JEANNIE OUT OF THE BOTTLE (BARBARA EDEN)

I grew up watching "I Dream of Jeannie" and was mesmerized by it. I always wanted to be able to cross my arms and blink just like Jeannie. However, try as I might, I was never successful. Barbara Eden has written a beautiful and honest autobiography. From her work as an actress, to her three marriages, to the death of her beloved son, Matthew, Barbara has spoken openly with honesty and integrity. She talks about the "hungry years" when she was struggling as a chorus girl; the famous and not so famous actors she worked with; and her relationship with Larry Hagman. Barbara reflects on the challenges she faced in both her personal life and working life and about the great joys she experienced. There are also sixteen pages of photographs that every fan of Barbara's will love to see! I enjoyed this book so much that I read it in one sitting.

April 18, 2011

THE SCENT OF WATER, GRACE FOR EVERY KIND OF BROKEN (NAOMI ZACHARIAS)

Right from the beginning of the prologue I loved this book. The story of the rabbi is beautiful and one I'd never heard before and now will never forget. In her book, Naomi takes us on a journey through unbelievable horror, poverty, destruction, disaster, immense pain and sorrow. In the beginning Naomi is in Banda Aceh on the island of Sumatra in Indonesia just six weeks after the tsunami hit killing 250,000 people. This disaster wasn't caused by man but by nature and was the most destructive natural disaster in history. Just think what these people lost: furniture, homes, clothing, cars and the like, but these things can be replaced, however, our loved ones cannot. Did they, could they retain their faith and hope in Christ? In Amsterdam, Naomi met a woman named Annie who was a protitute and lived in a brothel. Naomi was there to meet a woman who was the Director of an organization that advocated for women who want to leave the life of prostitution. The organization provides financial support, counselling and other programs like 'Life Skills' i.e. cooking classes, sewing classes. But most importantly they are told of the love of God. In the Czech Republic, Naomi meets a young girl named Elsie, who is told by her mother to go and steal from her grandmother. On the way, Elsie is gang raped by a several boys each taking their turn with her. Elsie pulled herself together and stole from her grandmother. After seeing a doctor she was told that she would NEVER have children. This one horrible act caused Elsie to lose something precious, the abililty to have a baby and the right to have someone call her "Mom". Eventually Elsie meets a woman who told her about an organization that would help her. They applied for school, got her proper papers and then spoke to Elsie of the gracious and loving God for the first time and Elsie wondered if God might actually exist. The entire book is about abused and used women from all walks of life, and the indecencies that we as humans can bestow upon our fellow man. We all need faith, a belief in God, or a high power. Nothing in life is black and white and although as humans we struggle and demand for someone to tell us if the answer is black or white, sometimes we have to accept, whether we want to or not, that there is an "in between" with no clear determination of black or white. It's like a cruel gray that taunts and haunts us, driving our humanistic need for right or wrong, black or white, up the scale but gray is sometimes our only reality. We must be aware of our words and actions as we might unknowingly hurt another person, even when that is not our intent. We must accept ourselves and others for who we are and for who they are. Never expect anyone to change who they are to fulfull our own agenda of who we want them to be. If you're expecting someone to change for you then it's not a true and honest bond and nor should we change ourselves for the benefits of others. We must remain true to who God made us to be and the only one we should be striving to be like is Christ. Remember to "touch" the people in your life, give them a hug, pat their hand so they feel the human connection. It signals you care about them and love them just as God loves us all. There is great power in the human touch! Pray, but God doesn't always answer prayer when we want him too. He answers only when He thinks that you are ready to hear the response. This reminds me of a poem by Helen Steiner Rice: "There is no problem too big, no problem to small Just ask God in faith and He'll answer them all Not always at once so be patient and wait For God never comes too soon or too late." Listen carefully to Naomi in the story when she realizes the pain she feels when facing these "extreme injustices". Stand behind her as she fights within herself over her own identity and "comes face-to-face with redemption..." Some of the other situations in this book will shock and disgust you but we need to be shocked and disgusted to be moved into action!! There are so many lessons to be learned in this memoir and I encourage each and every one of you to read this with an open mind and an open heart. Note*** This book was sent to me by Zondervan "free of charge" for the purpose to reviewing the book). April 18, 2011

THE SOLITUDE OF PRIME NUMBERS (PAOLO GIORDANO)

