I Kill the Mockingbird, by Paul Acampora

This was my most recent read.  I wanted something simple but good.  This was exactly that.  I believe it's a YA or even Juvenile fiction piece.  It's written from the perspective of an 8th grade girl.  Her mother has just won a scary battle with cancer, her father is the principle of her school - a Catholic school.  Her two friends are her constant companions throughout the story - her co-conspirators if you will, one of which she is realizing she has deeper feelings for than friendship.  She thinks he might feel the same but can't be sure... they innocently flirt with the idea throughout the story.

It's the end of the school year and a summer reading list has been issued, much to the chagrin of the main character, Lucy, and her classmates.  Their teacher being new since the death of their previous and favorite teacher (Fat Bob) doesn't quite get the students like their old one did. 

Fat Bob's favorite book is "To Kill a Mockingbird", as is Lucy's.  She wants people to create a sort of last tribute to Fat Bob and with the help of her two friends, comes up with a plan that gets the whole nation talking about it over the summer, and even many reading it.  I won't give away too much because that's the whole of the story, but it was the author's goal to get more people to read the book and I have to say, it worked.  It wasn't too long ago that I read it (though I can't find a post of it), but I find myself wanting to read it, again. 

It was a fun, light-hearted quick read - just what I wanted.  It's a good read for the young and old, alike. 

The Noel Stranger, by Richard Paul Evans

First of all, I'm finding it hard to believe it's been since August that I read a book.  Well, not really... I read this one in December.  But still...

Anyway, I read this one on the quick because there was a long line of people waiting for me to be done with it at the library.  I don't buy books unless I see myself reading it, again.  I used to buy every single RPE book that came out, but I eventually realized that wasn't really necessary.

This was one of his more cliche books.  There were a few twists that were interesting, such as bigamy, but even then, it was quite obvious how this would go down.  I do love his writing and his stories but sometimes they seem a bit... meh.  This was one of them. 

I'm super excited for the next installment of his current Walk series.  Now, those are worth reading.  Maybe because of the intrigue of having to wait a whole year to see where the story goes, next.  Also, he puts so much research into them.  Not that he doesn't his Christmas series, I'm sure, but this one was a bit lacking.  Still a good, quick read, though.

Two Small Footprints in Wet Sand, by Anne-Dauphine Julliand

This sweet story touched my heart.  The author takes the reader on a journey through the small but profound life of her daughter who has been diagnosed with metachromatic leukodystrophy.  It drastically shortens her life.  But she uses the phrase, "Adding life to her days when we can't add days to her life".  And that's exactly what they did.  They tried to live every moment to the fullest.  Not by doing big things on any bucket list, but by just enjoying each and every moment.  They had a wonderful angel helper who set the greatest example of this:

     "She's amazed that we always seem to be chasing our tails, complaining when we have to be patient and cursing long lines.  Therese never feels she's wasting her time. whatever she does, she gives it her full attention.  And she feels that every moment of her life has value...
     "It's a well-known fact that in hospitals you often have to wait... and for a long time.  I'm soon muttering, getting irritable, and pacing up and down.  Therese, on the other hand, sees this time spent in the hospital as an opportunity to meet interesting people, experience a new environment, and slow the frantic pace of her everyday life.  For her, waiting isn't empty time; it's a state in its own right and can itself be a source of riches.  Therese doesn't put her life on hold when she has to wait around, she carries on living, just at a different pace."

I find it brave when someone shares their story.  I would imagine it's healing.  I'm very glad to have read this and added it to my mental library.  I loved reading about the many who stepped in to help take care of her little family when they were in such desperate need.  It made me happy to see how loved they were.  She tells how her little boy (the oldest) was so brave and older than his years.  She tells how her husband stayed by her side and how they fought the fight, together.  She tells of her newest daughter who also has the disease (it's a mix of bad genes, she says, from both her and her husband).  I did find out through the magic of the internet that her other little daughter died last year.  She had received a bone marrow transplant in hopes of at the very least lengthening her life.  I don't know her story or how long she lived but I can't imagine facing that with not one but two of my children.  She knew when she was pregnant that there was a significant chance her baby would have the disease and they chose to have the baby, anyway.  No regrets.  I admire them for that. 

