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Thursday, May 3, 2012

April Book Review: "You're Already Amazing"by Holly Gerth--Book Review by Candace Duiker



Outside my window, the trees are coming back to life they are shining with possibility and it's how I'm feeling after having read this book.  Holly Gerth in her book "You're Already Amazing" She is encouraging in her guiding words, using many examples.  I really liked how she talks about love and that how God brings and shows up as in love in one person is going to look differently to another, but no less, never that.  She is gentle in her approaches, gives helpful exercises to help a person see things from a new set of eyes.  Gerth's focus is to stay in motion, she never blames, it is forward 'faith' oriented momentum all the way. This book is highly practical, yet has the rightful feel of some of the wisest thoughts you may come across, pages may become all dog-eared that's what I mean.
Gerth's writing is poetic, and poignant it's like she reaches inside your heart and speaks strength to it. I like that, everyone needs to feel love in a way that they understand, so they can pass it on.
This book happens to me at just the right time, I met a nice guy a couple weeks ago and I felt so at home with him. We met on a beautiful day, wandered the Farmer's Market together. We only had talked a few days before meeting, but somehow ,his quickness to smile and calmness of spirit, really made an impression on me.  Sometimes it isn't even how many words are spoken between people it's just that you kind of get what their spirit is about. The man I met loved fishing and people watching among many other things. I think why I liked him so immediately was that he was open to good things happening to him, inviting it in fact.  We talked about nature a whole lot and how much it teaches us.  We were supposed to meet up again and I wondered why I had not heard from him.  Well, this evening I received a text message from his ex girlfriend saying that he had passed away.  I was saddened about it, as I was just getting to know him.
The parallels between how I felt after reading this book and after meeting my new friend were so similar.  When I met him I felt warmer having met him, wiser.  Gerth's book does this too, she encourages us to ask questions to search for meaning.  The theme of meeting my friend and to of this book are we are each here for a reason, that we each have many things to offer and to receive.  To let the grace of that flow in is by saying yes to being open, asking the hard questions, and having faith when we don't know or see the next chapter.  I'm thankful to have met him, though it was a short time I learned a lot from him about life, about myself.  This book too has me looking at myself with a whole new light. I'm thinking yes, yes I choose yes to new moments of a sweet smile and to the new leaves ready to bloom! I recommend this book to certainly women, but anyone who wants to work on their relationship with themselves first, conversely with those close to them. You'd be surprised at what you don't know about yourself!

Book has been provided courtesy of Baker Publishing Group and Graf-Martin Communications, Inc.
Available at your favourite bookseller from Revell, a division of Baker Publishing Group

www.grafmartin.com
http://www.amazon.ca/
www.chaptersindigo.ca

Sunday, March 11, 2012

My February 2012 Book Review--"Words Spoken True" by Ann H. Gabhart Review By Candace Duiker

Spring is almost here and how happy that makes me.  As happy as this book made me to read.  The book I read for February is "Words Spoken True" by Ann H. Gabhart.  Moxy, is what I think of regarding the lead character in this book: meet Adriane Darcy.  She grew up around the printed word that being her Father's newspaper office back in the Civil war era.  I loved Adriane's iron clad will that shines through in her most challenging moments.  Yet she's not so beyond reaching, and that's exactly what happens when she meets a certain Blake Garrett an Editor from a different, competing newspaper who finds ways to push Ms. Darcy's buttons, as does happen in one way or another in most potential relationships of that reader I'll leave to your musings, until that is you read this page turner of a book.  The story is emotional and well told, it doesn't falsely draw at your heartstrings, every raw feeling you feel is well earned and not spoken down to you which is a delight.

All in all I loved this book because it is about something dear to my heart, writing, communicating and love.  Not to mention, standing up for something that you believe in.  The culmination of these things, well let's just say the civil war may have torn down a lot of structures and people, but not these lead characters no way, they follow that road on down and it goes about where you might think..with a few curves a long the way, I smiled and I cried.  Let's just see if you don't do the same very thing Reader.

Book has been provided courtesy of Baker Publishing Group and Graf-Martin Communications, Inc.
Available at your favourite bookseller from Revell, a division of Baker Publishing Group

www.grafmartin.com
http://www.amazon.ca/
http://www.chapters.indigo.ca/

Monday, January 2, 2012

"My Favorite Bible" by Rondi DeBoer, Christine Tangvald, Ilustrations by Ariel Pang, Book Review By Candace Duiker

  Such a sweet and colorful first bible for children "My Favorite Bible" is by Rondi DeBoer and Christine Tangvald and illustrated by Ariel Pang.  I loved the pictures so much I was running my fingers over them.  The stories are written in an easy to understand way.  One of the things I loved most about this bible is that it interactive activities mixed in to create meaningful parent/child discussions, as well as, alone time moments of contemplation.  I cannot think of a better way to start a child off then with delightful bible.
Book has been provided courtesy of Baker Publishing Group and Graf-Martin Communications, Inc.
Available at your favourite bookseller from Revell, a division of Baker Publishing Group


By Candace Duiker
www.grafmartin.com
http://www.amazon.ca/
http://www.chapters.indigo.ca/

"The Christmas Shoppe" by Melody Carlson Book Review by Candace Duiker

  With Christmas freshly in our minds the book I read: "The Christmas Shoppe" by Melody Carlson really made me smile. It is about a woman named Matilda Honeycutt who moves to the small town of Parrish Springs to open a special shoppe.  Many people are close-hearted to this gypsy like woman at first.  She eventually opens her shop and that's when everything changes.  People are searching, aren't we all really?  Well after they come into Matilda's shop they end up leaving with answers to things they didn't necessarily know they were looking for.  I loved this book and I think you will too.  Christmas isn't too far gone for you to not still enjoy this gift of a story.
Book has been provided courtesy of Baker Publishing Group and Graf-Martin Communications, Inc.
Available at your favourite bookseller from Revell, a division of Baker Publishing Group


