Put on Your PJs, Piggies! Illustrated by Sydney Hanson

Put on Your PJs, Piggies! is a not-quite-square board book that walks though nighttime routines, including little piggies stalling for more time. A bedtime snack is followed by a bath, then into PJs. The little piggies sing their nighttime song, say their prayers, count sheep, and then fall asleep. The daddy pig helps them through their routine and is mentioned in the text. The mommy pig is shown in the illustrations during the nighttime song, prayers, and sleep time.

One of the little piggies is much smaller than the rest and the littlest pig is my favorite part of this book. The littlest pig is too small to know to close her eyes during the prayer and continues her wide-eyed laying pose that she has throughout the entire story. The funniest part is on the last spread where every other animal in the barn is sleeping, but the littlest piggie is still wide awake.

Each spread features a four line stanza of rhyming couplets. Each also has a phrase about PJs: "Almost PJ time, piggies!" "Get ready for PJs, piggies!" "Time for PJs, piggies!" "Put on your PJs, piggies!" However, even after the piggies have put on their PJs, the "Put on your PJs, piggies!" line is repeated five more times. It doesn't really make much sense, especially after the piggies have already fall asleep.

The illustrations are very well done. There are lots of little details that make them very enjoyable, like bubbles from the bath s\till apparent on the grass in the next spread while the piggies are putting on their PJs.

Other animals that appear in the illustrations include a calf and its mother, a foal with a parent, a cat, a baby mouse with parent, and a sheep family of one parent with three small sheep. The front cover features some spot slitter on the piggies PJs and on the moon.

Overall, it's a cute book, but the text, especially the repetition of "Put on your PJs, piggies!" is a little disappointing. Repetition can be a positive feature in a board book, but I was not a fan of how it was carried out in Put on Your PJs, Piggies! It was much more effective in Sydney Hanson's other Bedtime Barn Book, Go to Sleep, Sheep! because the repetition happened in the middle with a different first and last page message. The sheep family featured in Put on Your PJs, Piggies! will be very familiar to anyone who's read Go to Sleep, Sheep!

I received a copy of this book from the publisher, but was not required to post a positive review.

I Love You, Little One by Bonnie Rickner Jensen, illustrated by Donna Chapman

I Love You, Little One by Bonnie Rickner Jensen, illustrated by Donna Chapman is a padded board book in the Really Woolly brand.

It features 19 spreads each with a title that begins with “I Love You” and then roughly describes a theme, such as “I Love You to Love Others” and “I Love You When You’re Playing.”  A short Bible verse is followed by a two-stanza (four lines each) poem and a small illustration. The facing page has a short two-line prayer and a large illustration.

I found the themes to not be very distinct—you couldn’t really match them to specific situations. Instead, you’d probably pick one at random to read to a child. The poems are just okay.

The illustrations are the highlight of this book. They are colorful pastels featuring the Really Woolly animals. My favorites show a little duck with a newspaper folded into a sailor hat and two mice wheeling a wagon of marshmellows to toast over a fire.

I received a copy of this book from the publisher but was not required to post a positive review.

"The Austen Escape" by Katherine Reay

The Austen Escape is the fourth Katherine Reay book I've read, and unfortunately I did not find it as enjoyable as previous books.

Mary goes on a Jane Austen–inspired trip to England with her friend Isabel to stayin Bath, acting and dressing as though they belonged in one of Jane Austen's novels.  However, while there, Isabel has a sort of mental break after some cruel words from her father and believes she is actually the character she's playing. Mary's frustration at her friend's backstabing man-stealing ways get pushed aside as she must wait until Isabel remembers who she is before confronting her.

This novel had a fun, easy to read writing style. Mary was shown to be a strong woman, engineer, and  loyal to her family and friends. However, her relationship with the love interest of the story, Nathan, made her seem immature and lacking in social skills. For example, she overhears half a phone conversation and instead of talking about it, takes several drastic actions including buying a plane ticket to leave the country and attempting to leave without telling Nathan.

It's an interesting concept that you could vacation in a place where you could live out your favorite stories, but Isabel's memory problem interfered with my enjoyment of that aspect of the story too much. I'd recommend reading this book only if you really enjoyed Dear Mr. Knightley, Lizzy & Jane, and The Brontë Plot as I did. Even still, I was not as captivated by this story.

