Who Doesn't Love...READING!!

I have always loved to read and can't think of a time in my life where I didn't have at least 2 books (ok, or more) on my nightstand.  I love going to the library and I particularly love getting FREE books either the physical copy or in e-format.  I wish that I had more time to read or could devote more time to it every day.  

I like doing reading challenges too.  I thought about compiling a list for you but then remembered that one of my favorite blogs already has a list compiled.  Head on over to Feed Your Fiction Addiction and check this list out for 2017 reading challenges.  WARNING: Be prepared to be there for awhile.  She will have the 2018 list up in a few weeks and I can't wait to see what's on there.  

If you like FREE books in e-format then you need to subscribe to the following.  They will send you an email daily with links to the books that are FREE that day.  What a better way to build your library!

Freebooksy (Free books)

Bookbub (FREE along with discounted books)

Bookshout (discounted books)

Pixel of Ink (FREE along with discounted books)

Bargin Booksy (discounted books)

I like to read just about any genre of book except horror.  Never have like it and I don't know if I ever will.    There are soooo many!  Here is a list that I have come up with:

Science fiction

Satire

Drama

Action and Adventure

Romance

Suspense

Mystery

Horror

Self help

Health

Guide

Travel

Children's

Religion, Spirituality & New Age

Science

History

Math

Anthology

Poetry

Comics

Art

Cookbooks

Diaries

Journals

Prayer books

Series

Trilogy

Biographies

Autobiographies

Fantasy

Did I miss any?  I probably did.   I'm re-reading (again) The Little House on the Prairie books.  I read these as a little girl and not only do I love re-reading them because they are good books but because they bring back so many memories while I read them.  They are fantastic books for any age/gender and I recommend them all the time to those that are looking for books to give as gifts.

I've also started the Witch & Wizard series by James Patterson.  The first book is titled Witch & Wizard.

I really like reading the BE Series that Warren Wiersbe writes and have just started reading his Be Responsible based on 1 Kings earlier this week.

What genre do you like to read?  What are you reading now?  Do you ever read more than one book at a time?

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

By clicking on these 2 banners you are helping me support my family. These are who I am an Independent Consultant for. Paparazzi Accessories and Buskins Leggins. Thank you for your purchases!

AMAZON ASSOCIATES DISCLOSURE

I'm a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for us to earn fees by linking to Amazon.com and affiliated sites.

Fall Into Reading 2011 ~ My Reading List

I can't believe it's the first day of Fall!  It's my favorite time of year and I look forward to it each year.  Especially after such a record setting summer of high temps.  Seventy days of this summer were at 100 degrees F or higher.  So, yes, I'm definitely ready for fall this year.  And I'm ready to start some serious reading again.  To join in head on over to Callapidder Days and read over the Basics.  Then put your list together and link up to share with everyone else.  You might even find some good books while you're looking around.

My List:

Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets by J K Rowling (Book 2)
Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban by J K Rowling (Book 3)
Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire by J K Rowling (Book 4)
Harry Potter And The Order Of The Phoenix by J K Rowling (Book 5)
Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince by J K Rowling (Book 6)
Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows by J K Rowling (Book 7)
Brisingr by Christopher Paolini

I started re-reading the Harry Potter books after the last movie this summer but only finished Book 1.  Now it's time to finish the series again.  I waited until I watched the last movie before starting them again. I also have had Brisingr on my list the past few times now and really want to finish it.  Keeping my fingers cross that I finally do so.

What are you reading this fall?  We'd all love to know.

It's time...What are you waiting for?  Get reading! The challenge goes from today, September 23rd, through December 21st.

