Tag: Review

What Good Is God? by Philip Yancey

Published on by Sheila (Book Journey)3 Comments

When tragedy strikes as we see all over our world it is a question that plagues all walks of faith.  How does belief matter in those who suffer?  Phillip Yancey takes us within these pages to the aftermath of the Virginia Tech school shooting to impoverish communities to a convention for former prostitutes – who prefer to be called former sex workers.

His travels open up opportunities to see God in ordinary people, sometimes bruised and battered, but time and again there is a spirit of faith and hope that is humbling.

This book was read as part of our Faith N Fiction group.  I come into this read a little bias as I have enjoyed Yancey’s writing in the past and even taught a class for two years based off his book What’s So Amazing About Grace? Yancey likes to take a topic, and break it down into bite size pieces for us, many times in story form of real people in real situations and that is what he did here.


Any one of us can recall something during our life time either personal, or globally astronomical that would make the strongest of faith question, “How can God be in the midst of this?”   I found it interesting the title of the book was part of our pre-review discussion as a group as the question came up, was this a good title for this book and does the question get answered.

Great question.

I for one think yes, while Yancey does not come right out and give the answer, I feel it is demonstrated throughout the stories in which he shares.  Time and again he travels to be with the hurt and the broken and their stories come through.  It reminds me of people I know such as Patty Wetterling (in 1989, while I was pregnant with our second son, hers was abducted while riding his bike not 70 miles from my own home and never found).  Wetterling went on to found the Jacob Wetterling Foundation, and continues to this day to be a well known advocate for child safety.  My friend Connie Stanz, the amazing lady who I am writing about, contacted AIDS in 1981 from a blood transfusion.  This year she has lived 30 years with AIDS and runs a camp locally for children and adults with AIDS.  Year round she speaks on stigma, taking care of yourself, etc….

Where is God when it hurts? Where God’s people are. Where misery is, there is the Messiah, and now on earth the Messiah takes form in the shape of the church. That’s what the body of Christ means.  Page 34

Ok – maybe I digress but what I seen in this book was people in all situations maybe not on the track that they thought they would be on due to life “opportunities”, I see God using us the ordinary and making us extraordinary.  This is faith in tragedy’s wake.  Early on in the book Philip Yancey talks about a near death experience when he rolls his SUV he is driving.  While waiting for help three questions came to mind:

1.Who will I miss?  2.How have I spent my life?  3.Am I ready for what happens next?

Those are questions that give me pause as well and as he wrote them I had to ask them to myself. 

The book has some interesting chapters and one that stuck with most of the Faith N Fiction group was the one about the former sex workers.  I enjoyed parts of this book and the stories that went with it.  I liked the thought of Philip going into these different parts of our world and seeing that God does work within the brokenness of our circumstances.  

So what Good is God?  I believe He builds us up through the ashes of broken lives and dreams.  Look in the book… look at the things that people have faced and how they came through.  I seen this read as showing that God does show up – not always in the ways we had hoped, but always as He had planned.  Advocates, strong people of faith are built in many cases through hardship.

Romans 8 reminds us that all these things can be used for good.  All of them are redeemable.

The book is not perfect, I liked it but as I said earlier, I have liked some of his other writing better.  My takeaway comes a lot from who I am and where my passions lie and how God works within these passions in me.

(I apologize if this review seems scattered, I booked myself pretty tight with commitments this weekend and had a class last night and today again from 8 – noon.  I had a small window to come home and write this before I have to go and pick up Chance…. the proactive side of me should have written this days ago and it is totally on me that I waited until the last minutes to organize my thoughts here.  :))

There are some wonderful thoughts around the blogesphere today on this book… please stop and check them out!

The Faith and Fiction Round Table :

Amy at My Friend Amy
Heather at Book Addiction
Julie at Book Hooked Blog
Carrie at Books and Movies
Jennifer at Crazy for Books
Ronnica at Ignorant Historian                                                                                                                                                                                                               Hannah at Word Lily
Nicole at Linus’s Blanket
Thomas at My Random Thoughts
Liz at Roving Reads
Sherry at Semicolon
Florinda at The 3 R’s Blog
Tina at Tina’s Book Reviews
Brooks at Victorious Cafe

Where She Went by Gayle Forman

Published on by Sheila (Book Journey)21 Comments

It has been three years since the tragic accident that took the lives of Mia’s entire family (If I Stay), the accident that left Mia herself barely clinging to life in a coma.  At that time, high school boyfriend Adam Wilde had been by her side, whispering in her ear, supporting her, calling her back to this world, and Mia did.

