June Bug

"June Bug" by Chris Fabry

If this author's first book was good this, his second, is amazing.  I was captivated by this book, it is so well written.  His books are full of God but not full in your face.  He interveaves faith so well throughout the story.  I think they would be great books for a non believer to read.  June Bug has traveled in an RV with her father and parked at Walmarts her whole life.  It's not your typical life but she is happy.  Then one day she sees a picture of herself on the missing children poster at Walmart.  Everything has changed and she must search for the truth of who she really is.  Soon the past will catch up to them and their lives will be forever changed.  This book is so compelling, you won't want to put it down.  "I try not to be religious.  That sounds stuck-up.  LIke you just follow rules.  I read somebody once who said religion is man's way to God.  We make a list to follow that makes us good people in our own eyes, but we don't take into account what God wants."  It's about a relationship not rules, we can never be good enough to follow the rules.  "My dad once said that if you have somebody who loves you in the world, you don't need a whole lot more."  Ain't that the truth.  Having somebody that loves you will get you far in life.  "I suppose if you want to hear God talking to you he'll do it in a way that you can hear eventually."  He speaks to us all in different ways because we are all unique.  He wants us all to hear His voice, sometimes it just means being still.  "I nodded because I knew he was right, but sometimes your heart and the rest of you don't go in the same direction."  We know in our heart what's right but that doesn't always make the choice an easy one.  I recommend you read this book, it is so good.  It will teach you that love doesn't always look like we think it will.

Dogwood

"Dogwood" by Chris Fabry

This author might be a new favorite.  This is his first novel for adults and it is a good one.  Will is determined to start his life over after getting out of prison in the only place he calls home but the town isn't forgiving.  He is also determined to persue the only woman he has ever loved but Karin is determined to be faithful to her emotionally distant husband.  Ruthie is an old woman who decides that the past shall not lay in the past but all shall be brought to the light so that Will and Karin can have a future.  This book will surprise you, it has a twist I never saw coming.  "Life isn't pretty, so you've got to hug the ugly out of it."  It takes a lot sometimes to find the good in life and its troubles, but it's there if your willing to try.  "Good things can come from pain."  Healing comes from pain and strength you might have never known.  "Most people think the struggle means failure.  It's actually the best thing that could happen.  That struggle will pull you out on the other side a lot stronger, a lot deeper."  It's hard and it's good.  I'm currently learning this.  Don't struggle against the trial but sit in it, learn what God is teaching you and thank Him for the beauty you do find in the midst of it.  The struggle is important, it shapes us.  "When you surround yourself with good people, it doesn't really matter where you are."  The people matter not the place, that is why home is where our heart is, with the people we love.  I highly recommend this book.  It will surprise, encourage and entertain you.  The ending is the best.

Amity & Sorrow

"Amity & Sorrow" by Peggy Riley

I'm not sure about this book, it was definitely interesting.  It is about a mother and her two girls who flee from a polygamous compound.  The girls know nothing of the world outside and are scared and confused why they have been taken from all they have ever known.  Amity finds freedom and joy in her knew life but Sorrow wants nothing more than to return to what she has known.  It is about a mothers struglle to justify her choices and undo what has been done.  "You either made a vow or your didn't."  We try and complicate things, we either said I do or we didn't.  Sometimes we just need to break it down and keep it simple.  Life is complex, especially relationships but it comes down to the fact that we either made a vow or we didn't.  "They say God is knocking on your heart, all the time, and you only have to open it for Him."  God pursues everyone of us, we just have to be willing to hear His knock.  "Life is just seeds.  You know, you plant in the dirt you're given.  It's all you've got.  You water, you tend, and sometimes seeds don't take.  Sometimes it all goes away from you."  We do the best we can with what we have, that's all we can do.  That's hard to accept sometimes.  We do what we can and ask God to do the rest.  This book was an interesting and informative read.  

The Irresistible Blueberry Bakeshop & Cafe

"The Irresistible Blueberry Bakeshop & Cafe" by Mary Simses

This was a fun summer read.  Light and funny but with depth.   A beloved grandmother dies and her dying wish is for her granddaughter to deliver a letter.  The granddaughter, Ellen, discovers things she never knew of her grandmother and in turn finds truths about herself.  A little town where her grandmother grew up is where she feels her again and she will not leave until her task is done but  what else might she discover.  I really enjoyed this book.  It had just a touch of humor sprinkled throughout its pages.  "Sometimes people don't realize they can slow down until they do it."  We live in such a fast paced, instant world that we don't even know how to slow down.  Someitmes we have to leave it all behind and just enjoy the breeze, or a simple sunset to remember to slow down and enjoy whats right in front of us.  This was a fun feel good story that I really enjoyed.

