Little Princes by Conor Grennan

I loved this book!  A true story about a young American man who volunteers to help at an orphanage in Nepal for 2 months, and ends up spending much more time there, making a real difference in many, many lives. 

Amazon.com Review

Product Description
In search of adventure, 29-year-old Conor Grennan traded his day job for a year-long trip around the globe, a journey that began with a three-month stint volunteering at the Little Princes Children’s Home, an orphanage in war-torn Nepal.

 

Conor was initially reluctant to volunteer, unsure whether he had the proper skill, or enough passion, to get involved in a developing country in the middle of a civil war. But he was soon overcome by the herd of rambunctious, resilient children who would challenge and reward him in a way that he had never imagined. When Conor learned the unthinkable truth about their situation, he was stunned: The children were not orphans at all. Child traffickers were promising families in remote villages to protect their children from the civil war—for a huge fee—by taking them to safety. They would then abandon the children far from home, in the chaos of Nepal’s capital, Kathmandu.

For Conor, what began as a footloose adventure becomes a commitment to reunite the children he had grown to love with their families, but this would be no small task. He would risk his life on a journey through the legendary mountains of Nepal, facing the dangers of a bloody civil war and a debilitating injury. Waiting for Conor back in Kathmandu, and hopeful he would make it out before being trapped in by snow, was the woman who would eventually become his wife and share his life’s work.

Little Princes is a true story of families and children, and what one person is capable of when faced with seemingly insurmountable odds. At turns tragic, joyful, and hilarious, Little Princes is a testament to the power of faith and the ability of love to carry us beyond our wildest expectations.

Max on Life, by Max Lucado

Why are some people healed and others die of cancer?

How can I get rid of my bad habits?

Does God care more for one nation than another?

How can I get off this credit card roller coaster?

Why is God allowing my child to suffer with this disease?

Questions and more questions!  We all have them, and Max Lucado takes a stab at answering them in his newest release, Max on Life.  The subtitle is Answers and Insights to your Most Important Questions, and that is just what this book is.  Answers and Insights!

In his unforgettable, signature style, Max suggests Biblical answers to many of life's hardest questions, drawing stories from his own experience to illustrate his point.  There are seven chapters covering questions about God, the Bible, the church, and why bad things happen to good people, as well as more mundane topics like marriage, children, finances and work.  There are 2 indexes in the back—one a subject index and the other an index of the scriptures Max uses—to make the book easy to use as a reference.

When I first opened the book to page through it, question after question grabbed my attention, and I read page after page without stopping.  Each page was like a short devotional, both encouraging and practical.  I wanted to keep reading!  The answers Max gives are based on scripture, and he quotes many Bible verses, but the way he writes makes each answer memorable.  Max Lucado stands alone among authors.  There is no other author like him.  He uses words like an artist uses paint to get his message across to the reader.  I loved this book!  It will have a place of honor on the bookshelf next to my Bible, where I can easily reach it.  I'm sure I'll be reading it over and over, and using it to minister to other people as well.

I highly recommend this book!  You may click on the link below for more information about the book.
http://booksneeze.com/blogger/resources/9780849948121

I received this book free from the publisher through the BookSneeze.com book review bloggers program.  I was not required to write a positive review.  The opinions I have expressed are my own.  I am disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission’s 16 CFR, Part 255.

Movie--Voyage of the Dawn Treader

I found the Voyage of the Dawn Treader a delightful movie. It has everything that makes a movie enjoyable. There is suspense and adventure, fantasy and wry humor, heroes, villains and talking animals who seem as real as the human characters. The splendid scenery and majestic music transported us to that magical land of Narnia, where animals talk and mice carry swords and children fight battles.

The excitement and danger of the voyage—the sword fights, the slave traders, the sea monster, the evil green mist that swallows people, the wicked witch—allows no time for boredom to set in. It is one exciting adventure after another as the group voyages on the sea from place to place, encountering strange beings and fantastical islands.

There are lessons to be learned, but they are subtle and woven seamlessly into the story, so that they don't seem like lessons. The human children encounter the age-old temptations of beauty, wealth and power, nearly succumbing before receiving wisdom and help from mighty Aslan, the lion ruler of Narnia.

