Falling Free by Shannan Martin

Falling Free by Shannan Martin is a book that'll make you think about what your life is meant to be.  Shannan and her husband had everything they wanted: good government jobs, a house on 6 acres in the country, 3 children (maybe adopted but certainly well loved), a good education and the list could go on and on.  The only thing was Shannan wished that she felt closer to God.  Then all at once it happened.  Their financial security/jobs were gone and with it the ability to easily pay for living in the house in the country.  Her husband, Cory, found a job working for the school system for less money and Shannan had found even working part time with the children was becoming impossible so that job's money was also gone and so the house was placed on the market and they began to look in the city of Goshen for their house.  They found a new house close to the rail road tracks.  It was  new though smaller and cheaper and closer to Cory's work.  It was doable. Then Cory was offered a job as chaplain of the jail for even less money.  After discussion they decided that this was the life that God wanted for them.  Not the pretty home but a plain one, not the top of the line school for the children but the poor school at the end of the block with the low test scores.  Their children would grow up along side children from broken homes whose father they didn't even know or were in jail/prison.  This was the life that God had chosen for them.  This life of getting closer to God by getting closer to his people.  This learning to know and love the down and out, the drug addicts, the incarcerated, the tattoos that screamed profanity even if the owner didn't.  When they met and got to know their neighbor they learned what Jesus meant when he said he wanted us to love our neighbor.  Their neighbors( who needed so much from barest of necessity to hearing the Word) became their friends.  The incarcerated became visitors in their home and sometimes if needed their overnight guest.  But the Martins quickly learned it was a two way street.  The poor shared with them from their meager cabinets.  Shannan awakened one morning to the sounds of her sidewalk being shoveled by a man who couldn't dress warmly enough because that is what he could do for the Martins whom he loved.  After a class which combined the jailed inmates along with a class from the school, the inmates took it upon themselves to make Sweet Slam (a concoction of cookies and candy bars mashed together and pressed into bars) and offer it to the class.  The Martins were surrounded by the love of their neighbors.  This is what God wanted for the Martins and they didn't even know to ask for it.

Falling Free is a book about the gutsy move that the Martins made in order to follow the Lord and do his teaching.   This books was written for a high school to adult audience. It would be good reading for anyone though maybe not hold the interest of the younger such as middle school age group.  The book carefully sidesteps actually having curse words in it but alludes to the cussing occasionally.  I especially would recommend this reading especially for those planning to go into inner city mission work.
I received this book from BookLook for this review.

Cooking for Picasso by Camille Aubray

Cooking for Picasso by Camille Aubray is a fabulous read.  This book is told in alternating parts in present day America as well as 2 generations back starting in 1936 and ending in the 1950's.  Picasso isn't painting.  He has hidden himself away in Juan-les-Pins in a rented house on the seashore.  He has his paints but he doesn't use them.  He mostly sleeps away his days.  He has employed the Café Paradis to bring him his meals daily.  He has left orders to just leave them there and he will get them as he wishes and most of all tell no one that Picasso is living there.  Ondine is a fifteen year old girl living with her parents above the Café Paradis.  Ondine works for her mother in the kitchen.  Ondine is ordered by her mother to deliver the food on her bicycle up the hill to the house and tell no one.  Ondine left Picasso a note stating that she hoped that he liked his food.  Ondine serves the food keeping careful track daily of his likes and dislikes in the leather book that her mother had given her.  To Ondine's surprise Picasso leaves her a note and drew her a little picture.  After serving the food Ondine is supposed to return on her bike and pack up the supplies and return them back to her mother's café.  One day when she packed up she noticed that her mother's beloved pink and blue striped pitcher is missing.  Even though she is not supposed to Ondine searches through Picasso's house to find the pitcher so that her mother won't be angry.  Picasso catches her looking through his paintings. Eventually they develop a friendship and he asks her to pose for him.  Ondine poses and Picasso paints several pictures and she asks to see them but she is mortified when she sees the painting is so grotesquely formed.  Her eyes are both on the same side of her head ect ect quite Picassoesque.  Ondine is surprised to find herself thinking quite sexually about this older man in his 50s.  She has also noticed that Picasso paints nudes and wonders whether eventually he will ask her to pose nude.  He eventually does, she asks if she will be paid which angers Picasso then decides that she will not pose nude. Meanwhile back in the café it is war time and no one has money and not surprisingly Ondine's parents find themselves in need of cash.  Ondine is shocked to find out that their plan is to marry her off to an older man who has the cash to go into partnership with them. She is still very much in love with her one love, Luke.  Ondine runs away straight to Picasso and offers herself to him.
Modern day New York.  Celine who is Ondine's granddaughter is a successful Hollywood makeup artist.  Celine's mother, Julie is growing noticeably weaker and her stepsiblings make all decisions regarding her care.  Celine thinks that the medicine that is making her worse.   During her last visit with her mother Julie gave her Ondine's leather recipe book from cooking with Picasso.  Julie had hidden it in a special place in the kitchen.  Julie said that her mother also hid things.  Julie also tells her that Ondine had a special present from Picasso hidden but Julie had never found out where.   When Celine's father died he left everything to the older sibling twins with all decisions to be made by the boy twin.  Her brother makes all decisions about her mother and has placed her in a nursing home that will only listen to advise from him.  Feeling frustrated Celine decides to use the tickets to a French cooking school vacation that her mother would not be able to use and revisit the sites of Grandmother Ondine.
Now I just loved this book but I must caution any future readers that there is sexually contact between 15 year old Ondine and Picasso who is at the time in his 50s.  There is also talk later on about Picasso having sexual contact with many much younger women.  Putting all of that aside this is a great mystery novel especially ( I think anyway) for women.  I got this book on audio but think that it could be more enjoyed if read in book or ebook form.  I will read it again in written form just for the pleasure of it.
I received this book from Blogging for Book for this review.

