One Call Away by Brenda Warner

I am a sucker for memoirs.  I am always quick to pick up a book with "memoir" in the subtitle.  And while I'm not a big football fan, I was interested in reading this memoir by Brenda Warner (wife of NFL star quarterback Kurt Warner). 

Multi-faceted is really the best way to describe Brenda Warner.  She has had a wide range of life experiences which she tells in such a way that I could hardly put this book down.  From her loving childhood to her Marine career, from her experiences with a special-needs child and divorce to being a mom of seven children including twins and the wife of a famous athlete, Brenda weaves her story in a light-hearted and honest way.  The pages of snapshots in the middle were numerous and great to look at. 

I thoroughly enjoyed this book.  I found the author to be very relatable and interesting, and the book was well-written.  I laughed out loud several times and I felt like she did a good job of not taking herself too seriously.  While I didn't find my life changed in any way, I was entertained and touched by her forthright portrayal of her life and experiences.

Love You More by Jennifer Grant

I am a sucker for memoirs.  I have an adopted son.  So I was quick to snap up the book Love You More:  The Divine Surprise of Adopting My Daughter by Jennifer Grant.

Grant weaves facts and information about adoption, particularly international adoption, with the personal journey of adopting her daughter, Mia, from Guatemala.  The book chronicles the couple's early history as they build their family and how they felt called to pursue adoption.  Details about the adoption process are provided, in the context of their experiences.  The story ends as Mia is settling into life as part of the family, woven in to the place the family has created for her.

I have to admit, that while this book was well written, it wasn't what I was expecting.  The majority of the book was about the adoption process and facts about adoption in general.  I am an adoptive mother, but I couldn't really identify with much.  This probably has more to do with the unusual circumstances of our kinship adoption than the book, but I was still a bit let down to not feel a connection the way I expected.  I also would have enjoyed hearing more about who Mia is and the process of fitting her into the family.  Most of the book covered the process of actually adopting her, not how she adjusted, which was something I was interested in.  I did enjoy and relate to Grant's stories of parenting and lessons learned as she raised babies and toddlers born close together.

While I found this a well-written and interesting book, it was not what I was expecting to read.  I enjoyed it, though, and would definitely pass it on, along with some caveats.

Thunder Dog by Hingson

It has been awhile since I've picked up a book about 9/11.  In fact, the only ones I've read have been novels and I found them to be unrealistic and overly sappy.  This book was a breath of fresh air.  Thunder Dog tells the remarkable true story of a man who cannot see and the dog who guides him out of the burning World Trade Center.

The author has never been one to let his impairment hold him back and so when he found himself in the towers on that September day, hard at work preparing for a meeting, he reacted as he always did.  He simply made a calm decision, trusted his guide dog and was fortunate to make it out of the towers alive.

My favorite part of this book was how the author jumped from the story of his descent down thousands of stairs to the story of his life and how being blind has only been a small part of who he is.  I am a sucker for memoirs and found this one to be candid and interesting.  I am not a dog lover by any means, but I found Roselle, the author's guide dog to be completely endearing. 

Overall, a quick and easy read and an interesting story about one man's survival of 9/11. 

A Place Called Blessing by Trent

I was intrigued by the idea of this book:  to take a nonfiction book about relationships and model the key principles in a work of fiction.  A Place Called Blessing:  Where Hurting Ends and Love Begins tells the story of a young man with a troubled past.  Josh has never been loved and as a result, he has never developed trust.  The child of uncaring parents, he ended up in the foster care system.  After a terrible tragedy and repeated rejection, he finds himself on his own at 18.  He meets a couple of people who change the trajectory of his life profoundly. 

Interwoven throughout the story are the key concepts of Trent's principle of biblical blessing.  I have not read the nonfiction book, The Blessing, so I was not sure exactly what I was looking for in the novel.  At the end of the book, Trent outlines the 5 key concepts of blessing and as I thought back through the story, I could clearly see them throughout the book.  The book also includes a great list of questions that one could work through independently or as a part of a book club or small group.

