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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

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.

** 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

If this book is about one thing, it's about prayer. "In Winter's Secret" by Lyn Cote, a Home Health Nurse named Wendy, is followed through the heavy snow by a burglar. The homes where she visits are entered by this person after she and her patient leaves for care. She prays not too many of her patients will become harmed or fatally wounded. In the meantime, she and Sheriff Rodd deal with personal issues. It's fascinating the way God works with Rodd during the crimes. He must learn to depend on God. It's hard for him. He feels there is no need to bother God. After all, this is a problem he can handle himself. While we read about his battle with God, there is Wendy with her set of trials. She deals with her past. Perhaps, working too exhaustion is her way of not facing the pain she has experienced throughout the years with her mother. In the present, she faces the pain of seeing a uncle over drink and fight at th

Parts of "Runaway: How a Slave Defied America's First President" by Bill Donahue had its boring parts. Still, I will never forget Ona Judge, the runaway slave. And of course, I will always remember George Washington, our first president. The story describes his strengths and weaknesses along with the strengths of her character. Ona Judge was a strong woman. When she finally experienced freedom, she chose it over living in slavery ever again. Although she was the close friend of Martha Washington, George Washington's wife, she still hungered for freedom. Friendship and nothing else comes close to the ability to come and go as you please, in other words, to make decisions for your life is kingpin. Although President Washington was a strong man, he had a weakness in his character. This weakness haunted his mind. Causing him never to grasp fully the importance of freedom not for only himself but for others who did not look like him or own any simila

 It's exquisite like fine china. The Miniaturist by Jessie Burton is also a well patterned garden maze. A reader might find themselves lost in streets because there are many lives to live here. More than one life story lives in each character. It is uncomfortable to read about one household's days of chaos. A large cabinet house bought by Johannes, the husband, for his bride, Petronella, will become more than an upright toy. For a while, it is a child bride's safe haven. The household is full of puzzles and whispers. So are the streets of Amsterdam. In this novel, words and deeds are like "water." What is spoken or done inside flows outside and is judged. Very interesting is the seemingly magical appearance and disappearance of the miniaturist. A girl or woman who in some way gains the hearts of the women in the city. She is like an invisible fortune teller. She can foretell the death of a much loved family pet. Was the miniaturist real or just my

I think this is a weekly meme, "Cover Crush." It's new to me. Excuse me for not knowing what I'm doing here. It's a try because I happen to have two book covers I love this week. Here they are: flashlightcommentary