Book Reviews.."The Wednesday Letters"

I was supposed to post some creative cards I made for a challenge but I didn't finish or even started on them yet so I am going to do a book review today. I just realized that I've read at least two books since my last review for book club and haven't mentioned anything about them.

Last month the book our club read was The Wednesday Letters. This book would have been a great book to read for valentine since it's got some romance in it.

The Wednesday Letters written by Jason F. Wright, a New York Times Bestseller.

They died in each other's arms. But their secret-the letters-did not die with them. True love keeps no secrets. Jack and Laurel have been married for 39 years. They've live a good life and appear to have had the perfect marriage. With his wife cradled in his arms. and before Jack takes his final breath, he scribbles his last "Wednesday Letter."

When their adult children arrive to arrange the funeral, they discover boxes and boxes full of love letters that their father wrote to their mother each week on Wednesday. As they begin to open and read the letters. the children uncover the shocking truth about their past.

In addition, each one must deal with present-day challenges. Matthew has a troubled marriage, Samantha is a single mother, and Malcolm is the black sheep of the family who has returned home after a mysterious two-year absence.

Did that catch your attention yet? LOL It did mine. As soon as I read that I just have to read the book to see what secrets the couple has been hiding. Of course the book also talked about forgiveness. I love the fact that the husband, Jack, love his wife so much that he made the committment on their wedding day that every week on Wednesday he would write a letter to his wife whether she was in the same room or another state. It was totally sweet and romantic. Sometimes his letters were long and descriptive, other times it's short and sweet.

Anyways, as the review above read, the couple died in each other's arm. Jack has been battling a terminal illness so everyone have anticipated that he would soon be gone but no one in their wildest imaginings can picture that Laurel would die on the same night as Jack...in fact, she died of an heart attack and minutes before Jack died. On his final breath, he wrote his last letter to his wife.

I find incredibly hard that the kids didn't even know anything at all about the letters, that they only discovered those boxes in the basement. My first reaction to it was "what?! How can that be? Don't kids usually explore that they discover things that parents often think they've hidden from them?" Obviously, those kids must not be that into exploring...LOL. But then as I read further, I guess you could say I am glad they didn't see those letters while the parents were still alive. You see, the dad when writing to the mom, he recounted everything, day to day life that there was a secret that they had kept from the kids, he revealed it all in his letters. When the grown kids read those particular letters, there were some contentions, anger and feelings of betrayal. But I am definitely not going into detail about what that secret is. You can can find out for yourself by reading the book.

Yes, I would recommend anyone to read this book. It's a great read and totally worth the time and the money.

Haddassah (One Night with the King)

This is the most recent book I read for our book club. The review on the back of the book:

"A gripping action-adventure story, full of political intrigue and suspense, with a brand-new perspective on a historical figure you may think you already know!"

BOTH A PALACE THRILLER AND A JEWISH WOMAN'S MEMOIR, Haddassah brings the age-old story of Esther to life. This historical accurate novel layered with insights provides a fascinating twist on a pivotal time in religious history, and readers will find it bursting with page-turning drama.

How true that review is...The moment I picked up the book, I couldn't put it down. Of all the stories in the Bible that I grew up hearing my mother reading to me as bedtime stories, the story of Esther was by far my favorite. I was always soooo fascinated by this story of a Jewish young girl who witnessed the death of parents and then raised by her cousin in a strange land where everything was so much different from her way of life, who yet despite all odds, was chosen to be queen of a nation. And then her courage and great faith in her God has lead her to do something that could have caused her life to save her people from annihilation in a time and place where women did not really have a voice to speak of (per se). Even the way it was written in the Bible, so precise and to the point, I still find it a wonderful story to read over and over when I was old enough to read on my own.

Tommy Tenny, the author of this book, has totally captured my attention as I'm sure he would yours when you read the book with his great knowledge of the events in the history of the book and add her own seductive flowery words used to enhanced that book's character {Haddassah} and made me more able to relate to this Jewish girl (not that I would ever get anywhere near her lever...I doubt I will ever be as strong as her to stand up against protocal to save my life let alone a whole race of people). But I just love the fact that because the author was soo good at describing this woman in every aspect of her life makes the character seem more real to me. {She went to puberty and hormonal changes and moods just like every girls did...she has her moments of rebelling against those in authority, and all the other little things that we woman went through as teenagers and later as young adults.} Although a lot of the things written in the book may be fictional, there are a lot of factual historical events that makes the book even all the more fun and enjoyable to read.

