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Wear Joy: 12 Pearls of Christmas Guest Post

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Welcome to the 12 Pearls of Christmas! Enjoy these Christmas “Pearls of Wisdom” Please follow along through Christmas day as Melody Carlson, Lauraine Snelling, Rachel Hauck, Tricia Goyer, Maureen Lang, and more share their heartfelt stories of how God has touched their life during this most wonderful time of the year.
AND BEST OF ALL … there’s also a giveaway! Fill out the quick form at the link located at the bottom of this post to be entered to win a PEARL NECKLACE, BRACELET AND EARRINGS! You may enter once a day. The winner will be announced on New Year’s Day at the Pearl Girls Blog! Pearls – a tangible reminder of God’s grace to us all.

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Wear Joyby Rachel Hauck
Thanksgiving day in central Florida broke warm and sunny under a blue sky. The thin fall breeze beckoned me. Taking my bike out, I rode the neighborhood feeling so grateful for all my blessings. Joy bubbled up in my spirit. I’d been feeling it for a day, these waves of joy, but as I rode my bike and talked to God, the waves strengthened and splashed my heart the entire ride. I’d laugh. Then tear up. And laugh again. As one who’s battled and won the war on anxiety and fear attacks, the onslaught of joy was welcomed, and actually sparked a new prayer in my heart. I’ve endured attacks of panic, time for attacks of joy.
The journey of joy began earlier in the year while writing a book coincidentally named, “Dining with Joy.”
Sitting at my table one day, revelation hit me. “The joy of the Lord is my strength.” Nehemiah 8:10. The more I meditated on it, the more I wanted His joy. I don’t want my strength. I want His.
Not long after, I went to Nashville for a girl’s weekend. One of my friends handed me a coffee cup inscribed with “The joy of the Lord is my strength.” Ever just know? God is calling. During the holiday season, I turn 50. Yep, the big 5-0. Can’t stop it, I might as well embrace it. Fifty is often associated with jubilee, a time of restoration, and healing, even release from debt and slavery. It’s a time of returning to property, and inheritance. A time of rest. A time of JOY! This past week, a friend gifted me with a beautiful Christmas ornament. Inscribed on it? You guessed it. JOY! To me, the world doesn’t look very joyful. There are social and economic woes. But God is speaking and offering joy. As you go into this holiday season, ask God for a pearl of joy. Like pearls, crafted through abrasion, God’s true joy is often formed in us during difficult seasons. Here’s the thing, His strength isn’t doled out based on our goodness, our success or failure, or the fact the holiday season is hard or sad for you. He is ready, willing and able to overcome all your weaknesses, fears and anxiety, sadness with the power of His very own joy. His joy. Your strength. I’ve been walking into rooms, houses, outdoors, raising my arms and shouting, “Joy!” People look at me funny, but I want to spread the joy of the Lord. To spread the very essence of His strength.
How about you? Can you find the pearl of joy in your life, in the essence of God’s heart toward you?Wear joy this season.

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About Rachel: RITA-finalist Rachel Hauck lives in Florida with her husband, Tony. She is the author of Dining with Joy; Sweet Caroline; Love Starts with Elle; and The Sweet By and By, co-authored with Sara Evans. For more information please visit http://www.rachelhauck.com/.
Oh, and be sure to enter Rachel’s Dining With Joy NOOK eReader giveaway!

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A three strand pearl necklace will be given away on New Year’s Day. All you need to do to have a chance of winning is {FILL OUT THIS QUICK ENTRY FORM}. The winner will be announced on the Pearl Girls Blog (http://margaretmcsweeney.blogspot.com/) on New Years Day!
12 Pearls of Christmas Series and contest sponsored by Pearl Girls®. For more information, please visit http://www.pearlgirls.info/

