Gravel Road Musings

A Journey through the Treasures & Transforming Power of a Reading Life This has to count for one of the most unique and yet interesting books I have ever read.  I appreciate the faithful who take the time to read my book reviews. Basically, we are talking a book full of book reviews, which is quite fascinating.  Now I will admit that to read through over 20 books lists/book reviews back to back does get a bit exhausting, but that is no fault of the author at all. The book is meant to be read cover to cover or it is meant to be read in snippets based on where you are at in life and what you are looking to learn or what you need for the current situation. One of the things Sarah talk about is discernment in reading and she say this: "When I come to a dilemma of discernment, I often find that if I examine what the book produces in me - in my emotions, my imagination, my desires, my sense of what is real or true - I can quickly identify whether the book is one I want to ...

Reclaim Your Dream. Ignite Your Passion. Live Your Purpose. I am intrigued by this man, Tim Tebow. He seems unlike most athletes out there. Okay, now granted, I don't read about most athletes out there, so this is a completely unqualified comment and  may not have any truth in it.  But he still intrigues me. He is a relatively famous man and yet still seems so down to earth, so willing to converse with everybody and anybody and so committed to doing what he believes God wants him to do. He is committed to following his dreams and pursuing his passions, which is why he is playing baseball in the minor leagues right now. It's not for the money, it's because it's something he wanted to try and so he did. The theme of this book is to make the most of every moment. This is your day, make it count. Do something with it. Live it fully. He has written 12 chapters that showcase 12 areas where we need to make the day count. In relationships, say "I Love You" be...

This is the third book in Tracie's Golden Gate Secrets series.  This book takes place right after the great San Francisco earthquake and then the fires have destroyed the city. It continues to follow the lives of the three girls who met on the train while each one was bound for San Francisco, all for different reasons.  This book focuses a bit more on Kenzie and her journey to move beyond her past and her journey to learn to trust again. It's the typical historical fiction/romance. There are true players in the story that really lived in the time frame the book was written, but the main characters are, of course, fiction. I think what I really liked about this book was Tracie's portrayal of the compassion and kindness of the main character. At this point in the story, they were all fairly well off, one especially, but money was not their savior. They wanted to use their wealth for the betterment of mankind. They were willing to sacrifice their own comforts and do their ...

This is the second book in a series, I guess. They called the first book, Waves of Mercy the prequel, so however that works. Anyway, I do recommend reading the book first. You can read this one as a stand alone, I guess, but you won't get as much out of it. I had read the first book awhile ago and would have found it helpful to read again first to fully get the story again. But it's a good story. Anna was raised in a wealthy house, but had just found her real grandmother at the end of the first book. She wants to know more about God, to follow Him more faithfully, but her fiance is uninterested. Meanwhile, she has fallen in love with a young man who is studying to be a minister and not the least bit wealthy. And that is all I'm going to say about that so I don't give the story away anymore than I already have. What I really like about this book is Anna's determination to follow God and to love her adopted parents well. She is willing to sacrifice her own happi...

How to turn your overwhelming thoughts and feelings into your greatest allies. I want to preface this whole book review by saying I am not a psychologist or a psychiatrist or a counselor or even that great of a listener, though I'm trying to learn to be a listener, so I am not necessarily a good one to comment on some of the aspects of this book. So just keep that in mind as you read my thoughts. I am a little divided about this book. Some of it seemed strangely weird to me and some of it made sense. And some of those things were the same things. I think I could come across here as being very confused and there would be some truth there as well. The big focus of the book is taking a You-turn when anger or shame or fear or anxiety or any other unhealthy attribute raises its head. There are five parts of this process: focus, befriend, invite Jesus, unburden and integrate. I can definitely see the value of this process. While reading the book, when things would come up that I ...

So this book provides a classic example of why it's always good to read more than one book by an author. This is the second book by Jane that I have read. The first one, when I looked at my review, I wasn't that impressed by. This book I loved. I can't explain the difference. Both books were based on true events and followed the life of a real life person, but one I enjoyed and one didn't do much for me. Anyway, this is a memoir within a memoir of Carrie Adell Green Strahorn. She wrote a two volume memoir called "Fifteen thousand Miles by Stage." This is true. Jane took that memoir and created a fictional/true character. Basically she made her a bit more personable, trying to add in real thoughts and feelings. Carrie was very happy to remain in her happy lane as she liked to call it. And truthfully, while she saw some amazing things in her life, I don't know that there are many women who are blissfully content to be moved from location to location at...

If you have a young reader who loves to tell jokes, this would be the book for them. (Keep in mind that you might be subjected to hearing these jokes as well!!)  It's a fun little soft cover book that would slide into a book bag or even a purse for a child to read while out and about or waiting at a restaurant, etc. It's filled with all kinds of jokes, knock-knock jokes, backwards jokes, one-liners, puns and etc. Yes, some of them are lame, in my opinion, but I also found some of them hilarious. The next person could have the opposite reaction. Here are just a few examples: Teacher: Does anyone know who broke the sound barrier? Manny: Don't ask me. I'm no tattletale. My teacher told me to have a good day, so I went home. The main reason for a child's middle name --  So he can tell when he's really in trouble. The jokes were all clean, no bad words, which is a very nice thing. So you can relax and only worry about being driven a little crazy by a...

