Book Review: A Man of His Word

I was pleasantly surprised with the book A Man of His Word, by Kathleen Fuller. This book is about an Amish woman named Moriah who is marrying her childhood crush Levi. Levi has an identical twin named Gabriel. Gabriel has always been secretly in love with Moriah but refused to stand in the way of his brother's and Moriah's love for one another. When Levi abandons Moriah, Gabriel feels the burden left by his brother and tries to step in to care for Moriah. Gabriel stops at nothing to prove to Moriah his devotion and love for her. Moriah is terrified to give her heart again after feeling so betrayed by her husband.

I really enjoyed reading this book. I am a total sucker for love stories so this was right up my alley. When I began reading this book, I thought the first chapter or two were slow reading and I didn't get drawn into the plot right away. Once I read through more of the book, I was hooked. I stayed up all night to finish the story. I really enjoyed the love story between Moraih and Gabriel. I could feel the love and angst that Gabriel felt for Moriah. The feelings the author envokes in the reader is very powerful. Kathleen fuller is a very talented storyteller.

I actually found the story between Tobias and Rachel to be my favorite part of the book. Tobias is Moriah's sister and Rachel is a member of their Amish community. I loved their teasing nature with one another and the obvious unspoken passion. I almost wish the entire book had been devoted to their story.

While I am not a very religious person, I found the religious aspect to the story very heartwarming and I felt it really added to the love between the characters. The devotion and faith they had in god and his ability to see them through their challenges really helped to make me get to know the characters and feel their emotions with them.

I would defiantly recommend A Man of His Word to readers who enjoy a good romance. It is a story about love, family, faith, and never giving up hope.

http://www.thomasnelson.com/consumer/product_detail.asp?sku=1595548122&title=A-Man-of-His-Word&author=Kathleen-Fuller

Book Review: Read and Share Toddler Bible

I recently received to read and review The Read and Share Toddler Bible with bible stories retold by Gwen Ellis and illustrated by Steve Smallman. I was very impressed with this children's book. First, I must say it is a great idea. Children love hearing about bible stories but hearing them read aloud from an actual bible can be hard to understand and follow along. This stories are shortened and summarized using child friendly vocabulary and concepts. I loved the story about Adam and Eve and the Sneaky Snake. In this story, God tells them that eating fruit off a certain tree is a "no-no". I loved the use of the phrase "no-no", because so many of us parents use it on a daily, sometimes hourly basis. I think children can relate to this vocabulary better than telling them it is a forbidden tree.

I read this book in segments to my 11 month old daughter. She really just wanted to play with the pages but overall enjoyed our time reading it together. I think this book will be a great opportunity for us to read and bond together as she grows up. I prefer to read her books that are educational or have moral values. I love concept of taking bible stories and making them into short children's stories. This is exactly the type of reading material I enjoy sharing with her. I wish the book could have had pages made of cardboard so my daughter could read it alone, otherwise she will tear out the pages. I realize this is unreasonable for such a long children's book, but I have to criticize something about it.

I really enjoyed the illustrations by Steve Smallman. They are beautifully colorful and detailed. My daughter kept touching the pictures on each page as we were reading it. The people in the pictures have a cartoon like quality about them that make them more fun and appealing to children while they still look like real people with historical significance.

I definitely recommend this book for children.

New Book Review

I recently read Jungle Jack's The Wackiest, Wildest, and Weirdest Animals in the World by Jack Hanna. I have to say it was a fabulous, entertaining piece of non-fiction. My husband and I sat for hours reading through the book and discussing all the interesting facts about each unique animal. I loved how educational it was. There were animals in this book that I have never even heard of, let alone seen pictures and know details about. This is a great book for children to read because they will really enjoy all the fun facts about these strange animals.

The book is organized by putting a different animal on each page. Each page contains pictures of the animal and neat facts and trivia. I found the layout and structure of the book to be very easy to follow and very read friendly to children. I have a baby at home so I don't get a lot of time to sit and read uninterrupted but I was able to stop when I finished reading about one animal and pick up where I left off next time. This will again keep children interested in reading because they can easily follow through the book and pick which animals they feel like reading about.

I really enjoyed the pictures in the book. They were colorful and detailed. I have never seen a picture of a Naked Mole Rat and I loved seeing how ugly they are. There were a couple of pictures that I would have liked to be more focused and detailed. I am terrified of snakes and the picture of the anaconda gave me goosebumps.

Jack Hanna wrote an educational, interesting, and surprising book that will fascinate children and adults alike. I was extremely pleased with this book and recommend to all animal lovers. Hanna really found some wacky, wild, and weird animals to share with us.

