Touching Heaven

Touching Heaven, by Leanne Hadley, is a sweet and touching account of actual real stories of terminally ill children and their encounter with a loving heavenly Father!

While Hadley served as a chaplain at a children's hospital, she came to know and love the seriously ill children she served.  She shares with us their faith and as well as their personal encounters with a God who proves He is ever present with the suffering and with the children!

This is an uplifting book and a special read for those who may have a loved one dealing with a terminal disease. Or if you are struggling as to if there is a here-after or questioning is their really a loving God when such innocent children suffer so, this book is for you! The faith of these children and their very unique stories of receiving peace before passing on to eternity will bless you and those you share these special God-encounters with.  Short and delightful!

NOS4A2 by Joe Hill

A few years ago  I discovered that Stephen King's son, Joe Hill, had followed in his parents' footsteps and was a published author. Skeptical at first,  I admit that I was a bit critical of his work. But after finishing his latest novel NOS4A2, my opinions regarding his previous works have quickly been altered and are no longer quite as harsh. And I must say that this book is my favorite of his previously published titles; undoubtedly the best book that I've read all year.

Victoria (Brat) McQueen has a gift that she keeps to herself. She possesses the ability to locate missing objects by way of her Raleigh Turf Burner bicycle and an ancient old bridge dubbed "The Shorter Way." Once across, she skids and burns rubber into a different place and time, emerging from the Shorter Way with the missing articles and answers to questions gone unanswered for far too long.

Vic crosses paths with evil one day with she meets Charlie Manx. Charlie makes children disappear and has been doing so for several years. He seduces them with tales of a wonderful place called Christmasland and by the time they reach their final destination, those children are as horrific in nature as Charlie is. But Vic succeeds in a feat in which her predecessors failed. She manages to escape the 1938 Rolls Royce Wrath with the mysterious vanity plate and Charlie Manx's clutches.

Years of therapy later, Vic is now an adult, an author of children's books and the recent reciprocate of some very chilling phone calls. You see, Charlie is back with a vengeance and has set his sites on young Wayne, Victoria's son. Can a strong will, love and unimaginable magic conquer the evil that cruises down the back roads of Joe Hill's imagination?

Read it and find out.

Cooked

Cooked is the newest offering from New York Times bestselling writer Michael Pollan.
Pollan is the author of several food related books including "The Omnivore's Dilemma:  A
Natural History of Four Meals" and "In Defense of Food:  An Eater's Manifesto".

This book begins with Pollan's realization that even though he has studied food
extensively, he has never given much thought to the food the comes from his own
kitchen.  Intrigued and somewhat dismayed by our first world culture of microwaved pizza and frozen ready to eat peanut butter and jam sandwiches, he set out to learn why we no
longer cook at home.  Relying on huge corporations to cook our food, we subject ourselves
to large quantities of fat, salt and sugar.

His journey to reclaim the food he eats is broken down to four catagories:  fire,
water, earth and air.  In the chapter titled fire, he learns from a North Carolina
barbecue pit master the method of cooking a whole hog over a wood coal fire.  He
is pleasantly surprised to find a noticeable difference in the flavor of the finished
pork.  Pollan takes the reader through similar journeys with braising, baking and
fermenting.

In the end, he learns that cooking connects us all and the cook stands between the
raw material of nature's gift of food and the culture that consumes it.

A STEP OF FAITH by Richard Paul Evans

Alan Christoffersen lost his heart when his wife was killed in an accident almost one year ago. He lost his trust when his business partner stole his advertising business. He lost his home when the bank took his house. So Alan decided to leave his painful memories behind and walk from Seattle to the farthest point on the map, Key West, but in St. Louis, he is forced to stop.
  Midway through his cross-country walk, Alan collapses and wakes up in a hospital learning he has a brain tumor. His father has come out from Pasadena and takes him back home for the necessary surgery and recovery. At the hospital are two women who have prior connections to Alan, and both love him deeply. It is revealed that his young wife, who may have foreseen her own death, wanted him to remarry should she die before him, and his father, himself widowed early in life, discusses this with his son.  Treatment waylays him for a few weeks, during which time he manages to alienate the few friends and family he has left. One by one, Alan alienates them all, and he resumes his journey in angry loneliness. The people he meets as he walks the dusty southern back roads have lessons to teach Alan about accepting love. He just has to have faith that life can be worth living again—and that the woman he rejected will be willing to forgive him.
  A Step of Faith is the fourth journal of the Walk series an intriguing story that is simply an enjoyable read.

"Faith is the strength by which a shattered world shall emerge into the light" - Helen Keller

Falling to Earth

The Tri-State Tornado of 1925--which traveled 219 miles, spent more than three hours on the ground, devastated 164 square miles, had a diameter of more than a mile, and traveled at speeds in excess of 70 mph--is unsurpassed in U.S. history. History Channel: This Day in History

This is the event on which Kate Southerland builds her stunning and unnerving debut novel. Her story begins on March 18, 1925 in fictional Marah, Illinois where Paul Graves, age 35, is enjoying a contented life he has built with his wife Mae.  Former high-school football star, father of three young children, devoted son and owner of thriving Graves Lumber, Paul seems to have it all. And that is exactly what the residents of Marah soon realize after the twister devastates every home and every family BUT the Graves. Southerland’s novel takes a careening path through the lives of the Graves and Marah residents, turning the tables on who are the victims and who are the survivors. This novel made me realize just how tedious our daily lives would become if we either had no place to claim as home or if our home is in the midst of destruction. A great novel for discussion and timely too.