Review: "5-Minute Bedtime Treasury" by Precious Moments

"Let there be furry bunnies and fast cheetahs!" God said with delight. "Fill the land with wrinkly elephants and tall giraffes. Let the animals play on my earth!"

The 5-Minute Bedtime Treasury is a 192-page padded hardcover book. There is a ribbon bookmark bound into the spine for an easy way to keep track of your place each night. It contains 46 Bible stories separated into three themed sections: God is trustworthy, God is good, and God is love. Each story ends with a "bedtime Bible promise," a short Bible verse that somehow ties in to what the story was about. For example, after describing the flood from Genesis 6-9, the verse that follows is Psalm 91:1: "Those who go to God Most High for safety will be protected by God All-Powerful." The illustrations are standard Precious Moments drawings, in pastel coloring, with many animals.

There are many ways in which this book is focused on the young children it is written for. In the illustrations, many prominent people are drawn to look very young (as is the Precious Moments style), but I thought it made the book more relateable for children. The illustrations are full of detail to captivate the attention of young ones as they are being read the story. The stories themselves are written with short sentences and in a playful manner. It made them engaging and kept them moving at the pace a toddler needs. The "5-minute" estimation of reading time seemed accurate to me, leaving plenty of time for slowly reading and looking at pictures.

There's also a few pages to fill in: a family tree, an "all about me," a space to trace your child's hand, a church record, and a write your own prayer page for an adult and for the child. These pages will make the book a keepsake that I could see children saving and then reading to their own kids someday.

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

Review: "The Bronte Plot" by Katherine Reay

In The Bronte Plot, Lucy Alling works at a reputable antique shop for with the owner, her mentor, Sid. She loves her job, but her favorite part is what she loving refers to as Book Day, where she takes care of all of the special edition, rare books. It's through these rare books that she takes an interest in a young attorney, James, who comes in to buy a few books as gifts. They begin dating, but it ends abruptly when James catches her using unscrupulous business tactics.

However, James' grandmother, Helen, takes a special interest in Lucy, and after the break up she hires Lucy as an antique consultant for a trip to England. With Helen's health condition precarious, her family is outraged by her decision, and simply don't understand. But for Helen, it's a trip of going back to go forward, and Lucy plays an important role in Helen's personal mission. 

Though Lucy is slow to admit it, the trip holds similar trials for her as well. She is reluctant, but anxious, in seeking her estranged father, whose only contact for more than a decade has been to send Lucy a book on her birthday.  The most recent was postmarked England. But she knows that a love of fabricating stories runs in the family, and she's not quite ready to face the reality of how much her father's lies have hurt her, and shaped her.

Lucy, her father, Helen, and James all share a love a literature that runs common through the novel, uniting the characters. Author Katherine Reay, as with her other two novels (Dear Mr. Knightley and Lizzy & Jane), includes many quotes and references to classical literature, especially the Bronte sisters. A novel for book lovers, whether or not your exact tastes line up with the characters, The Bronte Plot is another delightful escape into a the lives of characters you'll love from the beginning despite their flaws.

I especially enjoyed the pacing of the book, which though there was downtime in Helen and Lucy's England journey, every moment was vital to the characters' growth and it was captivating to watch it play out. Every piece lead toward the forgiveness, redemption, and honesty that came with the characters facing their pasts to ultimately move forward.

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

Review: "The Gap of Time" by Jeanette Winterson

The Gap of Time begins with a brief synopsis of the play it's based on, Shakespeare's The Winter's Tale. Since I haven't read the play, it was helpful as an introduction so that I could later appreciate aspects of the cover that specifically related, or deviated, from the original.

The Gap of Time is set in modern day, where Leo becomes obsessed with the delusion that his wife, MiMi, is having an affair with his friend (and former lover) Xeno. He's exponential paranoia leads him the belief that the child MiMi is pregnant with is not his own. Refusing to believe their protests or the wisdom of a paternity test, after the child's birth Leo hires a friend to take his baby daughter to Xeno. The baby, Perdita, never makes it to Xeno, and instead adopted by a single father and his son. Perdita has a few possessions from her past, but otherwise is unaware of what led to her adoption. After meeting and befriending Xeno's son Zel, slowly the truth comes out and all parties are taken back through the years to uncover what really happened.

