Solomon’s Oak was written by Jo-ann Mapson. Having never read any of her books, I can tell you that I will be searching out some of her other works very soon. I loved this book of hers because she writes about things and people that matter. Her characters are people who are real and who struggle with real life issues. This book combines some really interesting people with some of my own life experiences so I had a quick connection to the storyline.
Solomon’s Oak dives into death, marriage, weddings, dogs and foster care not to mention teaching and police work. It is a combination of subjects and personalities that is hard to put down. A woman recently widowed redesigns her life and her life’s work and is successful in carving out a new mission in life. A foster daughter who has been suffered loss and indifference and exhibits behavior that causes her to pile on more angst and social trials that threaten to derail the rest of her life…is she worth the high maintenance or should the girl be passed along to avoid the added stress during an already stressful time in the life of Glory Solomon?
Woven into the fabric of the story of a woman who is grieving the loss of her life before widowhood, mixed with the chaos of a young girl’s life interrupted by loss of family and emotional trauma due to a missing sister in her early childhood. You begin to be a believer in the idea of the hand of God who is the master artisan of all of our lives; choosing the colors and the fibers that go into his masterpiece tapestry that tells the story of how we really connect to one another. Fill in the design with a man who is healing from wounds associated with his former career as a police officer and you see life experiences come together to build up and encourage one another when individuals feel lost in their own struggles. Historical places and natural places of beauty that seem almost a witness to the lives that are lead, one generation to another, add a bit of intrigue to the back-story in Soloman’s Oak.
There is something spiritually healing in meeting individuals who instinctively draw people and animals who are discarded, hurt, abandoned and broken in some intrinsic way; watching them strive to understand and support those individuals by helping them achieve a successful purpose in life. It is inspiring and joyous to see them discovering that they are worth the time, effort and emotion that is required to unlock their worth. Often they themselves do not understand their own value; able to only see their own areas of hurt and destruction. As each of these individuals finds the strength and bravery to reach out and trust someone you see them start to heal the wounds that life has scarred them with. These characters of Solomon’s Oak are everyday over-comers that teach us the importance of looking past a person’s rough exterior to find a person worth coming to know and appreciate.
Susan Boyle made a name for herself by entering and winning the talent show, Britain’s Got Talent with her great singing talent. She made headlines by appearing to be overwhelmed by her fame and talent. She was pursued by the media and hounded by people watchers around the world for interviews and autographs. The perception of her came across to many as a person who was extremely intimidated, vulnerable and incapable of handling a singing career in the public eye. Susan’s book, Susan Boyle The Woman I Was Born To Be shows her to be a person of much deeper character and emotions that the image that came across at the time.
I remember feeling sorry for her, at the time, because she seemed to be so out of her element. Gossip magazines were critical of everything about her (except her voice); and I thought that highly unfair. So she didn’t come across as slick like many other competitors of these kinds of shows; who cares…she had real talent. Her voice is like no other…and I think that is a great thing. Still, when she had a makeover done…it made the news. Her relationships with the judges of the talent show are interesting as well…Piers Morgan & Simon Cowell, to drop a couple of names. Her young girl role models, crushes and her school girl struggles and successes all combine to make up who Susan Boyle was and is; and, who she will turn out to be in the future. Susan is grounded in her faith and beliefs and that will help her to weather the challenges of a singing career in the spotlight.
This book gives so much background about Susan’s upbringing and personal life that I found it very intriguing. I love that her witty sense of humor shows through in the book. As does her love for her family and her intensely loving relationship with her mother. I think you will find her book interesting because it gives a wider study of just who the real Susan Boyle is and who she was born to be. She is not who the columnists made her out to be…she is strong and capable and perfectly able of having a successful singing career. The book should be an encouragement to anyone who loves and cares for a person with learning disabilities.
The book was published by Atria Books, a division of Simon & Schuster, Inc and copyrighted in 2010.
Author Lisa Harris has written a compelling book about the tensions that exist between governments and warring factions of renegade warriors in the fictitious Dhambizao. This story COULD be taken straight out of any evening news report because it is so representative of the kind of tensions that really exist behind many of our news headlines.
Often times, the news reports that we hear are only surface versions of what really takes place when human beings are being killed for political reasons. These situations illustrate that power tends to corrupt those who sit in authority over others and serve to meet hidden agendas that average citizens are unaware of…even though, those same citizens are the first to suffer the consequences when conflict arises.
Torture, death, rape, starvation, violence and lack of medical provision is sure to follow when one group tries to influence others to riot and go against government leadership. Violence triggers a violent response…this is natural. What is not natural is an indifference to those who are caught in the crossfires.
I think Lisa Harris has done a great job of portraying the powerless feeling of the victims to prevent the effects that these kinds of conflicts inflict on the people who are victims of those warriors who are called “ghost soldiers” in this book. She also does a great of inspiring the reader to a compassionate desire to help those in need around the world. The characters in the story show a realistic evolution of thoughts and actions during the progression of the story. It creates an awareness of the need for taking action to minimize the devastation of people who are in crisis by getting involved. Read the rest of this entry…
Unbearable Lightness is a memoir written by actress Portia De Rossi. It details her growing up years and her early years in Hollywood and her struggles with a healthy relationship between her self image and eating methods. She struggled trying to suppress her feelings of self worth and her self image with food and exercise. She also struggled with her sexual identity. Ms. Rossi is a lesbian who felt she had to hide her sexual identity from the media and her fans if she were to remain successful. While I do not condone homosexual relationships I can understand how her fear of being discovered contributed to her eating disorder.
