February is Library Lovers Month

Having come from a long line of librarians, I appreciate this!

 

February is Library Lovers Month

At Home in the Library

By Gerry Wakeland

If you asked me to describe my dream home, without pause I'd respond, "My dream home would be an old vacant library where I would remove all the fixtures except the bathroom and the bookshelves and then I'd move my bed and desk into the center and start filling the shelves with my books." At which point you would stare at me quizzically.

My love affair with books and the library began as a child and continues to this very day. I remember as an elementary student begging my mother to take me to the library. She'd pull up to the curb in front and let me out, reminding me she would be back in an hour. Every time, I'd race up three sets of steps, fling open the double doors, run inside and stop. I would stand perfectly still and inhale the fragrance of the books. True love.

The library was my refuge. It provided a safe and silent haven from the noise and chaos of my home. But more than that, it opened doors for me, doors to the past, doors to the future, doors of adventure, and doors of romance, most importantly doors of wisdom.

I learned so much at the library. I learned that as a woman I could be brave and bold like Amelia Earhart or save lives like Florence Nightingale or Clara Barton. I could write poetry like Elizabeth Barrett Browning or books like Jane Austen. The library gave me hope!

Over the years I have continued to be a library patron. Sometimes I take my laptop and head to the library to work on a project. With the world at my fingertips, both digitally and in hard copy, I can research any topic to my heart’s content. Hardly a Saturday goes by that you cannot find me at some point in the day at the local library, perusing the new arrivals for the week.

Or sometimes I just sit quietly in one of the easy chairs wishing that the books could talk and wondering what they would say if they could tell the stories behind the stories.

I may never have the unusual, almost bizarre, home of my dreams. But the library is still my refuge, affording me a place that’s safe and silent, where dreams are born and hope exists.

 

Gerry Wakeland is the President and CEO of CLASSEMINARS, Inc. She loves helping Christian communicators identify their passion, clarify their vision and define their mission so that they can articulate God’s message effectively. Gerry is the mother of two grown daughters and grandmother to three precious grandsons. She makes her home in the land of enchantment, Albuquerque, New Mexico. Her favorite pastime is reading and one of her favorite places is the public library. In March, the CLASS website will release news of the 2012 Christian Writers Conference: www.classeminars.org. Come meet Gerry and the rest of the CLASS faculty there!

Read in the Bathtub Day beats Talk like a Pirate Day

This has got to be my second all-time favorite day...But Don't forge the ZipLock baggie trick for your eReader. :)

February 9th is "Read in the Bathtub" Day

Take a Break

By Linda Gilden

I held the dripping book by one corner. Water poured from between its pages. How could that have happened? Until this moment I had never even gotten a cover wet.

For years the bathtub has provided my favorite literary getaway. Preparation for bath time means gathering the essentials: a glass of cold water, one towel for drying, a small one for drying hands occasionally, a flashlight, eyeglasses (a fairly recent addition to the list), and a good book.

You may not be a bathtub reader but finding a daily time for yourself is important and reading enhances that special, individual time. Making the effort to have personal time each day has great benefits.

1. Keeps you grounded. The best way to start every day is with a personal time of devotion. Making a connection with God when you first get up gives you a solid foundation for the day. This time may include Bible reading, your favorite devotional book, and a time of meditation and prayer.
2. Recharges your “batteries.” We were not created to go and go and go. We need a break. Life is busy if not frantic for most of us and burnout lurks just around the corner. A few minutes away from the family, workplace, and the demands that go along with them gives you new strength, energy, and perspective to face your day.
3. Provides a time for enjoyment. Everyone needs to have a little fun every day. Reading is one of my favorite pastimes. So relaxing with a good book, whether in the bathtub, under a tree, or wrapped in a blanket in the recliner gives me a few minutes of enjoyment and entertainment.

“Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest” (Matthew 11:28).

Linda Gilden is an author, speaker, editor, and writing coach. She has written hundreds of articles as well as the Love Notes series, Mommy Pick-Me-Ups, and has ghostwritten or contributed to over three dozen books. Directing the CLASS Christian Writers Conference in Abiquiu, NM, she encourages others to clearly communicate God’s love to the world. Linda lives in SC with her family – a great source of speaking and writing material!

In March, the CLASS website will release news of the 2012 Christian Writers Conference: http://www.classeminars.org/. Come meet Linda and the rest of the CLASS faculty there!