An Army Of Ordinary People~ Book Review

BOOK DESCRIPTION:

An Army of Ordinary People contains the key to explosive, transformational, 21st century evangelism. Renowned church planter Felicity Dale shares stories of how God has always used—and is still using—ordinary believers to carry out his work in simple ways throughout the world. Some of these stories are dramatic—people being led to the Lord by the friends who counseled them through drug addictions and criminal pasts. Some are everyday—a dad spending his Sunday teaching Bible lessons to his kids, or a couple inviting their neighbors over to dinner and a spiritual discussion. But in each of them, there is a light bulb moment, when someone just like you thinks I can do that! And as a result, the gospel is spreading . . . and lives are being changed.

MY REVIEW:

I honestly don't know how to review this book and I have struggle on how to rate this one.  The book, An Army of Ordinary People, by Felicity Dale, simply tells stories of different house churches and describes different struggles and victories faced by those who join, lead, or start them.  The main problem that I had with this book was that it seemed, and remember this is just my honest opinion, that the Church as you know it was not good enough.  That in her opinion it was just when two or more in a group were gathered together.  She never stated that there had to be prayer, communion, or Bible studies.  However, her writing was good, the stories were moving and she did an excellent job of offering a look into the basics of the house church movement.

Finally, I must say that I don't know if I would recommend this book or not.

I received a FREE copy of this book from Tyndale House Publishers in exchange for my fair and honest review of this book. 

ReChurch: Healing Your Way Back to the People of God ~ Book Review

Product Review:

It seems that everyone who has ever been part of a church has suffered a “church hurt.” The pastor had an affair or the congregation fought over money or the leaders were disguising gossip as “prayer.” Stephen Mansfield has been there. Though he is now a New York Times best-selling author, he was a pastor for over 20 years, and he loved it—until he learned how much a church can hurt. Yet he also learned how to dig out of that hurt, break through the bitterness and anger, stop making excuses, and get back to where he ought to be with God and his people. If you’re ready to take the tough path to healing, Mansfield will walk you through it with brotherly love, showing you how you can be better than ever on the other side of this mess … if you’re willing to ReChurch.

My Review:

I received this book from Tyndale House Publishers. All opinions are my own and I was not required to write a positive review.  Now that I have read ReChurch, I have to say that it has great insight into the issues associated with leaving a church (for whatever reason).   The author Stephen Mansfield does not hand hold the hurt person but yet he wants to see them healed and back at church. Let's face it, unfortunately, Churches hurt people.  Often the hurt is over little things, sometimes it is over large things. But no matter the cause, once someone has left the church because they have been hurt, it is hard to get over the hurt and get back into church.  This would be a very good book for them.   I personally have not been hurt by a church but I know many who have.

Below Mansfield explains his purpose in writing `ReChurch':

I want to show you how to get clean and free from what you have done to yourself in your church hurt. That's it. Along the way we are going to talk a bit about how to be a part of a church without surrendering your soul and what healthy churches look like. But I'm not trying to fix the body of Christ. I'm trying to get you to fix what you can in you, so that God can fix the rest and get you back into the fold.  Counselors nurture souls. Coaches teach skills. I'm your coach.

Second, I want you to understand that you will not get free unless someone gets tough with you. When we are in pain, we have too many voices playing in our heads - voices from the past, voices of our critics, voices of our admirers, and even the voice of our own inner dialogue. There are likely other voices from demons we have known and loved... Suffice it to say, a riot is taking place in our souls when we hurt. All of this tends to make us distracted at best and crazy at worst. We need someone to cut in harshly and silence the storm. (p. 14)

The Secret Holocaust Diaries: The untold story of Nonna Bannister ~ Book Review

Product Review:

Nonna Bannister carried a secret almost to her Tennessee grave: the diaries she had kept as a young girl experiencing the horrors of the Holocaust. This book reveals that story. Nonna’s childhood writings, revisited in her late adulthood, tell the remarkable tale of how a Russian girl from a family that had known wealth and privilege, then exposed to German labor camps, learned the value of human life and the importance of forgiveness. This story of loss, of love, and of forgiveness is one you will not forget.

