God in the ICU: The Inspirational biography of a praying doctor by Dave Walker MD ~ Book Review

Dr. Dave Walker started his career in South Africa as an Anesthetist with interest in the ICU.  After the  devastating loss of beloved family members within a short 2 year span where all his medical knowledge could not save them, he found himself struggling with his faith.  This is his story of how God led him full circle to offering to pray with and for patients and touching their lives while transforming his practice.  His story starts in South Africa during the time that democracy was rising up and then moves to the Middle East.  

I loved this book!  I listened to it as an audiobook and having Dr. Walker read his own story made it seem like I was sitting with him in conversation listening to his stories.  I found it brave and encouraging and challenging to my own faith as he walked out what God asked him to do and that was simply to start offering to  pray with patients and their families.  Though God didn't always answer the prayers in the way that the Doctor thought He should or wanted Him to do, Dr. Walker, and his patients and families, saw miracles worked by God in His way and His timing according His purposes.  Though sad at times, I found this book extremely encouraging, uplifting and inspirational pointing us to a God who hears us when we pray and is with us even in our darkest times.  His use of scripture was not heavy handed or preachy but flowed with the stories and was perfectly naturally placed with the text.   I will listen to this again!

Rated this a 10/10.

Reading Challenge Goal Met:  Non-fiction November book

The Nature of Fragile Things by Susan Meissner ~ Book Review

Sophie Whalen is an Irish immigrant living in New York City when she answers an ad in the paper for a mail order bride.  Without meeting, she agrees to marry Martin Hocking who lives in California.  Sophie knows it's a marriage of convenience and that is just fine with her.  Martin is a widower who needs a mother for his 5 year old daughter and Sophie needs somewhere where she can feel warm, safe, be provided for and have a child to love.   But once Sophie marries Martin and moves into his home, she finds Martin though wonderfully handsome a strange and secretive man who doesn't seem to care for his own daughter.  But Sophie has her own secrets so she lets things be while she finds solace in building a relationship with 5 year old Kat.  When a strange woman shows up at the door with questions, it starts an unraveling  in Sophie's and the stranger's lives that leads them to yet another piece of the puzzle that is Martin Hocking.  With information in hand, Sophie and the stranger confront Martin and events lead to decisions that will intertwine and change their lives forever.  Then a catastrophic earthquake hits and actual survival becomes the number one priority.  

This book was a page turner.  I love the way Susan Meissner weaves a story and in this one she uses the April 1906 earthquake and resulting fires that devastated San Francisco as a physical backdrop to her characters complicated lives which are under going a personal shaking and devastation .  Once the story got going I found I couldn't put it down because I just had to know what was going to happen and what the secrets were that were all coming to the surface.  I loved the characters of the women.  It's a story of survival both physical and personal but also of friendship in the midst of the unbelievable and of the resilience of women to move beyond the devastating.  Loved this story.  

Rated it 10/10

Read Your Shelf Challenge met for November:  A book with a night scene on the cover

and Reading Challenge:  Read a book on hold at the library

The Golden Son by Shilpi Somaya Gowda

Anil Patel is the oldest son in a large Indian family and as such is set to inherit his father's role as arbiter of the clan.   But since he was 10 years old, when his father helped a family member to make a decision to seek surgery to help a baby with a cleft lip, his father has had dreams of Patel becoming a doctor to help their community.  Leaving his home and close childhood friend, Leena, Anil goes to study for six years.  When he lands an opportunity to finish his education at a prestigious hospital in the States his father buys his plane ticket and encourages him to go in spite of his mother disagreeing.  Leaving Leena is the most difficult and both of them must now learn to navigate their respective worlds without each other.  Now Anil is trying to fit in and survive in a world very different than the one he left behind, one which doesn't always respect or accept where he comes from and whose temptations clash with the way he was raised.   And Leena, herself is trying to navigate those cultural expectations, ones that will change her life forever in ways she never imagined.  But as life would have it, they eventually meet up again, both changed people from their experiences.  