The story centers around three main characters: Alice, Michela and Mattia. Alice lives with her parents and has always defied them in some way. When she was younger she hated attending ski school and at age fifteen she wanted a tattoo but her father told her "no", that when she turned eighteen and was paying her own way, she could then get a tattoo. Michela and Mattia are twins but Michela suffers from mental problems and is quite behind developmentally. One day Michela and Mattia are invited to a birthday party but Mattia is too embarrassed to take his sister so instead, he drops her off at a park and tells her not to move that he'd be back in half and hour to pick her up. When Mattia returns, Michela is gone! As Mattia and Alice grow they become friends but Pietro Balossino, Mattia's father, is tired of trying to infiltrate his son's strange and obscure world. He had spent many nights searching the house for sharp objects after seeing the scars on Mattia's arms. Pietro thought so much about one day finding his son face down on a blood soaked pillow that he is already thinking of his son as non-existant. This is a coming-of-age story, a love story, a story of loneliness with a touch of melancholy and a depiction of damaged soul mates whose hearts are kindred spirits. This debut novel was a complete joy to read!! April 13, 2011

PICTURES OF YOU (CAROLINE LEAVITT)

Thirty-six-year-old Isabelle is leaving Cape Cod, her husband Luke, has a new baby with his girlfriend. All Isabelle is leaving with is: her cameras, one small suitcase of clothing, and money from the bank. She is heading for New York where she has a cheap, illegal sublet lined up that she can use for as long as she wants and she has her photography business. Driving westbound on US-6 the fog is thick making it impossible to see with headlights so Isabelle turns on her parking lights which provide her with much better visibility. About three hours from home, Isabelle very suddenly comes across a car in her lane, stopped and facing the wrong way! A woman is standing outside her car and her little boy climbs out when he sees Isabelle's car heading straight for them. With no time to stop on the narrow road, she has nowhere to go so she attempts to veer her vehicle around the stopped car. Unfortunately, the little boy begins to run and the mother tries to push herself closer to her own vehicle but Isabelle hits them head-on anyway. We find out that one of the people in the accident dies and the other two live. I was pulled in and mesmerized from the first page. After we get over the shock of the accident, the book goes on to sort out the lives of four different people. It's heartbreaking, riveting and deeply moving all at the same time. Leavitt's ability to write with a realness of life, its people and situations is uncanny. This was a masterfully created and told story! April 11, 2011

EVERYTHING ASIAN (SUNG J. WOO)

I loved this story! Young David Kim immigrates to the United States from Korea in the 1980's with his mother and his sister. Their father has already been in America for the past five years trying to build a business and getting some money behind him before his family re-joined him. He owns a store in New Jersey called "East Meets West" in the Peddlerstown Mall and sells various items such as: kimonos, candles, vases, dragons, mirrors and other miscellaneous items. The chapters alternate between stories told by each family member and other people who own stores in the mall. Every character in the story is interesting, and has a convincing story of their own to tell. Mr. Hong, another business owner and his family, become friends with the Kim's and the near the end of the story, the Kim's suffer through a terrible tragedy with the Hong family. The story is gentle, funny, beautifully written and is about the coming of age story of David who is in between two very different cultures but meets them with both grace and humour. April 9, 2011

MAJOR PETTIGREW'S LAST STAND (HELEN SIMMONSON)

Wow, this is a really hard book for me to review because I'm not sure I enjoyed it all that much. It was very hard to get through as it's long-winded in detail which I find very mundane. The meeting of Major Pettigrew and Mrs. Ali in their late 60's and 50's, respectively, was a nice touch. We don't often think of people of that age finding new love interests and it shows that no matter how old we are, we all need some form of love. I think I'll leave my comments at that. April 5, 2011

OPERATION BONNET (KIMBERLY STUART)

Twenty-year-old Nellie Augusta Lourdes Monroe is a fiery red-headed force to be reckoned with and an absolutely hilarious young woman. Nellie works at a golf course but yearns to be a Private Investigator. Her best friend in the world is her Nona who is suffering from some type of dementia and knows who Nellie is one day, but not the next. Her next best friend is, Matt, who has loved Nellie since they were young children but she doesn't even see that. Amos, a recent escapee from the nearby Amish order has learned that Nellie is a P.I. and asks for her help. He left behind is beloved Katie and recently learned she about to marry someone else and needs Nellie to find out if she truly loves this man or is her heart still with him? Nellie lies to her college Professor to get into the Amish Schroder family. She dons the traditional Amish garb, infiltrates the family and gains their trust in order to find and learn about Katie. However, all that is going to blow up in her face with heart-wrenching consequences. Will Nellie find Katie and once caught red-handed, can she explain and apologize her way out of trouble with the Schroder family and her Professor? Ms. Stuart has created completely believable characters and I absolutely adored Nellie! The story grabbed me from the first page and kept me reading until the end. I read the entire book in a few hours I just couldn't put it down. I'm looking forward to reading more of Ms. Stuart's work. April 3, 2011