Bonnie Grove

368 pages

“You said you were still working on forgiving him.” I’d thought about his statement many times since. It made me realize that perhaps forgiveness wasn’t a singular event, but a progression, or better, a dance that took some figuring before you could perform the steps. -Talking to the Dead, page 305 

Kate’s husband Kevin has just died. She’s barely gotten through the funeral when she starts hearing his voice. With her memory filled with holes and no one she feels she can trust, Kate begins to doubt her sanity. As Kate tries to figure out exactly why Kevin is talking to her, life begins spiraling further out of control. Finally, after having a mental meltdown, Kate is forced to deal with, the return of her memory and many other issues.

Talking to the Dead is one of those books that is hard to classify. While it is Christian Fiction with a message of faith, it is not preachy. Kate is funny, vulnerable and human but man, is she surrounded by a bunch of stinkers. Everyone who should be there for her lets her down. But Kate finds support in a quirky support group filled with a bunch of frail, vulnerable people just like herself. She also meets Jack, a pastor, but a different sort of pastor and through his example of unconditional love and acceptance, she comes to understand her need for God. Then she begins on the road to healing.

I enjoyedTalking to the Dead very much. It has a little bit of everything: romance, suspense, humor and there were even a few times when Kate’s pain was so intense that a lump formed in my throat. I wanted to comfort her because no one else was. I highly recommend this one if you enjoy clean, faith-based, fiction. (5/5)

Just popping in to say that I did, in fact, start school for the summer quarter and I am still working part-time. Plus, we have been running around like crazy people trying to get #1 son set for college in the fall.

I am reading(I need to go to my happy place more than ever these days) and I promise a review of Talking to the Dead by Bonnie Grove is coming very soon. 

 And would you believe I still haven’t spent my gift card? Hope everyone is enjoying their summer. I have a feeling that mine will be gone in a flash!

It is time for a FIRST Wild Card Tour book review! If you wish to join the FIRST blog alliance, just click the button. We are a group of reviewers who tour Christian books. A Wild Card post includes a brief bio of the author and a full chapter from each book toured. The reason it is called a FIRST Wild Card Tour is that you never know if the book will be fiction, non~fiction, for young, or for old…or for somewhere in between! Enjoy your free peek into the book!

You never know when I might play a wild card on you!

and the book:

Talking to the Dead

David C. Cook; New edition edition (June 1, 2009)

Bonnie Grove started writing when her parents bought a typewriter, and she hasn’t stopped since. Trained in Christian Counseling (Emmanuel Bible College, Kitchener, ON), and secular psychology (University of Alberta), she developed and wrote social programs for families at risk while landing articles and stories in anthologies. She is the author of Working Your Best You: Discovering and Developing the Strengths God Gave You; Talking to the Dead is her first novel. Grove and her pastor husband, Steve, have two children; they live in Saskatchewan.

Author website: www.davidccook.com – www.bonniegrove.com

Visit the author’s website.

Product Details:

List Price: $14.99
Paperback: 384 pages
Publisher: David C. Cook; New edition edition (June 1, 2009)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 1434766411
ISBN-13: 978-1434766410

AND NOW…THE FIRST CHAPTER:

** I haven’t finished reading this book so please check back, hopefully by the end of the week, for my review of this title.

Guess what I got!? Ok, so the picture probably gave it away but my husband had to attend an event for work last week where he won a $50 Barnes & Noble Gift card. He immediately brought it home and gave it to me. Isn’t that sweet? I can’t believe that I am saying this but it’s been in my possession for roughly a week and I haven’t spent a cent of it.  I am currently backlogged on review books plus I haven’t had time to really mull over what I want. So, I am waiting. I will be sure and share my loot when I make a decision though.

In other news, it’s (finally)vacation time around here.  We are making our annual trek up north for camping, reading, resting and relaxing. No wi-fi up there , though I can check my email from my phone so feel free to give a shout if you need something. Otherwise, I will “see” you in about a week when I hope to have some reviews to publish.