From the description of The Winter's Tale at the beginning, it seems as though the plot line stayed pretty much the same. The names are all similar, or the same, which would make it easy for someone familiar with the Shakespeare version to pick up.

I mostly enjoyed The Gap of Time, but there were some areas where it felt like the theme was forced. For example, Xeno is clearly stuck in the past as he creates a video game to play out a mix of memories and dreams. Every time it was mentioned it seemed to be trying to remind us that the book is set in modern time (video game) and that there was more to the Leo and Xeno, Xeno and MiMi relationship but all of it was in the past and therefore untouchable, but also unforgettable.

The theme was also a little overdone in the more lyric passages, such as "the early separation of earth-moon, hundreds of millions of years before life of any kind happened on earth, had no reason to be the grand motif of our imagination. But it is" (122). For someone looking for a philosophical take on time in novel form, perhaps it would go over smoother, but to me it just got in the way of the narrative and took me out of the moment.

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: "A Walk in the Woods" by Bill Bryson

When guys in camouflage pants and hunting hats sat around in the Four Aces Diner talking about the fearsome out-of-doors, I would no longer have to feel like such a cupcake. (4)

After returning to the United States after 20 years of living in the UK, author Bill Bryson decided to reconnect with his homelands by hiking the Appalachian Trail, a 2,100 trek that spans from Georgia to Maine. His unlikely companion is Katz, an old college friend, who knows even less about hiking than Bryson. A Walk in the Woods begins with the pair buying gear they know nothing about and set out into the Georgia wilderness on a snowy March day.

Their limited experience makes for an exciting travelogue that feels like it could be you or me out there in the wilds. Though Bryson describes the harshness of the hike, there's still a certain appeal of the trail that he conveys. Bryson's skill at weaving in trail and local history at the beginning of chapters take the memoir outside of his experience to make larger statements about the environmental, political, and social problems that affect the trail. The way he relates the history of the trail is just as captivating as the prose about his personal experiences.

The people they encounter on and around the trail are just as unique as the trail itself. Bryson's characterization reads like a caricature, focusing on a characteristic, but in a way that somehow still makes them makes them distinct, relatable, and, above all, entertaining. Often, the main feature of a person they meet is the particular way in which they annoy Bryson and Katz, whether its by being over enthusiastic while discussing hiking gear, being inconsiderate when sharing a shelter, or taking incessantly.

For the first half of the book, these factual interludes flow nicely with the day-to-day experiences of hiking on the trail, from Katz hilariously throwing gear over a cliff to make his pack lighter to the abundant excitement they express at coming to a town where they can sleep in a real bed and eat something other than noodles. 

The book is very enjoyable, until part two begins. Part one ends with Bryson and Katz getting off the trail and agreeing to meet up later in the summer to hike another part of it. In part two, Bryson details day hikes he does in between and then finishes with his second week-long hike with Katz. the second half of the book the ratio of personal to factual  is quite different, leaving the story line of Bryson's hiking muddled and disjointed. 

As a non-hiker with interest in, but limited knowledge of, hiking trails and wilderness adventures, I enjoyed the book overall. For the first half, I couldn't put the book down without reading one more day of their trek. The second half was nowhere near as compelling, but a suspenseful ending makes it all worthwhile anyway. 

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.

About the Author:

Bill Bryson’s bestselling books include A Walk in the Woods, Notes from a Small Island, I’m a Stranger Here Myself, In a Sunburned Country, A Short History of Nearly Everything (which earned him the 2004 Aventis Prize), The Life and Times of the Thunderbolt Kid, At Home, and One Summer. He lives in England with his wife.

Review: "Choose Your Own Autobiography" by Neil Patrick Harris

The unique "choose your own adventure"-style autobiography could only be pulled off by someone with a great sense of humor or a magician, and it so happens that Neil Patrick Harris is both of these things. The entire autobiography is written in second person, so it tries to put you in Neil's shoes, as though you are getting to experience his life. Most chapters are on the shorter side, ending with choices that either continue the story along the same theme or timeline, or could take you someplace completely different. You can choose to read through all of his acting experiences (Doogie Howser, How I Met Your Mother, Broadway shows), his interest in magic and performing as a magician, his personal life from growing up to raising two kids of his own, or skip around and get a little of each.