I received a copy of this book from the publisher, but was not required to post a positive review.

"Finding Gobi: The True Story of One Little Dog's Big Journey" by Dion Leonard

I'd really enjoyed the children's book Gobi: A Little Dog With a Big Heart by Dion Leonard, illustrated by Lisa Manuzak, so I was excited to read the young readers version, Finding Gobi: The True Story of One Little Dog's Big Journey.


Both books tell the story of an ultra-marathon runner, Dion, meeting a little dog named Gobi during a race. Together they run many miles and become very close. It's a touching story and Leonard makes it even more so by occasionally telling the story from Gobi's perspective.


The children's picture book focused on meeting Gobi and running the race together, with only brief mention of the difficulties Leonard would have getting Gobi adopted and back to his home country in a one-page author's note at the end. In contrast, the young readers version finishes the race by page 65 of 190 pages. After reading the children's book I expected the race to also be the focal point of this book, and was disappointed. Reading about the race and how Gobi was able to participate in different stages was highly entertaining.

However, most of this book is about Gobi being lost in big city, potential extortion, and logistics of transporting a pet across various countries. Not to say that it was all uninteresting, but 125 pages of it was just too much. The hints of potential sinister dealings and the idea that someone could have stolen Gobi to extort money was dark for a young readers book. I'm guessing there was more evidence of this than presented, but it still felt out of place both because it was an unproven theory and because it could be really scary for young readers.

I would have enjoyed reading much more about the race, and much less about the getting Gobi home part. As it is though, I'd still highly recommend Gobi: A Little Dog With a Big Heart for children, but I wouldn't want to recommend Finding Gobi: The True Story of One Little Dog's Big Journey for young readers. As an adult reader, it was decent, but without more race details I would have to pass on this one.

I received a copy of this book from the publisher but was not required to post a positive review.

Review: Rewordable: The Uniquely Fragmented Word Game

I love board games/card games, and I love word games, but unfortunately, Rewordable didn't really measure up to my favorites of either distinction. 

For your turn, you play a word using cards from your hand and cards from the available pool of three cards or by adding hand cards to an existing word on the table. Points are given at the end of the game based on achieved objectives (cardboard chips for meeting goals such as playing a 7-letter word or playing a card using only yellow cards) and one point for each letter in words you own.

In the example above, I stole the words FRY and INTEND from my opponents by adding the ER card to make FRYER from my hand and by adding ING to INTEND. I also used a turn to add IN to COMING, which was my own word. You can also add letters to the middle of words as long as you're not reordering any letters.

Stealing words from opponents was fun. I also liked that you could strategically earn more than one objective chip a turn, which made for interesting challenge beyond just picking a good word to play.

However, I didn't feel that this game left enough room for creativity. I felt very limited in my options each turn. Also, because there is a common pool of cards, it was difficult to plan ahead, which led to a lot of time waiting for players to plan their moves.

I played the game twice, with four players. It can accommodate from 2-8, so it's worth noting that the game could be very different with a larger or smaller group of players. However, I'd hesitate to even attempt 8 players based on how long waiting between turns took with only four.

Overall, I was not super impressed with the game. I have a large collection of board games and card games and I can't see choosing this one over any other.

I received a copy of this game from Blogging for Books, but was not required to write a positive review.

Review: "A Proper Drink" by Robert Simonson

A Proper Drink tells the story of "the contemporary craft cocktail revival" in more than 300 dense pages. The story weaves through 36 chapters, many of which feature at least one cocktail recipe. The recipes go beyond the ingredients to include background information such as the year, place, and person involved in the creation.

The book also includes an extensive index, which I think is very useful. I think many readers may be more inclined to seek out a chapter on their favorites, rather than reading cover to cover.

Personally, I enjoyed reading about the Aviary in Chicago and the Trident cocktail. One of my friends told me of her visit to the Aviary and the incredible cocktails she saw served there. I never tried it myself, but still hope to someday. The Trident cocktail contains aquavit, which is an alcohol of particular interest for me and my husband after we learned about linet aquavit, the liquor that travels around the world before being sold.

