I Do Love

these audible originals.  Second Skin was QUITE good!  It was sad and surprising and smart and keep me wanting to keep on listening.  It most certainly was an original as far as a story goes, too.  And I was surprised by the ending! 

Wow...

Three Things I Know are True was so powerful. And so well written and so real and so timely and just so so good.  This is Betty Culley's first book and I see from her bio that she was a pediatric hospice nurse.  What a calling, huh?  One of my very dear friends was a hospice nurse and I think that it takes a very special person, someone who is very attune to the needs and feelings of others, plus someone with a TON of other gifts to serve in this way.
What a gift that Culley also is sharing her insights and gifts in writing. 
Such a heart-breaking, hellish, beautiful story. 

For some odd reason

I had never read the first two books in the Jonathan Stride series!  Which is kinda good because I was just able to enjoy them tremendously for the first time.  Immoral and Stripped.
These were simply excellent mystery/thriller/detective books, man.  Just awesome.  And Stripped has a character in it who was way before her time and I think that the way in which Freeman writes about her, Amanda, shows the beauty of this writer's character.  He dealt with gender and sexuality in such a Christ-like, decent human being way in this book.  Totally freaking awesome.  Love this series!

Happiness is

I remember this little Peanuts book that we had at our house when I was little. I loved that book!  It was one of the first books I read on my own!  The Other Half of Happy by Rebecca Balcárcel is just outstanding.  Finding a book like this is happiness.  Just. Excellent. 

What Can Be Said about Brian Freeman

I mean the guy writes about the best state in the 50.  The state that gave us not only Judy (which would have been enough) and Prince, William Worrall Mayo, Jessica Lange also claimed Eddie Albert from age 1, John Sandford, Matt Goldman and Gary Paulsen have all written books set in Minnesota and I love them (the authors and their books). But there is just something...something that makes Brian Freeman's Johnathan Stride that just makes him my favorite Minnesotan (well...next to Judy, of course).   Thief River Falls was so excellent.  It is a stand-alone and just so well done.  Thanks, Mr. Freeman--- PLEASE PLEASE keep writing!  Thief River Falls is a real place! 

Complicated

The love story in The Opposite of Always is complicated.  Aren't all love stories?  Isn't life complicated?  It is.  And this was a complicated and beautiful story.  It just seemed a wee bit too long for me, but I still would highly recommend it.  Faith and life and death and time travel and Groundhog Day and love all rolled into one. 

Chick Lit with Death?

When You Read This is about a woman who has died from cancer.  So it isn't a happy, funny, light book.  Okay so maybe it is happy and funny but it isn't light.  But yet it is light...as in a quick read.  It has a good premise.  And if women's literature/chick lit is one's thing, then is one at that should be at the top of one's list!  It does have meat.  It just isn't my cup of tea. 

Journies

The Remarkable Journey of Coyote Sunrise is a very enjoyable book.  Dan Gemeinhart has quickly become one of my "watch for it" authors.  When he has a new book out, I want to try it!  This was a really good one.  It was funny when it was trying to be and also touching throughout.  It was just a little hard to get my attention at first but then I was into it.  I really enjoyed it.  I see that the group that I used to belong to that thinks about Newbery possibilities is reading it for this month.  I am not sure if I think it is Newbery worthy...certainly Newbery Honor worthy.  Good, good book. 

Good!

One Mixed-Up Night is a book that at first I thought was a fluffy kinda fun story about two kids spending the night in IKEA.  Which I think would be great fun!  And I totally love the way that the kids love IKEA because their reasons are my reasons for loving IKEA.  It also reminds me of the times in my childhood when my brother and I were able to stay all night at Children's Palace, where my dad was a manager who worked so hard, all of the time and would often spend Sundays (when the store wasn't open-- back in the day!) and nights at work just cleaning up.  But it is also a great look at friendship and loss as well.  Good book.

Which One was Which!

An Anonymous Girl  is written by Greer Hendricks, two authors, who also wrote The Wife Between Us.  I was very excited to read this one and it was really good.  I hope they continue their partnership.  It really works!  I wonder if one of the authors wrote the "girl" part and the other author wrote the "doctor" part.  It kept me guessing until the very satisfying ending! 

I WANTED to like it.

But Inkling was just too long and too odd or sad or something for me.  While I really loved The Nest.  Really.  Really REALLY loved it.  But this was just too weird.  Now the thing is, I didn't like Flora and Ulysses because I listened to it and I thought, "THIS won the Newbery?  This is 1954!"  So maybe that is the case with this one!

