The Hundred Story Home by Kathy Izard

The Hundred Story Home by Kathy Izard is a book that will inspire you to find your passion and calling for your own life.  This is the story of how Kathy was called by God to do something about housing the homeless in Charlotte.  Kathy was no longer trusting and believing in God the way she did as a child.  Kathy was busy.  She was raising her 4 daughters to be good citizens of this country.  The family was already volunteering at the soup kitchen in their area.  Kathy's mother had mental issues and Kathy needed to help her in order to keep her mother's secret.  Then why did Denver a formerly homeless man from Fort Worth make her consider that she should do more?  Why did Denver's comment during the fundraiser event that she had invited him to speak just after reading his book,  Same Kind of Different as Me make her consider that she could do more.  Something big.  What was Denver's comment?  "Where are the beds?"  She didn't have time to be running around raising money to build a home for the homeless but she could avoid the constant whispering in her ear?  God, whom she had lost faith in, was calling to her to build Moore House.  Oh she didn't know that was what He wanted her to do---Yet or that she would name it that.  She just knew that the homeless needed to safe place to sleep and all of a sudden people were coming to her to either tell her of the need or to give the project money needed to do just that.  One of the homeless, Eugene Coleman was asked to speak at a fundraiser at a high school.  "Can you see me?" Coleman asked.  He waited a moment and then repeated the question, "Can you see me?".  Then he went on to explain that for 20 years of addiction  no one could see him.  No one but God and God had given him a second chance at life.  Then he told the students his story.  These high school students gave $6000 that day to help make Moore House.

This book is chock full of miracles such as that above.  Miracles that show that when God whispers into your ear to do something that you need not fear.  God will provide the means; all that you need provide is the faith that it will happen.  Read this book if you need just that push in your life to do what you are being called to do.  You don't have to be an especially talented person.  You just have to be willing to follow what God is leading you to do.
This book was provided by BookLook for this review. 

Through the Autumn Air by Kelly Irvin

Through the Autumn Air by Kelly Irvin is the third novel from the An Every Amish Season series.  In this as the reader might expect this is the story of Amish persons in the "Autumn" of their life.  Mary Katherine or Mary Kay as her friends call her has just married off the last of her 10 children.  She has finished raising them by herself after the death of her husband 7years ago.  Even though everyone, even her sons, think that she has done a fine job of it now her sons think that they have a better plan for her life than she does.  She would like to continue writing stories and help run a new bookstore with her friend, Dottie, but her sons and the elders of the church all think that she should give up her home and move in with her son and his family and help raise their children.  So far she has been able to avoid it but who knows for how long.  Her good friend Ezekiel needs a new cook for his restaurant that he has run for several years when his wife died.  It has produced a good income for him and his family but his children are also grown. Mary Kay doesn't want to work in a kitchen all day though.  When would she be able to write?  An English man, Burke, broke into her home one night and though she was scared she held a gun on him until she found out that he was just hungry.  She then prepared him a meal and took him to Ezekiel to be his cook.  That started Mary Kay and Ezekiel working on their project of finding help for Burke.  They found that do enjoy working together and Burke they find out is a Chaplain from the military.  They also find another project to work on that of Ezekiel's English young waitress who seems very troubled.

Why does Mary Kay have to give up her home?  Why does Ezekiel have to continue working in a restaurant that is no longer needed to provide income for his children?  Why can't Mary Kay write her thoughts and stories?  Why don't the men in her church and the sons that she herself raised treat her like a grown woman instead of a child? More importantly can Ezekiel and Mary Kay find love again after so much sadness from losing their spouses?  Read this book to find out how these Amish folks decide to live out these problems.
I received this book from BookLook for this review.