Hallee Bridgeman Jewels Bundle (Sapphire Ice & Greater Than Rubies)

Sapphire Ice and Greater Than Rubies is a beautiful and inspirational story about two adults who have been through the utmost torment that a human being could possibly go through, as children. From the moment Tony meets (sees) Robin, he is completely enamored by her; Robin never even notices Tony, until a second meeting when she is serving him in a restaurant, where she makes it completely and utterly clear that she despises him.  Tony's gentle touch takes Robin where no man has ever taken her - into a spiritual adventure of love like no other.
Hallee Bridgeman has done an amazing job of winding real life into two amazing stories of adulthood, the power of prayer and our amazing Lord above, and love. These books/novella's had me completely enamored from the first few words! Ms. Bridgeman's love for her heavenly Lord definately come out in a well written and spiritually versed book. Five stars for this bundle of faith!
I received this ebundle from bookfun.org for my honest opinion and review of these books.

Review: Wisdom Tree by Mary Manners

Young Corey and his older brother Jake, who is also a young Pastor of a church, lose their parents one tragic night as they make their way to the hospital to their youngest son who was rushed into surgery. Over the next couple of months it is a true struggle for Corey to emotionally accept what's happened and for Jake to help him through it. Just when Jake thinks he's failed, Corey's English teacher Carin comes into the picture. By making Corey responsible for his actions she not only brings Corey and Jake closer together, but unknowingly throws herself into the mix. Along with all the other troubles Jake has in dealing with Corey, Carin has problems of her own that soon make themselves known.

I LOVED this book!  I literally sat here and read the whole book in just a couple hours this morning. I didn't want to put it down. It had some action, suspense (you never knew what was happening or going to happen next), and romance in it. The best part of it all was the faith pronounced in the book. God is a huge presence within each chapter of the lives of these three young people.

The best part of all - there is a devotional with reflections and prayers in it. Five stars for this awesome book!

I was given this book by the publisher and bookfun.org in return for my honest opinion.

Review: The Difference You Make by Pat Williams

Upon opening up the book I was worried that I would not be able to read through this book. This is not my typical type of read, until I came upon Wooden's name. I have read a few books on Wooden, being a Kinesiology major, and thoroughly love the man. So, I trudged on.

This book was about a man who has delved out principles not only on life but on work ethic and selflessness. He uses real life examples to drive the truth of the matter in, doing so while he struggles with multiple myeloma. He is a bundle of courage and information encouraging us to use our influences selflessly and to give of ourselves freely.

By the time I finished this book I had learned a few things about myself and plan to make some changes by giving more of myself in the manner in which Pat Williams teaches. Yes, I said teaches. Any good teacher deserves acknowledgement, and that is exactly what Pat Williams does when he encourages us to utilize his principles of life. He utilizes famous people  who have influenced him and people who he has influenced to share with us his true stories to do what, I think, we need him to do. Show us how to live.

Five stars for a well written and communicative book!

This book was given to me by the publishers and bookfun.org in return for my honest opinion.

Review: When the Heart Heals by Ann Shorey

Rosemary has spent a year establishing herself in the little town of Noble Springs after a dedicating time in a cavalry hospital working as a nurse.  Most people disregarded her as vulgar and distasteful because she had touched men during that time. While trying her best to become an independent lady she deals with someone trying to sabotage her and attack her on a normal basis. When she lands a job with the local doctor as his nurse and spends her time trying to win him over to her herbs and tinctures she also falls in love with him. As they spend more and more time working together they grow a fondness towards each other until one day a lady shows up from the big city of St. Louis and destroys all that Rosemary knows. (If I go further it will spoil it, so I'm going to stop here.)

When I first "flipped" through this book, the first chapter, I wasn't sure I was going to like it. Shame on me for jumping to conclusions! I loved this book. Read it in just a couple of hours! This book gains five stars from me! It has everything in a book I love to see. Suspense, drama, laughter, faith. Couldn't ask for more! I really can't write a ton on it because I'll spoil the story line if I do!