I highly recommend this movie for all but young children who still have trouble separating truth from fiction, and who will find the spooky and suspenseful or tense and danger filled events frightening. For the rest of the family there is plenty in this movie to entertain and talk about afterward.

Wesley, the Remarkable Love Story of an Owl and His Girl

 

I LOVED this story!  I couldn't put it down.  This woman takes an injured baby barn owl home, and when he is unable to be released into the wild, she keeps him--for 19 years!  This book is absolutely fascinating!

 

 

From Publishers Weekly

Starred Review. Owls permeate literature and mythology, an ancient animal ("some 97 million years" old) that has fascinated for centuries; still, few people have had as intimate an encounter with the mysterious night birds as biologist O'Brien. As a student researcher at Caltech, she fell in love with an injured four-day-old barn owl and seized the opportunity to adopt him permanently. She named him Wesley, and for 19 years kept, cared for and studied him, forging a tremendous relationship with the still-wild animal, as well as a vast understanding of his abilities, instincts and habits: "He was my teacher, my companion, my child, my playmate, my reminder of God." Her heartwarming story is buttressed by lessons on owl folklore, temperament ("playful and inquisitive"), skills, and the brain structure that gives them some amazing abilities, like spotting a mouse "under three feet of snow by homing in on just the heartbeat." It also details her working life among fellow scientists, a serious personal health crisis, and the general ins and outs of working with animals. This memoir will captivate animal lovers and, though not necessarily for kids, should hold special appeal for Harry Potter fans who've always envied the boy wizard his Hedwig.
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

The Brain that Changes itself, by Norman Doidge, M.D.

  This book was a fascinating look at the way the brain works.  It is full of stories of people whose brain was damaged in some way, and how they overcame and re-taught their brain to work again.  One of the best non-fiction books I've ever read!           

 

Publishers Weekly:

For years the doctrine of neuroscientists has been that the brain is a machine: break a part and you lose that function permanently. But more and more evidence is turning up to show that the brain can rewire itself, even in the face of catastrophic trauma: essentially, the functions of the brain can be strengthened just like a weak muscle. Scientists have taught a woman with damaged inner ears, who for five years had had "a sense of perpetual falling," to regain her sense of balance with a sensor on her tongue, and a stroke victim to recover the ability to walk although 97% of the nerves from the cerebral cortex to the spine were destroyed. With detailed case studies reminiscent of Oliver Sachs, combined with extensive interviews with lead researchers, Doidge, a research psychiatrist and psychoanalyst at Columbia and the University of Toronto, slowly turns everything we thought we knew about the brain upside down. He is, perhaps, overenthusiastic about the possibilities, believing that this new science can fix every neurological problem, from learning disabilities to blindness. But Doidge writes interestingly and engagingly about some of the least understood marvels of the brain. (Mar. 19)
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Crashing Through by Robert Kurson

I enjoy stories about people who overcome obstacles in their lives.  Stories of children born blind or deaf, of autistic children, people who become paralyzed, or recover after a stroke or a car accident, etc.  This biography of Mike May was one of these stories--blinded at age 3, he has surgery as an adult and regains his sight--but his brain doesn't "remember" HOW to see.  This was a good story and a fascinating look at how our brains process sensory input.

From Publishers Weekly

Christopher Evan Welch brings a tone of boyish wonder to the reading of Kurson's biography of Mike May, a highly successful entrepreneur, athlete, husband and father who undergoes experimental surgery to regain the vision that he lost in a chemical explosion at age three. When May chooses to pursue the risky procedure, he rejects the notion of blindness as an infirmity that requires healing. Instead, May views the restoration of sight as a new adventure to explore with the same gusto that he has demonstrated in all facets of life. Without pathos or pity, Welch vividly portrays May's challenge of processing the mental complexities of his newfound vision, including navigating the aisles of Costco and recognizing the gender of patrons at a neighborhood coffee bar. Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

From Bookmarks Magazine

 Kurson's journalistic instincts are strong, and tight writing and thorough research reflect his journalist background. The profile of Mike May is generally engaging-particularly in describing the difficult transition to the sighted world and what happens when May is ripped out of his comfort zone. However, readers should know that the story of May's personal struggles takes a back seat to Kurson's lucid exploration of the brain's circuitry and fascinating details of how we can have vision without really seeing.
Copyright © 2004 Phillips & Nelson Media, Inc. --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

