So I haven't heard back from anyone, regarding my last post requesting book suggestions. I have not yet had time to go through old comments and track down those suggestions that have been left previously. I am hoping to get to that sometime in the near future. However, the lack of response has led me to question again people's response and desire to continue with this group. I enjoy reading with all of you and sharing our thoughts but it does take up some time to keep things up and going. If no one is interested in participating any more then that's ok. I just want to know so that I can take something off my plate. If you still are interested then I am happy to continue. Also, if you'd like to continue and you have any suggestions for how you'd like to see things happen around here, I am always open to suggestions as well. Is a selection once a month still working? Would you prefer two months per selection? Any other ideas you'd like to pass along? Just let me know. While I wait to hear what you are all thinking regarding the group in general I have decided to go ahead and put up two books, that have been on my reading list for quite sometime, as our voting choices. Actually, they've been on my wish list for so long I may have a hard time deciding which one to vote for. I may have to let you guys decide for me. :) We can see where things go from there. All that being said, here are the two choices for April's vote.
Voting will begin today and will continue through Friday, March 14th.
The Bride's House
by Sandra Dallas
From the
New York Times bestselling author of
Whiter Than Snow and
Prayers for Sale comes a novel about the secrets and passions of three generations of women who have all lived in the same Victorian home called the Bride’s House.
It’s 1880, and for unassuming seventeen-year-old Nealie Bent, the Bride’s House is a fairy tale come to life. It seems as if it is being built precisely for her and Will Spaulding, the man she is convinced she will marry. But life doesn’t go according to plan, and Nealie finds herself in the Bride’s House pregnant---and married to another.
For Pearl, growing up in the Bride’s House is akin to being raised in a mausoleum. Her father has fashioned the house into a shrine to the woman he loved, resisting all forms of change. When the enterprising young Frank Curry comes along and asks for Pearl’s hand in marriage, her father sabotages the union. But he underestimates the lengths to which the women in the Bride’s House will go for love.
Susan is the latest in the line of strong and willful women in the Bride’s House. She’s proud of the women who came before her, but the Bride’s House hides secrets that will force her to question what she wants and who she loves.
Sandra Dallas has once again written a novel rich in storytelling and history, peopled by living, breathing characters that will grab hold of you and not let you go.
Hands Free Mama:
A Guide to Putting Down the Phone, Burning the To-Do List, and Letting Go of Perfection to Grasp What Really Matters!
by Rachel Macy Stafford
“Rachel Macy Stafford's post 'The Day I Stopped Saying Hurry Up' was a true phenomenon on The Huffington Post, igniting countless conversations online and off about freeing ourselves from the vicious cycle of keeping up with our overstuffed agendas. Hands Free Mama has the power to keep that conversation going and remind us that we must not let our lives pass us by.”
--Arianna Huffington, Chair, President, and Editor-in-Chief of the Huffington Post Media Group, nationally syndicated columnist, and author of thirteen bookshttp://www.huffingtonpost.com/
DISCOVER THE POWER, JOY, AND LOVE of Living “Hands Free”
If technology is the new addiction, then multi-tasking is the new marching order. We check our email while cooking dinner, send a text while bathing the kids, and spend more time looking into electronic screens than into the eyes of our loved ones. With our never-ending to-do lists and jam-packed schedules, it’s no wonder we’re distracted.
But this isn’t the way it has to be.
In July 2010, special education teacher and mother Rachel Macy Stafford decided enough was enough. Tired of losing track of what matters most in life, Rachel began practicing simple strategies that enabled her to momentarily let go of largely meaningless distractions and engage in meaningful soul-to-soul connections. She started a blog to chronicle her endeavors and soon saw how both external and internal distractions had been sabotaging her happiness and preventing her from bonding with the people she loves most.
Hands Free Mama is the digital society’s answer to finding balance in a media-saturated, perfection-obsessed world. It doesn’t mean giving up all technology forever. It doesn’t mean forgoing our jobs and responsibilities. What it does mean is seizing the little moments that life offers us to engage in real and meaningful interaction. It means looking our loved ones in the eye and giving them the gift of our undivided attention, leaving the laundry till later to dance with our kids in the rain, and living a present, authentic, and intentional life despite a world full of distractions.
So join Rachel and go hands-free. Discover what happens when you choose to open your heart---and your hands---to the possibilities of each God-given moment.
