A View of Jerusalem
A View of Jerusalem
by Erin Sheely Tolman
116 pages
Memoir
Published by worldclay
Erin Sheely Tolman writes with excellence about her time at the BYU Jerusalem Center, in August of 2000. With determination she embarks on a journey to see as much as she can along with 172 other students. So excited is Erin about her new surroundings and the potential adventures lurking behind every corner that she does not see the dangers that are brewing in that part of the world. Will she get to carry her dreams of exploration and adventure all the way through her voyage or will the dark cloud of middle eastern conflict make traveling and touring a feat even too dangerous for Erin Sheely Tolman?
I completely enjoyed A View of Jerusalem, I read it in one sitting and could not get over the beautifully written descriptions of important religious places that Erin traveled to. Her sincerity in the disappointments of being in lockdown for different periods of the trip, as a safety precaution and other joys and sadnesses she endured made the personality burst through. Stunning illustrations by Steven Lee Elgan help depict the places Erin is visiting, and what she is seeing.
The visuals really helped me gain an even deeper understanding than just by words alone.
She not only explains the importance of each of the sites she tours, but she fills the page with more than surface level descriptions. Going beyond the physical experience to retell her personal feelings, what she learned, and how it changed her forever.
Any reader who is a traveler, or a traveler through reading about other peoples voyages will enjoy this read. It is short and very sweet. I understood and could relate on many different levels, I share the desire Erin Tolman does to explore, as well as experience life in its fullest. I get that. I also can relate to being far away from family and feeling blessed by having them, but miss them all the same. If you read this book you are sure to fall in love with Erin Sheely Tolman.
I just had to share some pictures with you that Erin took on her trip, Jerusalem is a place of beauty, romance, and mystery to me. Enjoy her photos:
fire in the old city
the temple mount
galilee at sunset
garden tomb
the western wallIf you could travel to any place in the world where would you go?
Wife in the North
Author: Judith o' Reilly
Pages:352
Publisher: PublicAffairs
Genre: memoir
Yearly Count b:92
So many times we mothers are faced with the decision of being honest about our daily struggles or pretending that we have it all together so that our friends will think better of us. haha, all my friends know I am the freak mom that has chickens in her backyard and lets her kids get really (REALLY) dirty, life is too short! In Wife in the North, her fears, her doubts and her temper tantrums are all laid bare as a release. Judith began documenting her struggles in the form of a daily diary on her blog, Wife in the North and soon it took off, took off into a book contract for the book named by her blog title, Wife in the North.
Judith is a mother, a wife and a city girl who will have to adapt to living in the country for a set period of time. At least she has that, that after the alloted time period the family will make the choice to stay in the northern far-and-away town with no good shopping, or they will embrace the chaos and business of city life by moving back to London. Judith in this memoir is not into sugar coating anything, she hates it. She lives daily in loathing of where she is at and wishing that her husband would come home from his business trips and stay with them for a while. Judith speaks of loneliness, loss and the desire to fit in and at the same time not fit in because that would alter her London city girl image.
I enjoyed this read, I did find it a tad bit negative, but really if I had my inner thoughts written on paper they would be slightly to extremely negative depending on what was being asked of me. More than anything I eat up honesty and Wife in the North is filled with it. I could feel her grief, her loss, her loneliness and feelings of not belonging, not fitting, and that her kids were driving her crazy. It was extremely personable. If you enjoy memoirs, read this one and tell me what you think!
I will soon have an author interview and a giveaway for your own copy of Wife In the North, so stay tuned :) In the mean time, answer me this: What kind of mom or dad are you? Do you let your kids practice the 10 second rule (in our house it is more like the minute rule!)? Do you scrub everything bare with disinfectant and essential oils? What does your day look like as a parent?
