Friday, February 28, 2014

Book reviewers


WARNING a bad saying is used as I was repeating what was said by a radio personality.

Ok I was listening to a radio "star" personality (I am not publishing his name as I don't think that will add anything to my thoughts) and he said something that kinda made me mad as a book reviewer. He was talking about how we should not give any credence to someone who writes reviews  and has never wrote a book or published anything. Well I am sorry that is baloney.  He was saying this cause someone wrote a 1 star review  on a friend of his book on Amazon (major author he said) and that made him mad (he called them a piss ant and a 14 year old living in mom's basement). Saying we are reading reviews of people that have never written a book or have been published or sold a single thing also same thing with music artists. Even saying why do you think your opinion matters it may matter to God but not to the rest of us.  I did agree that we shouldn't be nasty or mean or if we wouldn't say to their face then we shouldn't put it on the Internet but I have every right to say why I did not like about a book or even a music artist. We ask friends and even others what their recommendations are for restaurants, books, movies, etc and we don't ask them first if they have ever done that type of job for a living. That is exactly what us non-author book reviewers do we are giving our opinion no one said an author has to like our opinions just like we are not required to like their books. Just cause someone has not wrote a book or even published an article does not mean that what they say in a review is not worth anything.  If it wasn't for non-authors and others giving recommendations and reviews then a lot of books, movies, or even restaurants would not be as big or even as popular as they are.  When I applied to publishers and other organizations to be a book blogger reviewer not one of them asked if I was an author or have published anything so that I can be able to review a book.  I am just an avid reader so what is wrong with me reviewing books even though I am not an author? So what are you saying sir is that unless I am an author I can't state my opinion on a book well I am sorry I am legally allowed to allowed to do so, so I will do it. Yes I don't know what the review said and yes I have seen bad reviews that are just nasty.  However, some could say my negative reviews are mean but I explain why I don't like a book and I am not going to sugar coat it. I will be polite but not sugar coated.  Sorry needed to vent.

Wednesday, February 26, 2014

Wildwood Creek By Lisa Wingate


Summary
"Wildwood Creek" by Lisa Wingate is a Christian novel that is a mix of historical and current times. It is about a community called Wildwood Creek.  In the 1860 it involves a young teacher named Bonnie Rose and her little sister and how/when the town of Wildwood Creek mysteriously disappeared.  In present day it involves Allie Kirkland who is working for a movie company filming a docudrama about the town of Wildwood Creek on its actual location.  Allie finds herself connected to Bonnie Rose and her own mystery happening while she is at the Wildwood Creek location.

My Thoughts
Sometimes books that go between the past and current times it gets on my nerves but this one did not do that.  It was very clear when it when to the past and when it was in current times.  This was a nice mystery not over done and not very slow.  I was intrigued by each story and how they end up coming together.  Yes there was a little romance in it at first I did not even notice it so that was nice.  One day maybe I will read a Christian novel without any romance but otherwise this was very good book.  I would highly recommend it to anyone to read.

I received this book from Bethany House Publishing for my honest review.

Wednesday, February 19, 2014

Pain of Food Allergies

Warning this long.
Heartbreak.  The moment when your child starts crying in the doctor's office as some of his favorite foods are on his allergy testing list.  You have to be strong and try not to cry with him so he can see that mom knows we can get thru this together.  Those who know me I am not a crier take me too a sad movie and its doubtful I will cry even my family calls me cold-blooded at times.  For me to want to cry and have to hold it back is rare. So you know I was heart broken for my child.  My youngest was diagnosed on Tuesday with more food allergies.  The old ones are dairy, red and yellow food coloring.  The new ones are Wheat, Almonds, Soy, Chicken Eggs, Walnuts, Bananas, Cantaloupe, and Pumpkin.  My son  loves his Almond milk, eggs, and Bananas (it did not even dawn on him at first what all has wheat and soy in it).  I am already used to the great hunt for dairy free items but the new ones of wheat, soy, and eggs are the hard ones.  I don't live in an area where it is common to find everything I need in one store or to find the items at all.  Now I realize the 6 or 7 restaurants (not including only 2 fast food type places) that we used to be able to take him to in our county (yes I said county not city) we will not be able too, thankfully we rarely go out since we are trying to get out of debt and we have a tight budget we are not rich people. 

