Monkeypig by Huw Aaron

 She's a monkey! No, she's a pig! She's . . . Monkeypig?

Molly happily resides in the jungle alongside all the other monkeys, living her best monkey life among the treetops. There's just one problem.

She's actually a pig.

And head monkey Norman knows it. To prove his instincts right, he puts Molly and the rest of her forest family through a series of tests designed to weed out any non-monkey monkeys. Molly gamely jumps . . . er, flops . . . through all of Norman's hoops, doing her piggy best to be the ultimate primate. At the end of this ropes course, they discover a surprise reveal about who the real monkey is after all.

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Monkeypig: Aaron, Huw, Aaron, Huw: 9798217039159: Amazon.com: Books

Huw Aaron is a Welsh cartoonist, author, and illustrator. After a short and fairly hopeless career in finance, Huw found a niche as a magazine cartoonist, producing joke cartoons for, among others, Harvard Business Review, Reader’s Digest, Private Eye, and The Spectator (London). He then started making comics and illustrating children’s books in his native Welsh. Huw’s harshest critics—and his best friends—are his wife, Luned,and their two daughters.

Counting Miracles by Nicholas Sparks

 From the acclaimed author of The Longest Ride and The Notebook comes an emotional, powerful novel about wondering if we can change—or even make our peace with—the path we’ve taken.

Tanner Hughes was raised by his grandparents, following in his grandfather’s military footsteps to become an Army Ranger. His whole life has been spent abroad, and he is the proverbial rolling stone: happiest when off on his next adventure, zero desire to settle down.  But when his grandmother passes away, her last words to him are find where you belong. She also drops a bombshell, telling him the name of the father he never knew—and where to find him.

Tanner is due at his next posting soon, but his curiosity is piqued, and he sets out for Asheboro, North Carolina, to ask around. He’s been in town less than twenty-four hours when he meets Kaitlyn Cooper, a doctor and single mom. They both feel an immediate connection; Tanner knows Kaitlyn has a story to tell, and he wants to hear it. To Kaitlyn, Tanner is mysterious, exciting—and possibly leaving in just a few weeks.

Meanwhile, nearby, eighty-three-year-old Jasper lives alone in a cabin bordering a national forest. With only his old dog, Arlo, for company, he lives quietly, haunted by a tragic accident that took place decades before. When he hears rumors that a white deer has been spotted in the forest—a creature of legend that inspired his father and grandfather—he becomes obsessed with protecting the deer from poachers.

As these characters’ fates orbit closer together, none of them is expecting a miracle . . . but that may be exactly what is about to alter their futures forever.

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Counting Miracles: A Novel: Sparks, Nicholas: 9780593449592: Amazon.com: Books

Nicholas Sparks is one of the world’s most beloved storytellers. All of his books have been New York Times bestsellers, with over 130 million copies sold worldwide, in more than 50 languages, including over 92 million copies in the United States alone.

Eleven of Nicholas Sparks's novels—The Choice, The Longest Ride, The Best of Me, Safe Haven, The Lucky One, The Last Song, Dear John, Nights in Rodanthe, The Notebook, A Walk to Remember, and Message in a Bottle—have been adapted into major motion pictures. The Notebook has also been adapted into a Broadway musical, featuring music and lyrics by Ingrid Michaelson. 

My Thoughts...

I'm always up for a good emotional read from Sparks. One book a year is what you get from Sparks so you know it will be a good one.

I really enjoyed Jaspers character. Very well done. This one was one I will be thinking about for a little bit.

Mary Reader received this book from the publisher for review. A favorable review was not required, and all views expressed are our own.

It Wasn't Roaring it was Weeping by Lisa Jo Baker

 

Born White in the heart of Zululand during the racial apartheid, Lisa-Jo Baker longed to write a new future for her children—a longing that set her on a journey to understand where she fit into a story of violence and faith, history and race. Before marriage and motherhood, she came to the United States to study to become a human rights advocate. When she naïvely walked right into America’s own turbulent racial landscape, Baker experienced the kind of painful awakening that is both individual and universal, personal and social. Yet years would go by before she traced this American trauma back to her own South African past.

Baker was a teenager when her mother died of cancer, leaving her with her father. Though they shared a language of faith and justice, she often feared him, unaware that his fierce temper had deep roots in a family’s and a nation’s pain. Decades later, old wounds reopened when she found herself spiraling into a terrifying version of her father, screaming herself hoarse at her son. Only then did Baker realize that to go forward—to refuse to repeat the sins of our fathers—we must first go back.

With a story that stretches from South Africa’s outback to Washington, D.C., It Wasn’t Roaring, It Was Weeping is a courageous look at inherited hurts and prejudices, and a hope-filled example for all who feel lost in life or worried that they’re too off course to make the necessary corrections. Baker’s story shows that it’s never too late to be free.