The Priority List

"The Priority List" by David Menasche

This was a great book.  I recommned teachers and anyone who deals with teens to read this book.  It was inspirational and informative.  It is a true story about a high school teacher who inspires his students to learn.  He earns their respect and respects them in return.  He finds out he has a brain tumor and continues to teach through his treatment.  When he can no longer teach he decides to take a cross country trip to visit his past students.  He finds out what they have gone on to accomplish and what he meant to them.  "'The mediocre teacher tells.  The good teacher explains.  The superior teacher demonstrates.  The great teacher insires,' the author and scholar William Arthur Ward wrote. I wanted to be a great teacher.  The best they'd ever had."  David wanted to be the best and he strove for it and many lives were changed because of him.  We should all strive to inspire those around us, to not just teach but inspire.  It's a rare person that can do that.  "Cancer had taken my past and would take my future, but it wouldn't take my present."  Cancer had started to affect his memories and it would eventually take his life but he was determined that he would live and enjoy what he had right now.  Living in the present is something we all need to do more of.  We live in the past and the hurts that have happened or look to what will come in the future for us and forget that right now is a gift, a gift that won't come again.  "But when you really know you're going to die, when you're prepared for death, that's when you learn how to live.  It's a bittersweet lesson.  Just when you learn how to live, you die.  But there's so much beauty in it.  All of a sudden, the sun in the sky is a reason to rejoice, flowers come alive, a gentle breeze on your face feels almost spiritual.  Who you are is defined no longer by what you do but by what you give and how you love.  To me, that felt like a good death."  And it's a good life too.  Learning to appreciate the little things of the every day.  "For my entire life, I had been so intent on never needing anyone that I'd never learned to trust people enough to allow myself to depend on them."  We are here for each other, we need each other.  We can't do this thing called life alone, God designed us for community.  "If I can rejoice in your victories, I have to share in your defeats."  It is easy to rejoice with others but it is often hard to share in their sorrow or defeats but this is what real relationships look like.  We can't just be there in the good, we need to share the sadness too.  

The Last Best Cure

"The Last Best Cure-My Quest to Awaken the Healing Parts of My Brain and Get Back My Body, My Joy, and My Life" by Donna Jackson Nakazawa

I am always looking to learn something.  This book was a more difficult read as it has a lot of medical science in it but it was a good read and I learned a lot.  The author was very sick with numerous chronic diseases.  She had tried every medical drug and procedure but was still feeling terrible and in turn emotionally drained.  She was in her thirties with two teenage children and did not want to continue to live with the chronic pain and fear and emotional stuff she was dealing with.  She decided to take a totally different route and was completly surprised by the results.  She sought out yoga, meditation, and acupuncture.  She learned that with being able to change your mind you become healthier emotionally and then your body starts to heal, that there is a connection between our minds and our bodies.  It was intruging information.  Her father died suddenly when she was 12 and she learned how that early childhood trauma affected her body and may have played a part in why she was chronically sick.  I really found the information fascinating.  If you have chronic pain or childhood trauma this is a good book to read.  I have gained some tools to help me calm my breathing when anxious, and things to put on repeat in my brain to retrain it.  I also like that the author is skeptical every step of the way but is often surprised at her results.  And since she is a medical science writer she always explains everything which I appreciate.  "I don't want my Pain Channel to become the childhood pain that keeps them from the Life Channel-now, or twenty years from today.  There has to be a better way."  Donna knew that her illness was having a profound effect on her children and she didn't want to continue the path that they were on.  "A human mind is a wandering mind, and a wandering mind is an unhappy mind."  Meaning we spend so much time not being present, we think about the past or what is to come.  If we could spend more time just being in the moment we would find more joy.  "We don't have to react to the thoughts and feelings inside our mind as if they are true."  Emotions come and go and instead of spending precious thoughts on what we are feeling it is better to name the emotion and move on and find truth.  "It's as if we're all just waiting for everyone else to smile first."  A smile can change your day, be the first to smile at others and you might be surprised at the uplifing it will bring to your day.  "...that by healing women one by one she'll help each to become more influential and powerful in her family and community-and from there, more women's healing energy will help to heal the world."  Sometimes it just takes one, one healthy person to change the world.  "It's never too late, as long as you're willing to ask the question of what might be getting in the way of creating the joyful life you want to live now."  Healing and wholeness are never too late to achieve.  God is the one who brings the complete healing but He does give us means to acheieving it.

Fifteen Minutes

"Fifteen Minutes" by Karen Kingsbury

This book is taken from modern day.  A young boy having grown up on a horse ranch loves to sing.  He decides to try out on a reality tv show.  His family is struggling finacially and he hopes that if he wins he can help save the ranch.  His long time girlfriend and also his grandfather worry how fame might change him but he insists that his faith is grounded and nothing will ever change that.  He believes that what he is doing is for the glory of God but he encounters fame quickly and looses sight of his One true love.  Will he be able to hold on to his faith or will he loose everything he once loved?  This is another great read by Karen Kingsbury.  Her books always captivate me and keep me reading.  "Good Lord gave me another day.  Got nothing to complain about."  That right there is a gift, waking up to another day.  Sometimes we forget that and find too much to complain about.  "The person you are-the one you really are inside-is lost right now.  But God is chasing you, Kelly.  I've prayed that the world you're choosing will let you down.  And once it does that you will see that God never has."  Sometimes we lose who we are amidst the trials of this life but God is always after us.  The world doesn't have what we are looking for, our wholeness, our peace can only come from the One who created us.  "Sometimes God's voice is hard to hear over the world."  We listen to teachers, parents, spouses, friends but sometimes we just need to listen to what God is trying to tell us.  A good book of the testing of faith and holding strong to what you believe in.