I found the experience of skipping around NPH's life non-chronologically both rewarding and frustrating. I really enjoyed it the first two times I went through because I really wanted to hear about how he got in to magic so I read those first, and went back for his acting and family life afterwards. After "finishing" the adventure a second time, there were still a lot of passages I had missed. I suppose if you were able to put it aside and read it again a year later or so, you might get different pieces of his life, but I wanted to finish it all in one go. I ended up flipping through and reading the passages I had missed, which were quite a few! That part wasn't as much fun.

There are a few chapters that are completely made up, such as if you were to make the choice to have a horrible childhood. There's also a running gag where several outcomes bring you to a tragic end in a similar way where only the small details have changed, and though you are almost saved, ultimately "Your body is never found." These probably only make up about 15 pages of the 300-page book and are funny, though it was my least favorite part of the book.

All things considered, I really enjoyed Neil Patrick Harris' Choose Your Own Autobiography. The stories he included were all interesting, whether I was familiar with the show he talked about acting in or not. There's not a lot of information on any one thing, but there's a little information on everything it seems. If you're looking to read 30+ pages just about his time on How I Met Your Mother, you'll be disappointed. But if you want to know a bit about that and appreciate some Barney jokes throughout, this book is for you. This autobiography has it all - even recipes, a crossword puzzle, and a hidden signature page (shh).

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: "Wild About Creation Sticker & Activity Book"

The Beginner's Bible Wild About Creation Sticker & Activity Book is a short, staple bound 16-page full-color book containing over 50 stickers.

The activities include: tracing, drawing, connecting the dots, spotting differences between two images, coloring, matching male & female animals, maze, word search, counting, puzzle solving, putting images in sequence of the story, and placing stickers as directed. I particularly liked that this book specifically said where to use which stickers, but also gave the freedom to place anywhere on the page.

This book tells the story of creation from "let there be light!" to banishment from the garden, but it doesn't tell the whole story. It would be hard for a child to understand why Eve eating the fruit was bad from just this book. I would use this book in combination with others, or with a child already familiar with the ideas presented.

The activities are great though and I think preschool/kindergarten aged children would really enjoy the variety in activities this book presents. I know I would've loved all of the adorable animal stickers as a child (especially the blue raccoon!).

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

Review: "Doctor Who: The Drosten's Curse" by A.L. Kennedy

For anyone with even the slightest familiarity with the Doctor Who series, this book will be a comfortable, easy read.

Featuring the Fourth Doctor, this novel takes place in Arbroath where a large number of guests have been mysteriously disappearing from the golf spa hotel. Junior Day Receptionist Byrony finds it odd that so many people leave their luggage in their rooms, but don't return for it. When an odd man in a hat and scarf appears, Byrony's dream of seeing a real-life spaceship becomes a reality as she teams up with the Doctor and Putta, another alien drawn to the golf spa hotel to figure out why a sand trap is eating people. There is also a massive conscious field that all of them can feel -- sometimes through a splitting headache, sometimes through hearing each other's thoughts, and sometimes hearing the thoughts of the very creature they sought -- the legendary Bah-Sokhar.

It is a whirlwind adventure full of dangerous situations and a problem that reached well beyond the perimeter of the hotel. In true Doctor Who fashion, it is up to these three unlikely companions to band together to save the world. With a romance brewing between Byrony and Putta, an angsty teenager who wants to take over the world, two not-so-human children and their grandmother who has been owned the hotel for far longer than should be possible, there is plenty going on in this 360-page novel.

It is a quick, easy read, filled with mostly very short chapters (that are oddly unnumbered). It doesn't explain a whole lot for someone trying to interact with the Doctor Who series for the first time and most of the things that would make a Doctor Who fan smile would be completely missed by a first-timer. For that reason, I'd recommend it only for someone who has already been introduced, whether through the tv show or other books.

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.