Twelve Pearls of Christmas: Giveaway and Guest Post Series

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I am taking part in the 12 Pearls of Christmas guest series. This is a first for thriftymommasbrainfood. So please let me know your thoughts and don’t forget to enter the giveaway for your own pearls. This first entry post is from Margaret Mcsweeney12 Pearls of Christmas! We’ve lined up several authors to share their Christmas “Pearls of Wisdom”! Please follow along beginning today (Monday the 13th) through Christmas day as I bring you Melody Carlson, Lauraine Snelling,  Rachel Hauck, Tricia Goyer, Maureen Lang, and more. Fill out the quick form at the link located at the bottom of this post or any of the following 12 Pearls of Christmas posts (on any of the participating posts) to be entered to win a PEARL NECKLACE, BRACELET AND EARRINGS! You may enter once a day. The winner will be announced on New Year’s Day!

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Pearls of Patience
by Margaret Mcsweeney
As I write by the light of my Christmas tree on a late winter’s night, I reflect upon the poignancy and purpose of this season.  The tiny white lights look like strands of pearls draped gracefully (perhaps haphazardly is a more honest description) across the evergreen boughs.  Tomorrow I will hang the ornaments and at last place the angel atop the tree

Angels carry a special meaning this Christmas.  My brother, Randy passed away on December 2nd from a heart attack at age 53.  He was feeding a stray cat on his side porch.  Randy was always like St. Francis of Asissi – animals would find him, sensing a kind soul.  And my brother was a gentle and patient soul.  He loved to fish.  He tried to teach me, but I immediately lost interest when I realized worms were involved. And I could never sit still on the banks of a river and just wait.  However, Randy could do that.  He could wait, and waiting is a true gift.  He put into practice the Scriptures.  “Wait upon the Lord.”  “Be still and know that He is God.”  Patience doesn’t have to be passive.  Wait is still an action verb.  Part of the waiting process for fishing is seeking.  Elaine (Randy’s wife of 31 years) told me that Randy said he could see the fish deep beneath the waters.  He actively waited for the right time to catch them.

During Randy’s last fishing trip on earth – just a week before his death, he felt an urgency to take a picture of the clouds with his cell phone.  When he returned home, he showed the picture to Elaine.  They realized that a face of an angel was looking at Randy from the sky – perhaps waiting for God’s timing to bring Randy home to heaven.  In my heart I like to think that this “angel in the sky” was part of the heavenly host that appeared to the shepherds over two thousand years ago.  A Christmas Angel.

The Christmas Angels brought tidings of great joy that Jesus, our Lord and Savior was born.  And because of that incredible gift from God that these angels announced, we all have the promise of eternity. Let us actively wait for His return by sharing our faith, offering hope and acting with love in everything we do.

May each of you be blessed this Christmas as you celebrate the purposeful promises of the Season: Faith, hope and love.   And may the 12 Pearls of Christmas be a blessing to you, too.

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About Margaret: Margaret McSweeney lives with her husband, David and two teenage daughters in the Chicago suburbs. After earning a master’s degree in international business from the University of South Carolina , Margaret moved to New York City to work at a large bank where she met David. Charity and community involvement are very important to Margaret. She is the founder and director of Pearl Girls. For more information please visit http://www.pearlgirls.info/. Margaret is fast at work on several fiction manuscripts and her book Pearl Girls: Encountering Grit, Experiencing Grace was written to help fund the Pearl Girl Charities. Connect with Margaret on Facebook or Twitter.

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A three strand pearl necklace will be given away on New Year’s Day. All you need to do to have a chance of winning is {FILL OUT THIS QUICK ENTRY FORM}. The winner will be announced on the Pearl Girls Blog (http://margaretmcsweeney.blogspot.com/) on New Years Day!
12 Pearls of Christmas Series and contest sponsored by Pearl Girls®. For more information, please visit http://www.pearlgirls.info/

