My Reading Blog

I have a dear friend that I have been praying for and want to share her story with you and ask that you, too will pray for her and her family. I have known Val for ten years - we met when I was teaching my first Stephen Ministry training class.  She is a very caring and compassionate person, her faith in God is very strong and she loves to help everyone she meets.  She is one of those people who is always positive and upbeat. I am in awe of her strong faith in God.  You see, she has had many setbacks in her life and yet, her faith has never faltered.  Val and her husband lost there only son due to a tragedy when he was in his 20's, but they were blessed with a beautiful granddaughter. About six years ago, Val was involved in a horrific traffic accident caused by a drunk driver.  She was not expected to be able to walk again, but thru her determination and faith, she persevered and today, with the aid of crutches, she does not let anything stop her.  S...

Goodreads Summary:  "One miscarriage too many spelled the end of Max and Zoe Baxter's marriage. Though the former couple went quite separate ways, their fates remained entangled: After veering into alcoholism, Max is saved in multiple senses by his fundamentalist conversion; Zoe, for her part, finds healing relief in music therapy and the friendship, then romantic love with Vanessa, her counselor. After Zoe and Vanessa, now married, decide to have a baby, they realize that they must join battle with Max, who objects on both religious and financial grounds. Like her  House Rules  and several other previous Jodi Picoult novels,  Sing You Home  grapples with hot button issues." Picoult has a way of "hitting" those difficult issues that I try not to ponder on, but when it's in black and white and is written in such a way that makes me wonder exactly how I feel about the subject of homosexuals, I find that I need to think about it.  I know people who are "...

Goodreads Summary:  "The circus arrives without warning. No announcements precede it. It is simply there, when yesterday it was not. Within the black-and-white striped canvas tents is an utterly unique experience full of breathtaking amazements. It is called Le Cirque des Rêves , and it is only open at night. But behind the scenes, a fierce competition is underway—a duel between two young magicians, Celia and Marco, who have been trained since childhood expressly for this purpose by their mercurial instructors. Unbeknownst to them, this is a game in which only one can be left standing, and the circus is but the stage for a remarkable battle of imagination and will. Despite themselves, however, Celia and Marco tumble headfirst into love—a deep, magical love that makes the lights flicker and the room grow warm whenever they so much as brush hands. True love or not, the game must play out, and the fates of everyone involved, from the cast of extraordinary circus per­fo...

Max and I stepped outside this morning - one of the first mornings that it was cool enough to sit and enjoy a cup of coffee.  I told Max to "listen", his ears perked up and he looked, he sniffed and looked at me as if to say "What am I listening to?". There was silence - nothing - no sounds No rustling leaves No birds chirping No car or boat engines roaring SILENCE - a breathe of fresh air And then, An owl hooting in the distance A cow mooing in a pasture far from our house Birds tweeting and chirping A squirrel rustling thru the trees The sound of a train whistle some 30 miles away Crickets chirping God's earth was awakening little by little And then, The sun came up over the lake And the day had begun and the silence disappeared.

Goodreads Summary:  "The majestic and haunting beauty of the Italian Alps is the setting of the first meeting of Enza, a practical beauty, and Ciro, a strapping mountain boy, who meet as teenagers, despite growing up in villages just a few miles apart. At the turn of the last century, when Ciro catches the local priest in a scandal, he is banished from his village and sent to hide in America as an apprentice to a shoemaker in Little Italy. Without explanation, he leaves a bereft Enza behind. Soon, Enza's family faces disaster and she, too, is forced to go to America with her father to secure their future. Unbeknownst to one another, they both build fledgling lives in America, Ciro masters shoemaking and Enza takes a factory job in Hoboken until fate intervenes and reunites them. But it is too late: Ciro has volunteered to serve in World War I and Enza, determined to forge a life without him, begins her impressive career as a seamstress at the Metropolitan Opera ...

Goodreads Summary:  " The sequel to the number-one New York Times bestseller The Friday Night Knitting Club, KNIT TWO returns to Walker and Daughter, the Manhattan knitting store founded by Georgia Walker and her young daughter, Dakota. Dakota is now an eighteen-year-old freshman at NYU, running the little yarn shop part-time with help from the members of the Friday Night Knitting Club. Drawn together by the sense of family the club has created, the knitters rely on one another as they struggle with new challenges: for Catherine, finding love after divorce; for Darwin, the hope for a family; for Lucie, being both a single mom and a caregiver for her elderly mother; and for seventy something Anita, a proposal of marriage from her sweetheart, Marty, that provokes the objections of her grown children. As the club's projects - an afghan, baby booties, a wedding coat - are pieced together, so is their understanding of the patterns underlying the stresses and joys o...

As you begin a new school year, I ask the Lord  To use your talents and knowledge to teach the students in your class To set a good example of : Listening,                            Hearing, Reading,                         Writing To give you patience and understanding With your students and Fellow teachers And above all to Enjoy what you do to help our children  to become excited about learning. May God walk with you each day as you enter your classroom.                                               Amen.

Goodreads Summary:  "Eleven-year-old Melody has a photographic memory. Her head is like a video camera that is always recording. Always. And there's no delete button. She's the smartest kid in her whole school—but no one knows it. Most people—her teachers and doctors included—don't think she's capable of learning, and up until recently her school days consisted of listening to the same preschool-level alphabet lessons again and again and again. If only she could speak up, if only she could tell people what she thinks and knows . . . but she can't, because Melody can't talk. She can't walk. She can't write. Being stuck inside her head is making Melody go out of her mind—that is, until she discovers something that will allow her to speak for the first time ever. At last Melody has a voice . . . but not everyone around her is ready to hear it. From multiple Coretta Scott King Award winner Sharon M. Draper comes a story full of heartache and hope. Get r...

Forty (yes 40) years ago on August 5th, I became a MOM! We celebrated our son's 40th birthday this past weekend (I'm not sure how he got so old).  We surprised him!  His girlfriend planned a Surprise Birthday Party and we drove to IL to attend.  I think our being there was more of a surprise than the actual party.  What a thrill to see his face when he saw us. Hubby & I reminised about the day of his birth.  He was two weeks early and I didn't have a clue what labor  was all about.  I was very energetic and moved furniture, but oh, did my back ache.  We went to a drive-in movie (don't remember what it was) and didn't see the end because of contractions.  I think Hubby's hand is still misshaped because I was holding on so tightly.  At 4:30 a.m. he arrived.  What a joy! I have been working on a scrapbook of Scott's life and the surprise party gave me incentive to get it finished.  I had the majority of the pictures toge...

Goodreads Summary:  " Lt. Abe Glitsky and defense attorney Dismas Hardy are back—on opposite ends of a medical malpractice suit…and possible murder case. When the head of San Francisco’s largest HMO dies in his own hospital as the result of massive injuries inflicted by a random hit-and-run car accident. But the autopsy soon tells a different story and Abe Glitsky quickly sets his sights on attending physician Eric Kensing. Desperate and in need of an attorney, Kensing turns to Dismas Hardy for his defense. Hardy must uncover a twisting conspiracy of avarice and violence that takes the lives it is sworn to save.  A timely and gripping novel that puts lives—and a long-standing friendship—at grave risk, THE OATH is John Lescroart at his galvanizing best." A great mystery that kept me in suspense until the very end with a twist on the final pages.  Lescroart is a good author who doesn't add all the blood and gore, which makes for a better read.  The book brought...