A Mile in My Flip-Flops ~ Melody Carlson

Gretchen, abandoned a few weeks before her wedding by her fiancée, is depressed, gaining wight, eating ice cream to her heart's delight and learning everything about house remodeling and construction ... or that is, everything that one can learn from watching reality T.V. 24/7 in her cramped little apartment with her over sized dog who loves to eat expensive shoes.
Deciding something has got to change, she decides she's going to buy a house, fix it up and sell it. A house flip! Just like on T.V.!
Everything goes great ... at least, that is, until the loan goes through on the house and she starts to work.
Maybe things aren't as easy as they look on the T.V.. Her father, a retired contractor, helps in anyway he can, but things happen and he calls a buddy of his to help out.
Gretchen isn't sure about her father's friend but the deadline on the house is inching closer and she seems to have no other option.
Can she finish the house in time and overcome the ache and pain in her heart at her failed "happily ever after"?
There was one scene that could have been left, but over all I just loved this book! I liked the way Carlson wrote in this one. I thought it was sweet, but also funny. Several times it had me laughing right out loud.
I recommend this book.

The Atonement Child ~ Francine Rivers

One dark evening, as Dinah is walking back to college from work, her mind and heart are thanking God for His goodness to her. A child of God, she praises Him for saving her. For giving her wonderful parents and a godly, amazing fiancée.
Her life seems perfect, until that night she's raped and to her greater horror, she becomes pregnant.
Will she have the abortion her family and friends are pressing her to have? Does God care about her any more?
This well written book is full of surprises in the form of secret after secret that are revealed in the characters.
This book is overly descriptive in some parts, but nothing tragic.
I was getting frustrated with the character's "faith" in the beginning and middle of the book, but was relieved and happy with how they all end up responding to God in the end.
I enjoyed this book the first time I read it and also this time through as well. Definitely a book for adults, however.

My Utmost for His Highest ~ Oswald Chambers

A devotional for one year, this book is a quick read each day. Although Oswald is sometimes hard to understand with how He writes, most of the time he's fairly easy to understand.
I will say, although I learned quite a bit from him, there are many things that I disagree with him on.
But over all it was a good book.
I would recommend reading this book, as long as you are careful to not swallow everything he says without knowing what the Bible says.

Elizabeth Prentiss 'More Love to Thee' ~ Sharon James

Reading "Stepping Heavenward" made me a fan of Elizabeth Prentiss. So when this biography of Elizabeth Prentiss, by Sharon James, was given to me, I was excited to get started.
It was well written and very educational. The one thing that kind of was interesting to me was that James was not afraid of showing a few points where Elizabeth missed the mark. She showed that Elizabeth was, in fact, human.
Reading about Elizabeth was hard, as sorrow upon sorrow seemed to be heaped upon her, but also very encouraging because James made sure to point out Elizabeth's unending, strong trust in Jesus.
Quoiting many things from Elizabeth, James gently shows us the heart of Mrs. Prentiss. I highly recommend this book.

Eight Cousins ~ Louisa May Alcott

Orphaned as a young girl, Rose goes to live on the "Aunt Hill," the hill endearingly called so by those in the area. Her six aunts live on this hill, each with their own family. Each, also, have their own ideas of how to raise her and as she has no parents, and her guardian uncle is on his way back from across the seas, she is subject to obey them.
But soon, Dr. Alec, her guardian uncle, comes and blows her aunts ideas out of the water.
Adjusting to the new care instructions underway she also is trying to figure out how she, an only child, feels about her 7 rambunctious boy cousins.
I really enjoyed this book. I was quite taken with all the characters. I wholly recommend it to any one. I think a young child could even understand it, if it was read to them. It's just a sweet story.

A Christmas Carol ~ Charles Dickens

I’m sure most of us are familiar with the story of Ebenezer Scrooge: the miserly, selfish old fellow who doesn't care about mankind except if they aid in his business of making money. As to his feelings towards Christmas? Well, “Bah. Humbug!” he eloquently declares when his nephew mentions the holiday. Because of his faulty attitude towards others, Scrooge is visited by three ghosts: the Ghost of Christmas Past, Present, and Future. Together they will take him on a journey through events from his life and present to him what kind of death awaits him if he continues on his current course. Ebenezer cannot help but be horrified by what he sees, and he learns a moral that alters him, and his enjoyment of Christmas, forever.
~~~
Let me state for the record that I am NOT a Dickens fan. I have read several of his novels (albeit a few were the Reader’s Digest Condensed Versions), and I haven’t found one that I enjoyed…until now. From the very first paragraphs I found I liked the story. I can only describe Dickens’ writing in this book as easy and cheerful. Even the more morbid parts were still beautifully described. Maybe it was because the book was so short that I found the story so easy and engaging; one could read this book in a few hours. And what I liked best about the book was that it ended happily, but the reader didn’t have to endure chapters upon chapters of depressing events in the main character’s life like in Dickens’ other novels. If you’ve ever thought of reading this popular Christmas story I would encourage you to do so.

Arch Enemy (Looking Glass Wars Series #3) ~ Frank Beddor

This is the third and final book in The Looking Glass Wars Series. What’s that you say? You’ve never heard of them? Well then let me give you a synopsis: Remember the book Alice in Wonderland? Young Alice Liddell has a fantastic dream about falling into a world where rabbits can talk but can’t keep adequate time, odd men wearing hats perpetually have tea, and queens are vile women who try to have their disobedient subjects murdered at every turn. Great story.

Now, take that fantasy world that Alice imagines, and pretend for a moment that it is a real place called Wonderland. Alyss Heart is a princess and is the next in line to the throne. But her mother’s reign is cut short due to a coup by Alyss’s aunt, Redd Heart. Redd wants to rule Wonderland, and she will use her gifted imagination and her lethal army of Card Soldiers to achieve her dream. First on Redd’s agenda: kill Alyss Heart. Accompanied by her bodyguard, Hatter Madigan, and through the protection of an army of Chessmen, Alyss escapes Wonderland through a magical portal of mirrors. She ends up in our world, in London, where she must live for the next decade of her life. But all the while Alyss retains a hope that she will one day return to her home world and claim the throne that is rightfully hers.
~~~
This series is decent overall. The books are geared towards young adults so they are relatively easy to read, but they are interesting enough to enthrall older readers as well. I really like the premise of the book--Wonderland being a real place, etc. It was fun to read how Beddor borrowed characters and ideas from Lewis Carroll’s books and tweaked them for this series. I enjoyed books one and two, and I was looking forward to this final novel and the conclusion to the whole story. I was disappointed though. Book three wasn’t as good as the other two, and it seemed rushed; as if the author didn’t put as much effort into the writing. In trying to tie up all the loose ends from the previous novels Beddor jumped around a lot, and he included events that just didn’t seem to fit with the previous books. But I liked the series as a whole, and I would recommend them to teen and adult readers who enjoy the fantasy genre.