I loved this story.  It is told well and drew me in right from the beginning.  My heart was really drawn into the individual lives and struggles of both Anil and Leena, both from family and cultural expectations and for what they each faced as they navigated their respective worlds and the disappointments and life changing challenges it brought them.  When their lives intersected once again my emotions swung from one end to the other as years of family beliefs and misunderstandings and their consequences were slowly revealed.   It was  interesting to learn about the ancient "panchayat system" in India, a tradition of settling disputes within a community and the pressures that puts upon an individual person.  Though  I felt the ending wrapped up just a little too quickly with introduction of new characters without explanation of how they came into the story, I still gave this a top rating because of the emotional impact and sensitive story telling that drew me right in beginning to end.   If you like emotional stories that deal with family, friendship and other cultures I highly recommend with a trigger warning for an instance of abuse and an instance of violent racism.

I rated this 10/10

Read Your Shelf Challenge Goal Met:  a story set in a country other than your own.

Book Purchased in 2019 - 2021

Anxious People by Fredrik Backman ~ Book Review

During a real estate open house in an apartment on New Year's Eve Day the lives of various strangers are about to intersect and change.  A bank robber enters and takes them hostage.  What is a bank robber doing at an open house in the first place?  And how do the lives of a retired couple, a real estate agent, a wealthy banker, a young couple about to have a baby and two police officers all connect?  Each of them has a past they are trying to hide from and the perfect storm has brought them together to make them face the truth about themselves.  They become unlikely allies in a bizarre situation that will change their lives forever.  

This was a very different story.  It is translated from a Scandanavian language and set in Sweden.  It is a bit of complicated storytelling mostly done through conversation.  As the author starts to lay the story out I must admit I found it a bit confusing but pressed on knowing that he would bring it together somehow.   Some of the story is laid out in the interrogation of the police of these individuals.  At times the confusion and the seemingly bumbling cop trope made my eyes roll while occasionally giving me a laugh  but by the last chapters of the book I had tears in my eyes.  Backman has a knack for delving into human hearts, fears and actions that is uncanny making his characters relatable.  It is ultimately a story of lost and found hope, connection, friendship and forgiveness.

I gave it a 9/10

Reading Challenge Goal Met:  September Prompt - A Translated Book

Along a Storied Trail by Ann H. Gabhart ~ Book Review

Tansy Calhoun is a young packhorse librarian in the Kentucky mountains. She loves to read and loves to pass that love onto her Appalachian community.  Though not all are supportive of the Packhorse librarian program or learning to read.  But Tansy presses on hoping she can bring that love to anyone she can. The job also helps her struggling family to pay bills.  Her father left to find work and they haven't heard from him since they left.  Though Tansy is single she dreams of finding her perfect mate there is no one in the mountains whom Tansy is drawn towards.  Then her dear friend Caleb moves back home with the intent of letting Tansy know that she has his heart but his plans are foiled when a stranger comes to town.  One from the big city who is charming and can easily turn a young lady's head.  When Caleb and Tansy help Perdita, an old spinster, out after her home burns to the ground, they might be in for more than they bargained for.  Perdita does not have any friends and most folks are scared of her and she definitely would rather keep to herself.  But now circumstances force her to receive help.  As she sits and observes the goings on around her she knows whom Tansy should be choosing but who's going to listen to her?

This is the second "packhorse librarian" book I have read this year.  While the first took on lots of deep issues with a grit and rawness this story was more of a light hearted read.  While it did describe some of the poverty and characteristics of the Appalachian mountain people of the time it didn't go deep.  And while the main character is a pack horse librarian I would say that part is on the surface of the story and secondary to help to move the light romance along.  The characters are fun to get to know and grumpy old Perdita was a favorite and I loved her growth through the book.  This was a good, faith based story if you are wanting an easier read of the time period and region without quite the "heaviness".