Somewhere Inside--One sister's Captivity in North Korea and the Other's Fight to Bring Her Home by Laura and Lisa Ling

I love to read books that not only entertain me with a gripping story but educate me as well.  I love to learn new things, and the older I get, it seems the more things I notice that I'd like to learn about.  Countries, and how other people live, is one of them.  I love to read about people in other countries--their struggles, their daily lives, their government, their culture.  This book was a fascinating look at North Korea and how that government operates, while also reading like a fictional spy story.  I had trouble putting it down.  (I'm so thankful for our libraries!)

Product Description from Amazon

On March 17, 2009, Laura Ling and her colleague Euna Lee were working on a documentary about North Korean defectors who were fleeing the desperate conditions in their homeland. While filming on the Chinese–North Korean border, they were chased down by North Korean soldiers who violently apprehended them. Laura and Euna were charged with trespassing and "hostile acts," and imprisoned by Kim Jong Il's notoriously secretive Communist state. Kept totally apart, they endured months of interrogations and eventually a trial before North Korea's highest court. They were the first Americans ever to be sentenced to twelve years of hard labor in a prison camp in North Korea.
When news of the arrest reached Laura's sister, journalist Lisa Ling, she immediately began a campaign to get her sister released, one that led her from the State Department to the higher echelons of the media world and eventually to the White House.
Somewhere Inside reveals for the first time Laura's gripping account of what really happened on the river, her treatment at the hands of North Korean guards, and the deprivations and rounds of harrowing interrogations she endured. She speaks movingly about the emotional toll inflicted on her by her incarceration, including the measures she took to protect her sources and her fears that she might never see her family again.
Lisa writes about her unrelenting efforts to secure Laura and Euna's release. Offering insights into the vast media campaign spearheaded on the women's behalf, Lisa also takes us deep into the drama involving people at the highest levels of government, including Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, former Vice President Al Gore, Senator John Kerry, and Governor Bill Richardson—intense discussions that entailed strategically balancing the agendas and good intentions of the various players. She also describes her role in the back-and-forth between North Korea's demands and the dramatic rescue by former President Bill Clinton.
Though they were thousands of miles apart while Laura was in captivity, the Ling sisters' relationship became a way for the reclusive North Korean government to send messages to the United States government, which helped lead to Laura and Euna's eventual release.
Told in the sisters' alternating voices, Somewhere Inside is a timely, inspiring, and page-turning tale of survival set against the canvas of international politics that goes beyond the headlines to reveal the impact on lives engulfed by forces beyond their control. But it is also a window into the unique bond these two sisters have always shared, a bond that sustained them throughout the most horrifying ordeal of their lives.

The Price of Stones--Building a School for my Village

Can one person really make a difference in the world?  The answer is a resounding "YES"!  This is the story of one such person.  I loved it.  It made me want to do a fundraiser, or hop on a plane and go help teach the orphans.  It changed me and my worldview a little bit more.

From Publishers Weekly

So many people die of AIDS in Uganda that at times bodies are stacked in city mortuaries like firewood. Moved by the plight of more than one million AIDS orphans in a nation with a population of 30 million, Kaguri, a human rights advocate returning home after studying at Columbia University, decided to build a school for children who had lost one or both parents to the syndrome. Kaguri and his American wife used their modest resources and contributions from friends and churches to open the two-classroom Nyaka AIDS Orphans School and initiate advocacy campaigns to counteract the superstitions that have stigmatized HIV/AIDS in Uganda. Anecdotes about the students, the author's family—his own brother and sister died from the disease—and his dealings with donors and corrupt officials, reveal Kaguri to be at once vulnerable and ferociously determined. Written in simple, straightforward style, the book is an affecting and accessible tribute to the difference one person can make in the world. (Jun.)
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

