Book Review: Writing Gratitude On My Heart

 

Writing Gratitude on My Heart

A 6-Week Bible Memory Devotional

by Jean Fischer

 Barbour Publishing, Inc. 

Barbour Books

 Christian 

Pub Date 01 Dec 2020.

I am reviewing a copy of Writing Gratitude on My Heart through Barbour Publishing and Netgalley:

In Writing Gratitude on My Heart we are reminded that we have many reasons to be thankful.   We thank God for life, for that precious moment He brought us into the world. Life is the first of His immeasurable blessings, and we have endless other reasons to thank Him.  There are many reasons we have to thank him,

This six week devotional reminds us to focus on the gifts we have been given, the reasons we have to be thankful. Our faith, our family and friendships all give us a reason to be thankful.  We are reminded too of the importance of doing something nice for those we don’t know.

We are reminded too “that the things we are grateful for shift with the seasons of our lives.”

No matter what season we are in life, this book reminds us that we have reasons to sing praises to God and to celebrate the ways He works in our lives.

We are reminded too that not a single one of us is perfect.  We make mistakes in every season of our lives. Our mistakes shape us, and how we react to them defines our character.  

I give Writing Gratitude on My Heart five out of five stars!

Happy Reading!

Book Review: 180 Prayers for Women of Courage

 

180 Prayers for a Woman of Courage

by Shanna D. Gregor

Barbour Publishing, Inc. 

Barbour Books

 Christian 

Pub Date 01 Nov 2020

I am reviewing a copy of 180 Prayers for Women of Courage through Barbour Publishing and Netgalley:

This book reminds us that Almighty God is interested in what we have to say.

This devotional/Prayer book is a powerful reminder to courageously bring any petition before your heavenly Father. 

The Prayers In 180 Prayers for Women of Courage are small enough to be read even during times when you find yourself busy, and then include topics that will resonate with your heart,  from prayers four our nation, to prayers of encouragement and many more.

Each prayer in this book is paired with the perfect scripture to match the subject matter, and is a fabulous way to either begin or end your day, but can be read whenever you need a particular prayer to help you through whatever difficulty you might be going through.

I give 180 Prayers for A Woman of Courage five out of Five Stars!

Happy Reading!

Book Review: A Gilded Lady

 

A Gilded Lady

by Elizabeth Camden

Bethany House 

Bethany House Publishers

 Christian 

Pub Date 02 Jun 2020 

I am reviewing a copy of A Gilded Lady through Bethany House and Netgalley:

Caroline Delacroix, finds herself at the pinnacle of high society in her role as secretary to the first lady of the United States.  But underneath the facade of beauty and glamour as well as a dazzling personality she is hiding a dark secret.  If she is unable to untangle web of foreign espionage, her brother will face execution for treason. 

Nathaniel Trask has become the newly appointed head of the president's Secret Service team.  He becomes suspicious of Caroline right away, despite being attracted to her quick wit and charm.  In order to keep the president safe Nathaniel must battle to keep his focus fully on his job as the threat to the president rises. 

Amidst the glamorous pageantry of Gilded Age Washington D.C Caroline and Nathaniel will face adventure, danger, and heartbreak in a race against time that will span the continent and the depth of human emotion.

I found A Gilded Lady to be a spellbinding novel, one worthy of five  out of five stars!

Happy Reading!

Book Review: Between Inca Walls

 

Between Inca Walls

A Peace Corps Memoir

by Evelyn Kohl LaTorre

 She Writes Press 

 Biographies & Memoirs 

Pub Date 11 Aug 2020 

I am reviewing a copy of Between Inca Walls through She Writes Press and Netgalley:

Evelyn is naive about life and love at twenty one.  She was raised in a small Montana town, but at sixteen she and her devoutly Catholic family move to California.  In California she is drawn to the Latino culture after working amongst the migrant workers.  During the summer of her junior year in college, Evelyn travels to a small Mexican town to help set up a school and a library, an experience that whets her appetite for a life full of both purpose and adventure.

Evelyn joins the Peace Corps after graduation.  Where she is sent to sent to perform community development work in a small mountain town in the Andes of Perú.   It is there she and her roommate Marie, search for meaningful projects and adjust to living with few amenities.   In eighteen months the two young women work in a hospital, start 4-H clubs, attend campesino meetings, and teach PE in a school with dirt floors.  Evelyn is chosen queen of the local boys Highschool and despite being resolved to resist temptations, she falls in love with a University Student.   As Evelyn comes of age she must choose between following the religious rules of her youth and giving in to her sexual desires.

