Snippets

Sometimes I just don't feel like writing up a big long review of certain books, but I would like to remember the fact that I perused or read them. Here's a list of some that I haven't mentioned in more detail:

LIKED:

Loved By Choice: True Stories That Celebrate Adoption is a much needed book. As a society, we've been inundated with negative stories about adoption and that can grow very wearisome.

The authors/editors of Loved by Choice, Susan Horner and Kelly Fordyce Martindale know the struggles adoptive parents face, as well as birth mothers, families and the media. They compiled a list of personal stories of adoption that focused on the positive instead of the negative. I picked up this book because I needed to hear someone say something good about adoption for once. And I should preface that remark by saying that we have several dear family friends who have walked the road of adoption before us. They have encouraged us, prayed for us, and stood by us when the going got tough. They remind me that certain struggles are par for the course, and that God makes families. That is true. He does. And He does so quite beautifully, if you ask me! I had concluded a conversation with one friend about the beauty that is our own adoption story and then I stumbled upon this book and allowed myself a week to just focus on this one book.

This is obviously a subject I feel that I could talk a great deal about. It is also a subject I've become quite opinionated about. It's also a subject that I cry more tears over now, than I did when we first signed up to adopt Bookworm2 about three years ago. Then again, I'm far more emotional about being pregnant with Bookworm3 than I was about being pregnant with Bookworm1. Why is that? Time. Pain. Perspective. Blessing. I see the benefits and joys of parenting Bookworm1. I see what he is becoming and what having children actually means and I am grateful. I know that bringing a child into our family is something that comes as a result of God's blessing. Being physically sick or suffering some heartache to be able to pick up a child, look into their eyes and say, "Oh, goodness. Can you possibly IMAGINE how much God loves you? Because I can't even wrap my mind around how much *I* love you!!!!" is worth everything and then some.

That, my friends, is the statement of adoption for each one of us who are Christians and who have become a child of God. We cannot even begin to imagine the depths to which He loves us because we cannot comprehend the cross. The impact on my life as a result of being a child of God is indescribable and overwhelming. I am His and He is mine. That is what this book is about. Children becoming family. Family becoming.

Highly recommended.

DID NOT LIKE:

The Eyre Affair: A Thursday Next Novel. I confess, I didn't even finish it. For one thing, it was kind of science fiction-y and, as I've mentioned before, I'm not a truly big fan of that genre. It just stretches my imagination beyond capacity. (Unless, of course, we're talking about Star Trek and then Live Long and Prosper and all that! I'll watch it but I'm not interested in reading it.)

Secondly, I was greeted with a lot of curse words within the first chapter and then main family unit seems to be broken in some strangely mysterious way that just made me, well, not very impressed. I had a hard time getting into it and so I just decided not to spend anymore time on it.

This is one of those times I'm glad I didn't actually pay money for the book. I still think the premise is intriguing but the time travel issues involved in this book was questionable at best and I didn't like how time travel was used to manipulate people. Or, at least, that seemed to be the way the book was going and it made me uncomfortable.

I definitely felt like I should mention that I ended up not liking this book, as I mentioned it and hosted a giveaway with the title. That makes for two books I've mentioned without reading around here in conjunction with a giveaway that I ended up not liking! Lesson learned. Back to my original statements to publishers that I won't post information about a book that I haven't read for myself first! If you see it on this site, it means I've read it and, at the very least, I didn't hate it. (And then again, sometimes I mention them even if I did despise them.) Anyway, we won't be having any of that anymore!