Captain Wentworth's Diary ~ Amanda Grange

As a lover of Jane Austen, anything really, that pertains to her takes my notice. But especially with Persuasion. Persuasion was the first Jane Austen novel I read and it is (out of the ones I've read so far by Austen) my favorite. So when I saw that this book was supposed to be "Persuasion" from Captain Wentworth's perspective I was pretty excited.

It starts out in the year 1806, when Wentworth (at the time a Commander, not Captain yet) and Anne meet for the first time. Persuasion, by Austen, begins in the year 1814 ... I believe. As Grange writes the first part of the book (almost half), she is going by her own imagination. So, really, if anyone were to write a book about what they thought Wentworth was like based on imagination you would come up with, perhaps, a different description from each person. That said, I pictured him different from what Grange did.

Over all, the book was well written. After the first part of the book (the 1806 part) when you're in the year 1814, the events closely follow Persuasion. It was fun to see how Grange thought Wentworth would respond. In some parts I thought the same as Grange as to how Wentworth was thinking and sometimes I imagined Wentwoth responding differently. But since Austen did not write this book, we really don't know how she originally pictured Wentworth.

The book was interesting and rather fun. Would I read it again? Maybe not, but that's just my personal preference. I thought it was a good book. There was nothing bad in Grange's writing. It just isn't the kind of book that really grabs my attention to read over and over.

So, all that said. I'll leave it up to you if you want to read it. I guess I would recommend it, just for fun.

Sarah’s Key ~ Tatiana de Rosnay

Rather than write my own synopsis of this story I decided to use the summary from the publisher:

Paris, July 1942: Sarah, a ten year-old girl, is brutally arrested with her family by the French police in the Vel’ d’Hiv’ roundup, but not before she locks her younger brother in a cupboard in the family's apartment, thinking that she will be back within a few hours.
Paris, May 2002: On Vel’ d’Hiv’s 60th anniversary, journalist Julia Jarmond is asked to write an article about this black day in France's past. Through her contemporary investigation, she stumbles onto a trail of long-hidden family secrets that connect her to Sarah. Julia finds herself compelled to retrace the girl's ordeal, from that terrible term in the Vel d'Hiv', to the camps, and beyond. As she probes into Sarah's past, she begins to question her own place in France, and to reevaluate her marriage and her life.

I couldn’t have said that better myself.

This book had a compelling story to tell. During WWII Jews were not only targeted in Poland and Germany, but while France was under military occupation Jews were persecuted there as well. The Vel’ d’Hiv roundup involved the capture of many Jewish children who were ultimately sent off to Auschwitz. I personally dislike reading about the Holocaust because what happened to the Jews was just awful, and it makes it all the more difficult because it’s not just a story; it actually happened. But this book was wonderfully written, and having never heard of the Vel’ d’Hiv’ roundup I was interested in the story-line. The author weaves the narrative between the past and the present; a sure method to capture her reader’s interest. The only part of this book that I didn’t care for was Julia Jarmond’s marriage falls apart as a result of her interest in Sarah’s life. I would have liked to have seen her marriage survive. And if I remember correctly there were a couple of swear words; seems like you can’t read a recently published novel without finding those in there. Recommended.

The Shadow of the Wind ~ Carlos Ruiz Zafón

Ten-year-old Daniel Sempere has received his greatest treasure: His father has taken him to one of Barcelona’s well-kept secret locations: the Cemetery of Forgotten Books. Daniel is allowed to choose one book for himself, to keep for the rest of his life. He selects The Shadow of the Wind by Julian Carax. From its opening paragraph the book entrances Daniel. Armed with his now favorite novel, Daniel vows to discover all he can about Julian Carax and obtain more of his books.

Daniel soon learns though that Julian Carax’s life is shrouded in mystery. And his writings have disappeared; someone has methodically collected all of Carax’s works and burned them. But Daniel is undaunted. Accompanied by his friend, Fermín Romero de Torres, they embark on a journey of exploration into Carax’s life, and this quest will leave its shadow on Daniel’s own personal history.

This novel for adults was excellent! From the moment I started reading it I couldn’t put it down. It is chock full of mystery and intrigue. The characters are interesting, and their stories are woven together. As Daniel was playing detective I found myself anxious for his discoveries as well. The author does use some coarse language, but thankfully it wasn’t a lot. And the characters that curse you would expect them to speak like that so I guess it’s understandable, although not necessary. Also there were some imprudent moments between Daniel and his girlfriend. I guess when your characters are unredeemed sinners you have to expect them to act like their natures. But other than those two points I really enjoyed the story.