The Best of Me

WOW!  What a great story.

I have missed holding a book and turning pages (I have been using the Kindle mostly).  So I was very excited to read this "real" book anyway.  But the story is amazing.

And unlike many Nicholas Sparks books there are pages of love making.

Dawson and Amanda couldn't come from more different worlds.  Dawson was born into a family of law breakers and drug dealers...although the apple couldn't have fallen further from the tree if the tree was on a hill.  Amanda came from a well known family on the right side of the town with all the comforts a girl could want.  In high school they were paired together in lab and were inseparably for the rest of the year and summer.  They fell madly and deeply in love and when their parents tried to pull them apart the grew closer together.

But as kids do...they grew up and events forced them to part.  Life took them in very different directions.  25 years later they find themselves back home for the funeral of a mutual friend.  Neither of them could realize what it would be like seeing each other again after so long...and what would unfold as a result.

Intrigued???

You should be.  And then you should read it! I have a copy if you want to read it.

I am a Mother

What a wonderful book.  I highly suggest all mothers take a moment to read it!  It is a very easy read, but it is a great one.  The author used to be an anchor or a new lady or something in the media and was moving up the ladder of importance in that area.  She was a little older when she got married and felt that she had to choose between being a stay at home mom or to further her career and keep going in that direction.  She chose motherhood.

It is Jane Johnson's story from choosing to be a stay at home mom, the reaction from her former colleges and decided that her job is "a mother" and not "just a mother."  She shares her testimony of the importance of mothers, and the influence we have on the world and future generations.  She also talks about the support we can be to each other rather than judging and comparing.

It is very well written and made me proud to say I am a mother....I always have been but even on the worse day this book helped me see that it is true no matter how many poopy diapers I have to change.

I'd rather be a mother than anyone on earth

Bringing up a child or two of unpretentious birth...

I'd rather tuck a little child all safe and sound in bed

Than twine a chain of diamonds about my [carefree] head.

I'd rather wash a smudgy face with round, bright, baby eyes

Than paint the pageantry of fame or walk among the wise

-Meredith Gray, from The Beauty of Motherhood

It is a blessing and honor to be a mother.  I have always known and felt this and this book teaches me the truth of that once again.  I love my children and the family my husband and I are creating.  What a wonderful life I am blessed to live.  

I am back!

So sad to think that it was NOVEMBER since I last posted books that I read.  What is even more sad are the books that I have read since then.

I was limited.

I have been reading books mostly in the middle of the night while I nursed Ryan.  Doesn't help me retain much of what I read.  But I do remember they were pretty lame.

I guess that is what I get for reading free books from my kindle.  Free sometimes means "awesome great deal.  its my lucky day"  or it means " we couldn't get anyone to spend anything on this...so here.  have it.  Please take it...by the way it is crap"

But at 1 in the morning who cares really?

Then my computer broke.  Awesome....or not.

But I am back now.  I am reading a great book and I have 2 more waiting to be read.  I am very excited.  I have been reading books mostly off the kindle for the last year and I have missed turning real pages.

So...for those three of you who glance my way...I have returned

All is right with the world once more.

Have you ever watched Castle the tv show?  Oh it is one of our favorites in the Stark home.  It is mysterious, funny, clever, and there is romance and fighting and chasing.  One of the main characters (Richard Castle) is a murder mystery writer and on tv he tags along with a detective for ideas.

I was curious if this was a real author or not so I looked him up and there are a TON of books by Richard Castle.  I bought and read the cheapest one...must to my disappointment it was very short but still very good.

It is about a man named Storm who was some kind of unknown agent, the kind that did the job without anyone knowing it was him and no one was supposed to since it wasn't always legal.  He is called back into work after a 3 year leave and has to solve a kidnapping case.  A congressman's son has been kidnapped and the father is a very hated man so the guilt party really could be anyone.  As Storm investigates he begins to see how far and deep this goes.  There are bombs that go off, and money burnt up and some flirting and all that good stuff.  It also takes place in Washington DC and that is always fun since some of the places I have been to and that is cool.

It was a tease of a book thought, it ended quickly with a note saying if I wanted to read part two I would have to buy it...

stink.

It was a good read, now I am trying to remember if there was a lot of swearing.  I don't remember.

If I could find these books at the library I would read them.  But I wouldn't spend money on them.

I then was curious about this lucky man who is a successful author AND has his own TV show.  As it turns out he is a fake and someone is ghost writing all this.  that was a disappointing.  I think that is a big reason why I won't spend money on it.

(I couldn't get the picture to download.  grrr)

President Dieter F. Uchtdorf

Recently Amazon was offering two of President Uchtdorf's talks for free!  I realize that they are talks turned into books so what does that make them really?  But they are wonderful still.  It will be nice to refer to both of these talks on both good days and sad days.  And since they are talks and not beefy books it will be perfect for this busy momma.

If you have read them, do so.  What you get out of these talks will be different than what I do.  Just like every time I read them I will learn something different that is the gift of the Holy Ghost and the power of living scripture.  What a tremendous blessing it is to have living Prophets and Apostles on Earth today.

The Opportunist

This book caught my eye because it was $4 on my kindle and looked interesting.

(Can I just say one of the things I love the most about my kindle, besides being able to read in the middle of the night, is that I can tape on any word in a book and it will define it for me.  It has been wonderful to learn what these big words authors use actually mean.)

 

Anyway...this book is about a "damaged" young woman.  Her father left when she was young and only came back around when he was broke and would take whatever money her mother had made for food.  At times that left them eating nothing because daddy dearest took the last dollar and went to McDonald's for his own dinner.  Awful and sad.  At the age of 17 her mother died.  She is basically alone. 

 

The hunk of the book comes for booka-bucks and a mother that is a snob. 

 

Together they make one hot mess.  They might be in love but it isn't really a healthy relationship. 

 

I can't decide what I think about this book.  One on hand it had some language and a few sexual scenes that I could have done without.  On the other hand it was interesting to read about how messed up people can be without a moral compass.  When they aren't taught correctly what happens...

 

I am glad I read this book it was interesting and I wanted to know what happened to the characters in the end. 

 

 

 



Keeping Faith

Faith is a little girl in the middle of a horrible situation.  For the first chuck of her life her mother was a little too self absorbed for a mother and then one day they came home to find her father home with another women.  GROSS.  AWFUL. 

 

It sent Faith's mom into a spiral down into a deep depression as she dealt with the rejection as well as a divorce her husband was now filling.  Faith withdrew into her own world.  She didn't understand who the woman was and in her mind her Daddy left because of her.  She quites talking.

 

And then she begins to have an imaginary friend who teachers her scriptures and songs that her parents never taught.  In fact they never went to church or had any religious leanings.  How is this little girl doing this?  And then miracles begin happening.

 

In this day and age a little girl performing miracles will draw a crowd...and boy does it.  As the divorce goes from awful to ugly Faith's mom becomes the mother she always dreamed of...because she realized that motherhood isn't perfection, it isn't doing everything right while wearing the perfect clothes and beautiful hair.  It is loving completely no matter what and doing what is best for her child.

 

It was a good book.  Since I have very little knowledge about the Catholic faith or the Jewish beliefs I was learning a lot in this book.  It was interesting for sure.  Plus it was an amazing story.  Then again if you have ever read a novel by Jodi Piclout then you know that her stories have layers...many layers. 

 

There was some language but I would still say it was a good book and I am glad I read it.