Tag: Review

I have always loved books and books!  ~ Sheila

Here are two hundred reader-tested answers to the question “What have you read that’s good?”  The Readers’ Choice is the first book to feature titles based on the recommendations of numerous book clubs.  Victoria McMains has collected two hundred favorites of more than seventy reading groups nationwide, ideal for book group members looking for a “good read,” busy people seeking enjoyable books outside the bestseller lists, or anyone who wants to read more but isn’t sure where to start.

Combining her skills as a book reveiwer and a veteran book group member, McMains provides brief, captivating profiles of a diverse mix of fiction and nonfiction.  There are love stories and war stories, fantasy and political intrigue, biography and nature-and much more.  Each profile highlights the unique traits of the book and ends with a few questions for group favorites as well as little-known gems that have been discovered and treasured.  Indexes organize the entries by title and subject matter, helping readers find books that appeal to their interest. For anyone wanting to learn the easy essentials of starting a book club, check out McMains’s introduction.

In My Opinion:

In my reading room I have one shelf dedicated to books such as this one.  They are books that recommend must reads before I die, book club companions, how to organize and run a successful book discussion…. the titles go on and on.  I am thrilled to add this one to that shelf.  The Readers’ Choice is 200 Book Club Favorites that have been the top picks from more than 70 reading groups nationwide.

I couldn’t wait to pop my head into this one and see what other groups are reading and recommending!

It opens to information on how to start a bookclub answering questions as to how often to meet, how big, will you serve food, how will you choose books…  All of this I love to read as even though my group has been meeting wince August of 2001, I am always interested in ways to tweek our discussions so we can get more out of them, with 18 active members now in our group – that tweeking becomes more important.

Here are a few of the book suggestions that were made:

Tuesdays With Morrie by Mitch Albom(I have to agree, while I didnt read this with my book club, I can see where it would be a greta one to discuss with a group!)

The Robber Bride by Margaret Atwood (this sounds good and uhhhh….. AWKWARD….  I havent read anything by this author yet!)

Talk Before Sleep by Elizabeth Berg (I have read Berg but not this particular book)

The Diary of Mattie Spencer by Sandra Dallas (Interesting… I have read this book and several others by this author and while I enjoy the reads, I would not have thought of this to be a top book club pick – it must be that this book reads like a fictional diary and the voice of our main character Mattie is done in a way that makes you want to believe it is non fiction…. )

Cold Mountain by Charles Frazier (On my shelf… still unread.  A book about a soldier who decides to leave his hospital bed and walk home even as the war rages on…. )

Cleopatra’s Sister by Penelope Lively (Hmmm… I have read Cleopatra’s Dughter….  In The Readers’ Choice this recommendation comes with a warning that it is easy to become a Penelope Lively addict… her book Heat Wave is also in this list of top book club reads)

The English Patient by Michale Ondaatje (would you believe I have not read the book or seen the movie?)

The Reader by Bernhard Schlink (Translated from German this is another one sitting on my shelf waiting on….me)

The Ginger Tree by Oswald Wynd (Oh!  Yet another I have not read nor do I own…)

What I have put here in this review is only a tiny sampling of the recommended book club reads.  While I have read probably a little more than a handful of the titles offered, sadly none of them were with my book club.  As our group is so big we tend to stick to newer releases (unless it is classic month) so we are able to find enough copies for everyone without anyone having to work hard to find the book or pay a lot of money.

I really enjoyed this book and would recommend it as a gift to the reader in your life.  As I read the book descriptions of the ones I was not too familiar with I was finding I wanted to read them, if not with my group then at least for me.

About The Author:

Combining her skills as a book reviewer and a veteran book group member, McMains provides brief, captivating profiles of a diverse mix of fiction and nonfiction. Since 1997, Victoria Golden McMains has chaired the Bay Area Book Reviewers Association (BABRA). Her popoular “Book Club Favorites” column is published monthly in the Press Democrat, the New York Times–owned daily newspaper serving northern California. Several of her short stories have been publihsed in literary magazines. She lives with her family in Healdsburg, California.