Amity Shlaes

Audiobook (Narrated by Terence Aselford)

The Forgotten Man  is a book that is packed with information. It recounts The Great Depression from several different viewpoints. There are snippets of thought(complete with quotes)of the major players including Roosevelt and Hoover but we also learn of lesser known characters such as Rex Tugwell, Andrew Mellon and Raymond Moley.

Since I am primarily a visual learner, I struggled quite a bit with the volume of information contained in this audiobook. It would have been much easier for me to absorb the information if I had been reading a physical copy. However, non-fiction is one genre that I find well-suited to audio so that’s why I chose this one. I found The Forgotten Man fascinating and there were several times that I wanted to make notes about the parallels to the things that I see happening today. However, because I was busy doing other things as I was listening, that didn’t happen. 

The overall theme I came away with this book was that though it may have been well-intentioned, the experimentation done by Roosevelt and other people during this time in history actually prolonged The Depression. We see some of the same things being repeated today as far as huge spending versus scaling back and reducing the deficit. 

In all honesty, though I found this a fascinating book as I was listening, I didn’t retain a lot of it. I would like to revisit the print version because there is a wealth of information there. In light of current events, I highly recommend reading this one. Just take notes. (4/5)

Whew! It has been a busy couple of weeks at my house. Wrapping up the school year has been busy for my youngest two kids but we made it. Girl-child graduated middle school with honors and will be moving up to high school next year. Youngest boy-child  did well and will be an eighth grader next year. Oldest boy-child will be starting at the local community college in the fall.  I just want to say for the record that I am WAY too young to be the mother of a college student. I don’t know what happened.

The next few days will be spent with us preparing to go on vacation next week plus the kiddos are involved in some activities so things don’t show a lot of signs of slowing down for a bit.

I recently acquired a part time job plus it is beginning to look like I will be going back to school very soon. If not later this summer then definitely in the fall. 

I am still reading though not as quickly as I would like. Currently, I am about 3/4 of the way through The Forgotten Man: A New History of the Great Depression. It has been a fascinating book with striking parallels to the current economic situation in our country. However, it’s very information-dense(either that, or I am dense) so I have been taking it slow.

I am also about 1/3 of the way through Beside a Burning Sea. So far I have really enjoyed it but I am making slow progress because I haven’t had much time to sit down and read. The only reason I am making progress on The Forgotten Man is because it’s an audio book.

How is your summer shaping up?

I had been participating in the Book Awards II Challenge and enjoying it very much. I knew that I was pushing my time constraints but even as late as last week, I thought I would be able to complete it. Real life intervened though and I just couldn’t pull it off this week. I only managed to finish eight of the ten titles required to complete the challenge.

Here’s what I read:

A Proper Pursuit - Lynn Austin(Christy)
The Stones Cry Out - Sibella Giorello (Christy)
The Worst Hard Time - Timothy Egan(National Book Award)
A Northern Light - Jennifer Donnelly(Printz Honor Book)
The God of Animals - Aryn Kyle (Spur) (AB)
The Boy in the Striped Pajamas - John Boyne (Irish Book Award)
Mudbound - Hillary Jordan(Alex)
The Whistling Season - Ivan Doig (Alex)

Even though I wasn’t able to complete the challenge, I still enjoyed all of the books I read. In looking back over the reviews I noted that I gave 5/5 stars to both The Boy in the Striped Pajamas and The Worst Hard Time. I loved both of these books and found them both very important books that caused me to think about significant events of the past.

My least favorite for this challenge was The Whistling Season. While I did enjoy this book, I found it the hardest for me to finish.

I am going to set aside my other two books that I had planned to read for this challenge for now. I plan to come back to them eventually (maybe even for Book Awards III). Thanks Michelle for hosting this challenge!

Timothy Egan

Audiobook(Narrated by Patrick Lawlor)

I’ve always been fascinated by The Great Depression. I am not sure exactly why but I it has always held a particular interest when I am choosing to read about history. However, in learning about The Great Depression, I had never taken the time to learn about The Dust Bowl. 
As I mentioned in a previous post, I thought The Dust Bowl was a brief incident that happened during the same time period as the depression but in reading The Worst Hard Time , I came to understand how little I knew. I must have been talking during that section of history class.

