Tuesday, February 23, 2010

Black or White by John Aubrey Anderson

There was turmoil in Mississippi in 1945. Race relations were tense, money segregated, and good versus evil went to war at Cat Lake.

Missy Parker, a wealthy young white girl of just seven, is the target of a horrific attack. After her best friend, the son of a black sharecropper, saves her by giving his own life, she takes on a life mission she won't truly comprehend for years to come. As the families of these two children realize the truth of what happened that day at Cat Lake, their lives are forever connected.

Torn between a life simple and ignorant, or one complicated by Truth, Missy Parker must come to terms with the battle shes been thrown into....and either win it, or watch her loved ones die trying.

My Review:
I found this book on a sale table and bought it a few years ago. This week, I picked it up and began reading it; I was hardly able to put it down! It is a different kind of Christian fiction. Angels and Demons speak and surround the well-written characters. Set in Mississippi cotton country, the dialog is "spot on," which is no surprise as the author is from that area.

Some will not like the "preachiness," but the author incorporated it into the storyline so well that I found it plausible.

There are several scenes that had me holding my breath. One of the best written is when the three children are playing in Cat Shore Lake. I had to stop and dry my eyes before I could finish reading.

Saturday, February 20, 2010

Close Encounters of the Third-grade Kind by Phillip Done

A twenty-year veteran of the classroom, elementary school teacher Phillip Done takes readers through a lively and hilarious year in the classroom. Starting with the relative calm before the storm of buying school supplies and posting class lists, he shares the distinct personalities of grades K-4, what he learned from two professional trick or treating 8-year-old boys, the art of learning cursive and letter-writing, how kindergartners try to trap leprechauns, and what every child should experience before he or she grows up.
These charming, sweet, and funny tales of Mr. Done's trials and triumphs as an award-winning schoolteacher will touch reader's hearts and remind them of the true joys of childhood. We all have that one special, favorite grade school teacher whom we fondly remember throughout our adult lives - and every teacher also has students whom they will never forget. This is the perfect book for teachers, parents, and anyone else who is looking for a lighthearted, nostalgic read.


My Review:
I was fortunate enough to win this book when I entered a giveaway. It's a delightful read for anyone but especially for teachers or for those who wish to become teachers of "little ones." The author is an experienced third grade teacher, and the book caused me to smile many times as I read through it. It's a quick read but one that can easily be set aside and picked up at a later date.

The only fault I have is that some parts sound like those email lists that have moved around the internet. However, the great majority is a reflection of one year in a teacher's life. I liked it.

Thursday, February 18, 2010

Listen by Rene Gutteridge

Nothing ever happens in the small town of Marlo . . . until the residents begin seeing their private conversations posted online for everyone to read. Then it’s neighbor against neighbor, friend against friend, as paranoia and violence escalate.

The police scramble to identify the person responsible for the posts and pull the plug on the Website before it destroys the town. But what responsibility do the people of the town have for the words they say when they think no one is listening? Life and death are in the power of the tongue.

My Review:
Special thanks to Vicky Lynch of Tyndale House Publishers, Inc. for sending me a review copy of this engrossing book.

"Sticks and stones may hurt my bones, but names will never hurt me." So goes the old childhood rhyme, but we all know that some of the most painful experiences happen when words are thoughtlessly spoken. This novel caused me to consider what I say and whether or not I'd like my private conversations to be published on the web.

What happens to the Underwood family as they become intertwined in this unusual mystery of who is writing--word for word!--private conversations of the good people from the little town of Marlo? Discovering the solution makes for an interesting and somewhat surprising read.

I recommend this one especially for anyone who enjoys crossword puzzles or who has teens in their family. However, I feel most people will enjoy this book; my teens are grown, and I've never developed a fondness for crossword puzzles, but I liked it too, so give it a try. You may enjoy it as much as I did!

Thought-provoking Discussion Questions are found at the end of the novel, making this a great read for a book club!

And now, the first chapter:


Present Day

Damien Underwood tapped his pencil against his desk and spun twice in his chair. But once he was facing his computer again, the digital clock still hadn’t changed.

In front of him on a clean white piece of paper was a box, and inside that box was a bunch of other tiny boxes. Some of those boxes he’d neatly scribbled in. And above the large box he wrote, Time to go.

This particular day was stretching beyond his normal capacity of tolerance, and when that happened, he found himself constructing word puzzles. He’d sold three to the New York Times, two published on Monday and one on Wednesday. They were all framed and hanging in his cubicle. He’d sent in over thirty to be considered.

He’d easily convinced his boss years ago to let him start publishing crosswords in the paper, and since then he’d been the crossword editor, occasionally publishing some of his own, a few from local residents, and some in syndication.

The puzzle clues were coming harder today. He wanted to use a lot of plays on words, and he also enjoyed putting in a few specific clues that were just for Marlo residents. Those were almost always published on Fridays.

A nine-letter word for “predictable and smooth.”

Yes, good clue. He smiled and wrote the answer going down. Clockwork.

