Book Review: Dickens and Travel

 

Dickens and Travel

The Start of Modern Travel Writing

by Lucinda Hawksley

Pub Date 30 Aug 2022

 Pen & Sword,  Pen & Sword History

 Biographies & Memoirs  |  History  |  Nonfiction (Adult) 

I am reviewing a copy of Dickens and Travel through Pen &Sword and Netgalley:

From the time he was a child, Charles Dickens was fascinated by tales other countries and other cultures, and he longed to see the world. In Dickens and Travel, Lucinda Hawksley looks at the journeys made by the author.   Lucinda shared the journeys of Dickens who happens to be her great-great grandfather.

Between 1830-1831 Charles Dickens began working as a freelance journalist.  Though his overriding ambition was not to be a novelist, or a journalist, what he really wanted to be was a playwright and actor like Shakespeare.

Dickens was often thought of as a London author but in the 1840’s he whisked his family away to live in Italy for year, and spent several months in Switzerland.  Years later he would move to Paris and Boulogne (where he lived in secret with his lover). In addition to travelling widely in Europe, he also toured America twice, performed onstage in Canada and, before his untimely death, was planning a tour of Australia.

Written by a descendant of Charles Dickens, his Great Great granddaughter Lucinda Hawksley,  Dickens and Travels gives us a unique glimpse not only of his travels, but how Dickens helped to shape the modern age of travel writing.

I give Dickens and Travel five out of five stars!

Happy Reading!

Book Review: Walking On Pins and Needles

 

Walking on Pins and Needles

A Memoir of Chronic Resilience in the Face of Multiple Sclerosis

by Arlene K. Faulk

Pub Date 22 Feb 2022 

 Greenleaf Book Group,  River Grove Books

 Biographies & Memoirs

I’ve graciously been granted a copy of Walking On Pins  and Needles, A Memoir of Chronic Resilience through Greenleaf Book Group:

As a Senior in High-School Arlene Faulk was voted most likely to succeed, as a senior in high school with a bright future ahead, you set challenging goals and move forward to fulfill expectations.  But at the age of twenty two in the middle of the busiest shopping day of the year, Arlene loses all feeling in her body from the waist down. Her mobility returns but she’s given no diagnosis, and one question pervades her thoughts: What is happening to my body?   It would be years later when she gets her answer, Multiple Sclerosis.

Arlene Faulk is an accomplished business women storyteller, and Tai Chi instructor—knew, multiple sclerosis wasn’t going to get in her way.  She was and is determined to live her life to the fullest..

Walking on Pins and Needles is one women’s moving memoir on how for years she struggles to understand and conceal her debilitating symptoms as she ascends the corporate ladder in a major airline comes a story of perseverance, rediscovery, and hope in light of multiple sclerosis. As she jumps into the unknown, Faulk finds comfort and healing through Chinese medicine and Tai Chi. Her inspiring story demonstrates how a chronic and debilitating health condition lacks the power to control our lives and stop us from moving in the direction of possibility.

I give Walking on Pins and Needles five out of five stars.

A definite recommend read in my opinion.

Book Review:Secrets of My Heart

 

Secrets of My Heart

by Tracie Peterson

Pub Date 03 Mar 2020 

 Bethany House,  Bethany House Publishers

Christian 

I am reviewing a copy of Secrets of my Heart through Bethany House Publishers and Netgalley:

Journey back to 1879, Portland Oregon where  we meet Nancy Pritchard who finds herself a widow with a world of problems after discovering her deceased husband's schemes.  As she searches through the pieces of her loveless marriage, Nancy realizes there is a lot that she didn't know about this man. 

Seth Carpenter is a childhood  friend of Nancy's who has recently returned to Portland.  He’s beyond excited to see her again, and as a lawyer he can help her sort through the legal aspects of her husband's death. But there's more to him than meets the eye, and his job will take him into a darker side of Nancy's life, a side she didn't even know existed. As they search for the truth behind her husband's death, their attraction to each other creates complications, and the threat to Nancy increases. Can Seth be honest with her about who he really is and why he's come to Portland? And can Nancy bear another betrayal?

I give Secrets of My Heart five out of five stars!

Happy Reading!

