February Books

Here is the stack of books waiting to be read by me this month.  I'm not so sure I'm going to be able to get through all of them.  Let's talk about them from the bottom up.  Shall we?

Choosing Simplicity:  Real People Finding Peace and Fulfillment in a Complex World by Linda Breen Pierce--  I've started reading this one and so far it is AWESOME.  It has individuals stories about how they came to desire the simple lifestyle.  It features all kinds of different levels of simplicity so you can find someone to relate.    I did have to put this book away because it was make me sad that I couldn't do, right now, all the things that I want to.  I will continue to pick it up and read but only in short bursts.  That is all I can handle right now.

Surprised by Laughter: The Comic World of C.S. Lewis by Terry Lindvall-- I received this book to review.  It is about C.S. Lewis and his "joyful approach to life."  Well, I must admit to struggling with this one.  I'm two chapters into it and it is just talking about how laughter impacts us.  It hasn't been the biography type book, that I thought it was going to be, at all yet.  I will be posting a review of it later.  Right now, I'm forcing myself to read a chapter here and there.  UGH! I hope it improves soon.

Water For Elephants by Sara Gruen--  I feel like I'm the late one on this book.  I've read the first chapter and it really caught my attention.  The character of Jacob already feels very real.  I'm excited to get back to this one.  I had to put it aside while I finished up a book from last month.

Eat Here: Homegrown Pleasures in a Global Supermarket by Brian Halweil-- This one has been on my wish list for a while.  It looks at the local food movement.  It, also, discusses the current world wide food delivery system and how it effects local farmers.  I'm excited to read this one and hope it motivates me to buy more local items.

Eye of the Sword: A Novel (The Angelaeon Circle) by Karyn Henley--  Another one that I've received to review.  This is the second in a series.  I have not read the first one.  I'm hoping that this won't be a problem.  After reading the first chapter,  it looks to be a good one.  It seems like a Christian Sci-Fi.  I'm a sucker for a good knight, princess, angel, evil monster book.  I think this one will be a quick read.

Elsewhere by Gabrielle Zevin-- I got introduced to this book by a recommendation from a patron of paperbackswap.com.  I have already finished this one.  It was a quick one-day read.  I really enjoyed it.  The story is about a 15 y/o girl who dies unexpectedly.  We then follow her into the afterlife.  The authors depiction of the afterlife was one that I hadn't really seen before and I thought it was a good one.  If you like Young Adult Fiction, then you should give this one a look.

Mrs. Peregrine's Home For Peculiar Children by Ransom Riggs-- The picture above is of my Kindle.  I am in the middle of this unusual book.  I'm really enjoying it so far.  Why this book is so unusual is that it uses pictures, snapshots, to help enhance the story.  Even on the Kindle this adds a whole new level to the believability of a fantasy book.  This is another one that I think should be a quick read.  I haven't managed to make it quick but it's my first on the e-reader and I'm still getting used to it.

Bard: The Odyssey of the Irish by Morgan Llywelyn-- This one I haven't really investigated very much.  I've read other books by Morgan Llywelyn and really liked the detail and history included.  This one being about a bard and Irish, I just couldn't pass it up.

Well, that is quite a list for the short month of February.  We will see if I can manage to get them all in during the self-imposed time limit.  Upon reading back over this post, I've discovered that I read the first chapter of many books.  I didn't realize that I did that before.  Even at the ripe old age of 41, we can still learn things about ourselves.

A Sound Among the Trees by Susan Meissner published by WaterBrook Press. From the back of the book:

As a young bride, Susannah Page was rumored to be a Civil War spy for the North, a traitor to her Virginian roots. Her great-granddaughter Adelaide, the current matriarch of Holly Oak, doesn't believe that Susannah's ghost haunts the antebellum mansion looking for a pardon, but rather the house itself bears a grudge toward its tragic past.

When Marielle Bishop marries into the family, it isn't long before she is led to believe that the house she just settled into brings misfortune to the women who live there.

With Adelaide's richly peppered superstitions and deep family roots at stake, Marielle must assort out the truth about Susannah Page and Holly Oak—and make peace with the sacrifices she has made for love.