Kate Jacobs Interview, Contest and Blog Tour: Knit The Season

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Thriftymommasbrainfood is so excited to offer an interview with Kate Jacobs and a review of her latest paperback release, the third story in her Friday Night Knitting Club series. Also there is a contest involved as well, so stay tuned to the end of the blog for information. Jacobs is a #1 New York Times Best-selling Author. Her latest novel, in paperback this week, is a lovely story of female friendships filled with strong and admirable female characters. It starts with Dakota Walker, pastry chef and daughter of the late Georgia, force of nature, returning home at Christmas time. Walker is surrounded and supported by her mother’s friends and, in this novel, she is forced to make important choices balancing friends and family. She returns home at the holidays with intentions of turning the somewhat neglected knitting shop into a knitting cafe. This is a lovely story perfect for the season and complete with reader’s guide is a natural choice for book clubs. I have enjoyed this series, particularly because of the great characters.

1. Can you tell readers a bit about your writing habits and what your day looks like when you are working on a novel?


KJ: My writing schedule varies and I’ve tried all sorts of different methods: Writing daily, writing every other day, always taking Fridays off, you name it. I think we all have our own rhythm and it’s unique to each writer. But I always come back to the same pattern: Writing daily (sometimes for long hours) for weeks and weeks and then taking several weeks to rest, read, and edit. I just repeat that cycle until I finish a
book, and have typically edited my draft multiple times before I turn it in. I tend to dress in very comfy clothes – I have special writing pajamas – and if I feel stuck, I grab my laptop and move locations around the house. I might write on the couch for a while and then return to the desk in my home office. My dog, Baxter, prefers when I stay put because my writing coincides with his daily nap. (In other words, he naps anytime I pull out the computer.)

2. For budding authors what advice do you have?


KJ: Sneak time to write regularly. It’s not a very glamorous secret, but it’s crucial. Sometimes I meet aspiring writers who confide that they have a half-finished novel in a drawer at home and ask me how they can complete it. My answer it always the same: Open the drawer! In all seriousness, writing is challenging. Instead of waiting for the moment of inspiration, simply sit down and get some sentences onto the page. Silence your inner critic with the promise to edit, edit, edit, and just march forward. And I am a huge procrastinator! Nothing looks as interesting as folding the laundry when a manuscript is due.

3. Who are some of your favourite authors?


KJ: I jump for joy when certain writers bring out new works: William Trevor, Alice Munro, and Kazuo Ishiguro. I love to read and they are each such masterful storytellers.

4. What motivates you to get out of bed every morning?


KJ: Breakfast! Hanging out with my husband and my dog. The chance to see what’s going to happen next in whatever story I’m writing. The knowledge that I’ll probably sneak in a nap later on. All the good stuff.

5. You write amazingly strong and three dimensional female characters. Can you tell readers of thriftymommasbrainfood and thriftymommastips if that is deliberate and if they are modelled after any females in your life?

KJ: Thanks so much! I want to write characters (particularly women) that are smart and strong – I never write stupid women though the characters often make questionable choices! For the most part, I don’t use real people as models as I find it more liberating to just follow my imagination. That said, I do sometimes weave in personality elements from people who are no longer in my life, and Gran (Dakota’s great-grandmother in Scotland) is a good example as she has much in common with my late grandmother, Nanny. That’s just a writer’s way of revisiting with a missed loved one.

Knit The Season is by Kate Jacobs, published through Penguin Group Canada, paperback edition out this week, $17.50 Canadian, $14 U.S.

This one gets $$$$ out of $$$$$.

Thanks very much for talking with me and for sharing with our readers.
This contest and blog tour is offering two signed copies of Knit The Season for two lucky readers.
To win:
1.Follow thriftymommasbrainfood on GFC.
2.Follow me on twitter @inkscrblr
3.Leave me information on how to contact you if you win.
I will draw for the winners on Nov. 26th with random.org. Thanks and good luck!

