Misery Loves Company~Review

(Free copy of the book provided to me for review)

Let me start out by saying that the fact this book was about a woman who reviews books on her blog and get kidnapped because of it kind of freaked me out a little bit! =)

I was also wary going in because it sounded like it was going to be along the lines of The Shack, and while I liked that particular book (REVIEW HERE) Christian suspense has never been my favorite genre.....so I went in this book planning on having to force myself to read it.....

Ahem, but let me raise the right hand of wrongness and say that I could barely put it down! Christian fiction and suspense can be married into a gripping, yet not to gory book that doesn't feel contrived or forced! It wasn't preachy and it kept me guessing, which were a few of my beefs with previous Christian suspense books I'd read.

All of the jumping around was a little hard to follow and the very beginning creeped me out and confused me a bit*, but other then that I thoroughly enjoyed the story and would recommend it to anyone enjoys suspense/mystery stories!

Official Summary~

Filled with grief since her husband's death, Jules Bellano rarely leaves the house. Venturing out to the grocery store, she bumps into her favorite author. Embarrassing herself is the last thing she remembers before waking up in a strange room with a splitting headache. Can she discover why her husband really died and survive her own ordeal? 

*Spoilers............

The beginning was explained further on in the book and cleared up my nagging questions and clarified A LOT the why of what was going on!

Review: Bread and Wine

Thank to some help from the lovely KELLI, I signed up for some book reviewing sights and now get sent free books as long as I post a review here on my blog, cool huh? =)

My first book was, Bread and Wine: A Love Letter to Life Around the table, with Recipes, and might I say I loved every word! She has an amazing sense of humor and food description skills. She kept me laughing  crying and hungry throughout the entire book!

Summary:

A collection of stories and lessons learned from the authors life centering around her love of food and the way it brings us all together, in the good and bad times of life!

It has recipes after almost every chapter and I have to admit that's one of the reasons I picked this one to review, I won't really let myself buy anymore cooks books, but as this technically wasn't a cook book, so no rules broken there, right? ;-)

As the authors husband is gluten in intolerant , the recipes are almost all gluten free and there are even a few dairy free, gluten free, vegetarian friendly choices.

This books made me want to cook up a storm, then fling open my doors and invite everyone I know to come and enjoy a long evening of food, laughter and fun!

The Shack

I read the book The Shack on the recommendation of a bible study group that I'm in. It was a band wagon type book so having the personality that I do, I refused to read it just because everyone one else was. But, as I was listening to everyone talk about it I decided that I should read it. I borrowed it from a friend and read it in one day.

I was warned not to be disturbed by the goriness and by the the way he portrayed God. It is just a book and as a mystery and fantasy fan I've read far more descriptive kidnapping type scenes before so I didn't really have a problem with that part.

I will admit to being one of those people who always pictured God as a Santa Clause type figure, just in a white robe instead of the red suit. So when I got the the black mammy God it made me stop and think. Then slowly a smile spread across my face, as sacrilegious as it seems(especially with my Catholic upbringing! I sill love the Catholics don't get me wrong, but you are taught to respect God and no nonsense is allowed.) I can totally see God as a black mammy, the I know what's best for you and you should do it because I love you and you love me, not because I'm telling you to. So, that part made me smile and chuckle at my inclination to cross myself and say a couple hail Marys! What can I say? Old habits die hard!

I really like how the author portrayed the holy spirit and the soul. There are some major theological flaws, but there are also some parts that I fully agree with. Like any other book, I take what I know to be right and run with it and research and bug the people I know about the things I'm not sure about. Then things I just know are weird, like the psychedelic star chapter(you'll know what I'm talking about it you've read the book!) I just giggle over and move on.

My beef with this book is the same that it is with all band wagon books, everybody takes everything in it as gospel and doesn't dig any deeper when things don't make sense. It's really bad with "Christian" books like The Shack, but happens with secular ones as well. If you are not firmly grounded in your faith books like Harry Potter and Twilight should not be read by you. Even if you don't go out and start looking for hot vampires to hang with, ideas can get planted and unless you are guarding your self against them they'll sneak in there and permeate your way of thinking. Satan doesn't not need to turn you into a Wicca to accomplish his task, most of the time he just distracts rather then full out attacks.

The moral of this little story? Be careful what you read and be on your guard, if something seems revolutionary talk about it with someone and pray that God would open your eyes and help you see what His truths are.

Crazy Love!

I must have been in the need of some lovin' this week! I've been wandering around my house asking where my "Crazy Love" has gotten to. Every time I start asking it sends my family into peals of laughter.....okay guys stop it, get up off of the floor and just tell me where my "Crazy Love" is!!! I'm not going nuts(well, at least not in my opinion!) I just have a bad habit of setting my books down in places I know I'll be able to find them later..............right and it totally always works!

I've been reading "Crazy Love" by Francis Chan this week. It's really good. I'm about halfway through right now and am excited to read the rest. It starts out pretty basic but don't rush or skip the first couple chapters, we all need to be reminded of the simple things sometimes. There are some neat computer things he wants you to look at. I did them the first time, but when he tells you to watch them again..................... I just skipped that!

I was reading it at a pizza parlor fund raiser my church was having for the youth group. I can usually block off the world pretty good when I'm reading, my own little bubble you know? I was having a hard time because there was lots of noise and it was hot. There was a girl at my table sticking her ear buds in my ears. Then I came to this one spot. I read through it once and my whole world shrank down to those words on the page.

It was one of those put your name into the bible verse type things, I'm usally not that into those but this one hit me and hit me hard! Some of this next part is directly from the book, other parts are me, so don't be disappointed if when you read the book that my wonderful additions aren't there! The author is talking about how the word love is overused and has lost it's meaning. We love pizza and we love our parents. We love TV shows and we love our soul mates. What does God mean by love? He tells us in 1 Corinthians 13: 4-8

Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. It is not rude, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres. Love never fails. But where there are prophecies, they will cease; where there are tongues, they will be stilled; where there is knowledge, it will pass away.

Take the phrase Love is patient and substitute your name for the word love (for me, "Katy is patient...") now do this with every phrase in the passage. Whoa, right? I've read those verses how many times and I love them. But, by putting my name in there it turned on the proverbial light bulb, I do not love like this. God wants me to love His world like this and I don't. I try sometimes and maybe even partly succeed but catch me when I'm tired or annoyed and you won't feel much love coming from my direction!

This is something I need to tattoo across my eyelids so I don't forget it! Try it for yourself, if you haven't already and see how it changes your outlook on love. Or maybe it won't change much in your way of viewing the world, but like I mentioned earlier we all need to be reminded of the simple things at times! So, go ahead and while your at it, pick up a copy of the book as well. We all need some more lovin' in our lives, right?=)

UP!

If you haven't gone to see the new PIXAR movie UP, you need to stop reading this and go right now! I love PIXAR movies and got together a group friends and went last night. I don't care what age you are this movie is great. I wouldn't bother with the 3D though, it would just seem superfluous and detract from the movie rather then enhance.

Carl and Elle are to kids with a love of adventure and desire to one day travel to Paradise Falls to follow in the foot steps of their favorite explorer. They grow up together and fall in love and live a beautiful life together. Most of this is done with out words. It was wonderful and made me cry! Despite saving their pennies they never do make it to Paradise Falls. The rest of the movie follows Carl learning to live with out Elle and finding a new lease on life.

I'm not going to tell you anything else, you just need to go see it for your self! Don't worry about anyone in the family being bored, it will keep everyone entertained. Another tip, if you have a Costco card buy your movie tickets there it's way cheaper!