From Booklist

Kaguri, born in Uganda in 1970, the year before Idi Amin’s ascendance to power, studied human rights at the national university, enrolled in the Human Rights Advocacy Program at Columbia, and married an American doctoral student in 1998. It is on a visit back to his native village in 2001 that Kaguri and his wife witness firsthand the devastation to families caused by the AIDS epidemic, and the huge number of orphans. They pledge to build those orphans a school, and upon their return to the U.S., they garner funds from churches, Rotary clubs, private businesses, and grants. Remarkably, they open their school with one class of 60 orphans in January, 2003. Mirroring the work of Greg Mortenson (Three Cups of Tea, 2009), Kaguri gradually expands his goals, adding not only classrooms but also water and nutrition programs, community gardens, teachers’ workshops, and eventually a second school in a neighboring village. His story is an uplifting testament to the belief that one motivated individual can accomplish much, even when others have given up before even trying. --Deborah Donovan

An Ordinary Man (Hotel Rwanda) by Paul Rusesabagina

In the spring of 1994, I was expecting Amber.  I wasn't keeping up with the news, and if I heard about Rwanda, I don't remember it.  I never watched Hotel Rwanda.  I knew enough to know it was a heartbreaking story--the kind of movie without a happy ending--the kind of movie I avoid.  So when I picked this book up, I wasn't sure I really wanted to read it.  I knew it wouldn't have a happy ending either.  BUT I decided that since it really happened, and is actually part of history, I should read it.  I'm glad I did.  While the 100 days of genocide was truly horrifying and unbelieveable, the author's childhood, education, and the history of Rwanda that he shares was fascinating.  Especially interesting is the way the political system--the people in power--used the media to stir up hatred, causing normal people to turn against their neighbors, friends, schoolmates, fellow employees--to actually slaughter them.  We need to read these types of stories in order to recognize how these things come about.  While not as many people died, I found this to be every bit as unbelieveable as the Holocaust, if not more so, because of the involvement of so many ordinary people.  Below is the review from Amazon. . .

From Publishers Weekly

Starred Review. For former hotel manager Paul Rusesabagina, words are the most powerful weapon in the human arsenal. For good and for evil, as was the case in the spring of 1994 in Rwanda. Over 100 days, some 800,000 people were slaughtered, most hacked to death by machete. Rusesabagina, inspiration for the movie Hotel Rwanda, used his facility with words and persuasion to save 1,268 of his fellow countrymen, turning the Belgian luxury hotel under his charge into a sanctuary from madness. Through negotiation, favor, flattery and deception, Rusesabagina managed to keep his "guests" alive another day despite the homicidal gangs just beyond the fence and the world's failure to act. The humble hotel manager not only illuminates the machinery behind the genocide but delves into Rwanda's complex and colorful cultural history as well as his own childhood, the son of a Hutu father and Tutsi mother. . . .

 

Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. --This text refers to the Paperback edition.

Dewey: The Small-Town Library Cat Who Touched the World

 I'm having trouble finding time to write reviews of the books I read, so I'm borrowing Amazon's review for this book.  I loved the book, and I'm not even an "animal" person.  The story was sweet, interesting, touching, funny. . . I found it hard to put down. 

From Booklist

*Starred Review* Her first thought upon hearing a strange sound coming from the book drop one frigid January morning was “this can’t be good.” In fact, for both the tiny kitten found shivering in the metal box’s corner and for Myron, director of the Spencer Public Library, the discovery was the best thing that ever happened to either of them, and to the tiny Iowa farming community beset by an unrelenting string of economic challenges. Filthy and frostbitten, the kitten was in dire need of massive doses of TLC; fortunately, the library staff, patrons, and townspeople had plenty to spare. The story of how a bedraggled orange fur ball became “Dewey Readmore Books,” an enchantingly irresistible library mascot capable of bringing international attention to a small midwestern town and melting the heart of even the most curmudgeonly visitor, is uplifting enough; but woven among the cute-cat anecdotes are Myron’s own inspirational stories of enduring welfare, the abuses of an alcoholic husband, breast cancer, and single motherhood. Myron’s beguiling, poignant, and tender tale of survival, loyalty, and love is an unforgettable study in the mysterious and wondrous ways animals, and libraries, enrich humanity. --Carol Haggas --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

What Einstein Told His Cook by Robert Wolke

What Einstein told his Cook, by Robert Wolke, 2002, 350 pages, softcover.