Now Mia and Adam live on opposite coasts.  Mia has made a full recovery from the accident and has gone back to playing her cello.  After finishing her schooling at Julliard, she is now playing on stages and touring the country. 

Yet Adam is not faring so well. When Mia recovered and left – she left him behind as well.  Adam never fully understood what happened to them and as he dealt with his anger and loss it came out in his music.  Angry songs that feed teenage angst are a different sound for Adam and his band but these songs that Adam wrote through his deep pain puts Collateral Damage on the top of the charts. 

One night, a very unhappy with his life Adam takes a walk in New York City before hopping on a plane the next day for the Europe leg of the bands tour.  The rest of the band left that day, but Adam did not want to fly on Friday the 13th so opted to join them the next day.  While walking he discovers that Mia is performing at Carnegie Hall.  Having not seen her in the three years since she left, Adam buys a ticket and slumps into the darkened theater to watch her play and planning to slip out as soon as it is over. However, for a highly recognizable guy as the lead singer of Collateral Damage is, the whispers go through the audience and Mia spots him and requests he join her back stage.

Face to face with Mia after all these years is both painful and the things dreams are made of.  Over the course of one evening Mia and Adam walk the streets of New York and relive the past from their days of dating, to the accident, and why she left. 

If I Stay and Where She Went by Gayle Forman

This is not one of those sequels that I can say, “Oh you do not need the first book, you can just pick up Where She Went,” and you will catch right up.  No, in this case not only do you need the first book, If I Stay – you will want it.  If I Stay holds the love between Adam and Mia and it is a necessary step to get to Where She Went.  If I Stay is the story of a young cellist (Mia) and her rocker boyfriend (Adam) and how they made their different lives work together, until a tragedy of epic proportion puts a whole new direction in both their young lives.

I just finished Where She Went, late last night.  I looked at the clock when I closed the last satisfying page at is was 12:30 in the morning.  Where She went, as described above picks up three years later after both teens have now gone their separate ways.  While Mia’s career is all gorgeous music and seems to be going in the direction she had always planned…. Adam’s is not.

Adam carries the loss of Mia on his shoulder.  While he does have a girlfriend, she can not replace this image of Mia that he has in his mind.  Through pain killers, late nights, and smoking, Adam is not the man he was three years ago.   He is bitter, the band is always fighting and while they tour he does not even stay in the same hotel as they do…. Mia’s absence has left such a big hole in Adam that he keeps trying to fill it with all the wrong things trying to move on but winding up right back at square one. 

This book was told from Adam’s perspective and at first I trudged through the background catch up story of Adam much like someone would trudge through a garbage dump.  Carefully and watch where you are going… Adam’s life was dark and angry and author Gayle Forman reflects that well as she lays out a life for Adam that some on the outside may say is glamorous, (he is famous, girls fall at his feet, he has money…) but as you read into Adam’s life you will clearly see it is not glamorous at all.

It amazes me how I filled my mind with Adam’s world feeling that missing connection probably as much as he did and then how the book changes and flows once you bring Mia into the story.  Mia is balance.  And that is where I started relaxing into the read, curious as to where she really did go… and what that meant.

A satisfying sequel that leaves me with that feeling I have when I know I will think about a book long after that final page is closed.  It touched me in the way that Lauren Oliver’s Before I Fall did.  How the paths we choose can lead us far and away and what it takes to find the right path again. 

Amazon Rating

The 2011 WHERE Are You Reading Map had been updated to include Where She Went

I was uber excited to be offered this book for review after

my book club read If I Stay in February of this year.

The Lincoln Lawyer by Michael Connelly (book and movie)

Published on by Sheila (Book Journey)20 Comments

Criminal defense attorney Michael Haller is cool, cocky, quick-witted, and takes his clients wallets to the cleaners while defending them, yet with  his over bearing confidence (and a few tricks up his sleeve) the repeat offenders come back to him time and again.  Michael’s father was a legend in law and left Michael with this advice:

“The scariest client a lawyer will ever have is an innocent client. Because if you screw up and he goes to prison, it’ll scar you for life.”

