Back on Blossom Street, Book #26

Ok, I can't believe it, but I actually read another book this week!!  It took me about 5 or 6 days. in the middle of piles of laundry, grocery shopping, clothes/shoe shopping, recovering from weeks on in and out vacations, getting ready for school, AND planning 2 birthday parties and a baby shower.  But superwoman here somehow managed to sneak in a book too.  (Secret ... about 4 hours sleep a night.  I plan to crash tonight!!!)

Please, don't judge me, but I am usually not a fan of non-Christian books.  Granted, I've heard Debbie is a Christian and I do love her writing, but as appealing as her covers are (yes, I'm still a sucker for judging books by their cover!) I've tried to steer away from them.  The last few non-Christian books I've stuck with or quit reading seemed to be full of filthy language, immoral behavior, etc and I'd just rather not fill my mind with that.  (although apparently I have no trouble watching it on TV or in the movies, but that's another story!).  But this book had been on my bedside for quite a while and for some reason I decided to pick it up.

Yes, it still had some stuff I wasn't entirely comfortable with, but I must say her writing style is something I really, really love.  Several years ago I read the first book, The Shop on Blossom Street.  When I started this book, I was surprised at how many of the characters I remembered.  It was fun to "pick up" and see what happened to them.  There were several plots going as always, and in the end it all turned out good.  

There's a new shop on Seattle's Blossom Street—a flower store called Susannah's Garden, right next door to A Good Yarn. Susannah Nelson, the owner, has just hired an assistant named Colette Blake, a young widow who's obviously hiding a secret—or two.
When Susannah and Colette both join Lydia Goetz's new knitting class, they discover that Lydia and her sister, Margaret, have worries of their own. Margaret's daughter, Julia, is the victim of a random carjacking, and the entire family is thrown into emotional chaos.
Then there's Alix Townsend, whose wedding is only months away. She's not sure she can go through with it, though. A reception at the country club, with hundreds of guests she's never met—it's just not Alix. But, like everyone else in Lydia's knitting class, she knows there's a solution to every problem… and that another woman can usually help you find it! (pic and description from amazon.com)

O:)
Melissa

Picture Perfect, Book #25

Another awesome book I highly recommend.  I read her Weddings by Bella series last year and absolutely LOVED it!  I knew this book would not disappoint and indeed it did not.  I had the opportunity to go to the beach this past week and I consumed this book in two days.  Laughed my lovely off.  You will too.  Guaranteed!!


Feisty wedding photographer Hannah McDermott has dealt with her share of difficult brides. But none can compare to the ultimate Bridezilla she's dealing with now. Still, she's trying desperately to impress Bella Neeley, Galveston Island's most sought-after wedding planner, so she can take the top spot in Bella's list of recommended photographers--a spot currently occupied by her arch-rival, Drew Kincaid. What she doesn't count on, however, is falling head over heels for the competition.

With her contagious humor and cast of quirky characters, Janice Thompson gives readers more of the bridal business drama they want in a brand-new series all about those long-suffering people who make beautiful weddings happen. Readers are desperately waiting for more of Bella and this new series brings her back in a big way, while introducing new characters fans will love. Fans will laugh out loud as they experience this breezy and entertaining novel from a great storyteller. (picture and description from amazon.com)

O:)
Melissa

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)

My Big Bottom Blessing, Book #17

Ok, this is taking some nerve to post this here, but since I've committed to posting all the books I read this year, this one has to go here too. 

I borrowed this from a friend of mine who knew my struggles of weight and the spiritual connections.  It starts out pretty funny as she tells her story (and I can totally relate to most of them!) but then moves into a much serious tone as she digs deeper as to why the hurt feelings and low self confidence issues relate to the weight issue.  I didn't enjoy it as much as I hoped it would it first, but then again I'm always looking for the magic pill, magic plan, magic something.  In the end, she reminds us of how God sees our body parts, not the way we see our body parts.  Not flabby arms, but arms made for hugging all the children He gave her.  Not big bellies, but a reflection of where children were carried.  Not cottage cheese thighs, but legs that carry His love everywhere .....  always a good reminder.

The media feeds us distorted images of beauty and what an "ideal woman" should look like. In My Big Bottom Blessing, author Teasi Cannon offers a way out of distorted body images and the pain of self-rejection.  She says, "My obsession with fat and failure robbed me of a lot of the good in my life.  I have been miraculously set free from the lie that being thin equals being beautiful."

My Big Bottom Blessing offers Teasi's story--and real-life solutions for the millions of women who struggle with poor self-esteem and feelings of inadequacy and rejection.  Whatever it is that you despise most about yourself (it doesn't have to be weight) can become the catalyst for serious life change. Teasi' story proves that emotional pain can be healed and self-confidence found from knowing that beauty comes in all shapes and sizes.

My Big Bottom Blessing is a joyful, compassionate, and wise guide from someone who knows the power of exchanging the way we look with a new way of seeing.  (picture and description from amazon.com)


O:)
Melissa

Once upon a prince, book #21 ~ MUST READ!!!!

Oh my cow, oh my cow, oh my cow!!!  To save the life of me I could not put this down!!!  It's been a while since I have read a book that I loved SO MUCH I wanted to read it in 3 days, but this was one of them.  Returned me to my love of reading!!!  I mean, a book that starts with "I can't marry you.." has got to grab your attention.

I loved The Wedding Dress by her and when we picked this one out for Book Club this month, I was anxious to start it, even though I wanted to plug through some of those other 572 books sitting on my bedside.  So I did, but this one was worth the wait!!!  

I can't even pick out which part was my favorite, because I loved them all .... 10 stars on a 5 star scale!!

Once Upon a Prince, the first novel in the Royal Wedding series by best-selling author Rachel Hauck, treats you to a modern-day fairy tale. Susanna Truitt never dreamed of a great romance or being treated like a princess---just to marry the man she has loved for twelve years. But life isn't going according to plan. When her high-school-sweetheart-turned-Marine-officer breaks up instead of proposing, Susanna scrambles to rebuild her life. The last thing Prince Nathaniel expects to find on his American holiday to St. Simons Island is the queen of his heart. A prince has duties, and his family's tense political situation has chosen his bride for him. When Prince Nathaniel comes to Susanna's aid under the fabled Lover's Oak, he is blindsided by love. Their lives are worlds apart. He's a royal prince. She's an ordinary girl. But everything changes when Susanna receives an invitation to Nathaniel's coronation. It's the ultimate choice: His kingdom or her heart? God's will or their own? 'This is classic romance at its very best.' ---DEBBIE MACOMBER '[A] surprisingly believable royal-meets-commoner love story. With only a subtle nod to Cinderella, this modern and engaging tale follows the budding relationship of an American Southern girl and a pseudo-Brit prince . . . Hauck fans will find a gem of a tale.' ---Publishers Weekly STARRED REVIEW for Once Upon a Prince (picture and description from amazon.com)