My Review:

WOW!  This is an amazing book and was very hard to put down.  Reading this book is like sitting down with Nonna Bannister herself as she unlocks the secrets of her past.  I actually found myself wanting more and more of her life told to me.  I was so engrossed in her writings and her family. I felt swept back in time with her experiencing almost the same sad and also some happy memories with her. I also like this book because is a view of the Holocaust that you don't normally read about.  This family was not Jewish and was from Russia.  I won't tell you much more about the story as it would spoil some of it for you.  I will tell you that some of the memories are horrific and you should monitor the age of those that read this book.  I felt that this was more a story of her and her family going through the Holocaust than the Holocaust itself.  I would recommend this book to anyone that enjoys reading memoirs.  I received a complimentary copy of the book for review purposes from Tyndale House and the views are my own.

Spring Reading Thing 2011 ~ My List

It's time!  What time you say?  It's time for the Spring Reading Thing 2011!!  Woo Hoo!  I have participated in a lot of these reading challenges and I seem to get a lot of reading accomplished during them as well.  I love to read but there are times where I just don't read as much as I would like to. Which is probably why I like these challenges so much.

Here is my list of books in no particular order:

The Band that Played On: The Extraordinary Story of the 8 Musicians Who Went Down with the Titanic  by Steve Turner ~ I'm currently reading this book and will have a review up for this one soon.

You Can Too by Mary C Crowley ~ This book was lent to me by my dear friend Wendy with instructions of...You need to read this! So I will.

The Gift (Witch & Wizard, Book 2) by James Patterson ~ I finished the first book in about two nights.  Had a hard time putting it down and can't wait to get this one from the library!

The Angel Experiment (Maximum Ride, Book 1) by James Patterson ~ Thought I would give another series of his a try. 

An Object of Beauty: A Novel by Steve Martin ~ I will be reading this book to do a review on it. Can't wait to start this one!

Well this is my list for now.  As in past challenges the list will either grow or change....or it could do both!  What are you reading this spring?  Join in on the challenge by clicking the button above!  You don't need a blog to do so.  Have fun with it and get to reading!

Book Review ~ Love: Cultivating Spirit-Given Character//a six-week study

I love my new car.

I love the book that I just finished!

We love the movie that we just saw.

Oh my gosh I love your shoes!

But is this really love? In the book Love: Cultivating Spirit-Give Character explores the first Fruit of the Spirit.

My Review:

First off...I really enjoyed reading this book/study.  My favorite part actually came in the introduction.  He states, "Paul listed it first because it is a prerequisite for the other fruits of the spirit.  Without love, there is no joy, peace, patience, and so on.  Without God's love, we can never live up to our God-given potential."  This is so true and yet so forgotten!  Without love we have nothing.  This book/study was designed to be used in a group format but can also be used as an individual study.  In this study you will explore different aspects of this fruit.  Some of the aspects covered are Love Forgiveness, Love--Unconditional Longing of God and Love--God's Passion for His World.  Truly an amazing study and I can't wait to use it with my Sunday School class.  I would recommend this study to anyone...group or individual.

From the back cover:  

Love.  It's perhaps the most overused and misused word in our language today.  We love our cars.  We love sports.  We love Montana in the spring.  Somehow, we've come to understand love as a feeling that ebbs and flows or a "place" in life we're fortunate enough to land.  Yet the Bible paints a dramatically different picture of love.

Love is a characteristic of God.  Calvin Miller invites us to dive deeper into the biblical concept of love as the result of the Holy Spirit dwelling in us -- illuminating and transforming every selfishness so we can begin to reflect the image of Christ.

Love is one of the nine studies in this significant series on the fruits of the Spirit by author Calvin Miller.  Each six-week study guide is designed to focus your spiritual life on being like Christ by thoroughly exploring a different fruit of the Spirit.

You can get this book by either clicking the link provided below or by shopping my Amazon Store which is a tab above.  Enjoy!





Disclosure: I received this book free from the publisher through the 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 : “Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising.”