When rich kid Louis Roulet requests Michael as his lawyer, Michael is thrilled as this is going to add significantly to his bank roll.  All he has to do is get Louis off and Louis seems to be a case of being at the wrong place at the wrong time, an innocent guy. Yet as the holes get bigger and bigger in Louis’ story, Mickeys defense is ripped to shreds.  As Michael tries to find a way to bury the proof, to bring in enough of a gray area to cause reasonable doubt,  he starts to get a few reasonable doubts of his own.


I have not read Michael Connelly in quite a while.  He writes like John Grisham but with more of an edge to his books…

AND in this case…. I went to the movie with hubby (his pick) LOVED the movie… had to read the book. 

Good grief – that is the second time I have done this recently. 

I have to say – this audio blew me away just as much as the movie and I have to add that Matthew McConaughey is a perfect Michael Haller.  As I listened to the audio I thought, “this is so a McConaughley role”…. cocky self assured…. yup.

And author Michael Connelly (not to be confused with Michael Haller or Michael McConaughey – yes… a LOT OF Michael’s in this review) writes a compelling, clean and not gory mystery that left me high on the “WOW” factor.  Well written characters, I loved the twists and the turns and recommend both book and movie. 

Note about the movie:  Ryan Phillippe plays the rich Louis Roulet and he is cast perfectly too…. he gives off an arrogant vibe and does creepy well.


The 2011 WHERE Are You Reading Map has been updated to include Lincoln Lawyer

I grabbed this little jewel of an audio from my local library

The Lost Girls by Jennifer Baggett, Holly C Corbett, Amanda Pressner

Published on by Sheila (Book Journey)44 Comments

The big 30 is right around the corner and friends Jennifer, Holly, and Amanda are starting to question if they are truly doing what they wanted to be doing with their lives.  In 2006, the girls make a pact, quit their media jobs in Manhattan and take a leap of adventure, committing to a year-long trip around the world in search of inspiration and direction.  In the dust of their departure they leave a trail of boyfriends and apartments.

Through thick and thin (and sometimes…. it does wear very thin!) the girls learn to rely on each other… sometimes funny, sometimes scary, and everything in between.

Amanda, Holly, and Jennifer (The NOT SO Lost Girls)

I recently read this joke that said, when a man takes off to find himself it is called a journey.  When a woman does it, she is lost.  Reading The Lost Girls made me laugh at the thought of this… these girls are not lost at all… they  are adventurers; they have a heart for more and they speak my language.  😀

Have you ever just wanted to get lost?  I used to have this fantasy of going off in the woods like Grizzly Adams (or…. err.. the female version of Adams) and just get away from it all…. the commitments, phones, the noise of life… and live off the land.  Ok, ok you scoff because those who know me know about four days of that and I would be packing it up for the “big city” of Brainerd Minnesota, constantly checking for cell phone reception….. my point however is – that I did have this dream of myself just getting up and going, and so did these three girls.

I adored this book of the adventures of these three amazing women who threw caution to the wind and explored our world as most of us have only dreamed of.  (Honestly – I wish they would have called me -I would have gladly been a fourth lost girl!)

There is so much to this book that I enjoyed I do not even know where to begin!  The part of their trip that took them to Kenya where they worked in an orphanage with girls touched me deeply.  Touring the killing fields in Cambodia would have taken my breath away.  They  traveled to the places that may not be the easiest,  and I appreciated that this was not a book of “cruise ship” port stops.

I also love love ♥LOVE ♥that these women did not walk away from boring slouchy jobs… oh no, their jobs sound to me like…. well…. BLISS. Jennifer was a marketing manager at VH1, Holly was an Editor at Self Magazine and Amanda was an editor at Shape Magazine.  The move to motivation was not the fact that they did not like these jobs, but more that they wondered if this was what they really wanted out of life…. the working too much… and living too little. 

In the end the women found that the problems that they once found to be all-consuming in their pre-lost girls moment, were nothing compared to the troubles those in other countries face.  Jennifer, Holly, and Amanda learned that things are never as bad as they seem and their lives no matter how cluttered and frustrating at times, are still pretty great lives. 