I give Between Inca Walls Four out of five stars!

Happy Reading!

Book Review: An Appalachian Summer

 

An Appalachian Summer

by Ann H. Gabhart

 Revell 

 Christian 

Pub Date 30 Jun 2020  

I am reviewing a copy of An Appalachian Summer through Revell and Netgalley:

This book transports us back to 1933 Louisville, Kentucky,  even the economic depression cannot keep Piper Danson's parents from insisting on a debut party.   Because unlike so many others their fortune came through the market crash intact, and they've picked out the perfect suitor for their daughter. Braxton Crandall can give her the kind of life she's used to.   The problem is Braxton Brandon Crandall is not the man she wants nor is it the life.

When Piper gets the opportunity to volunteer as a horseback Frontier Nursing courier in the Appalachian Mountains for the summer, Piper jumps at the chance to be something other than a dutiful daughter or a kept wife in a  marriage without love.   The work is difficult but the scenery is absolutely gorgeous and the people she meets open a new world to her.  The longer she stays, the more an marriage that could be advantageous slips from her grasp. But she finds something much more precious, true love, is drawing ever closer.

I give An Appalachian Summer five out of five stars!

Happy Reading!

Book Review: A Life Once Dreamed

 

A Life Once Dreamed

by Rachel Fordham

 Revell 

 Christian  |  Historical Fiction 

Pub Date 04 Aug 2020  

I am reviewing a copy of A Life Once Dreamed Through Revell and Netgalley:

This book transports us to Dakota Territory in the 1880’s, where we meet Agnes Pratt who six years prior had been running in search of a new start because of a shocking secret.  She found her new in Penance, a rugged town of miners and lumberjacks in the Dakota Territory, where she became Miss Aggie, respected schoolteacher and confirmed old maid.    The past has a way of catching up people.

After childhood friend and former sweetheart James Harris accepts a position as the town doctor.   Aggie’s predictable days become anything but once James comes to town.   James wants to know why Agnes left behind the life they had dreamed of creating for themselves, the problem is he is the only person who can never know.

Will a healing light be able to shed on the past, in the shadows of the Black Hills?  Will the secret Agnes can't seem to outrun destroy her chance at happiness?

If you want to step back into 1880’s,  A Life Once Dreamed is just the ticket.

I find their book to be worthy of five out of five stars!

Happy Reading!

Book Review: Bernard of Clairvaux

 

Bernard of Clairvaux

An Inner Life

by Brian Patrick McGuire

 Cornell University Press 

 Biographies & Memoirs  |  History 

Pub Date 15 Oct 2020 

I am reviewing a copy of Bernard of Clairvaux through Cornell University Press and Netgalley:

Bernard of Clairvaux (1090-1153) was a man of many talents.  He was a monk abbot, adviser of kings and popes, author of some of the finest latin prose to emerge from the Middle Ages.

The world Bernard of Clairvaux was born into was one of hope and promise.  From the ninth to the eleventh centuries, Western Europe had been the object of Viking plundering. Today, some Danish archaeologists claim that the Vikings were more traders than pirates, but monks along the coasts and rivers of Europe knew better.  

Travel that had once been dangerous had become possible and even attractive.  

Brian Patrick McGuire delves into the life of Saint Bernard of Clairvaux.  He offers a refreshing interpretation that finds within this grand historical figure a deeply spiritual human being who longed for the reflective quietude of the monastery even as he helped shape the destiny of a church and a continent.  It was heresey, crusades, politics and papacies as well as theology and disputation shaped this astonishing man's life.  McGuire presents Bernard of Clairvaux’s life in an all informed and clear-eyed biography.

Bernard of Clairvaux reveals a life full of momentous events and spiritual contemplation, from Bernard's central roles in the first great medieval reformation of the Church and the Second Crusade, which he came to regret, to the crafting of his books, sermons, and letters. We learn what brought brought Bernard to monastic life and how he founded Clairvaux Abbey, established a network of Cistercian monasteries across Europe, and helped his brethren monks and abbots in heresy trials,.

I found Bernard of Clairvaux to be both well written and well researched, allowing us to get a better glimpse of this early Medieval Monks life and works, and therefore find it worthy of five out of five stars!

Happy Reading!