Annie's Truth

Annie Beiler seems to have it all—a loving family in a tight-knit Amish community and the affections of an attractive and respected young man. But when she learns that she was adopted after being found as an abandoned newborn, she sets out on a journey to find out who she is.

Her father is strongly against her decision to leave, as it could mean Meidung, or excommunication from the community and even her family. But Annie knows she must find “the path that has her heart.”

As Annie’s search brings her into the fast-paced world of modern life, she is confronted with all of the temptations she was warned of. Can she make her way back to the order and security of her family? Or will she remain an outsider—torn between her two worlds?

My thoughts...

Annie and Hanna Beiler are looking through their hope chests and Annie discovers the actual day of her birth is missing from the Bible her parents gave her. Annie questions her parents and learns she was adopted. Shortly after, against the advice of her parents and the elders, Annie sets out to search for her birth mother. Annie's mother helps her by giving her money and arranging for her to stay with the Glicks, former friends who had been shunned from Annie's very own community. She leaves behind the man she loves and is expected to marry promising she will return one day. College student Rudy Glick assists Annie with her search and starts to have feelings for her. When Annie's search seems to end without results he talks her into staying longer. She is enjoying the things he is showing her and the places he takes her.

When Annie learns the circumstances of her birth she is struck with feelings of uncleanness and unworthiness. She cannot go home and marry John knowing she is unworthy. To make matters worse, when she arrives home she finds her sister and John have been seeing her each other.

What bothers me about the book is when Annie returns home she is expected to do penance for going against the elders. While the Amish believe in forgiveness without questioning the reasons why it struck me as odd that the elders and her own family would hesitate to forgive Annie and judge her by wanting to pronounce punishment.

A delightful read, I finished this book in one day and give it 4 out of 5 stars.

I received a copy of this book free from Charisma House in exchange for an honest review.

Summer Lovin' Giveaway Hop

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The Widow of Saunders Creek

Corrie Saunders grew up in a life of privilege. But she gave it all up for Jarrod, her Army husband, a man she knew was a hero when she vowed to spend her life with him. She just didn’t expect her hero to sacrifice his life taking on an Iraqi suicide bomber.

Six months after Jarrod’s death, Corrie retreats to the family home her husband inherited deep in the Missouri Ozarks. She doesn’t know how to live without Jarrod—she doesn’t want to. By moving to Saunders Creek and living in a house beloved by him, she hopes that somehow her Jarrod will come back to her.

Something about the house suggests maybe he has. Corrie begins to wonder if she can feel Jarrod’s presence.

Jarrod’s cousin Eli is helping Corrie with the house’s restoration and he knows that his dead cousin is not what Corrie senses. Eli, as a believing man and at odds with his mystically-oriented family members, thinks friendly visits from beyond are hogwash. But he takes spirits with dark intentions seriously. Can he convince Corrie that letting go of Jarrod will lead to finding her footing again— and to the One she can truly put her faith into?

My thoughts...

War widow Corrie Saunders has had enough of living with her wealthy parents. She can't take the pretending that everything is fine, holding back the tears and playing a role to please her mother. Her husband, Jarrod, died six months ago and she hasn't properly grieved, she would do anything to see his smile again. Corrie decides to move to the Ozarks and live in the house her husband had inherited hoping she will feel closer to him.

Once in the house Corrie senses a presence and believes her husband is trying to contact her from the afterlife. Strange things begin to happen -- chairs rocking, doors slamming, things being knocked over-- she tells her handyman, Jarrod's cousin Eli, about it and he is very concerned. There has been a presence in that house since he was a child. As he tries explaining to Corrie about the presence being evil she doesn't believe him. His aunt Trudy is a medium and conducts a seance and things escalate. I won't give away what happens next.

This is a quick-paced read with a good plot, good characters, some eeriness, and romance. I give it 5 out of 5 stars. I received an ecopy of this book from the publisher in exchange for an honest review.

The Last Hunger Season

About the book...

At 4:00 am, Leonida Wanyama lit a lantern in her house made of sticks and mud. She was up long before the sun to begin her farm work, as usual. But this would be no ordinary day, this second Friday of the new year. This was the day Leonida and a group of smallholder farmers in western Kenya would begin their exodus, as she said, “from misery to Canaan,” the land of milk and honey.

Africa’s smallholder farmers, most of whom are women, know misery. They toil in a time warp, living and working essentially as their forebears did a century ago. With tired seeds, meager soil nutrition, primitive storage facilities, wretched roads, and no capital or credit, they harvest less than one-quarter the yields of Western farmers.

The romantic ideal of African farmers––rural villagers in touch with nature, tending bucolic fields––is in reality a horror scene of malnourished children, backbreaking manual work, and profound hopelessness. Growing food is their driving preoccupation, and still they don’t have enough to feed their families throughout the year. The wanjala––the annual hunger season that can stretch from one month to as many as eight or nine––abides.