He glanced over to the bulletin board, which happened to be on the only piece of north wall he could see from his desk at the Marlo Sentinel. Tacked in the center, still hanging there after three years, was an article from Lifestyles Magazine. Marlo, of all the places in the United States, was voted Best Place to Raise a Child. It was still the town’s shining moment of glory. Every restaurant and business had this article framed and hanging somewhere on their walls.

The community boasted its own police force, five separate and unique playgrounds for the kids, including a spray ground put in last summer, where kids could dash through all kinds of water sprays without the fear of anyone drowning.

Potholes were nonexistent. The trash was picked up by shiny, blue, state-of-the-art trash trucks, by men wearing pressed light blue shirts and matching pants, dressed slightly better than the mail carriers.

Two dozen neighborhood watch programs were responsible for nineteen arrests in the last decade, mostly petty thieves and a couple of vandals. There hadn’t been a violent crime in Marlo since 1971, and even then the only one that got shot was a dog. A bank robbery twenty years ago ended with the robber asking to talk to a priest, where he confessed a gambling addiction and a fondness for teller number three.

Damien’s mind lit up, which it often did when words were involved. He penciled it in. An eight-letter word for “a linear stretch of dates.” Timeline. Perfect for 45 across.

So this was Marlo, where society and family joined in marriage. It was safe enough for kids to play in the front yards. It was clean enough that asthmatics were paying top dollar for the real estate. It was good enough, period.

Damien was a second-generation Marlo resident. His mother and father moved here long before it was the Best Place to Raise a Child. Then it had just been cheap land and a good drive from the city. His father had been the manager of a plant now gone because it caused too much pollution. His mother, a stay-at-home mom, had taken great pride in raising a son who shared her maiden name, Damien, and her fondness for reading the dictionary.

Both his parents died the same year from different causes, the same year Damien had met Kay, his wife-to-be. They’d wed nine months after they met and waited the customary five years to have children. Kay managed a real estate company. She loved her job as much as she had the first day she started. And it was a good way to keep up with the Joneses.

Until recently, when the housing market started slumping like his ever-irritated teenage daughter.

The beast’s red eyes declared it was finally time to leave. Damien grabbed his briefcase and walked the long hallway to the door, just to make sure his boss and sometimes friend, Edgar, remembered he was leaving a little early. He gave Edgar a wave, and today, because he was in a good mood, Edgar waved back.

Damien drove through the Elephant’s Foot and picked up two lemonades, one for himself and one for Jenna, his sixteen-year-old daughter who had all at once turned from beautiful princess or ballerina or whatever it was she wanted to be to some weird Jekyll and Hyde science experiment. With blue eye shadow. She never hugged him. She never giggled. Oh, how he missed the giggling. She slouched and grunted like a gorilla, her knuckles nearly dragging the ground if anyone said anything to her. A mild suggestion of any kind, from “grab a jacket” to “don’t do drugs” evoked eyes rolling into the back of her head as if she were having a grand mal seizure.

So the lemonade was the best gesture of kindness he could make. Besides offering to pick her up because her car was in the shop.

He pulled to the curb outside the school, fully aware he was the only car among the full-bodied SUVs idling alongside one another. It was a complete embarrassment to Jenna, who begged to have Kay pick her up in the Navigator. Some lessons were learned the hard way. But his car was perfectly fine, perfectly reliable, and it wasn’t going to cause the ozone to collapse.

She got in, noticed the lemonade, asked if it was sugar-free, then sipped it and stared out the window for the rest of the ride home. It wasn’t sugar-free, but the girl needed a little meat on her bones.

“Your car’s ready.”

Finally, a small smile.

***

“Have a seat.”

Frank Merret shoved his holster and belt downward to make room for the roll of belly fat that had permanently attached itself to his midsection. He slowly sat down in the old vinyl chair across from Captain Lou Grayson’s cluttered desk.

“You got a rookie coming in this morning.”

“I thought we had an agreement about rookies.”

“You ticketed Principal MaLue. We had an agreement about that too.”

Frank sighed. “He was speeding in a school zone.”

“He’s the principal. If he wants to hit Mach speed in the school zone, so be it. The rookie’s file is in your box.” Grayson’s irritated expression said the rest.

Frank left the captain’s office and killed time in the break room until lineup, where the rookie stood next to him, fresh-faced and wide-eyed. He was short, kind of stocky, with white blond hair and baby pink cheeks like a von Trapp kid. There was not a hard-bitten bone in this kid’s body.

Frank cut his gaze sideways. “This is Marlo. The most you can hope for is someone driving under the influence of pot.”

Lineup was dismissed, and the kid followed him out. “That’s not true. I heard about that bank robbery.”

“That was twenty years ago.”

“Doesn’t matter,” the rookie said. “I’m on patrol. That’s cool. I’m Gavin Jenkins, by the way.”

“Yeah, I know.”

“Did you read my stats from the academy?”

“Not even one word.”

Gavin stopped midstride, falling behind Frank as he made his way outside to the patrol car. Gavin hurried to catch up. “Where are we going? Aren’t we a little early?”

