Heaven Is Here by Stephanie Nielson

A beautifully rendered memoir by the creator/author of the nieniedialogues (www.nieniedialogues.com).  In 2008, Stephanie and her husband Christian were in a plane crash.  He was burned over 40% of his body and she was over 80% of hers.  The book details the story of how they met, fell in love, got married, became parents and built a life together.  After the crash they painstakingly reclaimed that life piece by piece through their faith, their love for each other, and their family.  The story is a wonderfully honest account of their trials and joys.  At times humorous, and other times poignant, this memoir inspired and uplifted me.  I loved it.  It is triumphant and definitely something more substantial.

Eat Pray Love by Elizabeth Gilbert

Hmmm. There were little moments when I loved what Elizabeth Gilbert was saying and how she was saying it. There were bigger moments where I hated the book and her attitude and everything about what she is peddling as spirituality. This made for a pretty good book group discussion. Overall I would have to say I didn't like it but I would recommend it. I'm not sure if that qualifies as something more substantial or what, but for lack of a better category I will give it that. I would like to share some of the little gems that struck a chord for me.

I loved how the book was structured.

"Introduction

or

How This Book Works

or

The 109th Bead"

"When you're traveling in India...you see a lot of people wearing beads around their necks. ... These strings of beads are called japa malas."

"The traditional japa mala is strung with 108 beads. Amid the more esoteric circles of Eastern philosophers, the number 108 is held to be most auspicious, a perfect three-digit multiple of three, its components adding up to nine, which is three threes. And three, of course, is the number representing supreme balance, as anyone who has ever studied either the Holy Trinity or a simple barstool can planinly see. Being as this whole book is about my efforts to find balance, I have decided to structure it like a japa mala, dividing my story into 108 tales, or beads. This string of 108 tales is further divided into three sections about Italy, India and Indonesia- the three countries I visited during this year of self-inquiry."

I loved this. Each section has 3 names as well. I thought it was very clever writing.

There was a bit her friend in Italy told her about cities that I also loved.

"He said, "Don't you know that the secret to understanding a city and its people is to learn-what is the word of the street?" Then he went on to explain, in a mixture of English, Italian and hand gestures, that every city has a single word that defines it, that identifies most people who live there. If you could read people's thoughts as they were passing you on the streets of any given place, you would discover that most of them are thinking the same thought. Whatever that majority thought might be- that is the word of the city. And if your personal word does not match the word of the city, then you don't really belong there. "What's Rome's word?" I asked. "SEX," he announced. "But isn't that a stereotype about Rome?" "No." "But surely there are some people in Rome thinking about other things than sex?" Giulio insisted: "No. All of them, all day, all they are thinking about is SEX." "Even over at the Vatican?" "That's different. The Vatican isn't part of Rome. They have a different word over there. Their word is POWER." "You'd think it would be FAITH." "It's POWER," he repeated. "Trust me. But the word in Rome- it's SEX." ... Guilio asked, "What's the word in New York City?" I thought about this for a moment, then decided. "It's a verb, of course. I think it's ACHIEVE." (Which is subtly but significantly different from the word in Los Angeles, I believe, which is also a verb: SUCCEED....)"

I found that so intriguing. I've been trying to pin down my own word ever since reading it.

There was one other part I had intended to share about how prayer works but I really don't want to spoil it for you if you are going to read the book. If you do, it is on the 58th bead (p.176).

Trespassers Will Be Baptized: The Unordained Memoir of a Preacher's Daughter by Elizabeth Emerson Hancock

This was so much fun to read. Another airplane book but very enjoyable. On second thought, you wouldn't want to read it on an airplane. The number of times I laughed out loud would definitely draw stares in an enclosed space.

Emy is a very precocious child. Her stories are poignant, sometimes inspiring and always entertaining. I appreciated that the ending was unpredictable. I thoroughly enjoyed this book and I want to thank Kim at Good Clean Reads for the recommendation. When I finished this book I felt as if I'd walked- well, not a mile in someone else's shoes, but at least to the end of the driveway- and because of that I'd say it is something more substantial.

Three Weeks With My Brother by Nicholas Sparks

This book is a memoir written about the author's family and experiences growing up. I liked the themes of family solidarity, sibling friendship, and putting your family first. It was fun to read about the people that Nicholas Sparks' other books are based on. Overall though, the book was just a little ho-hum for me. Like this review, it just didn't have any- SPARK. I enjoyed it but I was never so drawn in that I could not easily put it down and when I did put it down, I did not easily pick it back up again. I think it is something more substantial based on content but the writing doesn't quite qualify it for a hearty endorsement.