Secret Daughter

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One of the loveliest expressions of the multi-faceted nature of adoption, Secret Daughter, blew me away with its authenticity and its incredible, strong, three-dimensional female characters. Secret Daughter is an emotionally resonating fictional story of three women who will stay with you long after you finish the book. Kavita, the Indian birth mother, tragically suffers through the birth of two daughters she is never allowed to keep in a poor country that values only boy children for what they can contribute to the family and economy. Somer is a married American doctor who will seek to adopt her child from her husband’s home of India, a girl child from an orphanage where her mother-in-law is well known as a volunteer and patron. Asha is that child. Indian born, raised in America, living a life of privilege, and yet she is never really able to discuss or truly access information or feelings about her adoption until she is nearly an adult. The story begins with Kavita giving birth in Dahanu, India 1984. She has a daughter and recalls in flashback the first daughter she gave birth to: “Kavita spent the next two days curled up on the woven straw mat on the floor of the hut. She did not dare ask what had happened to her baby. Whether she was drowned, suffocated or simply left to starve, Kavita hoped only that death came quickly, mercifully. …Like so many baby girls her first born would be returned to the earth long before her time.” When she realizes she has given birth to a second daughter about to face the same fate, she summons an amazing resource of courage and strength and walks miles with her sister to an orphanage where baby girls are left. She risks being beaten by her drunken husband, or worse by strangers to deliver this girl child to safety. Somer is an American doctor married to Krishnan, an Indian student who emigrated to the U.S to study at medical school and remained as a citizen in California. Krishnan maintains strong ties to family in India. Secret Daughter is told in the third person omniscent narrative style, but it is the alternating tale of the two women, adoptive mother and birth mother that makes this novel one of the best I have read in years. A brilliant juxtaposition of birth mother suffering a loss, quickly moves to another mother seeking to become one, Somer, suffering a devastating miscarriage – again. As Somer lies in hospital she thinks of her losses: “They don’t understand it’s not just the baby she lost. It’s everything. The names she runs through as she lies in bed at night. The paint samples for the nursery she’s collected in her desk drawer.” It seems logical when Somer and Krishnan turn to his home of India with the idea of adopting internationally. Somer, a strong independent American woman, is infuriated and quickly made to feel the outsider when she, a Caucasian female stands with her husband united in their desire and intent to create a family. It is at the orphanage and through the various hoops that a male bureaucracy sets up for foreign adoption that Somer feels the first pangs of something akin to culture shock. It is she, an adoptive mother whose skin differs from her child, who will oddly be made to feel time and again throughout her life as if she does not fit, or is less than a biological parent. Many times over the coming years Somer will be mistaken for the nanny. Her physical and personality differences make her an outsider. Similarly Asha feels herself an oddity, an only child raised in a family of doctors, for whom it is an assumed career path. Never really knowing details of her biological parent’s story, Asha imagines all kinds of stories and makes them her own, until it is no longer enough to fantasize her adoption story. Secret Daughter is such a real and raw story of adoption, it will make you laugh and cry and you won’t be able to put it down and it will also help you, no matter where you are or who you are understand adoption better. As an adoptive parent I was truly amazed every time one of the characters spoke such a true feeling or phrase that I have heard repeatedly, either in my own home, or from the many wonderful friends of ours who also have formed their families through adoption. There comes a point in this story where the mother and daughter discussions are so heated that it literally gives the reader great pause and takes your breath away. Asha, in her teens blurts how Somer and Krishnan are not “her real parents. Everyone else knows where they come from, but I have no idea. I don’t know why I have these eyes that everybody always notices. I don’t know how to deal with this damn hair of mine.” Asha, raised without details of her adoption and made to feel that it was not a topic she might discuss in her home for fear of hurt feelings, eventually explodes. Things are said by everyone, adoptive mother included that sever relationships and do almost irreparable damage. Also not knowing the truth of the relinquishment story and the sacrifices made by Kavita, Somer herself makes horrible assumptions and in the process hurts her daughter and her marriage. “Her mother’s voice drops to a hoarse whisper. ‘At least I wanted you.'” Secret Daughter is simply one of the best books I’ve read in years. I did not receive this one from a publisher for review, I bought it myself and had to share it with my readers because it is so magnificent and there are so many lessons to be learned here throughout this adoption story. Shilpi Somaya Gowda was raised in Toronto and has lived many places. Her parents emigrated from Mumbai. She has an MBA and now lives in California with her children and husband. Perhaps most telling of why this story is so authentic, is the fact that she spent a summer volunteering at an Indian orphnage. I look forward to more from this author. This book would make a fantastic Christmas gift for the readers on your list. To purchase Secret Daughter click on my Amazon.ca carousel widget at side of page. Affiliate links and ads help fund this blog.