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It Wasn't Roaring, It Was Weeping: Interpreting the Language of Our Fathers Without Repeating Their Stories: Baker, Lisa-Jo: 9780525652861: Amazon.com: Books

LISA-JO BAKER is a bestselling author with a BA in English/prelaw from Gordon College and a JD from the University of Notre Dame Law School. Lisa-Jo has lived and worked on three continents in the human rights field and subsequently spent nearly a decade leading the online community of women called (in)courage as their editor in chief and community manager. Originally from South Africa, Lisa-Jo now lives just outside Washington, D.C., where she met and fell in love with her husband in the summer of ’96. Their story together spans decades, languages, countries, books, three very opinionated children, and one dog.

Three Keys by Laura Pritchett

Becoming invisible is painful . . . unless you know how to work it.

Ammalie Brinks has just lost the three keys of her life’s purpose—her husband, her job, and her role as a mom, after her son went off to college. She’s also mystified to find herself in middle age: How exactly had that happened? The terrifying idea of becoming irrelevant, invisible, of letting her life slip away Into obscurity, has her driving distracted through Nebraska with a broken plastic fork in her tangled hair.

But what Ammalie has found are three literal keys, saved in a drawer for years, from her and her husband’s past. They are the keys to homes that she hopes will be empty—and plans on spending time in. Embarking on an international and increasingly complicated journey (criminal behavior turns out to be challenging!), she seeks to find a life truly her own. And that middle-age business? As someone breaking the law, Ammalie finds there's a real benefit to being invisible when you’re working on becoming the striking, bold, and very much manifested self you want to be.

Laura Pritchett, winner of the PEN USA Award for Fiction and the Colorado Book Award, offers a delightful exploration of the very serious business of living a full and honest life. Filled with love, heartbreak, and misdemeanors, Three Keys tackles the unavoidable sorrows and joys experienced during a second coming of age with the zest and vigor that it deserves.

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Three Keys: A Novel: Pritchett, Laura: 9780593724200: Amazon.com: Books

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Laura Pritchett's seventh novel Three Keys is due out in July. Her other novels include Playing with {Wild}Fire (Torrey House, 2024), The Blue Hour (Counterpoint, 2017), Red Lightning (Counterpoint, 2015) Stars Go Blue (Counterpoint, 2014), Sky Bridge (Milkweed Editions, 2009), and Hell's Bottom, Colorado (Milkweed Editions, 2001). Known for championing the complex and contemporary West, giving voice to the working class, and re-writing the “Western,” her books have garnered the PEN USA Award, the Milkweed National Fiction Prize, the WILLA, the High Plains Book Award, several Colorado Book Awards, and others.

She’s also the author of one play, two nonfiction books, and editor of three environmental-based anthologies.

She developed and directs the MFA in Nature Writing at Western Colorado University, one of the few in the nation with a focus on environmental and place-based writing. She earned her Ph.D. from Purdue University. When not writing or teaching, she can generally be found outside in Colorado’s mountains.

 

Under Our Roof By Madeleine Dean

 

A congresswoman and her son reveal how he survived a ten-year battle with opioid abuse—and what their family’s journey to recovery can teach us about finding hope amid the unspeakable.

When Madeleine Dean discovered that her son Harry was stealing from the family to feed a painkiller addiction, she was days away from taking the biggest risk of her life: running for statewide office in Pennsylvania. For years, she had sensed something was wrong. Harry was losing weight and losing friends. He had lost the brightness in his eyes and voice, changing from a young boy with boundless enthusiasm to a shadow of himself, chasing something she could not see. Now her worst fears had come to light.

Under Our Roof is the story of a national crisis suffered in the intimacy of so many homes, told with incredible candor through the dual perspectives of a mother rising in politics and a son living a double life, afraid of what might happen if his secret is exposed. In this honest, bracing, yet ultimately uplifting memoir, they discuss the patterns of a family dealing with an unspoken disease, the fear that keeps addicts hiding in shame, and the moments of honesty, faith, and personal insight that led to Harry’s recovery.

In a country searching for answers to the devastating effects of opioids and drug abuse, Under Our Roof is a ray of hope in the darkness. It is not only a love story between mother and son but also an honest account of a pressing national crisis by a family poised to make a difference. 

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Under Our Roof: A Son's Battle for Recovery, a Mother's Battle for Her Son: Dean, Madeleine, Cunnane, Harry: 9780593138069: Amazon.com: Books

Madeleine Dean Cunnane is an American politician and the U.S. Representative for Pennsylvania's 4th congressional district. The district includes almost all of Montgomery County, a suburban county north of Philadelphia.

My Thoughts...

When asked to review this book, I did not think about it I just said yes. But after spending an afternoon with my nose in it and I did not put it down. 