Kitchen Science Explained

This title may not sound interesting, but the book really is. "This book explains the science behind both the foods themselves and the tools we use to prepare them." In simple question and answer format, this book is like having a scientist at your elbow while you are cooking. It answers those pesky questions that arise, like "how can you soften hardened brown sugar?" "What does "carmelize" mean?" "Why does chocolate melt in your mouth?" "Can a potato remove the excess salt from over salted soup?" "How do the various cooking oils compare?" "What is the difference between baking soda and baking powder?" "What makes ground beef brown?" "What is a calorie?" "Can eggs be frozen?" "How is coffee decaffeinated?" "How do microwave ovens work?" "What's the best kind of frying pan?"

There are 9 chapters covering over 100 questions with full answers and explanations in common sense, every day English. These include 1) Sweet Talk, all about sugars, 2) The Salt of the earth, about--what else?--Salt, 3) The Fat of the Land--about oils, butter, gravy, 4) Chemicals in the Kitchen, about spices, powders, 5) Turf and Surf--about fish and meat, 6) Fire and Ice, about heat, calories, freezers, 7) Liquid Refreshment--coffee, tea, soft drinks, 8) Microwaves, and 9) Tools and Technology--thermometers, pressure cookers.

Wolke is a professor of chemistry and the author of the Washington Post column Food 101. He is wonderful at answering those food questions you always wondered about but didn't know where to look to find the answer. There are also recipes demonstrating the scientific principles Wolke is explaining, like perfect gravy. "He is informed, amusing and delivers clear answers as well as good, in-depth science." He has a website: www.RobertWolke.com with a link to some of his columns and his other books, as well as recommended links to interesting science websites. I'm looking forward to reading his other books, which answer questions about everyday things unrelated to cooking.

Available through the library, but you may have to request it.

Son of Hamas by Mosab Hassan Yousef

Son of Hamas: A gripping account of terror, Betrayal, Political Intrigue, and Unthinkable Choices.

by Mosab Hassan Yousef

From inside the front cover:

Before the age of twenty-one, Mosab Hassan Yousef saw things no one should ever see: Abject poverty, abuse of power, torture, and death.

He witnessed the behind-the-scenes dealings of top Middle Eastern leaders who make headlines around the world. He was trusted at the highest levels of Hamas and participated in the Intifada. He was held captive deep inside Israel's most feared prison facility. His dangerous choices and unlikely journey through dark places made him a traitor in the eyes of people he loves--and gave him access to extraordinary secrets. On the pages of this book he exposes events and processes that to this point have been known only by a handful of individuals. . .

Yousef is the son of the founding leader of Hamas, internationally recognized as a terrorist organization and responsible for countless suicide bombings and other deadly attacks against Israel. An intregal part of the movement, Mosab was imprisoned several times by the Israeli internal intelligence service. After a chance encounter with a British tourist, he started a six year quest that jeopardized Hamas, endangered his family, and threatened his life. He has since embraced the teachings of Jesus and sought political asylum in America.

(Asylum was granted just this summer after many people spoke up on his behalf.)

This is a true story that reads like a novel. It is well written, and very interesting. It told me many things that I'd never heard before and helped me to understand the conflict in the Middle East better.

Available at the library.

Terrorist Hunter by Anonymous

Terrorist Hunter--the extraordinary Story of a Woman Who went undercover to Infiltrate the Radical Islamic Groups Operating in America.



"The remarkable memoir of an Iraqi woman who escaped from captivity in Baghdad and became America's leading undercover counter-terrorist expert."



From the front cover:



"Here is the story of an anonymous counterterrorism expert, who, in disguise, has penetrated front groups of anti-American terrorist organizations operating in this country. In this edge-of- the-seat memoir, she chronicles her escape from Iraq to Israel, following a great tragedy that befell her family at the hands of Saddam Hussein. She also details how she became involved in intelligence gathering for the United States. She was able to infiltrate and identify dangerous terrorist organizations and entities working undetected in the United States."

