By Barbara Johnson Going through a rough time? Barbara Johnson lets you in on the secret that “Pain is inevitable but misery is optional”. Her book “Stick a Geranium in Your Hat and Be Happy” comes out of four devastating experiences that equip Johnson with the credentials to help others work through their own pain. There are parts in the book that made me wonder how anyone could survive through the tragedies, and parts that made me smile. It is a book that makes one feel. Johnson first takes the reader through her own experiences – her husband’s near fatal…

By Dean Koontz One Door Away From Heaven is an unexpected book that follows three primary groups of people who finally converge in the last few chapters of the book. Writing styles change a bit from chapter to chapter depending on which group is being described, which dumbfounded me the first time I read it. The styles evolve into one style as the characters get closer together, which is an amazing feat! It takes a great writer to do that well. The book starts out in a dusty trailer park in California where Michelina Bellsong has moved in with her…

By Tammy Kling and John Spencer Ellis The main character of The Compass could be any of us. Though his name is Jonathan, and his situation may be different, we all experience loss at some time in our lives, often to the point of making us unable to function in our current reality. This book is Jonathan’s journey from crippling emotional agony to a better understanding of himself and what truly matters. The story begins with Jonathan wandering in the wilderness where he is found by Marilyn, a dying woman who chose to camp in the desert and photograph its…

By Sy Montgomery (Published 1991) The first time I read “Walking With the Great Apes” was on my way to Malaysia. I was fascinated with the relationships between Dian Fossey and the gorillas she studied, which was depicted in the movie “Gorillas in the Mist”. My quest was to learn about the?relationships between the women and the primates they studied. The stories are what stuck with me. The book is a triple biography of Jane Goodall, Dian Fossey and Birute Galdikas, protegees of the Anglo-African archeologist Louis Leakey. Each woman was selected by Leakey to study the primates most closely…

By Sid Roth I don’t know how this book came into my hands. It was mailed directly to me by Sid Roth with a letter intimating that I am Jewish, though I am not. My heritage comes from a variety of places, with none being Jewish that I am aware of. That being said, I read this book about “Ten Amazing Jews” who, instead of following tradition for tradition’s sake, thought through religious tradition and came to the realization that Jesus, or Yeshua, is the son of God. The New Testament is a Jewish book. The back of the book…

By Grace Lin Where the Mountain Meets the Moon is an enchanting book for young readers, taking them on a journey with a young girl, named Minli, to find the Old Man of the Moon. Living in the Valley of Fruitless Mountain, Minli and her parents spend their days working hard in the rice fields and their nights listening to folk lore stories about the Jade Dragon and the Old Man of the Moon told by her father. Her mother’s discontentment with their meager living comes out in angry sighs and critical comments about filling Minli’s head with fantasy. Filled…