Human Touch: A Story in Real Time by Mitch Albom

Human Touch: A Story in Real Time by Mitch Albom
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

4.0/5.0 stars - Author Mitch Albom wants stories that inspire, offer hope, and help us realize our humanity, and Human Touch is yet another example of this. Written in real time and shared weekly, this serialized book is offered for free on his website https://www.mitchalbom.com/human-touc... or through Audible.com. In eight episodes, it tells the story of four families, friends and neighbors, as they encounter the virus. Their trials and tribulations, mishaps and mistakes, courage and cowardice, sharing and bravery are all part of this story. It is an unusual tale in its universality, we are all living this time together, and so it touches each reader in its own way. The author describes why he wrote the book this way:

"I believe in humanity. I believe we will get through this together. And then we’ll each have our own “human touch” story to tell.

This book was chosen for the first meeting of Talons and Tales, the SUNY Brockport book club.
Book 165 of 2020.


View all my reviews

Goodnight Mind: Turn Off Your Noisy Thoughts and Get a Good Night's Sleep by Colleen E. Carney (from 10/1/2017)

I originally reviewed this in 2017, it came up on my FB feed today, so I thought I would add it to my blog. Goodnight Mind: Turn Off Your Noisy Thoughts and Get a Good Night's Sleep by Colleen E. Carney
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

This book appealed to me, as I have struggled for many years to get a good night's sleep. I have no trouble falling asleep, but inevitably I'd wake up in the early hours of the morning, and toss and turn before I could get back to sleep. While this book offered no groundbreaking suggestions, it did bring together several common sense strategies in an easy to read and apply process. I've waited for about a week after finishing the book to write this review, so I could comment on how well it worked for me. Overall I'd say I'd sleep better about 80% of the time, so a great success! The two suggestions that I have implemented from the book that have worked best have been 1) limit the amount of time you spend in bed and 2) set a sleep schedule and follow it. So now I don't read or watch tv in bed at all, and I force myself to stay up until 10 PM. If you suffer from sleepless nights or restless sleep, this book might help you as it did me. It will be interesting to look back in a few months and in a year to see if there are long term effects, as well.

View all my reviews

The Librarian of Boone's Hollow by Kim Vogel Sawyer

The Librarian of Boone's Hollow by Kim Vogel Sawyer
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

3.5 rounded to 4.0 stars -
This book was a solid 3.5 stars for me, but if I have to round, more deserving of a 4 star rating than a 3 star. The setting is a mining town in Kentucky during the Depression. The story opens in Lexington where Addie and Emmett briefly meet. Addie, a top student, has just found out that she has lost her position in the last week of her junior year, due to her family's financial straits. Emmett is about to graduate with a degree in commerce and is in the library looking for jobs in the want ads. They next meet up in Lynch, Emmett's home town, where Addie has been offered a job as a traveling librarian. It is here she meets Miss West, the library manager, who captures what I love about reading in the following quote:

"A book takes one into another person's thoughts and emotions. Books open up worlds beyond the view from one's own window. Stories can stir compassion, can inspire integrity, can show different lifestyles and problem-solving skills. Books, Addie, have the power to change people for the better." (p. 158 - Miss West to Addie)

Why would you want to read this book? I think it depends on what you're in the mood for. This book is uplifting, light reading. It is Christian Fiction, but not preachy. It is Historical Fiction, but a little light on the historical details surrounding the traveling librarian program. The Book Woman of Troublesome Creek does a much better job in that respect. During this difficult year of pandemics and politics, it offers hope for the future. There are lessons to be learned about looking for the blessings in your daily life, even when they're not easily found; about treating others based on who they are inside, not listening to biases other people have about them; and about never giving up.
In short, if you're looking for a deep book with lots of historical details, this might not be for you. But if you're looking for something that will bring you peace and hope, within a historical setting, this is for you.
Book 161 of 2020.
Also reviewed on my blog: http://xbmill.blogspot.com/


View all my reviews

Someplace to call home by Sandra Dallas

Someplace to Call Home by Sandra Dallas
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