You Carried Me by Melissa Ohden

You Carried Me by Melissa Ohden is a book by an abortion survivor.  Melissa grew up always knowing that she was adopted.  She was raised with her older sister, Tammy,  who also was adopted.  These girls were soon joined by the very happy addition of a brother when their mother surprised everyone by getting pregnant after all those years.  Both girls had been told that their birth mothers loved them but just couldn't raise them and so they were adopted.  Melissa grew up happy and loved and wanted.  As the girls grew up they discovered different interests and grew apart though always loved each other.  One day Tammy let it slip in an argument that Melissa's mother didn't love her.  Tammy didn't know that Melissa had never been told she was an abortion survivor.  Though Melissa's parents did the best that they could Melissa just couldn't resolve the fact that her biological mother had tried to abort her.  This story is of how Melissa learned to deal with this assumed rejection of her by her birth mother and the story of how Melissa found forgiveness for her birth parents and then the story of how she searched for them and finally found them.  She wrote each of them a letter and waited and waited and waited some more for a response. 

This book is a tough book to read.  Sometimes I needed to stop to cry and I have never had to go through any of these things.  Melissa is a strong woman who eventually went through a severe depression and with treatment came out on the other side.  Like many who go through great tribulation she wanted to help others get through the same struggles and founded  the Abortion Survivors Network to help others impacted by abortion.  She worked through her shyness enough to become a speaker on this subject.  She found that many didn't want to hear her story, many didn't believe her story and after a period of silence she found the courage to again speak out on the subject of abortion.  Melissa Ohden is a woman of courage who has found the strength to educated us all on this difficult subject.
I received this book from Handlebar for this review.

God's Little Lambs-Bible Stories by Julie Stiegemeyer

God's Little Lambs-Bible Stories by Julie Stiegemeyer is a beautifully illustrated Bible story book for the very young.  This book is arranged like as the Bible is chronologically.  In addition each story is prefaced by the Bible verses that each story comes from in the Bible.  At the end of each 3-4 page story is a thought or moral of each story such as at the end of the story, of Adam and Eve in the Garden is the thought, "We make God sad when we disobey him.  But God still loves us and helps us."  An addition the illustrations has each person is colored appropriately such as Jesus is portrayed as being brown colored as persons in that corner of the world are colored.  The additional people in the story are variously colored to portray the people of the world.  This story has many of the usual children's stories but also included are hard to tell stories such as the killing of Jesus and all are told very simply.  Because of this simplicity this book could be read to any age but the very youngest of toddlers (there are too many words on each page for those but the most patient of babies).  The book is hard bound and padded so it could be carried around and the pictures looked at by the child but the pages while they are good quality thick pages are paper and could be torn by the youngest of children. 

I would recommend this book for use in children's sermons, bedtime stories, and for home teaching the Bible for home prayer time with children.  I would use this book as a first Bible for toddlers to be read to them.  I could see this as a gift Bible for children graduating from the nursery class at church.  There are liberties taken with the Bible stories to make them easier for children and some may not like that it is not precisely as written in a particular version of the Bible so if the reader is a very literal Bible scholar they may want to read it before gifting it.  I found this Bible story book to be well written for a child's introduction to the Bible.
I received this book from BookLook for this review.

A Spectacle of Glory by Joni Eareckson Tada with Larry Libby

A Spectacle of Glory by Joni Eareckson Tada is the next  daily devotional by this author. Joni is a well read Christian writer who happens to be a quadriplegic.  This well written devotional is written for the busy Bible reader who wants a little devotion to start their day.  This devotion gives the reader a Bible verse to read in your own favorite version of your Bible then she gives you a page long "thoughts to start or end your day" and follows each with a short prayer.  This would work well for a personal devotion before breakfast, at lunch break, or before bed to quiet your soul for rest.  This devotional is just that, a devotional, it is not to take the place of a Bible study or to be an intensive study.  This devotional is a short daily time set aside to help you to find for yourself God's significance in your life.  Joni gives the reader every day some insight into God's glory in your life. 