This book was very informative and scary. Our country is in danger from the radical Muslims in our country that are being allowed to do whatever they want AGAINST America. They build schools where they teach their children songs with lyrics that say "death to America." They build mosques where they preach "kill the infidels"--and they mean US! They rely on OUR laws that provide for freedom of speech, to say whatever they want to say, teaching their people to hate us--to kill us.

from page 86:

Having a good meal in their bellies seemed to cause the men to let down their guard and we began to speak. I talked only a little, very humbly, extremely cautious to make my cover story credible. There I was, sitting with members of Hamas, the terrorist organization that had claimed more innocent Israeli lives than any other. I, a Jew and an Israeli, a woman alone with fifteen men. Very dangerous game I was playing in this unbelievable scenario. . . .

Everyone should read this book just to be informed.

Embrace Me by Lisa Samson

Lisa Samson is one of my favorite Christian authors of fiction, and I highly recommend her books.

from the back of the book "Embrace Me":

"When a "lizard woman", a self-mutilating preacher, a tattooed monk, and a sleazy lobbyist find themselves in the same North Carolina town one winter, their lives are edging precariously close to disaster. . . and improbably close to grace."

"The Christy-award winning author of 19 books including the Women of Faith Novel of the Year "Quaker Summer", Lisa Samson has been hailed by Publishers Weekly as a "talented novelist who isn't afraid to take risks, and one of the most powerful voices in Christian fiction."

from page 37:

"If there's a smaller room than mine here at the hotel, the occupant must sleep standing up. I'm guessing mine served as a storage closet at one time. To the left of my bed the wooden floor forms a narrow aisle between my single bed and a grid of rough shelving that checkers the wall. Linen storage in the old days, maybe? Cleaning supplies as well? I could use some cleaning supplies. Today I'll find some, and I will scrub this place from floor to ceiling. Maid service is extra."

from page 107:

"I place a phone call to my father before he leaves for work the next day. "So where's Mom these days?"

He huffs his condescending laugh, but I hear the fear around the edges. "Have you gone a little crazy, son? You know as well as I do that your mother is dead."

As well versed as he is in political maneuverngs, I hear all the earmarks of keeping something under wraps: accuse the accuser, and employ the "everybody knows that" defense.

"Then dead people make phone calls." I tell him about the series of calls.

"Oh, Drew. It's just some crazy. You're on the air now. It could have been anybody."

"It was her voice."

"You were twelve when she died. How can you be so sure? Look, I'll meet you at Chapel Hill. I'll take you to her grave."

Teach Like Your Hair's On Fire, Rafe Esquith

Teach like your hair's on fire--The Methods and Madness Inside Room 56, by Rafe Esquith

"In a Los Angeles neighborhood plagued by poverty and violence, there is an exceptional public school classroom called Room 56. The fifth graders inside are either immigrants or children of immigrants; most live in poverty and few speak English as his or her first language. They also play Vivaldi, perform unabridged plays by Shakespeare, and go on to attend the finest universities in the country. Rafe Esquith is the teacher who helps them achieve these accomplishments."

A fascinating story about a wonderful teacher we can all learn from! "Esquith gives any teacher and parent the tips, techniques, excercises, innovations and visionthat have made him one of the most celebrated teachers in the world." His students come to school at 6:30, voluntarily, and stay well after 5:00. They treat each other with respect and they work hard, learning to handle money, read great literature, tackling algebra, and learning to play instruments, in addition to their normal curriculum.

Esquith has written at least 4 books, and all of them are worth reading if you enjoy a good story and want encouragement in your relationships with the children in your life. Our country would be so different with hundreds of teachers like Esquith!

SLAVE My True Story by Mende Nazer

From the back cover:



"At age 12, Mende Nazer lost her childhood. It began one horrific night in 1993, when Arab raiders swept through her Nuba village, setting fire to the village huts and murdering the adults. The raiders rounded up thirty-one young children, including Mende, who was eventually sold to a wealthy Arab family in Sudan's capital city, Khartoum. So began Mende's seven dark years of enslavement. Normally, Mende's story never would have come to light, but when she was sent to work for another master--a diplomat working in London--she made a dramatic break for freedom."



I found this book completely unbelievable! I had no idea people were still being captured and sold into slavery. While I was reading this book, my Mom was reading a book called "Disposable People", a book that tells about the millions of people enslaved right now across our world. All unbelievable!

