Righteous Warriors-The War Chapters

I love John Bytheway! He is so funny and I love that he writes specifically to teenagers because then I can understand it too. :) But I enjoyed him as a teenager too.

For Book Club this month we read one of his books about the war chapters in the Book of Mormon. I read this book several years ago and before I read this book I usually fell asleep during the "war chapters" or didn't really pay any attention to them. Now they are some of my favorite chapters. It is so interesting to me to see all the military tactics that are used but also see where the Lord helped his Righteous Warriors. And I love Capt. Moroni and Helaman as it is but to learn more about them and their character just increases that love.

I appreciated how he wrote this book. He talks about certain verses and discusses them. Often times he gives bullet points such as "Observation" or "Major Lesson" and it helps to break things down. Then at the end of the chapter he lists the lessons that are learned in the chapters he discussed. If you need a quick reference that is very helpful.

My other favorite books of his are the "What I learned in High School" books. He wrote two of them and they are awesome! I've used them in lessons before because he has great quotes in there from other prophets and also great insight on things. He also has great talks on CD that I recommend. I think one is called "What are you Carrying in your Backpack?" and if I remember correctly this one talks about the Book of Mormon but more specifically about Jacob. If that's not the right one, oh well, whatever the one about Jacob is it's a great one! I love all of his stuff. I don't think I've read one or listened to one that wasn't good. He has a great talk specifically for mothers and the women of the church that I also enjoy.

If you haven't read or listened to any of John Bytheway's things then you are missing out! Go check him out (not literally-he's married!)

Gravity vs. The Girl

Gravity vs. The Girl by Riley Noehren was a pretty good book. I don't know why, but every time I read this book Gravity won...I would fall asleep or lose all of my energy! It wasn't a boring book by any means. I actually really liked it and I felt like I was really getting into it...but I fell asleep every time. I wasn't always laying down when I was reading it either. I don't know, quite the mystery.

Anyway, despite that it made my gravity increase, this book was very interesting. It's about a young woman who has a midlife crisis, essentially, when she turns 30. She's a big shot lawyer who, when the books begins, has been in her bed and in her pajamas for about a year eating mostly jell-o cups. She is then "haunted" by 4 ghosts of her past self: 6 year old, attorney, law student and high school. It's about her journey out of bed and out of her pajamas and how she deals with things to make the ghosts go away.

For me, this was a great perspective on life. Sometimes we think we've dealt with things but we find that those incidents creep up on us at some point in our lives and now that we're in a different place we can try to finally resolve them. This book was a little depressing to me because it was a little true to life for me. Not the attorney part or the ghost part, but the spending your life in bed and in pajamas part. I'm sad to admit it but the past nine months I have found myself just in a complete rut with absolutely no energy or motivation to do anything. I pull myself out of bed to take care of the necessary things for my children...but then I crawl right back in when I'm no longer needed. My house is atrocious, I only shower when it is absolutely necessary and because I'm too lazy to wash my make-up off when I actually do put it on I'm breaking out worse than I ever did in high school. So this book was kind of a wake-up call on just how pathetic I let myself become.

It has a great ending and I was really pleased with how the author wrapped things up. I hope my life has a happy ending as well. I haven't had any ghosts come to help me yet...if things get that bed I'll probably just think I'm dead!

Supernatural

I am totally loving these books! Kirsten White has such a great perspective on the whole supernatural thing and it is so refreshing. I love the main characters and the challenges they are faced with. Because they are "real life" issues mingles with that paranormal twist. Even though I don't put much stock into paranormal beliefs, this comes across as "believable" to me. If these things truly did exist I could totally see these trials and things coming to pass. It's just so funny and refreshingly clean that it's such a great recommendation for any age. I would even let my nine year old read it. It's a little beyond her comprehension but I don't have to worry about language, or details, or romance passages getting out of hand. I love this book and can't wait for the third one to come out!

Son of Neptune

This is the second book in Rick Riordan's series "The Heroes of Olympus" series. It had been quite awhile since I had read the first book and so I didn't remember what happened but that was ok. The characters in this book are very likeable and good ol' Percy Jackson is back. It picks up with Percy having amnesia of sorts. He has some fuzzy memories of a past life but can't seem to put them all together. Weird monsters are after him and he's not quite sure why. He finds himself at the Roman camp and learning about the Gods whom he calls by their Greek names. The Romans are a little skeptical of him because they can tell he's Greek and they don't get along with the Greeks very well. The war between the Gods is continuing and Percy and two of his new friends have to go on an impossible quest and make it back before the clock strikes midnight when all hell breaks loose and the world as we know it will be destroyed! Such great reading. I love the way Rick Riordan writes and the mythology that you learn along the way. It ended with such a great twist that I'm mad I have to wait until the fall for the third one to come out!! I very much liked this book!

