When God Makes Lemonade

Thomas Nelson Publishing provided this book to me on my nook through the Book Sneeze program in exchange for an honest review. When God Makes Lemonade compiled by Don Jacobson was a fun book to read, reminding me of the Chicken Soup for the Soul books. There are sixty-eight short true stories telling about how God worked their 'lemon' story into lemonade. Each story ends with a quick biography of the author including information on their other writings or blogs, as applicable.

Each story was encouraging and just awesome to read about people recognizing God as the One who turned their lemons into lemonade. The stories cover many topics: financial difficulties, grieving loved ones, near-death experiences, suicide, rape, blended families, disabilities, illnesses, and more.

This was a nice book to pick up, and read just as many stories as I had time for. Since each story was independent of the others, the stories could be read in any order. It would have been nice to have them grouped in sections by topic - especially for reference if wanting to share a story with someone going through a similar situation. Four stars.

The House That Love Built

I was provided this book by BookSneeze in exchange for an honest review. I was thrilled when I saw The House That Love Built  by Beth Wiseman on the available book list, as I have enjoyed previous books by her.
Wiseman did not disappoint. This book moved very quickly and I felt involved in the character's lives from the beginning. Brooke is a young widow with two children, not interested in looking for love or even making new friends. However, Owen moves to town and things begin to change.
Some aspects of the story are rather predictable but there are also some surprising twists and turns as well. The time spans between chapters varied - sometimes feeling like a chapter was left out. But Wiseman filled the reader in well.
Overall, this was a great easy read (with a cheesy looking cover) with lessons for us all on not keeping secrets, forgiving, and allowing God to work in our lives. Four stars.

The Whisper Theory

Hmmm... I'm not sure how to rate this book. It was definitely different than I expected. It was advertised as a book for teens and since I almost have a teenager in the house, I chose this book as my next free book from BookSneeze in exchange for a review.

This book appears to just be a nonfiction story about college kids but at the end of each chapter there is a Bible study - Scripture passages to read as well as thought-provoking questions. The topics included temptation, sex, drinking, murder, and more. Definitely a book for older teens. And probably a great study for college freshman, as the plot has quite a bit of reality to it.

At one point I thought of giving up on this book due to the content. But I stuck it out and it got better and the Bible study part of the chapters redeemed the book.

So for rating this book... four stars for a college Bible study but two stars when advertised as a teen study.

Frog Tape!

I have been doing a lot of painting lately - which means a lot of painter's tape. I ran out of the 'blue tape' while painting an accent wall. One side was painted with 'blue tape'

and the other side was painted with the green Frog tape.

 Look at this difference! They were honest when they said "Keeps Lines Sharp!" WOW! I think the pictures speak for themselves! Go FROG TAPE!!!