YA Genre book review: Pretty Girls Don't Always Get It All

Review The Jerk Magnet, by Melody Carlson

A Kingston High Book

YA

Revell

c. Jan 2012

ISBN: 9780800719623

$12.99

Pretty girls don’t always get the good guys, high school junior Chelsea Martin learns.

A geeky frump, especially since her mom died, Chelsea suffers from awful teeth, hair and skin, and hides from her image. Worse than zits, her dad blindsides her with a double whammy: he’s getting married again and they’re moving. Chelsea barely knows her new drop-dead gorgeous stepmom2B and grudgingly accepts her advice for new clothes, skin and hair treatment and confidence-building exercises. Realizing she has the chance to start all over in a new city, Chelsea decides to go for it and by the time she’s made friends with the new neighbor girl Janelle and others in her church youth group, school begins.

Since she understands what it feels like to be the one never chosen, a complete makeover from the outside in helps Chelsea deal with prejudice from a direction she never considered. While most of the guys hover over the new hot-babe Chelsea, the girls keep her at arm’s length. Janelle comes clean when they have a heart2heart. Chelsea’s attracting jerk guys who want more than clueless Chelsea can provide. The two of them cook up a scheme to give their friends a lesson they can’t learn in class, but Chelsea’s new-found faith in Jesus may be the only true friend she has left if they bomb.

This is a such a sweet book. I wouldn’t hesitate to give it to the girlchildren in my life. There are lots of tips about what really counts in life, how to read hormonal guys and to consider a person’s true motives. Empathy and sympathy go hand in hand in good relationships. Melody Carlson has a huge, lengthy career, and her high school fashion and talk feels natural to me, although I know the bits and pieces of high school life she shares are more what I wish than reality. With teachers in my family, I dislike the portrayal of predator teachers, but I know they’re out there and the students’ instincts and actions are correctly portrayed in this piece of fiction. The pacing of the story kept me turning pages, the premise achieved without feeling like every loose end is tied up in a pink bow and delivered with sweets.

Available January 2012 at your favorite bookseller from Revell, a division of Baker Publishing Group.

Meet Theresa Franklin and The Journey To Fulfillment

Theresa Franklin grew up in Houston, Texas.  After graduation she attended East Texas Baptist College.  There she met her husband on a blind date.  They married a short time later and moved outside of Beaumont, Texas where they raised their three children. 

Theresa taught school for 12 years.  Students with disabilities won her heart and she became Director of Special Education in an effort to better serve them.  She retired in 2010 and began writing children’s books. 

Theresa is the author of children’s books, Don’t Forget Daddy and A Sunny Tomorrow.  Her adult books include non-fiction Journey to Fulfillment and fiction Triumph Through Trial.  She has written one curriculum guide for the novel Night of the Cossack, a historical fiction for young adults by Tom Blubaugh, titled Night of the Cossack, Lesson Plan.

Learn more about Theresa on her blog, and her Facebook page. Join her on Twitter.

Journey to Fulfillment

Have you experienced heartache? Has emotional trauma turned into physical pain? Are you tired of life's setbacks and looking for reassurance from God? Journey to Fulfillment is for you. Through this encouraging and often humorous devotional, author Theresa Franklin will show you how to turn life's impossible stumbling blocks into stepping stones toward a fulfilled life. In Journey to Fulfillment, Theresa chronicles the painful events in her life and how they changed her character and her principles forever. She challenges you to remember your childhood and how events from your past have influenced your today. God uses each milestone as stepping stones to strengthen and prepare you for His service. Learn to achieve your goals by letting the painful events of life strengthen you. And consider what could be or has been accomplished because of these adversities. Consider each person who has gathered strength from you because of the journey God allowed you to travel.

Show More

Join author Theresa Franklin in her tender and delightful memoir, Journey to Fulfillment, as she shares her life experiences that have molded her character into the woman God intended her to be. Theresa, honestly and brazenly discusses heartaches, tragedies and triumphs from childhood through adulthood. With an open and compassionate heart, the Author lays bare the adversity she has faced through life to include the loss of her first love to marrying and the challenges one can face in being a wife and a mother, and notably her struggles in teaching special needs children. Throughout all, there has been one constant in her life, the unconditional love of her Savior, Jesus Christ.