Thriftymommastips $$$$$ out of $$$$$. (5 out of 5: my highest rating)
Secret Daughter, first edition paperback, William Morrow, a division of Harper Collins, 2010, $17.99 U.S. 340 pages plus helpful glossary at end of Indian words

The King’s Christmas List

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The King’s Christmas List should be at the top of many Christmas lists for parents interested in promoting a generation of socially aware young people. This book is a very sweet story about a little girl named Emma and her dog Shu -Shu, who set out to make their way to a birthday party, but encounter obstacles, in the form of people in need all along the way. Emma and her dog are invited to the King’s birthday party. But they cannot go empty-handed, so together they craft and bake presents to take with them. Emma and her dog are to travel in a beautiful horse-drawn carriage with her new Christmas cape, a cake they have baked, and her favourite bear, Cherry Bear. First they meet a grandmother and her grandson who are cold and hungry. Emma gives them both the cake and she wraps the boy in her Christmas cape. A little further down the road she and Shu-Shu meet a little girl crying because her bear has fallen into a river. Emma selflessly leaves her with Cherry Bear. Finally they arrive at the castle and are slightly embarrassed to have no present to give them King. Emma begins to tell him of her presents and the story of their trip, but he tells her he knows what she has done and that her gifts to others on his behalf have been the greatest present he could ever receive.
The King’s Christmas list is a really lovely story with opulent drawings and a great message about materialism that is not harsh or heavy-handed. Bonnie Leick’s illustrations are gorgeous and rich and magical. Author Eldon Johnson has taken a simple message and a grown up message and pared it down to a child’s level, pulling it together with very realistic examples of a child’s natural inclination to give from the heart. This is a gorgeous book that, in the end, also relates real life examples from World Vision of how we can all give to others to carry out the true spirit of the season.
The King’s Christmas List is by Eldon Johsnon, illustrated by Bonnie Leick, published by Tommy Nelson, or Thomas Nelson Publishers, Nasheville, 2010, $14.99 US. 30 pages.
Thriftymommastips rating is $$$$$ out of $$$$$. Loved this cute book with heart.

