(Today I am thrilled to bring you a post from Jennifer of Literate Housewife. Jennifer’s blog, Literate Housewife, is fantastically written and one I always read first. I hope you enjoy her story as much I did!)

I had the privilege of growing up in a small, suburban community where the neighborhood library was only a mile away. It was a pleasant route to walk or ride my bike. Some of my best and most peaceful memories of middle childhood revolved around my trips to the Gaines Township Library. I could lose days sitting in the faux leather seats reading book after book after book.

The most memorable trip to the library happened during the summer of 1987. I was 15 years old, eagerly awaiting the driver’s license that was heading my way in October. It was a hot, lazy summer day. Despite the heavy air and that fact that it would be closing soon after I got there, in my restlessness I decided to ride my bike to the air conditioned library. I put the overdue copy of Pet Sematary in my backpack with enough change to pay off the fine and took off on my pale blue Huffy 10 speed.

As it turns out, this was the luckiest trip of my life. As I dropped my book in the return cart, I noticed a nearly pristine copy of Misery sitting on the cart waiting to be re-shelved. I saved the library page the effort. I grabbed it, took it to the counter, and checked it out. I found an empty chair in the back behind the non-fiction and started reading. However much time passed between the first page and when Betty Anne, the head librarian, gently told me that the library was closing, I noticed nothing of my surroundings. I was engrossed in Paul Sheldon’s car accident and the growing awareness of Annie Wilkes’ obsession.

I don’t recall the bike ride home or even eating dinner. In my memory I went from propping my bike up in the garage to plopping on my bed in my basement bedroom and cracked the book back open. Unlike when I read Pet Sematary, Christine, Carrie and Firestarter before it, this felt like more than a silly or gross thrill or scare to me. My heart pounded out of my chest as I maneuvered around Annie Wilkes’ house with Paul in his wheelchair. I can still feel the tingles in my fingers and arms and the chill in my chest as he was hobbled. I had never been so terrified, but it was as if the book was glued in my hands. I could not, would not put it down.

The sun had risen on Sunday morning when I finished that book. I looked at the clock and knew that my mother would start pestering me to get ready for Mass any time. I sat the book on my lap and lingered with it for a few moments. I would regret not sleeping the moment I slipped into the pew, but right then I didn’t care. I thought about how wonderful it must be to have the talent to make people feel so alive with your words. That morning I was thankful to be a reader. Today, I still am. I know that you are, too.

About the Book: In one short month, cheerful army nurse Madeline Bright has become the darling of Prairie Springs, Texas. And if ex-pilot Jake Hopkins isn’t careful, she might just conquer his heart. She’s young, pretty and blithe-spirited…he’s older and jaded. But being around Maddie brings back too many painful memories. Jake still feels guilty about failing to save Maddie’s brother in an army helicopter crash years ago. So no matter how much Maddie wants to be in his life, for her own good, Jake can’t allow that. He’ll never have a normal, stable life.
And sweet Madeline deserves nothing less.

My Review: First of all, if you like clean romance, sweet romance I recommend Steeple Hill’s Love Inspired line. These are generally shorter books that are perfect for tucking into your purse or spending a few hours reading.
I enjoy reading these books, (I really do read every genre!) and Brenda Coulter’s At His Command is one I recommend! The story is very sweet, the prose is strong, and the characters are likeable. Plus, it’s interesting to read a love story with such a huge age difference! There are certainly some different things that come into play there.
At His Command is available now in stores, but if you can’t find it, you can order it on Amazon.

     I love these little books!  If you are looking for an easy, effective way to teach your children or students how to read, why don’t you give BOB Books a try?  Let me tell you a bit about how they work.  The very first set introduces the letters of the alphabet a few at a time.  Each book tells a very simple story using the letters as they are introduced.  The first book introduces the letters A, M, S, and T.  The sentences read “Mat sat.   Sam sat” and so on.  Each book introduces a couple new letters, thereby adding on the variety of words that can be formed. 

      Each set gradually gets more complex, introducing rules of phonics by way of using slightly bigger or more complicated words in the stories.  The pictures on each page help tell the story and are very comical, yet simple.  My kids love the pictures!

       What I love most about these books is that the first ones are so simple they inspire confidence in a kid’s reading ability.  Your child will be able to read the whole book!  Once he or she realizes they CAN read, they will want to keep going.  My 5 year old keeps a box of these books on the shelf next to her bed to practice reading during her quiet time.  It’s great because while big sister is reading away on the top bunk, she has books that she can actually read, too!

It’s the first day of school and Sarah is petrified! She doesn’t want to get out of bed, she claimed a headache, she went through all kinds of shenanigans in order not to go! The man in her life has a terrible time getting her up and ready for school. New students should identify with this story. The twist at the end made me laugh out loud!

The illustrations by Judy Love tremendously add to the story. They are bright, colorful, humorous, and have great detail.

I saw this book at the teachers’ store and grabbed it. It is delightful! I love having a great new book to begin the year with. I can’t wait to see the students’ response.

