September: "The Covenant" by Beverly Lewis

From Publishers Weekly: Inspirational novelist Lewis begins Abram's Daughters, a Lancaster County series about four Amish sisters, in the tradition of her previous novels. It should please her fans, while not offering much in the way of fresh material. It's 1946 in Gobbler's Knob, Pa., Sadie Ebersol and her sister, Leah, are exploring the joys of "rumschpringe" the period of relaxed rules and running around that Amish teens enjoy prior to their baptism into the church. Tomboy Leah's first love is Jonas Mast, but her father Abram has determined she'll marry Gideon Peachey, whose father's farm adjoins the Ebersols'. Her beautiful sister Sadie's defiance crosses the boundaries when she becomes involved with Englischer Derek Schwartz. Heartache is inevitable. The dialect (perty, redd, Dat, ach, wonderful-gut, jah) is as dense as sugar cream pie, as are the italicized terms.

This book is the first in a series of 6 or so written by Beverly Lewis, but was recommended to me by my friend who just got thru reading it. Even though it is a series, I thought it would be good since it focuses on a subject I know very little about (the Amish). I'm intrigued...I hope it's good!

You can pick up a used copy at Amazon starting at $.o1. Happy Reading!

What is September's Book?

I am in need of some reading material! Are we going to have a book for September? I have my book for October picked out if Tricia is needing a break to get ready for the baby! Let me know and I'll post my book if need be! (For now I am holding off reading it until Oct...but it has been tempting me on my nightstand!:)

Let's Chat: The Prizewinner of Defiance, Ohio (July)

Here's what I thought.

Here's what Emily thought.

What did the rest of you think?

Book Suggestion

I hope you all don't mind a quick post about a book I recently read. I figure we can't get enough reading suggestions (although we never have enough time to read them all). Anyway, after complaining a little too much about my current lot in life to my wonderful mother, she got me this book. She served on the Provo Library board with the author and his wife is Kathleen Hughes that was in the General Relief Society Presidency a few years ago. He talks about how he had to watch his three kids as well as 2 neighbor girls for one whole summer and so he knows how it is to be a mom. Of course he makes it known that this doesn't give him full insight into the life of a mom with young kids but it's helps him understand a little bit of what we go through.

There was one chapter in the book where he interviewed his daughter and daughters-in-law about raising their kids. One of them let her son watch The Lion King over and over all day. She said, "I know that's really bad to do, but killing a child is a lot worse." For some reason, I could totally relate to that comment. I've been there before and I'm sure I'm not alone.

Another quote I liked in the book said, "Once we meet the perfect mother...we should enshrine her, build a statue to the Unknown Mother, and then admit that she's the only example of perfection who will ever exist. We could maybe give out little statues of her at Mother's Day sacrament meetings, made out of chocolate, and then the mothers could take her home and bite her head off - and get a nice little chocolate rush at the same time."

Anyway, the book is available on Amazon (supposedly starting at $.07). I highly recommend it. It's a quick read and it really helped me refocus my life and this point and time. If you liked the mothering book we read a few months ago, you would greatly enjoy this!

August: And Only to Deceive by Tasha Alexander

"Emily agreed to wed Philip, the Viscount Ashton, primarily to escape her overbearing mother. Philip's death while on safari soon after their wedding left Emily feeling little grief, for she barely knew the dashing stranger. But her discovery of his journals nearly two years later reveals a far different man than she imagined - a gentleman scholar and antiquities collector who apparently loved his new wife deeply. Emily's desire to learn more of her late husband leads her through the quiet corners of the British Museum and into a dangerous mystery involving rare stolen artifacts. To complicate matters, she's juggling two very prominent and wealthy suitors, one of whose intentions may go beyond matrimony into darker realms..." -Back Cover

"Had Jane Austen written The Da Vinci Code, she may well have come up with this elegant novel." -Martha O'Connor

Disclaimer: I searched through a lot of lists trying to pick out a good book for August and while several jumped out at me I was hesitant to pick them having never read them or talked to anyone who had and besides, we all know that there's only one book coming out in August that really matters right?! (Just kidding.) I read this book recently and thought it was a lot of fun. If any of you have already read it leave a comment and maybe I'll look for another one!

Available on Amazon for $11.16 new and from $2.22 used and new.

Let's Talk: The Book Thief (June)

Here is my take on this book. If you haven't finished it--DON'T READ MY REVIEW YET!

I thoroughly enjoyed reading from the perspective of death. I found it added an interesting depth to the story as you knew that death was always near. I also thought it was different how death kept telling us what was going to happen way before it did--like who was going to die and how. I didn't find the book to be overly graphic in the depiction of death or the events of that time. The war itself only served as a backdrop to a great story as it unfolded--the story of a girl who comes to love books and find comfort in words.

My favorite character was probably Rudy. I thought he was funny (because of the Jesse Owens incident) and genuine as a friend (saving Leisel from herself when she sees Max again). I could imagine a cocky boy like him being 'real.' I also liked that the author depicted Germany at the time not as a country full of absolute Nazi supporters, but a country with at least a few people who were decent. Ones willing to hid a Jew or think Hitler Youth was a waste. I cried at the end for Leisel.

I would give it 4 3/4 out of 5 stars!

Book for July

I had a couple of books in mind for July but decided on this one (The Prize Winner of Defiance, Ohio: How My Mother Raised 10 Kids on 25 Words or Less) because I think it's the most fun. It's a little bit like that Zippy book in a sense that it's a memoir. It's a quick read, witty, and is based on a true story. It's actually written by the Prize Winner's daughter. There's even a movie based on the story with Julianne Moore. It's okay but the book is definitely much better. I thought all you summer Ohio folks might enjoy a read from a story based in Ohio.

In case you need more info here's the review from Publishers Weekly. "In the 1950s, the Ryan family struggled to make ends meet. Ten kids and a father who spent most of his paycheck on booze drained the family's meager finances. But mom Evelyn Ryan, a former journalist, found an ingenious way to bring in extra income: entering contests on the backs of cereal boxes and the like. The author, Evelyn's daughter, tells the entertaining story of her childhood and her mother's contest career with humor and affection. She is not a professional narrator, but her love and admiration for her mother come through in every sentence. Evelyn won supermarket shopping sprees that put much-needed food on the table, provided washing machines and other appliances the family couldn't afford, and delivered cash to pay the mounting pile of bills. This well-told, suspenseful tale is peppered with examples of Evelyn's winning poems and slogans, taken from the years of notebooks that she saved and passed on to her daughter, and has a fiction-worthy climax that will keep listeners laughing even as they're glued to Ryan's tale." (Forecasts, Feb. 5). The book is available on Amazon from $6-$15.

If anyone has already read this and wants a different book, let me know and I'll come up with a different one. If not, enjoy and I'll look forward to hearing your thoughts!