Because your life would be better if you did So this isn't really a title you would expect to find on a Christian bookshelf, is it? Quit church? Huh? You mean like don't go anymore? No that is not at all what this book means. If I'm completely honest, I'm not entirely sure what the whole "quit church" means, but I definitely get the pieces of our life we should quit.  And I think the big meaning is to not just show up at church on Sunday morning, consider your duty done and then check out. Chris wants you to be fully engaged, to consider yourself an owner of the church. Owners take much more responsibility for their business than an employee does. A few things we should quit: Quit Expecting to Wake up in Heaven. In other words, life isn't perfect, church isn't perfect, so get over it and make it the best you can. Be loyal Quit Giving Your Money Away.  What? Well, think about it, that money isn't yours to begin with, so start thinking of i...

This is a novella written about a thirtyish widow and her son. They have inherited a beach side cottage in the town of Seaside. The mom, Wendy, has full intentions of getting the cottage ready for sale and selling it. They have a lot of debt as her husband had been very sick with cancer before he passed away and Wendy feels she must have her corporate job in Ohio to make ends meet. Jackson, her son, loves the town and feels like he is being given a fresh start. And then, of course, there is the knight in shining armor, who also lives in the town. To be honest, I didn't realize this was supposed to be a novella until I sat down to write this review. That helps my feelings with this book, because one of my biggest issues is that the story was too short. To get from start to finish, everything moved along very fast and was focused too much, I thought, on the romantic end of it.  The other thing that I didn't like about this book is it feels like I read it before. The story lin...

I feel like all I have done recently is write book reviews. And if I'm honest with myself, all I have done on here recently is write book reviews. So my feelings are not removed from the truth, at least not in this situation. I feel like I am coming to the end of the crazy, hectic summer. I had my last bake sale at Mom's and it was a good way to end, my best weekend all summer. But it feels really good to have that rat race come to an end. For those of you who wonder though? I love baking and for the most part this summer, it energized me. I will confess to a couple weeks in the thick of it feeling a little overwhelmed and stressed, but even at 10 PM as I'm cleaning up the kitchen and bagging bread, I was happy. D even noticed and commented. That's scary, because I'm suspicious that that happiness is not always present. I know it's not always present. And there's something to work on. One of these days I will try to get some pictures up and start actuall...

Reflections on Loving God Back I'm going to be honest here. When I got this book in my hand to read, I read the back cover author bio and my heart sank. I realized that Lacey was a musician. I had just read a book by another musician and I did not enjoy it. And I immediately put this book in the same category, but when you get books for free to review, then read them you must. So I resolved to endure it. And boy was I in for a surprise. Lacey's book challenged me in so many ways.  The essence of the book is returning to God. Returning to God my plans, my thoughts, my opportunities, my body, my works, and so on. It's giving everything up for God and letting Him lead and direct every single area of life. That's a big challenge. The book is set up kind of fun too. Most of the chapters have a reflection, a journal entry, a song, and a page with some meditation questions, a recipe, a to-do list/random acts of kindness list, a song idea, a prayer and some Scripture ref...

Book two in the Under the Northern Skies Series I really like this series. I like fiction books that are not just romance and fairy tale. I like books that get down to earth and are real and relatable. Yes I like fluff sometimes too, but these books here--I like them. This is the story of a family who immigrated to Minnesota from Norway.  The first book told the story of Rune and his family and now this book is about his brother and sister that come over too. They live with their aunt and uncle, a crusty bitter angry old man who makes life extremely difficult for everyone. The aunt was like that too in the first book, but kindness won her over. This book talks about their life in Minnesota. It wasn't an easy life, creating a home in the north with no modern convenience wouldn't be easy, but they persevere.  The family come to realize how much community can help and how people are willing to reach out and help if they are willing to accept. I just really liked the dow...

This is the second in the Orphan Train series and chronicles the journey of the second Neumann sister as she worked as an agent for the Children's Aid Society in sending children out to Illinois to be placed for adoption. Jody's intent was to try and give an agent's perspective as they travelled with the children, their love for the children and then their need to let them go to their new parents. She also tried to give some perspective from the children's viewpoint as well. I'm sure the whole orphan train had so many pros and cons: there were some good families who took in the children and there were some not so good families. Then there were those children who nobody wanted that felt once more the crush of rejection. Anyway, that's a different story. That story line was good. Of course, there was the romance in the story as well: two single placing out agents, one male and one female and you know the rest of the story with the unexpected twists and turns. ...

I love Amy Parker's books. And I thought I had quite a few of them, but when I looked, I realized this was only my third one. However, I think why it sticks out to me so much is because one of my favorite children's books is by her: The Plans I have for You. I know this blog post is not about that book, but if you have a chance get that book. It's for a bit older children than this night-night series is, but still written in the same awesome rhyming style. Okay, enough on that. This is the second book I own in the night-night series that Amy wrote and it's so cute. The books are a nice size for little hands, the cover has the softer plushy feel to it and the pages are board book thickness. The illustrations are so cute: all animals out working in Sleepytown. When you have animals dressed up in human clothes walking around town,  it's hard to make them look too realistic, but you can so tell what the animals are and they are just so so cute. And then story li...