This was a great story.  I highly recommend reading it. 

The Forgotten Road, by Richard Paul Evans

May and June were not conducive to me doing a lot of reading.  I started one book that I really wanted to be good because the subject matter seemed quite interesting to me.  It was the journey of a woman who was raised and lived as an Orthodox Jew.  She married an Orthodox Jew.  They had children and were raising them Orthodox, as well.  But she left it all.  Her religion, her family, everything she knew.  She questioned so very much of it and decided it just wasn't the right thing for her.  I didn't get very far into it - it was so very boring.  I don't know if it just wasn't written well and didn't flow or what but I just could not find myself getting lost in this book.  Rather, I found myself forgetting I was even reading it in the first place.

Then I started a new job and life had to find a new routine. 

Then Richard Paul Evan's book came out and I had it on hold for forever at the library, waiting my turn.  I finally got it and of course, devoured it. 

His books flow.  His books are written well.  This one, book two of his newest series, was true-to-form.  The main character continues on his journey, walking Route 66 from beginning to end, landing himself in California where his ex-wife is. 

He hits a major snag along the way and has to rethink his strategy.  I'm not sure I like the way he went with it, but it still ended interestingly enough.  I don't want to give any details in case someone wants to read this and isn't a fan of spoilers.  I know I'm not.  But I will say that I found all of the little tidbits of information about the Route and the stops along the way fun to learn.  He mentions references and inspirations for the Disney movie, Cars, and describes things as if he's seen them for himself - which I have no doubt he has.  The man does his research.

It's left me wanting more, so a success on the author's part.  I anxiously await the 3rd edition to his series, likely coming out early next year.

The Only Girl in the World, by Maude Julien

I love reading stories of survival.  This is most certainly one of those.  I finished this a couple weeks, ago but life keeps being life and taking up all my time.

This woman... You know, I have to believe that God made certain spirits super strong and wise because He knew what they would be up against when they came to this earth.  She was born into an interesting situation.  I say interesting, but really... there are no words.

Her mother was six when her father found her family.  They were struggling and he was wealthy, so he said he would take care of her.  He promised she would have the best education and be well-looked after.  He did just that.  She was in boarding schools and received the finest education.  His purpose was a twisted one, to say the least.  As soon as she was of marrying age, he married her.  He wanted to raise up a child of his own - born on a specific day with blonde hair and a girl.  Somehow he orchestrated the part of that plan he could and she was born on the day he wanted and happened to have blonde hair.  In a nutshell, he wanted to raise a superhuman who would someday rise up among the human race.

She faced grueling tasks in order to shape her into the person he believed she was and would become.  Grueling by definition means extremely tiring and demanding.  That's putting it lightly.  As a child, she only got maybe six hours of sleep a night, had to endure ridiculous "tests", and was never loved either verbally or physically.  But by age 10, she started to see through her father's... I want to say psychotic-ness.  Nothing else can describe this man.  He was delusional in every sense of the word.  She was blessed with a strong mind and was able to finally see her way out of his grasp.  Her mother was brainwashed by him and showed her no love or affection.  In fact, she believed her mother both feared and was in awe of her father. 

The story ends well.  She grows up, is saved by a music instructor who sees quite clearly the situation she was in and how she needed an escape.  He cleverly provided that escape and she was finally able to leave the prison that was her home.  Her survival tactics amaze me.  The things she did to stay sane amaze me.  She is a remarkable woman whose strength was necessary to be able to withstand her childhood and her parents. 

It's definitely a good read.  Shocking and flabbergasting; this woman is amazing.

The Invisible Girls, by Sarah Thebarge

This book.  This is why I love memoirs.  To read these stories of real people feels like I'm adding them to my own life.  By reading them, I feel like they're becoming a part of my life, adding color and character and depth and sweetness.  I love these people.  I wish I could embrace them and tell them I know their story.  I wish I could thank them in person for sharing their lives with me.

