all miracles that happened whenever anyone prayed. 
I received this book from Booksneeze for this review.

Wednesday, April 24, 2013

One Glorious Ambition by Jane Kirkpatrick

One Glorious Ambition by Jane Kirkpatrick.
This is the story of Dorthea Dix.  She is the eldest child of a mother with mental illness who neglected her and a religious fanatic father who physically abused both her and her younger brothers.  Dorthea at a young age is rescued from her extremely poor family to be raised to be a lady of means by her paternal grandmother.  Dorthea is educated and well fed and becomes a teacher for young people who could not afford the tuition that was then required for educating the youth of the beginning of the 1800’s.  Dorthea after searching for her calling in life finally finds that she has a gift for writing and then upon her lifelong journey of finding help for the mentally ill of the world.  At the time these people were either housed in people’s homes or in prisons.  Some states even auctioned them off to be servants or slaves.  Dorthea’s great ambition was to see these “least of these” housed in hospitals where they could be properly fed and treated by doctors.  She championed moral care for these people.  Dorthea who was born a poor girl who was not even well fed grew into a woman who would tour the country and then eventually speak before Congress to try to get this country to take good care of our mentally ill and to encourage treatment of this illness at a time when they were routinely chained and hidden from society.
When I first heard of this book, I knew that I had heard of Dorthea Dix but couldn’t remember why.  This is a woman who usually gets a paragraph or even just a sentence in our history books, even in nursing.  This woman who lived at a time when women were not allowed to vote or even speak before groups of men did all this work for people who did not have the means or the know how to even know who she was.  The mentally ill of the early 1800s were not fed regularly let alone educated or treated by physicians who specialized in their care.  The horror stories of this time must be know by those now who think that treatment of the mentally ill is not worth the tax dollars spent on it.  This is a book that should be read by all those concerned with the treatment or who know a mentally ill person—and that is most all of us.
This book was provided by Waterbrook Multnomah Press for this review.

Friday, April 19, 2013

The Bridesmain by Beverly Lewis

The Bridesmaid by Beverly Lewis.
Joanna Kurtz is such good friend to many in her Amish community that she has been asked over and over to be their bridesmaid at their wedding.  She loves that she is appreciated and loved by her peers but she yearns to be loved and married to a man that she loves her back.  Oddly enough she meets the man of her dreams, Eben, after traveling to Indiana for the funeral of her Uncle Amos.  They love each other but it would seem that living in 2 different states and Eben’s family’s expectation that he stay to help on the family farm and Joanna’s trouble with the Bishop would keep them apart.  Joanna has been writing fiction secretly and her sister has told the preacher and now she is in so much trouble that she may not leave the community.
I love to read Beverly Lewis’s Amish love stories and I enjoyed this one.  I sure do hope that she continues to turn out these stories of quality to the women who read them.

Thursday, April 18, 2013

Yellow Crocus by laila Ibrahim

The setting of this novel is mid 1800’s of the southern part of the United States.  Slavery was the norm and Elizabeth Wainwright was born to the mistress of the house through a difficult forceps delivery by a well respected white doctor—the best that money could buy.  She is then brought to her wet nurse, Mattie.  Mattie has been honored by this transfer from the fields into the big white house to be the slave for Miss Elizabeth but she must leave her months old baby to be raised by another which creates heartache for her which she will never recover.   It matters not though because Mattie is a slave with no power over her life or her death for that matter.  Though she longs to be with her baby son she raises and learns to love this new baby who she nurses and loves as if her own while only allowed to see her son through the window of Miss Elizabeth’s bedroom and a few hours on Sunday.  Elizabeth loves her Mattie more than her own mother.  Mattie calls this new baby Lisbeth.  Lisbeth grows into a high-born white lady but she is bothered by some of the norms of her surroundings—ownership of other humans, the beatings, the rapes of the slaves by the white masters—and all this time she remains close with her nurse but is growing away from the slave quarters and how she played with Mattie’s son, Samuel.  She is being encouraged to be married to Edward Cunningham who is from one of the most upstanding families of society.  It matters not to her family that she does not feel like she loves him.  It doesn’t matter that she is drawn to Matthew who shares her interest in books and treats her well.
I loved this book.  I would recommend reading it by all especially girls and women.  It is written in simple language that would be understood by even those of middle school age.  This novel is certainly not a history book but one that would encourage the study of this dark time in our own country’s history.   That this novel was written by a first time author is especially encouraging, I hope she continues to write such good novels for our female readers.