I received this book free of charge from the publisher and bookfun.org for my honest review.

Review: Strength Renewed: Meditations for Your Journey through Breast Cancer by Shirley Corder

This is an amazing book of meditations for women going through breast cancer. Each page gives some thought provoking questions, things to ponder, words of wisdom and some simply amazing well thought out prayers.

 I was very impressed with this book. I, personally, do not have breast cancer, but have friends who do and my grandmother (raised me) had a double mastectomy from breast cancer, so I wanted to read this book to see how it would help others, and even possibly me should I ever need it.
 I was so very amazed at the faith Shirley Corder shows in this book. I would recommend this book to anyone dealing with breast cancer and even possibly loved ones. You can alter the prayers for those who are in need of prayers that are dealing with breast cancer if you aren't the person with the ugly disease. I found that reading this book, you didn't have to be going through the breast cancer yourself, but could apply it to those you know who might be and you could even offer some daily insight to those who might be going through it.
Five stars for this book. I loved it!

 I recieved this book from the publisher Baker Publishing Group and bookfun.org for my honest opinion.

Review of : 5 Days to a Clutter-Free House by Sandra Felton and Marsha Sims

This book was written to help you declutter your home in five days. The book outlines stages to achieve your ultimate goal as well as the methods to go about organizing while you are decluttering it. Utilizing teams and an organizing method utilizing boxes to neutralize the items to the correct room, they also give examples of each situation that developed. They go into detail about how to get rid of those boxes once you created them.  Lastly, the book tells how to “manage” yourself. This is the best part of the book.  It tells you how to maintain your decluttered house, with some very good tips and advice.

Upon opening up this book, I was amazed. These ladies hit the nail on the head when it came to “disorganized” people. See, I had an ulterior motive for requesting to review this book. Maybe there was something out there that could help my time lacking self to get more organized. I am all of the things they listed…intelligent, curious, productive, frugal, helpful, creative, careful and loving. I often call myself soft…and unorganized. But, don’t disturb my unorganized system…I know where my stuff is located. So, I continued on reading. My house is not messy. My desk is disorganized but not my house.

I reach the point where the ladies state “get a team together”…well, that’s not going to help me. None of my friends want to help – they are all afraid they are going to throw the wrong thing away, even if they don’t throw anything away. My family isn’t good at helping, except to pile things higher, even if I give them direct orders of what to separate into what…it just isn’t happening. The “About this Book” section in Chapter one is, in my opinion, the greatest. Don’t get me wrong, now. I LOVE the book. It’s a direct approach to becoming clutter free. However, there is a quote I love in this section: “Our purpose in writing this book is to help you move to a new way of life from the clutter that surrounds you.” Makes me want to read this book many times to just keep in mind what I’m reading!

Twenty two pages into the book I come across the title of a section called “It’s hard to change”. Boy do they have my family pegged! Then, the next section “Fall in love with an Organized Life” got me to dreaming. I only wish! I always tell myself, until my kids leave home – I’ll never be organized. Can I really do it with the help of a book and no “team”?

I like the fact that the authors give examples of what the intent is in each chapter - real life true stories. And, what’s best is they give examples of how each team member is to tackle their designated area.  I can see where that would help eliminate problems, especially when you are the one to ultimately say it goes in the trash or not. By utilizing team members and organizing boxes they ultimately have a unique system to separating items by room it belongs in and by the items themselves.

While I like this system and think it would work well, I don’t think it’s for me. I have a lot of extenuating circumstances to my home, one being the fact that we live in a very rural area and not many of my friends can take five days to help me clean my house.

As for the book, itself, I think the authors did a very good job on explaining why it’s done the way they do it, why they call it what they do, how to do it and the methodology behind it. Kudos on a well written book!  I think that the book could be bettered by problem solving the area that someone may not have a “team” to come in and help them, nor may they have the money to hire someone to come help them.  Also, figure out about those boxes that end up lying around. Yes, your house is now clutter- free, but it’s not box free.  So, while you may not have clutter laying around you now have boxes laying around that eventually have to find their rightful places  at some point in time. So, while you did declutter your home from clutter, you now have to declutter it from boxes. In essence I love the way the book is written. It is lighthearted, easy to read and well worded. Someone who has room for the boxes and has a team of people who can help them, can declutter their home quickly.  