Joni Tada is a woman who has live most of her life as a quadriplegic.  She evidently learned early on that God still had a plan for her in His world.  She has not let chronic pain, cancer or lack of ability to move her legs or arms stop her work for God's plan in her life.  She has written books about herself as well as devotionals of which this is one of them.  I have enjoyed this author's work and I enjoyed reading this newest devotional of hers.
I received this book from Handlebar Direction for Publishing for this review.

The Cherished Quilt by Amy Clipston

The Cherished Quilt by Amy Clipson is the next novel in Ms. Clipston's Amish heirloom series.  Emily Fisher is working in her father and uncle's harness shop working on the books.  Emily has heard that Uncle Hank's nephew was moving in with them and would soon be also working in the shop.  In addition to harnesses they also sold leather souvenirs such as hand made key chains and coin purses.  Emily was excited to meet the newest member of the work crew but was disappointed to meet the sullen Christopher.  It seemed no matter how kind Emily was to him he never smiled or even spoke nice to her.  What Emily didn't know then was that Christopher had just witnessed his younger brother's death at the hooves of a horse and on top of all that his father blamed Christopher for the horrible accident.  Christopher also blamed himself but was shocked at his father's anger toward him.  Shortly after the funeral Christopher asked his aunt and uncle if he could stay with them for a while and work in the shop.

Christopher it turns out was quite talented with leather and soon business picked up with many coming into the shop and requesting his leather products with free hand horse and buggy on them.  Christopher blossomed under the praise of his uncle and quickly learned to make new products.  Emily noticed the changes in Christopher and both started a friendship.  They told each other secrets that they had never told anyone else.  Emily learned that Christopher had forgotten his prized quilt that his mother made him at home so she thought to make him a lap quilt for a gift for him. But as the friendship deepened and started to approach the look of love Christopher's Uncle Hank reminded him that he had not been baptized and so could not date anyone in the church.  Though Christopher was old enough to join the church he knew that he would have to seek forgiveness from his father who was the bishop of his home church and he knew that he just couldn't not even to date Emily.  He knew he wasn't worthy of forgiveness.

Christopher's brother Paul's house burned and even though everyone escaped the house would have to be repaired. Christopher left without even telling Emily goodbye.  Emily was crushed but continued to work on the quilt for him.  Meanwhile in Ohio Christopher is staying busy working on Paul's house but still is unable to forget his one true love, Emily.  How does this story end? Do they learn to live and love within the confines of the church or?????
I received this book from BookLook for this review. 

The Angel of Forest Hill by Cindy Woodsmall

The Angel of Forest Hill by Cindy Woodsmall is the next novel from this prolific writer of Amish love stories. 

Rose Kurtz was the oldest of the large Amish family. She had grown up in the family of all boys except herself and her mother.  She had always known that she was a klutzy inept girl because her mother had constantly told her that all of her 21 years.  Rose lived a hard life of constant work feeding, cleaning and clothing for her ll brothers and father's needs alongside of her mother until the day that the bishop of their church arrived during breakfast.  The bishop had a request and that was for her to go to Forest Hill and help care for the children of Joel Dienner and his wife who was not doing well after the birth of their 3rd child.  But when the driver pulled up to the farm house she found it had every window shining with light and the house was surrounded by black Amish buggies.  She soon understood why the house was so people filled when the door was answered by a tearful older Amish woman.  The young mother of the children had died.

Rose had never before cared for a baby girl but she quickly learned to care for both the baby girl and her 2 toddler brothers, and oddly enough whenever she didn't know what to do it seemed like a young woman's voice lead her to do the right thing.  Joel seemed completely lost to the world so deep into his grief that he could barely function.  After a few days however Joel's father came to him and said that the helping women in his house had to go home and he could not allow Rose to remain alone with him to help care for the children--that is unless they agreed to marry.  Joel was in a hard place but he and Rose worked up an agreement that they would marry in name only and Rose would stay and raise the children.  First Joel and Rose grew to like each other as working partners in the children's home and only very slowly did it turn to love but they each stayed in their own bedroom never to consummate their marriage.  It worked fine until Joel in a heated argument with his former Mother in law let slip that he and Rose had never slept together did it become a problem and she took the information to the bishop--Joel's father.  Read the book for the ending to this romance.

I loved this book not only for the love interest but for the way it brought out just what happens to a person's self esteem when a little girl is raised with constant belittling and hatred.  Rose's upbringing continued to effect her adult life since she had no self-esteem. She didn't recognize in herself of her abilities nor was she capable of understanding that someone could love her simply for herself.  She only believed that people would want her around for her work and what she could do for them.  It brings out just how important love and acceptance in for children and how fragile their self esteem is and how important both are to becoming a whole adult.
I received this book from Waterbrook for this review.