25 Down 5 To Go

A Time to Dance

Karen Kingsbury
Recommended by: Stephanie (lady who handles the money for MOPS)
August 19-24

John and Abby Reynolds were the perfect couple, sharing a love born of childhood friendship and deep family ties. They are envied by their friends, cherished by their children, admired by their peers. But after surviving twenty-one years of love, loss, and laughter, of raising a family in their lakeside home, John and Abby are about to lose it all.

On the verge of having an affair, John is no more the man Abby married than she is the long ago girl of his dreams. They are strangers whose days of dancing seem gone forever, and finally they make the saddest decision of all. They gather their three children to tell them the news, but before they can speak, their daughter makes an announcement of her own--a joyous one: She is getting married that summer.

Determined not to ruin their daughter's season of happiness, Abby and John secretly agree to put their divorce plans on hold. But as the wedding nears, they are haunted by questions. Is the decision they've made irreversible? Are there times when marriage--even the marriage between two people of faith--is truly beyond repair? And is it possible, alone in the moonlight on an old wooden pier, to once more find....a time to dance?

My thoughts: I enjoyed this book. I did like the cheesy. happy ending. Stephanie just said any book by this author so I picked this one because it isn't part of a series. I will be reading more of her.

24 Down 6 To Go

Choosing To See

Mary Beth Chapman with Ellen Vaughn

Recommended by: Kamin (mops mentor)

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Mary Beth Chapman is the wife of Grammy and Dove Award winning recording artist Steven Curtis Chapman. Together they began Show Hope, a nonprofit organization dedicated to caring for the world's most vulnerable children by providing financial assistance to families wishing to adopt, as well as increasing awareness of the orphan crisis and funneling resources to orphans domestically and internationally. Mary Beth serves as president of Show Hope and is a speaker for Women of Faith 2010 with her husband. She is also coauthor with Steven of the Shaoey and Dot series of children's picture books. Mary Beth and Steven have six children: Emily, Caleb, Will Franklin, and adopted daughters Shaohannah Hope, Stevey Joy, and Maria Sue, who is now with Jesus. The Chapmans live in Tennessee.
(copy from goodreads I don't have the cover to the book)

What I thought: Kamin wanted Erica and I to read this before the MOPS convention but we didn't. Both Mary Beth and Steven Curtis Chapman were at convention. So hearing them talk about the death of their little girl made it easier to read. I did tear up here and there but not too bad. Most of it is funny and written with fun in mind. Good read.

23 Down 7 To Go

Water for Elephants

Sara Gruen

Recommended by: Karen (a friend of Julie's)

I don't remember I was in Nashville

Though he may not speak of them, the memories still dwell inside Jacob Jankowski's ninety-something-year-old mind. Memories of himself as a young man, tossed by fate onto a rickety train that was home to the Benzini Brothers Most Spectacular Show on Earth. Memories of a world filled with freaks and clowns, with wonder and pain and anger and passion; a world with its own narrow, irrational rules, its own way of life, and its own way of death. The world of the circus: to Jacob it was both salvation and a living hell.

Jacob was there because his luck had run out - orphaned and penniless, he had no direction until he landed on this locomotive 'ship of fools'. It was the early part of the Great Depression, and everyone in this third-rate circus was lucky to have any job at all. Marlena, the star of the equestrian act, was there because she fell in love with the wrong man, a handsome circus boss with a wide mean streak. And Rosie the elephant was there because she was the great gray hope, the new act that was going to be the salvation of the circus; the only problem was, Rosie didn't have an act - in fact, she couldn't even follow instructions. The bond that grew among this unlikely trio was one of love and trust, and ultimately, it was their only hope for survival.

(copy from goodreads I let someone borrow it and then it went back to the owner)

What I thought: I LOVED IT!!!! I have a fondness for the circus in the 1920's so this book was amazing to me. A girls night to see the movie is in the plans. I loved everything about it. :)

22 Down 8 To Go

The Help

Kathryn Stockett

Recommended by: Janis (another great neighbor)

July 16-24

Three ordinary women are about to take one extraordinary step.

Twenty-two-year-old Skeeter has just returned home after graduating from Ole Miss. She may have a degree, but it is 1962, Mississippi, and her mother will not be happy till Skeeter has a ring on her finger. Skeeter would normally find solace with her beloved maid Constantine, the woman who raised her, but Constantine has disappeared and no one will tell Skeeter where she has gone.