Buy the Book on these sites:

Amazon

Theresa's blog

Theresa' web site

Review

Theresa Franklin turned childhood darkness, pain and hardship, to profound convictions

Theresa Franklin turned childhood darkness, pain and hardship, to profound convictions, insight and style of teaching that shine like diamonds in the rough terrain on which parents and teachers tread. Her writing sings with vivid description of moving episodes, life's patterns and desires. All too familiar to most. And her message resonates with power, so deep, all parents and teachers need to embrace.

Journey to Fulfillment is truly a journey not just for educators, but for anyone trying to learn what brings true fulfillment. And those who need to see how joy fills our soul when we use our life and passion and dreams to impact others. The pages in Journey to Fulfillment bring such basic, yet profound insights as this: "... one student was in trouble for a year, one student was in trouble for probably the fourteenth time in two weeks. I stood over his desk and reprimanded him severely. As I listened to my voice and watched his little head hung low, I thought, Theresa, you have to change this. You cannot let this child leave the room feeling bad. I deliberately softened my voice and said, "Now, Daniel." Before I could finish the statement, without raising his head, he said, "I know, I know. You love me because I am me, not because of what I do or say. As long as I am me, you are going to love me. It is my behavior that you do not like. You love me but not my behavior."

The lesson in Journey to Fulfillment: true fulfillment and satisfaction comes when we resolve to use our experiences, trials and triumph in our own life to turn another life around.

August 23, 2011 by Janet Perez Eckles, author of Amazon #1 bestselling, Simply Salsa: Dancing Without Fear at God's Fiesta, Judson Press, 2011

Great New Book for Living Simply in Small Spaces

My review follows this press release.
~Lisa

Dwell Well in a Small Space

A room-by-room ‘small space bible’ to maximize living in minimum space

Whether you’re downsizing your home or just starting out, professional organizing and decorating author Kathryn Bechen will show you how to create a space where you can live well regardless of the size. Dedicated to helping small space dwellers thrive in their home for over 20 years, Bechen wants everyone to feel proud of their comfortable and welcoming living space regardless of the square footage.  

In Small Space Organizing: A Room-by-Room Guide to Maximizing Your Space (Paperback ISBN: 978-0-8007-2028-5, 240 pages, January 2012, $12.99), Bechen compiles 20 years of real life organizational tips and tricks. This ‘small space bible’ will help anyone transform cramped space into a perfectly petite living space as Bechen goes room-by-room giving design and organizational advice as well as taking on the extremely small spaces of studio and basement apartments, loft and high-rise spaces and even tips for RV living.    

“A true home is really about the size of your heart, not about the size of your space,” says Bechen. She encourages readers to embrace living in a small space and assures them that even the most teeny-tiny space can be transformed into a welcoming environment to maximize the space – and more importantly, maximize living.  Bechen tells clients to “always remember that it’s far more important to have a spirit of hospitality and friendship as the emphasis of your home, rather than neglecting to invite others to visit you there just because you lack large rooms or expensive furniture.”

After reading Small Space Organizing readers will be able to:

-          Create a non-traditional entryway space

-          Find a creative space for a home office

-          Craft a spa atmosphere in a teeny-tiny bathroom

-          Design a nursery space to nurture a  newborn

-          Find storage space that’s hiding in their kitchen

-          Downsize their living space successfully

Small Space Organizing will help readers at every stage of life create an inviting home and maximize living. Everyone from the newlyweds struggling to fit all their wedding presents into a small apartment to empty-nesters with years-worth of sentimental possessions moving to a smaller home can benefit from Bechen’s expert advice. 

For the reluctant downsizer faced with the daunting task of moving into a smaller living space, Bechen offers encouragement and practical tips for the emotional process. “It’s normal to go through an array of emotions during your downsizing process,” says Bechen. “It helps to get through it by keeping your mind’s eye focused on the end results of a lovely new right-sized home, decorated in a style you love, in a neighborhood that’s just right for you at this new stage of your life.”

Kathryn Bechen is an award-winning professional writer whose articles have appeared in popular national and regional magazines and newspapers. She specializes in lifestyle feature articles and has also published several organizing and decorating e-books. The lifestyle companies she founded, Organized with Ease and Kathryn Bechen Designs, have served clients worldwide. Bechen has organized and decorated 13 personal small space residences together with her husband Steve. They currently live in their favorite small space ever: a 1,200-square-foot high-rise apartment in beautiful San Diego, California. She blogs about timely lifestyle topics at www.KathrynBechenINK.com.