For more information visit.
http://brb.thomasnelson.com/blogger/resources/57

Book Review: The Rivers Run Dry

I was pleasantly surprised by the book, The Rivers Run Dry, by Sibella Giorello. I do not normally read books from the suspense genre but I really enjoyed this book. It was hard to put down.

The book is about an FBI agent named Raleigh Harmon who has been relocated to Seattle. She lives with her mother and aunt, who are both fabulous characters in the story. I can picture these women in my mind and I love the eccentricities they bring to the story. She is investigating the disappearance of a woman. The crime unfolds into a unpredictable and suspenseful story. I consider myself pretty good and predicting the end of books, but this one was hard to guess. I loved that the book was suspenseful and chilling, without being gruesome or overly graphic.

I would have loved for their to be a bit of romance in the plot. Raleigh is such a like able character and I am a sucker for a love story. I also felt some of the interactions with Raleigh and the other FBI agents were somewhat cliche and predictable.

I think that Sibella Giorello is a very talented author who has a bright literary career ahead of her. I look forward to reading additional novels written by her. I would love to see Raleigh turned into a series.

Here is a link to more information about this book
http://brb.thomasnelson.com/blogger/resources/48

My summer reading list

I have some books I would like to read this summer. They include

The entire collection of Stephanie Laurens Bastian Club
The Crowning Glory of Calla Lily Ponder by Rebecca Wells
The Scenic Route by Binnie Kirshenbaum
The Physick Book of Delverance Dane by Katherine Howe
The House of Night series

I guess a lot of what I will read will depend on what my small town library has to offer.

My baby trees

My husband and dad planted 2 trees in our yard at the end of last summer. One of them is a plain old maple tree that was planted in our front yard. The second tree is a flowering pear tree that we planted in the back yard. I am going to measure how tall they are so I can see how much they have grown by the end of summer.

Here are their current stats. I wish I had measured them when we planted them.
Maple tree- 9feet 9 inches
Pear tree- just under 6feet

Update! September 27th, 2009
Maple Tree- 11 feet
Pear Tree- 7 feet 5 inches

In the Footsteps of Paul Review

I have recently read the book, In the Footsteps of Paul, by Ken Duncan. This book is an illustrated narration of the life and traveles of the apostle Paul.

When I began reading this book, it took me 20 pages to get into the story and layout of the book. Then ,I was hooked. I knew nothing of the story of Paul, since I am not a studied religious person. I found his story to be very interesting. I learned to love the layout of the book. It is so different from other books I have read. Each page has a beautiful photograph of a location or piece of artwork, with a bible verse and a paragraph or two from the author. I found this design to be very easy to read, easy to follow, and highly entertaining. It took a more serious subject and historical facts and portrayed them in a captivating manner. It is a very modern twist on an old subject manner.

The photography in this book are breathtaking. Some of the landscape photographs were so vivid and beautiful. I have never had any desire to travel to some of the places documented in this book and now it has moved way up on my travel dream list. It is impossible to narrow down the best photographs and scripture in this book because each page is amazing in itself.

My husband is not a reader but any means. He actually sat down and read this book with me. He attended private Lutheran elementary school and is very educated with the bible. We had a great time reading the verses together and discussing Paul's story. It was a wonderful way for us to share this amazing book and have a deep religious conversation together. I plan to read this book with his mother on my next visit to see her. She is a very active member of bible study and I would love to her her thoughts on this book. I would not be surprised if she wants to steal my copy.

Overall, I was very impressed with this book. It greatly exceeded my expectations and original impressions.

http://www.thomasnelson.com/consumer/product_detail.asp?sku=1404104828

DVD Review- Skeeter and the Mystery of the Lost Mosquito Treasure

I decided to order the DVD, Skeeter and the Mystery of the Lost Mosquito Treasure, because I was interested in viewing a Christian based video. I have watched very few videos that had a religious basis for the story. I was pleasantly surprised. I thought this DVD was a great story for children that teaches an important principle of the bible and life. Skeeter is a mosquito with a crocked stinger and he is embarrassed by this. He thinks that the other mosquitoes are better than him because he is different. I think not only is this an important lesson that God made us all unique, it also demonstrates acceptance of diversity. I look forward to when my infant daughter is old enough to watch this video and understand the moral lessons behind the story. I really enjoyed the narrations by the actors in this film. There are a talented group who really brought the characters to life with such energy and creativity. I feel this was a very clever video that uses creative animation, entertaining music, humor, and much more to entertain children with a heartfelt story. I think more children's entertainment should focus on positive lessons like this video does. I am so glad that this video has introduced me to the Hermie and Friends DVD series, because I strongly feel that more children should be exposed to good family friendly videos.

http://brb.thomasnelson.com/reviews/bybook/38