For anyone who has ever dreamed of exploring the world and just letting go and seeing what happens, this book can take you there. 

amazon Rating

Thank you to TLC Book Tours for my review copy

The Boy In The Striped Pajamas by John Boyne

Published on by Sheila (Book Journey)49 Comments

It is Berlin 1942.  When 9-year-old Bruno comes home from school one day he finds that the house maid is in his room packing up his belongings.  In short notice he finds out that his father has received a promotion and the family will moving to a new home far away.  Bruno is devastated as his best friends in the world are here and he loves his neighborhood and loves to explore, however there is no changing the plan that has been set in motion.

Along with his mother, and 12-year-old sister Gretel, they make the move.  Their new home is large and creepy.  There are no neighborhood kids to play with and nothing to do.  Out of boredom Bruno decides to go on an adventure and discover what lies beyond the property where his father has forbidden him to go…. and here is where he finds Shmuel, a skinny, dirty, little Jewish boy. 

Shmuel is also 9, in fact he was born on the same day as Bruno!  Bruno is excited and is already planning adventures in his mind of what he and Shmuel can do together.  Yet this seems to be a problem as Shmuel is on the other side of a large sharp wired fence and for some reason is always wearing striped pajamas, much like all the other men and boys behind this fence. 

As Shmuel tells his story of being taken from their home and made to live in a one room area with another family making 11 people living in the room, Bruno feels  Shmuel must be lying, surely that many people in such a small space is impossible! 

Bruno continues to sneak out to see Shmaul and brings him food which he devours, and they talk and talk and become fast friends.  While Bruno does not understand his fathers job, he does know that his father would not approve of this friendship so he keeps his adventures with Shmaul a secret.

Until one day Bruno and Shmaul have an idea… an idea that brings this book to a conclusion that pretty much stopped my heart and put a whole new twist on Holocaust literature. 

This movie was one that will stick with me for a long long time.

I seen the movie, The Boy In The Striped Pajamas before I read this book.  That is usually a taboo thing for me to do, but I had never read the story and one day thought it would be good to see the movie on Netflix.  The movie shocked me.  How can I think I know what a book is about but I really know nothing? 

In short time I had secured the book from my local library as I always appreciate the book more than the movie (well – almost always).  Yes time went by and I renewed the book twice and still had not read it.  In fact this week it was in the car to go back to the library unread…. and then when I was going to the chiropractor this week I needed something to read in the waiting room and guess what the only book was I had in the car?  Yup…. this one.

So – between the three appointments I had this week, I devoured this book to the point of no return…. and I mean that literally…. when I went to the library and turned in an audio I had completed, this book remained in the car.  No return not then anyway…. 😀

The Boy In The Striped Pajamas is a devastating read.  Lets just put that out there now.  I am amazed how we as human beings can treat each other so poorly – be so mislead in what we think is right… it breaks my heart.  Time and time again you can read fictional stories like this (that may as well have been real) as well as true stories that you wish were fiction. 

Hannah at Word Lily has been posting a blurb out of a book called True Grit, every day for lent.  Talk about your frightening statistics and some of them are just what I am talking about here… the things we as people do to other people – some due to race, background, gender, faith, where they live, the list goes on and on…

and so… back to the book.   I give John Boyne so much credit for writing this.  It is a hard story.  It is a maddening story.   I was just as impressed with the book as I was with the movie.  The innocence of Bruno is perfect as he meets daily with his friend and not understanding that Shmaul is in a concentration camp – or even what that would mean.

What this book shows is a friendship that no fences can separate.  It is a heartbreaking innocent story that could not have been told as well if the main character had been an adult.  It had to be a child… the innocence of childhood that makes this work…. and work well. 

The movie shocked me…. the book broke me. 

A POWERFUL read of historical fiction that will knock personal prejudices down to rubble.


I have a bit to discuss on this one...

AMAZON RATING

The 2011 WHERE Are You Reading Map has been updated to include The Boy In The Striped Pajamas

I borrowed (and borrowed and borrowed) this book from my local library


Hate List by Jennifer Brown

Published on by Sheila (Book Journey)36 Comments

It was just a list.  Just a list that Valerie started in a notebook of those people in school…. in life who bugged her.  And when Valerie and Nick became a couple… she shared the list with him and it became a “thing” they liked to add to…. the bullies, the tormentors, just a way to vent and release the pressures of home life for both her and Nick.

or so Valerie thought.

