Fall Reading Challenge 2014: Save Me by Kristyn Kusek Lewis #FRC2014

This fall, members of the Vise Library are going back to school by participating in a Fall Reading Challenge. We have received copies of several books from publishers for honest reviews. We hope that you enjoy these reviews (and books)!

The book for our How to Save a Life 101 class is Save Me by Kristyn Kusek Lewis.

About the book:

Daphne Mitchell has always believed in cause and effect, right and wrong, good and bad. The good: her dream job as a doctor; Owen, her childhood sweetheart and now husband; the beautiful farmhouse they're restoring together. In fact, most of her life has been good--until the day Owen comes home early from work to tell her he's fallen head over heels for someone else.

Unable to hate him, but also equally incapable of moving forward, Daphne's life hangs in limbo until the day Owen's new girlfriend sustains near-fatal injuries in a car accident. As Daphne becomes a pillar of support for the devastated Owen, and realizes that reconciliation may lie within her grasp, she has to find out whether forgiveness is possible and decide which path is the right one for her.

Save Me is a plot line that terrifies me as a newlywed (less than a week!).  With that being said I think Kristyn Kusek Lewis' story has several things to take from it and gain insight into our own lives.  When Daphne's husband, Owen,  tells her that he has met someone else, she is absolutely shocked.  They are both doctors and have just purchased a house to fix up together.  They have been together for ten years and Daphne definitely did not see this coming.  Owen tells her that he needs time away and to figure out what he wants.  Daphne feels like she is in a state of limbo until out of the blue Owen contacts her and needs her help.  It turns out that Owen's "friend" has been in a very serious car accident and he seeks Daphne for comfort.  Daphne's family and friends warn her that it is not healthy for herself to help Owen.  However, she feels like she should, even if it makes their relationship even more complicated.  There are a lot of plot twists that I wish I could discuss and go further into, but just know that there are some that you as the reader do not see coming.  You also get to see why and how Daphne navigates through her life after Owen's bombshell is dropped on her.  Does she start over or take him back?  Can they even get back?

This story has really made me think, for several reasons.  Daphne and Owen had a lot of history.  They knew each other as kids and then reconnected later.  They had goals together and kept going towards the next goal on their list.  We all do that.  I am definitely guilty of it.  "Work a little harder to get the house, car, etc."  I think one of the main lessons of this book is that we can become complacent.  Even though Owen did a terrible thing, Daphne realizes that the two of them together were not really living their lives together.  Daphne really learns to do things for herself and make decisions based on what is best for her (regardless of what others may think about her choices).  I think both of these things are good lessons to learn and not forget.  I think Lewis' storytelling made me really sympathize with Daphne.  I felt like I really understood why she made decisions that she did.  She weighs every action that she makes regarding her marriage and even second guesses herself constantly.  That felt very realistic to me (I do this on little stuff every single day).  Daphne also has really great friends and family to rely on for support.  Some of them have very differing viewpoints, but all of those opinions appear to be out of love for Daphne.  Lewis' storytelling has a very fresh and realistic feel to something that is, unfortunately, way too common and prevalent in real life and books.  Read this book to learn from Daphne and Owen's mistakes instead of looking back at your own and wishing you could look forward instead!

Buy the book:

·        Amazon Hardcover
·        Amazon Kindle

About the author:

Kristyn Kusek Lewis is the author of HOW LUCKY YOU ARE (Grand Central), a novel about three adult women and the growing pains of an enduring friendship. HOW LUCKY reached #1 on Barnes & Noble's Top 100/Bestselling NOOK Books and was a Target Emerging Authors Pick. Her next novel, a love story about two doctors, a tragic accident, and the power of forgiveness, will be published by Grand Central in early 2015.

A former magazine editor at publications including Glamour and Child, Kristyn has been writing for national publications for over fifteen years. Her work has appeared in the New York Times, O: The Oprah Magazine, Real Simple, Reader's Digest, Glamour, Self, Redbook, Cosmopolitan, Marie Claire, Parents, Allure, Good Housekeeping, Cooking Light, Health, Men's Health, the New York Daily News, and many more.

Kristyn is a graduate of the College of the Holy Cross and the Vermont College of Fine Arts, where she earned an MFA in creative writing. She lives in North Carolina with her family.

Connect with the author:

·        Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/kristynkuseklewisauthor

·        Twitter: https://twitter.com/kkuseklewis

·        Website: http://kristynkuseklewis.com/

·        Goodreads: http://www.goodreads.com/KristynKusekLewis

If you want to find out more about the Fall Reading Challenge and the rest of our course schedule, click our student ID above!

Fall Reading Challenge 2014: Both of Me by Jonathon Friesen #FRC2014

This fall, members of the Vise Library are going back to school by participating in a Fall Reading Challenge. We have received copies of several books from publishers for honest reviews. We hope that you enjoy these reviews (and books)!