3.5/5.0 - Sandra Dallas is one of my favorite authors, and this young adult/juvenile book by her is another reason why. This takes place during the depression and the dust bowl and features a brave pair of siblings, Tom and Hallie, who take off from Oklahoma after losing their mother, in order to find a better life for themselves and their beloved younger brother, Benny. When their car breaks down in Kansas, they camp beside a stream for the night. In the morning, though, the farmer who owns the land finds them and tells them to move on. Tom, a mechanical wizard, explains their transmission is broken and their tire blown, and they'd like to stay on and look for work, until he can fix it. Swede, the farmer, has a hard time believing Tom could fix it, until Tom offers to look at a tractor Swede is having problems with. Tom is able to fix it, and the Carlson offer to let them stay. They become friends and benefactors, and their young daughter, Tessie finds a friend in Benny.
Sometimes it's hard to believe for us to believe or envision what life must have been like back then.
It is only when Benny goes missing for a time that Hallie and Tom can truly understand their place in the community, when the community bands together to help find the little boy.
We have so many fail-safes built into society today that children aren't wandering the country by themselves looking for work. Not to say that there aren't homeless people still, only that we have a few more mechanisms to help them. Back then, one relied on church, family or neighbors much more than today.
This is a book about hardship and courage, friendship and love, and what it means to be neighborly.
Book 160 of 2020
Fall Reading Challenge: OCTOBER/1. Pumpkin Spice Everything/b. Read a book whose title starts with a letter in SPICE.
PS FRC - 2. A book that has been on your shelf since at least last fall.


Other Sandra Dallas books I have read: Westering Women
Someplace to Call Home
The Last Midwife
A Quilt for Christmas
Red Berries, White Clouds, Blue Sky
Fallen Women
True Sisters
The Quilt Walk
Whiter Than Snow
Tallgrass
The Chili Queen
Alice's Tulips
Prayers for Sale
The Persian Pickle Club
View all my reviews

Midnight at the Blackbird Café by Heather Webber

Midnight at the Blackbird Café by Heather Webber
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

4.0/5.0 stars - This was a book I really needed to read, to balance all the heavy books I've been reading lately. This lovely little book was about family, those we grew up with and those we find we find later in life. It was about healing and the hard road that is made more bearable when others travel it with us. It is about letting go, and holding on; finding new hopes and dreams and following them. It is about new friendships and new loves and learning who we are. I found myself caring about the characters and not wanting it to end, or at least wanting to hear what is next in their stories. Even if there isn't a sequel, the author did a good job of resolving or hinting at their futures so that it didn't leave you hanging.
PS FRC - 10. A book about or involving nature.
Book 158 of 2020

View all my reviews

The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas by John Boyne

The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas by John Boyne


First, let me say, that in a year when the country seems to be on a downward spiral, why is it that all I seem to be reading are war-related or other depressing books? It's hard to know what to rate this. It's a very different spin on WWII literature, written from a child's POV. Bruno, one of the two main characters, displays such naivete that it's hard to picture him as a 9 year old. But, perhaps it was a more innocent time altogether. I also think that Bruno represents the rest of the world, in that aspect. When the camps were liberated, no one could believe that such atrocities really happened. There are those today who claim they didn't. Still, calling it Out-With, and Hitler - the Fury, rings more like a 4 or 5 year old to me. There were many things in the book that didn't ring true to me.
On the other hand, you do see some emotional growth in Bruno. He struggles with denying his friend, he questions what friendship really means, he (view spoiler)[ ultimately gives his life to try and help his friend. (hide spoiler)]
I watched the movie a few years ago, I might watch it again sometime and see how closely it follows the book.
Book 157 of 2020

View all my reviews

The Book Charmer by Karen Hawkins

The Book Charmer by Karen Hawkins
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

4.0/5.0 - I really enjoyed this book by Karen Hawkins. It's a story of love, lost and found, and of family - those you're born in, and those you make. It's a story of hope in dark times, the strength of friendship, the wisdom of the elderly and the value of sisters. Oh, and how could I forget? The importance of books!
Book 155 of 2020

View all my reviews