However, I found much of the book dry and unengaging. I guess the expected audience (bartenders?) would be much more enthusiastic about the history and people. I was hoping for lighter snippets of stories combined with recipes. As is, the cocktails are on the complicated side as far as ingredients and require a well-stocked bar.

I received a copy of this book from Blogging for Books, but was not required to write a positive review.

"From This Day Forward" by Lauraine Snelling

From This Day Forward by Lauraine Snelling is the fourth book in the Song of Blessing series. I hadn't read any of the other books in the series, but that did not cause me any trouble. If you're familiar with the series though, you may already know some of the side characters.

In this story, Deborah MacCallister is a lovesick nurse who can't get any attention from Toby, the man she spend the whole book (and most of her life since childhood) pining over. Toby is a construction foreman who spends all of his time trying to build a new school for deaf children. Between her own busy hospital shifts, Deborah tries a few desperate measures to win his affections. She takes him food, does his laundry, and even enlists the help of the women of the town to help push the two together. When a handsome new school teacher arrives in town, Toby is suddenly very concerned that he might lose Deborah, though he doesn't really act upon those fears until she goes away for a month-long hospital-training trip in Chicago.


Though the main point of contention in the novel is "who will Deborah choose?" between her childhood crush and the school teacher, the latter doesn't arrive until two-thirds into the book. Further, she doesn't really even seriously consider him as an option, which ends up leaving the main story of the book "when will Toby and Deborah get together."

The book also features several in-depth side stories, some of which seem to get as much if not more page space than Deborah and Toby. There's wild dogs that must be hunted, a spat between siblings, and a nonverbal mother raising her infant child with the help of other women of the community. Though all of these sub-plots add to the picture of Blessing as an idyllic Christian town, it also just takes up a lot of extra pages, obscuring the main point of the book. I really liked some of the characters and was invested in the Deborah-Toby-school teacher romance, but it took way to long to for anything to actually happen.

The book gives a nice overview of a Christ-focused community and includes several prayers and mentions of Bible passages. Perhaps those already familiar with the Blessing series will be much more entertained by the sweeping descriptions of everyone else's lives in the community. For me, I'd have to pass as there isn't enough of a story here.

I received a free copy of this book, but was not required to write a positive review.

Review: "Bradstreet Gate" by Robin Kirman

When a Harvard student Julie Patel is murdered, one of her professors, Storrow, falls to blame. The fact that he was dating a student, Georgia, was revealed through the investigation as well as through Georgia's jealous friend Alice's expose that she wrote following the murder. Beyond that, even students who had limited interaction with Storrow came forward with stories of interactions that seemed normal enough at the time, but odd in retrospect.

The novel is broken up into three parts: Harvard years, after Harvard, and ten years following the murder. The first section was excellent - full of suspense, mystery, and interesting characters. I was completely captivated and would've given the first section a five star rating. However, once I started the second section, things quickly went down hill. I kept expecting it to get better, but the characters' coincidental encounters just did not hold my interest. The book was screaming that the students had no reason to stay in touch after school, yet they kept going back to each other. By the third section, I couldn't wait for it to be over, since it was obvious nothing else would happen in the book.

If you're looking for a mystery that leaves you thinking "what just happened?" this might be it. I don't know how to interpret the ending, and it did not fulfil anything I was hoping to get from the conclusion of a mystery novel. If the first section hadn't been so good, the last two might not have seemed so bad, but at such a close comparison, I finished feeling very disappointed.

FTC Disclosure: I received this book for free from Blogging for Books for this review.  The opinion in this review is unbiased and reflects my honest judgment of the product.

Review: "Tell Me a Story" by Scott McClellan

In Tell Me a Story, Scott McClellan's aim is that you "identify yourself as a storyteller, an artist committed to narrative, and that in so doing you'll experience God and your life more deeply than you did before" (21). He works towards that goal by telling the reader to think of life as a story and that each and every person has a story worth telling. 

McClellan talks about God as the narrator of our story, and "In God's story we find that the lost need not stay lost, the sick need not stay sick, and the runaways need not stay away" (58). God's loving redemption is a part of our stories as much as it is a part of the stories from the Bible that McClellan uses to support it.

My favorite chapter is the one that focuses on sharing your story: the relationship between the storyteller, the church and the community. The most powerful moments of the book are when McClellan shares his story about the difficult adoption process. He talks about how having community to share his story with was vital to getting him through all of the mishaps he and his wife experienced.

