Teaser Tuesday

Teaser Tuesdays is a weekly bookish meme, hosted by MizB of Should Be Reading.  Anyone can playing along!  Just do the following:

Grab your current read

Open to a random page

Share two (2) "teaser" sentences from somewhere on that page

Be careful not to include spoilers! (make sure that what you share doesn't give too much away!  You don't want to ruin the book for others!)

Share the title and author, too, so that other TT participants can add the book to their TBR lists if they like your teasers.

"Let me guess, mister.  You want to get to know me.  You want to find out how I think and what I feel.  And most of all, you want to know how a nice girl like me got into a business like this."
P. 65 Redeeming Love by Francine Rivers

Book News: 2013 Newbery Award Winners

The 2013 Newbery Medal Winner is The One and Only Ivan by Katherine Applegate, published by HarperCollins Children's Books, a division of HarperCollins Publishers. 

2013 Honor Books:

Bomb: The Race to Build--and Steal--the World's Most Dangerous Weapon by Steve Sheinken

Three Times Lucky by Sheila Turnage

For more information on the winners check out the 2013 Newberry Award Winners Official Page.

Book Review: Trusting God by Sharon Jaynes, Gwen Smith, and Mary Southerland

A Girlfriends in God Faith Adventure.

Gwen, Mary, and Sharon make up the Girlfriends in God Ministry Team and together they wrote this book on how to trust God.  The book is broken into weekly segments which is then further broken down into six days each written solely by one of the authors with a recap at the end of each week.

I love that they use stories and examples from their own lives to illustrate the points they make each day.  They show how to trust God in the real world, not just with words but with action, and they show us we don't do it alone.

This book is perfect for a pre-teen or teenage girl.  She can read it alone or with a group, as the ministry team recommends a Girlfriends in God team.  If you're looking for a good way to help your teenage daughter learn to trust in God this is a book you should definitely check out.

I read this book as a book request for Blogging for Books via the Adobe Digital program on my laptop.  All opinions are my own.  I was not compensated for this review in any way.

Book Review: Insurgent (Divergent #2) by Veronica Roth

Not as good as the first book, but definitely worth the read, and absolutely makes me yearn for book #3.  If you have not read Divergent (Divergent #1) I recommend you not read this review as it contains spoilers!

The Dauntless have attacked the Abnegation.  Tobias a.k.a Four and Tris have shut down the simulation.  Tobias, Tris, some of the Dauntless, and the remaining Abnegation are on the run.  Jeanine Matthews is after them, after the Abnegation for a secret their leaders supposedly know and after the Divergent, to figure out how their brains work to make simulations that can control them instead of the other way around.

This portion of the Divergent story is still about choices.  Who do you side with?  Who do you trust?  Is it faction over family or family over faction?  Tris has to make decisions whether to go with someone she deemed an enemy or someone who she loved with all her heart.  What is the most important move to save not just her faction but all factions?

There are many times Tris does something to piss me off.  Many times.  I credit that to the great writing of Veronica Roth.  She is able to write a story and create a character that brings out emotions in me the reader.  While she is a great writer there are a few parts of the story that feel very deus ex machina like how Tris is able to solve everything that comes her way even when it creates bigger problems.  The way she solves her problems in some instances is the deus ex machina.

This book ended with the feeling that it could be the end, but it's not.  Roth is working on book #3 right now and claims it will be published in the fall of 2013.  I cannot wait!

I read this book for pure pleasure.  All opinions are my own.  I was not compensated for this review in any way.

Teaser Tuesday

*Yes, the blog is wider and there are three columns now.*

Teaser Tuesdays is a weekly bookish meme, hosted by MizB of Should Be Reading.  Anyone can playing along!  Just do the following:

Grab your current read

Open to a random page

Share two (2) "teaser" sentences from somewhere on that page

Be careful not to include spoilers! (make sure that what you share doesn't give too much away!  You don't want to ruin the book for others!)

Share the title and author, too, so that other TT participants can add the book to their TBR lists if they like your teasers.

"My mother taught me.  She loved to paint, and I do, too."
P. 78 The Icecutter's Daughter by Tracie Peterson

Book Review: Goodnight, Brian by Steven Manchester

What do you do when fate deals you a bad hand?  Don't give in.  Don't give up.  Don't let your faith down.

Angelina DiMartino's grandson, Brian, was stricken with a terrible disease due to the formula his mother had been feeding him starting at the age of four months.  The doctors believed although he would live, he would never walk or talk or do anything.

Angelina, better known as Mama, knew better.  She took fate and threw it out the door.  She never gave up on her grandson and she wouldn't let others do it, either.  This is a poignant tale of a woman's faith shaking up everything fate has handed her grandson.

Steven Manchester has written a heartwarming story of a grandmother's love and stubbornness.  He's captured the emotion and love in the two characters of Mama and Brian.  The reader does see how different people in the same family react to debilitating news that a baby has to suffer because the formula they were taking did not provide the right nutrients for him to develop properly.

Throughout the entire story I wondered the meaning of the title.  Why was it chosen?  You may be curious about that, too, when you read this.  The meaning is superb but not clear until the end and that's the way it should be.

I read this as a review request using the Kindle App on my laptop.  All opinions are my own.  I was not compensated for this in any way.

Teaser Tuesday

Teaser Tuesdays is a weekly bookish meme, hosted by MizB of Should Be Reading.  Anyone can playing along!  Just do the following:

Grab your current read

Open to a random page

Share two (2) "teaser" sentences from somewhere on that page

Be careful not to include spoilers! (make sure that what you share doesn't give too much away!  You don't want to ruin the book for others!)

Share the title and author, too, so that other TT participants can add the book to their TBR lists if they like your teasers.

An hour ago, nothing that happened felt real to me.  Now it does.
P. 1 Insurgent (Divergent #2) by Veronica Roth