I enjoyed this book.  I like memoirs or novels that read like memoirs, and stories of people overcoming personal obstacles are some of my favorites.  It was a quick and easy read, yet gave me something to think about.  In some ways, I found it to be a bit too simplistic or maybe not quite believable.  However, the core principles are based on truth and this book does a nice job of laying them out in an enjoyable, readable fashion.

The Seraph Seal by Sweet and Wagner

If you loved the mystery and intrigue of the popular Da Vinci Code book, you will enjoy The Seraph Seal.  A book in the same symbol-laden style, it incorporates theology, prophecy and faith into the story line while developing characters that soon become almost real to the reader. 

Set in the future, the book revolves around a cast of nine main characters who slowly come together in a battle of good and evil as the earth self-destructs around them.  The characters must put the clues together and take their sides in the cataclysmic end of the age.  I can't say much more than that without giving juicy information away.  The historical parts feel accurate and the symbolism is the type that one can't really grasp in just one read.  The story is woven and it is fascinating.

I enjoyed this book quite a bit and it really got me thinking about how very many different perspectives there are on science, theology and end times.  This book offered one "what if..." idea and it was entertaining and thought-provoking.  While I am not sure I buy into their ideas, I still found them fascinating to consider. 

I really enjoyed all of the visuals included in the book; they aided my understanding immensely.  The authors also provide additional information in the foreword and two appendices.  This book is the total package.

Recommend?  Definitely.

Please Stop Laughing at Me by Jodee Blanco

This best-selling memoir was both heart-breaking and inspiring to read.  In fact, I stayed up late several nights reading it, because I just couldn't put it down.  Jodee Blanco chronicles her experiences of being bullied in an honest and transparent way.  Starting in fifth grade and continuing through her final year of highschool, Jodee found herself the center of cruel jokes, physical tormenting and verbal abuse. 

The book begins at her twenty-year high school reunion and then flashes back to elementary school and chronicles her school years, then ends at the reunion.  The story is one of devastating cruelty; in fact, having never been bullied and never really witnessed true bullying, I found it to be nearly impossible to believe.  However, more and more there are stories in the news that confirm that this type of behavior is not unique. 

One thing that really hit me hard was that some of the behaviors that Jodee found most hurtful weren't the outright cruel ones, like dunking her favorite shoe in a toilet of urine, but the times that other kids watched and didn't stick up for her, or the hundreds of times she was not invited or included.  Not only was she hurt by the bullies' behaviors, she was emotionally devastated by being an outcast.

Amazingly, she writes that she would not change her past because it has brought her to the place she is now; she is a sought-after speaker and expert on the topic of bullying and has intervened in crisis situations.  She has helped so many kids, teens, parents, and teachers with her inspirational story and has achieved great success as an adult. 

This book is one every parent and teacher should read.  It is too important to ignore.

Regret Free Parenting by Catherine Hickem

"For years, motherhood as a role has carried wide expectations but little direction on how to do it well.  Many moms enter this significant responsibility with few goals and purposes, simply trying to get through each day with as few crises as possible."  This statement from Catherine Hickem's book, Regret Free Parenting: Raise Good Kids and Know You're Doing it Right, stood out to me in its truth and honesty.

This book is a great resource for a Godly parenting philosophy.  Strong on principles and big ideas, it allows parents (primarily mothers) to examine how they view parenting, what their goals are and to find their true intentions instead of just getting through the day.  Peppered with examples from her own life as a therapist/counselor and mother of two adult children, the book is both easy to read and easy to use as a study tool.  Each chapter concludes with application questions and a parenting plan is included at the end of the book, with permission to make copies.

I found this book helpful.  It aided me in stepping back to examine what I truly want for my children, and also for myself as a mother.  The questions were insightful and if I underlined books, I would have underlined quite a few passages.  At times, however, I found it difficult to relate the ideas/concepts to my children, ages 2 1/2 and 1; the concepts and/or examples appeared to be geared more towards older children/teens.  There weren't practical suggestions but instead big ideas to take in and think about.  The application of these ideas relies on the reader to figure out ways to implement them - which is one of Hickem's major points - that we need to trust our intuition and go to the Word and the Lord for answers to our specific problems.

This book is a great resource and one I will keep.  I can definitely envision myself pulling it out at different times in the next decades to find the wisdom it contains.