However, these moments were not frequent enough in the book. Perhaps that in itself is proof that McClellan is on to something with his storytelling theory - it is important because it is what connects people. 

Little connectivity and lots of repetition made this book feel like a blog post that's been stretched to the breaking point. Even with the chapters of this book coming in at a grand total of 109 pages, the idea felt tired and forced almost immediately.

There were definitely some gems throughout, but overall it was very difficult to get through.

FTC Disclosure: I received this book for free from Moody Publishers for this review.  The opinion in this review is unbiased and reflects my honest judgment of the product.

Review: "Just My Typo" by Drummond Moir

"If you write anything criticizing editing or proofreading, there will be a fault of some kind in what you have written." (266)

As is to be expected, Just My Typo by Drummond Moir is a novelty, flip-through type book.  Though I do love a good typo, this book didn't hold much beyond what a blog post or Buzzfeed article might contain.  Moir broke the typos up into chapters of similar types: literature, historical/political, legal, Bible, and even autocorrect typos to name a few.

In some cases, the book told a story about the typo, which were my favorite part.  Specifically, I enjoyed examples of typos that made a reader misinterpret the text so completely.  A Harvard literary critic analyzed a passage from Melville's White Jacket that read "soiled fish" instead of "coiled fish."  He wrote "rather gushingly, that 'hardly anyone but Melville could have created the shudder that results from calling this frightening vagueness some 'soiled fish of the sea'" (11).

In a later example, a misprint in a Bible leads a preacher to discuss what "I am fearfully and wonderfully mad" meant, as the "e" had been left of "made" (141).

Most of the book though was repeated examples of the same type of mistakes, such as four separate examples of when "pubic" was used instead of "public." I get that these are funny because of the serious nature of the documents they usually occur on, but I don't need to see it four times to get it.

FTC Disclosure: I received this book for free from Blogging for Books for this review.  The opinion in this review is unbiased and reflects my honest judgment of the product.

Review: "MindWar" by Andrew Klavan

Former high school football star Rick Dial is sought out by the government for his video game skills in MindWar by Andrew Klavan, the first of the trilogy.  With four months of doing nothing but playing video games after an accident left him crippled, he became the world leader in three different games. His quick thinking and reaction time is put to the test by entering the Realm, a virtual world created by a Russian genius that intends to use it to take over American computer systems.

"My name is Rick Dial," said Rick, and he drew Mariel's blade. "And I'm here to destroy this place."

The demon's face contorted with anger, yet he managed to nod with a measure of respect. [...] "I am Reza. And I'm going to kill you." (284)

Two stories weave through the novel: that of Rick exploring the Realm and that of the Traveler, a man on the run as he assists the government with the MindWar project.  This second branch of the narrative is never fully realized, though, and his role in the project is unclear. Rick's story was interesting enough to follow, especially the dynamics with his younger brother, but the story of the Traveler was too vague and seemed to be more of an unnecessary plot addition.

The book is hokey at best, where a huge suspension of disbelief is required with every page. Becoming the best in the world at three different video games in only four months? Unlikely. The government asking for your help by drugging you and putting you in the back of a van? Exciting, but no.

Another gimmicky-tacky route this novel took was assigning each chapter a title that belongs to a video game: Call of Duty, Portal, Portal Two, Hitman.  The thing that put me over the edge was a chapter called "Words with Friends." I actually cringed.  However, one thing I should have been thankful for was the chapter breaks, since in the last section of the novel they're forgone completely.  There's about 80 pages that are only broken up by a symbol serving as an asterisk. There's 29 chapters in the first 3/4 of the book, and one for the last quarter.

The intended audience for this book is probably pre-teen boys, so perhaps these can be excused. But for an adult reader, this book left a lot to be desired. The plot was barely enough to keep my interest and all of the minor annoyances kept adding up.

FTC Disclosure: I received this book for free from BookLook for this review.  The opinion in this review is unbiased and reflects my honest judgment of the product.

Review: "101 Secrets for Your Twenties" by Paul Angone

101 Secrets for your Twenties by Paul Angone was expanded from a an article, "21 Secrets for your 20s" and maintains many of the same characteristics.  Sometimes the "secret" is just a one line statement and sometimes it leads to a larger section of multi-page explanation.