I gave it a solid 8/10

Reading Goals Met:   September -  On Hold At the Library

The Scent Keeper by Erica Bauermeister

Emmaline lives on a remote island with her father.  He teaches her survival, about the land around her and how to navigate the world through scents.  Lining their small cabin are colored jars filled with papers that contain all sorts of scents.  On rare occasions her father allows her to open a jar and smell the paper inside.  Each jar evokes different memories.  He is, however, very tight lipped about these jars  but Emmaline knows there is a machine in the closet that puts the scents onto the paper.  At the very top of the rows of jars is a bottle that no one is allowed to touch and which her father will not talk about at all, the same way he won't talk about her mother.  While small her world is quite content filled with learning through her senses and the mysterious mermaid who delivers special things to the island just for her,  as she grows older more and more questions arise.  When tragedy strikes and shakes Emmaline's whole world she must now, as a teenager, learn to navigate a whole new world, the "real" world  that she has never been a part of and is totally unprepared for.   In the midst of her struggles, Emmaline knows that she must somehow learn more about the mother she never knew.  But in learning about her mother will she still feel the same about her father?

This was an absolutely unique story.  It's a coming of age story that deals family, secrets, mental health, ambition, betrayal, guilt, and love.  I was drawn to it because it is a story that had scent as a main theme.  Though it took me a while to get into it, I am so glad I stuck with it, though it was not without it's flaws.  The characters draw you in and my heart was taken with Emmaline's struggles to fit in and find herself and understand the world in which she in a moment's notice found herself.   The writing is lyrical and has lovely imagery but because of that it also contains imagery that is hard to read.   I'm never a fan of teenage sexual experiences in stories and this did contain some of that though it wasn't overly detailed.  The story is heart warming and heart breaking all at the same time.  I liked learning about scent and memories and how scent is used in commercial applications to make people feel a certain way.  How Emmaline navigated her world through scent was very well written.  Though there have been some negative comments about the ending, I liked it. 

I gave it a 9.5/10

Reading Challenge Goal Met:  A book purchased in 2019-2021 and Read Your Shelf Challenge for July:  A title that starts with the first letter of your first name

The History of Bees ~ Book Review

Spanning 3 time lines, the History of Bees tells the story of 3 families whose life and livelihoods involve bees.  William is a biologist in England during the 1850's.  William had big dreams but he is fighting depression as his life has not turned out the way he planned.  Relegated to a small seed store he is trying to eek out a living for his family.  But it's hard to not just curl up in a ball in his bedroom and give up.  But with the encouragement of his young daughter William sets out to develop a new hive, one that will help the bees with honey production and bring his family fame and fortune.

George is a bee farmer in the U.S. in 2007.  He is struggling with bee farming in the day and age as it is.  When whole colonies literally start disappearing across the south it throws bee keepers everywhere into a panic. His hope is in his son whom he saved and scrimped to send to college in the hopes he would advance the family business.  When his son shows no interest in it, in fact wanting to turn to journalism and writing instead, George is devastated and fears for the livelihood of his family.

In China during the year 2098, Tao's world has seen the complete disappearance of bees.  Now workers must literally hand paint pollen onto crops in order to produce food.  Tao daily climbs fruit trees in the ardous, back breaking task but that is her government assigned job and she has no choice.  On a rare day off, Tao, her husband and young son head to the field to have a family picnic.  They should be at an event but Tao talked her husband into taking a small amount of time to just do something with their family.  When her son has an accident the authorities whisk him away and Tao has to fight to find any information about what happened to him and where they took him.  Setting out into cities long abandoned by most people, Tao is on a desperate search and won't go back until she finds out what happened.

This was an interesting look into the life of a bee keeper and what can happen when bees disappear off the face of the earth.  I found the triple timeline, historical, contemporary and future dystopian, an interesting way to tell the story. Though I did wonder how it was all going to tie together in the end.  It seemed like three distinct stories but the author does bring it together.  It does get into environmental issues such as climate change at times but wasn't too terribly heavy handed.  It is translated from Norwegian and I thought it, for the most part, was done well.  This is not an action story by any means.  It moves slowly in some parts but I think that sets the tone for some of storytelling.  I found I did get frustrated, even offended, at some points in the historical part of the story with the main character and his attitudes and actions but I'm sure it was consistent with the era and location.  I found the stories did get me thinking about the environmental impact on bees and farmers so the author did her job in that area.  I couldn't help but feel and empathize for George and hold my breath for Tao as she dug deep for the courage to find her son.  Though this had mixed reviews I did enjoy it for the most part.  

