Book Review: Give Us This Day with June Foster

Give Us This Day

By June Foster

Bellewood Series, Book One

Desert Breeze Publishing

c. February 1, 2012

eBook $4.99

ISBN 9781612521343

From the moment Holly gets stuck in an elevator with neighbor Jess and his heartfelt prayers to God, neither of them let her go.

Dental hygienist Holly Harrison is running from more than her past. Even handsome Jess Colton, a systems analyst, who makes her keep her promise to attend church if she survived the elevator, can’t force her into forgiving herself, let alone trust him – or God.

Overweight Jess uses food as a crutch, never dreaming Holly’s secret is close to his own. Compensating for stress, girlfriend and family issues, Jess had let himself overcompensate with an unhealthy lifestyle that only allows him to beat himself up. Will anything help he get out of this terribly self-destructive cycle?

When Jess’s preoccupation with food and its consolation threaten his livelihood, and Holly’s fears of revelation keep her prisoner from enjoying life to its fullest, these two souls turn to each other. But is love and faith enough to overcome their deepest doubts in themselves and each other?

Give Us This Day is a wonderful story that lets readers explore our insecurities without the fears of getting burned or judged – exactly what’s needed in a fantasy world of twenty-something cuties, wounded widows, endless Amish, and prairie dust. Thank you, June!

With wonderful sensory images, the surprises keep unfolding in this delightful and refreshing romance of unlikely souls learning to love themselves as well as each other.

Gems of Wisdom for a Treasure-Filled Life

Angela Breidenbach

Gems of Wisdom for a Treasure-filled Life

Journey Press, a division of Sheaf House

c. 2011

ISBN: 9781936438044

$14.99 paperback

Gems of Wisdom is a non-fiction journey to healing of feelings of Injustice and Unfairness of life through stories and questions and journaling.

Filled with personal stories, the author shows the reader how to read “Fairness” through “Pique Points,” “Pirates,”  “Pondering Points,” and “Polishing Points.”

Normality, loss, reason, acceptance and empathy are all relative and everyone comes to recognize life according to her experiences. Those who started on a sure and firm foundation have a different conclusion of how life is meant to be lived and enjoyed than those who grew up in uncertainty and lack of mature adult role models.

Identifying negative attitudes (pirates) the author offers real gems and their accompanying healing concepts to fill your treasure chest with new practices. Gems of Wisdom includes personal resolutions to cope, grow up, learn from pain and reach out to others.

The author is a former Mrs. Montana and is certified in mentor/peer counseling. She is a speaker and sales from the supporting Gems of Wisdom jewelry line supports the Sanctuary of Hope Homes in Kenya.

Find out more about the author at www.AngelaBreidenbach.com

Melding Family and Immagination: Night of the Cossack

Thomas Blubaugh, Night of the Cossack review

c.2011 Bound by Faith Publishers

Print $15 and Ebook $6.75

ISBN: 978-0982902929

Blubaugh's novel is based on the imagined life of his Jewish grandfather in the Ukraine, as a Cossack, before immigrating to the United States in 1910.

Sixteen-year-old Nathan and his younger brother Israel are wakened by the invasion of their Georgian village, Gagra, near the Caucasus mountains. They feel with their mother, only the clothes on their backs and weapons they can snatch. Kidnapped into a Cossack patrol, Nathan is forced to accept a new name, Stepan Ivanov, and a new faith – Christian Orthodoxy.

For Stepan, learning to become a mercenary extortionist Cossack means full adoption into a new life in their village of Aksay and even a bit of brainwashing in order to learn the ways of the soldiers. But on the eve of the programs and the Revolution, the Cossacks of Aksay are drafted into the Russian army. Terrible choices, tragedy and betrayal cause Stepan to head west to a different fate. When his past catches up to him, trust doesn’t come easy.

With great sensory details and descriptions that tickle your nose and fancy, Blubaugh’s novel will enrich your library as he takes you back to a time of danger and adventure in a culture far, far away.

March is International Ideas Month, with Kathy Carlton Willis

Kathy Carlton Willis Marketing Coordinator CLASS Christian Writers Conference March is International Ideas Month Idea Starters By Kathy Carlton Willis Have you ever wondered where ideas originate? I love cooking up ideas, so it’s a natural fit for me to celebrate International Ideas Month in March. I recently joined Pinterest—a social networking site for members to share virtual bulletin boards. You can pin images and ideas on your board to share a variety of interests. How brilliant! And it all started with an idea to save, share, and swap more ideas. Have you ever asked God to give you an idea? As a writer, I designate time for brainstorming. During some of these think tanks, my thoughts surge so fast and furious, I call them brain tsunamis. Other times an idea hits when we least expect it—and we have to be ready to jot it down. I’ve had ideas strike at red lights, the bank drive-thru, waiting rooms, and during church. I’ve learned to capture the gist of the idea in my idea notebook because just as quickly as ideas appear in my mind, they can disappear. I hate it when that happens! The best evidence of ideas is when I’m speaking to a group and I see faces light up. I can be fairly certain they’ve just experienced an “aha moment.” See why I celebrate ideas? We can miss two important steps with ideas though. First, we have to make sure it’s a God idea if we want to be operating in His purpose and for His glory. How can you be certain it’s a God idea, not merely a good idea? I ask Him to show me a green light in the form of peace if my brainstorm is from Him and give me a red light in the form of doubt if it doesn’t fit with His direction for my life. The final step to ideas that often gets overlooked is fulfillment. Some people have fun conceiving ideas, but have a harder time working the idea through—taking action steps to bring to completion what started as a brilliant concept. Ideas are only wishes until we act on them and see them accomplished. Can you think of those uncompleted projects that seem to hang out forever on your To Do List? Ask God to lead the way. May He: Inspire the idea. Endorse it so you know it’s from Him. Give you the resources to complete the idea. Give you the discipline to stick to it when you’re tempted to quit. Then praise God when you experience the reward of checking off the idea from your list and you can say, “It is finished!” Never forget, God will complete us as one of His good ideas, too. “Being confident of this very thing, that He who has begun a good work in you will complete it until the day of Jesus Christ” Philippians 1:6 (NKJV). Kathy Carlton Willis serves as publicist, author and coach at KCW Communications. She shines, whether she's shining the light on her clients, or reflecting God's light during her speaking engagements. See: http://e2.ma/click/f92dd/v5a6i/7ypyx Visit the CLASS website to learn more information about the 2012 Christian Writers Conference. Come meet Kathy and the rest of the CLASS faculty there!