I learned about this book at a job interview.  I never got the job, which I'm quite ok with - it would've been a move of desperation on my part to accept it, anyway.  But, this book...  I am so very glad I went to that interview.  The person I interviewed with and I were somehow on the topic of religion or people or something.  I can't remember exactly how this came up but she mentioned a woman speaking to the congregation at the church where she attends and how she wrote a book about her experiences.  I told her those are my favorite kind of books and made a note to see if my library had it.  They did and I am so glad.  What a sweet story of strength, courage, and survival.  But mostly about love.

I finished this book over a week, ago - I've been making notes as I read because it was something I had to digest a little at a time while trying to take it in all at once.

It's a brave woman's story of her unusual upbringing, followed by a change in her parents and their ways of doing things, which led to her well-educated future.  She alternately tells two stories - one of her battle with breast cancer at age 27 and the other of falling in love with a Somali refugee family. 

As I read of her battle, my heart just broke.  (This book made me cry almost every time I picked it up to read it.)  That she could not only feel so alone but BE so alone... I sincerely hope her "friends" read this and feel the guilt they deserve to feel and then some.  The people who were supposed to bring her meals and didn't, my gosh.  How could they? How could they? The visits stopped, communication stopped.  Her fiance left her.  It's incredible the way she made it through her lowest points.  She questioned God the whole time, wondering where He was or if He even cared and how could He let this happen to her?

But then - oh, then - she meets the sweetest family on the bus.  She cares for them, clothes them, feeds them, loves them... and in turn, they help her heal.  They help her find her purpose, they help her find God.  More, they help her see that He was there the whole time.  She likened her trial to a mother who happened to be a doctor she worked with.  Her daughter was sick.  The nurses had to hold her down to get an IV started and her daughter just cried for her, pleading with her to help her.  Yet, she stood by the wall and let the nurses do their thing.  When they were done with this traumatic event, the mother scooped her little girl up and reassured her that she was there.  She felt like God had done the same thing.  He had to let the trial do its thing.  But He was there, hurting along with her.  And when she finally got through it, He was there to scoop her up.  I can't put into words her testimony at the end (mostly because I don't have the book to reference and she put it so gracefully), but it was so great and so profound. 

This is definitely a book I would highly recommend.  It was so well-written and touched my soul.

Illusions, by Richard Bach

I finished this a bit, ago.  My daughter borrowed this book from a friend and loved it.  She couldn't stop talking about it or quoting it.  Some of the things she said had me curious... something about a messiah.  We're religious folk so I had to check it out to see what exactly my daughter was filling her head with.

It's an interesting book, I'll give it that.  Nothing I needed to be worried about as far as controversial teachings, by any means.

A man meets another man, both own planes and give locals a ride for a small price.  The first man figures there's something about the other - he feels drawn to him and can't figure out why.  Turns out, the second man is a so-called messiah of some sort.  The first man has the makings of one and is to learn to hone his "skill" from the second who's just trying to live a normal life and not draw a crowd.

One thing I found strange was this messiah basically said everyone is their own messiah, which I do not agree with.  There were some concepts I was on board with, though.  The general message that I did agree with is the mind is more powerful than we give it credit for and we more or less limit our own abilities simply by thinking things are impossible.

This is a work of fiction and was originally published in 1977.  It's not like The DaVinci Code where one ends up questioning the reality of certain notions and ideas, it's just a pointless book about two men who cross paths and one teaches the other about life (or what is reality and what isn't - it's full of fanciful and ridiculous ideas at times).  The author either had some crazy views or some profound understandings about certain things.

It wasn't a quick read for me because I didn't find it to be a page-turner.  It could be a quick read for someone who was more into it than I was, I'm sure.  It was an ok one-timer.

Mata Hari's Last Dance, by Michelle Moran

Another excellent book by Michelle Moran.  I have read them all and I've loved every single one.  She writes so very well.  It's obvious as you read her work that she does her research.  She writes historical fiction and certainly has great talent. 