Midnight at Austenland

Well Shannon Hale has done it again! I absolutely LOVED this book! It has everything in it: humor, murder, intrigue, romance, adventure, and just a hint of actual real life problems. I loved the characters in this book and even though I figured out the mystery it was still so much fun to read and follow. Once again we go to Austenland to escape life's drama and get into some "let's just pretend that we're in one of Jane Austen's books" drama. The chivalry, the culture, the fancy dresses. One thing I liked about this book is that the main characters all had a hard time sticking to their "script" and more of the life behind the actors came out. This heroine was just as hilarious and fantastic as the heroine in the original Austenland. And while I didn't identify with her as much as I had the last character, I still found a soft spot for her in my heart and just cheered her on the entire book. My favorite part that made my husband and I laugh out loud for three solid minutes and then continually chuckle to ourselves for weeks on end was the "...long note from the buttocks bassoon..." You'll have to read the book if you want to find out what it means. Who doesn't love a good Shannon Hale book anyway! Read it. I promise you won't be disappointed!

Lemon Tart- A Culinary Mystery

I read the first book in a culinary mystery series called Lemon Tart. It was very well written and I enjoyed it. I cannot think of who the author is at the moment...wait...it's Josi S. Kilpack. The main character is kind of a Ms. Marple kind of person: she's a widow who likes to look out her window and watch everyone and everything and has it all timed down to the exact minute. I admit that for me, this was a fairly easy book to figure out. There were a few twists and turns, but none that I didn't already see coming. This is one reason why I don't read a lot of mysteries-they are just to easy to figure out. I like Agatha Christie's because I can never figure them out.

Well, in this particular story the murder victim is a young single mom that the main character befriends. She teaches her how to make a lemon tart because her last name is Lemmon. The main character tries to solve the case (against the wishes of the authorities) and happens to unravel a family secret in the process.

It's very well written and it has a good plot and story line. Plus there is an added bonus-the author puts in the recipes of all the food mentioned in the book. I told the ladies at book club that whoever hosts the month we read this has to make all the recipes in the book. They range from not only the infamous lemon tart but anything from homemade alfredo sauce to carrot cookies. I read the first chapter of the next book in line: English Trifle and it was very intriguing. I have to say that one thing Mrs. Kilpack does is get straight to the point. The murder has happened within the first chapter. At first I didn't like that because there was no set-up and as I looked at the thickness of the book I cringed at all the "wild goose-chasing" that had to happen in order for this mystery to be solved and we were only through the first chapter! I noticed that the next book starts out the same-murder happens in the first chapter. Well, I guess I'll have to read it and see what happens. Besides, I absolutely LOVE English Trifle!

If you want to read a mystery that is not scary and won't make you jump at every creak the house makes (and get a few good recipes while you're at it) give Josi S. Kilpack's culinary mysteries a try!

Author Lynn Austen

I have another author that I really like. Her name is Lynn Austen. She's a Christian writer and has won some awards for her books. The first book of hers that I read was a part of a trilogy from the Civil War. It's called a Candle in the Darkness. It's about the war between the North and South and this particular book is from the perspective of a Southern Girl. This was very interesting to me because she doesn't quite understand what's going on and when she becomes old enough to understand she is torn. Does she stand up for what she believes in and become a traitor or go with what the "South" believes? I guess I just naively thought that all Southerners believed in slavery. I liked that it showed the conflict of not only standing up for what you believe but also standing up to your own "kind." Like a sheep surrounded by a pack of wolves. The other two books in this trilogy are from the perspectives of the North and the Slave's. I liked the Northern perspective as well, but not as much as the Southern. I don't know if it was because I read the other one first or what. I liked the character in the South better I think. I never did finish the Slave's perspective. It didn't move as well for me as the others did and I was reading several books at the time. I had to return it to the library before I could finish it. I am very passionate about the Civil War and the poor treatment of the slaves. It makes my blood boil!

Her other series is fantastic as well! I can't remember what it's called because I thought it was called the Gods and Kings Chronicles...but that's actually the title of the first book in the series. It is awesome and really strengthened my testimony and got me thinking a lot about things. Like I mentioned before she is a Christian writer. She doesn't quote from the KJV but from the NIV...which is like the Bible only written in "lay-man's" terms. The very first chapter in this book actually made my stomach turn and I almost just stopped reading it. It starts out with a human sacrifice...a human CHILD sacrifice. I can't stand things like this. I pushed myself further and told myself that if it was like this in the next chapter I would definitely not finish it. It got better...but still hard to read. It's about King Hezekiah and his life. It starts with his father King Ahaz who got his people back into idol worshiping and sacrificing. The series goes through his life and his challenges. Remember the famous Hezekiah Tunnel? I cross referenced this with the Bible Dictionary in the KJV and I remembered the Sunday School lesson we had on this story. I loved having it come to life! There are some hard things to swallow...the idol worshiping, the violence from the warring countries and the disrespect that the men of God have to suffer...but it's also a great story on what happens when you follow the Lord's teachings. I totally recommend this series to everyone! It will get you thinking about things and really strengthen your testimony!

I've read some of her other books that are not a part of a series and I have loved them all. Some of them start getting to be the same ideas and follow the same patterns as the others, but in the end I find myself closing the book and feeling like I want to be a better person. I cry, laugh, get angry and feel humbled after all of her books. She is a great writer and even though she quotes from the NIV she has a pretty strong foot planted in the soil of the gospel :). If I ever meet her I'm going to give her a Book of Mormon and say "Here, right a story about this!"