Author: careyloves

The Prophetess, the debut book by Evonne Marzouk, features the Jewish faith, mysticism, and fantasy. 

Rachel, a young Jewish girl lives in Baltimore. After her orthodox grandfather dies, she is suddenly drawn to Yonatan, a wise older man in their synagogue. She gains a wealth of information about the Jewish faith, prayer, and meditation from him. When Rachel begins to have visions involving people in danger, she seeks ways to help them. During the story, she learns about herself, her gifts and callings, and the direction she chooses for her life. 

The book is written with footnotes that explain the Hebrew terms Evonne uses throughout the book. I thoroughly enjoyed learning more about their faith. 

While The Prophetess is about people of the Jewish religion, the lessons woven throughout are relatable to people of all faiths. The further I got into the book, the stronger I was drawn into the story. 

NUGGETS I GAINED:
Learn/know your gifts & ways to use them to make the world a better place for you and the people you know. 

Thank you Bancroft Press, Evonne Marzouk, and Suzy Approved Book Tours for this ARC in exchange for my review.

To learn more check out these websites: https://www.evonnemarzouk.com https://suzyapprovedbooktours.com/home/ https://bancroftpress.com https://www.jewishbookcouncil.org

We had a wonderful time in Asheville last week! The colors were not quite as vibrant as we’d hoped they’d be, but it was still gorgeous, and it was wonderful to get out of Florida and experience the cooler temperatures. 

This morning as I was scrolling through what seems like hundreds of pictures, I began reflecting upon our hot air balloon ride. The ride was first scheduled for Wednesday morning, but due to weather, it was rescheduled for Friday morning. Early Thursday morning, I began experiencing anxiety about the flight. I’ve also had a respiratory issue that I’ve been worried about as well. I only slept 3 hours on Thursday. 

My fear was causing me to only focus on what could happen if something went awry. What if the pilot became incapacitated, the balloon had a whole in it, we ran out of gas, we hit a power line, or an angry shotgun totin’ farmer who doesn’t want us to land in his pasture shoots at us! All of this, and I’m not even afraid of heights! In addition, I was fearful about being able to breathe once we were in the air. 

I now realize I had a major case of tunnel vision. I was only focused on the balloon ride and what could go wrong. When we finally made it to the launch site, and I saw that the pilot appeared physically and mentally competent, and the flight staff looked like they had it under control, I gained hope that all would be ok. Once in the air, it was calm and peaceful, and there was no room for fear! We could see the beautiful country side and the colors of the trees as far as our eyes could see. The colors were more dynamic from the sky. Our world is such a beautiful place! My fears were relieved, and I was able to enjoy the ride. I’m grateful we didn’t back out due to the anxiety I felt! How sad that would have been. Hopefully, the next time I can only focus on what could go wrong with a situation I’m facing, I’ll look back and remember my balloon ride. 

QOTD: Do you struggle with this type of tunnel vision or anxiety? If so, how do you break through and see the big picture? 

http://ashevillehotairballoons.com

I love me some CLo! This book was a fun, fast read! This review will be just as breezy! 

Holland watches Calvin from afar while he plays his guitar in the subway station. She develops a major crush on him. He’s sexy and musically gifted. The two of them meet, and the story takes off. Ultimately, they help each other grow in their personal lives, not just with each other. 

Holland learns how to stand up to mean people and begins to find her niche in the world. Calvin receives what he needs in order to be recognized for the exceptional musician he is. 

Even romance offers something we can take away from the book for our lives. So….

WHAT NUGGET DID I RECEIVE WHILE READING THIS?

Don’t let your fear of taking a risk keep you from finding your passion! This is a major lesson for me!

*B O O K   R E V I E W*

“That was the thing about lies: they demanded commitment. Once you lied, you had to stick to your story.”

Miracle Creek, is the debut book of Angie Kim, an up and coming author who is also an attorney. Most of the book, consists of a four day murder trial; however, the book spans the course of a year, from when a deadly incident occurs in 2008 until the end of the trial in 2009.  Someone is charged with starting the fire that caused an oxygen therapy chamber (HBOT) to explode, causing two people to die in a horrifying way. 

The chamber, called the “Miracle Submarine”, was built for the purpose of healing a variety of disorders and conditions. It was the dream of Pak Yoo, a Korean immigrant who had experience with this type of therapy while in Korea. His wife Young, and their daughter, Mary, help him run his operation. 

Contained in the chamber at the time of the explosion were Henry, a child diagnosed with autism; Matt, a doctor experiencing infertility; Kitt and TJ, a mother and her autistic son; and Teresa and Rosa, a mother and her daughter who’s suffering with cerebral palsy. Henry’s mother wasn’t in the chamber that day. Others who weren’t in the chamber included the Yoo family and the protestors from a support group for moms of autistic children. 

