The Sweetgum Knit Lit Society

The Sweetgum Knit Lit Society by Beth Pattillo
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

So you know I'm going to love a story that revolves around a group of women who get together every month & talk about a book they've read & do a knitting project along with each book. How can I NOT like this?

I found it was written by the same lady who wrote "Heavens to Betsy" & the follow up to that - books I so enjoyed reading, I even reached out to the author & emailed her how much I loved them.

So yeah, this book was just as good as I expected it to be.

The story of 5 ladies who are in the Sweetgum Knit-Lit Society. All different stories, all different life dramas that are coming at them. Secrets they keep from everyone. And enter a troubled teen who has to 'pay' back for damaging a library book & she's ordered to join the club for awhile. The way this young lady, Hannah, touches the lives of the women & how her life is changed herself, it all comes full circle.

I have the follow up book & can't wait to dig into it & see how my new knitting friends are.

& this book just makes me want to start up a knitting group so badly, I can't hardly stand it. My own knit-lit group... maybe it'll happen.

View all my reviews

Not that kind of girl

Not That Kind of Girl: A Young Woman Tells You What She's "Learned" by Lena Dunham
My rating: 1 of 5 stars

I just don't get it.

I know I've seen this book everywhere with everyone reading it.

I thought I was going to pull the hairs out on my arm for more entertainment than this.

Let's just say that I get it - I'm a totally different person than Lena Dunham. We have different up bringing, we have different ways to approach life situations - & apparently we have different outlooks & values in life. Maybe I'm just a prude. Half of the book, I'm shaking my head at the language & the stories & the other half, I was just sort of bored.

I don't get what all the huff is about.

I'm totally disappointed.

Maybe I'm NOT THAT KIND OF GIRL ....

View all my reviews

The Way Home

Cain stars as Randy Simpkins, a husband and father torn between the demands of his job and commitment to his family. Asked by his wife Christal to watch their two-year-old son Joe for a few minutes, Randy is distracted by work and Joe disappears. Racked by guilt, Randy joins Christal in a desperate search for their missing son alongside hundreds of others from their church and community. Randy and Christal’s strained marriage must now weather the ultimate test - the potential loss of a child. The Way Home is the story of Randy's powerful spiritual journey back to love, faith and a Godly understanding of what must always take first priority in a man's life - his family.

____________

I thought I did this review ages ago but found out I didn't post it...

Who doesn't love Dean Cain.  Superman!!!

& who wouldn't love Dean Cain in a Christian movie showing the importance of family, faith & God?

I love that they are making more videos with a deeper purpose & good quality stories.

This one I found out is a true story based on a family that has a 2 yr old son missing & how it effects the family & ultimately, making them rely solely on their faith.

If you get the movie - be sure to check out the extras because you will see interviews with the real family. I always love when you can hear the true emotions from the people who lived through experiences.

(This DVD was given to me for an honest review from Book Look Bloggers)

The Unveiled Wife

The Unveiled Wife: Embracing Intimacy with God and Your Husband by Jennifer Smith
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

I just love getting emails every morning with prayers about how to be a better wife.

So when I was able to get the book to see what the whole story was, I was excited. I love Jennifer Smith's heart for marriage & the struggles that just come with it only because we're humans.

I ended up reading this book in one day. It's such a easy read with really insightful questions that would make this a good book for a women's Bible Study group.

The book wasn't exactly what I thought it was going to be, but I still enjoyed it. It told the story of Jennifer & her husband Aaron, the relationship starting young, two people who had expectations of what their spouses should be & keeping God focused in it all.

As everything, marriage isn't everything you THINK its going to be. I so appreciate Jennifer talking about that. We have expectations of what marriage should be, the happily ever after, & we get frustrated when its not what we feel like we deserve.

The book was mainly the issues that Jennifer & her husband experienced as they became married & ventured into those first years of marriage. The book is basically about their story, & not until the end does it seem like its more of a marriage help book for every one else, which is more of what I was expecting. I'm not saying that's a fault. It's just different from what I was going in thinking it was. & I always love to read about someone's journey & especially someone's triumph in their journey.

I still am looking forward to the ministry that Jennifer has in her life & will still open my email every morning anxious to pray along with thousands of woman who are covering their marriage in prayer.

View all my reviews

Maybe One Day

Maybe One Day by Melissa Kantor
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

The story of 2 girls who are best friends & one suddenly gets cancer....

Oh mercy, you know this is going to end in tears.

Olivia & Zoe are have been best friends growing up together, dancing together, becoming teenagers together. Suddenly, as they are rejected from their dancing troupe, Olivia is discovered to have a rare form of leukemia.

The story follows Olivia as she goes through treatment & how that affects her older brother, Jake, her younger twin brothers, her parents & of course, her best friend who she spends every minute with, as teenage girls do.

This book was hard for me to read. Having seen a friend go through leukemia as a teenager & then loosing a best friend to cancer later in life myself, it just tugged at my heart in different ways. It made feelings come right back to me, especially after the loss of a friend & I appreciated some of the words that Zoe had said because they felt true to me having been in a similar position.

I will say, I didn't like about this book that they made God seem like a jerk ... or worse, nonexistent. The girls would make fun of prayer & make comments about how God couldn't exist to let things like this happen. I really thought, because it was mentioned so much, that it would be a focal point of a turn around in a relationship with God. Nope. They still all hated God by the end.... which to me, with a book focused on young adult, made me sad to have that as a focus with no hope. Just me.

If you read it, be prepared to be sad... & remember that life always continues on....

View all my reviews