Answering Your Kids' Toughest Questions by Elyse Fitzpatrick and Jessica Thompson

"Answering Your Kids' Toughest Questions" by Elyse Fitzpatrick and Jessica Thompson. Is an excellent book on how to answer some of the tough questions kids can ask about such as sin, divorce, death, etc.  The author not only talks about the question and lays out her beliefs with the Bible about the question, she also gives ways to answer them with for different age groups.  That is what I liked the best about the book that its helps you word answers for different age groups.  Now I agreed with the authors stances on a lot of the issues.  However, if you do not come from a conservative Christian viewpoint then this book is not for.  I do come from that viewpoint so I will highly recommend this book as an excellent resource not just for parents but for anyone with questions on some tough questions on life.

I received this book from Bethany House Publishing and was not required to give a positive review.

While The World Watched by Carolyn Maull McKinstry

"While The World Watched" By Carolyn Maull McKinstry is a very very powerful book.  The author was actually in the Sixteenth Street Baptist Church that was bombed in 1963 which killed 4 young girls (one happened to be Carolyn's best friend).  She writes about her life growing up during Jim Crow laws, the bombing, her helping during the Civil Rights Movement, her struggles with alcohol, and the trials of the bombers.  She wrote details about the bombing I had not heard about and even at the end gave us list of some of the old Jim crow laws.  This book is very powerful and I plan on using it in my homschool curriculum.

I really would like to see more people read this book it really helped understand the civil rights movement of the south.  See I know I am white (technically mixed raced but that's beside the point) girl from a small Pacific Northwest area but what I do know about that time era I learned from a former black panther party member who mentored me when I was 15.  So I did know some of another person stories of what happened in that time frame but not from the southern view point. So I really appreciated Carolyn Maull McKinstry's knowledge.  What really made me mad reading this book is that I still can hear some of the same type of racism being said in the area I live in except its more hidden than it was in the Jim crow days.  Yes as a nation we have came a long way from the 60's civil rights movement but still have work to do.  Especially as Christians as we still have a lot of segregated churches and why is that?  In small areas of the country we still let racism fester under the surface which does bubble up sometimes, why?  We are all one in Christ and we are all related as we all come from Adam and Eve.  Racism makes me mad and its sad to know that it is still out there on all sides.  If you can't tell by my rant that I highly recommend this book then I am sorry.  This was not even one of the books I was required to write a blog post on but to me the book is so important I needed to write one on it.

Death Takes A Ride by Lorena McCourtney

"Death Takes A Ride" by Lorena McCourtney is the third book in the the Cate Kincaid files series.  Now this is one book that you can read out of order and still enjoy.  Cate Kincaid is a part-time private investigator in Oregon and this one involves a death that seems on the surface seems like an open shut case but as with any death mysteries its not.  That's all I am going to say about the story as I don't want to give any of it away.  I really enjoyed this book especially since I know the area she writes about which always makes a book special to me.  I really got into like the main character Cate.  Now I do admit I did about half thru the book figured out who did the crime but even after that I still wanted to keep reading it to see how Cate figured it out.  This was very clean not graphic mystery just the kind I like.  I plan on reading more of this author's books. I highly recommend this book for anyone even non mystery fans its that good!

I was given this book for my honest review from Revell a division of Baker Publishing Group.