So True

Never That Far is a really good book.  It's short.  It's simple, but it's real.  Yes, dead people visit the living.  But still.  It's real.  It's about loss and the end of this life.  And there is a woman preacher!  And she is both kind and annoying!  And the book isn't what people come to think of as "Christian Fiction."  Actually, I think that a lotta people who read "Christian Fiction" might be offended by it, thinking it isn't "Christian" enough.  But that's my issue! 
Good stuff. 

Countdown

Four Three Two One really grabbed me right away and it kept me most of the way, but I feel like the editor just really didn't do this book justice.  I really would and will recommend this book but will be honest that I did think it was a little too long in some places.  But I will do so by way of encouraging them to stick with it.  Because I do think this is a really good book.  With a good message, too about different POVs and about forgiveness and healing. 

Back in Seminary School....

I am so surprised by the number of times I get to write that!
Anyway, back then, in another life, I read Elaine Pagels.  So I was very interested when I saw that her new book was on hoopla and then I saw that she was on Fresh Air and I listened and then I listened to the book and it was excellent.  Why Religion?:  A Personal Story is, indeed, a personal one.  She writes about her husband, Heinz, who was killed in a hiking accident shortly after the death of there son. 
We have some similarities in our spiritual journy!  I mean, not exactly, her parents were scientists and she became famous and all, but we both were Evangelical Christians and were "born again" at a Billy Graham revival!  I went to the 1993 revival in Pittsburgh.  And although I had known Christ prior to my coming forward at this event, this was impactful for me.  This is a book that will evoke a lot of feelings, I believe.  For Christians who are more of the black and white kind, it will be disturbing, I think.  But for others and for even those who do not know Christ it is a must read.  It is also a must read for those who have suffered great loss.  Yes, for sure. 

Narration

Dude, I am so so sorry that there wasn't a different narrator for the audio version of Everlasting Nora.  I REALLY didn't like listening to this book, but the book was SO good.  The book takes place in Manila and opened my eyes to the cemeteries that have so many people living in them.  I believe this is Marie Miranda Cruz's first published book and I will be eager to read another by her and I hope it will be soon!

As the MId-Term

elections loom, even though I know greed will win and there is no hope, so I should already be resignedly miserable, I am still anxious. I guess I am anxious because I know many people who are still hopeful.  I find this hard to imagine.  I am hopeful about many things.  I am certain about Ever Lasting Life.  I am certain about God's Love.  And that is much more important than good results on any election day!  I just don't have any hope for our country.  Because greed seems to win on this side of the Jordan.  So be it. 
Still this is an anxious time and I don't look forward to seeing the crestfallen faces of my dear friends on Wednesday morning.  Anne Lamott's Almost Everything:  Notes of Hope was a wonderful read for this time of ennui. 
I have been encouraged to read her before but foolishly never have.  I am so glad I did.  To get an idea of the magic in this book and the hope, I suggest this article.
For mother, others, those who worry about food and weight or getting older or death.  This book is just a blessing. 

Minnesota

I wonder if I will ever find a book set in Minnesota that I don't like.  It hasn't happened yet.  What a great song.  Jonathan Stride's seventh book, Goodbye to the Dead was just so good.  SO GOOD!  I need to go back to Duluth.  I miss Minnesota so much. 

Mr. Alexander

has done it again with Swing.  And I think that this one deserves a Newbery or a Printz.  As always, incredible story full of heart and truth and one that needs to be read, by everyone.  Are there "adult" books that are written so well?  This is also co-written with the poet Mary Rand Hess, like Solo.  Very funny and touching and heart-breaking.  It will appeal to well, everyone.  Baseball fans, poetry fans, people who grieve, people who fall in love.  People of every age. 

A New Book from Sharon Creech

Is always a wonderful thing.  And I didn't know this one was coming out, but Saving Winslow was just what I have come to expect from and love about Sharon Creech.  I wonder when Ms. Creech discovered that she was such a gifted writer.  She really has "it," whatever it is, that can get right in the heart and soul of a reader.  Saving Winslow is a beautiful love story. 

Discovering Poetry

When a character in a book discovers the beauty of poetry, it is a really, for lack of a better word, beautiful thing.  When a person in real life discovers the beauty of poetry, it is also a really beautiful thing.  I wonder if I am projecting, but I think that people who don't like poetry maybe are afraid of it?  Or had to read poetry at the wrong time in school?  I mean, I know this was my situation.  Or maybe they just have found the right poet for them.  Langston finds his poet, who happens to be the poet after whom he was named.  Langston Hughes.  Who was an amazing poet.  Loved this book.  Not just about poetry.  Finding Langston is not just about Langston finding Hughes by Langston finding himself, too.