This is a book of hope no sad ending to this families trying times. It is a story of understanding and hope.

This is going to be the new normal I hope.

Grab a copy of this 3 star read and share it with those around hurting from drug addiction. Let them know that there is hope.

The Mary Reader received this book from the publisher for review. A favorable review was not required and all views expressed are our own.

The Life You Long For By Christy Nockels

 

Christy Nockels knows firsthand how easily our desire to serve God—even when using the gifts He has given us—can overshadow our delight in simply being with Him. When God called her to lay down her ministry for a season, Christy was forced to confront how her sense of purpose and worth had become tangled up in her work. God then lovingly invited her to discover true rest in His presence as she learned to live as the Beloved.
 
In The Life You Long For, Christy shows us how to let go of hustle and achievement and instead find our identity in the quiet center of God’s love. As we delight in being with Him, we are filled to overflowing with contentment and love that propel us into an entirely new way of being, one in which every act of service and every encounter with the people around us arise from a heart at rest.
 

With irresistible warmth and grace, this book calls you to step fully into the life you didn’t even realize you’ve been seeking, as you find your highest calling not in a duty to uphold but in a beautiful identity to live out.

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The Life You Long For: Learning to Live from a Heart of Rest: Nockels, Christy: 9780593192542: Amazon.com: Books

Christy Nockels is a worship leader, singer/songwriter, who has a heart to lead others to authentically connect and communicate with God. Christy and her husband, Nathan, toured nationwide as the Christian music duo, Watermark, recording five acclaimed albums. The couple was also an intrical part of the collegiate movement, Passion Conferences, for twenty years. Christy’s voice can be heard on songs like, “Waiting Here for You” and her songwriting on church anthems like, “Lord, I Need You” and “Healing is in Your Hands.” Christy now records for the couple’s own recording label, Keeper’s Branch Records, where they’ve enjoyed releasing fan-favorites like Be Held; Lullabies for the Beloved. Christy’s popular podcast, “The Glorious in the Mundane” is intentionally focused to help women, in any season of life, find the wonder and awe of God in the moments of the here and now. Christy lives in Franklin, TN with her husband and three beloved children (and two dogs who think they are beloved children!) 

My Thoughts...

This is the kind of book you have to take  your time and read it slow there is so much to chew on you can read it fast you will get choked and miss a lot. 

I love how Nockels shared her heart in her personal stories. It was almost like sitting with her on her back porch and hearing her share her heart with me.

This is the perfect gift book and one that you will want to share with those that you love.

I gave this book 4 stars.

The Mary Reader received this book from the publisher for review. A favorable review was not required and all views expressed are our own.

Shine! By Chris Grabenstein

Everyone deserves to shine in this sparkling new book from the New York Times bestselling author of Escape from Mr. Lemoncello's Library, Chris Grabenstein, and coauthor J.J. Grabenstein--just right for fans of Word of Mouse and The Fourteenth Goldfish.

"Who do you want to be?" asks Mr. Van Deusen. "And not when you grow up. Right here, right now."

Shine on! might be the catchphrase of twelve-year-old Piper's hero--astronaut, astronomer, and television host Nellie Dumont Frisse--but Piper knows the truth: some people are born to shine, and she's just not one of them. That fact has never been clearer than now, since her dad's new job has landed them both at Chumley Prep, a posh private school where everyone seems to be the best at something and where Piper definitely doesn't fit in.

Bursting with humor, heart, science, possibilities, and big questions, Shine! is a story about finding your place in the universe--a story about figuring out who you are and who you want to be.

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https://www.amazon.com/Shine-J-J-Grabenstein/dp/1524717665/ref=tmm_hrd_swatch_0?_encoding=UTF8&qid=1573960515&sr=1-1

CHRIS GRABENSTEIN is the #1 New York Times bestselling author of ESCAPE FROM MR. LEMONCELLO'S LIBRARY, MR. LEMONCELLO'S LIBRARY OLYMPICS, THE ISLAND OF DR. LIBRIS, WELCOME TO WONDERLAND: HOME SWEET MOTEL and many other books, as well as the coauthor of numerous fun and funny page-turners with James Patterson, including I FUNNY, HOUSE OF ROBOTS, TREASURE HUNTERS, and JACKY HA-HA. Chris lives in New York City with his wife, J.J., two cats, and a dog named Fred. You can visit Chris at ChrisGrabenstein.com.

My Thoughts...
Young readers ages 8-12 are going to love this one. Teach your kids nothing is more important them loving everyone and being yourself all the time.
 So many people can learn from this. But the little ones are going to want to read this book over and over again all the while learning a valuable life lesson. This should be under every 8-12 year old Childs Christmas tree.
I gave this book 4 stars and recommend it.
 The Mary Reader received this book from the publisher for review. A favorable review was not required and all views expressed are our own.