Sparkly Green Earring Books Review

 

 

Sparkly Green Earrings is a wonderful memoir by Melanie Shankle, author of the Big Mama blog and a regular contributor to ThePioneerWoman.com. She is fun and witty as she recounts her experiences with getting pregnant and having her first child. She talks about the infant years, preschool, expectations of other parents, and how becoming a mom changed her. She has a wonderful sense of humor and is candid and honest about her journey as a mom.

 

Chapter titles include "I Wanted My Epidural in the First Trimester", "That Time I Didn't Sleep for Four Years" and "Potty Training:Bringing People to Their Knees Since Forever". She recalls incidents where she went crazy and to great expense creating a shoebox float for a yearly celebration for her daughter's preschool and it ended up being paled in comparison to other parents crazy creations. This is a great, fun, easy read that will have you laughing right along with her. I really enjoyed how honest she was and how much I could relate to her stories. As a mom, I really liked this book.

 

Buy this book at Christianbook and Amazon.

 



Grace's Pictures Book Review

 

 

 

Grace McCaffery is an Irish immigrant in 1900 New York City. She was unexpectedly sent to America from the Irish workhouse by her mother's new policeman husband. She mistrusts policeman and worries about if she can make it on her own. She finds lots of friendly, Christian people who genuinely want to help her succeed in her new life in America and she isn't sure how to deal with that.

 

Grace McCaffery is a wonderful, complete character that I immediately fell in love with. She has an interesting and sometimes dramatic journey in her faith and new life in America in this book. I really enjoyed this story. Cindy Thomson did a wonderful job setting the scene of immigrants in 1900 New York in Lower Manhattan. The details were wonderful and helped me feel as if I was there. I enjoyed reading this book and was able to sit and read it mostly in one day as I found myself desperately wanting to know what would happen next. This is the first book in a new Ellis Island series by Cindy Thomson and I eagerly await the next book in the series!

 

You can buy at Amazon and Christianbook.



Courageous Grace Book Review.

 

 

 

Courageous Grace by Gayle Haggard is a book about grace and forgiveness. From the publisher's website:"As a Bible teacher, Gayle had taught for decades about the amazing power of grace in a person’s life. Yet it took a crisis in her husband’s life and the crumbling of her own life around her for her to have an epiphany about the true nature of grace. In Courageous Grace, Gayle chronicles and explains her new found insights."

 

This book came at a really wonderful time for me. I often struggle with grace and forgiveness. I know that God is a God who forgives but sometimes I have a really hard time forgiving myself. I can forgive others but sometimes I have a hard time forgiving my family. These are not good things or good aspects of my personality. Mrs Haggard's book deals with all of these topics and more.

 

She talks about God's forgiveness, about accepting forgiveness, about being forgiving and extending grace on our enemies. This book is wonderfully written and easy to read. Even though it is easy to read, it is not a light book by any means. She digs into each section with lots of scripture and personal insight to help the reader learn the message of grace. Grace is something all of us really need to learn and use in our every day lives. I'm better for reading this book and I hope you will be too.

 

Buy Courageous Grace at Amazon and Christianbook.


confessions of a raging perfectionist by Amanda Jenkins

confessions of a raging perfectionist by Amanda Jenkins is Amanda's own struggles with her need to be perfect. She talks about it in every facet of her life both physical and spiritual. She discusses what she has felt God has convicted her on and supplies Bible verses to help her realize that no one apart from God is perfect.

I felt this book was written for me. Well about me really. I can so completely relate to just about every single issue Amanda has. She talks about money, parenthood, pride, happiness and even Diet Coke. She talks about issues that she feels make her feel the need to be perfect and what scripture says about those issues. She shares many stories about her own lessons as well as those of others. With complete honesty, truthfulness, and wit, she confessions her failings and how God has used them to help her grow. I think I could read this book again and again and again. This books is for all of us Type A control freaks who feel defeated and stressed when the days don't go the way we think they should.

Buy confessions of a raging perfectionist at Christianbook and Amazon.

Deployed by Mel Odom

Deployed by Mel Odom is a work of fiction about Bekah Shaw, a Marine and single mom, who is deployed to Mogadishu to aid in finding a terrorist and Rageh Daud ,a native to Mogadishu, who is seeking revenge against that same terrorist. When I began reading this book, I immediately liked Bekah. Overall, I enjoyed this story. I felt the book was well written and a good story. At first, I was getting a little bored with the switching between the different characters so much. It felt almost confusing at times. Having read the entire book, I'm glad to have the extensive background on all of the major characters. It is very nice to know where the people come from and I assume since this is the first book in a new series that these characters will return. I'm excited to read the next book in the series. This book started with explaining the backstories as well as a "current event" update for each character. It moved a little slow in my opinion while setting up these 4 characters. After getting to the actual deployment scene and so on, the book moved at a wonderful and compelling pace. There are war scenes and death and descriptions of injuries and so on in this book. It does show good examples of God's plan for you life and that you will be put exactly where you should be. I liked this book a lot and recommend it for an nice read.

Still Lolo Review

Still Lolo is a book by Lauren Scruggs and family about her propeller accident. Lauren was at a family friend's home when they suggested they take their plane for a little flight over the property. The flight went well however when exiting the plane it was very dark and Lauren was hit by the propeller's blade. She was struck on her left side, injuring her brain, eye, shoulder, clavicle bone, and severing her left hand. This book gives background on her life growing up and her recovery following the accident and how she leaned on God to help her throughout her difficult recovery.

It is a very good book. I especially liked the perspectives of her family during her recovery. I like how they formatted this book. Her story is so encouraging. She didn't have an easy time dealing with her injury and she didn't shy away from her shortcomings. The inclusion of
Her mom dad and twin sisters stories really helps to see the whole picture of their lives up to during and after the accident. When I finished reading this book, I was greatly encourage and felt uplifted by God's plan for Lauren. It was a wonderful feeling to have after reading such a compelling story.


You can buy Still Lolo at Amazon or ChristianBook

Read this book now! Frame 232

President John F Kennedy was assassinated in 1963. Zapruders famous film shows the assassination as well as another woman filming across the street. This woman nor her film have ever been found. Several theories believe that Lee Harvey Oswald didn't act alone and that the mysterious "babushka lady's" film could prove it. Well what would happen if the film was found? Wil Mara's book takes that idea and runs with it. This book begins a new series featuring Jason Hammond a wealthy humanitarian who seeks to solve history's mysteries.

I couldn't put this book down. I absolutely loved it. I was riveted from the first few pages. Mr Mara takes such care with using historic details as well as interweaving fictional details. The characters are wonderfully developed, scenes are described in detail as if you were actually there and the ending has an unexpected twist. Mr Mara takes you on a wonderful and exciting journey, you don't want to miss it. I have no complaints with this book at all. I enjoyed his writing style and the story at large. I'm very excited to read his next book , I can't wait!!

You can purchase Frame 232 at ChristanBook and Amazon.