Part 2 Blessings of The Elderly. The Good

Part 2 of Blessings Of The Elderly

People my age (36 or 37) and even younger have forgotten as a whole that our elderly are blessing to us and to be respected. We can learn so much from them either good or bad and in this part I will be focusing on the good.  In the  next part I will be focusing about the bad.
 Both sets of my grandparents lived through the great depression 2 as children and 2 as adults.  They all taught me by example how or by how they taught my parents to make things stretch whether it be clothing or food. Most of my memories involve the stretching of food, gardening, or preserving food.  One set of grandparents depending on the property they lived I remember vividly their garden they had, to provide their own food. Funny story I got yelled at once by my grandma S. for eating a carrot straight out of the ground without washing it as my grandpa would put manure on the plants. As a child I would pick berries for jams and pies, or even go to the farms and pick or pick other fruits and vegetables.  The blessing of them sharing these skills to my parents and even to me has helped me to this day.  Just a few years ago my father and I was given about 5 - 7 case of tomatoes that were close to going bad or had bad spots. Well anyway instead of throwing them away like most would do we cut off the really soft spots and made tomato sauce and then canned it, that helped stretch my families food for many months to come.   I still own many homemade blankets and even a doll my grandmothers have made.  If it wasn't for them passing down their skills to my parents and me some days my current family would not have been able to eat (I am not a knitter, crocheter, or sewer I would love to be but I get confused easily by it). 
I have learned about World War 2 from one Grandfather (the other one was not able to join the military as he was flat footed).  I learned about some of the history of the community I live (not always pretty stuff either).  I learned the love of playing games together (I used to watch my family play cards a lot).  Also being content with what you have.  The love of the outdoors (One Grandpa was a fire watch/logging equipment watcher when he was in his 60's and we would take supplies up to him in the mountains).  To work hard and that life will not be handed to you on a silver platter and not to ask for help unless you really need it.  Now trust me I know my grandparents were not angels my family is not one to hide the bad parts of people but that also helped me to be honest and to know the truth about life.  We need to be as a society willing to be open to learn from others whether they be a young child to the 80 year old at our church. My life has been blessed by the elderly I have learned from personally or from a far.

If the elderly kept their knowledge, life skills, and hurts to themselves what a sad and scary world would our world be.  Now like I said not all elderly are good examples or should be followed or even trusted but I will focus on that later.

"All For A Sister" By Allison Pittman

Summary

"All For A Sister" by Allison Pittman is the third in the "All For" series.  One nice thing about the "All For" series is that you don't have to read in any order as each book is their own story with each taking place in the roaring twenties.  "All For A Sister" is about Celeste DuFrane a movie star who finds out her mom left half the estate to a women (Dana Lundgren) who was accused of killing Celeste's older sister when she was an infant.  Celeste and Dana find out each other stories which bring up other questions.  This was an intense and interesting book.

My Thoughts

"All For A Sister" is my favorite book in the "All For" series.  Through out the book we have Celeste's mom's story of what happened to her baby girl "Mary" to all the way up to right before her own death. We also have Celeste's story of her childhood which was not all peaches and cream.  Finally we have Dana's story of being a twelve year old girl put in jail for the death of little "Mary" to her life in the present time of the book.  Each chapter at the top tells us who this chapter is about and what time frame it is in. If you are going to read any of the books in this series read this one at least.  It is a very well written story, I was so into it and could picture everything happening.  I highly recommend this book.

I was given this book by Tyndale Publishers for my honest review and was not required to give a positive review.

"Dear Son" By Dave Bruskas

"Dear Son" by Dave Bruskas is a book meant for young unmarried men each chapter starts with a letter to the author's son who died in infancy then speech on manhood.  I did not enjoy this book, I will admit at times it was interesting but overall not for me.  Yes I know I am not the target audience of this book but even for men its not that good.  It is advice book with some scripture thrown in it.  Most of the book seemed to me a like do this and you will be the best parent/husband out there (Yes I know the author mentions that we can't be perfect but he sure made me feel like we should be).  The section that annoyed me the most was when he was talking about work,  he talks about jobs that in his opinion can't support a family.  For example he mentions theater managers, retail associates, etc, those positions depending on the area can easily support a family maybe not in this author's area but in other areas they can.    Then another section he discussing how a preacher he has listened to extensively does not repent of any of his sins publicly then goes on to discuss this preachers former members that have moved.  He then says that they are great doctrinally but proudly self-righteous like their leader, well if that is such a problem why does he listen to the preacher.  I just cannot recommend this book.

I was given this book by Tyndale Publishers for my honest review.

"Atlas Girl" by Emily T. Wierenga

"Atlas Girl, Finding Home In the Last Place I Thought To Look" by Emily T. Wierenga is a memoir of the author's life.  The author gives a very detailed memoir of her life from her childhood all the way to her married life.  The author writes about her struggle with her faith and anorexia.  I was impressed on how well, in words, she was able to write her feelings of what has happened in life to the point I almost forgot I was reading a non-fiction book.  She finds the help she has always need help caring for her mom as her mom has a brain tumor.  All good until the point I am going to talk about now. The main reason I am on the fence of recommending this book.  In the chapter she goes into detail about her honeymoon not the so much the location but what happened that night.  I am sorry but I don't need to read her details about it.  Call me a prude but I don't care I just don't want to read that. From that point on I had a hard time reading the book.  So no recommendation from me.

I was given this book from Revell a division of Baker Publishing for my honest review.