Published by Charlesbridge

About the Book: I am a reluctant harbinger, chosen as I am because of an accident and a debt to which I am forever bound. My name is Strand, The Strand Prophecy is a science fiction epic set in the present day. The action begins on the steps of the White House, with stops in the jungles of Brazil and the deepest regions of Africa. Strand, a troubled and reluctant superhero discovers the beginning of a rapid evolutionary cycle. One in which new life and new predators will quickly emerge to threaten all of human existence. He races against time and the U.S. military to protect the innocent, safeguard his niece and along the way, perhaps find redemption for his brothers death. Strand’s action-packed adventure delivers non-stop intensity, mystery and surprise from its first page to it’s last.

Consider nominating The Friendly Book Nook for an award in the Book Blogger Appreciation Week Awards?

If you hadn’t planned to nominate or hadn’t thought of it, we’d love your support!

I think we should have a good running at Best Design!

It might seem slightly unethical that since I’m organizing it I’m asking for your nomination, but don’t worry, I have people checking up on me.

Read about the nomination process here.

From the cover: Millions of children struggle with reading–and even more struggle to understand exactly what they’re reading. Read Well, Think Well will help you to teach your children to build the essential reading and comprehension skills they need to succeed in today’s demanding school system. Teacher trainer and literacy specialist Hal W. Lanse, Ph.D. provides the necessary knowledge, strategies and exercises that will turn your kids into first-rate readers and thinkers.

My review: I really liked this book. It contains tons of information in just 212 pages. Some of the chapters I really appreciated and will come in handy to me personally as a teacher are: Picking Appropriate Books, Memory Games, Boys and Reading: A Very Special Challenge, and Learning Disabilities; What to Know and What to Do. You can tell from this list that Dr. Lanse gives us useful information. The target audience is parents of middle and high schoolers. Although most of the information about older children than the 7 and 8 year old children that I teach, there IS information helpful to me and parents of younger children. The chapter on choosing books for boys has a helpful list for children of all school-age boys.

The chapter on meditation for a better brain lists the benefits of meditation as well as suggestions on how to do it. There is a long list of idiomatic expressions and what they mean. This would also be helpful for English learners, and there is a long list of popular proverbs and sayings.

This little book has a wealth of information within its covers. I highly recommend it to anyone who is interested in helping people become better readers. I know I will look back in it frequently.

Several years ago, I read the book The Faith of George W. Bush by Stephen Mansfield. I remember feeling quite impressed by the book and feeling as though it gave me insight into a president I didn’t fully understand. Instead of looking at him through the hard edges of politics and public expectation, I felt like I was getting a glimpse of his soul.

Therefore, when the opportunity to review The Faith of Barack Obama by the same author came about, I jumped at the chance immediately. Regardless of where your personal politics lie, the story of Barack Obama is an interesting one, and it stands to reason that even if he doesn’t win the presidency this year, he will remain an influential face in the American political arena for some time to come. Therefore, it is important to understand his faith…a faith that drives him and a faith he is reclaiming for the left.

Stephen Mansfield tells us about Barack Obama’s faith by telling us about his life. The first part of the book is concerned with establishing Obama’s background and explaining some of the things we may have only heard about in bits and pieces on the news. I found these chapters to be beautifully written and impossible not to feel compassion for the young Barack who faced so many different shifts in family in his young life. This background made the section that dealt with his church particularly moving. By now, we all know about the famous Jeremiah Wright and his angry and shocking rhetoric. Many people condemned Obama for standing by his church and then later defecting, so to say. I think the section about this situation was so well handled.

Mansfield also gives brief portraits of faith for Hillary Clinton, John McCain, and George W. Bush. It’s interesting to see the different ways each of these individual’s faiths have guided and affected their politics and public perception.

Mansfield writes with compassion and fairness. He has publicly said he will not support Barack Obama with a vote, but this book in no way demonizes Obama. Instead, it accurately portrays the faith that drives this man and that drives so many of the post-modern Christians today. If you want to understand Barack Obama a little better, and also the many younger Christians that will be supporting him this upcoming election than I highly recommend this book. If you are interested in learning about the soul of a man than I recommend this book. My recommendation is this if you are conservative in your politics and faith….approach this book seeking to understand and not defensively and will you enjoy it and benefit from reading it. I was deeply moved by it.

Buy The Faith of Barack Obama on Amazon.

(Note: This is the first in a slew of books I (Amy) will be reading and reviewing in preparation for this upcoming election. I won’t be telling you who I’m voting for…merely sharing with you what I learn from the books I read…I think it’s important to understand both candidates as much as possible before election day!)

Lock me the Library

By Lisa Daily

My plan for this post was to tell you all how much I was moved by my early reading experiences: How I learned to read long before I ever started kindergarten, thanks to the genius of Dr. Seuss. How I cried as a teenager when my mother accidentally gave away my favorite book, How Fletcher Was Hatched, how I searched for years to find a replacement and was heartbroken to learn it had gone out of print, how the second most memorable thing that happened at the birth of my first child was when my mother handed me a copy of Fletcher, which had been re-released after 20 years, the month my son was born.

I was going to tell you about the summer I read every Nancy Drew mystery, the time when I was in second grade when I got up the nerve to talk to an author sitting alone at a table at a local bookstore and told him I wanted to be an author too. How I babbled on like a teenager (at 36) the first time I met Judy Blume in person.