I gave it a 8/10

Reading Challenge Goals Met for "Animals on the Cover".  (I counted bees as the animal.  And may I say this particular cover was gorgeous!)

Fragments of Light by Michele Phoenix ~ Book Review

Ceelie and Nate have been married for 20 when a breast cancer diagnosis sends her reeling. She doesn't know what she would have done without her husband's support through all the treatments. On the day her treatment is done, after the bell has been rung, Nate announces he can't do it anymore and he is leaving her. Ceelie is left reeling. Her only source of comfort and strength is her friendship with Darleen, a fellow patient. But when Darleen's diagnosis becomes terminal, she requests the help of her friend Ceelie in finding the father she was abandoned by when she was young. Growing up and living her adult life with a deep down hatred of her father, Darleen now feels the need to find out why her father abandoned her mother and herself and to try to let it go before she passes away. As they try to find out about Cal we are taken on a journey of a WWII veteran who was a paratrooper on D-day who landed where he shouldn't have and the two French sisters who saved him. 

 This book was very emotional and touching. Though at first it was a little hard to get into, soon I was turning the pages. It takes you through every emotion as Ceelie deals with everything that has been thrown at her. I found myself totally caught up in her struggle. It's a story of deep pain and hurt, resolving those feelings, forgiveness, guilt, sacrifice and friendship. The author developed each character very well and it was easy for me the reader to understand their feelings. It's a slower paced book that takes you through some very hard topics with compassion and some humor through the personality of one of the characters. It was interesting to read in the author's notes that she herself is a three time breast cancer survivor and she wanted to "explore the unspoken consequences, emotional and physical, of breast cancer" and she wanted the novel to be about the theme "brave". She also wanted readers to know the sacrifices made by those who were a part of D-day. I think she did a wonderful job of both.

I rated it a 9/10

Reading Challenge 2021 Goals Met (May):  Book Purchased in 2019-2021   

The McAvoy Sisters Book of Secrets by Molly Fader ~ Book Review

Lindy and her sister Delia were very close growing up.  But seventeen years ago something happened that drove the two sisters apart.  Lindy, always considered the more wild of the two sisters, left home and Delia the responsible one gave up her dreams of Europe and school and stayed back to get married, start a family and take over their parent's restaurant/shop.  Now, with their mom's health going downhill Lindy is back to see if she can lend a hand.  But Lindy's help isn't always well received and the sisters must come to terms with what caused their divide in the first place.  With old secrets surfacing is there any chance for them to mend the relationship?

In this quick read family drama, we are looking into the lives of a family who have been dealt some blows that has changed the course of their lives.  Meredith was never an affectionate mom but when her husband died, she was just never able to cope.  She rose up to take over her husbands fishing tour business but never had enough left over for her girls.  The dysfunction now seems to be passing onto Delia's family as she struggles to keep control of her teenage daughter even while juggling a baby and the running of the family store/restaurant.  She is not living her dream.  The business was Lindy's dream.  The sisters grew up extremely close and would write together into a shared journal.  But some events occured that caused the split and it's been 17 years since Lindy was in town.  They are almost like strangers, yet there is that strong underlying foundation of love that got them through their childhood.  Can they allow it to surface so that it gets them through once again?  The characters were for the most part realistic and the secret that broke the family was teased at throughout the book and finally revealed towards the end.  I was able to guess what it might have been but there were twists that I didn't see coming at all.  A good summer read if you are a family drama fan.