Here is her blog, it is really funny, take a look: Wife In The North
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Monique and the Mango Rains
title: Monique and the Mango Rains
Author: Kris Holloway
Pages: 240
yearly count b: 84
Kris Holloway, a volunteer for the peace corps develops an intimate friendship with her assigned host for her two-year stay in Mali. Her host is Monique, the midwife that successfully is birthing thousands of babies into the world. Monique is an amazing woman of strength, zest and endurance in a patriarchal society where she isn't even allowed to pick up her own pay check. Kris Holloway writes Monique and the Mango Rains in such a way that for it not to pull on your heart you'd have to be inhuman. She follows Monique and becomes her assistant for her time in Mali. Mali's numbers didn't look good, 1 in 12 woman died in childbirth then in the nation of Mali. Holloway learned the gift a midwife could bring into each woman's home, the gift of a child and the gift of health for the family.
Monique didn't just birth babies, she did all the prenatal check ups, she weighed the moms and babies and children to chart their health and let the moms know if they should take notice of sudden and severe weight loss, or other health issues. Monique teaches the mothers to make nutritious baby foods that will change the lives of the kids, and she teaches them about other health issues such as how to purify water and not get sick.
This testimony of Kris Holloway about her experiences in Mali is so impressive, so amazing and it is real the whole way through. Monique constantly gives of herself, even when she knows the outcome of the births will many times be unsuccessful, she works with the women of her village to promote how things can change. One thing that really stood out to me was her desire to get birth control for the women, it was a matter of health for the women since with each baby their chances were worse of not making it through the next. She planned and worked out ways to provide this birth control to the women of her community. Another is female circumcision, which I had heard about, but never in the detail that this book goes into. I was amazed to learn that in the day when Holloway was there it was a very common practice, and it was not done by doctors or midwives but by a selected female family member. Many horrors came from these women using no pain medication, no sterilized instruments, and cutting with whatever they had. The circumcision was performed to enhance the females ability to get pregnant and birth healthy children, however this was another ritual that had taken place for so long, and proved to actually do much damage and no good. Monique worked to inform the villagers of this.
What are my thoughts? I really, really, really was moved by this read. Kris Holloway does an excellent job with the writing, and it is an intriguing read. I love learning about different cultures, about their beliefs, old wifes tales, and their communities. I know that this was told from an outsiders perspective, because as much as Holloway did live there for two years, she still was an outsider, but her passion is so strong that it passes through the national boundaries. Monique is not only Holloway's hero, she is mine as well, what an amazing lady!! She did so much, gave so much and in return asked for nothing.
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The Shiniest Jewel
Title: The Shiniest Jewel: A Family Love Story
Author: Marian Henley
Pages: 176
Yearly Count: 72
A graphic novel memoir of Marian Henely's experience with foreign adoption, and all that surrounded her life at that time. Her father is getting sick, she is learning to understand her parents approval for what it is, and Henely's vulnerability really is laid out in this book. The Shiniest Jewel, I could not put it down. I sat down with it unstarted, and got up with it finished. I cried, laughed and felt the range of emotions in between. I loved this graphic novel memoir. It is the best graphic novel I have ever read. Marian Henely's illustrations are minimalistic and clear, but really help the reader understand even more deeply than just the writing alone would her ups and downs, her stresses and all the setbacks in the process of adoption. I can't say enough.
I think books like this one, The Shiniest Jewel really help bring awareness of what adoptive parents go trough. I know not all foreign adoptions are the same, but all the stories I have heard personally have been equally difficult. Hopes up one moment, hopes dashed the next. I watched a friend of mine mourn when the girl they were supposed to fly over and adopt from Nigeria died before the fight was confirmed. The idea that they would KNOW her, an ocean away, and morn for her is understandable, isn't it? It is just like a pregnant woman who almost carries to full term, dreaming of all the meals she will eat with her child, all the baseball games they will watch together, all the shoes that will need to be tied, and then the baby does not make it.
Because foreign adoptions are such a big thing these days, this book is published in excellent timing. To help those who are going through the emotional circus of the adoption process, but also to help their friends, family and anyone else understand the difficulty and joy in bringing home a baby from a world away.
Amazing book.
