Catching Up & Book Reviews

Good morning and a happy Tuesday to you!

Somewhere over the weekend through all the rain (our rain gauge held FIVE!!! inches when my husband dumped it out Sunday morning) and wind warm, vibrant, colorful October took on the less colorful tones of November. Snowflakes were even reported in the higher elevations.  I remain thankful I was not one of those so "blessed."

My weekend was not an exciting one.  My husband worked both Saturday and Sunday and I went nowhere save for a quick trip to Aldi's on Sunday.  It was, however, a good weekend...a much needed break to rest and relax.  With the cold, wet weather swirling around outside I stayed inside, getting some chores done and indulging my often missing domestic gene.  I even made some totally from scratch (and no recipe) vegetable beef soup that my hubby is still raving about!  I spent some incredible time in the Bible and working on Beth Moore's study "Children of the Day" and really learned a lot.  One of these days I will probably share some about that, but not today.

The other thing I did was read.  I've been getting a lot of books to review lately so the pressure is on to do so within the allotted time.  I finished up two this weekend and want to share with you about them.

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Wild Montana Skies by Susan May Warren is the first book in the Montana Rescue series and is based in Mercy Falls, Montana...right next to Glacier National Park and features the people connected to PEAK Rescue, a team trained and equipped to make the hard rescues.

In this book, we meet Kacey Fairing, a military helicopter pilot who has come home to try and put her life back together and reconnect with her teenage daughter.  She agrees to work with PEAK Rescue while she's home.

Also returning home to deal with an injured father and to lick a few of his own wounds, is country music star Ben King.  Ben's father runs PEAK Rescue or did until he was injured.  Ben was trained in the past for search and rescue so pitches in to help the team.  What Ben doesn't know is that his father has ulterior motives.

As it turns out, surprising most of the PEAK team, Ben and Kacey share a past and a whole lot more...more than even Ben was aware of.  The book is an exciting ride through several rescues and through the pain and the misunderstandings that stand between Ben and Kacey.  Can they sort it all out and find happiness together again after so many years?  You're just going to have to read the book to find out, but I believe you'll enjoy it a great deal.

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Liz Johnson takes us back to Prince Edward Island for a second time in Where Two Hearts Meet. Sweet, unassuming Caden Holt is the executive chef at The Red Door Inn, a job she loves and is quite good at in spite of her insecurities and shyness. Handsome Adam Jacobs is a war correspondent on a forced sabbatical.  He is trying to cope with the unrelenting guilt of a story gone horribly wrong and the writer's block that has taken over.

The pair seem to have nothing in common but are thrown together when Caden's boss mistakenly assumes Adam to be the writer from a travel magazine and asks Caden to show him the island and really make it and the inn look good.  Unhappy about the assignment, Caden reluctantly agrees...only because if they don't book enough guests for the following year the inn may close and her job will no longer exist!

For his part, Adam is under pressure from his editor to write a long overdue article and he knows he's been sent to the inn for a reason, that there's a story, but in an effort to get him back in the game, his editor won't do more than give him clues as to what story is there.

As the two spend time in the kitchen and exploring the island a friendship forms between the two and sparks begin to fly.  Can they overcome the things in their pasts and trust each other?  Would a long distance relationship even have a chance?  Read Where Two Hearts Meet to find out.

The Devoted, A Moment of Reading with God

Suzanne Woods Fisher's latest installment in The Bishop's Family series is The Devoted and it is like a good long visit with old friends in the Amish parish of Stoney Ridge.  While the central story reintroduces the characters of Ruthie Stoltzfus and Luke Schrock, now grown, and lets the reader get to know them while all the familiar residents make appearances in the daily life of the community where so much is happening just beneath the surface.

Ruthie is dissatisfied with Amish life.  She wants to be someone important and do important things...like Dok, her English aunt, the community's new doctor. However, she doesn't know what it is God wants her to do or whom He wants in her life, the handsome bad boy, Luke, or the quiet, newcomer, Patrick Kelly, who has an unshakable peace about him.

