Book Review: Saving CeeCee Honeycutt

Saving CeeCee Honeycutt by Beth Hoffman was a book club pick. Unfortunately, I didn't read it in time (setting it aside only 25 pages in). I believe it was also the month of my son's wedding, so I was stressed for time, anyway. When I finally did pick up the book, I took forever to read it. Perhaps it was just not the right time for this book for me. The characters were sweet and interesting, but I just couldn't remain engaged enough. It took me 3 weeks to read it.

Twelve-year-old CeeCee Honeycutt lives in Ohio with her southern belle mother. Her mother feels trapped in exile away from the south. She fixates on her one moment of fame when she won a 1951 beauty pageant. CeeCee is embarrassed by her mother's crazy behavior, but equally bereft when her mother dies in a tragic accident. She thinks things can't get any worse when her father sends her to live with her great-aunt in Savannah. But, as is so often true in life, the very worst changes can be a saving grace in the end.

The others in my book club encouraged me to read it anyway. It is probably a great read under normal circumstances. I simply don't have normal circumstances these days. I've noticed that almost all the books I've been reading have been audiobooks. They accompany time spent on the treadmill or in the car. Thus, I don't abandon them for days on end. Hopefully my hard copy reading will begin to pick up again.

Mid-month Mention: Amazing Bible Project

Something mind-boggling, outstanding, and inspiring jumped out at me on Facebook the other day. I saw it in the Rabbit Room Chinwag. The poster was trying to acquire more of  the now-defunct buff-color White-Out. I am sharing several photos (taken from FB) because the idea of this Bible transcription project blows me away! I would so love to make this a daily practice in the coming years, but I must think long and hard to determine if I can be dedicated and disciplined enough. In this first photo, Jessica Culver shares her accomplishment and her dilemma:

Many people responded with questions, so Jessica posted a longer explanation of how she went about transcribing the entire Bible in 7 years (12 verses per day):

Here is a photo of the refuse and result of her efforts:

I have already been transcribing 2-4 verses daily with the Homespun Wife Scripture Writing Group. Moreover, I've had the time-investment and discipline of praying 3 times a day for my Facebook friends in my 2023 Prayer Project that carried over into 2024. My handwriting is atrocious! This would tax my wrist and hand more (multiplying the number of verses per day). But I can think of no better replacement for my prayer project. 

There is great blessing in being in the Word. Even greater blessing in hiding God's Word in your heart. I'm not tremendous at verse memorization. I can remember the words, but struggle with identifying the address (location in the Bible). The process of writing it out, reading it aloud, and storing it away should help memorization. I'm convinced the days are coming when every believer will wish they had God's Word tucked deep enough in their minds and hearts to call forth when needed.

I will pray over this for the next few weeks. It would be awful to begin something, only to abandon it when it feels too hard. If this sounds interesting to you, let me know. Perhaps, if I do take on this project, we could help hold each other accountable. Regardless of if anyone else duplicates this amazing Bible project, my heart lifted just in reading Jessica's account. I praise her dedication and her desire to begin again and complete another transcription by her 40th birthday. What a fantastic way to honor God and hide His Word in your heart!

Book Review: Christmas Baggage

Christmas Baggage by Deborah M. Hathaway was another holiday read to spur me into the holiday mood. I loved being transported to London with the main character. The whole time I was listening on Hoopla, I kept thinking of this Facebook video by Wonders of London, showcasing the Christmas lights in London. Don't have Facebook and can't follow that link? Try this one for Christmas videos on their You Tube page. It would be fabulous to be in London in December! Want to go there but can't travel? This book will transport you into the sights and sounds of London during the holidays.

Poor Claire Frost! Her boyfriend dumped her and, as usual, her parents would rather be on a cruise than spend Christmas with her. Then her best friend begs Claire to accompany her on a visit to relatives in England. She even finds her a discounted airline price. How can Claire say no?