Until one day at the end of their Jr year in High School, Nick pulls a gun in the commons, looking to take out those on “the list.”  When the shooting is done, 6 students and one teacher are dead, Valerie has a bullet in her leg from trying to stop Nick, who shoots her before he takes his own life.  The list is discovered as evidence and it looks to her fellow students as well as Valerie’s parents, that she was an accomplish in the shooting.

And even Valerie has to wonder…. was she to blame? 

When she bravely returns to school for her SR year she finds that everything has changed.  Her once friends have nothing to do with her.  With the help of her therapist and a determination to see things as they really are, Valerie begins to see things in a new light and finds friendship comes in many different forms.

Another cover, but I prefer the one I have which is the one at the top of this review

Ok… you may be saying, “really Sheila?  Another book on school shootings?”  And in a way you could be right.  I have no idea why tragedy draws me in to books – fiction and non, but it does.  Take my reviews of  Think No Evil by Jonas Beiler (true Amish school shooting), Columbine by Dave Cullen ( true story about the Columbine shootings), Nineteen Minutes by Jodi Piccoult (fictional story of a boy teased to the point of doing the unthinkable), We Need To Talk About Kevin (fictional take on a troubled boy…) read pre-blogging for book club, She Said Yes (pre blogging read about a girl who survived the Columbine shooting… ok, you get the gist… I do read about tragedy and overcoming…

BUT (and it is a big BUT) this book is not about a school shooting.  Ok – it is, as in it starts with a school shooting… but really, this book is about Valerie and what Valerie does to overcome what has happened.  Even the author says this in the back of the book under authors note, “Hate List was never a story about a school shooting.  From day one, this story was always Valerie’s story.”

I really like that because Valerie’s story can be so many others story…. others who have survived similar tragedies and must go on… because really, not only the dead are victims in any crime.  So many live, or try to live with the aftermath and Hate List is really about that.  What do you do when you feel you should have known what was going to happen?  When others blame you and you are not so sure they are wrong?

Author, Jennifer Brown says when the idea was forming in her mind for this book there was a song stuck in her head… it was Nickelback’s If Everyone Cared”, and  so to put you right “there for the rest of this review…. let’s get a little Nickelback going, shall we?


Hmmmm….. Valerie’s song?  I think so.  (I have to say this is an easy sell for me – I really like Nickelback).

I really liked the way Jennifer Brown wrote this book.  I mentioned books above that I have read with a similar topic but this is the first book I have read that focused on a survivor and how she moved forward.  And really I have to say this story speaks to anyone who has survived any tragedy…. you become someone new and as you try to understand this “new you” and you battle your old self as well.

Ok I digress…

Valerie is a well written character and Jennifer Brown does an excellent job of flushing out who she really is as she struggles to find her place in this new world, after the shooting.  What I also liked is that throughout the entire book we know that Valerie loved Nick and…. I can even understand that.  Nick is also written well so you can see him as a vulnerable victim as well.  I think the beauty of this particular book is that it takes some unlikely friends to change the mind of an entire school – to look at things differently and see things and people as they really are. 

“Just concentrate on being in the moment”, he said.  “Don’t read into things.  See what’s really there ok?”

                                                                                                                            ~ Dr. Hieler page 17 – Hate List

Hate List was an amazing read.  In the end – I was left with that gentle hum inside of reading a great book.  I still keep flipping through those final pages, mainly because it makes so much sense.  Its like I am trying to hold that to memory, that we are who we make ourselves to be… and sometimes… sometimes, it takes a completely different perspective to open our eyes to what is real.

Thank you Jennifer Brown…. for opening my eyes.

Amazon Rating

The 2011 WHERE Are You Reading Map has been updated to include Hate List

I purchased this book at Barnes and Noble

Dreamland by Sarah Dessen

Published on by Sheila (Book Journey)27 Comments

Caitlin has always seemed to sit in her older sister Cass’s shadow.  Even now that Cass has left their home, running away to live with her boyfriend…. leaving… on Caitlin’s sixteenth birthday.