Author Website: MarianHenley
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The Hiding Place
The Hiding Place
by Corrie Ten Boom (with John and Elizabeth Sherrill)
246 Pages
Memoir
Stellar Five Chicken Book Award
This is not a book of someone who was persecuted, although that would be enough of a story for sure, The Hiding Place is a book about a family, and even more than that a community chose to put themselves in danger in order to save those who were hunted during WW2. There are books that are a pleasure to read because they are all about happy and good times, this is not that book, not at all. The Hiding Place by Corrie Ten Boom is a book which shows that truly no matter where you are, no matter what the circumstances that surround you you can persevere. Oh, no certainly not on your own, but by the power of Jesus Christ!
Her life was pretty much a normal spinster life up until the age of 50. Corrie was living with her
elderly father ( a watchmaker) and her sister in house/watchmaker shop in Holland. Then the occupation of the German Nazis took hold of Holland, fear permeated people, made them live differently, out of fear they followed. But this book is not about those who followed the fear, but about those who rose above it, not fearing for their own lives. Carrie, her father and sister filled the house with Jews, Corrie because the ring leader for the anti- Nazi underground. She put herself, her family in what would seem to be unnecessary danger of death, torture and imprisonment because she, although not Jewish believed that all people are just as valuable. Corrie held church services for the mentally handicapped, she found beds for the elderly, and welcomed danger by filling her home with Jewish friends, and those who would become their family.
The most impacting thing is that Corrie shows weakness, she doubts, she fears, she gripes, she is selfish and then she realizes it is wrong. It is through Corrie's weakness that you can see the greater plan for her, the big picture of how weakness, is turned to strength and all for the glory of God. To find joy in living with fleas?? To find peace in a concentration camp? To see the goodness of a Nazi soldier? Oh, that is not even the half of it!! You have to read the book to find out just how incredible it all is.
If I could show you my copy of the book, the dog eared pages would show you that this is a must read. My mother-in-law selected it for this month for our in town book club (which meets tomorrow). She reads it allowed every year to her junior high students. I know why she does.
I loved this for so many good reasons. The Hiding Place is a book on forgiveness, on forgiving because since we need forgiveness, we need to give it, no matter who needs it. In Corrie's case it was the Nazis, and even more heartbreaking, their own people who turned them in. Forgiveness is not something that anyone deserves, yet it is what we have to give.
I am truly moved beyond words by the strength in this book, I still can't get over how hard it would have been, in a time where one's own survival was a primal instinct, to overcome that and know that you will suffer, but that the worst that they can do is to send you to heaven. Corrie's story is one that I will never forget, I have not doubt.
There is a richness of quotes in this book, here are some:
Happiness isn't something that depends on our surroundings,Corrie. It's something we make inside ourselves (p. 33)
Lord Jesus, I offer myself for Your people. In anyway. Any place. Any time (p. 74).
Together we said aloud:
"War".
It was five hours after the Prime Minister's speech. How long we clung together, listening, I do not know. The bombing seemed mostly to be coming from the direction of the airport. At last we tiptoed uncertainly to our Tante Jans's front room. The glowing sky lit the room with a strange brilliance. The chairs, the mahogany bookcase, the old upright piano, all pulsed with an eerie light.
Betsie and I knelt down by the piano bench. For what seemed to be hours we prayed for our country, for the dead and injured tonight, for the Queen. And then, incredibly, Betsie began to pray for the Germans, up there in the planes, caught in the fist of the giant evil loose in Germany. I looked at my sister kneeling beside me in the light of burning Holland. "Oh Lord, " I whispered, "listen to Betsie, not me, because I cannot pray for those men at all"(p. 62)
The Beje (pronounced bay-yay).
Schematic drawing of the tilting, centuries-old house
still to be found in the center of Haarlem, Holland.
This is Corrie Ten Boom's bedroom in which the "hiding place" or secret room is built. You can see there is a little entrance to get into it in the bottom of the closet, and the wall is broken now for museum purposes, but it was built especially to harbor Jews during the occupation of Holland.