My Review??? Two Tickets to the Christmas Ball: A Novella

From the backcover:

In a sleepy, snow-covered city, Cora Crowder is busy preparing for the holiday season. Searching for a perfect gift, a fortuitous trip to Warner, Werner, and Wizbotterdad’s (a most unusual bookshop) leads to an unexpected encounter with co-worker Simon Derrick. And the surprise discovery of a ticket for a truly one-of-a-kind Christmas Ball.

Every year, the matchmaking booksellers of the Sage Street bookshop host an enchanting, old-fashioned Christmas Ball for the romantic matches they’ve decided to bring together.

This year, will Simon and Cora discover a perfect chemistry in their opposite personalities and shared faith? Or will the matchmakers’ best laid plans end up ruining everything this holiday?

My Review:

I honestly don't know which way to go with my review for Two Tickets to the Christmas Ball: A Novella
by Donita K Paul.  This is a book that I had a hard time putting down and read it in record time.  But I find myself wondering if there shouldn't be more to the story.  This book has a Fantasy/Christian theme which is very hard to do.  The characters were great to get to know and were really starting to develop but I was let down at the end of the book.  Don't get me wrong...I thoroughly enjoyed this book and I would recommend it to others...but for me personally I wish the story had gone further.  I felt as though there were some loose ends that needed to be wrapped up in several of the story lines.  And I honestly feel as though this story would have been better if it had been either all fantasy or all Christian.

Download Chapter 1

I received this book for free from WaterBrook Multnomah Publishing Group for this review.

Fall Into Reading 2010

I may conquer this list yet!  Since I last posted about my reading progress I have been reading like crazy!  I've taken Uncommon Faith by Trudy Krisher off of my list for right now as when I started it I just didn't get into it and I had some other books that were calling my name.  I've added those below.


Here is my "Books to Read" list and my progress:

A Deadly Yarn by Maggie Sefton ~ I'm over half way through. ~ DONE!
The Nativity Collection by Robert J Morgan ~ DONE!
The Robe of Skulls: The First Tale from the Five Kingdoms by Vivian French ~ DONE!
I Am Nujood, Age 10 and Divorced by Nujood Ali ~ DONE!
Fairest by Gail Carson Levine ~ DONE!
Igraine The Brave by Cornelia Funke ~ DONE!
Two Tickets to the Christmas Ball by Donita K Paul ~ Currently Reading (review coming up)
Brisingr by Christopher Paolini
DragonSpell by Donita K Paul
Masterpiece by Elise Broach

If I get through these I may add more...and who knows...I may change it up again.  We'll just have to see what I feel like reading. 

So...have you gotten any reading done lately?  If so, what have you read?  What are you currently reading or what do you want to read?  Let me know!

The Nativity Collection ~ Book Review

I am officially ready for Christmas to be here after reading The Nativity Collection by Robert Morgan.  I know it's a bit early and I'm one that hates seeing Christmas ads and decorations in the stores before Thanksgiving (except craft stores of course) but I have to say that this book has picked me up and has put me in the mood for it to be cold outside, fires burning in the fireplace, carols being sung and the Christmas tree is up!

From the back of the jacket:

In each home, beyond the Christmas gifts and decoration the Nativity holds a special memory.  Robert Morgan, the author of Then Sings My Soul, has two million copies of books in print, but he writes only one short story every year~an original work to share on Christmas Eve.

From six different settings, each story centers around a different Nativity and how it impacts a family's legacy.  You'll meet characters you feel you've known your whole life who'll make you laugh one minute and cry the next.  You'll meet a shy, bookish boy who finds himself center stage in the Christmas pageant, a Pennsylvania family who discovers the value of hope when their car turns up missing on December 24, a mountain man with his grandson fighting for their lives during a blizzard on Christmas Eve, and much more.

These stories all touched my heart in different ways and the photographs that accompany the stories are just amazing!  This is a must read now every Christmas for me and it would make a wonderful gift anytime of the year you want to get in touch with that Christmas spirit.  My favorite story in this book would have to be of the bookish boy that finds himself in the lead role of the Christmas pageant. How he deals with his lines is so beautiful!  I won't give it away as it would ruin the story for you...but you've got to read it!

