Living Beyond Your Feelings

Author: Joyce Meyer
Genre: Self-Help
Publisher: FaithWords, 2014
Pages: 288
Rating: Recommend

Synopsis: The average person has 70,000 thoughts ever day, and many of those thoughts trigger a corresponding emotion. No wonder so many of us often feel like we're controlled by our emotions. Our lives would be much improved if we controlled them. 

In Living Beyond Your Feelings, Joyce Meyer examines the gamut of feelings that human beings experience. She discusses the way that the brain processes and stores memories and thoughts, and then - emotion by emotion - she explains how we can manage our reactions to those emotions. By doing that, she gives the reader a toolbox for managing the way we react to the onslaught of feelings that can wreak havoc on our lives.

In this book, Meyer blends the wisdom of the Bible with the latest psychological research and discusses the 4 personality types and their influence on one's outlook, the impact of stress on physical and emotional health, the power of memories, the influence of words on emotions, anger and resentment, sadness, loss and grief, guilt and regret, the power of replacing reactions with pro-actions and the benefits of happiness.

Review: I chose this as my pick for a self-improvement book from my 2016 Reading Challenge. This isn't my genre of choice so I selected the audio version thinking it would be easier to digest. I was put off initially because it was "preachy," and then I realized I was probably annoyed because there's a lot of truth to her words and advice that I had been ignoring. 

The bottom line is that we cannot control others, we can only control ourselves. It seems simple, but I really liked that she pointed out that emotions are like unruly children, and it is up to us rational, mature adults to keep them in check. You can be really angry, but you do not have to react with anger. You always have a choice. 

I got a lot more out of this book than I had expected. I'm pleasantly surprised.

Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl

Author: Harriet Jacobs
Genre: Non-fiction
Publisher: Bedford/St. Martin's, 2009 (first published in 1861)
Pages: 336
Rating: Recommend

Synopsis: Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl is the true story of a former slave's life told from her perspective. Harriet Jacobs was born into slavery, and as she grew older, became aware of the monumental injustice of the institution. As a young and attractive women, she also faced the unwanted attentions of her male owners. Facing a life of misery and fearing for her children' future, Jacobs fled and hid from her owner for seven years. She made her way to Philadelphia in 1842 and later purchased her children.

Review: Surprisingly easy to read in style and language, but difficult to digest. The horror, the treatment, the sad truth about slavery. This book was moving, and an important read. 

Still Growing

Author: Kirk Cameron
Genre: Autobiography
Publisher: Bethany House Publishers, 2008
Pages: 224
Rating: Recommend

Synopsis: Kirk Cameron is best known for his role as loveable teenage troublemaker Mike Seaver on the award-winning TV series Growing Pains, but his rise to fame and fortune is only part of his incredible story. In this intimate autobiography, Kirk opens up about his early years, his rocket to stardom, his life-changing encounter with Jesus and the hard choices he made along the way to live in the Way of the Master. Fans will get an up-close and personal look at what drives the former teen-magazine heartthrob and find out how God and family became the secrets behind his celebrated smile. In his own words, Kirk shares how he's still growing even through the triumphs and temptations of his Hollywood career.

Review: I haven't read a celebrity memoir or autobiography that I felt would win any writing awards. In fact, I only picked this one to read because my 2016 Reading Challenge says to read a book an autobiography, and I took that to heart (in other words, I wanted to stay true to autobiography and not go in the direction of a memoir). 

Anyway, this was one of the better celebrity-authored books I've read. Kirk Cameron is a likable guy. I was right to have a crush on him all those years ago.

Thoroughly enjoyable. Light read. Fast read. Good read.

I'd like to point out that my mom had told me years ago that Kirk Cameron was too old for me. As it turns out, he's only a couple months older than my husband.

I also want to mention that I requested the first season of Growing Pains from the library. My memories of the show are sketchy, at best.

Passing

Author: Nella Larsen
Genre: Fiction
Publisher: Penquin Publishing Group, 2003 (first published in 1929)
Pages: 94
Rating: Highly Recommend

Synopsis: Clare Kendry leads a dangerous life. Fair, elegant, and ambitious, she is married to a white man unaware of her African American heritage, and has severed all ties to her past. Clare’s childhood friend, Irene Redfield, just as light-skinned, has chosen to remain within the African American community, but refuses to acknowledge the racism that continues to constrict her family’s happiness. A chance encounter forces both women to confront the lies they have told others—and the secret fears they have buried within themselves. 

Rating: I loved this. It was compelling on so many levels. The ending is fabulous. It was my choice for a book that is less than 150 pages from my 2016 Reading Challenge.

Summer's Child

Author: Diane Chamberlain
Genre: Fiction
Publisher: Mira, 2010
Pages: 400
Rating: Recommend

Synopsis: Early on the morning of her eleventh birthday, on the beach beside her North Carolina home, Daria Cato receives an unbelievable gift from the sea—an abandoned newborn baby. When the infant's identity cannot be uncovered, she is adopted by Daria's loving family. But her silent secrets continue to haunt Daria.