Caitlin tries to move forward in her life while her parents watch her every move wondering if she too will take flight.  Caitlin’s mom starts trying to mold Caitlin who had always been the invisible sister into her everything.  When Caitlin makes the cheer leading squad (ugh…. cheer leading) her mom takes charge with schedules and uniforms and showing up at practices – much as she used to do with Cass.  Could it be that Cass left because she felt smothered by this parental over achieving?

And as Caitlin deals with this new life she finds herself caught up in a whirl of new friends, friends that did not know here as Cass’s sister… friends she can hide herself in and Caitlin begins to become smaller and smaller, flying under the radar as she experiments with drugs and alcohol under the overly watchful eye of her new boyfriend Rogerson.

Strange, sleepy Rogerson, with his long brown dreads and brilliant green eyes, had seemed to Caitlin to be an open door. With him she could be anybody, not just the second-rate shadow of her older sister, Cass. But now she is drowning in the vacuum Cass left behind when she turned her back on her family’s expectations by running off with a boyfriend. Caitlin wanders in a dream land of drugs and a nightmare of Rogerson’s sudden fists, lost in her search for herself.


And this begins my adventures in reading with Sarah Dessen.  I thoroughly enjoyed this book in audio format.  Narrated by Liz Morton, she brought the perfect “bored and uninterested” voice to Caitlin and her friends as well as she brought the concern into her parents.  I found this book to be an important read just like SPEAK is. 

Caitlin’s attempt to lose herself after she loses her sister is one that I believe speaks volumes to our society.  As Cass was the one who always took the spotlight, Caitlin had no idea what to do when Cass left and the spotlight was all too glaring on her.  In times of great tragedy or loss in our lives it is tempting to try to reinvent yourself to cover up the pain.  Cass nearly succeeds but by doing so puts herself in grave danger with an abusive boyfriend and drug loving friends.

SO just for a moment without going “spoilerly”… I can’t stand Rogerson.  He is a horrible teen who is obviously carrying on what he has learned in his own home.  Sad…. very sad.  So saying that – I can also say that I am reading this from a parental perspective and Rogerson is a bug that must be squashed…. from a teen girls perspective he is dreamy.  Mysterious.  Brooding.  Handsome.  Dangerous.  All the things that many young girls are attracted to and really this is where the heart of Dreamland lies within the relationship between Rogerson and Caitlin.

This book as I mentioned above is an important read.  Abuse is never something to be accepted.You can feel bad for the one causing the abuse, you can understand why they may be doing it – but it is wrong and they need help. 

The following is taken from the ACADV Dating Violence:

Teen dating violence often is hidden because teenagers typically:

  • are inexperienced with dating relationships.
  • are pressured by peers to act violently.
  • want independence from parents.
  • have “romantic” views of love.

Teen dating violence is influenced by how teenagers look at themselves and others.

Young men may believe:

  • they have the right to “control” their female partners in any way necessary.
  • “masculinity” is physical aggressiveness
  • they “possess” their partner.
  • they should demand intimacy.
  • they may lose respect if they are attentive and supportive toward their girlfriends.

Young women may believe:

  • they are responsible for solving problems in their relationships
  • their boyfriend’s jealousy, possessiveness and even physical abuse, is “romantic.”
  • abuse is “normal” because their friends are also being abused.
  • there is no one to ask for help.

Sarah Dessens characters are memorable and even beyond the abuse in the book the story line is strong, and witty.  There is more to this book than your typical YA although it will appeal to those who are just looking for a good read as well.

Amazon Rating

The 2011 WHERE Are You Reading Map has been updated to include Dreamland

I borrowed this audio from my local library

Massacre At Mountain Meadows by Ronald Walker, Richard Turley Jr, Glen Leonard

Published on by Sheila (Book Journey)28 Comments

When we hear the date of 9-11 or September 11th, we have memories of a horrific event in our history.  What you may not know, is that this was not the first September 11th on record for being a horrific event. 

On September 11, 1857, more than 120 men, women, and children who were traveling by wagon train from Arkansas to California were murdered by Mormon militiamen and Paiute Indians at Mountain Meadows in southern Utah (35 miles south-west of Cedar City). 

At the time, the massacre lasted five days, ending on September 11th when John Lee entered the meadows with a white flag and convinced those of the wagon train to surrender peacefully.  Once he escorted the men, women, and children out of the safety of their wagons, he gave a signal and they were attached by the militia and indians and killed.  (*Note – John Lee was the only man tried, convicted, and executed for his role in the massacre).