But the reading experience that has been most memorable to me happened with another reader.

About a year ago, I was stuffing invitations for our school gala, sitting around the dining room table at a neighbor’s home with half a dozen women, the usual corps of volunteers. A few were friends, a few others I met there. My job was stuffing a precise number (7) strands of red and siver tinsel into the clear cellophane envelope. Brainless work, for certain, but a good opportunity to chat, which I never get enough of.

One friend, Angela, mentioned to the others that I was an author.

And suddenly, the questions started:

How long did it take me to write the book?

About four or five months of full-time writing.

Do I plot out my books ahead of time, or just write whatever comes to me?

I outline basic action for all of the scenes, and use a whiteboard to figure out how it all works together — a technique called storyboarding I used back in my advertising days, and borrowed for organizing my novel from the prolific Janet Evanovich. I know a lot of authors prefer to work organically, and sort of let the scene or the characters move things along, but personally, I need to get the logistics out of the way. If I know I need to get from A to B, it’s a lot easier for me to play around with the dialog, the funny parts, the sad parts, the mushy parts.

Do I ever get writer’s block?

No, I don’t believe in it. I have slow days when every sentence requires a great deal of concentration and effort and I end up with is a page or a paragraph of warmed-over mediocrity, and I have smart, funny, fabulous days when the words just flow out of me and I can barely type fast enough to get them down on paper.

Do I know John Grisham?

Sadly, no.

Have I ever been on Oprah.

No, but my bags are packed and waiting by the door.

One of the women in particular seemed fascinated. I suspected she might be a writer — maybe she had 375 pages stuffed in a drawer somewhere, and was too busy or too perfectionistic or too timid to let them out. But I asked, and she said no.

“I just love books,” she said smiling.

And I suddenly remembered how great it is to be a writer. It’s easy to forget, I guess, when you’re knee deep in it. When seems like the old publishing joke might be true, “the only good author is a dead author.” When a book you sweated over and poured your heart into ends up with a title you don’t recognize or a cover you hate. When you feel you’re at the mercy of reviewers who don’t know you, who are overloaded by the sheer number of books dumped on their desks every day. When you can’t stop obsessing over your Amazon numbers. When you spend more of your day promoting your books than actually writing them. When you miss writing, but you’re afraid if you stop promoting the books you’ve already written you won’t ever sell another one.

It’s easy to forget.

But (gasp!) here was a woman who actually liked authors, who apologized for being so interested, for asking me so many questions about what I do all day.

She was a reader, and not just any reader, she was a reader like me. A reader who memorized the passages of her favorite books in the experience of reading them over and over again. A reader who devours five or six books a week, and still has more books than time. A reader who would trample Tom Cruise and Madonna to get a good spot in line to meet Ian McEwan, John Grisham, Sarah Strohmeyer or Lisa Earle McLeod.

And talking with her helped me to remember how great this life really is. How great it is to walk into a bookstore and see your book there. To spend your days tinkering with words, searching for that perfect turn of phrase. Laughing at your own jokes. To write something and have it published, and read. Or to meet someone who wanted to meet you because she read your book. Loved your book. Because it meant something to her.

I am a writer. But I am a reader first, and always.

Lisa Daily is the author of Fifteen Minutes of Shame, a romantic comedy about a TV relationships expert who finds out her husband is cheating, live on national television.

Not only is the most humiliating moment of Darby Vaughn’s life splashed across every supermarket tabloid and celebrity gossip show, but her reputation as America’s love guru is shot. If she takes her husband back, her career will be over. But if she sticks to her own rules, she’ll lose the only man she’s ever loved.

To read the first five chapters of Fifteen Minutes of Shame, or learn more about Lisa Daily, visit www.lisadaily.com

About the Book: Tiffany LeBoeuf recently lost her mother to cancer. Still grieving, Tiffany seeks rest for her body and soul at a cozy beach house in San Diego. A scheduling mix–up causes a double booking, and Tiffany ends up sharing the house with a woman named Eve. When Eve’s boyfriend, Jeremy, arrives to surprise Eve, he’s surprised to see Tiffany as well. He settles in at the beach house next door, and what happens after that surprises them all.

A fun, contemporary romance about how God uses even our mistakes to bring about His divine purposes. Beach Dreams is the perfect get–away read.

My Review:There’s still some summertime left and if you live near the ocean you may have a few more beach trips planned. May I recommend bringing along Beach Dreams? I wasn’t sure what to expect when I started this book, since I had not read either the previous novels in this particular series or the other books Trish Perry had written. However, that was not important at all. I immediately liked Tiffany and Jeremy both and was excited to see who they would be brought together.

Can I just say the time on the beach sounded heavenly? The fellowship the characters shared and the fact that I know Mission Beach is gorgeous just made me wish for a summer vacation like theirs where strangers become the best of friends.

There were plenty of life lessons to be learned for the characters but this story is delivered with heart and humor and perfect to escape the summer heat with.

You can sample a chapter of the book here.

You can visit Trish Perry here.