From her first encounter with her friend's cousin, Liam, Claire is as frosty as her name. What a jerk he is! Who cares if he's drop-dead handsome! She couldn't possibly be interested in someone so rude and condescending. Or could she? Especially with that fantastic British accent. Swoon!

As the Amazon page articulates, this book is perfect for clean read romance lovers. It provides a happily ever after and warm Christmas feels in a British setting. It follows the popular enemies-to-friends-to-love-interests pattern. The book transported me to a world of wonder and magic. What better place to fall in love than London? What better time than at Christmas? 

Book Review: The Book Swap

I scrambled to enter when Goodreads offered a giveaway for Tessa Bickers' The Book Swap. Although I did not win, I discovered access to the book through Hoopla (again in audio, as are so many of the books I've consumed recently). What a great story idea. Imagine you accidentally donate your favorite book (well annotated in the margins) to a Little Free Library (Hmm, accidental donations? We're familiar with that!). When you go back, you discover the book is safely there, but filled with further marginalia from a mystery man. Thus, begins a ping-pong of correspondence and intellectual rumination. What a fabulous premise! I'd love to live this out myself, ha!

Erin Connolly is mortified to learn she carelessly donated her copy of To Kill a Mockingbird to her neighborhood Little Free Library. It packs a double punch because the book contained a last message on a postcard from her late best friend Bonnie. That message encouraged Erin to live out her dreams. Erin is far from living her dreams. Trapped in a job she loathes, she cannot stop coping with life by talking with Bonnie whenever she manifests in a chair in Erin's room.

Enter Mystery Man. He responds to her thoughtful marginalia with equally intriguing comments of his own. He invites her to meet up with him in another book that he has left in the Little Free Library for her to find. The correspondence is lively. The attraction is intense. But, of course, complications arise. Desperate to keep someone else from running off with the next book from Mystery Man, Erin hounds down a neighbor and offers to tutor his daughter if he will relinquish the book to her.

Although this was not a clean read, I thoroughly enjoyed the characters, the story line, and the observations and comments on books I've read. If you love books, especially epistolary novels, this is a sure winner. A love song to books and second chances, the tale makes the reader wish it was them enjoying a neighborly book swap. I've never donated books to a Little Free Library. Believe me, I'm more game now. 

Even though romance is not something I seek, it would be delightful to interact over favorite books. Indeed, I think it would be cool to start up a round-robin book exchange. I'd send a favorite book on to another reader, who would join in comments and pass it along to another reader until the book travelled full circle back. Of course, then we'd have to send it along the chain again so everyone could read the accumulated marginalia. Alas, I'm not one to write in the margins. Nor do I have a set group in mind to take part in this imaginary round-robin book exchange. For me, I'll have to settle for the fun of reading Tessa Bickers' delightful novel.

📒Content Caution: sex and language

Book Review: The Frozen River

Ariel Lawhon is a new author for me. Many have mentioned this book, The Frozen River, on the Historical Fiction Lovers Facebook feed. I'm not interested in this time and setting: Maine in 1789. Give me a Victorian novel and I'm always game, but early American tales don't entice me. Yet, Lawhon's writing is impressive. The story comes alive in the reader's mind.

Martha Ballard is a midwife in Hallowell, Maine. One of the few women skilled in reading and writing, she keeps a diary of her days and her deliveries. Thus, she has evidence to bring forth when two influential men are charged with rape. Hallowell is full of secrets and scandals. Some feel no gratitude for Martha's careful documentation and will seek to thwart her efforts toward justice.

I think my favorite part about this whole book was the author's note at the end. She shares her simple find of a small devotional blurb about Martha Ballard. This led her into extensive research and a story worth telling. Lawhon explains how truth, paired with supposition about how things may have played out, teased out an intense and gratifying tale. I only struggled because my listening to this audio book was disrupted by many days spent away from the story line during our trip to Dallas for my oldest son's wedding.

November 2024 Re-cap

What a month! November felt like forever!