Revell, a division of Baker Publishing Group, offers practical books for everyday life.  For more information, visit www.RevellBooks.com.

My review:

Kathryn Bechen is an award-winning journalist in the San Diego area. She specializes in lifestyle feature articles and has published several organizing and decoration ebooks. She blogs about timely lifestyle topics at www.KathrynBechenInk.com

After cleaning out my grandparents’ households, then moving my parents and inlaws, I knew I wanted to leave less behind. This book has fantastic tips and spaces for notes, as well as a treasure trove of resources.

I live in a big farmhouse now, but it was built in the 1850s—back when you hung your clothes on hooks and kept your couple of pots and crockery on a shelf in the summer kitchen and wouldn’t dream of having a privy in the house! Subsequent remodeling has given me four closets, two bathrooms, electricity and indoor plumbing. The kitchen is still the middle of the house with at least one door on every side, so the cupboards are minimal. I could have used this book when I moved in, even to this bigger home.

Bechen takes you on a trip around your house. Using examples from her life of moving, as well as years of experience, study, savvy and common sense, she helps the newly independent, the recently down-sized, the mobile modern family think about lifestyle in practical means that also take into account family mementoes.

She goes room by room to teach us to make the most of the tiniest living areas, and creating separate areas in a one-room apartment. Have no foyer, but always dreamed of one? Bechen shows you how to do it? Miniature bathroom? Bechen gives you hints about creating a spa experience no matter the size. Using small pieces of furniture creatively, nightstands, small dressers and multi-purpose pieces are favorites, the author uses space in clever ways for storage and décor that won’t seem crowded. I appreciated the area at the end of chapters to make notes to meet my needs, as well as resources to find the materials she discusses. Using clever rhyming alliterative headings, Behen makes even downsizing from a lifetime of memories seem doable.

My only quandary is that I’m short, and so uncomfortable thinking about using space vertically. Stepping stools take care of this, I know, but for aging or unsteady folks, that’s not always practical. Otherwise, Small Space Organizing is a fantastic tool for those on the go or thinking of downsizing which I’ll be happy to recommend.

“Available January 2012 at your favorite bookseller from Revell, a division of Baker Publishing Group.”

Beware WestBow Printing

Babylon’s Falling by William G. Collins.

I wasn't sure if this was a YA novel when I first began reading it. I was curous about WestBow publication offerings when I agreed to read it for Thomas Nelson's Booksneeze program. And, wow, all an author's fears scream at me. You'd think Thomas Nelson would have more respect for its reputation and that of its authors to let Mr. Collins' work come out looking like this. And I sympathize because I've been the victim of poor editing but at lest I didn't pay for it.

As an editor I would have made sure that at least the grammar and punctuation was correct. As a historian, I cringed at the dreadful inaccuracies. As a lover of the Word, I was more than disappointed at some of the author's interpretations, such as Daniel and his friends marrying. Of course it might have happened, but there is no indication of that in Scripture. Yes, I realize this is fiction, but then at least change the name, or call it a story based on what might have occured behind the scenes in Babylon.

Conclusion: Authors, beware giving your money to WestBow. Don't be that desperate to get your work in print.

Spring Madness

It won't hit fifty degrees here today, I know that. But just hearing it on the Milwaukee weather forecast made me give in to the spring cleaning urge. Indiana Ann's in Florida, the traitor, and can't smack me upside the proverbial head to tell me not to hang the blankets outside on the Twelfth Day of Christmas, otherwise known as January--yes, JANUARY--6th in Wisconsin.

It's like saying, "let's get married on December 1 UP NORTH, darling." Yes, Andy, I mean you.

But it feels good. I let the spring monster come right up to me, look me in the eye, and bow to its will. Like knowing there's been a tornado in every month (but February? Or did that happen last year?) in Wisconsin - far from Kansas.

It's okay. The weekend should be ten degrees warmer. Not normal yet, but closer. We still had a patch of snow near the deck. We caught a deermouse in the laundry room. We're having fish caught through the ice for supper...

Okay...it's clouding up. The strangely Oz urge is going...

Thank heavens.

But it will smell like spring tonight. Sweet to dream by; soaking up the promise.