Miracle Creek moves fast. Each day of the trial is a section of the book. Within each section are chapters telling what that day was like for each person and the people they were in contact with. Kim’s writing made me feel like I was in the courtroom each day. I didn’t want to put it down; I wanted to read through to discover who committed the crime! 

There were aspects of the book that were difficult for me. It’s hard to read about death, especially death where a child is concerned. It was also difficult to read how the mothers of the three children in the story experienced stress and exhaustion while caring for their children and never seeing the end in sight. They felt trapped.

This book provides a variety of issues that provide great topics for discussion, topics such as autism, infertility, immigration, mothers of special needs children, lies and secrets. It seems that every character, except the children lied about something. They kept secrets from their families. They kept secrets with each other. One lie led to another in order to continue covering up their secrets.

Angie Kim tells a story that only she could. She moved from Seoul, South Korea as a preteen. She’s practiced law as a trial lawyer after receiving her education at Stanford and Harvard Universities. She’s also the mother of a child who’s been treated with hyperbaric oxygenation. 

Side note: I had never heard of hyperbaric oxygenation therapy until reading this book. When our IRL bookclub decided to read this, one of our members explained how she had been treated in a chamber after a face lift that caused one side of her face to be paralyzed. She said the HBOT corrected the problem. Since then, I’ve heard many more cases. 

HOW CAN I LIVE MORE PURPOSELY AFTER READING THIS?

I found myself wanting to judge the mothers in this story, but I have to ask…are they really at fault? I hope that I would have behaved differently than they did given their situations.I’ll strive to always tell the truth to myself and those around me. 

Wow! I picked up The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo by Taylor Jenkins Reid on Saturday morning, and didn’t climb out of my hole until Sunday night near midnight! Ahhh… that’s a slight exaggeration, I did a few other things like bathe, fix food, talk to my hubby, go to the theatre… but, omg, I was hooked!

Monique Grant is a thirty something aspiring writer who wonders why Evelyn Hugo has requested her, and only her, to write her biography. It’s a story of how at the age of 15 she married her first husband in order to runaway from her disappointing childhood. I realized pretty quickly that Evelyn used her ensuing marriages to not only gain acclaim and stardom, but also to protect a secret love that was seen as dark and dirty during the 50’s-80’s era.  

Evelyn Hugo is a strong female, who will not be controlled by men or let anyone stand in her path to fame. I’m surprised I fell in love with her character since I was judgmental of her at the beginning. In fact, this book has several strong women in it who deal with messy issues in their lives and come out even more badass. Ultimately, Evelyn leads Monique to understand how strong she can be in her writing and career. 

Taylor Jenkins Reid’s structuring of the story is brilliant. She alternates between the past, with Evelyn’s relationships and rise to stardo, and present, with an 80 something Evelyn telling her story to Monique. In between we see snippets of magazine tabloids about Evelyn. It’s addictive, and will keep you turning pages. 

I’d like to tell you more about the aspects of this story that really caused reflection for me, but I would be forced to reveal part of her secret, and you need to discover that on your own. 

Taylor Jenkins Reid is one of my new favorite authors. After reading her latest book, Daisy Jones and the Six, I knew I needed more of Reid in my life. The Seven Marriages of Evelyn Hugo did not disappoint, and I’ve now added the rest of her work to my ever-growing TBR list. 

A husband is wrongfully accused of rape and convicted to twelve years in prison. A wife tries to remain strong while he’s gone. Their back and forth letters are touching. It was like I was able to peer into their personal lives and feel some of what they felt. As a woman, some of the letters Roy wrote to Celestial made be angry, and yet here he is, a black man tried and treated unfairly. A man whose home is a prison full of many hopeless men.

As I read more, I became intrigued with the characters. Sometimes I wanted to tell them to wake up…a sign of a good book. Near the end I realized that my not being black made the story hard for me to read in places. I don’t understand what it means to be a black young person, especially a man, in this day. I can’t relate because of the privileges I’ve had being born white and being married to a white man. Oh my…I need to understand, want to understand.  I’ll quote Celestial, “Accident of birth is the number one predictor of happiness.” Recently my husband was pulled over by a white deputy for a traffic violation while I was with him. My husband, even though he felt like the officer had been unnecessarily rough with him, was given a mere warning. Would it have concluded differently if he’d been black? We both had the feeling it would have. An American Marriage brings all these points home in a timely fashion without being preachy or even political. 

I was happy with the ending even though it wasn’t what I expected. This book unquestionably made me think. I hope I’ve tried to summarize the book in a relatable way. This was a 5 star book for me. 

Oh, by the way, http://www.tayarijones.com/did a book talk near us, and we were able to go! What a delight, to hear her speak AND meet her afterwards! I’m looking forward to reading her other books!