The Worst Hard Time  chronicles the events in areas of Texas, Oklahoma, New Mexico, and Colorado where the grasslands were plowed up during the wheat boom and the destruction that was left behind when the land was left blowing and desolate. After finishing the book I am amazed at the perseverance of the people who managed to hang on and at the same time I am horrified that they tried.  They seriously must have thought the world was ending with huge walls of dust descending upon them followed by hoards of grasshoppers. Every time they tried to plant something to sustain themselves it was killed either by dust, hot, dry, winds or grasshoppers.

Some of the other nightmares they faced:

• People went five years or more with absolutely no income and after selling off everything they owned, they resorted to pickling tumbleweed to avoid starving to death.
• Hungry livestock chewed on fence posts. They died because their digestive tracts were so full of dust that food couldn’t get through.
• People hung wet sheets and wore face masks made of sponge in an effort to keep the dust out of their homes and lungs yet people still died from “dust pneumonia.”
• Towns and counties were decimated by this tragedy and in some areas both the population and the land have never been the same.

One part, in particular, that touched me was when a woman was found burning a diary written during that time because it was such a bad time that there was nothing worth remembering. I am so glad that diary was rescued and parts of it are found in The Worst Hard Time. It’s hard to even imagine being in the writer’s circumstance and how hopeless he must have felt but at the same time, I am glad his voice survived for those of us who weren’t there to see the devastation. It is unimaginable but Timothy Egan helps to give us a glimpse.

I thought this book was so good that I plan on owning my own copy so I can read it again. I highly recommend The Worst Hard Time whether you are a fan of history, this particular era, or if you are just looking for a fascinating book to read. The writing is excellent and I absolutely didn’t want to stop listening. It’s very informative. The speculating that we saw in the recent housing boom has eery similarities to the wheat boom right before The Dust Bowl. There are lessons to be learned about human greed that runs unchecked. This is my favorite book, so far, of 2009 and I understand why it is a winner of the National Book Award.(5/5)

After reading The Secret Keeper I was very interested in the journalistic aspect of covering an area of conflict. Author Paul Harris was kind enough to write a guest post sharing his experiences:

The thing that most people want to know about covering a conflict is simple
enough: what is it like? There is no easy answer. It depends on the
journalist, the sort of conflict it is and the sort of medium they work in.
For example, a photographer or cameraman has an intense need to get action
pictures right from the frontline. A print journalist does not. As a result
it is the photographers and TV crews who often experience the most danger
as their job forces them to seek it out.
For me, conflict journalism was something I always wanted to do and I ended
up dipping in and out of it. I am glad I did it. Despite some very
stressful and unpleasant moments I came out of it okay. I enjoyed the
amazing cameraderie of fellow journalists. I believed, at times, that I was
doing a good thing by shining a light on some forgotten and benighted parts
of the world. At other times, if I am honest, I was chasing a
thrill-seeking high.
It all, pretty much, came to an end, not in Africa, but in Iraq. I was
embedded with the British army on a two month assignment in 2003 that
spanned the invasion of Iraq by America and Britain. In the first few weeks
of the war the British unit I was with ended up as part of the ring of
forces surrounding the southern city of Basra. For a while, on most days,
myself, some other journalists and a TV crew from Sky News would drive in a
couple of cars to the front lines to interview any refugees we could find
who might have escaped the city which was still controlled by the Iraqi
army. On one day we headed to the front lines and passed British army
checkpoint after checkpoint. We were waved through them all. We quickly
found ourselves on a road heading towards the city outskirts, looking for
the last line of British troops where we planned to stop. We seemed to
drive for quite a while. The city border seemed strangely close. But we
were in a hurry to reach the front line and start some interviews so we
drove on. Eventually we reached a huge flaming oil trench, billowing out
thick black smoke. The Sky team wanted to stop and do some filming of the
fire. I, and other print journalists, did not as we felt in a rush. After a
“discussion” the Sky team won out. We stopped and tapped our feet
impatiently waiting for the Sky team to finish filming. We were eager to
resume driving forwards. At that moment, we heard a roar. A British tank
has coming down the road behind us. It stopped and a soldier popped his
head out and asked us in no uncertain terms where we were going. “The front
lines,” we replied, gesturing ahead of us. The soldier shook his head and
pointed back the way we came. “The front line is about a mile behind you,”
he said.
It suddenly dawned on us. The last British checkpoint we had driven through
had for some reason waved us on. Yet they had been the front line. The next
checkpoint we would have run into would not have been British. It would
have been Iraqi. Faced with two strange vehicles approaching from British
lines, it would have been hard to imagine the frightened Iraqi soldiers
doing anything but opening fire on us. Only the Sky crew’s need for a quick
film shoot had stopped us from that fate. It had been a simple moment of
sheer luck that had prevented a disaster. We turned tail and drove back at
high speed. Later that night, though not a shot had been fired, I realized
it had been a very close brush with danger, perhaps even death. I had begun
to realize I did not want to put myself in those situations anymore. After
I left Iraq, and returned to England, I never did.