Book Review: To Tame a Cowboy

 

To Tame a Cowboy

by Jody Hedlund

Pub Date 03 May 2022 

 Bethany House,  Bethany House Publishers

 Christian  |  Romance 

I am reviewing a copy of To Tame a Cowboy through Bethany House Publishers and Netgalley:

Brody McQuaid is a broken man, and he knows it.   His body did survived the war, his soul did not.  Aside from loving his little, his only sense of purpose comes from saving the wild horses that roam South Park. Ranchers in the area have taken to killing the horses, which are competing with their cattle to feed on the open grass. 

Savannah Marshall is a veterinarian on her family's Colorado ranch.   She longs to keep her father happy following the tragic death of her older brother, including marrying a man of his choosing. But days before her wedding, she gets cold feet and disappears to South Park.  While learning more about the destruction of the horses, she joins Brody in an attempt to save the wild creatures. But when Savannah's family as well as the resentments of the area cattlemen catch up with them both, Brody and Savannah will have to tame their fears if they've any hope to let love run free.

I give To Tame a Cowboy, five our of five stars!

Happy Reading!

Book Review: Where the Road Bends

 

Where the Road Bends

by Rachel Fordham

Narrated by Coleen Marlo

Pub Date 07 Jun 2022 

 Tantor Audio 

 Christian  |  Historical Fiction  |  Romance

I am reviewing a copy of Where the Road Bends, through Tantor Audio and Netgalley: 

While surveying her family land in Iowa in 1880, she is acutely aware that it is all she has left, and she will do everything in her power to save it—even if that means marrying a man she hardly knows.  Just days before her wedding, Norah discovers an injured man on her property. Her sense of duty compels her to take him in and nurse him back to health. Little does she realize just how much this act of kindness will complicate her life and threaten the future she's planned.

Nora’s care does more than just aid Quincy Barnes's recovery—it awakens his heart to possibilities. Penniless and homeless, he knows the most honorable thing he can do is head on down the road and leave Norah to marry her intended. But walking away from the first person to believe in him proves much harder than he imagined.

I give Where the Road Bends five out of five stars!

Happy Reading!

Book Review: Dear Dana

 

Dear Dana

That time I went crazy and wrote all 580 of my Facebook friends a handwritten letter

by Amy Weinland Daughters

Pub Date 17 May 2022 

 She Writes Press 

 Biographies & Memoirs 

I am reviewing a copy of Dear Dana: That time I went crazy and wrote all 580 of my Facebook friends a handwritten letter: through She Writes Press and Netgalley:

Amy Daughters reconnected with her old pal Dana on Facebook, she had no idea how it would change her life.   The two women hadn’t had any contact in thirty years, it didn’t take them long to catch up—and when Amy learned that Dana’s son Parker was doing a second stint at St. Jude battling cancer, she was suddenly inspired to begin writing the pair weekly letters. 

After Dana’s Son Parker died Amy—not knowing what else to do—continued to write Dana. Eventually, Dana wrote back, and the two became pen pals, sharing things through the mail that they had never shared before. The richness of the experience left Amy wondering something: If my life could be so changed by someone I considered “just a Facebook friend,” what would happen if I wrote all my Facebook friends a letter? 

Amy wrote all 580 of her Facebook friends a handwritten letter, an act that would change Amy’s life and most of all it changed her heart, her life or heart would never be the same.  As it turned out, there were actual individuals living very real lives behind each social media profile, and she was beautifully connected to each of those extraordinary, flawed people for a specific reason. They loved her, and she loved them. And nothing—not politics, beliefs, or lifestyle—could separate them.

I give Dear Dana five out of five stars!

Happy Reading!

Book Review: Aiming for Love

 

Aiming for Love

by Mary Connealy

Pub Date 01 Oct 2019 |

 Bethany House,  Bethany House Publishers

I am reviewing a copy of Aiming For Love through Bethany House Publishers and Netgalley:

Josephine Nordegren and her two sisters grew up nearly wild in southwestern Colorado. She has the archery skills of Robin Hood and the curiosity of the Little Mermaid, fascinated by but locked away from the forbidden outside world, she was raised to believe killed her parents. When David Warden, a rancher, brings in a herd much too close to the girls' secret home, her older sister especially is frightened, but Jo is too interested to stay away.

David’s parents are following on his heals, having escaped bandits at their house.  David's father is wounded and needs shelter. Josephine and her sisters have the only cabin on the mountain. Do they risk stepping into the world to help those in need? Or do they remain separated but safe in the peaks of Hope Mountain?

I give Aiming for Love five out of five stars!

Happy Reading!