Frank continued to his car. Gavin hopped into the passenger side. Frank turned west onto Bledsoe.

“Listen, Officer Merret, I just want you to know that I’m glad they paired me with you. I’ve heard great things about you, and I think it’s—”

“I don’t normally talk in the morning.”

“Okay.”

So they drove in silence mostly, checking on a few of the elderly citizens and their resident homeless man, Douglas, until lunchtime, when they stopped at Pizza Hut. The kid couldn’t help but talk, so Frank let him and learned the entire history of how he came to be a Marlo police officer.

Gavin was two bites into his second piece and hadn’t touched his salad when Frank rose. “Stay here.”

Gavin stared at him, his cheek full of cheese and pepperoni. “What? Why?”

“I’ve got something I need to do.”

Gavin stood, trying to gather his things. “Wait. I’ll come.”

Frank held out a firm hand. “Just stay here, okay? I’ll come back to get you in about forty minutes.”

Gavin slowly sat down.

Frank walked out. He knew it already. This rookie was going to be a thorn in his side.

Excerpted from Listen by Rene Gutteridge. Copyright ©2010 by Rene Gutteridge. Used with permission from Tyndale House Publishers, Inc. All rights reserved.




Monday, February 15, 2010

Love Finds You in Bridal Veil, Oregon by Miralee Ferrell

Amidst a backdrop of thievery and murder in historic Bridal Veil, Oregon, a schoolteacher is torn between the memories of a distant love and the man who could be her future. Margaret Garvey had given her heart to Nathaniel, but he left town six years before.

Now she's giving love another chance, but her decision to build a new life with Andrew is shaken when Nathaniel steams back into Bridal Veil on a riverboat to work at the nearby sawmill.

When disaster strikes the town and threatens the welfare of its citizens, Margaret will be faced with the most important choice of her life.


My Review:
Thank you to Summerside Press for my copy of this Christian Fiction Romance novel. The premise of the Love Finds You series interests me--novels set in American towns with intriguing names that incorporates travel and romance. All fifty states will eventually be represented. It's a way to learn more about our diverse country.

This story line is set in an Oregon, 1902 lumber mill town, and teaches a bit about that industry. It contains romance mixed with a bit of a mystery, including a murder. I found it contrived. The ending skips and demands a stretch more than I am willing to give. This was not one of my favorites; perhaps you'll enjoy it more than I did.

If you would like to read the first chapter, click here.

If you would like to buy a copy, click here.

Thursday, February 11, 2010

Mrs. Perfect by Jane Porter

Where's a Fairy Godmother When You Need One?

For Taylor Young life is very good. She has a handsome husband who loves her, three gorgeous children, a personally designed and decorated dream house. Suburbanite trendsetter and super mom—life couldn’t be more perfect. And as long as no one notices the fragile woman beneath her coifed and polished image, things will stay that way.

Then, a devastating secret bursts Taylor’s fairy-tale bubble, suddenly making her a cul-de-sac pariah, and stripping her of the role that defined her. With her struggling to maintain her alpha image, Taylor finds help from the unlikeliest of people, her nonconformist nemesis, Marta Zinsser. But to become the woman her family truly needs, Taylor must first believe in the person she is hardest on—herself.


My Review:
I've had this book sitting on my shelf for more than a year. It was sent to me by the publisher because I was reviewing another title by the author. Although the cover and title tempted me several times to pick it up, I never seemed to have the time. Boy, am I glad that I finally got around to reading this one. What an enjoyable experience!

This is my kind of book. The writing flows. The characters are flawed--just like people I know. Problems and solutions are believable. The plot moves along nicely; there are no sluggish spots. Note: the book does contain profanity.

I liked this one. Because book clubs are mentioned in the novel, this would make a good choice for a book club selection!

Thursday, February 4, 2010

The Voice New Testament

The Voice™ is the product of the best minds in this emerging generation of Christian leaders. Together they are helping young people fall in love with the Scriptures. Instead of confining God’s Word in the framework of biblical criticism, The Voice™ highlights the beauty of God’s communication to His people. In The Voice™, the voice of God is heard as clearly as when He first revealed His truth.

This is the first-ever complete New Testament in The Voice™ translation. Writers include Chris Seay, Lauren Winner, Brian McLaren, Greg Garrett, David B. Capes, and others.


My Review:
Thank you to Thomas Nelson for my copy of this new version of the New Testament. I was interested in seeing how it would compare to the many already on the market. I must report that I like the way this is handled. The language is easy to understand and furthermore, there are little boxes of additional informational material inserted throughout the text that amplify. Background material on the writer and times that enable the reader to easily relate to the topic at hand. Dialog is perhaps the easiest to understand as it's laid out in script-type format, which makes it quite clear as to who is speaking.

However, the additional little boxes of informational material are what would make me hesitate to recommend this version to a new student of the Bible. He or she might become confused and think that what is not scripture is part of God's Word. Although, I think that most people would have no difficulty discerning the difference, I would hate to be a participant in muddying up God's Word. Therefore, I will give it a thumbs up to Bible scholars, but thumbs down as a "first" Bible for anyone else.