The Ebb Tide by Beverly Lewis

The Ebb Tide by Beverly Lewis is the newest book by this author. Ms Lewis' next Amish love story centers on the last summer of Sallie Ruehl before studying for her baptism and joining The People of her Amish community.  Sallie has been planning this last summer for years and has saved up for her trip to Australia.  Then she hears that her beloved nephew needs an important surgery she feels pulled by God to donate the trip money to his fund to pay for the needed surgery.  Just afterwards she finds an opportunity to be the nanny for the summer for a well to do family while they vacation on the beach at Cape May in New Jersey.  She would be spending the summer caring for their daughter Autumn  while the mother cares for her new infant son.  She feels that this might be Providence that this happened right after donating her trip money to the fund.  Her aunt, Essie, feels much the same way but her mother on the other hand is obviously disappointed that Sallie won't be taking her lessons on her baptism this summer as she had hoped.  Sallie knows that she won't be going without her father's blessing but he surprises her by okaying the trip.  In no time at all Monique Logan shows up in her car to whisk her away to the Jersey beach.  Sallie loves the beach as she expected and she loves working for the family as she expected, she is even learning all the workings of the thoroughly modern cabin that the Logans are letting her stay in during the summer---but what she didn't expect is to fall for the Mennonite boy, Kevin, she met on the beach who is a summer intern working on a boat as a tour guide.  Sallie is torn by her growing feelings for Kevin and her guilt about Perry who is waiting for her at home.  What will she do?  Can she put off her baptism again?  She is not baptized so the church won't shun her but can she live happily outside of The People.  Read this book to find out Sallie's solution to this dilemma.




I loved this book about the Jersey shore.  This book brings out the importance of baptism in the Amish church but also the love that the families still have for each other even when choosing life outside the fold of the church.  It brings out some of the decisions that the young Amish must make in order to either stay in the church or the shunning that occurs if the decision to stray from the church is made after the baptism.  Timing is everything in all communities and the Amish are no different.  It also tells of how one may straddle the fence so to speak in order to avoid irritating the family and avoiding the shunning while still staying our of the church membership.
I received this book from BethanyHouse for this review.

In a Different Key by John Donvan and Caren Zucker

In a Different Key by John Donvan and Caren Zucker is an extremely interesting book on autism.  The book manages to take a subject of which I had no direct knowledge of and hold my interest from the very first page.  The book begins by drawing the reader into it with the story of Donald a little boy growing up in Mississippi.  His mother, Mary was just exhausted with caring for him.  She kept him home which was not the norm of the 1930s but when he was joined by his little brother she begins to accept that maybe the doctor is right and maybe an institution would be good for him.  Beaman, his father is a very involved father especially of the 1930s but Donald was a boy who would not interact with anyone. If you tried to hug him he pulled himself away.  He rarely spoke to anyone and if he did answer a question it most likely had nothing to do with the question.  He appeared to enjoy being alone most of all.  Both parents agree he is not normal but are beside themselves for what to do.  Donald wouldn't eat, he preferred to wear no clothes, it seemed as if he couldn't feel the cold weather, and though at an early age he could sing many songs and recite from memory he quit talking to people in a meaningful way between 2-3 years old.  For a year Mary and Beamon left Donald in the institution but what few smiles Donald had they noticed were gone and finally Mary had enough and the family came back and took Donald home.  Still they struggled with all of Donald's oddities and didn't know what to do until Donald was given into the care of Dr. Leo Kanner.  Dr. Kanner eventually diagnosed Donald as "autistic disturbances of affective contact".  Donald was the first diagnosed case of what became known as autism.
The book then tells of other cases and scientific trials, exams, and treatments rounding out the progress of the treatment of autism until the present day.  The book holds the attention though I have only a passing acquaintance with the disorder I read many parts of the book 2 and 3 times because of the interesting way the authors have of telling the story.  I would recommend this book to any of those who have children with autism spectrum disorder or work/interact with these children.  This book explains many things of the difficulties that these children and their family faces on a daily basis in an honest and interesting way.
I received this book from Blogging for Books for this review.

Home is Wherever Mom Is

Home is Wherever Mom Is  is a delightful adult coloring book especially for Moms. With Mother's Day coming up I would think that this would be a good gift for the woman who has everything, creativeness and some time on her hands.  The pages are mostly intricate small spaces to fill with the color of pencils, pens or markers.  Be aware that there is a small amount of bleed through using regular markers so if you're picky you will be sacrificing the back of the page that you color with markers.  I think that the colored pens do a great job if you are wanting the jewel tones of the markers but I like colored pencils the best.  I like the way that pencils fill the small spaces for a more impressive picture and I don't mind the more muted color of the pencil.  The more expensive pencils resharpen best to points for the nicest outcome rather than the colored pencils mostly used by schoolchildren.  I love doing these books and this is one of the better ones.  There are pages also included which are mostly lettering to color in for those who like that or for less intricate pages to color.  These books are a nice way to wind down in the evening after a rough day at work.  I would highly recommend this book for gift giving or to use yourself.  Some of these books are quite expensive and this one is quite reasonable for the nice thick pages that is contained within the covers.