I've got to say that I enjoyed this book.  It wasn't really like what I thought it was going to be.  I thought it would be more of a historical romance.  It turned out that it was more of a relational study.  The story examines the relationships as they truly are and what they are perceived to be.  


I really enjoyed the part of the book that dealt with Susannah's letters.  I think it is because it more closely resembles a historical romance at that point in the story.


If you enjoy stories that deal with characters and how they interact with each other and the motivations behind their personalities, this is a great choice for you.  


I was given this book by WaterBrook Multnomah Publishers for the purpose of review.  All opinions expressed are my own.

What I'm Reading Right Now

I told myself that I was going to do better about posting what my current reads are.  Well, here it is.  The first of the "What I'm Reading Right Now" posts.  I'm going to attempt to put up a picture every month  of my current pile-o-books.  

On this pile is:

"A Sound Among The Trees" by Susan Meissner

"The Night Circus" by Erin Morgensteen

"Gentlemen & Players" by Joanne Harris

"A Game of Thrones" by George R.R. Martin

"I'll Be Watching You" by Andrea Kane

All of these authors are new to me.  I know that Harris, Martin, & Kane have published a lot of books each.  I've just never stumbled upon them before.  OK, I'll admit it.  I found out about them on Pinterest.  It's amazing what you can find on there. LOL!  

"The Night Circus" is Morgensteen's first novel and so far it's really interesting.  It's set in the 1800's on the Illusionist circut.  I'm only a few chapters into it so far and I'm sure it will go fast.

"A Sound Among The Trees" is a book that was sent to me for review.  I've finished reading it and now just need to write up my thoughts.  It will be a positive review.

I picked the other ones for various reasons.  The only one worth mentioning is "A Game Of Thrones."  I picked it because they have made a television series based on it.  I figure if it is that popular it should be a good read.  I'll be sure to let you know if that comes to fruition.

Cutting the Cable Cord

One of the biggest ways we've saved time and money over the past few years is by cutting television.  We canceled our cable service back in 2009.  At the time, it was just for a trial period of three months.  I had figured we had to wait that long to pay for reinstalling.  I thought SURELY we could go that long without Disney Channel or ESPN.  Those seemed to be the main channels that were being watched at our house at that time.

Needless to say, I had a couple of children that weren't to keen on this idea of mine.  To be honest, my husband wasn't sure either.  He really enjoyed watching SportsCenter over and over and over.  I took the time to point out what they were spending their time watching.  I then showed them ways they could still watch those shows without cable.

For children's shows, I pointed out all the DVDs and VHS movies we owned.  It seems that the cable channels just show repeats most of the time anyway.  What difference is there between watching the reruns from cable or watching them from DVD? None in my opinion.  I also took the time to find all the shows available for FREE on the Internet.  After just a tiny amount of looking, we found that just about everything you watch on cable is available for free on the net.

We then tackled the sports dilemma.  This one isn't as easily solved.  There are tons of events available to view live online but we've found that the quality isn't that great.  Perhaps if you owned a better computer or had faster Internet service it would be better.  Also, with just a little practice and patience, my husband has found that he enjoys reading about his teams online.  He, now, doesn't like, as much, all the extra stuff they talk about on ESPN.  He has also found enjoyment from sports talk radio.  Between the two, he stays on top of everything without spending his whole afternoon on the couch.  What if there is a big game?  We make it an event for everyone by going out to watch the game at a restaurant or a friends home.  What about all the big plays he misses seeing?  Trust me when I say that any play worth watching is shown on the net.  You just don't have to watch it more times that you care to see it.

One other thing that people comment when I tell them about being without local or cable TV is "What do you do during bad weather?"  Well, it's simple, just check the weather on the Internet or even on your phone.  All the local news channels live stream newscasts when there are tornadoes on the ground.  I actually feel better about storms because I'm watching the radar closer than I would if I were watching the local weather channel.

Now that I've told you how we overcame the big worries, let me tell you the practical steps to changing over.  Most newer TVs have HDMI cable ports on the back.  For those of us older folks, it's just a fancy cable similar to the ones we used to screw into the back of the TV.  This cable lets you hook your desktop or laptop computer directly to your television.  The cable itself doesn't cost very much and is available at any store that sells electronics.  The television we got recently even came with an HDMI cable.  This allows you to watch shows on the big TV instead of the little computer monitor.  This makes a big difference in enjoyment level.