I would totally recommend this book to anyone interested to read it. You will not be disappointed.

Sooo Not my Idea of a FUN Read!

This is the assigned book for our next book club meeting. I've mentioned before my love affair with reading, whenever I see a book, once I picked it up, I couldn't put it down til I finished it.

When one of the members of our Book Club suggested this book, I was so excited to be one of the first one to purchase the book so I can read it before the rest of the group. I can't really describe my first feeling about the book when I got it...it was absolutely not what I expect it to be.

To give the book some credit, lemme summarize what the book is about first. It actually has a nice history and plot to the book but I just don't like the way it was written. Basically, the book was about a book club {name of the title} that came to be due to the heroin's quick thinking to save her and friends from a very sticky {which could lead them to death} situation. The club was made up of a few people on an island in the English channel during the German Occupation. When the German landed on the island, called Guernsey, communications, food, any form of aide was cut off from mainland England so the German soldiers practically took full control of any livestock on the island. Every single farm animal was numbered and recorded in a book so if any islander is caught eating any of the farm animals, they are either sent to prison or they get punished. Well, one of the islander happened to have a pig that she was clever enough to hide from the German soldiers so she invited a few of her friends to have a roast dinner with her and they stayed out way past the curfew that when they were each returning to their homes, they got caught by the soldiers. They couldn't come out and confessed that the reason for being out late was because they were enjoying a fine roast pig dinner so one of the islander who got caught, who was actually an heroin, with quick thinking had to lie to the soldiers and told them they were out late due to their book club meeting...and that's how the book club started.

I know, you're thinking that this sound like a good book so what should I be complaining about the book. Well, lemme tell ya...the way the book was written was not my best idea of a good writing. The book was written in correspondent letters way...don't get me wrong, I love receiving letters and writing them but to read it in a book, a bunch of strangers' letters, that was different. I had a really hard time following the book because it was written that way.

For the first time in my life since I started reading, every time I picked up the book to read, I suddenly had the urge to put down and go scrub my kitchen floor or my bathroom floor, or do the dishes. Coming from a person who doesn't care for housekeeping, this is really bad. I had to keep reading the first sever pages over and over just to get into the book. I lost count of how many times I wanted to throw the book away and quit reading it altogether but I just had to keep reading it since I need to be able to participate in the discussion when our club meet again next week. Then one of my friends who read the book told me to hang in there, that once I get to the 50th page, the reading will get better. She was right of course but getting to the said page was actually easier said than done. It took me four days just to get to the 50th page, that seriously is how absolutely agonizingly boring those few pages were.

I finally finished reading the book last night and that frustrated me even more because just as I got over the hump in my reading and actually started enjoying the book, it had come to an end. It just feels like such a let down for me.....would I recommend this book? I don't know. Am I glad I stuck with the book and read it? In a way, yes. Would I read this book again like I usually do with any of the books I've read before? A big NO. I'll tell you one thing though, I am just glad I didn't pay big bucks for it.

I'm sure there are others out there who like the book, for example, the lady who recommended the book to us. I'd say good for you if you like it. If any of you are curious about it and want to take a snap at it, you are more than welcome to my copy...I would recommend you borrow the book first and then if you decide you like it, then go ahead and buy the book.

Aight, have a great weekend all!!

Girls Day Out and Book Club

So I posted yesterday about going out to lunch with Crash, Swirl, Martha, and Swirl's mom and sister. We went to Haleiwa Eats, a Thai place in Haleiwa. We had a surprised visitor who joined us for lunch...she's a friend of Crash, she showed up at the town houses to drop her teenage boys to hang with Martha's boys and decided to come along. Which was a totally great treat because she ended up being the driver and the whole way to Haleiwa, she told us about her exciting life.

Meet Dolly, everyone. At the moment, she's staying here in Hawaii but she lives in Saudi Arabia. She also has a place in Utah. She spent the summer cruising across US with her kids in an RV. She wanted to get her kids getting reacquainted with their heritage.

Then they were in the pageant at Palmyra. If you're a LDS, I'm sure you'd know about this pageant...I haven't been to one but I'm told this pageant was held every year that portray the history of our church and about the Book of Mormon. I would love to go there someday and see this pageant...would be even more amazing if I actually get to be in this pageant. But anyways, back to Dolly...I was more interested about her life in Saudi Arabia. How totally adventurous and exotic to live in a place like that. She had so many amazing stories to tell about life in Saudi so check her out on her blog. She's hasn't posted anything lately but the last post she wrote was very interesting. She's trying to figure out how to work this blog features esp. the postings of photos, according to her to make her post more interesting but I gotta tell ya, she doesn't need photos at all...she tells the most amazing stories. It was a real pleasure getting to know her. And then she did the most generous thing...she paid for our lunch yesterday. How amazing is that? Thank you Dolly!!