Following the massacre the perpetrators hastily buried the victims, leaving their bodies vulnerable to wild animals and the climate. Local families took in the surviving children, and many of the victims’ possessions were auctioned off. Investigations, temporarily interrupted by the American Civil War, resulted in nine indictments during 1874. Of the men indicted, only John D. Lee was tried in a court of law. After two trials Lee was convicted and executed.

How could basically good people commit such an act? 


Four of the nine Utah Territorial militiamen of the Tenth Regiment
“Iron Brigade” who were indicted in 1874 for murder or conspiracy
(Not shown: William H. Dame • William C. Stewart • Ellott Willden • Samuel Jukes • George Adair, Jr.)
Isaac Haight.jpg John H. Higbee.jpg
photograph of John D. Lee
Image via Wikipedia
 Philip Klingensmith.jpg
Isaac C. Haight—Battalion Commander—died 1886 Arizona Maj. John H. Higbee, said to have shouted the command to begin the killings. He claimed that he reluctantly participated in the massacre and only to bury the dead who he thought were victims of an “Indian attack.” Maj. John D. Lee, constable, judge, and Indian Agent. Having conspired in advance with his immediate commander, Isaac C. Haight, Lee led the initial assault, and falsely offered emigrants safe passage prior to their mile-long march to the field where they were ultimately massacred. He was the only participant convicted. Philip Klingensmith, a Bishop in the church and a private in the militia. He participated in the killings, and later turned state’s evidence against his fellows, after leaving the church.

as found at wikepedia

I had never heard of this until I found this book in audio format at audible.com.   I was interested in knowing more about this event in our history that I knew literally nothing about. 

What I found within this ten and half hour audio was a lot of history prior to the massacre.  While the audio starts with a graphic description of what was found at Mountain Meadows even years after the event, it quickly backtracks years before the event and perhaps covering what is believed to have caused the massacre to happen.

At the time, the massacre lasted five days, ending on September 11th when John Lee entered the meadows with a white flag and convinced those of the wagon train to surrender peacefully.  Once he escorted the men, women, and children out of the safety of their wagons, he gave a signal and they were attached by the militia and indians and killed.  (*Note – John Lee was the only man tried, convicted, and executed for his role in the massacre).


As I listened to this audio it seems so many things played a part in this tragedy.  Politics, war hysteria, misinformation, misunderstandings, personal vendettas,  and Mormons themselves were being heavily persecuted and attached in these times.  Many had moved from state to state trying to stay alive. 

All in all this is a heartbreaking, awful event, where so many people of all faith and all race suffered – even beyond the event itself.   No one can possibly know all what drove what happened that day to happen.  I appreciated  that all three of the authors on this book are Mormon and told as accurate account of what happened that day as they could.  Much research was done to tell this historic event.  As hard as it is to listen to, I think it is an important part of our history and I am glad I took the time to learn about this. 


Amazon Rating

The 2011 WHERE Are You Reading Map has been updated to include Massacre at Mountain Meadows


I purchased this audio from audible.com


In September of 2007, 150 years after the massacre, this article was released in Ensign Magazine

A fictional movie called September Dawn is based loosely on the Massacre At Mountain Meadows

Open House by Elizabeth Berg

Published on by Sheila (Book Journey)19 Comments

Divorce is a series of internal earthquakes…. “one after the other”.  Samantha ought to know.  At the age of 42, Samantha’s husband Dave decides that he needs to move on leaving Samantha shocked.  Sure they had their arguments, but didn’t everyone?

Finding herself left with a home, a mortgage, and their 11 year-old-son and learning in short time David has had no problem moving on not only to another woman, but also a cute apartment – AND the white couch that she had wanted for years but he told her was impractical…. “Sam” knows she has to pull it together.

When a decision is made to take in boarders to help with the house payment, a host of colorful characters come into play.  And ultimately a decision that has a life long impact on Sam and those in her life.

There are many layers to Elizabeth Berg and I have enjoyed experiencing her many ways of writing characters who come to life on the pages of her books.  Samantha was one of those characters I came to know and enjoy.