My Amazon Review

I received my review copy of this books from Harper Collins

Just the right read to relax into over a weekend… ~ Sheila

When Ava Nickerson was a child, her mother jokingly betrothed her to a friend’s son, and the contract the parents made has stayed safely buried for years. Now that still-single Ava is closing in on thirty, no one even remembers she was once “engaged” to the Markowitz boy. But when their mother is diagnosed with cancer, Ava’s prodigal little sister Lauren comes home to Los Angeles where she stumbles across the decades-old document.
Frustrated and embarrassed by Ava’s constant lectures about financial responsibility (all because she’s in a little debt. Okay, a lot of debt), Lauren decides to do some sisterly interfering of her own and tracks down her sister’s childhood fiancé. When she finds him, the highly inappropriate, twice-divorced, but incredibly charming Russell Markowitz is all too happy to re-enter the Nickerson sisters’ lives, and always-accountable Ava is forced to consider just how binding a contract really is . . .

In My Opinion:

A light read about two sisters that really did keep me turning the pages.  I enjoyed the sister relationship between Ava and Lauren and found I could relate to each of them in different ways.  While the book is clearly chick lit and the topics are somewhat serious in parts (a mother battling cancer) there were also relationships brewing for each of the sisters.

While Ava was too high strung and work focused we have Lauren who is too fun focused.  Ava’s issues are she takes no personal pride in her appearance and feels as long as she is clean, that is good – where Lauren puts too much into her appearance.  You can probably see where I am going here….

While the book had no wonderful message in it or even really a deep plot… it was enough to keep turning the pages and wanting to know how it was all going to come together.

About Claire:

She grew up in Newton, Massachusetts, went to Harvard and moved to LA. (Her name was Claire Scovell for a large part of all that.) She lives in the Pacific Palisades with her husband Rob (who writes for “The Simpsons”), her four kids (Max, Johnny, Annie and Will) and too many pets to keep track of.

I received my review copy from Hachette Book Group

Reading Group Guide

A fictional faith journey that I was glad to be a part of… ~  Sheila

I meet Jesus on the day I get home from the war. I’m on the beach, but I don’t know how I got here. My mind is as dark as the night. . . . I spend the whole night on the beach. But when the sun’s faint light begins to bend around the Earth, I see him. . . . There, coming toward me, out of the light, is a man. . . . Behind the man a faint curtain of light rises to the sky out of the ocean. He wears the light like a robe, though I see he’s dressed like me. Jeans and a T-shirt, no shoes. And that he’s older than I am, a lot older, maybe mid-thirties. He walks right toward me. He walks right into my eyes.

So begins the spellbinding story of Warren Harlan Pease, a young U.S. Army sniper freshly returned from the Iraq War to his native New Hampshire. What follows is a page-turning adventure that is also a powerful meditation on religion and war, love and loss.

The Last Day answers questions and asks many more. Armed with a sniper’s rifle and his deeply held faith, Specialist Pease travels across ideological borders and earns an appreciation for his enemy’s culture and for what connects us all as human beings. “War doesn’t test your faith in Jesus,” Warren comes to realize. “It tests your faith in yourself.” Upon returning home, he spends an entire day with Jesus visiting and contemplating his own life with fresh eyes, and a willing heart. He examines his relationship to those he loves, and grapples with the pain he has been carrying inside since the death of his mother when he was just a boy.

In My Opinion:

Iraq war (or any war really) would not hit my favorite topics in any format, especially in reading.  However, I dipped a cautious eye into this novel and found myself reading it as a memoir.  And it is not a memoir, but a character, not a real person, but Warren Harlan Pease.  And…. I find out …. I like Warren.

I enjoyed the banter back and forth between Warren and Jesus.  The book mainly swirls around the theme of faith and takes us from Warrens life as a young child to his relationships with parents and into the war.  I had moments of tears and moments of laughter as I read.  In some parts of the book the war topic goes over my head but the basic message of the book was interesting and I found the book overall a good read.

