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Showing posts from March, 2017

A Family's Ups And Downs

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If you want to learn about the important issues facing Americans today, read about this family. "Tell Me How This Ends Well" by David Samuel Levinson is about a Jewish family. There are three siblings: Mo, Jacob and Edith. These three deal with personal problems as well as troubles with their parents. This family is ordinary because of their differences. No family circle conforms to an exact Pollyanna image. This family is extraordinary because of a murderous plan put together by the brothers. David Samuel Levinson book becomes a premeditated bloody mystery. The plan is shocking. However, it is not without reality. Who knows what siblings discuss in their bedrooms and in their cars before coming to the dinner table? I liked the fact that the author surprised me and frightened me with this deadly plan. Many men do not get along with their fathers. This father,for example, is set in his ways. He is outspoken. He wants his children to look like a photograph tak

A Most Singular Venture by Donna Fletcher Crow

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Very disappointed by "A Most Singular Venture" by Donna Fletcher Crow. I hoped the dryness would go away and leave me floating through the pages happily. The book has everything I like in it. There are rare books, bookstores, England and Jane Austen, marriage, mystery. I'm really hurt because one of my favorite Classic authors is Jane Austen. Anyway, I soon became discouraged. What I wanted to happen didn't happen. I feel so badly. The author's name is one I fell in love with too. I liked repeating her name in my head, Donna Fletcher Crow. I'm definitely going to read another one of her books. I have great hopes that soon this author will satisfy my need for a good mystery or English fiction with History. Thank you for a copy of the e-book from Reading Deals. donnafletchercrow.com/booksMystery

A Shakespearean Garden

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It's the first day of spring. What a perfect time to finish reading a novel by Ellen Herrick titled "The Forbidden Garden." Sorrel Sparrow, one of four sister, goes to London. Her duty is to restore a Shakespearean Garden. While the family who own the garden have continued to grow and remain vibrant, the garden has been left to die. This is a second book in a series. The first book about the Sparrows is named "The Sparrow Sisters." Their last name is like a call to nature. Unfortunately, there is little information in "The Forbidden Garden" about the sisters. Just enough is given to wake up the curiosity. I especially worried about the death of one sister. I also began to wonder about how they were treated in their town. Often, women who have special abilities or talents are seriously thought of as witches. By the way, I don't feel a person has to read the first book. I thought of this as a stand alone because it focuses on Sor

Let's Visit Denmark!

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This is a great book for any one who would like to learn about Denmark. Reading it does not mean you plan to visit there. If you never go, you would have explored the lives of people, the Danes, who are very happy. Helen Russell, the author of "The Year of Living Danishly:..," also shares her life with her husband. She calls him Lego Man. It is because he works for the Lego toy company in Denmark. Although this is a very prosperous country, there are many contradictions. These differences can lead to laughter or just a feeling of 'how strange.' For example, the Danes are very jolly but there is a part of the population who take antidepressants. This surprised me. Also while Denmark is known as peaceable, there is this Denmark thing about passing a blow if you care to do so while out and about or among school friends. It is possible to get in a fight. Also, there are unhappy marriages. The reason given is because the parents prioritize the lives of th

Take A Trip To Canada

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In one Canadian city, there is the largest fiddle ever seen. In another city, Halifax, there is the Maritime museum where a person can remember the Titanic. All of the places explored in Canada by  Marie Schaeller in "Exploring Atlantic Canada: A 2-week Travel Memoir of New Brunswick, Prince Edward Island, and Nova Scotia" leave something to remember. As helpers, there are many links in the one hundred twenty - one page book. At first, I thought the small book began too much like a Fodor's Handbook. I thought, "oh brother." It did not take a long time for a change of mind to happen. Soon I wanted to remain with this fiddler player on her journey. It became a fun journey. There are illustrations and a map or maps. I followed along on the map. Feeling what she was seeing became easy. While she played her fiddle outside beneath the stars at night or during the daytime during a break, I sat beside her and listened with enjoyment. What is it like

When God Says Wait by Elizabeth Laing Thompson

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In our society, there is the idea it is better to move forward. Hurry! Make any decision just make one. Not many people talk about waiting and how to do it. To talk about waiting means a belief in the power of prayer. It means believing that you are not in control of your life, but God is in control of your life. It means praising God and learning more about His attributes. In "When God Says Wait" by Elizabeth Laing Thompson, there are chapters with journal prompts to help a person come to a better understanding on how to endure while waiting for God to give you what is best for your life. The journal entries are simple. I felt no anxiety about trying two or more of them. I had the chance to write and think about the pitfalls you might fall into while God is equipping you with patience. One is mental depression. The chapters are about Bible heroes and heroines. There is Mariam, Joseph, Mary and Naomi, etc. The author also shares her life in the chapters.

The Glass Slipper Project by Dara Girard

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** spoiler alert ** It's a turnabout in "The Glass Slipper Project" by Dara Girard. Four sisters who lived in a mansion find themselves penniless. Alex, the boy whose mother worked for this family returns rich. He decides to buy back the big house. At their wits end, the sisters make a plan. One will marry Alex. Then, the other three sisters can move back into the house. All four will live happily together with fewer worries and the family will have become bigger. However, like all plans made on the fly everything begins to fall apart. This is when the author brings in lots of unexpected circumstances. "The Glass Slipper Project" fills with surprise after surprise. One surprise is who will marry whom. In other words who will win Alex's heart and his friend, Tony's heart. I liked Isabella the best of all. She thinks of herself as invisible. As the story goes on, Isabella seems to lose more than the other sisters. All of her d