There are other devices (boxee, roku) that you can purchase that let you watch Internet TV without using a computer.  I didn't think these were a very good deal.  I would rather have a multipurpose item like a laptop then a subscription service.  

In the interest of full disclosure, we do have a Netflix subscription.  We didn't have it for the first year.  We decided to add the minimum streaming subscription to add variety to our viewing choices.  It is less than buying a movie or two a month.  We've really enjoyed having Netflix.  We are able to watch it on our Wii, Xbox360, & computer.   I think we would be fine with out it but for $10/ month you can't beat it. We also just bought a Google TV after our laptop died.  This TV came Internet ready.  What that means is that the TV acts as a computer.  It connects wirelessly to our Internet and we can surf the net and watch Netflix on it.  I can only see this TV getting better and better over the next couple of years as more apps. become available.

All in all, we don't miss not having television at all.  Both kids will tell you that watching  regular TV now drives them crazy.  There are soooo many commercials and sooooo many reruns.  Plus, they have found all kinds of shows that they love to watch that aren't available on network TV.  So, be brave! Cut the Cable Cord in 2012!

Here we are at the end of another year.  Man, it really does fly by doesn't it?  Looking back over the year of posts, I did better about blogging on a consistent basis.  This coming year, I hope to do even better.  

I want to do better about posting ALL the books I read.  Not just the ones that I'm supposed to blog about because I'm reviewing them.  I've read some really good ones that I haven't mentioned on here.  For that, I'm sorry.  Maybe I'll try to post what I'm reading each week.  Since I have several going at once, I can show what has been finished and what has been added.  Just a thought.

I also want to get more involved in product reviews.  I haven't had much luck in that arena as of yet.  I'm going to just start reviewing products that I use everyday.  Don't worry, I'm not going to review things that EVERYONE uses, only the new and different things.  Maybe I'll even review some of the new "old" things that I pick up at thrift stores.

What kinds of things would you, the reader & friend, like to see on my blog?  I'm willing to try anything.  Well......most anything. 

The Dragons of Chiril by Donita K. Paul

I'm sad to say that I did not enjoy this book.  Normally I'm a big fan of books that contain dragons and fantasy aspects.  This one just didn't do it for me.

This is the first in a series of books.  Apparently, this was release before under the title "The Vanishing Sculptor."  Although that title describes the content of the book very well, I guess they wanted to change the title to fit better with the rest of the series.

I found the characters not all that engaging or likable.  I kept getting confused on who was who and how they fit into the storyline.  This book is geared toward children and I think that they would have some trouble keeping everything straight, too.

I think there are better Christian Fantasy books available out there, but if you've run through all the Narnia books, perhaps you may give this one a look.  I would just give it a good look through before I'd drop big bucks on it.

I received this book from Waterbrook/Multnomah publishing in exchange for my honest review.

Book Review: The Encounter by Stephen Arterburn

This is a wonderful little book.  I am so glad that I was able to get this one for review.  In all honesty, I'm not sure that I would have picked this up on my own.  Now that I've read one of Mr. Arterburn's books, I'll be sure to seek his other stories out on the shelf.

This is a story about forgiveness and healing.  It deals with the hurt created when one doesn't know the whole story behind someones actions.  I think that it is a good illustration on how one shouldn't jump to conclusions.  Always get the full scoop before you go and decide how you feel about a person.

I really enjoyed the characters in the book.  They all felt very "real" to me.  Nothing felt forced about them or their actions.  Sometimes in a short book, things can feel rushed and cramped in the dialogue.  This one felt smooth to me.

All in all, I would recommend this short book by Stephen Arterburn.  It will only take an afternoon for most to read it  but you will be thinking about it long after that.

Disclosure of Material Connection: I received this book free from the publisher through the BookSneeze®.com <http://BookSneeze®.com> book review bloggers program. I was not required to write a positive review. The opinions I have expressed are my own. I am disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission’s 16 CFR, Part 255 <http://www.access.gpo.gov/nara/cfr/waisidx_03/16cfr255_03.html> : “Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising.”