I received my ARC from LibraryThing

In the autumn of 2000, Hope Edelman was a woman adrift, questioning her marriage, her profession, and her place in the larger world. Feeling vulnerable and isolated, she was primed for change. Into her stagnant routine dropped Dodo, her three-year-old daughter Maya’s curiously disruptive imaginary friend. Confused and worried about how to handle Dodo’s apparent hold on their daughter, Edelman and her husband made the unlikely choice to take her to Maya healers in Belize, hoping that a shaman might help them banish Dodo—and, as they came to understand, all he represented—from their lives.

An account of how an otherwise mainstream mother and wife finds herself making an extremely unorthodox choice, The Possibility of Everything chronicles the magical week in Central America that transformed Edelman from a person whose past had led her to believe only in the visible and the “proven” to someone open to the idea of larger, unseen forces. This deeply affecting, beautifully written memoir of a family’s emotional journey explores what Edelman and her husband went looking for in the jungle and what they ultimately discovered—as parents, as spouses, and as ordinary people—about the things that possess and destroy, or that can heal us all.

In My Opinion:

Hope describes herself as a “I have to see it to believe it” type of person.  She begins her memoir without having faith in anything  other than the possibility of everything – but not without visual proof.  My belief system is so much in contrast to Hope’s that I hungered to see her know there is more.

Getting deeper into the book, while I enjoyed Hope’s writing style I just had a hard time getting fully into the book.  I tried to place myself in her shoes…. doing whatever I could for my child no matter what.  I  of course would…. yet the direction they go still surprises me.  There are points of this book where I simply have a hard time relating to the authors thoughts.

While Hope Elderman has a way with words,  parts of this book seems to drag out the details and I found myself passing over pages quickly to find the heart of the memoir.   I did enjoy the details about Belize but by the time I finished the book I was still not in agreement with the actions this family took for their daughter.

I have read some wonderful reviews on this book so be sure to check out other opinions.

About The Author:

Most of the year I live outside of Los Angeles with my husband, two daughters, and a growing menagerie of beloved pets. You can also find me every July in Iowa City, where I teach in the summer writing festival and never miss the Johnson County Fair. I’m a New Yorker by birth, a Californian by circumstance, but a Midwesterner at heart.

Here are the rest of the tour stops – be sure to check them out!

Thursday, Dec. 3
Book reviewed & giveaway at Luxury Reading

Friday, Dec. 4
Book reviewed at Readaholic
Guest blogging at As the Pages Turn

Monday, Dec. 7
Interviewed at Blogcritics
Book reviewed at My Reading Room

Tuesday, Dec. 8
Interviewed at The Hot Author Report
Book reviewed at The Life of an Inanimate Flying Object

Wednesday, Dec. 9
Reviewed at Review From Here
Reviewed at Rundpinne

Thursday, Dec. 10
Guest blogging at Blogging Authors
Guest blogging at Carol’s Notebook

Friday, Dec. 11
Book reviewed at A Sea of Books

Monday, Dec. 14
Interview l Chat l Book Giveaway at Pump Up Your Book!

Tuesday, Dec. 15
Book reviewed at Brizmus Blogs Books
Book reviewed and guest blogging at My Book Views

Wednesday, Dec. 16
Book reviewed at Buuklvr81

I received my review copy of this book from Pump Up Your Book Promotion

I really did find treasure within this book!  ~  Sheila

Cigar boxes. Refrigerator doors. Scrapbooks and sock drawers and top shelves. These are the places we store our treasures–the keepsakes that tell the story of whom and what we’ve loved, how we’ve lived, and what matters most to us.

God is a collector, too, whose treasures are tucked securely into the pages of his book: a golden bell here, an olive leaf there, a scarlet thread, a blood-stained cloth, a few grains of barley. Each of these saved artifacts reveals a facet of his heart and tells the story of a Father whose most precious possession is…us.

In My Opinion:

This book was a treasure to me.  I was engrossed in the stories that Leigh shares as she takes “treasures” out of different parts of the Bible.  Opening with Genesis 3:6-7, Leigh McLeroy writes about the fig leaf that to me was just a past of the make up of the early scriptures – and she takes it beyond the leaf.  Yes.  Beyond the leaf.  As this first chapter unfolds I get a real idea of where Leigh McLeroy is going here… she is literally taking pieces of the Bible and going deeper… and I am totally following her lead.