I know God has a wonderful plan for this child but its been heartbreaking to see the struggles he has had to go thru as a child.  Food allergies are just the tip of the iceberg.  He has had whooping cough as 3 month old, hospitalized 3 or 4 times prior to age 5 for rota virus and the common one dehydration.  He did not start talking (he was in occupational therapy starting at 2 that ended around 5 and speech therapy thru 1st grade) until about 3 when we took him off of Dairy to see if that would help with his stomach issues as he was too young to do the allergy testing at the time and as an infant he had problems when I ate some dairy products since I breast fed him.  Then on Christmas day of 2009 started the big downward spiral we had to call the ambulance as he was having breathing problems, a breathing treatment was done and then he got to come home.  Then in February I think of 2010 (Age 5) he got walking pneumonia.  Then two days before Easter he was life-flighted to the only children's hospital in our state (4 hours away) as his right lung was trying to collapse. That was an amazing testimony of God in that as during the flight I was calm and had a peace about the situation that I could not understand.  Also the song "Jesus Loves Me" holds a special place in my heart since when he was awake during the flight and ambulance ride he would move his oxygen mask and start singing it.  It turns out he has had severe asthma since he was born but it is a type that does not wheeze just a cough and the throat sucking in we did not know that he had it until the doctors at that hospital were able diagnose it after lots of tests. After that he only had to go back into a hospital once.  But he has been a human pin cushion with all the needles and I.V.'s he has had.  We started homeschooling him in 2011 to help with his health and we realized it was also helping with his learning as his attention span is not that great at times. With diet changes and the school changes it took us a couple years but he no longer has to take inhaler steroids daily.   I know there is kids out there that have gone thru worse but it still pains me to see what my youngest has gone thru as it is still more than most kids.    No I am not looking for sympathy I am just need to vent so I don't cry in front of him. 
When people first meet him they never suspect that this highly energized, loving and very huggy boy has been thru all this. If you seen his medical file, before they changed it to digital, you would know it as it was bigger than his 17 almost 18 year old brother who has had his own problems (a cracked hip). It is just hard.

His friends are sweet as some of them worry about if he can eat things they give him or I have had some even check the ingredients list for him. Also they make sure he is breathing ok even his big brother's girlfriend has caught his asthma acting up when he thought it was ok. Its usually adults that can be rude and think I am just a mean mom or his dad is mean.  Even once on the Max train in Portland during rush hour (the train was packed) he had to sleep as his lungs were worn out from a zoo trip. I had a lady give me some nasty looks like why I am not making my son give up his seat to others.  I know it probable was not right but I decided I was tired of it as he almost could not go to the zoo as the couple days before hand he had so many asthma attacks he almost went to the hospital again. I spoke kinda of loudly to my MIL and said something of the point of he was such a trooper he had quite a few treatments from his emergency inhaler that day and he still was able to walk the entire zoo trip and so now he needs to rest as not to make his lungs worse.  The lady looked at me with a look of ugh I didn't know and never looked our way again.  So please adults don't judge that child or parents that you see that is not doing or eating what you think he/she should be as you don't know whats going on in their life.

He is now almost 10 and this is another change in his life but I know he is strong and knows God has a plan for him. He is looking forward to trying new things well that's a family rule anyway.  If you have read this entire thing thank you and know most of my posts are not this long I just needed to vent.

Tuesday, February 18, 2014

Six Days by Ken Ham


Summary
"Six Days, The Age of the Earth and the Decline of the Church" by Ken Ham is a book on how specifically the American church's foundation is being crumbled away because of how people treat the book of Genesis. It goes into detail on how we treat the book of Genesis specifically how we treat creation reflects on what is happening to the modern church.  And that does not believing in the 6 day creation cause a door of compromise into the church.

My opinion
I started this book before the Ken Ham/Bill Nye the Science Guy debate and then finished afterward and I am glad I finished it afterward.  It was a powerful book really making me think of more on how the Bible is treated.  It answers the questions that most Christians ask about the six day creation for example why can't we believe that God used macro evolution to do creation. This book really challenged me to look deep into the creation argument and want to look more into it.  I am not a person to give away too much of a book even a non-fiction book as I want you the reader to dig into the book.  And this book is a very good book to get digging into.  I highly recommend it.


I was given this book by Master Books a division of New Leaf Publishing Group for my honest review.

Wednesday, February 12, 2014

The Power of a half hour by Tommy Barnett




Summary
The Power Of A Half Hour by Tommy Barnett is a book about defining your life in 15 minute time frames.  It is about changing your life in 15 minute spans. Author's website

My Viewpoint
Yes I know my summary was short but I could not summarize a horrible book that has description that does not match its actually content in my opinion.  Yep, this ones goes on the pile of horrible books.  At first the author starts us with the premise of  that we change things in our life with 15 minute segments then it all goes down hill.  This author loves to name drop throughout the book more than he references scripture.  Take out his little bits of scripture and I have a book that could be written by Dr. Phil or Oprah.  The scripture references are almost an after thought.  This book is so superficially in my opinion its mainly about how great his son's and his churches are and how great they themselves are.  Its a look at me book.  The whole focus is on himself and his son and not God or even changing your life.  I read it all the way thru as it was an easy read just a horrible book.  I would never recommend this book.

I received this book for free from Blogging for Books by Waterbrook Press for my honest review.

Thoughts on my hubby

27 years ago was the summer before my senior year in high school and I went for a walk that would change my life forever.  I just wanted to ...