Book Review: George Washington Carver

George Washington Carver

A Christian Encounters series biography from Thomas Nelson

By John Perry
c. 2011
Thomas Nelson Publishers
ISBN 978-1-59555-026-2 1

During the US Civil War, a childless, Missouri farm couple Moses Carver and his wife Susan, former slave owners, took two orphaned boys to raise when their mother has kidnapped and disappeared. The boys grew up as if blood sons, taking the Carver name. The older boy, Jim, was strong and a hard worker, but George, born premature and never in good health, turned to less physical pursuits, including developing a passion for gardening, education, and the Christian faith.

After finishing grammar school, George moved to Kansas and took work as a housekeeper to save for higher education. He continued to move around Kansas and eventually developed a laundry business, then a stenography business. With a desire to establish a home, he attempted homesteading, but didn’t stick out the harsh weather.

In 1887 he came to Iowa and was accepted in a small college, eventually settling on agricultural sciences and received his degree in 1894. While considering graduate degrees and missionary work, he received more than one offer to teach. He chose to work at Tuskegee University in Alabama, and met Booker T. Washington, whose story is also briefly told here. Although the experience Carver had initially at the college wasn’t what he hoped, he did find success in research and the respected bulletins he prepared on the results were sent to farmers to offer advice for better and economical practices.

Perry’s account of Carver continuess to detail his rise in respected research circles. Meticulous detail, dates, places, census records and purchase prices, subsequent letters, known speeches and interaction with other famous people such as Thomas Edison, enrich this account of one of America’s most important and influential personages. Told in a matter of fact report-style, readers of biographies will learn all pertinent facts about George Washington Carver.

Autobiography with a Purpose

The Right Way: A Journey Into the Light

By Robert O Russell

 Belief Books, with SilverWood Books Empowered Publishing, United Kingdom

c. 2011

 ISBN: 9781906236670

$15.00

Mr. Russell’s autobiography is a witness to his life journey to faith in Christ. He shares his story in the hope that it will touch readers who may have similar questions to his regarding matters of faith, failure, brokenness and restoration.

Mr. Russell explains his biography is a foreword and acknowledgments, as well as his favorite Psalm and poem.

We are all shaped by our experiences and influenced by family events, so the author begins with early childhood memories and the family tale of his home-birth. His father passed away when Mr. Russell was very young, and the author draws frequently on the things he was told and believed about his father.

Looking backward, the author analyzes his life choices in both zeal and obedience and risk taking and being raised by a single mother as the foundation for his personality and eventual career choices. Readers can’t help but watch Mr. Russell’s life unfold while both cheering and wanting to delve in and smack him for making decisions we think he should avoid. Mothers shake their heads, wring their hands and pray.

The authors’ vulnerability in how he shares what happened to unravel his marriage with equal culpability, his health issues and emotional instability, and the eventual divorce is a lesson for those who may find themselves in a similar predicament.

Mr. Russell talks openly about the divorce and his reaction, his return to church and the resulting rededication to Christ. This story showcases what the author has done to reclaim and turn his life around, what his faith means to him and how he acts upon it. He offers more of his poetry and a personal invitation to know Jesus.

More than a simple autobiography, Mr. Russell truly desires to share his story for God’s glory as well as offer help and hope to those who need it.

A representative of Mr. Russell requested a review prior to a US tour and provided an advance reader copy.

READ AN EBOOK WEEK IS COMING!!

Join the growing number of readers who love the convenience of those nifty little e-readers!!

March 4-10, 2012 is Read an E-Book Week.

Sponsored in part by: http://www.epicorg.com/index.php

History

Read an E-Book Week was first registered with Chase's Calendar of Events in 2004. Chase's is a day by day directory of special days, weeks and months used by event planners or anyone looking for a reason to celebrate. By having the week officially recognized, e-book authors and publishers acquired a certain extra "legitimacy" during that week to promote the new technology of e-books. The public and media were initially wary of e-books and many doors were closed to promotion. With the week officially recognized by Chase's, authors reported they now had access to television morning chat shows and were allowed to set up library displays during the week-long event.

Purpose

Read an E-Book Week educates and informs the public about the pleasures and advantages of reading electronically. Authors, publishers, vendors, the media and readers world-wide are welcome to join in the effort. We encourage you to promote electronic reading with any event. These could include: public readings, library displays, reading challenges, school visits, newspaper and blog articles, chat show appearances, internet radio interviews, e-book give-ways, and banners on your website.

The Read an E-Book Website is here to provide the latest information on e-books and to act as a collection point where you can list your event or give-away.