From Abraham’s knife… we are shown God’s mercy.  From Ruth we see through a head of barley, God gleans joy from sorrow… and on and on the chapters go breathing life into the stories that really made me think of all the treasures that surround me daily thatI do not always see as… well… treasures.

I closed this book with a renewed desire to read deeper.  To look beyond the obvious words and see what I have been missing.  Treasures has become a book for me that is just that.  A treasure that will stay with me a long time and remind me to look beyond the surface.  I just found what I will be getting many of my close friends for Christmas.

About The Author:

A former ghostwriter with seven books to her credit, Leigh’s first solo effort, Moments for Singles, was published by NavPress in 2004. She is the author of The Beautiful Ache and The Sacred Ordinary, published by Revell in 2007 and 2008, and a contributor to Daily Seeds, a compilation devotional published by Moody in 2008.

A frequent conference and event speaker, Leigh makes her home in Houston, Texas, where she is raising Owen – who may be the most adorable spaniel ever named after an Inkling, a John Irving character, and a Puritan preacher.

You can purchase this book through here

I received my review copy of this book from WaterBrook Multnomah Publishing Group

A first time reader of Lisa Tawn Bergren, I loved these books and would love to read more!  ~ Sheila

As Little Cub and Grandpa Bear’s Fishing adventure is interrupted by mischievous otters, the little polar bear begins to ask questions why we must love others… even the seemingly unlovable.

In answering her questions, Grandpa Bear gives tender explanations that teach Little Cub about the different kinds of love that is shared between families, friends, and mamas, and papas.  Grandpa explains that all these kinds of love comes from God and that it is important to love others because…

This time, the bears are getting ready to celebrate the most special day of the year: Christmas. In this enchanting picture book, you can help young children celebrate the true meaning of Christmas, and it offers the perfect opportunity for little ones to discover the awesome truth of how much God loves them.

In the midst of all the Christmas preparations, curious Little Cub asks one day, “Who invented Christmas?” Mama’s answer only leads to more questions, like: “Is God more important than Santa?” So Mama decides to take Little Cub on an expedition to discover how God gave them Christmas. As their journey unfolds, the pair finds signs that God is at work all around them. Mama’s gentle guidance helps Little Cub discover that Jesus is the best present of all! Recommended for ages 4 to 8.

In My Opinion:

Using a little cub’s curiosity to explain Love in God Gave Us Love, and to explain Christmas in God Gave us Christmas, author Lisa Tawn Bergren hits the topics in a gentle teaching way that are wonderful for children to understand.  I enjoyed reading her words and at the same time knowing that David Hohn’s beautiful illustrations would glue children to every page.

In God gave Us Love the message is about the different kinds of love we experience.

How do we know God loves us?  Little Cub whispered.  I mean when we can’t see or touch or feel Him?

We trust He is always with us, Grandpa whispers back.  Like your brother and sistercan’t see you right now, but they know you are here.  That’s Faith.

I appreciated the message that is brought across in this book.

In God Gave Us Christmas, Lisa Tawn Bregren again gives a great message in a way that the little ones in our life can grasp on to.  While Little Cub is hoping to be able to go and find santa, Mama instead sets out to show him God.  She shows him lights in the sky, and the sun in the morning, she shows him great bodies of water and ice bergs…. through nature and the story of the first Christmas, little Cub learns of the present of all.

Two wonderful reads!

About the Author

Lisa Tawn Bergren is the best-selling author of ten novels, three novellas, and two gift books. God Gave Us Christmas is her third childrens book. She makes her messy-but-cozy home in Colorado, with her husband, Tim, and their children, Olivia, Emma, and Jack.

David Hohn is an award-winning illustrator who graduated with honors from the Maryland Institute college of Art. He lives in Portland, Oregon.

I received these review copies from WaterBrook Multnomah Publishing Group

I would have never believed that this would be for me… but once I got started I really couldn’t stop!  ~ Sheila

Created by celebrity fitness trainer Beto Perez, Zumba® combines fun, easy-to-follow dance steps with hot Latin beats to help you shed pounds and inches fast. Now the DVD and classes that have hooked millions are available in book format, with a complete workout program, fat-burning diet, and an exclusive instructional DVD with 60 minutes worth of music to help you Zumba your way to the perfect body.