But in January 2011, Leonida and her neighbors came together and took the enormous risk of trying to change their lives. Award-winning author and world hunger activist Roger Thurow spent a year with four of them––Leonida Wanyama, Rasoa Wasike, Francis Mamati, and Zipporah Biketi––to intimately chronicle their efforts.

In The Last Hunger Season, he illuminates the profound challenges these farmers and their families face, and follows them through the seasons to see whether, with a little bit of help from a new social enterprise organization called One Acre Fund, they might transcend lives of dire poverty and hunger.

The daily dramas of the farmers’ lives unfold against the backdrop of a looming global challenge: to feed a growing population, world food production must nearly double by 2050. If these farmers succeed, so might we all.


My thoughts...

The Last Hunger Season follows the lives of farming families in Western Kenya in 2011, showing their struggles to feed their families. A tough book to read but very enlightening on the subject of global hunger.

The One Acre fund, founded by Andrew Youn, the son of Korean immigrants to America, provides seeds and fertilizer along with training to show farmers how to become income generating, to grow enough food to feed their families every day. There are successes and failures, hurdles to overcome, and plenty of plain old hard work. Thurow tells of the struggles to save enough maize to sell when the prices go up in order to send their children to school or buy medicines. Malaria is prevalent during the rainy season.

Thurow gives us a greater knowledge about hunger and the solutions to it, the perseverance of farmers to continue during the greatest challenges which are many for the people of Kenya. Most of the farming is left to the women and their desire is to feed their families and give their children opportunies and hope.

I highly recommend this book and give it 5 out of 5 stars.

I received a copy of this book free from The B&B Media Group in exchange for an honest review.

Submerged by Danni Pettrey

A sabotaged plane. Two dead deep-water divers.

Yancey, Alaska was a quiet town...until the truth of what was hidden in the depths off the coast began to appear.

Bailey Craig vowed never to set foot in Yancey again. She has a past, and a reputation--and Yancey's a small town. She's returned to bury a loved one killed in the plane crash and is determined not to stay even an hour more than necessary. But then dark evidence emerges and Bailey's own expertise becomes invaluable for the case.

Cole McKenna can handle the deep-sea dives and helping the police recover evidence. He can even handle the fact that a murderer has settled in his town and doesn't appear to be moving on. But dealing with the reality of Bailey's reappearance is a tougher challenge. She broke his heart, but she is not the same girl who left Yancey. He let her down, but he's not the same guy she left behind. Can they move beyond the hurts of their pasts and find a future together?

My thoughts...

Pettrey's writing style is exciting. Well developed characters that seem so real. Submerged is action, adventure, mystery, and romance all rolled into one. Throw in the message of redemption and you have excellent Christian fiction.

Due to a tragedy Bailey Craig must return to the small Alaskan town where she grew up, for years she has ran from her past, a past filled with drunken parties and the like. She fears no one will understand her new relationship with Christ.

One of the first people she runs into is Cole McKenna, whom she does not want to see! As it turns out, he has also become a Christian and the two end up spending a lot of time together when they discover a murder has taken place.

A great summer beach read. I give it 5 out of 5 stars.

I received a copy of this book free from Bethany House Publishers in exchange for an honest review.

Globequake by Wallace Henley

From globalization to the digital revolution, secularization to the great recession, change has never happened so fast and wide and deep as we have seen in recent years. The nature of information and the speed with which it travels is unparalleled, and it is changing our world in seismic ways that reach into every crevice of our lives. It's as if the tectonic plates of society and culture are being torn apart and reshaped right under our feet. We are living through a cultural "GLOBEQUAKE."

How should we respond as families? In business? Through our churches?

With the hope and stability found not on this shifting ground but in the one who created the heavens and earth, says pastor and best-selling author Wallace Henley. Drawing from his experiences in politics and journalism plus his deep biblical knowledge, Henley's analysis is clear, insightful, and thought provoking. There is no alarmist agenda here. Globequake is a well-reasoned guide to navigating the spheres of our lives in a godly manner, even as those spheres wobble on their axes.

My thoughts...

Globequakeis an informative source on what's going on in the world today and Henley backs it up with scripture. Americans are turning their backs on God. He explains how the church can remain calm during the turmoil if we stay in the Word and trust in the Lord. Never give up hope!

Henley tells us how to have confidence in our leadership and gives a plan of action for protecting our children and talks about the effect the church has in the world.

Though I had a hard time getting into the book I give it 4 out of 5 stars.

I received a copy of this book free from The B&B Media Group in exchange for an honest review.

Winner!

Congratulations to mamabunny13 on winning Shelter in the Freedom to Read Giveaway Hop!

Come on over and enter to win a $10 Amazon Gift card in the Summer Reads Giveaway Hop!