"Slave" is a very interesting, readable story. It starts out with Mende's childhood in the Nuba tribe in the Nuba Mountains of Sudan, one of the remotest places on earth, where the people lived in mud huts and were hunters and farmers. The first 100 pages of the book tell about life in the village. The next 120 pages tell about Mende's 7 years as a slave, with the last 100 pages telling of her life after she escaped. ALL of it is interesting.

Available at the library.

Games for Math, Games for Reading by Peggy Kaye

These books are wonderful for the early elementary grades.

from the cover of Games for Math:

"These witty, imaginative and entertaining math games offer a welcome improvement over the counting drills and fill-in-the-blank workbooks that have bored children for generations. When children play a clapping game to learn about counting or a dice game to learn about multiplication, and bake brownies to learn about metrics, chances are good they'll develop mathophilia rather than mathophobia."

"The games are easy to follow and easy to play; A busy working parent can read a game in a few minutes and start to play right away--anytime and anywhere. Most require no materials at all, or only the simplest things--pennies and paperclips, cards, dice. And the games are helpful for all young children, whether they are having problems or not."

(The same holds true for the reading book. The games are simple, and require no preparation.)

The only problem with these games is taking the time to play them, but I think they are just as helpful, if not more so, than workbook pages. It's been awhile since I've needed to play them, since my children are teens now, but we did enjoy these books.

The Survivor's Club book review

From the back of the book:

"Each second of the day, one of us faces a crisis, whether it's a car accident, violent crime, serious illness, or financial trouble. Who beats the odds and who surrenders?. . .. .in this book are gripping true stories, astonishing scientific research, and the author's own adventures inside elite survival schools and the government's airplane crash evacuation course."

Think--"Drama in Real Life" from the Reader's Digest. That's what these stories remind me of. True stories of people who survive unbelievable things. There's the woman who trips and falls on her knitting needles, not realizing for several minutes that one of them has punctured her heart. And the woman who falls 6 miles from an airplane and survives. And the woman who survived a mountain lion ripping at her neck and face. There are stories of people who were in the twin towers on 9-11 and survived, and stories of survivors of the holocaust. There are stories of our American soldiers, and the types of training they endure, as well as stories of emergency room patients. All fascinating!

Interspersed with the stories are interesting scientific facts and research, as well as advice on how to BE a survivor. For instance, did you realize that people who attend church once a week live six years longer than people who don't? While this is not a Christian book, per se, the author gives God credit for answered prayers and supernatural intervention.

There is way too much in this book for me to do it justice in this small review. Let me just say it's one of the best non-fiction books I've read and I had a hard time putting it down. There were many of the stories I enjoyed repeating to my family, they were so interesting. The library has it, and it would be a good book for a reluctant teen reader--even if they just paged through and read the stories, and skipped the advice sections.

"God @ Ground Zero" book review

God @ Ground Zero tells the story of a crisis chaplain who spent several weeks in New York City listening to people share their stories in the weeks after 9-11. He spent time with the firefighters--just listening. He spent time at Ground Zero, helping to dig through the rubble, and listening to the workers there. He spent time listening to individuals he met in the city. There are a lot of different stories in the book. Everyone the chaplain met had a story to tell. All of them are interesting, touching, inspiring, some heartbreaking, and through them all, the chaplain just listens. That's the thing I took away from the book--how helpful a listening ear and a simple touch are to someone who is hurting.

The Little Professor of Piney Woods

I happened upon this book by accident one day in the library. I don't remember what I was looking for, but I saw this title, and knowing Piney Woods is just down the road, so to speak, from Pearl, I checked it out.

The Little Professor of Piney Woods is the story of Professor Laurence Jones, who came to MS from the North in the early 1900's with a desire to start a school for the rural black children. He taught a few children to read sitting on a log under a shade tree, and that was the beginning of his school. It wasn't easy for him. He had to overcome poverty, ignorance, racial barriers, and sickness, but in time, a school was built with the blessing of the white community, a miracle in itself. It's a fascinating story of people coming together and pulling together to accomplish a near impossible task. I loved it!