Angelina: An Unauthorized Biography

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One of the most powerful actresses of our generation, Oscar-winner Angelina Jolie is an adoptive parent, UN ambassador and partner to one of Hollywood’s biggest heartthrobs. She is a celebrated and intense actress, famous daughter of Oscar winner Jon Voight and one-time model Marcheline Bertrand. Named the most powerful celebrity in the world, Angelina unseated Oprah Winfrey on the Forbes 2009 Celebrity 100 list. Angelina: An Unauthorized Biography is a page-turner, at once titillating, scandalous and informative. The biography dives right into Angelina’s famous father’s early career. Jon Voight’s early experience in theatre, his friendship with Dustin Hoffman and golden boy status are well detailed. The Voight portion of the book is quite compelling. Readers could be forgiven if at first they began to feel that the biography read as a tale of the father, not the daughter. However there is meat here. Jolie herself cannot be understood without reflecting on the reasons for the volatile relationship with her father and the strange parenting style of her mother. Morton clearly notes, in the beginning of the biography, how Bertrand was initially unable to bond with the infant daughter she gave birth to right at the same time her famous husband began an affair with Stacey Pickren. There is much speculation and comment on the psychological impact this early abandonment may have had on Jolie. The musings and comments from various doctors and psychologists, within the biography, make sense and seem supported by the behaviour of Jolie throughout life. However, the comments are somewhat diminished by the simple fact that none of these doctors or psychologists ever treated Jolie in person. Their comments are made as assumed insights and are speculative then at best. Both Angelina and her brother James Haven sadly were both made to suffer in the protracted angry divorce between her mother and father. That much is fact. Not exactly an overnight success, Angelina started as a model _ at one time thought to be the next Cindy Crawford _ and slowly gained notoriety. Jolie did time dancing in music videos and was often passed over for roles partly because of her strong looks and personality. She didn’t fit the girl next door or girlfriend roles being offered. Eventually she landed roles in movies like Foxfire and Hackers, not really notable works, but on Hackers she met and later married her first husband British actor Jonny Lee Miller. A turning point came when she accepted the role of a doomed supermodel in Gia. Then a Golden Globe nomination came for George Wallace and the star was in demand. As Jolie’s acting reputation grew, so did her political motivation. She is now a highly respected UN ambassador. Much of this has been written about before, however, as has the highly publicized breakup between Brad Pitt and his former wife Jennifer Aniston. When they met on set, Pitt and Angelina Jolie, cast as husband and wife in Mr. and Mrs. Smith, had immediate chemistry. Jolie had already adopted one child Maddox from Cambodia, a spot she was introduced to through filming Lara Croft. She would soon adopt more. Now parents to six children, some biological and others from various international adoptions, the Jolie-Pitts are as well known for their “rainbow family” as they are for their acting roles. What I found to be even more interesting here than the details of drug use and odd sexual behaviour of Jolie’s younger years, were the questionable details of these various international adoptions. While on one hand celebrity adoptions are celebrated for raising the profile of adoption as a viable and beautiful way to make a family, there are numerous details here in this biography of criminal behaviour, missing information, biological parents turning up alive when once thought to be dead, that really cast a harsh light on international adoption. This is the part of the book that is frankly scandalous. On more than one occasion it is revealed that parents of the children adopted by Jolie turned out to be alive, whereas they were assumed dead. In the case of Jolie’s first adoption, when still married to Billy Bob Thornton, the adoption agent Lauryn Galindo herself fell under suspicion of trafficking. During a two year probe it was alleged that she bought children for American families. She was later convicted and served two years in a federal penitentiary for money laundering and conspiracy to commit visa fraud. After Jolie met like-minded actor Brad Pitt, they searched the world for her next child. In Ethiopia they would find a little girl Zahara, whose mother was reported to have died from Aids. In 2005 they adopted her, although Angelina was on paper the adoptive parent, because the country wouldn’t allow adoptions by unmarried couples. A short time after the child was settled in her new home the biological mother surfaced alive. Andrew Morton is one of the world’s most well known celebrity biographers. He has previously written Diana: Her True Story, revealing the inner world of Princess Diana. Morton lives in London and has also written Monica’s Story and Tom Cruise.

Angelina: by Andrew Morton. An Unauthorized Biography,
St. Martin’s Press, New York, August 2010, $26.99 $31.99 Canadian, 328 pages
thriftymommastips rating $$$1/2 out of $$$$$

