A Letter to My Cat—Notes to Our Best Friends by Lisa Erspamer is full of Cuteness!

A Letter to My Cat—Notes to Our Best Friends by Lisa Erspamer had this cat lover saying “AWW” on practically every page!  The full-page color pictures of cats are beautiful and the letters by their owners are heartwarming.  It is a collection of notes from cat owners, including some celebrities, to their cats.  It is a quick read and very enjoyable.   This is a wonderful book for any cat lover! 

(Karen's review, 5 stars)

 Our cats like this book to and highly recommend it since there were several pictures of cats that looked like them.

Gerard and I (and Abby, or dog) also loved A Letter to My Dog.

Have you read this one? What did you think of it? If you reviewed this too, feel free to share your link to your review in the comments. Happy Reading!

"The WAITING" by Suzanne Woods Fisher--A Beautiful Amish Romance

The WAITING by Suzanne Woods Fisher topped The CHOICE!  In The Waiting, Jorie King, the main character who helps her grandparents on their Amish horse farm and agrees to teach school finally finds love.  This is a great story that focuses on one particular Amish family, the Zooks.  The oldest, Cal is left with his young daughter, Maggie and his three brothers--Ben, Matthew, and Ephraim when his beloved wife dies of Cancer.  Cal stepped up to run the family farm when their parents died.  Issues in this book include life struggles, family issues, faith, education, judging others, relationships and coming of age.

I absolutely loved this book and look forward to reading more by this wonderful author.  The romance is clean, the Christian theme runs throughout without being preachy and it's thought provoking.  I cheered out loud at a couple parts--once when Cal through Ben's medications into the garbage and when the test results came back for Jorie's 8th graders.  Ephraim was my favorite character. 
(Karen's review, 5 stars)

Have you read this one? What did you think of it? If you reviewed this too, feel free to share your link to your review in the comments. Happy Reading!

"How It Went Down" by Kekla Magoon

How It Went Down by Kekla Magoon is a novel straight out of today's news!  A young black teen male is killed by a white man.  Did he have a gun and was he ready to use it?  Or did the white man act in haste and kill an unarmed boy?  This book focuses on how the community reacts and is spot on.  I loved this book because the characters were really interesting, realistic and it kept me turning pages to get to the good ending.
(Gerard's review, 5+ stars)

Have you read this one? What did you think of it? If you reviewed this too, feel free to share your link to your review in the comments. Happy Reading!

"Mother Teresa: A Life Inspired by Wyatt North is Informative, Brief, Inspiring!

Image source:  Amazon

Before reading this Mother Teresa:  A Life Inspired by Wyatt North, I only had a general idea of the good this lady did.  The book made the point that she saw all human beings as her neighbor and sought to Love everybody as herself as Jesus commanded us to do regardless of race, religion and boundaries.  I learned a lot about her in the couple hours it took me to read this book.  To me, it felt as though I was reading a report on her life.  It met my expectations and inspired me to go and help as many people as I can.  This book showed me she truly was a great person by serving others as Jesus said we should do.   (I read this one on Kindle, sorry no cat pictured with it.)
(Karen's review, 4 stars)

Have you read this one? What did you think of it? If you reviewed this too, feel free to share your link to your review in the comments. Happy Reading!

Teaser Tuesdays: Five Today!

Gerard's:
  
"The EG machine picked up the same electrical flare in the cortex that occurs with an uninjured brain."
"So he is thinking?" 
"Yes.  But he's trapped within his skull." 

From page 13 of SPARK by John Twelve Hawks. (Just finished this last week but it's so good, I wanted to do a teaser from it-- click link to see my review)

But I couldn't do it.  I couldn't move forward, couldn't take the one step and then another that it would require of me..

From page 23 of the fragile world by Paula Treick DeBoard.
.
Karen's: 

Here he was, an Amish kid plucked right off the farm, pitching for a professional baseball team.  Who had ever heard of such a thing? 
From page 13 (Loc. 133-34 on Kindle)

and here's another from the same book because it was hard to choose just one:

She wasn't ready to be a parent, but she was thrust into that role when her father died.  She decided this must be what it felt like to tuck an octopus into bed.  An arm or two kept popping out.  From page 60 (Loc. 756-57 on Kindle)

Both teasers from The Choice (Lancaster County Secrets Book #1) by Suzanne Woods Fisher.