The book for our Personality Psychology class is Both of Me by Johnathon Friesen.

About the book:

It was supposed to be just another flight, another escape into a foreign place where she could forget her past, forget her attachments. Until Clara found herself seated next to an alluring boy named Elias Phinn—a boy who seems to know secrets she has barely been able to admit to herself for years.

When her carry-on bag is accidentally switched with Elias’s identical pack, Clara uses the luggage tag to track down her things. At that address she discovers there is not one Elias Phinn, but two: the odd, paranoid, artistic, and often angry Elias she met on the plane, who lives in an imaginary world of his own making called Salem; and the kind, sweet, and soon irresistible Elias who greets her at the door, and who has no recollection of ever meeting Clara at all. As she learns of Elias’s dissociative identity disorder, and finds herself quickly entangled in both of Elias’s lives, Clara makes a decision that could change all of them forever. She is going to find out what the Salem Elias knows about her past, and how, even if it means playing along with his otherworldly quest. And she is going to find a way to keep the gentle Elias she’s beginning to love from ever disappearing again.

Clara meets Elias on an airplane.  Clara has been trying to run away from her life and the things she blames herself for in her past.  Elias intrigues her while they are on the plane together.  After her flight she realizes that Elias' bag looks exactly like hers and he has taken her bag instead of his own.  She is able to track him down to a bed and breakfast that his mom owns.  Once she sees Elias again, things do not seem right.  He doesn't remember who she is, ever seeing her, or that he took her bag.  Clara learns from Elias' mother that he has a personality disorder.  When he is one identity he does not remember things that have happened while he is in the other identity.  Clara spends time with Elias after his mother needs someone to take him somewhere.  She learns that she really likes the first Elias that she met and thinks she can help him stay that way.  However, in order to do this she has to travel with the second Elias to the place his mind goes while he is that Elias.  They end up going on an actual journey to try and piece together the bizarre things that Elias believes.  In the end, you find out there is a certain reason that there are two of Elias.  

This story took a little bit of time for me to figure out the two different personalities.  The journey that Elias and Clara go on eventually is therapeutic to both of them in a way.   This trip helps Clara confront her own fears from her past.  Something tragic in the end happens that is just utterly sad.  This book was not all sad, but also hilarious at times.  Clara and Elias end up picking up another individual for their journey and the way this happens had me laughing out loud!  Everyone that meets Elias really enjoys being around him.  There was a statement in the book that was so true. Elias is able to communicate and persuade people in ways that others can't and he in reality is two different people.  Normally this type of story is not my thing, but it is always good to branch out.  If I hadn't, I would not have read such a great story and completely missed out!  Elias really did touch people and I am still thinking about him long after reading this book.  

Buy the book:

·        Amazon Hardcover: http://amzn.to/1tmaZSn

About the author:

Jonathan Friesen is an author, speaker, and youth writing coach from Mora, Minnesota. His first young adult novel, Jerk, California, received the ALA Schneider Award. When he’s not writing, speaking at schools, or teaching, Jonathan loves to travel and hang out with his wife and three kids.

Connect with the author:

·        Facebook: http://on.fb.me/YAe8DI

·        Twitter: https://twitter.com/FriesenJonathan

·        Website: http://www.jonathanfriesen.com/

·        Goodreads: http://bit.ly/1peSxLj

If you want to find out more about the Fall Reading Challenge and the rest of our course schedule, click our student ID above!

Book Review: Passionate Nutrition by Jennifer Adler with Jess Thomson

Members of the Vise Library were selected to participate in a blog tour for Passionate Nutrition.  We received a copy of Jennifer Adler's book for an honest review.

About the book:

This power foods healthy living guidebook will inspire readers will eat well, lose weight, and embrace food as medicine. “Food as medicine” is a powerfully healing way to eat and was embraced by nutritionist Jennifer Adler as she recovered from a malnour­ished childhood and adolescence. Part power-foods cookbook, part handbook for healthy living and eating, and part memoir, Passionate Nutrition provides digestible information, tips, and techniques for how to find your way to optimal health. She focuses on abundant eat­ing (as opposed to restrictive eating), and explores what she calls “the healthy trinity”—digestion, balance, and whole foods. Adler guides and encourages readers to shift their diet to achieve this desirable bal­ance, introduces power foods we should all eat, and provides healthy ways to lose weight, along with simple recipes to optimize health. With her personal story interwoven, readers will be inspired to embrace the healthy power of food.

With so many diet and nutrition books out there to read, it can be hard to figure out what is really accurate.  One book can tell you to not eat any carbs and another will tell you not to eat a lot of red meat.  With that being said, Jennifer Adler's advice comes from personal experience.  She talks about how she was very sickly as a child and from her experience of eating to get well.  She offers a lot of great tips and ideas from her own experiences that have worked for her and others.  Nothing in this book seems overly complex or unrealistic.  In one of the chapters Adler talks about just by looking at a person, often times she can pinpoint nutritional issues that cause them.  For instance she discusses contributing factors to acne or dandruff.  