Switch

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Switch asks readers to envision one of their worst nightmares come true – that your family is being held captive by a demented psychopath. Then the author asks you to travel down that road for awhile imagining what depths of depravity you might contemplate, what horrible lines you might cross to get them back safe. Switch by Grant McKenzie is a fast-paced page-turner. Switch is one of the quickest reads I have undertaken in awhile. I completed much of it in one weekend. Not because it was simplistic, but because it was so fast-paced and urgent I really needed to get to the end and find out if the hero rescued his family. The story is compelling and creepy and a bit in the tradition of James Patterson and Harlan Coben.
Sam is a somewhat down on his luck actor. He earns a pay cheque as a mall cop and bides his time between roles. He is best known for his high school drama roles and had one big break on Magnum P.I. So he is a bit of a celebrity, targeted partly because of that and partly for other reasons. When we meet him he is living in Portland doing commercials to keep his hand in the game having moved with his family from L.A. The prologue of the book begins with a murder, but a somewhat strange one, in that the murderer, a surgeon named Zack, seems conflicted. The conflict is complicated when it is revealed that Zack is being watched. The start of Switch asks the reader to be patient and to switch gears numerous times before coming to the true plot. It is the only confusing piece, a speed bump in the path of a really good but twisted story. I found this part of the book to be a bit awkward and off-putting. The prologue might have been moved or eliminated altogether to lend a better flow to this piece of the book. Jump then from the prologue to a family getting ready for bed, going through the rituals. There is someone watching this ritual remotely. The Watcher. He presses a remote control switch and punches a hole in the gas line inside the house and soon the house is engulfed in flames. Zack is mysteriously a voyeur to the crime. Sam is working the night shift as usual, a job he compares to glorified babysitting and he stumbles onto some kids robbing a candy store. The middle-aged actor believes himself shot, but it turns out the kids held up the store with paint guns. In the wee hours of the morning he leaves his job and heads home, only to be stopped by a police cruiser as he approaches the home he finds, engulfed in flames, body bags being carried out. His house is gone, family assumed dead. He is plunged into a physical state of shock that is very well captured here and then while immobilized with fear and grief, he is labelled the only suspect, grilled by police. Then he gets a strange phone call telling him his family is not dead, the unwitting news that forces him to become a puppet executing acts of violence and torture on command in order to get his family back. Is his family alive or dead? Who is Zack and why is he suddenly working with Sam? Is he on Sam’s side, or working with someone else? Can he trust this new partner? How will he get out of this unending cycle of violence? McKenzie, born in Scotland, lives in British Columbia and was a former crime reporter for the Calgary Sun. The kind of guy I used to work with toiling away with other ink-stained wretches while penning a novel at night. I love the opportunity to review Canadian authors and have been a big fan of all Canadian literature since high school. I am incredibly lucky to have been given a couple of really different, but intriguing new Canadian novels lately. This one Switch, is shocking, fast, and plot-driven, and it reminded me a lot of the James Patterson books. Imaginative in its depravity and psychologically thrilling. Switch is most fun when dropping clever cultural references to the 70s and 80s. Switch is a good read and a worthy edition to a growing body of crime fiction in Canada.

Enjoyable and fast-paced, if you can negotiate the rocky beginning.

Thriftymommastips rating is $$$1/2 out of $$$$$
Switch by Grant McKenzie is in paperback. 432 pages. It is listed for $25.00 and published by Penguin Group Canada, a division of Pearson Canada Inc. First published in Great Britain by Transworld. The Penguin edition is 2010.

Disclosure: I am not paid for my reviews, but as is common in media, a copy of this book was provided to me for free in order to complete this review.

Embracing Your Second Calling: A review and giveaway

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Embracing Your Second Calling by Dale Hanson Bourke asks middle-aged women to examine the second half of life and find meaning or purpose. This is a self help book with a highly religious tone, but what caught my eye about this one was the fact that it is geared entirely towards women. Not only that, but this book  also targets a demographic that has traditionally been discarded, having metaphorically peaked and been seen as headed downhill slowly towards sunset. Hanson Bourke has written an engaging, light-hearted workbook of sorts for women whose children may have left home and moved on to college. It will also appeal to women who may simply wish to reinvent themselves after a divorce or those who desire career change. Whether that looks like a 50ish Mom leaving full-time office work to suddenly become a fashion model, or a woman sandwiched between caregiving roles as daughter, mother and wife suddenly emancipated as the home becomes an empty nest, this book is a simple therapeutic way to work through the idea of what might be next. Embracing Your Second Calling: Finding Passion and Purpose for the Rest of Your Life is a great gift book for women over 50, even more useful for those past 60, a demographic often discarded. Sprinkled throughout the book are suggestions of ways you may Reflect on your life’s purpose or Act with a group of peers. This type of format lends itself nicely to book clubs and bible study groups. There are numerous talking points for those who choose this as a book club selection. For instance: “Reflect: How are you better today than you were in your twenties or thirties?” Often I have heard it said that the twenties are about striving and the thirties about growing career and family and the forties then in terms of a woman’s lifespan can be viewed as a more comfortable point of enjoying some of that work done during the earlier decades. Yet most are still working or perhaps even now re-entering the workforce after a period of time away raising children. So what of the 50s, 60s and 70s? Well, I guess that is the point of the book to help more women think, to inspire confidence and action. This book will also be helpful to those looking to start a mentoring group for younger women. Hanson Bourke is president of the CIDRZ Foundation, a wife and mother of two grown boys. She was previously a marketing and publishing director and now supports charitable Christian works that raise money for African health issues like Aids, malaria and cervical cancer research. She lives in Washington, D.C.

