“The Little House Guide Book” by William Anderson
I was re-reading this. I've always enjoyed how informative it is with all the current pictures of the towns. I was thinking that this might be a book some fans who don't have the opportunity to travel to the sites might imagine where they would stay and eat, for my 2 cents of advice today. I, also, felt the need to share a story from 8 or 9 years ago:
I was a counselor for our church district's week long summer camp along with the associate minister, Ray. The counselors enjoyed a couple breaks a day in the administrator's building. Ray and a couple of the other ministers were talking about tourist traps. Wall Drug came up, and Ray asked why it existed. I said it was a good stopping point, since the drive from DeSmet to <?xml:namespace prefix = st1 ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:smarttags" />Mt. Rushmore is a little long. He's like "DeSmet" and I pointed out LIW lived there. He rolled his eyes a little bit and turned to the guy next to him and said that when their kids got a little older, his wife, a former teacher, wanted to take the kids on a tour of Little House sites. I piped in again, that I had a book to help plan it, if Robin wanted to borrow it. His mouth dropped open as he asked "A lot of people actually do that?" I've always thought his wife owed me a "thank you", lol, for making her husband realize she was much saner than he thought.<?xml:namespace prefix = o ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:office" />
“Forever in Blue: the fourth summer of the sisterhood” by Ann Brashares
I liked it, I think. It was an interesting conclusion to the series. I’mnot sure I wouldn’t have had the girls be together to deal with how they’ve grown apart. Bridget: thought she would have learned these lessons by now, but I can see it. Tibby: wasn’t expecting it but I can see it. Carmen: I would have picked one of the other girls for her storyline, but I can see it. However at the end I would have had her explode. Lena, >Lena. I didn’t like her reaction to everything. It seemed out of character and I didn’t want her going back to Kostos. But I’m not sure the author wasn’t playing to the women who’ve picked up the series, not the young adults who it was originally intended because it was really adult!
“Ice Sports” Hockey, speed skating & figure skating – this is a kid’s introduction. But hey, it was bag day at the public library sale. Nice pictures – an amateur and young Gordeva and Grinkov on the cover. It’s really a shame he died so young and that’s it’s been over 10 years.
“The Faith of the American Soldier” by Stephen Mansfield
Okay so the whole terrorist attack – war thing has fed the fact that I’m a sucker for anything patriotic. There are so many interesting things in it. Things about faith that show how everyone needs to get along, Catholic, Baptist, Jew, Islam, other ones. And how we need to try to find common ground. Also, I’ve never thought much about the devil and demons, but after hearing about people beheaded – I mean it is an explanation, and then the author refers back to the prison I can’t spell scandal that makes sense. I also have to confess that all of us go to college and know we are the future leaders – I’m not sure in 20 years these people who have less book knowledge, but have learned leadership under fire are going to be that nation’s leaders.
“Emily Ever After” by Anne Dayton and May Vanderbilt
Emily moves to New York to work in publishing from some little quaint town. Except it’s commuting distance to San Diego which I wouldn’t consider Outer Mongolia. This is the opposite of all the Christian novels I’ve been complaining about. And several times I think that is good. On the other hand when she and her boyfriend shared a bed, but nothing happened – it was just weird that she would agree to it. I’m not sure how to describe it, but it’s a very interesting contrast to all the other Christian romance novels.
“Kerri Strug: Heart of Gold” – Kid’s biography of Kerri’s life and the Atlanta Olympics. And the whole patriotism thing and the whole girl thing? I go nuts about the Olympics and gymnastics. So basically I would like this pretty much no matter what.
