Mailbox Monday and It's Monday, What Are You Reading? Sept 1 Edition

Mailbox Monday was created by Marcia who now blogs at To Be Continued. It is the gathering place for readers to share the books that came into their house last week. Mailbox Monday now has a permanent home on its blog. Link up to share your MM.

It's September tomorrow!!! Yikes, where did the summer go? I will mourn the shorter days and less sunshine but I will welcome a more stable routine. My summer was crazy.

This is what I got for review:

A Light in the Wilderness by Jane Kirkpatrick

Letitia holds nothing more dear than the papers that prove she is no longer a slave. They may not cause white folks to treat her like a human being, but at least they show she is free. She trusts in those words she cannot read--as she is beginning to trust in Davey Carson, an Irish immigrant cattleman who wants her to come west with him.

Nancy Hawkins is loathe to leave her settled life for the treacherous journey by wagon train, but she is so deeply in love with her husband that she knows she will follow him anywhere--even when the trek exacts a terrible cost.

Betsy is a Kalapuya Indian, the last remnant of a once proud tribe in the Willamette Valley in Oregon territory. She spends her time trying to impart the wisdom and ways of her people to her grandson. But she will soon have another person to care for.

As season turns to season, suspicion turns to friendship, and fear turns to courage, three spirited women will discover what it means to be truly free in a land that makes promises it cannot fulfill. This multilayered story from bestselling author Jane Kirkpatrick will grip readers' hearts and minds as they travel with Letitia on the dusty and dangerous Oregon trail into the boundless American West.

Have a Happy Family by Friday by Dr. Kevin Leman

Every member of a family plays a vital role in the health and happiness of the household. Everyone is important, deserves to be treated with love and respect, and needs to know that when they make mistakes they will still be loved unconditionally. And when every member of the family is pulling for each other and on the same team, everybody wins. But is this kind of family life even possible?

Parenting expert Dr. Kevin Leman says it is, and he's ready to show moms and dads exactly how they can make it happen in their family--in just five days. He shows families how to

· communicate honestly and kindly
· prioritize the right things
· maintain great attitudes and behaviors
· determine the role they play in the family structure
· make family time count

As always, Dr. Leman's outstanding advice is laced with humor, great stories, and the wisdom that comes only from a lifetime of experience.

For parents who've had it up to here with bickering, hurt feelings, and emotional exhaustion, Have a Happy Family by Friday is just what the doctor ordered.

Free Kindle:

Fantastik by C.A. McGroarty

Charlie Boone, a city bus driver and the bastard son of a schizophrenic woman, still lives in his boyhood home with his wife and two kids and cares for the ailing mother who made him promise…he’d never let them take her away.

But Charlie’s unfortunate childhood isn’t the only thing haunting him. Tormented by unsettling dreams and disturbing visions of his own, he now finds himself on the brink of insanity, and the thought that he shares the same affliction as his mother is beginning to look like a reality. The prospect of losing his wife Lisa and their two boys has him desperate for answers.

Jake Mott, an ex-con, has spent the last three decades in a maximum security prison for killing a man in cold blood. Still struggling with the guilt of his youth and life in the free world, he is planning a trip to California to reclaim a bag of money he buried thirty years ago.

A leap of faith brings them together to embark on an epic journey of hope and redemption. Their improbable meeting and unlikely friendship allows each of them to find the missing pieces to their lives, but only one of them survives.

This meme is hosted by Sheila at Book Journey. This is where we keep track of what we are currently reading and plan to read. The kidlit version is hosted by Jen at Teach Mentor Texts.

Read and reviewed:
What Counts the Most is How You Finish by Shelia Payton (reviewed by guest blogger Laura Hogan)
The Promise by Ann Weisgarber (Very good!)

Currently Reading:

The Maze Runner by James Dashner (Love this author's writing! Suspenseful and thrilling.)

Have you read any of these books?

Sunday, August 31, 2014