Embracing Your Second Calling, by Dale Hanson Bourke is published by Thomas Nelson and is $16.99 US. The softcover is 223 pages. May 4, 2010.
thriftymommastips review is $$$$ out of $$$$$. A great gift book or book club selection.

Thriftymommastips is not paid to review books; instead a free copy of the book is provided by the publisher, as is common practice in media. The opinions in this review are all mine.

For a chance to win a copy of this book, draw on Sept. 23rd, open to US and Canada all you need to do is:
1. Leave a comment here with your contact information. Tell me one interesting life goal you look forward to in the second half of your life.
2. Follow me on twitter @inkscrblr.
3. Follow brainfood on GFC. see side of blog.

Good luck!

Friday 56 and FASD Day

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This is my second week trying out this cute blogger meme for book bloggers. Freda informed me that the meme is actually from http://www.storytimewithtonya.blogspot.com/ Sorry Tanya for last week’s mistake. My book is strangely nearby and I have read it multiple times as it is considered the bible for those of us who parent children with FASD Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorder. Damaged Angels by Bonnie Buxton, a well known Canadian journalist, is the story of what happened when they adopted a child they didn’t know had FASD. FASD is a physical disability caused by a biological mother’s prenatal alcohol consumption. This is a bittersweet and sad tale of the struggles they endured, physical, financial and emotional, and the sad life of Cleo, their child by adoption. As FASD awareness day is right around the corner I have been looking through this book again and as luck would have it I have a copy right here. None for nine is the motto. There is no safe amount of alcohol, no safe time and so safe type of alcohol to consume during pregnancy.

 So these are the rules:

* Grab the book nearest you. Right now.

* Turn to page 56.

* Find the fifth sentence.

* Post that sentence (plus one or two others if you like) along with these instructions on your blog or (if you do not have your own blog) in the comments section of this blog.

* Post a link along with your post back to this blog.

* Don’t dig for your favorite book, the coolest, the most intellectual. Use the CLOSEST.

Damaged Angels excerpt: (much of page 56 is a list of characteristics that Buxton noted referred to in the news in court stories – the obvious inference here is that many criminals sitting in jails today are sitting there as a direct result of their disability going undiagnosed. FASD is often undiagnosed because it is so difficult to get an accurate history of birth mother’s drinking patterns while pregnant.)
This is the list on 56:
slight build, receeding jaw, unresponsive, quiet, seeming lack of remorse, model prisoner, learning disabled, ADHD, unemployed, welfare recipient, violent rages, alcoholic, addict, school dropout, repeat offender, alcoholic parents or broken home, native background, adopted, foster child.
This is a paragraph I like: “We are all interconnected. Our lives profoundly influenced by small events that may have happened years ago, involving people we may never know. Back in April 1979, a woman addicted to alcohol, whom I have never met, became pregnant with her third child, continued to drink through her pregnancy _and whirled my life into an unending orbit of love, grief, despair, and hope.”
Damaged Angels is a great read and a beautiful memoir about this tragic, largely preventable disorder. Buy it and give it to someone you know who plans to get pregnant.