Winner of Dreadlock Girl's own Stellar Five Chicken Book Award, only given to those that are the cream of the crop!
An Exact Replica of a Figment of My Imagination: a memoir
Title: An Exact Replica of a Figment of My Imagination: a memoir
Author: Elizabeth McCracken
Publisher: Little, Brown and Company
Pages: 188
Yearly Count: 61
In this AMAZING memoir Elizabeth McCracken tells her story, the life she has and the one that she lost. A book for those gone, so early in their little lives that it would seem they were almost a figment of our imagination. Written by a woman who knows what it feels like, what it looks like and how it is all perceived. What? A stillbirth, the loss, the pain, grief, the lists of firsts, of places never returned to, of a child that faded way before he was even seen.
McCracken's emotion in this book is not theatrical, over dramatic, or written about in a long prose of self-mope. It is a book of reality, of memories, and memories that should have been, but were not and of the life that continues and the loss that is still felt even when others forget.
If I had a stillbirth, this is the book I would grab, and if you haven't this is still the book I would recommend. I do not know this pain or the suffering that surrounds the death of a child, of one not even allowed to experience the first breath. An Exact Replica of a Figment of My Imagination speaks soothing while raw words, from the depths of honesty inside McCracken's stunning pen-shaped-heart.
As powerful as Elisabeth McCracken's memoir is, it is endearing, hopeful, sad and unique. This is the story of a woman, and her husband in a country not their own. The story of a baby that was not born, and his brother (born later) who would not ever take his place, but who would fill his parent's hearts with joy, even if they would never forget their sweet Pudding (that is what they endearingly named their first child). In reading it I felt encouraged, and uplifted, the way Elizabeth puts it down really mostly makes you think. It makes you see things in a new light, and from the angle of someone who has gone through loss. Ya gotta read it!!
Audio Excerpt by Elizabeth McCracken
Chapter Excerpt An Exact Replica of a Figment of My Imagination
Blog Tour Stops for: An Exact Replica of a Figment of My Imagination
Surviving Ben’s Suicide: A Woman’s Journey of Self-Discovery
Title: Surviving Ben's Suicide: A Woman's Journey of Self-Discovery
Author: C.Comfort Shields
Pages: 233
Yearly Count: 53
Publisher: iUniverse
I was shockingly mistaken in my perceptions about this book. I thought it would be a plain self-helpish, non-fictiony slow, boring to read book, but I loved the way C. Comfort Shields wrote this as a literary memoir! I read every page of this, and held on to it tight. I finished it in a day. Shields is an excellent writer, and I enjoyed her style and honesty throughout the painful process which she writes about. Once I was into this one, I realized just that it really wasn't as distant from me as I had thought. My father-in-law committed suicide, but that was about 4 years before I met and fell in love with my hubby (B). After reading this memoir I understand much better all the pain and guilt that would come from such an abrupt- but not entirely surprising ending to a loved one's life. However I hope to never know how it would feel to have this happen so close to me.
When life ends by one own's hand there are so many questions that come up, so much pain, guilt, suffering and loneliness. A feeling that being all alone, maybe you are responsible, you MUST be responsible. I was so interested in the amount of care Shields put into explaining the sickness, the disease, the illness that lead up to Ben committing suicide. The irate phone calls of blame, the pushing away and pulling in causing Comfort to feel the burden as a harsh reality.
This is not a self- help book, well, it is and it isn't. It is a memoir of a woman who experienced the death of a boyfriend, the suicidal death. Shields is changed through this blow, learning more about herself, more about life and death and relationships. I admire Surviving Ben's Suicide in that it has gone where no other book has gone before, in being the first literary memoir about this topic. Suicide is hard to understand, but even harder to cope with. This is an excellent book to take with you on the journey. An Excellent read for anyone, not just those who have had a loved one commit suicide.
Author C. Comfort Shields Website
Have you reviewed this, let me know and I'll put your review here.
Kathleen's Book Reviews
medieval bookworm
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