There are many great points made in the book, teaching young adults that they're not alone in their struggles with jobs, friends, love, faith, and family. Some of my favorites were "Rocking adulthood is sometimes nothing more glamorous than Patient Ever-Day-Ness" (162), "If you don't define success, success will gladly define you" (168), and "A college diploma is NOT our golden ticket into DreamJobLand" (42). The secrets are presented in a light, humorous way, but are still impactful in their message.


In many ways though, this information was better presented as an article than as a book.  101 is a lot of secrets, and as far as I could tell, there was no organizational structure for what was discussed where.  For example, Angone presents #49, a secret about breakups, followed by #50, a secret about not knowing the plan for our lives, and then #51 is another secret about breakups. I would have appreciated if the secrets were organized by category so that if you needed inspiration or comfort, you'd know where to look for it.

The light-hearted fun feel of the book also goes a bit far with too many made up words, making the book seem childish - not something someone in their 20s would appreciate.  As a 23 year old reader, I was not amused by things like "Round-Mound o' Goodness" as a description of chocolate (37) or "LivinginYourParentsHouseAgainVille" (42). That kind of informality is fine for a 21 point internet article, but it didn't really work for a full book.

My advice to my peers would be to read the article, but skip the book.

FTC Disclosure: I received this book for free from Moody Publishers for this review.  The opinion in this review is unbiased and reflects my honest judgment of the product.

Review: "30 Days to a More Beautiful You" by Kylie Bisutti

30 Days to a More Beautiful You is a devotional for teenage girls written by former Victoria's Secret model Kylie Bisutti.  Each day includes a Bible verse, a 2-4 paragraph connection, two reflection questions, and a true beauty tip, such as "Let the roots of your life grow deep into Christ" (37).

The devotions are so short that it makes it easily manageable for the teen reader to fit into a busy schedule.  The book covered a lot of really great topics and encouragement for young women of faith: finding your worth, valuing modesty, being good enough, putting God first, and accepting forgiveness.  However, nothing stood out to me as being particularly ground breaking or inspiring. Instead, it was more a general overview.  In fairness, in only a few paragraphs, it's hard to tackle major life struggles that girls face, but I expected more from this devotional.

I was disappointed that the Bible passages were so short, usually only a verse or two. When I was a teen, I would've rather seen more of a passage for context.  There could've been a focus verse for Bisutti's personal connection and life applications, instead of only having one verse to work off. It just didn't feel like much care was put into the God's Word part of the devotional, especially with a typo in the one verse that was featured for day two.

Bisutti also has a book titled I'm No Angel, and I'd be willing to give that a try someday.  This devotional didn't have enough depth to make it worthwhile, but her points were solid and perhaps a different medium is all it needed to blossom into something great.

FTC Disclosure: I received this book for free from Tyndale Publishers for this review.  The opinion in this review is unbiased and reflects my honest judgment of the product.

Review: "Memorial: The Mystery of Mary of Bethany" by Dolores Kimball

Dolores Kimball's Memorial: The Mystery of Mary of Bethany dives deep into the story of Mary, the sister of Martha and Lazarus.  Kimball explains that Mary is one of four people in the Bible that Jesus personally commended (5).  This 120 page book thoroughly researches everything surrounding this woman: where she was mentioned in the Bible, other related stories, and even common misconceptions about who she was.

The most fascinating part of the book was Kimball's explanation of the significance of anointing Jesus for burial.  Jesus tried to tell his disciples that he would suffer, but they did not want to believe.  However, Mary's eyes were opened to the truth that Jesus would die, and her faith led her to use the ointment that was reserved for Jesus' burial day.  Kimball also did a great job of explaining other translations and meanings of the words used in passages, such as explaining that "Jesus' burial day" didn't actually mean the day he was buried - simply near that time.

Chapters were broken into sections that looked into passages from the Bible mentioning Mary, other instances in the Bible that were similar in some way, and life applications, though some sections had a mix of those elements.