Throughout the book, Fisher takes the reader inside some very big problems facing the modern Amish.  Problems the bishop must find a way to handle before they change Stoney Ridge and not for the better.

This was a good story with well developed characters and continuity from the previous books in the series (and it did a nice job of letting the reader know who the next book will feature).  The writer did something that is too often lacking in "Christian" fiction.  She actually did more than pay lip service to God.  There was real meat to the story.  Fisher included scriptures to show how the characters were thinking and followed their thought processes and meditations. Many things made this reader stop and consider.

Amish fiction isn't for everyone, but if you enjoy it or similar types of books you will find The Devoted to be exceptional.

This is part of the Write 31 Days challenge.

All posts are linked here.

The Raven

It took me a while to get into Mike Nappa's, The Raven.  The story jumps around from character to character giving bits of the story and at first I found it a bit confusing.  However, once all the characters were introduced and I had them all sorted out, I was hooked!

The story centers around a young street magician, Raven, who finds himself in a whole lot of trouble with a man set to be Atlanta's next mayor and, surprisingly, the Ukrainian mafia.

Help finds Raven in the form of Trudi Coffee, a smart and beautiful private investigator, when she comes looking for him concerning a theft he pulled and finds the Raven "entertaining" several Ukrainian thugs.

As the story progresses it becomes clear there is something big going down soon.  Something called "Nevermore."  Something that all of the characters are involved in whether by design or by accident.

Trudi and her ex-husband, Sam Hill, who is a former CIA operative and currently a detective with the Atlanta P.D., set out to figure out what the plan is and stop it.

Once you have the characters figured out The Raven is a good story...exciting and it kept me guessing about who was guilty and who was not.  There's some comedy and a bit of romantic tension between Trudi and Sam.  Also, the violence is pretty mild.  All in all, I'd say this is a book a wide variety of people will like.  I highly recommend it.

I Wish He Had Come with Instructions

I don't know what I was expecting when I opened the pages of I Wish He Had Come With Instructions - The Woman's Guide to a Man's Brain, something dry...probably boring...most likely very technical.  So, imagine my surprise and joy to find a very readable book!

Mike Bechtle has taken what could be a complicated subjected weighed down with scientific facts and made it something that anyone can understand and gain insight from and he's made it pretty entertaining, too.

First, Bechtle encourages the reader to appreciate and even celebrate the differences in the way men and women think and act or react.  An unexpected outcome of that first chapter was learning a lot about myself as a woman and how my actions affect the men in my life.  As it turns out, most of the chapters are like that.  Bechtle would explain how the male mind works on something and I would immediately start seeing how I've been acting with regard to that male mindset and know if I need to change anything.  Most of the time the answer was "yes."

This really was a great read and I'd recommend it to any woman who has ever wondered "What is wrong with him?" You'll find yourself nodding in agreement with many of the examples and the ah-ha! moments are many.  I'm not saying it will save a relationship that's on the rocks, but it just might keep one from ending up there by teaching you how to communicate with your man...and give you an understanding of the "dumb" things he does and what motivates him.

What Matters Most

What Matters Most, the fourth book in the Texas Gold series by Kellie Coates Gilbert turned out to be a pleasant surprise.  I was expecting the typical contemporary romance, but was delighted by a love story that was almost secondary to the circumstances of the characters.

Leta Breckenridge is a sweet girl, down on her luck, and a devoted daughter. The life she finds herself living is due to the responsibility and financial demands placed on her by her mother's dementia.  She dropped out of college and went to work to care for and support her mother.  Any kind of social life has been sacrificed and financially, Leta is hanging on by a thread.  She's working two jobs that don't pay near enough and she can't seem to find anything better because everyone wants to hire someone with a college degree.