Football is finally over. Is it horrible to say I'm thrilled that we are done with this chapter in our lives? Each of my sons played football. One son suffered a life-changing injury during a football game. Two sons were team captains in their senior years. While my youngest enjoyed many things about playing football, I will say his final season was quite challenging. With six or seven starting players injured, it affected the entire team. Although we were without our star quarterback from last year for much of this season, we were fortunate to have a back-up sophomore quarterback whose father was a professional football player. During the few games where both QBs were in the game, we did very well. Our team won the sectional championship game.

Sadly, during that game, our beloved senior QB suffered injury yet again - this time with a staggering injury, tearing his ACL, MCL, meniscus, and breaking his leg. I'm so sad for him. He was no doubt scouted. Are those dreams shattered now? Sean struggled with injuries throughout the season as well. He injured his knee while playing male volleyball and the injury flared throughout the football season. Every single day he iced and elevated the knee. Then, he rolled his ankle. During the hardest practices and games, he fortified his defenses with ibuprofen. Since the PT only helped briefly and they couldn't identify what was wrong, his coaches were unsympathetic. They expected him to suck it up and play on. And he did. But, boy, am I ever glad the whole thing is over.

At the close of the regional game (tragically lost in the last seconds), Sean noticed his back feeling off. Thus, the following morning, we headed to an urgent care facility for the achy back, a case of pink eye, and a week-long sore throat. They ran tests for strep and mono. "Ding! Ding! We have a winner!" the doctor exclaimed. He tested positive for mono. Wonderful!

In mid-November, I took part in an ornament exchange. The evening promised a festive potluck, and prizes for the "best holiday outfit," "best wrapping," and "most stolen ornament." I'm not zany or creative enough to win the first two categories, but thought I might stand a chance with the final one. The day before the event, I ditched my original purchase when I noticed an ad on Facebook for a store selling a 4 foot inflatable ornament. Sadly, I should have stuck with the first idea (which included a Starbucks gift card). Nobody stole the ornament I opened, thus I didn't get a chance to do any stealing. But watching the game unfold was fun!

I also took the bull by the horns in November and attempted to remedy a long-standing issue. I have been unable to write creatively since things grew hectic with my prodigal in mid-2023. Surely, I could whip out a poem each day for a November Poem-a-Day challenge, right? Well, I went in with the best intentions and did well for a spell. I completed poems for 11 of the 30 prompts. While they were nothing stellar, it was at least progress.

While I might have had minimal progress, my husband suffered loss in November. He set off to run errands, intending to take a donation to Goodwill and drop off a bag of clothes at the dry cleaners. Alas, he gave the bag of good clothes (meant for the dry cleaners) along with the cast-offs to Goodwill and is now out a whole section of his closet. 

November is also the time for author fairs (anticipating Christmas gifting). I attended two, and while my success was meager, it was good to share my story. I passed out several promo cards and met interesting people. The author seated next to me at one fair received many phone calls. He apologized and said he simply ignores the spam because they call constantly. Can such a thing be contagious, like mono? Now my cell phone rings off the hook with these annoying spam calls. One identified as "healthcare" and I worried it concerned Sean, so I answered, unfortunately. Will this problem ever go away? Sadly, I think this problem is going to linger in December. Perhaps December will be even longer than November!

Book Review: The Christmas Pact

I listened to The Christmas Pact in audio form on Hoopla in mid-November. This is the 1st in the 3 book A Mountain Springs Christmas series by Meg Easton. It is a sweet tale of two individuals facing great difficulty appreciating Christmas. Jack Meadows has never liked Christmas. When his sister asks him to make this Christmas special for his nephew, Aiden, Jack hires one of his employees, Noelle, to help with the task. Noelle, who normally loves Christmas, is facing the difficulty of celebrating without her deceased Gran-Gran (a name I struggled with - why couldn't it just have been Gran? Then again, perhaps it was more a difficulty with the narrator's reading style). If you are seeking a wholesome, quick Christmas tale, this book fills that need.