I am giving this book four stars. Why, after the review I’ve given it? Because overall this book is well written and a great book; it is just not the book for me and decluttering my house. I’m not giving it five stars because I think somewhere in there, there could have been some type of solution for people who don’t have a team of people and can’t hire a team of people. I also think there could be a solution for those who don’t have “storage” for all those boxes they create in order to declutter their homes. Yes, those boxes are going to be disappearing soon, but in the meantime there just might not be storage space. The end of the book is my favorite part. It is strategically written with some very good tips and advice on maintaining your clean and decluttered house. While they can’t “make” you keep it clean and keep it from being decluttered, they sure told you how to do go about it.

Thanks for a great read and kudos on a job well done!

I received this book (5 Days to a Clutter-Free House by Sandra Felton and Marsha Sims) from bookfun.org for my honest opinion and review. 

Review: Thunderdog

Thunderdog: A True Story of A Blind Man, a Guide Dog, and the Triumph of TRUST at GROUND ZERO

• by Michael Hingson, Susy Flory (With), Larry King (Foreword by)

 

Overview

A blind man and his guide dog show the power of trust and courage in the midst of devastating terror.

It was 12:30 a.m. on 9/11 and Roselle whimpered at Michael’s bedside. A thunderstorm was headed east, and she could sense the distant rumbles while her owners slept. As a trained guide dog, when she was “on the clock” nothing could faze her. But that morning, without her harness, she was free to be scared, and she nudged Michael’s hand with her wet nose as it draped over the bedside toward the floor. She needed him to wake up.

With a busy day of meetings and an important presentation ahead, Michael slumped out of bed, headed to his home office, and started chipping away at his daunting workload. Roselle, shivering, took her normal spot at his feet and rode out the storm while he typed. By all indications it was going to be a normal day. A busy day, but normal nonetheless. Until they went into the office.

In Thunder Dog, follow Michael and his guide dog, Roselle, as their lives are changed forever by two explosions and 1,463 stairs. When the first plane struck Tower One, an enormous boom, frightening sounds, and muffled voices swept through Michael’s office while shards of glass and burning scraps of paper fell outside the windows.

But in this harrowing story of trust and courage, discover how blindness and a bond between dog and man saved lives and brought hope during one of America’s darkest days.

MY Review:

I absolutely loved this book. This man and his dog went through so much and both showed an extreme amount of perserverance. I was simply amazed at how much they survived together. To add that to the fact that the survival and perserverance was put forth on one of the hardest days of this nation, just makes it all the more better of a read. I gave the book four stars. I think there are some area's that could be improved on -- a little more attention to Roselle (not that it is easy focusing on a dog who is the object of the story..they aren't "really" like human characters) and also a little less focusing on the feelings of Michael Hingson. The story was written more in the here and now of Michael's feelings/thoughts than the fact that the book was supposed to be a "doggie story."

However, I love the fact that through this story we learn how the owners of guide dogs get where they are, how they bond (or sometimes not), and how they survive as one to make the best of this world through blind eyes. I find that this was very enlightening and an encouraging story about 9/11, a man and his guide dog and there significant overcoming situations (there were well more than one). I would definately read this again and plan on keeping this book in my library. People who love dogs, biography type stories and real life situations will LOVE this book. I definately recommend it!

Disclosure of Material Connection: I received this book free from the publisher through the BookSneeze®.com <http://booksneeze®.com/> book review bloggers program. I was not required to write a positive review. The opinions I have expressed are my own. I am disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission’s 16 CFR, Part 255 <http://www.access.gpo.gov/nara/cfr/waisidx_03/16cfr255_03.html> : “Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising.”