All is beginning to seem hopeless when in quick succession a chance accident introduces Leta to Senator Nathan Emerson and she lands what appears to be the job of a lifetime with a public relations firm.  The new job provides enough income to take care of her mother and even begin to have a social life again...one that she hopes might include a certain handsome senator!

Through out the budding relationship between Leta and the senator, the reader is educated about the problems facing dementia patients and their families due to Leta's own concerns and the fact that Nathan's first career is as a doctor of neuroscience and founder of the Institute of Brain Sciences.

The book also introduces the reader to a behind the scenes look at political campaigning as Nathan decides to throw his hat into the ring and run for governor of Texas.  His opponent, the current governor, along with his wife will stop at almost nothing to guarantee reelection as they have their sights set on a future presidential run.

When poor Leta finds out that her dream job is actually a front for a political opposition group working to discredit Nathan in any way it can she has to wrestle with what she knows is right, what her mother's needs are, and her growing feelings for the senator.

In a story that is particularly relevant in this election year, it is impossible not to get caught up in the type of hard struggle where Leta has to decide between right, wrong, and wrong but legal.  Will she choose between a great job and money to care for her mother? How can she keep her job and allow her feelings for Nathan to grow? Can she trust God to work it all out for the best?

I highly recommend reading What Matters Most to find out.

A Hodgepodge of Collecting

I'm sorry to be getting to the Hodgepodge a bit late today.  I was up early with all good intentions of answering the questions and getting it posted first thing, but Mom called and said she'd left my step-dad at home while she ran to an appointment for much needed cortisone injections.  She wanted me to go check on him because he thought he had a kidney stone, but was refusing to go to the ER despite severe pain and nausea.

I decided to work on the continuing education child abuse course that is now required by law while I was there.  John was in pretty bad shape, but refused to go to the ER until after Mom had been home for a while.  Me, I was stuck doing the course until I was done.  That was 4 very long hours.

Anyway, they are pretty sure John definitely has a kidney stone.  The last I heard from Mom they'd given him morphine for the pain, something for the nausea, and were taking him for a CT scan.  As for me, I finished the course, earned the continuing education credits and printed my certificate.  I'm glad to be done!

So, let's get on with the Hodgepodge.

1. Pokemon Go...your thoughts? Are you playing? Do you even know what it is? Until very recently I didn't have a clue what it was.  Everyone on Facebook is talking about it, but I hadn't seen a thing that explained it.  Now that I know what it is I have to say I haven't seen a single person playing it that I'm aware of.  I guess it sounds kind of fun, sort of like geocaching, but I can't get over all the reports of people (adults) being so focused on the game they walk right into traffic or something equally dumb.  And no, I don't have any plans to play.

2. What was something you collected as a child? I was one of those girls who lived, breathed, and dreamed horses so I collected a lot of figurines. Do you still have that collection? I don't, but you know, it might be packed away in my mom's attic. If you're a parent what's something your own children collected? My son collected bugs, fossils, and action figures (Ghostbusters and Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles being the main ones) and my daughter collected Barbies and Pokemon cards and stuffed animals. Have you ever camped out, stood in a crazy long queue, or paid a ridiculous sum for a 'collectible'? No, but when my daughter was very young, McDonald's had a series of Happy Meal toys based on Snow White.  They were actually very nice and in our efforts to get them all I drove through every drive-thru I came across. (FYI, they will sell you the toy for a dollar or two without the meal.)

3. "Collect moments, not things"...tell us about a moment you've added to your collection this summer.  This past Saturday our son and his family were here and we went to a local restaurant for pizza.  We have to go in separate cars because of how many of us there are and when we got there our grandson decided he was going to teach Pappy how to break dance right there in the parking lot.  Funniest thing I've seen in ages!