I'm planning on sharing these stories with my Sunday School class over the Christmas season.  Pick up a copy today to share with your friends and family...and don't forget to get a copy for yourself.  In fact don't even worry about going out to pick up your copy/copies...purchase it right here:




Disclosure of Material Connection: I received this book free from Thomas Nelson Publishers as part of their BookSneeze.com book review bloggers program. I was not required to write a positive review. The opinions I have expressed are my own.

Booking Through Thursday & Fall Into Reading 2010 Update

I really like the question today over at Booking Through Thursday.  They asked..."I’ve seen many bloggers say that what draws them to certain books or authors is good writing, and what causes them to stop reading a certain book or author is bad writing. What constitutes good writing and bad writing to you?"

For me good writing constitutes developing characters and or the plot, but also characters and plots that I can imagine myself in.  I like to put myself into the stories that I'm reading.

What constitutes bad writing to me is when the author is overly descriptive.  I like my imagination to make up some of what is being told to me.  That can also go the other way...not descriptive enough makes me not very interested in what I'm reading and I'd probably put it down faster than one that is overly descriptive.  At least with the overly descriptive ones I can skip ahead.

Another big factor for me as far as what makes me stay with an author is if the characters are continually evolving.  I can't stand a series where book 5 is starting to read just like book 1 did.  I've even read some authors where their books are not series but all of their characters are just the same.  When they do that it just doesn't pull me into the book and I'll probably put it down. 

These are just some of the writing characteristics in authors that I find either good or bad.  There are many more but these are the main ones for me and what makes me read more of a particular author.  What about you?





Back on September 27, I posted that I was joining in again with Fall Into Reading 2010.  I had a short but managable list of books.  I've finished two on my list and added one.  Today is close to being the halfway mark (it ends on December 20) and I'm not feeling like I've done much reading.  Especially if you consider how many books I usually get read during these reading challenges. You can click here, here and here to see my past lists.  See?  My lists were not only longer but I read much more.  Guess I better get on the bandwagon and start reading more and more often.  Now the book that I am currently reading, and the one that I have added to my list, is one that I found in Sam's library.  It's a book that he had ordered last year from Scholastic and I honestly am having a hard time putting it down.  It's called The Robe of Skulls: The First Tale from the Five Kingdoms by Vivian French. As one reviewer put it, "This book was an absolute riot. While it is a super-fast read, you will find yourself enthralled with the quirkiness of the characters and loving the story. The illustrations are very comical, too!" I have to say that so far it's a fantastic read and I can't wait to read the other books in this series!  Who cares if I'm not the target audience!

I may conquer this list yet and add to it.  It's gotten cooler here and really is starting to feel like Fall.  Not to mention that I think we're finally getting settled into our new schedule of how our days go.  I think that was the biggest obstacle to getting some reading time.  So...have you gotten any reading done lately?  If so, what have you read?  What are you currently reading or what do you want to read?  Let me know!  I should have my review of The Nativity Collection up either later today or tomorrow so don't forget to come back and check it out. 

Here is my "Books to Read" list and my progress:

A Deadly Yarn by Maggie Sefton ~ I'm over half way through. ~ DONE!
The Nativity Collection by Robert J Morgan ~ Book Review coming up! ~ DONE!
The Robe of Skulls: The First Tale from the Five Kingdoms by Vivian French ~ Almost Finished!
I Am Nujood, Age 10 and Divorced by Nujood Ali
Uncommon Faith by Trudy Krisher
Brisingr by Christopher Paolini

And as promised before I'm finally getting you Sam's list.  I'm hoping that we'll add to it as we go along and considering that next week is National Young Readers Week we should do more reading then!

The Last Mission (Laurel-Leaf Historical Fiction) by Harry Mazer
On the Move (Minipedia)