I gave it a 7.5/10

 Read Your Shelves Challenge Met:  April Prompt Read a book with 5+ words in the title

Dream When You're Feeling Blue by Elizabeth Berg ~ Book Review

Sisters Kitty and Louise both have waved their boy friends off as they went to fight across the ocean in WWII.  Now at home both are doing what they can to help the war effort.  Going without, dancing at the dance hall with soldiers and writing to as many as they can are just some of the things that have become part of daily life.  While Louise finds writing easy and is never without things to say to her fiance, telling him about her days and romantic things from her heart, Kitty is having difficulty writing a paragraph much less ones with romantic notions.  Words just won't come.  When she meets a soldier at a dance and starts writing to him the words just flow.  Now everything Kitty thought about love and romance is thrown into confusion as she works this through in her heart.

I found this book ok.  There were a lot of characters to contend with, Kitty and Louise being from a large Irish family.  Kitty's constant inward looking grew a bit tiresome to me.  It just didn't capture me.  I pushed through just to see how it came out in the end.  But then I found the ending odd and it left me scratching my head, like there was a big gaping hole in the story.    I felt there was not enough explanation of how the conclusion got to the point it did.  What I did like was the glimpse of what it was like for ordinary families that were left behind while their husbands, fathers, brothers and boyfriends were off to war.  The everyday worries that plagued not only the adults but the children as well, no matter how they tried to keep it from the children.  What they had to do with all the rationing, how they got through their days.  That was well described.

I rated this a 6.5/10

Read Your Shelf Challenge Goal Met:  April Prompt:  Read a book with 5+ words in the title

A Gentleman in Moscow by Amor Towles ~ Book Review

In 1922 Russia,  30 year old Count Alexander Rostov is brought before a Bolshevik emergency committee for writing a poem that was considered a call to action after a failed revolt.  Being found guilty he is put under house arrest permanently at the Metropol, a grand hotel that serves statesmen and actors and the upper class.  It is also close to the Kremlin.  He is never to set foot outside it's doors.  Count Alexander watches in shock as he is taken from his rather lavish room which he had been occupying fit for his position as an aristocrat and taken to the fourth attic floor where he is put into one small claustrophobic room.  This is where he must now live out his days.  But being a man of culture and knowledge, Count Alexander refuses to let his circumstances get the best of him and instead looks to what he can do to make his life the best it can be.  As he fits his usual routine into his new normal, the Count is able to forge friendships with those from all sorts of walks of life and he is able to observe how Russia changes over the decades from his unique vantage point.  When a young girl is unexpectantly placed into his care, he must make room not only in his tight living quarters but in his heart.  But what is an old count to do with a young child?

I loved this story.  The count has a unique perspective as he watches Russia's most tumultuous years roll by.  He is a learned man and find ways to keep himself learning and engaged with the world around him.  The friendships he is able to forge over the years were entertaining and heartwarming and his attitude and personality were engaging.  You couldn't help but like the guy.  His care and concern over his young charge was fun to read as he was taken from an aristocratic, single man to a foster type dad in the blink of an eye and reading how their relationship developed over the years was wonderful.  This story is by no means an action packed, edge of your seat read.  It is more of an unfolding of a life, of getting to know a character and how his strong sense of self guides him through what certainly would not have been easy circumstances to find a life still filled with joy and purpose in spite of being contained within a hotel.   Wonderful story!

I gave it a 10/10 

2021 Reading Goals Met:  - March prompt from Read Your Bookshelf Challenge:  book recommended by a friend, a book purchased in 2019 -2021

Hope Your Heart Needs (audiobook) by Holley Gerth

52 devotionals that help us to understand God's character and what He wants to be for us. In each devotional we are encouraged to take our experience and find the heart of God towards us in trial, hardship, joy, etc. His heart is where we can go with everything our day holds. Through a scripture, personal experience and a prayer inviting God to show us Himself through that characterstic each devotional brings hope to the heart no matter what your day holds and shows us a very personal God who wants us to know Him on a deeper level. 