4.  What's something collecting dust in your home right now?  The collection of bells my daughter got when my mother-in-law died.  She doesn't really like them or care about them other than the connection to her grandmother....and she moved out and left them here.  I would love to be rid of them, but will probably leave them alone for now since she can't hang the display shelf on the wall of her apartment.  Any plans to do something about it? I guess I should just be glad she only got 1/5 of the collection as it was divided between all the granddaughters. 

5. A favorite song relating to time? Cindy Lauper, Time After Time

6. What's been your most frightening or your most interesting encounter with wildlife?  Geez, I lived in a wildlife preserve for several years growing up and my dad was a deputy in the PA Game Commission for over 30 years...I've had a lot of encounters with wildlife and I'd consider all of them interesting, but I guess the most frightening was running into a very large rattlesnake on our front porch when I was about 10 years old.  I kind of have a snake phobia, anyway, so that was pretty much my worst nightmare.

7.  On July 20, 1969 Apollo 11 Commander Neil Armstrong set his foot down on the moon. If you could travel to the moon would you go? Why or why not? There was a time when I would have jumped at the chance, no thought necessary, but these days I might still go but not until I'd considered all the facts and risks.

8. Insert your own random thought here.  I just finished reading Honor Redeemed by Christine Johnson.  It is the second book in her Keys of Promise series.  I don't, in general, like historical romances but I gave this one a chance and I'm pleased to say it was well written and held my attention.

Prosperity Jones is a young woman left alone in the world after her mother passes away.  She has precious few options for the future as a woman in the mid-1800s.  There is no family money and her fiance, David, is a world away from New England in exotic Key West.  

Taking a huge chance, Prosperity uses what money she has to book passage to Key West.  She knows David is an honorable man and will marry her now rather than waiting until his service with the army is over as they had originally planned.  Unbeknownst to Prosperity, events have taken place in David's life that will prevent him from honoring his commitment to her.   This is a fact she discovers only after arriving in Key West.

Now without money or a fiance, Prosperity is stuck.  As luck would have it, she meets a kindly doctor who takes her under his wing and helps her to gain a position at the hospital.  She admires him and looks to him for knowledge of the healing arts and cherishes his friendship.  He offers more than friendship, but Prosperity is torn.

The book is about Prosperity and David's struggles to forgive others and themselves and come to terms with the hands that life has dealt them.  The Christian themes run deeper than in many other Christian works of fiction I've read, but avoid being "preachy."

The characters could have used a little more fleshing out....I didn't really feel like I knew them or cared about them, but it was an interesting story line and a completely satisfactory summer read.  I'd recommend it to anyone.

MISSING by Lisa Harris

Anyone who likes mysteries, action...and sweet romance, will enjoy Missing, the latest installment in the Nikki Boyd Files by Lisa Harris.  Nikki is a member of the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation's Missing Persons Special Task Force. The unanswered questions surrounding her own missing sister drive Nikki in a way no one else is and pushes her harder to find those who are missing.

In Missing, Nikki and her partner are called to a homicide scene where they learn the two dead men on the floor were the intruders and the husband and wife who lived there are unaccounted for.

It doesn't take long for the body count to start rising as Nikki begins to uncover a huge counterfeit drug operation that someone is willing to kill as often as it takes to protect.  Complicating matters for Nikki, is that caught up in the middle of it are the husband and son of her best friend, who drowned over a year ago. Their lives are at stake and Nikki will do whatever it takes to keep them safe because she is secretly in love with the handsome, but still vulnerable Tyler.

Lisa Harris knows how to weave a convincing tale.  I might have wished for just a bit more character depth, but the story itself was great.  I love mysteries but find that I often know "who did it" well before the end of the story.  This one kept me guessing and most of my guesses were wrong!  I'm looking forward to the next book in the series.

More than Rivals

Finally, a glorious day out here on the deck...or in my treehouse, as I refer to it. See for yourself.

Thanks to the lovely Toby tree growing beside the deck the whole thing is in the shade except during the late afternoon and early evening hours when the table is in the sun.  I can fix that with a tilt of the umbrella, though, so it's all good.

