She’s Still there

by Chrystal Evan Hurst

Back History

I don’t usually write how I received a book, but I thought I would share this with all of you.

This book is written by the sister of one of my favorite Bible Teachers, Priscilla Shirer. (Some of you may have remembered her from The War Room).  About six or so (more or less) months ago I had discovered that her sister Chrystal Evan Hurst’ blog and a couple of her podcast.

I started to follow Ms. Hurst’s blog and she sent out a Google doc for people who interested in helping her with a book. Well, I wasn’t chosen to help with the book. Over the preceding months I looked for the book on the various sites that haunt for books to review. The book came up on Netgalley by a publisher who I don’t usually receive books from on a regular basis.  So I left it up to God, requested the book and I was selected to read and review it.  I used it for my morning devotion.

Synopsises

The book is a combination devotional/semi autobiography that discusse how we women go off track, FOR WHATEVER REASON.  She provides biblical passages to illustrates the concept that she illustrated during the chapter.

The book has several chapters which include remember, reflect, and respond section at the end of each chapter. No matter how you do it, you will need a Bible, Paper, & the Book.

Book Review       

As you can tell, I REALLY ENJOYED THS BOOK! The book was great, so much so that I am going to talk with our small group director about doing a bible study with regards to the book.  There a couple of ways that I would use it at an online Bible Study.

• Read the entire book, then complete each section or chapter as a group.
• Reach each chapter and complete the Read, Response, and Reflection section
• Read each section
  • Review the read, response & reflect section for each chapter.

The bible passages are both familiar and new. I was pleased because they brought me to parts of the Bible that I had either I hadn’t been to for a while or (I’m sorry to say) not a book that I have read.

Finally, I was glad it didn’t have a study guid. Maybe some people, but I liked going through the book with the questions at the end of the chapter and providing my own reflection.

However, Proverbs 31 ministry has designed a Bible Study around this book. I know that you will enjoy it and sincerely encourage you to buy and read the book AND attend the online P31 Bible Study.

Rabbi Small Mysteries by Harry Kemelman

Synopsis

Rabbi Small mysteries are wonderful story.  This mystery’s main character is a Rabbi who works in a small town in Massachusetts.  The story series follows Rabbi as a young man all the through until he retires and takes up teaching. Rabbi Small, a conservative Rabbi who overseas the spiritual direction of his people until they get into a  disagreement as to that direction, which causes his job to be jeopardy. On the flip side Rabbi Small is friends with the local chief and helps solve crimes.

Book Review

This is a wonderful series.  I started reading it almost 20 years ago. Unfortunately, I went through the entire series and COULD NOT believe that the series had ended. Well, it had because the author had died, very sad.  However, I found that Amazon has the book series for sale on its site and was so happy.

The site Bookbub.com had the book listed on its free and discounted books list.  I could not believe it!  The entire series is for sale, which I was very happy to see. At one point after I found the series, I could not find any for sale.  Now they are all for sale, which I would recommend that you go out and buy!

The Velvet Prison by Sheldon Friedman

Synopsis

Against the pulsating back drop of a New York City in social and economic change, young Travis Kane struggles with his passion to be an artist painter, and the conservative demands of his strict grandfather, Barclay Kane.

His mother, unable to come to terms with tragedy, has taken Travis’s infant sister and abandons him, leaving their house in Gramercy Park, and Travis to be raised by the grandfather he adores.

Travis enters a New York speakeasy, with a unique idea, that will change his life, leading him on an exciting journey, meeting Manhattan’s privileged, studying in art in Paris and, finding his way to Broadway.

Meanwhile, Lindsay Wayne’s mother, seamstress, has a secret, and a passion. Her daughter will become a famous stage actress, and this is her focus.

Lindsay and Travis’s worlds collide.

Their lives will never be the same again.

Book Review 

The Velvet Prison truly consists in the atmosphere, sights and sounds of 1930s New York, and Paris and London (European stomping grounds for Travis); the feel and look of everything from a New York mansion, to a seedy artist’s studio, a New York casino, The 1939 New York World’s Fair, the Broadway stage, and labor union protests. But above all, there is the incredibly vivid and tactile description of Travis’ tools of the trade, his labors at the canvas, and the resulting paintings.

The Velvet Prison refers to a nightclub, but the title also refers to the predicament of Travis Kane. His young life of privilege is actually an albatross that keeps him in a prison and frustrates him. The novel does not make light of his conflict, but most readers will be able to predict the outcome. The outcome, but not the ending, is both tragic and “happy.”

There are really a lot ways to find books to review.  I have only been paid three times for a book review. Not much though!  I have an issue with this because I brought this topic up on a social media site and several authors went up in arms. While some book reviewers agreed with me.  . . . .Another post!

This is where I find books:

1. Netgalley

This is a book review site that charges publications to put their books on the site and allow them to choose reviewers to download the e-galley.

2. Bookbub

This site offers books at a discounted price or free to

1. Emails from Marketers
2. Authors

These books are emailed to me by authors and public relation marketers.  Usually it includes a blog tour that they are setting up for their author.

There are other ways and sometimes I will receive requests from “friends” on a social media site.  However if you do write book reviews please make sure you have a firm policy in place!!

Gone Without a Trace by Mary Torjussen

Synopsis (copied from the press release)

In GONE WITHOUT A TRACE, young professional Hannah returns from work to find her live-in boyfriend, Matt, is gone. His belongings have disappeared from their house. Every call she ever made, every text she ever sent, every photo of him and any sign of him on social media have vanished. It’s as though their last four years together never happened. As she struggles to get through the next few days, with humiliation and recriminations whirring through her head, she knows she’ll do anything to get answers. Where has he gone? Why has he left?

Book Review  

Then the messages start—cryptic and creepy texts and videos—and Hannah realizes that someone is watching her every move. And there are signs that someone has been in her house.

As her search for Matt progresses, Hannah treads further into madness and obsession—and the only way out is to come to terms with the one shocking truth she just can’t accept. . .

For anyone who has ever asked “Was it something I did?” GONE WITHOUT A TRACE brings to chilling light the doubt, fear, and obsession that can lie dormant in our most intimate relationships.

After the Japanese attack Pearl Harbor in 1941, American lives change dramatically. The Satin Sash continues the breathtaking lives of Travis Kane, Lindsay Wayne and Jean-Paul Renault with all the inherent dangers of the French Resistance, President Roosevelt’s live or die missions, and death defying action when German spies secretly enter the US through it’s ports. A wedding reception and the lives of Travis Kane and his family are thrown into chaos as America enters World War II.

The Satin Sash is set against the explosive backgrounds of New York, France, London and Ireland. Travis Kane becomes President Roosevelt’s tool in bringing one of the world’s most famous paintings to New York. Racial tensions surface. A famous black activist enters politics and an actress makes choices in the face of heartbreaking tragedy. A public enemy serves his country in wartime and a black artist becomes famous. When a baby is born the future shows promise.

Book Review 

Sheldon Friedman’s new book The Satin Sash, published in April 2017,  is now available on Amazon in hard back and for Kindle, as well as other E-Book web sites. The book is a sequel to The Velvet Prison, also available in hardback and Kindle on Amazon and other E-Book web sites. It is the second book in a trilogy. The Velvet Prison is a finalist in Best of Colorado Authors’ League fiction for 2016.

The Satin Sash is filled with tension, suspense and surprising plot twists, we continue to follow the lives of the people we loved in The Velvet Prison. The story is a good addition to this series and I think that it would be an great read!