When the Soul Mends by Cindy Woodsmall

I really enjoy this authors style of writing. "When the Soul Mends," is the 3rd (and I believe the final) book in this series. The main character, Hannah, struggles with many fall-outs due to a tragic, life-changing event that happened in her life. She has to struggle to discover who she really is, what God is calling her to be, and what will ultimately serve her purpose. She faces many ups and downs along the way and learns about forgiveness and trueness to self. This is a wonderful story about self-discovery and love.

One Perfect Day by Lauraine Snelling

This book was a very good read- I read it in 2 days (took that long only due to other responsibilities that demanded my time). This is a very emotional topic that touches upon many different emotionally charged topics. The story begins with the character Nora's desperate attempts at creating the perfect Christmas for her family. The focus on perfection quickly looses its importance when tragedy strikes the family.
The author uses the back-and-forth writing style that I enjoy very much. We next meet Jenna who is a single mother of a 20 year old daughter awaiting a heart transplant while quickly loosing her strength in life.
This story takes very emotional, tough subjects and presents them in a way that allows the reader to both grieve and rejoice with the families.
I enjoyed reading this book and plan to recommend it to friends for use in a book group. I also plan to investigate more books by this author.

Sarah's Key by Tatiana de Rosnay

I enjoyed this book. The topic presented is a very emotional one- that of the french occupation of Jews during the 1940's. This story traces the path basically surrounding one certain apartment and its occupants. The story tells of the different responses of each person and how they were affected.
It was one of those stories that you wish for a different outcome than the one you know is coming- but still as a reader I was hopeful for the good in people. This book would make an excellent book group read. There are many aspects/emotions that could be explored in a group discussion. I also enjoyed the writing style of the author- she presented the story in a back-and-forth manner telling a little bit about the past and present families.

Find the magic (Rip Squeak) by Lee Cohoen

Beautiful illustrations, breathtaking pictures- the pictures really enhance the quality of this book- the paintings are very detailed yet not overwhelming. The story is a simple story encouraging children to "find the magic" through discovering different adventures in books. ( )

Forsaken

A very thought-provoking topic which leads the reader to question what would they do in this situation. This book touches on a lot of subjects which include terrorism and faith in God. If someone were to pose the question to you in a non-urgent, hypothetical way you may be able to answer but in the real heat of the moment the choice may not be as clear.

Schooled

Schooled by Anisha Lakhani is a cleverly written book with an interesting topic. This story is about an idealistic first year teacher, Anna, who has plans to change the lives of her students through a love of learning and literature. Her dreams are quickly squashed when she begins teaching in a private school on Manhattans Upper East Side. Anna's ideas of education are vastly different than the ideas of this school environment, she is praised and encouraged when she doesn't teach and gives no assignments and reprimanded by administration and parents when she expects anything productive from her students. She is also having little success financially as a teacher and as a way out she is swept into the world of tutoring students from other private schools. Through this tutoring experience she is shown the other side of her students lives.
I highly recommend this book- I think the author used a great balance of humor, sarcasm and drama to keep the reader interested.

When You're Expecting Twins, Triplets, or Quads, Revised Edition: Proven Guidelines for a Healthy Multiple Pregnancy… by Barbara Luke

as a mother of quadruplets, i found this book to be very comforting while pregnant- it was a book i was constantly referring to and it provided a lot of quality information and assurance that typical pregnancy books could not offer me

Catching Genius

Catching Genius by Kristy Kiernan

i enjoyed this book. i like the way th author was able to keep my interest and kept giving little pieces of information about characters as she progressed through the story vs all at once or nothing until the end. i found that the way the information was presented i kept wanting to read and figure out what was going on - it was a perfect balance of characters and situations- i wasn't bored nor frustrated at the lack of info. i also felt that there were enough twists without being too much.

The Sugar Queen

The Sugar Queen by Sarah Addison Allen

Once again Sarah Addison Allen was able to capture the reader with her ability to flowingly connect the characters in her book, The Sugar Queen. The story follows the character Josey who is blindingly going through her life as is expected of her- her secrets are revealed and her personality is able to come alive as more characters are added to her story. The way the characters intertwine is captivating. Ms. Allen is able to balance just the right amount of information about situations and characters to keep the reader interest while not allowing boredom or frustration while waiting for the next secret to be divulged. The magic that is dabbled throughout this book also offers the reader with a sense that this all could happen and be believable. Without giving any of the story away I will say that I wouldn’t mind having the gift with books that the Chloe possesses. This story was a quick and captivating story- where I found myself wishing the best for all the characters even the ones who had questionable backgrounds. I highly recommend this book. ( )

Summer Blowout

Summer Blowout by Claire Cook

I liked this book and would recommend it as a chic-lit, Summer Beach read. The main character works for the family beauty business and she goes through many trials due to her sometimes too-close knit family which includes all of her fathers children from his different marriages. I found that sometimes things were unnecessarily descriptive- those sections were hard to get through. However I will admit to learning some beauty tips and enjoyed the creativity that the main character possessed. ( )

"As Good As It Got" By Elizabeth Sharpe

"As Good As It Got" was a very intriguing title to me. I was interested to see how this title played out with these characters. We are introduced to the three main characters in the first three chapters where we are provided with their background stories and how they wind up at this camp for woman who find themselves suddenly single . Each woman comes with her own individual situation but they each are able to see each others situations from a different view. I fully enjoyed the sarcasm that was sprinkled throughout this book. Ms Sharpe wrote in a way that allowed the reader to, almost, make up their own story about the characters. There were tidbits of information provided but I realized after completing the story that what I "read" might be different from how others will read this book. In that sense I feel that this would be a great book-group read. I think it would be very interesting to listen to others feelings and views which would be based on their own experiences. As the characters in the book projected their own experiences on others stories I feel that could occur in a book group, hopefully without all the drama. I enjoyed the book and was a bit sad at the end because I found that I wanted to know more about where the characters would go next but not in a way that I felt there might be a sequel to this story. All in all I enjoyed this book and will recommend it as a good, quick vacation or beach read.

so I decided to start my own blog- not sure who will see it or read it but my plan is to write about books, books I am reading, want to read or my reviews of books. I also plan to use this space to comment on recipes baking and meals.
If you wander on to my blog please leave me a message to let me know someone has been here- thanks :)Publish Post