Aibileen is a black maid, a wise, regal woman raising her seventeenth white child. Something has shifted inside her after the loss of her own son, who died while his bosses looked the other way. She is devoted to the little girl she looks after, though she knows both their hearts may be broken.

Minny, Aibileen's best friend, is short, fat, and perhaps the sassiest woman in Mississippi. She can cook like nobody's business, but she can't mind her tongue, so she's lost yet another job. Minny finally finds a position working for someone too new to town to know her reputation. But her new boss has secrets of her own.

Seemingly as different from one another as can be, these women will nonetheless come together for a clandestine project that will put them all at risk. And why? Because they are suffocating within the lines that define their town and their times. And sometimes lines are made to be crossed.
(Copy from Goodreads, I had to trturn the book before I could blog it)

What I thought: My neighbor hadn't read it yet when she said I should read it but she had heard so many goods thingabout it she couldn't wait to read it. The moive is now out and it suppode to be very good. I liked that it had history and made mefeel sad at times. But the book is great!!

21 Down 9 T Go

Odd Thomas

Dean Koontz

Recommended by: Brandon (my brother)
July 9-15 

"The dead don't talk. I don't know why."
But they do try to communicate, with a short-order cook in a small desert town serving as their reluctant confidant. Odd Thomas thinks of himself as an ordinary guy, if possessed of a certain measure of talent at the Pico Mundo Grill and rapturously in love with the most beautiful girl in the world, Stormy Llewellyn.

Maybe he has a gift, maybe it's a curse, Odd has never been sure, but he tries to do his best by the silent souls who seek him out. Sometimes they want justice, and Odd's otherworldly tips to Pico Mundo's sympathetic police chief, Wyatt Porter, can solve a crime. Occasionally they can prevent one. But this time it's different.

A Mysterious man comes to town with a voracious appetite, a filing cabinet stuffed with information on the world's worst killers, and a pack of hyena-like shades following him wherever he goes. Who the man is and what he wants, not even Odd's deceased informants can tell him. His most ominous clue is a page ripped from a day-by-day calender for August 15.

Today is August 14.

In less than twenty-four hours, Pico Mundo will awaken to a day of catastrophe. As evil coils under the searing desert sun, Odd travels through the shifting prisms of his world, struggling to avert a looming cataclysm with the aid of his soul mate and unlikely community of allies that includes the King of Rock 'n' Roll. His account of two shattering days when past and present, fate and destiny converge is the stuff of out worst nightmares--and a testament by which to live: sanely if not safely, with courage, humor, and a full heart that even in the darkness must persevere.

What I thought: I really liked it. I guess there are more Odd books but I don't think I'll be reading them. I've read Dean Koontz before and like some of his stuff. I found the ending to be sad and really did not know it was going to to turn out that way. Which is always nice in books.

20 Down 10 To Go

Sweet and Deadly

Charlaine Harris

Recommended by: Jen (a neighbor's daughter,

her kids play with my kids)

She really recommended the Sookie Stackhouse series

but I didn't want to start a series so I read this one instead
Dates: 7/5-9


Six months after the death of her parents in a car crash, Catherine Linton returns to her hometown of Lowfield, Mississippi, unconvinced that it was an accident and looking for answers. Her suspicions seem to be confirmed when she stumbles upon the dead and beaten body of her doctor father's long-time nurse.
Catherine is right: there are secrets being kept in Lowfield. But if she continues to investigate, the town where she grew up may be the same place where she is sent to her grave...

What I Thought: I liked it. It was a quick read. That's all I have to say. :)

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The Book Thief

Markus Zusak

Recommended by: Amy (I know alot of librarians,

 this one also a doll)

6/18-30


      It is 1939. Nazi Germany. The country is holding it's breath.    Death has never been busier, and will become busier still.

By her brother's graveside, Liesel Meminger's life is changed when she picks up a single object, partially hidden in the snow. It is The Grave Digger's Handbook left there by accident, and it is her first act of book thievery. So begins a love affair with books and words, as Liesel, with the help of her accordion-playing foster father, learns to read. Soon she is stealing books from Nazi book-burnings, the mayor's wife's library, wherever there are books to be found.
But these are dangerous times. When Liesel's foster family hides a Jew in their basement, Liesel's world is both opened up and closed down.

What do I think: I loved it! I thought it would be a light read, but I was wrong. It has so much going on it in. I love Liesel and feel like I got to know her reading the book. What a sad time. I love that it's Death telling the story. Great book!