 I listened to this as an audiobook as I made the half hour trips to see my mom on the weekends so I was listening to the devotionals back to back. I felt very encouraged as the author led me to know God better through his characteristics. I was uplifted and filled with hope and encouragement after each one and I could relate to each devotional just from everyday life. I have been a Christian for almost 40 years and none of this was new to me, but as I listened it was wonderful reminders and I felt uplifted after each driving session listening to this book.  I would like to purchase the hard copy book so that I could underline and reread different points. The short prayers at the end made each devotion personal inviting God to show us His heart towards us in that area. The person narrating was very easy to listen to.

I rate this a 9/10     

God is Able by Priscilla Shirer (audiobook) ~ book review

Publisher's Description: Nothing is impossible with God. Nothing. Not even that thing. Your thing. The one thing that seems to defy all attempts to defeat it, restore it, heal it, change it, overcome it, undo it, or just to get through it. If you've lost even an ounce of confidence in the power and loving attention of God--if experience has told you that faith must simply acquiesce to impossibility--it's time somebody told you different. Bible teacher and best-selling author Priscilla Shirer explores two power-packed verses of Scripture, displacing your doubts and rebuilding your assurance--not in a blind attempt to deny life's adversities and troubles, but to show you that God is always up to great things. Amazing things. He's a God who cares, and a God who CAN! 

 My Thoughts: A very encouraging book that points the reader to scriptures and anecdotes to help them believe God for the impossible in their personal life, no matter the situation. It builds your faith, not by denying that the problem isn't there but by showing how big God is and how much He cares and how capable He is of doing great things for His children. It came to me right at a time when I needed it and I very much felt my faith uplifted and my sense of gratefulness blooming. The narrator is very easy to listen to and reminds me a lot of the author.

I gave it a 10/10.

My Name is Eva by Suzanne Goldring ~ Book Review

Evelyn Taylor-Clarke, or Mrs T-C or Hilda, as she is known at the senior home where she resides, is gentle old lady with dementia well liked by staff.   At her age, Evelyn has slowed down in body and in mind, or so Evelyn would like them all to think.  But she is a woman who still has her wits about her and remembers everything.  And that includes the promise she made to her deceased husband to find the truth about what lead to his death and to hold the man responsible for it to account.  She remembers her time as Eve in post war Germany when wanting to do her part she first worked for the British Secret Services in an interrogation camp, fittingly named the Forbidden Village and all that transpired there and then in a resettlement camp for displaced persons.  She remembers all the horrors that were tucked away from there never to be mentioned except in letters to her beloved departed husband.  Most of all she remembers the horrific things she herself has done in order to keep the promise to her husband. No one at the senior home would ever believe the heart of revenge she has carried throughout all these years.  But when her niece, who has taken over her affairs which includes the selling of her precious home, comes across a suitcase filled with questionable items and an old cookie tin with a picture of a child,  Eva must not let on that she knows anything about them.  The secrets must stay only within her remembrance never to be revealed to anyone. But that doesn't mean she can't enjoy the game of keeping those around her guessing.  

This was a really interesting take on a WWII story.  It takes place after the war and looks at the role of the interrogation camps where Germans were questioned and also the work that took place trying to place victims of the war who had been displaced.  The author's research into these two aspects of the war was very apparent.  The story is told in several ways:  it's a time split novel that goes back and forth from 2016 and 1945.  But some of the chapters are also told thru short letters that Eva is writing to her husband both before and after his death.  To the care center, Evelyn is a pleasant old woman, but Evelyn has different sides to her personality and life only she knows.  Her love for her husband drives her decisions through out the story and her quest to find the truth about his death and hold the man responsible no matter the cost to herself is woven really well through the 3 different viewpoints.  I've never read a WWII story that actually took place immediately after the war and that was a really interesting aspect that kept me really engaged in the story.  The ending I did not see coming at all.   The only part of the story I didn't really care for was the fact of Evelyn's character pretending to have some dementia in order to fulfill her whole plan of revenge.  I was uncomfortable with that aspect of the story as I really feel for those who struggle with that in real life.  

I gave this story a 9/10

Reading Challenge Goal met:  Read my library holds and prompt "Read a book with red on the cover" from the Read Your Shelves Challenge.