A few weeks ago, I told you about my brother-in-law's new book, Light at the End of the Funnel. I was so excited to sit down with him (IN PERSON!) this week and record a podcast about the book, the tornado, and the many lessons God taught him through that experience and the decade of healing and growth that followed. So proud of him and so happy to present our conversation to you! Enjoy!
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And speaking of shows that take up all my time, another one is back for the summer! AGT returned, and if you missed the very last audition of week one, you should watch it here. I sobbed. SOBBED. (Which, to be fair, is not unusual for me where this show is concerned.)
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I don't know how many of you who read here are also writers, but there might be a few of you lurking in the shadows! Found this article with advice on what to do after attending a writer's conference. I am attending one later this year myself, so I partly wanted to put this here so I could find it later, but I also wanted to offer it to any of you who might be in a similar boat! (I would imagine the advice can be easily tweaked to match other types of conferences and conventions!)
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Even though this week wasn't even close to being as crazy as the last few weeks, it was still busy. I didn't have time to dive deep into a thought-provoking book and marinate on wonders and truths, but I still needed my reading escape. So I was naturally giddy when Melody Carlson's latest, Under a Summer Sky showed up in my mailbox! (It actually releases this coming Tuesday, June 6!)
This book is the third and final book in a series called "Follow Your Heart," and I read the first one a couple of years ago when I was on vacation. I knew from that book that this would be an easy, feel-good read, and that was a perfect fit for this week.
Because it's an easy, feel-good read, it was a quick one for me. The book tells the story of Nicole Anderson, an almost-thirty high school art teacher who is stuck in a bit of a rut. She's been teaching since college and has lost a bit of her sparkle and passion for it, a relationship that wasn't all that great anyway had recently ended, and while life wasn't bad, it definitely lacked pizzazz. But right as the school year wraps up, Nicole's mom has a conversation with her best friend from forever ago and finds out she's about to take a summer-long cruise with her husband and is in need of someone to run her art gallery while she's gone. Nicole's mom immediately volunteers Nicole to take a summer sabbatical from the Pacific Northwest and enjoy a few weeks of fun in picturesque Savannah, hoping it will rekindle some of the sparkle in her life.
There were a number of things in the book that were too good to be true (which I remembered being the case in the first book, too, so I was prepared). Nicole is able to fly cross country one day after her school year ends, take a job sight-unseen, live in the wealthy art gallery owners' mansion and drive their car while they're gone...and on it goes.
Because I anticipated the picturesque plot line, it didn't bother me. In fact, I appreciated the escape. It was fun to see the sights of Savannah through the pages of the book and to meet new characters. There were two things that bothered me as I read. First was the presence of alcohol in a social setting several times throughout the book (it's a personal preference of mine to just not have that), and at one point, there was some underage drunkenness. It was dealt with and not dismissed, but I just didn't find it necessary. Secondly, there was virtually no faith story in this book. A little prayer, but that's it. While I don't expect snippets of sermons in books, I do expect to see faith woven in, and it was just absent here.
The book wrapped up too quickly for me; there were loose ends that didn't resolve. So for those reasons, the book wasn't the most well-crafted I'd ever read. But it was a fun vacation-ish read.
* Revell provided a copy of this book to me at no charge. All opinions are my own. *
2 comments:
Yes! Trading Spaces!!!! OMG we loved that show - loved how some of the designers were so out there! Moss on the walls! Remember that one??
YES!! And the lady who hated brown! I have never forgotten that episode!
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