Multiple Bles8ings--Beth Carson

At first I was very enthusiastic about this book. It was very well written and I loved the show. Recent happenings have made me put this book down to probably never finish it. http://www.radaronline.com/exclusives/2009/05/exclusive-new-interview-kate-gosselins-family-blasts-tv-mom. Watch this interview with Kate's brother to see why. Her brother and sister-in-law plainly state that Kate did not write this book. It was her and Jon's life, but it was totally Beth's words. Right now, their lives are spinning out of control and they are bringing their children right down with them. I pray that they will see what they are doing and wake up! I liked the book so much at first because "they" talked so much about God and how much they wanted to live for Him. Now all it seems that they are doing is living for the fame. Kate has said in many interviews that she is putting her children first, but she needs to realize that her marriage should also be put first and the way she is letting fame overcome her is definitely NOT putting her children first. I have come to love this family and I just pray that God does a work in their lives. Marriage, family, and God is FAR more important than fame and money. Please keep this family in your prayers! I pray we are not watching their children in years to come on sleezy interviews talking about what really went down in their lives and how it psychologically affected them. :( Wake up Kate! and Jon.

The Tale of Desperaux by Kate DiCamillo

This was another book I had to read for class. I got to pick from 5 books and I chose this one. I was very interested in it, as it got a lot of attention from the public (also because of the movie). I'll have to admit that I was slightly disappointed. Don't get me wrong, it is well-written and a very cute, entertaining story, but it lacked the action I had anticipated. To me, it seemed the book builds and builds and then...poof...its over. I was kind of hoping for more thrills and action. Although I was slightly disappointed, I did enjoy the fact that Kate DiCamillo writes to the reader. She will stop the story and talk to you as a reader and that was very neat to me. It kind of makes you feel special and involved in the story. I also liked that she incorporated many morals and wove them throughout the book. The book is also very uplifting as it shows an unlikely hero. I believe this book would be a wonderful read for children and an enjoyable read for adults alike.

Pictures of Hollis Woods by Patricia Reilly Giff

I was assigned this book for my Literacy class at AUM. At first, I couldn't really get into it. The language is kind of weird...I'm not sure why...it's kind of like splotchy writing. After getting into it, I understood more of why it was written that way. It's written from a young orphan's perspective and I think the language of the book reflects her splotchy life. It was a great story about an orphan girl named Hollis Woods and her journey of finding a family. I ended up really liking this book. I would recommend it to anyone. It's intended for younger readers because of its short length, but I think it would be a good read for anyone.

Black by Ted Dekker

This was an awesome book! Normally, this is not a book I thought I would be into because it deals with fantasy, but this book was amazing! Its basically about two different realities. In one reality, it is like modern day earth and a virus is on the way of destroying life as we know it. In the other reality, there are evil bats and good bats and colored forests and God in the flesh as a boy. It was just a whirlwind of events and different realities and it is really a wonderful parable of God's love. This is a trilogy so this is only the beginning of this crazy world! The next book is Red and the last book is White. There are also other books that are inter-woven with this trilogy--ten altogether. I absolutely recommend this book to everyone! Its definitely a GREAT parable about God's love and its just a really cool story in general!

House by Ted Dekker and Frank Peretti

This was an amazing book! I've been reading it off and on and finally finished it the first week of January. I have read Frank Peretti before and loved his books about the spiritual worlds, but his collaboration with Ted Dekker brought things even further. Through this book Frank Peretti and Ted Dekker create an amazing thriller that pieces everything together and explains sin in a way that I have never imagined. This book not only gave me nightmares, but a new sense of understanding about sin. Its suspenseful, scary, thrilling, and VERY insightful. In a nutshell, this is a book about 2 couples who end up in an inn in backwoods Alabama to find that they are in a twisted house of horrors. A killer is outside waiting and throws in a tin can with 3 rules. #1 God came into my house and I killed him #2 Anyone who comes into my house will be killed just like I killed God #3 Give me one dead body by dawn and I'll let rule 2 slide. The house changes and forms and reflects their sin in a horrifying way. They find themselves against each other, but what they don't know is that this is a battle against their own selves and their sin. This book is an amazing, and might I add scary, adventure of good and evil and sin and how God saves us from sin. I would totally recommend this book to non-Christians and Christians alike. Christians--this will give you a MUCH deeper understanding of sin. Non-Christians--this will give them a new aspect on sin and God's saving grace.
*This book is now also a major motion picture. It was released November 2008.

“It’s critical that we use a very dark brush to paint evil. When you bring the light into that darkness as characterized in John 1, that light is very vivid. When it dispels the darkness, we see the brilliance that’s there.”--Ted Dekker

“When I sit down to write a novel, I am exploring my own relationship with God, with the struggle between good and evil, my own purpose. My journey is so similar to everyone else’s journey, because we all are human. We all have been defeated by the powers of darkness, and we all find redemption in the light of Christ.”--Ted Dekker

The Lucky One by Nicholas Sparks

I finished this book in about 5 days. This was a very easy, relaxing read. The plot is interesting, not very stressful, and, as always, Nicholas Sparks paints a beautiful picture throughout the entire book. Keeping to his style, this is a book about romance and falling in love. It was a fairly realistic tale of a soldier who finds a picture of a woman on the shores in Iraq. The photograph is never claimed by anyone so he puts it in his pocket. He survives many adversaries in Iraq and people begin to call his photo a lucky charm. After he is back in the US, he decides to find the woman and never imagines that his journey would lead him to his destiny and to the woman of his dreams. There is some suspense, but overall I would rate this book as more of an easy-going, relaxing read. I would definitely recommend this book because it is a beautiful tale of love and family.