Sunday, April 14, 2013

When Donkeys Talk by Tyler Blanski

When Donkeys Talk by Tyler Blanski.
Tyler Blanski is an American Singer-songwriter and author who was thirsty for a fresh look at his Christian faith and wanted to look back into the lives of the saints, the stars (constellations) and see the beauty of Christianity.  He wants us to again believe that miracles can and will happen in the life of the Christian.  He wants us to expect that God will work in our life in miraculous ways and for us to look again at the world that God has created for us to live in and experience as creatures of His creation.  The writer also wants us to again look at the why we as a group find it so hard to believe in God’s miracles but we willingly listen to the science and chaos that the modern culture would have us to believe.  Mr. Blanski uses scripture, history and works of the thinkers of our Christian church to states his case for belief in God’s miracles and faith in His love for us.
I struggled through this book.  It is written in a flighty way and uses a lot of the modern fantasy writings that I was not familiar.  It makes the reader think though outside of the box which is what Jesus also did in order to bring in the masses to Him.  I hope that this book will do much the same with new readers who love reading of fantasy and would be drawn to accept that Jesus was born died and resurrected for all. 
This book was provided by    Booksneeze  for this review

Monday, April 8, 2013

Freefall to Fly--ABreathtaking Journey Toward a Life of Meaning by Rebekah Lyons

Freefall to Fly a Breathtaking Journey Toward a Life of Meaning by Rebekah Lyons.
Ms. Lyons very openly tells of her life from college graduation to marriage to quitting her job and having her 3 children which was a mostly controlled happy life for her and her family.  She and her husband then plan a move to New York City with the family.  Rebekah then starts to spiral down into a dark hole of depression which even with help from family and friends she seems unable to climb out.  Rebekah tells of her father’s difficulties with mental health and admits that this has been a fear of hers.  This book is about her problems with panic attacks, anxiety and depression and how she learns to cope her way out of the hole and become whole again.
I liked this book.  Very candid discussions are had on her decision making and how difficult her life was during this time.  She had very few friends at the beginning because of the recent move and much relied on the strong support of her husband.  She had the 3 very little children one of whom has Down syndrome which of course added to her stress and work load though through this book she never complains about her family rather she credits them for the support for which they gave.  This is a good book for anyone facing or has a family or friend with depression/anxiety issues and needs to learn how to cope with them.
I was provided this book by Handlebar for this review.

Saturday, April 6, 2013

Firsthand by Ryan and Josh Shook

Firsthand by Ryan and Josh Shook is a book which is advertised as a “journey to find a faith of your own.  A faith that isn’t your parents’ or you’re your pastor’s or your church’s.  Start from scratch, question everything, and get hold of a faith that’s real.”  A faith they call firsthand faith.  This is a good book about finding your own way into what your faith really means and making your faith statement your own.   This is not one of those new age books about I’m ok and God is whatever you want Him to be.  This is a book about the discovery of a personal God who loves your where you are but expects that you will live a life striving for perfection.  This is not an attainable goal with Jesus’ sacrifice but the importance is that you never give up striving for perfection. 
I liked this book even though I am probably not in the target readership.  I thought that this is an especially good book for parents (especially moms) raising boys and boys who are questioning the faith of their parents and finding that they are pretending to be so called good Christians but they are having guilt because they know what they are thinking about in their heads and know it is not what Jesus would do or think.  This book discusses porn and though it does not say that it is sin free or desirable attribute it is common especially among boys and men and how to deal with the thoughts and desires that happen to them and what to do about it.  Christian literature can be preachy especially when written by pastors and this one is written by pastor’s children but with the possible exception of the last chapter this one is not preachy and it is easily read with the plan to improve your life.
This book was provided by Waterbrook Press for this review.

Wednesday, April 3, 2013

Bread and Wine by Shauna Niequist

Bread and Wine by Shauna Niequist is a love letter to life around the table with recipes.  This book is to be an encouragement to the reader to invite those that you love into your home for a meal or celebration around the table.  This book invites the reader to not just read about entertaining others or just cooking a family meal but to actually break out the cookbooks and the ingredients and cook the meal for the others.  She encourages the reader to start simple or start difficult but just to start—your friends just want to be with you.
I liked this book ok but I thought it could have been so much more interesting.  This is not the writer’s first book so I expected more from her.  It seems to be a book of her life and a very few recipes that she commonly makes.
I was provided this book for this review from Handlebar.