Reading Wrap-up

I haven't been able to do a lot of reading lately. Doing two Bible studies at once tends to leave little room for any other reading.  But in addition to reading When Crickets Cry, I have managed to read the following in the past few months.

To Kill A Mockingbird by Harper Lee:
One of the best loved stories of all time.  To Kill a Mockingbird has been translated into more than forty languages, sold more than thirty million copies worldwide, served as the basis of an enormously popular motion picture, and was voted as one of the best novels of the twentieth century by librarians across the country.  A gripping, heart-wrenching, and wholly remarkable tale of coming-of-age in a South poisoned by virulent prejudice, it views a world of great beauty and savage inequities through the eyes of a young girl, as her father -- a crusading local lawyer -- risks everything to defend a black man unjustly accused of a terrible crime.

What can be said about To Kill A Mockingbird that hasn't already been said?  I don't know how I went for so long without reading it...but I am sure it comes as no surprise that I LOVED it.  And since I finished it just before going to see The Help at the movies, it was perfect timing.

Heaven Is For Real: A Little Boy's Astounding Story of His Trip to Heaven and Back by Todd Burpo: 
Heaven Is For Real is the true story of the four-year old son  of a small town Nebraska pastor who during emergency surgery slips from conscienceness and enters heaven.  He survives and begins talking about being able to look down and see the doctor operating and his dad praying in the waiting room.  The family didn't know what to believe but soon the evidence was clear.

Colton said he met his miscarried sister, whom no one had told him about, and his great grandfather who died thirty years before he was born, then shared impossible-to-know details about each.  He describes the horse that only Jesus could ride, and how 'reaally big' God and His chair are, and how the Holy Spirit 'shoots down power' from heaven to help us.

Told by the father, but often in Colton's own words, the disarmingly simple message is heaven is a real place, Jesus really loves children, and be ready, there is a coming last battle. 

This one was totally outside of my normal reading realm.  Meagan suggested I read it, then Rosa told me that I HAD to read it...so, I downloaded it to my Nook and finished it in a weekend.  I am usually quite skeptical about people's accounts of dying and going to heaven.  This book, however, ministered to my heart, especially as I read the chapter of the little boy meeting his sister who had been miscarried before he was born.  I cried...and then cried some more as I thought of our little ones that await our arrival too.  The greatest comfort we have had in these losses is our belief that they are in the arms of Jesus.

Sweet Talk by Susan Mallery:

Don't ask Claire Keyes.  The twenty-eight-year-old piano prodigy has never had a regular boyfriend, much less a real romance.  Her music career has left little room for friends or family - which is just part of the reason she hasn't seen the family bakery or her two sisters in years.

But now Nicole is sick,and Jesse is AWOL.  Despite the fact that Claire can't boil water, she's determined to play caretaker.  Connecting with her sisters tops her to-do list...along with falling in love, or at least in lust, for the first time.

I downloaded this to my Nook from the "Steals N Deals" section.  I just wanted something fun to read at the pool while we were away last weekend.  At 99 cents, how could I go wrong?  I didn't realize until I was finished the book that it is part of the Harlequin Romance family of publishers.  There were some 'adult themes' that I rarely read these days, but the storyline of the estranged sisters had me hooked from the beginning.  As I was downloading the picture for this post from the Barnes and Noble website, I found that this was the first in a three book series.  I will probably be reading the other books in the Bakery Sisters Series soon! 

Okay...I'm done with my book talk for at least a day or two.  Maybe!