Wonderland Creek, Book #24

Back in June we took a Campbell Family Vacation (as in, 19 Campbells!) to Gatlinburg and one day we went to Dollywood.  The very first ride me and my crazy roller coaster riding girl Leah rode was the Wild Eagle, their new coaster in which you have nothing on top of you and nothing underneath you, as though you were indeed an eagle.

 It was utterly AMAZING, full of ups, downs, twists, turns, upside downs, right side ups, crazy insane FUN!!!  When the ride ended and we straightened out to glide back into the building to get out, all I could do was say, "Oh my cow, oh my cow, oh my cow!"  

That is how I feel right now as I just moments ago finished book #24.

 

My mom, who is also in a Book Club in Kentucky, had this on her list of books for her club.  Unfortunately for her (but fortunate for me!) she didn't enjoy it ~ and oddly enough she doesn't enjoy roller coasters either! ~ so she passed it on to me.  It has sat here beside my bed for several months and since I decided to wait to read our next book for book club I picked this one to read.  And I read all 385 in one week.  It's that good.

So what about this calm serene cover with a pretty girl and a calm, scenic cabin in the woods makes this such a roller coaster ride?  It begins, 

"If my life were a book, no one would read it.  People would say I was too boring, too predictable. A story told a million times. But I was perfectly content with my life--that is, until the pages of my story were ripped out before I had a chance to live happily ever after. 

The end came, appropriately enough, at a funeral."

From there, in 1936 boring little Alice Grace Ripley from Blue Island, Illinois ends up in Acorn, KY, an old mining town as backwoods as she can imagine. She had been collecting books from the library she worked at (before she got laid off due to the Depression), and decided to deliver them herself via her loony aunt and uncle.  This was a library set up through the WPA to help put people to work.  There was one librarian (who ended up being a man) and four ladies who came a few times a week to deliver the books to people in the country who couldn't get out, thus called packhorse librarians.  The second day she is there someone gets shot but not killed but they have to fake his death so the real person who shot him (who could be anybody!) doesn't come back to finish him off.  This girl, who has had life handed to her on a silver platter has to learn how to cook on a woodstove, take care of and ride a horse, wash clothes in tub, take care of chickens and a rooster, plant a garden, make tonics and rubs with the help of a crazy but God loving 100 year old former slave the size of a twig.  She meets another "flatlander" who is now a widow and taking care of her mother in law who is dying, a teenager (married) who gives birth to a colicky baby and is left alone to tend to baby and house while her husband goes off the find work, a pack of children who look forward to her visits as she reads Treasure Island, Tom Sawyer, and Huckleberrry Finn.  All the while still taking care of the supposedly dead man and trying to help him with his secrets.  Throw in a 60 year old feud between nearly all the townsfolk, breaking into the abandoned mine twice, throw in a little love interest, and .. and .. well, how could anyone NOT love this book?!?!?

Alice Grace Ripley lives in a dream world, her nose stuck in a book. But happily-ever-after life she's planned on suddenly falls apart when her boyfriend, Gordon, breaks up with her, accusing her of living in a world of fiction instead of the real world. Then to top it off, Alice loses her beloved job at the library because of cutbacks due to the Great Depression.

Fleeing small-town gossip, Alice heads to the mountains of eastern Kentucky to deliver five boxes of donated books to the library in the tiny coal-mining village of Acorn. Dropped off by her relatives, Alice volunteers to stay for two weeks to help the librarian, Leslie McDougal.

But the librarian turns out to be far different than she anticipated--not to mention the four lady librarians who travel to the remote homes to deliver the much-desired books. While Alice is trapped in Acorn against her will, she soon finds that real-life adventure and mystery--and especially romance--are far better than her humble dreams could have imagined. (picture and description from amazon.com)

O:)
Melissa

Come to the Table, Book #23

Aahhh.... anytime I read one of the books by Neta or Dave Jackson from the Yada Yada Sisters series it makes my heart happy.  Aaahhhh.... For those of you who have never read any of them, please get started right away!!!  I read the first one years ago when it was a library donation when we were starting up the library.  I had no idea when I finished if there was another one, but lo and behold there were SEVEN!!!  And then from that series you roll in to the House of Hope series, the mingle in the Harry Bentley series and Lucy Come Home (parallel novels, according to the author's website, books to be read alongside other books in the series) and finally the Souled Out Sisters.  Unfortunately for me, though, this is the end of the books on all those crazy, nutty, wonderful, God filled ladies and "menfolk".  

The Yada Yada Prayer Group originally started from a Women's Prayer Conference in Chicago (where all the books take place) in which the participants were "randomly" put together in groups of 12.  When the group first met in one of the conference rooms, they were all a little overwhelmed by the diversity in age, race, social status, you name it.  But by the end of the first book they are tight as string and ready to spring forth on their own to keep meeting.  Over the course of the other books the ladies have varied things that happen to them with their children, husbands, boyfriends, jobs, etc and through it all at the weekly  meetings they take their praises and requests to God.  You laugh, you cry, you get mad, you are overjoyed, you get absorbed in their lives!!!  This, my friends, is my favorite kind of book!!


Kat may be new in her faith, but she’s embraced the more radical implications of Christianity with reckless abandon. She invited Rochelle—a homeless mother—and her son to move in the apartment she shares with two other housemates. And she’s finally found a practical way to channel her passion for healthy eating by starting a food pantry at the church.

Her feelings for Nick are getting harder to ignore. The fact that he’s the interning pastor at SouledOut Community Church and one of her housemates makes it complicated enough. But with Rochelle showing interest in Nick as a father-figure for her son, their apartment is feeling way too small.

But not everyone thinks the food pantry is a good idea. When the woman she thought would be her biggest supporter just wants to “pray about it,” Kat is forced to look deeper at her own motives. Only when she begins to look past the surface does she see people who are hungry and thirsty for more than just food and drink and realizes the deeper significance of inviting them to “come to the table.”  (picture and description from www.amazon.com )

Beyond Summer, Book #22

Hhm. Hhm. Hhm.  Debating what exactly to say about this book. I read 3/4 of it hating it, yet addicted at the same time wondering if these poor pathetic people were EVER going to get out of their terrible situation.  I don't want to give it away, so I will let you decide what you think about this, but I will warn you that it's not a fun fluff book.  

When Tam Lambert learns that her family's upscale home is in foreclosure, the life she's known is forever changed. Tam and her family must move to a changing Dallas neighborhood called Blue Sky Hill...

New resident Shasta Williams knows nothing of real estate schemes when she and her husband purchase a home in Blue Sky Hill. To her it's the perfect place to raise her children. Better yet is getting to know Tam, who lives next door. When neighbors realize that a corrupt deal could force them from their homes, friendships and loyalties are tested. Over the span of one summer, two young women discover the strength and maturity to do the impossible. They find that even in Blue Sky Hill, life-altering relationships and amazing possibilities can begin to blossom... (picture and description from http://www.amazon.com)