Not only was it never too late to do something beautiful for God but it was also never too late to do something more beautiful for God.  In this quote, we find Mother Teresa teaching us always to be on the lookout for new ways to serve God, whether by actions we had not previously considered or by serving poor and destitute individuals of whom we had not previously been aware.

From Loc. 623-25 on Kindle of Mother Teresa:  A Life Inspired by Wyatt North.

Teaser Tuesdays is a weekly bookish meme, hosted by MizB of Should  Be Reading. Anyone can play along, so I thought  I  would play for fun! Just pick two sentences from the book you are reading.

Happy Reading!

"The Fragile World" by Paula Treick DeBoard

The Fragile World by Paul Treick DeBoard is about how a family deals with the tragic accident and death of their son and brother.  It is told by the dad, mom and sister.  Not to give too much away, but they all have their own ways of dealing.  I enjoyed this one.  It kept me interested through the whole book and the ending was really good too!
(Gerard's review, 5 stars)

Have you read this one? What did you think of it? If you reviewed this too, feel free to share your link to your review in the comments. Happy Reading!

"The Choice" by Suzanne Woods Fisher is Very Good Christian Romance

The Choice, the first in the “Secrets in Lancaster” series by Suzanne Woods Fisher is about romance in an Amish community along with Englishers.  This is an enjoyable read with a love triangle and some hard times that work out for good.  It is a story of faith,  mercy and forgiveness with several interesting characters and a bit of humor.  As an Amish girl, Carry must choose to run off with Sol as he pursues a professional baseball career as a pitcher, an Amish boy who has not yet been baptized that she is in love with or stay and take care of her brother when her father dies, remaining faithful to the Amish ways.  She wants him to stay but he does not want to miss his opportunity for more.

I particularly liked the way the author followed the lives of several different people and didn’t just focus all on the main character and her relationships.  This book touches on many different aspects of Amish life and I look forward to reading others by this author.  This would be a good Book Club read and has discussion questions in the back.    I recommend this to anyone who enjoys  clean romances or  Amish stories.  (I read this on my Kindle so no cat pictured, sorry!)

(Karen's review, 5 stars)

Have you read this one? What did you think of it? If you reviewed this too, feel free to share your link to your review in the comments. Happy Reading!

"Spark" by John Twelve Hawks -- Gripping and Strange!

Spark, by John Twelve Hawks is about a Jacob Underwood who suffers from Cotard's Syndrome - an actual condition that makes you believe you are dead even though you aren't.   He is a hired assassin who does his job very well since he has no feelings or concept of right or wrong.  Things do change though, and when that happens, this good book becomes great!  The good writing made me want to keep turning pages which led to a very good ending!
(Gerard's review, 5++ stars)

Have you read this one? What did you think of it? If you reviewed this too, feel free to share your link to your review in the comments. Happy Reading!

We Both Liked "Belzhar" by Meg Wolitzer

Belzhar by Meg Wolitzer tells the story of five young teens who take a class called "Special Topics in English."  They all seem very different but have two things in common:  they are all good in English composition and they have all had a recent trauma in their life.  They all have been sent to The Wooden Barn, a boarding school in Vermont for fragile teens.  The English class will be like none they ever had before.

Wow, oh wow!  this is so good!  I really liked all the kids and wanted only good for them.  To me, this was a real page turner.  LOVED IT!  I think it would make for a good movie!  I was shocked by the ending--really good!
(Gerard's review) 

Belzhar by Meg Wolitzer is teen fiction about love, loss, trauma, friendship and a bit of fantasy.  When five teens are chosen for the “Special Topics in English” class at The Wooden Barn school in Vermont, they experience true friendship and bizarre journal writing that helps them move past their individual traumas and deal with real life.  This is a very interesting read that drew me in right away.  I liked all the main characters in the book and enjoyed seeing how the class “jelled” as the book progressed.  This is a fun read that I recommend to anyone who wants something a little different and unusual.  

(Karen's review, 5 stars)

Have you read this one? What did you think of it? If you reviewed this too, feel free to share your link to your review in the comments. Happy Reading!