I've seen a documentary of sorts on Mata Hari - I knew she was a dancer for "social events" and that she was thought to be a spy.  She wasn't just a dancer... she was an exotic dancer.  Yeah, she danced in the nude.  Quite a shock and sensation for the time period.  "She earned her title on her back" is a line from this book, speaking of another character, but I think the same could be said for Mata Hari.  She was never at a loss for lovers.  Sugar daddies, really.  haha  They paid for her places of residence, clothing, jewelry, etc.  Her love was for one man, though.  Well, three... She was a spy, but for whom? Her side of the story says France.  She was executed (shot in the chest by 12 men) because she was tried and convicted as a spy for Germany, which she was not.  This isn't proved until after her death, of course.  She had children with an abusive man, lost her parents at a young age, and had a rough go of it, at first.  She made a lot of money through her shows and lovers.  She died with as much dignity as she could muster.  She was a teller of tales so the author notes knowing her real story might never be possible. 

Very entertaining - I read it in one day.  I would definitely recommend it, as I do all of this author's books. 

Half Broke Horses, by Jeannette Walls

Another excellent story told by this woman. 

It says "a true life novel" on the cover because it's the stories of her grandmother, her mother's mother, as she remembers them and her own memories of her, told in first person point of view.  She said she wanted to do it this way so grandmother's personality could really be felt.  And it was. 

After reading this, I can see where her (the author) mother gets her "unique" way of looking at and living life.  The Glass Castle had me wanting to slap her (the author's mother).  Seeing how she was as a child and teenager kind of puts things into perspective.  This book starts with her grandmother as a little girl and continues up through her own (the author's) birth.  Her grandmother was a sensible woman with a strong personality, her mother was kind of a flake, in my opinion, but not wholly because of her upbringing.  I think she was just one of those apples that fell a little far from the tree.  The author brings sensibility back to the family because of her upbringing (in spite of, really), and I think she definitely has a lot of her grandmother in her.  They're both smart, strong women who had it in them to survive what life handed to them.

If you're going to read this or The Glass Castle, read this one, first.  It's not necessary, but the chronology would fit nicely.  And you might have more kindness in your heart towards the author's mother instead of the utter disbelief and pretty much disgust that I had for her. 

Definitely a book I would recommend.  It's a good one.  I love the way this author writes - I hope she puts out more stories as I've now read them all. 

The Noel Diary, by Richard Paul Evans

My turn came up for the newest RPE book... I started it last night at about 8pm - and finished it this morning at 1:30am.  It was good.  haha

He said in his emails leading up to the release of this book (if I remember, correctly) that this story has more of his personal life experience than any of his other books.  It's his wife's new favorite of his.  So, naturally, I had to read it.  I just didn't plan on reading it in one night.  haha

Like his others, it was very well-written.  I think that's why they're such quick reads - they just flow.  He certainly has a way with words.  The more books of his I read (I've read them all... except his science fiction series - which are still written well, I just don't dig that sort of storyline.  I read the first one, which I loved.  But mostly through the second one, I decided it just wasn't my thing.), the more I feel like I can see a lot of who he is through his writing.  I wonder how much of his stories come from real life experiences and people he's met.  He kind of hints at things like that in some of his recent books I've read.  It's almost like he's sneaking in small confessions or something.  haha

This is a story about a boy-turned-man, still hurting and trying to heal the pain of his childhood.  He finds someone along his journey who is attempting the same thing, only to find their lives are more intertwined than they knew upon meeting.  Of course, there's the love story - not too sappy.  They never are.  I love that about his books.  Clean and nice - not too much gush.  And there are always additions to the story that make them not sticky sweet.  I like that.  These things could happen in real life... One can hope, anyway.

I would highly recommend this book, too.  I recommend all of his books.  He has a flair for the written word.  I'm certainly glad he didn't hide his talent under a bush and instead shared it with the world.  He's my fave.