Review: The Readers of Broken Wheel Recommend

The Readers of Broken Wheel Recommend by Katarina Bivald
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

This was a feel-good, warm, fuzzy, effortless read, written especially for those who live to read and who love happy endings. It's about ordinary people struggling to keep up with life and it's about love arriving at last and how we find happiness in the simplest of things. It was nice; it made me smile.

Some might use the reading of this book as a remedy to a day full of stress, because it does not challenge. Others might find it quotidian, because it does not challenge.

I might not have finished the book, except that it was packed with the best quotes about books and the readers of books! So, I read on.

Like this:

I've always thought that books have some kind of healing power and that they can, if nothing else, provide a distraction.

And this:

People were strange like that. They could be completely uninterested in you, but the moment you picked up a book, you were the one being rude.

And this:

Can you smell it? The scent of new books. Unread adventures. Friends you haven't met yet, hours of magical escapism awaiting you.

You might not be surprised by the events as they unfold, but you will find yourself smiling and cheering on the residents of Broken Bend.

View all my reviews

Review: Can't Hurt Me: Master Your Mind and Defy the Odds

Can't Hurt Me: Master Your Mind and Defy the Odds by David Goggins
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

“You are in danger of living a life so comfortable and soft, that you will die without ever realizing your true potential.”

If you follow my reviews, you know this is my favorite genre – badasses telling their story of pain and suffering, achievement and greatness, redemption and inspiration. Well, Goggins is that badass … on steroids.

He is now a retired Navy SEAL and is the only member of the U.S. Armed Forces to complete SEAL training (including two Hell Weeks), the U.S. Army Ranger School (where he graduated as Enlisted Honor Man) and Air Force Tactical Air Controller training. He has completed 60 ultra-marathons and ultra-triathlons. He’s an insane endurance athlete. Crazy fact? He did most of this super-human stuff with a hole in his heart. Seriously.

“Pain unlocks a secret doorway in the mind, one that leads to both peak performance, and beautiful silence.”

The quotes in this book alone make it worth owning. I borrowed the book from my library, read the first half, and then knew I had to own it. I bought my own copy and finished the second half. I wanted to circle stuff, make notes in the margins, and interact with it. I sure did put some ink on those pages.

All of us can relate to the need to wrestle our demons to death; Goggins confesses that rage and frustration fueled him while a calloused mind protected him. He knew disappointment. He knew failure. He knew what it felt like to be a nobody. When the world had dismissed him, wholly unimpressed with his performance ….he woke up, found inspiration in his goal to be a Navy Seal and never was the same.

“They say there’s always light at the end of the tunnel, but not once your eyes adjust to the darkness, and that’s what happened to me. I was numb.”

From that day on, through thick and thin, through tragedy and major physical setbacks, he never changed his tune. He was somebody. He had goals. Nothing could get in his way. He changed the conversation he was having with himself, raised the bar in his life, and got to bloody work.

It’s what you tell yourself that matters. The most important conversations you’ll ever have are the ones you’ll have with yourself. You wake up with them, you walk around with them, you go to bed with them, and eventually you act on them. Whether they be good or bad.”

I love this quote. In a way, the whole book is about this quote. Make sure you tell yourself the right stuff. Don’t lie and don’t deny. Just get to work.

I loved readying the story of this guy’s life. My accountability mirror’s been installed. #canthurtmeeither


View all my reviews

The Writer's Guide to Grammar by Roy Speed

I am so impressed with this book, I could not resist sharing.  It is my very first review of a textbook.

The Writer's Guide to Grammar is outstanding in every realm.  It really does have it all - mechanics, organization, conventions, sentence fluency and all essential grammar.  I've seen dozens of grammar books for young teens.  Too many to count.  This one offers the most succinct, easy-to-remember explanations for all the glitchy grammar issues while striking a perfect  balance between definitions and practice.

The author also strikes balance with his clever illustrations - not too many, not too few.

It was written with students in mind.  There is a Teacher's Guide (superb) and a Student Workbook (consumable).  I have tutored writing to middle school and high school students for the past 15 years, so I was eager to find a fresh approach to showing the way through the grammar jungle.  Home run here!  I've already recommended it to several families and have adopted it as the backbone for my tutoring.  Bottom line - it takes all of the mystery out of applying the rules without ever getting dull.

But, hey, adults can learn from this, too!  Our digital days have left many of these grammar basics to rust and ruin.  This book can be a go-to for writers of every kind or for anyone who wants to be a better and more accurate communicator.

Two thumbs up!

Link to the book on Amazon:
 https://www.amazon.com/Writers-Guide-Grammar-Teaching-Answer/dp/1093261897/ref=sr_1_1?keywords=the+writers+guide+to+grammar&qid=1576105709&s=books&sr=1-1

Review: Where the Crawdads Sing

Where the Crawdads Sing by Delia Owens
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

This book was pure magic. It was as though all of nature exhaled and these words, warm and rich and teeming with life, fell into order on the pages. The author's lyrical language lifted question after question upon the reader's plate - the kinds of questions that really matter. They stilled my heart, my mind, my world.

You will be drawn into Kya's world. So simple, so exquisitely beautiful, so in sync with nature - this Marsh Girl will to steal your heart, I promise.

The story of Kya's life is filled with drama, hatred, love, violence, justice and injustice - from the brutalities of abandonment and hunger, to the extraordinary ways she chose to be excellent. Your heart will be punched down and lifted up as well, but the redemption folded deep into this story delivers... it truly delivers.

And all of this is set in the untarnished, wilderness of a swampland. A marsh. This author makes it all so beautiful, so vivid, and so desirable. You will hear the gulls, feel the squish of stepping through muddy reeds, and smell the grits with onions on the stovetop.

I wish I had more than two thumbs for the thumbs up to this soulful plea from the marsh to all of humanity.

View all my reviews

Review: Miracle Creek

Miracle Creek by Angie Kim
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

There is always so much more than meets the eye in any family drama or tragedy. But, Miracle Creek is not your typical tragedy. Nor is it your typical whodunit. With unusual elements like occupied hyperbaric chambers exploding in the residential garage of a Korean immigrant family, the conflagration takes on a weirdly alluring form.

Angie Kim does a great job creating the individual streets of insidious intent in each of the suspects and she keeps the culprits and the motives in the shadows until the end. She does an especially good job capturing the tug-of-war in the heart of every parent with a disabled or autistic child ... the desperation which sometimes overcomes the hope; the hope which sometimes overcomes the desperation.

I did find myself impatient for evidence which went beyond a casual conversation or the placement of a pack of cigarettes, for example. But the author's slow reveals of sad little mistakes that the main players made - the kinds of mistakes to which all readers can relate - kept my eyes moving from page to page.

It is perhaps the most peculiar setting for a whodunit story but this is also what pulls the reader in at once.

View all my reviews