The life application-type sections did not hold my interest.  These sections often begin with or include a universal statement, like "for many women", "we have to admit", "if we're honest with ourselves," which felt insincere in their attempt to be all-encompassing.  I was distracted by passages of sweeping generalizations about what challenges the modern woman in her faith journey.  For example, there is almost two pages detailing the life of a "typical Christian woman": "So she says a quick prayer for her family, tosses down her morning jolt of caffeine, and charges into her day like a Thoroughbred out of the starting gate" (12).

The tidbits that explained Biblical significance in words and actions made it a worthwhile read, and I really do feel like I better understand the passages that previously I would've rushed over without giving a second thought.  However, the book was hard to get in to and hard to keep reading.  For those reasons, I would treat this book as a resource for if you wanted to lead a Bible study on a related topic, but I would not recommend it for casual reading or as a personal devotional.

FTC Disclosure: I received this book for free from Cross Focused Reviews for this review.  The opinion in this review is unbiased and reflects my honest judgment of the product.

Review: "How to Ruin Your Life by 30" by Steve Farrar

How to Ruin Your Life by 30 by Steve Farrar contains nine steps; however, only two really stood out to me - one in a positive way, the other in a negative way. For me, all of the other steps seemed obvious and trite, such as if you stop learning or isolate yourself, you will ruin your life by 30.


The section that spoke to me was "Neglect your gifts and strengths when choosing a vocation."  My favoritism could be spawning from the fact that my career is my highest stressor at the moment, but regardless, I found this chapter the most useful.


It began by talking about how J.R.R. Tolkien and C.S. Lewis met in a pub to work on their writing, which was relevant to both my ideal career path (publishing/editing) and my interest in both authors.  I found it encouraging when Farrar wrote about how we each have God-given unique talents and skills and we can find a way to apply them to a job that honors Him.  You don't have to be a missionary to serve God - you can serve Him through applying the skills He gave you to your career.  After hearing family and friends often complaining about their jobs, I found an answer in Farrar's words: "If you dread going to work every day, you are probably not using your strengths and gifts that God has given you" (72).  I plan to use this chapter for comfort and guidance when reflecting on my career path and talking with my peers.

The very next chapter, though, was "Disregard what the Bible says about sex and marriage" and I was  disappointed by it.  The manner in which it was written came across as sexist by saying that "hands to yourself" was a ground rule specifically for men whereas "don't act cheap" was only a rule for women (82-86).  Women are just as capable of being tempted by sexual desires and men can dress inappropriately, too.  I found it unnecessary that the book called each one out to a specific gender.  It also says that men have to make the first step towards a relationship: "Don't be passive. Make the call. Take the first step. nothing's going to happen until you do" (98).  Again, it seems that Farrar isolates half his audience when the advice could easily apply to anyone picking up his book.

Another issue I had with the same chapter was the ruling that a Christian should not even consider dating a non-Christian: "Don't give any consideration to the possibility that you might lead them to the Lord.  God doesn't need you to do His work in their life" (87).  God never said to spread His word to everyone, except someone you might want to date.  While I agree that marrying a non-Christian would be challenging, I don't think you can go as far as to say that they can't have the chance to get to know the Lord through you. Obviously it's important that they're not pretending or choosing God just to get a date, but I think that's a call we are able to make.

Farrar first presented this information in a commencement address and, unfortunately, some of the elements of spoken language remained that wouldn't normally end up in a book.  The sentences were repetitive, simplified, and overly informal: "Causes have effects. Actions have reactions. Choices have consequences" (19).  While that string of statements might have been effective in a speech, it was annoying to read.  There were also many paragraphs that were a simple one sentence line that was too conversational.  For example, on page 89 we have a paragraph that is just "Does that not make sense?" and then a later paragraph is simply, "And one more thing."

Perhaps it would have been better formatted as a short work published with other essays about Christian living, practical life, or personal growth.  Though this book seemed sexist at times, was judgmental, and was written informally, I really did enjoy certain parts of it.  I would definitely recommend the vocational chapter to all of my peers.  As for the rest of it, I think it was too hit or miss, with the good stuff sandwiched in a lot of mediocre sections.

The best piece of advice to take away from this book is simply: Is the life you imagine for yourself the natural outcome of the way you are living your life? (18).

FTC Disclosure: I received this book for free from Moody Publishers for this review.  The opinion in this review is unbiased and reflects my honest judgment of the product.