The book is very explicit in it’s depiction of the mental and emotional struggle between the person who is and the person that they see in the mirror. Part of anyone’s struggle to feel love and acceptance depends on their spiritual condition; although not much is said about that in the book. Portia’s voice in her head abused her verbally…that voice, she calls it the drill instructor, criticized her and demanded an accounting of each and every morsel she consumed. She was reduced to a very strict process of what she ate, how, and when she ate, and the continual lowering of calories until she wasted away. She swung back and forth between binging and purging and then near starvation. Read the rest of this entry…
Anna’s Return is a work of fiction written by Marta Perry. It is classified as a Christian Romance book. However, I really found it just to be just a great work of fiction. The characters were not only believable but they were multi-layered and their interactions were so filled with genuine responses that the reader could quite easily lose themselves in the storyline.
Anna is a young woman of the Amish background who had left her family and her friends in her search for freedom. This is her time of rumspringa or period of rebellion that many young Amish individuals experience before they commit to being baptised into their church. Read the rest of this entry…
The Ark is a novel written by Boyd Morrison and is an interesting read concerning an intriguing concept about the Biblical story of the Ark. The book takes creative license with the concept of not only where the Ark has been hidden but also with the very basic story of the ark and why it was built.
There is action and a perfect blending of characters who have skills and knowledge which blend to bring the story to an exciting climax. Many aspects of the story could have been taken off of the evening news with biological agents, modern day travel, historical excavation, military secrets and knowledge that is kept from society for it’s own good.
The Ark explores many areas of science and technological advancement that is fascinating to consider. Does it change my personal religious beliefs about the biblical version of the story? No. However, I will say that I found the book to be very interesting and to be well worth my time reading. The book was copyrighted in 2009 by Gordian Fiction, LLC. Published by Touchstone a division of Simon & Schuster, Inc.
Now here is a book that floats my boat; House Rules is a novel written by the author Jodi Picoult. She has written a book that is not only a real page turner but is informative for anyone who happens to have a loved one who lives with the condition of Autism. It is hard for people to understand all of the challenges that individuals and families experience when someone they care about has Autism. Behaviors are often triggered by sensory overload and communication is not always done in a way that is easy for others to understand. This is why the novel, House Rules, connects with me.
I have special needs children myself and therefore have had relationships with many children who are affected by Autism. I have also had the dubious honor of being in the circle of influence of those with special needs who are often at odds with those in authority from everyday encounters with bus drivers, to school officials (who you would expect to be trained effectively in dealing with challenges), to legal authorities in the criminal justice system. I’ve worked with young children, as well as teenagers, who have developmental disabilities, some with Autism and others such as those who have Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorder; individuals who may physically appear in such a way as to have normal development…but in all actuality; their ability to communicate and operate in a world full of contradictory signals is greatly impacted.
This is fertile ground for misunderstandings large and small. In a situation that has the power to affect them legally…this can be extremely harmful. The very systems that run our society from the medical communities, to the educational system, to the legal system…they are all in need of specific training when it comes to understand and effectively working with people who have different ways of comprehending and communicating in the world we live in. Police officers need to learn how to question and analyze behaviors in the context of a challenged individual and their easily led responses.
It is considered contrary to teach a child (teen) not to “talk” to a police officer…we teach our children to respect the law and it’s officers. However, when their very freedom and civil rights are at risk because of their lack of comprehension of the consequences of being misunderstood…it is often recommended that they be told not to talk without a lawyer present. That is easier said than done because most often children (teens) who are challenged believe that everyone is their friend and has their best interest at heart. That is not always the case. Jodi Picoult’s book teaches some very practical things regarding this…especially if those individuals are 18 or older. This is vital information for any parent or guardian of a challenged individual. Society’s perception of an individuals behavior is important when it comes to so many crucial areas of life. A parent or guardian is not always with a challenged individual and that is frightening when there are consequences such as those depicted in this work of fiction.
House Rules does a great job of portraying the isolation of families who are affected by the everyday challenges that others don’t understand and are not willing to deal with. The financial struggles, the physical and emotional demands that tax caregivers in the position of the characters that Jodi Picoult so expertly created here are vibrant and truly impact the reader.
I would highly recommend this book to anyone wishing to find someone who understands what they go through; or perhaps, wishes to educate others who could function as a support to a caregiver in this kind of situation. Many times, well meaning people will say to a caregiver that they “just couldn’t do what you do” . This book truly shows what commitment and dedication and love can accomplish.
House Rules was published in 2010 by Atria Books which is a division of Simon and Schuster, Inc.
First thing you need to know about this book is that it is not a new publication. A Tree Grows in Brooklyn is a modern classic. I decided to do a book review on it because the book held some interest to me because I recently visited a public museum in a town where the author, Betty Smith, happened to have written the book. This fascinated me.
A Tree Grows In Brooklyn is the story of a young girl named Francie who struggles to survive in a world of poverty and hard knocks. She has an inner strength that was born through maternal example and through an unwillingness to be held back. Education and creative ways of earning money were Francie’s ticket to success. Even still, the emotional turmoil of the underpriveledged individual is a rough road. Loneliness and hardship cannot be underestimated when it comes to forming a person’s inner character.
Family and the complex interpersonal relationships that are forged because of a person’s past mold a person’s future. I loved that the author, Betty Smith, did not hide her head in the sand with all of the social aspects of poverty and it’s far reaching influence not only on an individual person but on a community as well. This book was an amazing testament to a condition that never goes away…poverty and it’s influence.
The publisher of this book is Harper Perennial Modern Classics.