So when we got to the restaurant, they told us the place doesn't open til noon..we got there half an hour early, we had no idea the place have a set time they opened. So of course, Crash with her camera, she just had to take pictures and who do you think ended up being her guinea pig? Yep, yours truly because Swirl was already at some shops in Haleiwa playing tourist with her mom, grandmom, sister and great-aunt and dad. They were to meet us at the restaurant but when we got there, they weren't there yet and Martha drove her own car and wasn't there either so that just left me under Crash's total photo power control. I know she has loads of totally crazy pix of me so if you want to see it, check her blog out for that. I am however going to post a few of the photos {I stole from her blog} here just for proof purposes. So here are a couple of us...

There's Crash & me on the left and Martha and me on the right. I'm not even going to say how much I hated the extra weight I put on esp. sitting next to these skinny ladies...lol.

Anyways, while we were waiting for the others to show up, Swirl's parents showed up with the aunt to inform us that Swirl, her sister and grandmom are suiting up to go swim with sharks. Pffffft, what? Swirl is swimming with sharks? Very brave girls. Their appointment with the sharks was scheduled for 12:30 p.m. and we didn't get seated in the restaurant til noon so they didn't have time to eat with us. They only had time to drop in and say hello and have us wish them luck that the sharks won't mistake them for their noon-day meal...ahahah.

Here's Swirl with her family. Standing, from left to right: Swirl's mom, Jane, her great-aunt and her grandmom. Sitting left to right: Swirl, her sister, Emily and Crash. Swirl, Emily and the grandmom are the ones who will be swimming with the sharks. Can you tell how nervous and the trying to so hard to hide it look Swirl and her sister are putting on there? I'd be a nervous wreck if I know that in a few moment's time I just might be shark's bait...lol. Naahhh, they all look adorable!!

Here we are....the lovely sisters with their mom; and of course, I have to insert my head in there just to let everyone know I was there too...lmao. Actually I had just finished telling Swirl and her sister that the sharks in Hawaii love white meat and they just might mistaken Swirl and her sister for the noon meal. I was trying to psych them out and I think it worked because the more nervous they got, the bigger their smile got...And look at Swirl's mom. Isn't she just darling? Always so supportive her daughters' risky whims..lol. It was a wonderful day out, eventhough Swirl and Emily ditched us for the sharks...lol.

After the lunch, I went home and made my son Danny his special bday dinner and managed to get everything ready by 5:30 p.m. which was a total accomplishment in my book. Our family hardly had dinner before six thirty but I have to get that done early yesterday because I have to go to bookclub. Remember I mentioned that on this post?

Bookclub was at seven and I was actually the second person who arrived at the hostess's house. This is actually my first book club and pretty much everyone in the group's also. The bookclub was held our RS president's house and she couldn't figure out if we should start it off with a prayer or not (it's her first book club too) so I suggested we pray since the book we read was more on a spiritual nature. After the prayer, she each lady to rate the book and tell a little why they rate it that way...1 being the least favorite and 10 being the most favorable. There were 12 ladies in all and only two ladies rate the book in the 3s...there were a lot of 8s and a few 9s. I love the book so I gave it a 9 rating. I love that even though everyone has their own viewpoint on the style writing for the book, everyone like the message the book portray and majority of the ladies like myself can totally relate to the book. I thought the book was written mainly for me. It's actually one of the books that touched me deeply and leave a great impact on me...it has made me rethink on some of my attitude towards life and attitudes toward to my husband and kids. There were a few shed tears around the room when each lady expressed their personal feelings about the book. No, I didn't cry although I did come close to but I've figured out to cut my thoughts short when I'm on the brink of shedding some tears.

And you know something? I also learned something from the ladies last night. That even though each woman has a different opinion about the book, I've learned that it's ok to disagree with someone else and still like that person...I actually drew closer to the women who gave the book a small rating because I've concluded that the message that was in the book touched each person differently at a different season in their life. It was really a great experience for me to see that even with different opinions there are still comraderie in that room. There was no judging at all...no one was pointing at the other for not liking the book or for liking the book so much.

All in all, I had a great time yesterday. I hope y'all enjoy this little excitement for me...I doubt I have any life to speak of so little outings like this excited the heck out of me...ahahah. {I kid}