This is not your typical book review. Actually it’s not a book review at all, it’s a journal review and I think this is the best idea I’ve seen in a while. It’s called Q&A a day 5 year journal. I like to give unusual gifts and when I saw this I knew I had to buy it. The idea behind this journal is to record your thoughts every day for five years. Yes, I know that is what most journals so but what makes this so different is that it asks you a question every day and there is … Continue reading →

In the new novel “Waiting for the Light to Change,” Sarah has had a difficult life. Her husband, Bob, left her and her three children when her youngest was just one. She’s had to work hard at providing for her family, being both mother and father, and battling the resentment that built up against Bob and his new wife, Claire—a battle she lost. She hates the fact that Bob is a successful doctor, has money to burn, and has the respect of everyone around him while she’s sitting on raggedy furniture, barely able to meet the bills. She works at … Continue reading →

Kristen Shepherd believes she has it all. A successful political campaign expert and engaged to be married to her handsome, charming co-worker Michael Forbes, her future seems bright. But when she gets a call on her cell phone just moments before the wedding ceremony, informing her that Michael has tried to move all her money to an account in Saudi Arabia, her dreams come crashing down around her. She confronts Michael, only to have him tell her that he’ll explain everything, once they’re married. She can’t handle the idea of marrying someone who would abuse her trust in this way, … Continue reading →

Earlier this year, I reviewed a book called “Almost Sisters,” the story of three women who meet at Brigham Young University’s Education Week. They come from different backgrounds, but as they spend the week together, they become fast friends. Inspired by the woman who boarded them for the week, they determined that they would hang in there and learn everything they needed to know to become “crusty old broads,” women who have weathered life’s storms and come out the better. Today’s book is “Three Tickets to Peoria,” which is the second installment in this trilogy. We find that Deenie, Juneau … Continue reading →

Life is designed to teach us things we need to know. Sometimes we “get” those lessons the first time around, and sometimes we have to learn them over and over and over again before they really sink in and we realize how we’ve been sabotaging ourselves. In the new nonfiction book “Caught in the Headlights,” author Barry K. Phillips takes ten of the lessons he learned the hard way and shares them with us, in the hopes that we’ll learn from his mistakes and not have to smack our heads against the same walls. With a conservative Christian approach, he … Continue reading →

“Until the Dawn” is the sequel to the LDS historical fiction novel “Autumn Sky,” both written by Gale Sears. This book serves as the bridge between “Autumn Sky” and the third book in the trilogy, “Upon the Mountains,” which was a finalist for the Whitney Award this last year. As we begin “Until the Dawn,” we find that we are picking up right where “Autumn Sky” left off. In a desperate bid to save her family’s farm, Alaina Lund married Nephi Erickson in the hopes that her mother would give Nephi the land. But her mother, crazy with grief over … Continue reading →