Now, twenty years later, Shelly has grown into an unusual, ethereal young woman whom Daria continues to protect. But when Rory Taylor, a friend from Daria's childhood and now a television producer, returns at Shelly's request to do a story about the circumstances surrounding her birth, something precarious shifts in the small town of Kill Devil Hills.

The more questions Rory asks, the more unsettled the tiny community becomes, as closely guarded secrets and the sins of that long-ago summer begin to surface. Piece by piece, the mystery of summer's child is being exposed, a mystery that no one involved—not Shelly, Daria, not even Rory—is prepared to face.

Review: Checking off another book from my 2016 Reading Challenge. I really liked Necessary Lies by Diane Chamberlain, and wanted to read another. Lucky for me she wrote Summer's Child and gave it a blue cover :-)

Chamberlain does a great job of building the plot, and then offering the reader tidbits of information and little twists and turns throughout. It's a clever way to weave a novel.

I found Necessary Lies more compelling and complex than Summer's Child, and therefore the better of the two, but I may have found another go-to author.

Other Diane Chamberlain Novels
Big Lies in a Small Town
Necessary Lies
Pretending to Dance
Reflection
The Courage Tree
The Dream Daughter
The Last House on the Street
The Silent Sister
The Stolen Marriage

The Island

Author: Elin Hilderbrand
Genre: Fiction
Publisher: Little, Brown, and Company, 2011
Pages: 512
Rating: Recommend

Synopsis: Birdie Cousins has thrown herself into the details of her daughter Chess's lavish wedding, from the floating dance floor in her Connecticut back yard to the color of the cocktail napkins. Like any mother of a bride-to-be, she is weathering the storms of excitement and chaos, tears and joy. But Birdie, a woman who prides herself on preparing for every possibility, could never have predicted the late-night phone call from Chess, abruptly announcing that she's cancelled her engagement.

It's only the first hint of what will be a summer of upheavals and revelations. Before the dust has even begun to settle, far worse news arrives, sending Chess into a tailspin of despair. Reluctantly taking a break from the first new romance she's embarked on since the recent end of her 30-year marriage, Birdie circles the wagons and enlists the help of her younger daughter Tate and her own sister India. Soon all four are headed for beautiful, rustic Tuckernuck Island, off the coast of Nantucket, where their family has summered for generations. No phones, no television, no grocery store - a place without distractions where they can escape their troubles.

But throw sisters, daughters, ex-lovers, and long-kept secrets onto a remote island, and what might sound like a peaceful getaway becomes much more. Before summer has ended, dramatic truths are uncovered, old loves are rekindled, and new loves make themselves known. It's a summertime story only Elin Hilderbrand can tell, filled with the heartache, laughter, and surprises that have made her page-turning, bestselling novels as much a part of summer as a long afternoon on a sunny beach.

Review: This was my choice for a book set on an island from my 2016 Reading Challenge. This is the second Elin Hilderbrand novel I've read (The Castaways was my first). Generally I like a little more substance in my fiction, but these are fun beach/summer reads and move quickly.

Other Elin Hilderbrand Novels:
The Five-Star Weekend
Summer of '69
The Blue Bistro
Golden Girl
The Hotel Nantucket
The Castaways

The Winter Street Series
Winter Street
Winter Stroll
Winter Storms
Winter Solstice

The Winter in Paradise Trilogy
Winter in Paradise
What Happens in Paradise
Troubles in Paradise

In the Beginning was the Sea

Author: Tomas Gonzalez

Genre: Satire

Publisher: Steerforth Press, 2015

Pages: 224

Rating: Recommend

Synopsis: The young intellectuals J. and Elena leave behind their comfortable lives, the parties and the money in Medellín to settle down on a remote island. Their plan is to lead the Good Life, self-sufficient and close to nature. But from the very start, each day brings small defeats and imperceptible dramas, which gradually turn paradise into hell, as their surroundings inexorably claim back every inch of the 'civilisation' they brought with them. Based on a true story, In the Beginning Was the Sea is a dramatic and searingly ironic account of the disastrous encounter of intellectual struggle with reality - a satire of hippyism, ecological fantasies, and of the very idea that man can control fate.

Review: From my 2016 Reading Challenge, this was my choice for a book translated into English. I found this book to be entertaining in that all I could picture were families or couples from House Hunters International on HGTV, a show Sal and I watch from time to time. One particular family stands out to me. Their daughter loved horses, but it was too expensive for them to own horses in Texas so they picked up and moved to Panama. The final clip showed them with a pasture full of horses, living the dream. This book was how I picture life will be for them once the novelty wears off. I thought it was great.