Using the principles of interval and resistance training, the simple dance and sculpting moves (inspired by the traditional cumbia, salsa, samba, and merengue) tone and shape your body. And because it burns 600 to 1,000 calories per hour, you don’t have to restrict your meals to boring or bland-tasting diet foods. The Zumba diet begins with a 5-Day Express Diet to jump start weight loss (lose up to 9 lbs in 5 days) and then offers 14-day meal plans and recipes that target weight loss in the stomach and thighs. You’ll find:
• Hot moves that make you feel like you’re on the dance floor-not on the elliptical machine!

• Recipes for mouthwatering meals that boost your metabolism

• Dozens of workout combination’s so you never get bored

• An exclusive jump-start program to get you ready for that big event next weekend

• An easy plan to help you keep up your progress and maintain the weight loss

So start moving, grooving and losing with Zumba today!

In My Opinion:

I honestly had never heard of Zumba before I read this book.  When I flipped through it to see what it was about I noticed there was a Demo DVD in the back of the book.  I felt that was as good of a starting place as any to learn what this was about so I popped the DVD into my laptop and watched the demo.   The music got me right away.  I love a good beat and I love working out to good strong rhythmic music…. this was exactly what I was watching as they demonstrated the basic moves.  I liked it.  A lot.

The book is filled with step by step instructions of the dances with lots of pictures to follow along.  I loved reading about the tips about healthy choices and taking care of yourself.  I enjoyed the lists of healthy foods and the sample menu’s. I took a lot of notes and practiced with the Demo DVD.  I will refer to this book frequently in the future.

I enjoyed this so much I went on line to find a class near me.   I am going to pursue this more and I am actually considering taking the instructor classes they are offering in January in Wisconsin.  I seriously am loving this high energy workout!

 

I received my copy of this book from review from Hachette Book Group

Warm characters that you want to connect with, you want to share a cup of coffee or cocoa with ~ Sheila

Ever since his mother left, life hasn’t been easy for Heath Wellington III. Between his father’s (Junior’s) bouts with alcoholism and literary rejection, and Heath’s own wrongful suspension from school, there hasn’t been all that much to be thankful for.

But following the tragic death of estranged grandfather Senior, father and son alike stand to inherit a life-changing fortune . . . with one catch.

Heath and Junior must spend the next three months managing Senior’s bed and breakfast, located in the same Massachusetts home Junior has spent the last eight years trying to escape.
Upended from his everyday life and relocated to a town where everyone knew and loved the grandfather he can’t even remember, Heath finds an inn full of some of the strangest people he’s ever met, such as:

• Winsted, the old, wise Jamaican man who used to lead the prayers in Senior’s factory;
• Mrs. Farrel, an elderly woman giving away her late husband’s fortune letter by letter;
• Mustang Sally, the muscle-bound, tattooed grease monkey who doubles as a children’s author;
• Carter, the silent TV news junkie and secret Harvard graduate.

And at a nearby school is Savannah, Junior’s first love, and her adorable, autistic daughter, Tori.

But most of all, there’s Junior himself, vinegar to Heath’s oil. As Heath adjusts to his new world, what he needs most is to start anew with his father, to understand that Junior, too, is dealing with loss, and to realize that, even in the most tragic of times, there’s a lot in life to be thankful for.

In My Opinion:

Thanksgiving At The Inn was a timely read that I had intentionally left for Thanksgiving weekend to read.  I enjoyed 12 year old Heath as the narrator of the book.  I think this perspective really added to what this book was and I can not really imagine what it would have been read like if it would have been told from Jr’s perspective.  Author Tim Whitney made a smart choice when he wrote the book this way and it really made me think how books can totally change when told by a different character.

