The Phoenix Files: Arrival

This is another book I read because of signing up as an Usborne consultant.  My first thought on learning Luke moves to Phoenix was Phoenix Arizona but this book is from Australia...the author is from there, it is set there, was published there.  It was interesting because there were a couple words I'm not familiar with that must be Australian words.  It talked about seeing kangaroos...so weird to me!  But the Australian aspect was fun.
It starts off by telling us Luke's parents are recently divorced and his mom takes a job in this middle of nowhere new town called Phoenix.  They arrive and find out there are no cars, (everyone rides bikes instead) the phone service is down, and the internet doesn't work. Luke quickly feels trapped and isolated and everything about the town seems off somehow.
He makes a couple friends and receives a strange message that the world is ending in 100 days for everyone outside of Phoenix.  This book is mostly about their trying to figure out if this message is for real and once they decide that it is they want to get outside the town and warn someone or try to get some help.  It was a great suspenseful read.  There were two violent scenes in the book that I'm not sure I would want my younger kids to read...I kind of skimmed over them since I don't like violence.  I don't think it was too awful, but I wouldn't let kids younger than 12ish read it. I thoroughly enjoyed it though and can't wait for the next one!

Splintered

I was at girls camp a few weeks ago and one of the girls talked about this book and how much she loved it...so when I got back I looked it up and put it on hold at the library right away!
I really enjoyed this book although it reminded me a little of Twilight with the weird over the top teenage romance.  It is clean but there are kissing scenes that I think are a little too descriptive if you were younger than 12-13. What I really loved was the fairytale part of this story, how Allie comes to know herself through this book and knows/remembers Wonderland.  Some of it was really bizarre but it was really interesting to me to see the twist on Alice in Wonderland.  Overall I loved it!  Definitely a great summer read.

What Alice Forgot

This book was recommend to me by a friend, and I was warned there was language, however I was under the impression it was used by Alice who wakes up in the gym having forgotten all the memories from the last 10 years of her life. But I don't actually remember her using bad language except in her thoughts remembering other people using it towards her and wondering why, etc.  There are quite a few f-bombs and especially right upfront in the beginning.  This almost turned me off from reading it.  I read a couple of chapters and then wasn't going to finish it because of all the language!  However, over the course of the week I discovered some friends of ours had gotten divorced in the past couple of months.  This was such a shock to me and left me feeling so sad that for some reason I was drawn to this book again and other than trying to avoid the bad language, I really enjoyed this book.  It left me thinking about who I am, and what my decisions lead me to become, and if I'm becoming who I want to be.

Alice wakes up in the gym after falling off her bike in spin class and believes herself to be 10 years younger newly married and expecting her first child.  So imagine her shock to find out she is turning 40, has three children (none of whom she can remember) and is divorcing her beloved husband Nick!  They had bought an old home with plans to fix it up...and she goes home to find out all the things they had planned for their home have been done!  Now she has a beautiful home, has gained some fashion sense, lost weight, eats healthy, and is busy, busy, busy!  She finds out she doesn't seem to like who she become 10 years later, having lost touch big time with her family, friends, neighbors, and even her husband.
She longs to get back together with Nick, who reassures her when she gets her memory back, she won't want that anymore. Through the course of the book she questions and wonders what drew them apart, only to find out it wasn't just one thing but maybe a whole bunch of little things. She told her personal trainer that her marriage was failing because of lack of sleep. I also noticed it seemed to be the things they noticed.  They started focusing on the negative instead of the positive, joyful things...so that was all they could see until they turned that into disgust for each other that was reflected in how they spoke to each other, how they looked at each other.  It made me think of how I treat my husband?  Do I belittle him for not doing things right when he helps around the house or with the boys?  Do I thank him for things he does?
I thought of our friends who got divorced...if they could have gone back in time 10 years and seen themselves now through that perspective, would they still have chosen what they did? Would their younger selves fought harder?  Our marriages and our families are the most important things in this life.  Nothing from this life can go with us after we die, except for the things we have learned...and our families if we have kept our covenants.  This book made me think of a song I love, particularly the lyrics "Will my life become a legacy of the things that matter most to me?  Will my fire of faith burn bright as I grow old?  And will I want to be the person I've become, when all is said and done?"

The final verse of that song says "When all is said and done when my eyes can finally see, will I glory in the sweet release and will mercy fill my soul with peace, will I kneel in wonder at the Savior's feet?  will I hear him say 'well done' when he sees who I've become, will I live with him when all is said and done?"
My favorite scripture is Moroni 7:48...it talks about when Christ comes again  that when he shall appear we shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is; that we may have this hope; that we may be purified even as he is pure.

That is one of the things I want most--to be like Him.  This book made me think about how I am doing that.  It's not just a grandiose idea, it is a reality in everything I think and say and do every day I am becoming more like him or father away. I want to like who I am because I am becoming more like Jesus Christ and drawing others to me, not pushing them away because of selfish desires. 

My Mother's Secret

My Mother's Secret by J.L. Witterick was another very quick read but very different from the last one.  This one was based on real people who lived in Poland during WWII.  The mother and daughter hide two Jewish families as well as a German officer who doesn't want to fight.  It has five parts to the story, each told by the perspective of someone different in the story starting out with the daughter who with her mother hides everyone.  I enjoyed seeing how all of these people were intertwined beyond just the fact they were living on the same farm especially because none of those in hiding knew of anyone else in hiding. I loved reading about people who were good and even in dangerous circumstances were able and willing to help others who would have not survived otherwise. There were heartaches and joys and I was left wondering how I would measure up. Would I do the right thing even if my life as well as those I loved were on the line? How often do I turn away and not do a good thing because it is inconvenient or hard?  I think this is a great book for older children and teens wanting to learn more about the Holocaust but not wanting anything graphic. This little book was filled with love for others and I highly recommend it.

Conspiracy 365

Almost two months ago I signed up as an Usborne books consultant and so I wanted to read some of the teen books just to know what they were like when I recommend books for people.  This was the first one I got from the library and I was excited to read it!  This book was action packed right from the get-go.  For me it was unbelievably action packed.  But it kept me reading and wanting to know what the mystery is!  On New Year's Eve Cal Ormund gets a strange warning from a drunk right before the paramedics take the drunk away.  He is told he needs to hide for a year because people will be trying to kill him.  His father had died months earlier and been unable to share a secret that was worth a lot of money.  He is left with drawings done by his father as clues to this secret and is being chased by multiple people asking him about the secret.  He has multiple near death experiences and by the end is on the run because everyone believes he shot his uncle and hurt his sister.  The cliff hanger ending will leave you needing to know how he escapes from this last attempt on his life...as obviously it doesn't work since it is the first book in the series.    Not believable at all but it was a fun, very quick read!