london blitz diary review

I received "World War II London Blitz Diary Vol. 1" by Ruby Side Thompson for free from Goodreads.com.  This book is an as-is diary written by a middle aged woman living in London during Sept 1, 1939- December 31, 1940.  During this time World War II starts for England and progresses.  Ruby writes of daily things at first: shopping, reading, her husband.  She writes about her husband a lot.  She really gets with complaining about her husband.  About half way through the book she takes an abrupt switch to writing primarily about the war and her situation in it. 
This book lets on like it is a World War II diary and in the second half that is the case, but not the first. The first half is mainly her bitching about her husband.  All The Time.  She does talk of other things once in awhile, but really, the book should have been editted to cut out some of it, just to let the reader know the writer, but not bombard them with complaining.  It is a diary.  The point of it is to complain.  But that doesn't make for good reading.  The second half is war, raids, isolation, rations, and of course complaining about her husband.  However, with as little sleep as she was getting and the whole "am I gonna die" thing she had going I am surprised she could write as well as she did.  It seemed such an exhausting life!  Interesting read.

civil war reinactment

I received "A Sound Among the Trees" by Susan Meissner for free from Waterbrook Press.  Let me start off with I love this author and I love this book.  Meissner tends to parallel history and the present into brilliant literature.  In this one she maintains the present for most of the book leaving the reader in the dark and constantly guessing at what is going on.  Building the suspense up more and more as the story plays out.  About 2/3 of the way through she brings the reader to the past through letters that have been hidden for over 100 years.  This is one of those read all the time till it's gone books.  Love this!
Holly Oaks is a house in Virginia dating back to before the Civil War.  The house holds several generations of women, all of whom leave their mark on the house and what is considered "ghosts".  Merrielle marries Carson, a widowed father with two children, whom she meets online.  He lives at Holly Oaks with his deceased wife's grandmother. The story follows the two women as they get used to each other, the situation, and the "ghosts".  Then the story leads to the Civil War era where Holly Oaks houses Susannah, her grandmother, mother, and slave girl.  This part of the story explains who is indeed haunting Holly Oaks.  Is it the house itself?  Is it Susannah?  Or is it just life working out in a lousy coincidence?  Something is haunting these women.

abundant life review

I received "Abundant Life Day Book: 365 Blessing To Begin Your Day" by Nancy Guthrie for free from Tyndale House Publishers.  This book is a devotional.  Each day has a short bible verse followed by a message from "God", and ending with a prayer from you to God.  This book is a little hard to follow at first.  The first day I read I could not figure out who the "I " was in the daily blessing.  Then it dawned on me that it was a letter from God.  Which kind of threw me.  Since actually it is a letter from Nany Guthrie, obviously, it made me feel a little weird reading what was supposedly words from God.  Then she turns it around and writes the prayer from me to God.  So then the "I" is me.  So I didn't really like the way it was written.  It was weird and too back and forth.  I did like the messages.  They are aimed to make one feel better about oneself.  God probably would say those things to someone.  I would say read it and after awhile the whole flip-flopping the "I"s wouldn't be so hard to follow.  Some may not ever take to the letter from "God".

the mercy review

"The Mercy" by Beverly Lewis is the third book in a trilogy, The Rose Trilogy.  Rose, of course, being the central character.  Rose is an Amish (Old Order)  girl.  She is getting dangerously close to becoming too old for marriage, but cannot seem to find the right man for the job.  In this trilogy, you must read all of the books and in order to follow along.  In this review I will try and stick with the third book but give you a little background information so that you can also know what is what.  Rose has a mother who is wheelchair bound and in severe pain.  In this book she deals with surgery to correct her pain.  (She is allergic to pain meds.)  This goes on through out both parts of the book.  In the first part, Hen, Rose's sister, is coming to terms with her decision to leave her Englisher husband and move back to Plain life.  She is starting to rethink her all-or-nothing stand and hopefully her husband (now blind) will back down on his.  Part two is Rose's love life.  Who will she chose?  Will she chose anyone?  Can she live a fullfilled life without a man in her life?
I usually am not fond of Amish books.  I am however, fond of Beverly Lewis and her Amish books.  Her books are like a soap opera in that nothing is what it seems and life is full of surprises and choices and what is God gonna through at you next.  This book has such a good ending.  You are gonna love it.  I received this book for free from Bethany House Publishers.

the oprah effect? really?

I received "Where has Oprah Taken Us?" by Stephen Mansfield for free from http://www.booksneeze.com/.  This book is about Oprah Winfrey and her supposed "religions leadership".  This book is not really what I thought it was going to be.  For starters, though he doesn't really come out and bash Oprah, you get that negative vibe when you are reading.  I kept feeling like I had to defend, yes Oprah, but also, religion, women, and Christianity.  First of all, Oprah.  She has the right to worship however she wants.  America, duh.  Secondly, who put religion in these stupid little boxes anyway?  Three and most significantly, women.  Mansfield is concerned with Oprah leading millions of Americans into Oprah's brand of worship.  Let's face it, no testicle packing male is going to admit to watching Oprah so Mansfield is obviously talking about women.  On the one hand it is too risky to have an open mind and think for oneself/ on the other hand, we are too stupid to decide who to worship and how so we must blindly follow Oprah Winfrey.  Now, I am a fan and watched her show for many years, BUT, blindly follow her?  No.  She can be a little flaky and I kind of like to decide things for myself.   I am an educated person and have full brain power even with these pesky boobs and ovaries.  So............Skip this book.

diary of the displaced review

I received "Diary of the Displaced" by Glynn James (an e-book) for free from http://www.librarything.com/.  "Diary of the Displaced"  is about James, a man who has somehow landed in the land of displaced things.  Anything that has come up missing can wind up there.  There is no light, the dead continue to stay lost there, it includes zombies, strange barbaric dogs, a maniac, and all the trash you could ever want to sift through.
I guess I would call it science fiction.  I am not really into science fiction, so I wouldn't call this one of my favorites.  James isn't very clear.  You can't really like him, because you know very little about him.  He spends pretty much the first half of the book looking through trash and figuring out how to live in the displaced land.  The second half picks up in action, chase  and fight scenes, a little mystery.  If the first half had been less trash sifting and more character info I would have liked it a lot more.  Second half of book was pretty good.

out of the shadows review

I received "Out of the Shadows" by Sigmund Brouwer (e-book) for free from http://www.familyfiction.com/.  This is the second Brouwer book I have read and I am thinking his usual style is mystery with a ton of twists and turns.  In this story Nick, a southerner, is growing up in his uncle's house with his awful cousin and his cute neighbor.  Nick's mother disapears when he is 10.  Fast forward 8 years to a car wreck involving Nick; Claire, the cute neighbor; Pennington, the cousin from hell, and Claire's little brother.  This wreck starts another turning point in Nick's life as this is when he loses his leg and Claire's brother loses his life.  Fast forward again 20 years and the reunion is a bit sticky.  Nick is out to find out what happened to his mother and why Claire is no longer in his life. 

To start off with I found it hard to stick with the book, but once it got going, I was captivated.  It has plenty of mystery(or should I say mysteries) and some information is held back till the end to keep you guessing.  The problem is Nick might be the most gullible man in the fictional world.  I was always one step ahead of him.  And not because of my intelligence. Nick is a little slow to catch on.  But I still liked him.  He was a cool guy.