A smooth easy read, I found the book lite enough for the MG (middle Grade) it was written for, and at the same time the subject line had an inner deepness that I found surprising and appreciated as an adult.  I guess what I am saying is that while this book would be a good read for a younger person, I didn’t find it too simply written.  The characters were good fits with the book and I enjoyed learning that each one had a bit of quirkiness.  For a young person reading this book I think these characters are a good way to remind us not to judge someone and that you really don’t always know what a person has going on inside.

Over all a good read that I really enjoyed.

I won this book from Miss Remmer’s Reviews

Healthy Bread in Five Minutes a Day
100 New Recipes Featuring Whole Grains, Fruits, Vegetables, and Gluten-Free Ingredients
By Jeff Hertzberg, M.D., and Zoë François
Published by Thomas Dunne Books
October 2009; $27.99US/$35.99CAN; 978-0-312-54552-9

From the authors of the groundbreaking Artisan Bread in Five Minutes a Day comes a new cookbook filled with quick and easy recipes for healthy bread

Their first book was called “stupendous,” “genius,” and “the holy grail of bread making.” Now, in their much-anticipated second book, Jeff Hertzberg, M.D., and Zoë François have taken their super-fast method and adapted it for the health-conscious baker, focusing on whole grains and other healthier ingredients.

The method is still quick and simple, producing professional-quality results with each warm, fragrant, hearty loaf. In just five minutes a day of active preparation time, you can create delectable, healthy treats such as 100% Whole Wheat Bread, Whole Grain Garlic Knots with Parsley and Olive Oil, Black-and-White Braided Pumpernickel and Rye Loaf, Cherry Black Pepper Focaccia, Pumpkin Pie Brioche, Chocolate Tangerine Bars, and a variety of gluten-free breads. And many of the recipes are 100% whole grain.

Healthy Bread in Five Minutes a Day will show you that there is time enough for home-baked bread, and that it can be part of a healthy diet. Calling all bread lovers: Whether you are looking for more whole grains, watching your weight, trying to reduce your cholesterol, or just care about what goes into your body, this book is a must-have.

In My Opinion:

While I openly admit, I dont eat a lot of bread products day to day, I do enjoy a really good bread.  really good bread to me is a hearty bread loaded with flavor, grains, fruit, vegies…. those are the ones I find hard to resist.  What I discovered in this book, Healthy Bread In Five Minutes A Day was a whole book full of recipes as well as tips to make just the kind of bread that I would find hard to resist.

I thought Thanksgiving would be a great time to create one of the mouth watering recipes from this book.  On page 145 I found just the recipe, 100% Whole Grain Maple Oatmeal Bread?  Sound good?  Good didnt even begin to describe it!  Using whole wheat flour and old fashioned oats, I followed this recipe step by step to make a delicious tasting and smelling bread that filled the house with a pleaseantness that had my whole family wanting to know – when do we get to eat it?

For a person who doesn’t really do anything slow… this was a lesson in good bread making.  I need two hours to let the dough rise and collapse.  On the bright side of this, the bread dough can be made up to seven days in advance and kept refrigerated until you are ready to bake – so a fresh loaf could be at your fingertips!

The end result was a good looking loaf of bread that I was pleased with and the flavor of maple and cinnamon made for a “skip the pie” worthy treat.

Author Bios

Jeff Hertzberg, M.D., coauthor of Healthy Bread in Five Minutes a Day: 100New Recipes Featuring Whole Grains, Fruits, Vegetables, and Gluten-Free Ingredients, is a physician with twenty years of experience in health care as a practitioner, consultant, and faculty member at the University of Minnesota Medical School. His interest in baking and preventive health sparked a quest to adapt the techniques of Artisan Bread in Five Minutes a Day for healthier ingredients.

Zoë François, coauthor of Healthy Bread in Five Minutes a Day: 100New Recipes Featuring Whole Grains, Fruits, Vegetables, and Gluten-Free Ingredients, is passionate about food that is real, healthy, and always delicious. She is a pastry chef trained at the Culinary Institute of America. In addition to teaching baking and pastry courses nationally, she consults to the food industry and is the creator of the recipe blog http://www.zoebakes.com. She lives in Minneapolis with her husband and two sons.

The authors answer bread questions at their Web site: http://www.healthybreadinfive.com.

I received my review copy from FSB Associates