So, I'm able to sit out here to "work" today, which makes it a lot more enjoyable...and there's a good mystery book waiting for me on the swing when I am done.  But to get to that point, I need to tell you about another book I just finished reading.

More than Rivals by Ken Abraham tells the story of two young boys growing up in Gallatin, Tennessee during the turbulent and racially charged 1960s.  Eddie Sherlin was white, Bill Ligon was black.  Both boys came from poor families. Both loved the game of basketball.

Ken Abraham weaves an instantly gripping and readable tale about the boys, their town and the times they lived in.  Even the abundance of basketball was not off-putting to someone who is not interested in the sport.  Abraham has a way with words that leaves the reader knowing just what it was like to be Eddie Sherlin walking down the halls of Gallatin High or Bill Ligon holding court at the Oakes Drive-In.

Eddie and Bill meet by chance when Eddie, who is obsessed with basketball at the young age of 11, hears the familiar sound of a basketball bouncing off a backboard and goes to check it out.  The problem is that he had been cutting through the "colored" neighborhood.  He finds Bill Ligon and some of his friends playing.  Eddie watches and when one of the boys has to leave, Eddie asks to play.  This is unheard of in Gallatin in the 1960s.  Gallatin is the kind of town where whites and blacks walk on opposite sides of the street, don't shop in the same stores, go to the same schools, or drink from the same water fountain.

The friendship Eddie and Bill form continues and remains a secret until Bill's family moves to another house on the other side of town.  They don't see each other, but as they grow and become standout athletes in their respective schools, they are aware of each other and follow each other's basketball careers.

Then in 1970, when both boys are seniors in high school, and integration is looming over Gallatin despite fear and opposition from the locals, an amazing, once-in-a-lifetime event takes place.  Both of Gallatin's high school basketball teams are in the final for the district championship.  That's right, the white school and the black school are playing each other for the title!  In tiny Gallatin, tension is high and bad blood is welling up everywhere.  What happens at that championship game is the stuff of legend and that's exactly what it's become.

I can't recommend this book enough.  As a true story it is a rare jewel and an inspiration.  In our own troubled times it gives rise to a lingering hope for humanity.

All Summer Long

Tia D'Amico is feeling a bit like life is passing her by as she works as a chef in her family's restaurant in a little "podunk" town in Washington state.  Then her aunt calls and offers her a lifeline, the chance to come to San Francisco and be part of restoring an older yacht and turning it into an elegant venue for dinner cruises. Tia jumps at the chance and within 24 hours is on her way!

Melody Carlson takes the beautiful and romantic city of San Francisco and a cast of characters made up of the young and beautiful, the wealthy, and those who love the sea and boating, to spin a fun and fast-paced tale of love nearly gone very, very wrong.

The scene is set when Tia arrives in San Franciso to find that her aunt is not at the airport to meet her due to her uncle being in the hospital.  Aunt Julie arranges for the yacht's captain to meet Tia in her place and he turns out to be the same guy she met at a boating camp for teenagers when she visited her aunt and uncle 10 years earlier.  The same guy she had a major crush on and who gave her her first real kiss.

Leo remembers Tia, too, and they seem to have an instant connection, getting along and chatting easily on the way to the restaurant Aunt Julie made reservations at.  Tia is caught up in it and is thinking the move to San Francisco may be a very good move, indeed.  Just as her mind is beginning to imagine spending more time with the handsome captain Leo, he tells her someone else is meeting them at the restaurant...his brand new fiance!

The rest of the book is about the struggles Tia and Leo face regarding their feelings for each other, Leo's impending marriage, and of course, getting the yacht ready to sail.  It's a pleasant, easy read and I love that it's "clean" with no bodice ripping scenes and also that while there is a Christian undercurrent to it, it doesn't beat you over the head with it.

I highly recommend All Summer Long as a great beach or poolside escape.