Author: Peggy Web
Genre: Romance / Chick Lit
Publisher: Kindle edition
Cost: $.99 on Amazon
File Size: 311 KB
Rating: Recommend
Synopsis: Touched By Angels, sequel - Born special, Jenny, an artist, has had to struggle for every achievement. The things ordinary women take for granted - love marriage - children - are only a dream for her. When divorced businessman, Daniel Sullivan brings his children to sit for a portrait, Jenny begins to believe that her prince has finally come. But can Daniel love a special woman without destroying her? Can she withstand the media attention that comes with his high-powered profile? Can she survive the nasty custody battle with his ex-wife? Can there be a fairy tale ending for jenny and her prince? This unusual love story is one of the author's most heartwarming.
Review: Touched by Angels is the better of the two books, but A Prince for Jenny is sweet, albeit unlikely, convenient, and a more neatly wrapped package than life ever is. However, at face value, this is a nice story.
What I didn't find out until read the epilogue is that Jenny's character is based on a little girl named Cooper, to whom the author was related. Cooper passed away before she had a chance to grow up, but the author lets her live through Jenny. This is the way Cooper's life *might* have been, had she lived.
Author: Peggy Web
Genre: Romance / Chick Lit
Publisher: Kindle edition
Cost: Free on Amazon
File Size: 288 KB
Rating: Recommend
Synopsis: Sarah was a mother looking for a miracle; Jake was a tormented man looking to forget. She was raising a special child alone. He was testing the limits of recklessness on his motorcycle and in his plane. But when a little girl ran in front of his of his car, Jake risked his life for real in order to save her. Jenny - and her mother Sarah - tugged at his heart and made him want to be the hero Sarah imagined. But could such love ever silence the ghosts that haunted him? Could Sarah and Jenny be his second chance?
Review: This is a sweet, not trashy, romance novel. I wanted to try out my new Kindle by downloading a free book. This book is a fantastic, easy read. While it has a predictable ending, I got caught up in the journey that took me from beginning to end. In fact, I just logged into Amazon to download the sequel, A Prince for Jenny which cost frugal me a whole $.99.
It's not unusual for a line or paragraph to jump out or resonate with me, and I absolutely love this line from Touched by Angels, "That who you love is not nearly as important as who you are with the person you love".
Think about it.
Oh, and if you're wondering how I like my Kindle - I love it.
Author: Philip Simmons
Genre: Collection (essays)
Publisher: Random House Publishers, 2003
Pages: 157
Rating: Highly Recommend
Synopsis: Philip Simmons was just thirty-five years old in 1993 when he learned that he had ALS, or Lou Gehrig’s disease, and was told he had less than five years to live. As a young husband and father, and at the start of a promising literary career, he suddenly had to learn the art of dying. Nine years later, he has succeeded, against the odds, in learning the art of living.
Now, in this surprisingly joyous and spirit-renewing book, he chronicles his search for peace and his deepening relationship with the mystery of everyday life.
Set amid the rugged New Hampshire mountains he once climbed, and filled with the bustle of family life against the quiet progression of illness, Learning to Fall illuminates the journey we all must take — “the work of learning to live richly in the face of loss.”
"Philip reminds us that life is terminal and that it never turns out as we expect it to. Loved ones die, careers crash, health fails. We are always falling down. And it is in the very falling that we discover the preciousness of life."
From our first faltering steps, Simmons says, we may fall into disappointment or grief, fall into or out of love, fall from youth or health. And though we have little choice as to the timing or means of our descent, we may, as he affirms, “fall with grace, to grace.”
With humor, hard-earned wisdom and a keen eye for life’s lessons — whether drawn from great poetry or visits to the town dump — Simmons shares his discovery that even at times of great sorrow we may find profound freedom. And by sharing the wonder of his daily life, he offers us the gift of connecting more deeply and joyously with our own.
Review: Philip Simmons was an associate professor of English at Lake Forest College in Illinois. That alone made me question my real desire to read this book. I know all about English professors and their worlds of symbolism and deep thought. However, based on my personal experiences over the last 11 years, the book synopsis interested me more than reading it scared me. And thank God for that. Without a doubt, and even with 3.5 months of reading left in the year, this is my #1 recommended read for 2011.
As I started reading, I began bookmarking pages and paragraphs that held the bits of wisdom that I wanted to discuss during this review. However, it quickly became apparent that each paragraph and each chapter (essay) leads to insights and revelations that cannot be simply summarized in my short review. I would have done my readers an injustice in trying to compress Philip Simmon's words.
Learning to Fall is not meant to be read; it is meant to be savored. Read each chapter as the stand-alone essay it was meant to be and at the end of each, take some time (a day or longer) to think about what you read. Reflect on the content and the wisdom. Then, move to the next chapter/essay and do the same.
Philip Simmons lived. . .really lived, and leaves the world with a beautiful gift, not a story.