Samantha, “Sam” was not wishy-washy and I liked that.  Although she grieved for the loss of her husband in her life, she did not lay down and die.. she seen what she needed to do and she did it.  Samantha’s pain of losing David, and the emotions and decisions that followed felt real to me and I appreciated that Samantha was written as a strong female character, but was not too strong too hurt and to make poor decisions along the way to finding herself again. 

Something about this particular Berg book appealed to me… I liked the way Samantha opened up the house to boarders and imagine that had to be both an important and hard thing to do as you let strangers into the home where you lived a marriage and raised a son.  I laughed at times, and felt the tinge of pain at others as I can imagine Samantha did as well.

Perhaps this one notches it way up towards the top of the Elizabeth Berg books I have read, not taking hold of the number one position, but floating around the top there as a well written story on a topic that unfortunately many women know all too well. 

I applaud Elizabeth Berg’s ability to take a character like Sam and build her into someone stronger than even she had realized.  While not a perfect read, one that left me thinking long after the final page was turned.

Amazon Rating

The 2011 WHERE Are You Reading Map has been updated to include Open House

I listened to this book on audio, borrowed from my local library

Little Princes by Conor Grennan

Published on by Sheila (Book Journey)40 Comments

In search of adventure, 29-year-old Conor Grennan traded his day job for a year-long trip around the globe, a journey that began with a three-month stint volunteering at the Little Princes Children’s Home, an orphanage in war-torn Nepal.

Conor was initially reluctant to volunteer, unsure whether he had the proper skill, or enough passion, to get involved in a developing country in the middle of a civil war.  After one day with the children he had no idea how he would be able to stay there for the next few weeks.  But he was soon overcome by the herd of rambunctious, resilient children who would challenge and reward him in a way that he had never imagined. When Conor learned the unthinkable truth about their situation, he was stunned: The children were not orphans at all. Child traffickers were promising families in remote villages to protect their children from the civil war—for a huge fee—by taking them to safety. They would then abandon the children far from home, in the chaos of Nepal’s capital, Kathmandu.

For Conor, what began as a footloose adventure becomes a commitment to reunite the children he had grown to love with their families, but this would be no small task. He would risk his life on a journey through the legendary mountains of Nepal, facing the dangers of a bloody civil war and a debilitating injury. Waiting for Conor back in Kathmandu, and hopeful he would make it out before being trapped in by snow, was the woman who would eventually become his wife and share his life’s work.

Little Princes is a true story of families and children, and what one person is capable of when faced with seemingly insurmountable odds. At turns tragic, joyful, and hilarious, Little Princes is a testament to the power of faith and the ability of love to carry us beyond our wildest expectations.

Ok.  Seriously.  Can you love a book?  Of course you can… can you LOVE LOVE a book? 

You bet.

Conor’s story touched my heart.  When he speaks of his first experience in Nepal of just going for “the adventure”  I could relate with that.  When I first went to Honduras, I can not honestly say I went for the children…. much like Conor, I wanted the adventure.  AND much like Conor, when I first walked into the children’s home in Honduras, the kids ran up to me hugging me like we were life long friends…. how was I to know we would be?  I too thought that my time in Honduras would be a one time deal…. now I have been there nine times.

While Conor’s story seemed to collide with my own…. I think anyone would be touched by the experience of Nepal that Conor relays in these pages.  I appreciated his sense of humor and his honesty.  In the end, I felt I was right there with him.

I found it wonderful that Conor not only worked with  these kids, helping them find food, a safe home, and be surrounded by people who loved them – but he also ventured out on foot, sometimes gone for weeks…. searching for these childrens parents trying to reunite families.  In many cases, the parents thought their child was dead and they never expected to be reunited. 

I am always amazed at people’s stories and the strength they find in themselves that they never knew was there.  Conor never planned to spend years of his life in Nepal.  he never dreamed that we would work hard between Nepal and the United States raising funds and jumping through hoops to get a school opened for trafficked children…. but that is what he did, and this has forever changed who he was.


I hope in the future Conor writes another book about the little Princes and the school as I would for one would love to know “the rest of the story”. 

To learn more about Nepal and the work being done to reconnect children with families, please check out Next Generation Nepal

Amazon rating

The 2011 WHERE Are You Reading Map has been updated to include Little Princes


I received this book for review from FSB Associates

(I have to say I was beyond excited when they offered this book to me!)