By Candace Duiker
http://www.grafmartin.com/
http://www.amazon.ca/
http://www.chapters.indigo.ca/

"Jesus, My Father, The CIA, and Me A Memoir of Sorts" by Ian Morgan Cron Book review by Candace Duiker

 My second review is of "Jesus, My Father, the CIA and Me A Memoir of Sorts" by Ian Morgan Cron.  Wow, this book is an emotional, biographical offering of the Author Ian MOrgan Cron's life.  Cron documents his Father's fight with the bottle and his own hurt it wrought in his relationship with his Dad.  It's a real dance, but God does show up too.  There are moments in this book when Ian Morgan Cron in his teenage angst leaves your heart haunted for him.  His words make you feel like those boys who were walking by the railroad tracks in the movie "Stand By Me," as he struggles with whether to drink or smoke pot.  He makes it with the strength of his beliefs, even though he finds out his Dad works as a CIA agent. This book is one to be reread and you want to really 'go' it with the Author.  It's real, honest and you just gotta know the how and why his Dad was a CIA agent.
Book has been provided courtesy of Baker Publishing Group and Graf-Martin Communications, Inc.
Available at your favourite bookseller from Revell, a division of Baker Publishing Group.

By Candace Duiker

http://www.grafmartin.com/
http://www.amazon.ca/
http://www.chapters.indigo.ca/

"Chasing Sunsets" by Eva Marie Everson Review by Candace Duiker

  Welcome to 2012! I am catching up one some book reviews.  The first book of my year-end reviews is "Chasing Sunsets" by Eva Marie Everson.  This book is perfect for your mid-winter beach getaway.  The lead character Kimberly Tucker's marriage has ended.  She is in a painful transiton, caught between her old married life and learning to know who this new single woman that she trying to become.  The author Eva Marie Everson tells the story so naturally and easily that the reader in you is going to fall away and will become Kimberly Tucker.  You can't help but cheer for her in her journey to become whole again. 
Book has been provided courtesy of Baker Publishing Group and Graf-Martin Communications, Inc.
Available at your favourite bookseller from Revell, a division of Baker Publishing Group.


www.grafmartin.com

http://www.amazon.ca/

http://www.chapters.indigo.ca/

Thursday, November 3, 2011

October Book Review: The Measure of Katie Calloway by Serena Miller-Book review written by Candace Duiker

 The fast moving dance of the yellow, gold, scarlet leaves and Autumn is one foot out this season's door.  I couldn't think of a better novel to curl up with then my October 2011 book review:  The Measure of Katie Calloway by Serena Miller.

The civil war has always been a favorite thing to read about and this book delivers.  It's 1867 and it's where the red-headed main character Katie Calloway is first introduced to the reader.  She is living in the deep Southern State of Georgia on a burned out plantation with her younger brother and her brooding husband Harlan who has just returned from the civil war.  Katie's existence is a lonely one and she walks on egg shells never knowing when or what will set off her half-crazed husband.  One day, when her husband is away, she takes her brother Ned and runs for their lives as it would seem.

She lands in one of the most unexpected places a Southern girl could end up, a logging camp in the north in Michigan where she finds a job as a camp cook.  Everything about the place makes Katie doubt her decision to work from the hardened loggers she first meets, to the owner of the camp Robert Foster who harbors his own deep hurt and secrets he'd just as soon keep close to self.

Katie Calloway early in the book doesn't recognize that she has a voice and that she has power and choices.  True to the times, most women would have been subservient it's the way things were.  As the story moves forward she learns to know the loggers as men and they in turn learn the soul of a woman isn't just made of cleaning and cooking it's a reflection of the lives around her.  The fights, the struggles that go on in her and around her make the soul of a woman or man stronger.  Katie Calloway is feisty and finds a way through the strife.  She cries sometimes, and that's good it frees up space in us for the good feelings that anchor us to come rolling on back.  I know exactly how it feels when I made the decision to return to school this past Fall for Business Management I didn't know if was the right decision. When I have to struggle with the occasional math question or have a lot of homework to do I wonder about my choice.

Katie also learns about matters of the heart.  The camp owner Robert Foster teaches her through his actions that there are kind men that can be trusted.  It's a wonderful gift they give each other.  In the giving they both open up in such pleasing ways, the reader can become part of.  And isn't it like that in life too when someone is good for you, I do believe you become more of who you are meant to be.  You're deeper, funnier, certainly wiser, the smile on their face tells you that the same thing is happening to them.  This book is funny, it's smart you will learn technical things about log-rolling should you ever decide to do it!  One can't ask for better then this for a cold weather read, and you're going to want to snuggle with someone after you put this book down.  It makes you thankful for all the blessings in your life and yes even for the struggles that bring you unseeing into better places.  It's the trust factor here at work on a practical level, another word if you like is 'faith'.  Life really is a wilderness, but finding your way isn't just putting one foot in front of the other it's also letting the wind blow the voices of loved ones into your hurt places and knowing you'll pull through.  It's letting the happy times take hold and knowing that another sunny day is just around the corner. I recommend this book to anyone who loves believable characters and empowerment with some history thrown in.  Oh and for the record, for every other wrong answer I may get sometimes in my homework, I find the answers to a whole bunch more! Which means my spirit is being stretched a whole lot right now mathematically speaking!
"Book has been provided courtesy of Baker Publishing Group and Graf-Martin Communications, Inc.
Available at your favourite bookseller from Revell, a division of Baker Publishing Group
".
http://grafmartin.com/
http://amazon.ca/

http://www.chapters.indigo.ca/home/