Thanks Paul for taking the time to share your fascinating experiences.

Paul Harris
321 pages

Danny Kellerman is a British journalist. In the year 2000 he is sent on assignment to cover the war in Sierra Leone. He winds up in Freetown where he meets a woman, named Maria Tirado, who changes his life. She is a foreign aid worker who tirelessly helps the orphans and boy soldiers of the bloody conflict. Maria and Danny become romantically involved but Danny leaves Sierra Leone and Maria stays, refusing to leave the children behind. He goes back to London and carries on with his life until four years later when he receives a note from Maria asking him for help. He quickly finds out that he is already too late. Maria has died under suspicious circumstances in a roadside robbery. As he investigates her death Danny uncovers a huge web of secrets. However, as the answers to his questions begin to unfold, Danny finds that telling the truth can carry a heavy cost.

The Secret Keeper is a story that is hard to classify. On one hand it’s a mystery/thriller, on the other it is very enlightening with regard to the political situation and events surrounding war-torn Sierra Leone. While I possess regrettably limited knowledge of the events of the war, the author served as a war correspondent in that area and this book is detailed and reflects his experience.

The mystery/thriller aspect of the story was handled very deftly as well. I don’t like to figure out the ending of a book but sometimes you can just see it so clearly spelled out in black and white that you can’t help but know. Not so with The Secret Keeper. I was kept guessing right up until the end where the truth is revealed.

I found Danny hard to like in the beginning because I felt like he was wallowing a bit in self pity but as you move through the story with him, you begin to realize that he is a man shaped both by the events in Sierra Leone and by his life before. 

If you enjoy political intrigue, learning about government and conflict in other countries through the eyes of a journalist or if you just love a good thriller then I can recommend The Secret Keeper without reservation. I would caution that there is war violence . (4.5/5)

Would you like to read some other opinions about The Secret Keeper? Then check out these other stops on the TLC Book Tour:

Monday, May 18th:  Maw Books

Wednesday, May 20th: Peeking Between the Pages

Thursday, May 21st: Musings of a Bookish Kitty

Tuesday, May 26th: B & B Ex Libris

Wednesday, May 27th:  My Friend Amy

Thursday, May 28th:  A Reader’s Journal

Tuesday, June 2nd: A Lifetime of Books

Wednesday, June 3rd:  Bookworm with a View

Monday, June 8th:  The Bookworm

Tuesday, June 9th:  Jen’s Book Thoughts

Wednesday, June 10th:  Presenting Lenore

Thursday, June 11th:  Books for Breakfast

Friday, June 12th: Savvy Verse and Wit

Monday, June 15th:  Bloody Hell, it’s a Book Barrage!

Tuesday, June 16th:  Ramya’s Bookshelf