This book is more than just a nutritional book.  There are recipes included and stories about her own life that had to be hard to put in a book.  She gives beauty tips and how to eat for energy or deficiencies in your diet.  She also discusses how the right foods improve your health but in a round about way can improve emotional well-being.  Jennifer discusses different types of eaters to help you identify what kind of person you are (are you always on the goal or do you try to self-sabotage yourself with food?).  I do not know why, but there was a bullet point that really stuck with me about restaurants. She mentions that the reason that higher end restaurant's food tastes better is because they use higher-end ingredients.  Everything is usually fresh.  However, some of the restaurants that are not as expensive use shelf-stable foods (or frozen) and lower quality vegetables.  This seems like general knowledge due to price and cost saving measures on the lower qualities business side.  However, most people cannot afford to go out to eat at the more expensive restaurants on a regular basis.  She suggests people use those types of restaurants as celebratory meals.  Again, this seems like general knowledge.  However, I know I am guilty for going not necessarily a fast food restaurant but an affordable sit-down restaurant because sometimes that is just easy.  However, sometimes I need to really think about what is better for me in the long run as far as what I put in my body.  This is a great handbook with lots of bullet points and dinner ideas.  It explains certain types of food and why they are good for your health.  The chapters are broken up so that it easy to find something that you want to reference back to later on.  I loved how everything was explained in layman's terms!  If you are looking for a nutritional book with a little more than telling you to eat this or that, look into this book!

Buy the book:

·        Amazon Kindle: http://amzn.to/1pLkEBP

·        Amazon Hardcover: http://amzn.to/1lhRBGm

About the authors:

Jennifer Adler is a Certified Nutritionist in the State of Washington, an adjunct faculty member at Bastyr University, and co-founder of the International Eating Disorders Institute. She holds a Master's of Science in Clinical Nutrition and Counseling and a Graduate Certificate in Spirituality, Health and Medicine from Bastyr University. She was trained at the School of Natural Cookery in Boulder, CO. She lives on Bainbridge Island, WA.

Jess Thomson is a Seattle-based freelance writer and cookbook author who has written for Sunset, Cooking Light, Edible Seattle, and Seattle Met magazines.

Connect with the author:

·        Facebook: http://on.fb.me/VEXfWH

·        Twitter: https://twitter.com/JenniferAdler

·        Website: http://www.passionatenutrition.com

If you want to find out more about the Fall Reading Challenge and the rest of our course schedule, click our student ID above!

Fall Reading Challenge 2014: The Unimaginable by Dina Silver #FRC2014

This fall, members of the Vise Library are going back to school by participating in a Fall Reading Challenge. We have received copies of several books from publishers for honest reviews. We hope that you enjoy these reviews (and books)!

The book for our Studing Abroad! Semester in Thailand class is The Unimaginable by Dina Silver.

About the book:

From the author of One Pink Line comes a story about letting go of the past and finding bravery in the depths of fear. Set on the sun-soaked beaches of Thailand and the rough waters of the Indian Ocean, The Unimaginable paints a vivid portrait of a young woman on a journey to find herself—and her harrowing fight for survival.

After twenty-eight years of playing by the rules, Jessica Gregory moves from her small Indiana town to Phuket, Thailand. But her newfound routine is upended with the arrival of Grant Flynn, a captivating, elusive man who is sailing around the world while trying to move on from a past tragedy. Jessica volunteers to help crew Grant’s boat, Imagine, on a passage across the Indian Ocean and finds herself falling in love with him as the voyage gets underway. But when disaster strikes, Jessica must summon her courage as the crew is confronted by unspeakable terrors––and, aboard a boat named for such promise, comes the unimaginable.

Jessica Gregory is a teacher that is looking to take control of her life.  She has always lived in a small town in Indiana and decides after the death of her mother to move to Phuket, Thailand.  She teaches English at one of the local schools.  While she is there, she takes on a second job as a waitress at a marina.  Jessica is enjoying being in Thailand but she begins to feel like she is in the same rut that she was in while living in Indiana.  So, Jessica decides to put a flyer up that she would be willing to help work on a boat.  She is contacted to help out on a boat and during her interview she realizes the owner of the boat is someone she has met during her time in Thailand.  His name is Grant Flynn and she begins to develop a crush on him.  However, there are times that she can't get a good read on him, but he seems to be getting over something from his past.  Jessica is finally hired to work on their boat.  She thinks she is in for a great adventure but along the way something terrible happens.  I can't give anymore past this point or the twist would be completely given away!

I enjoyed this book.  It was entertaining and kept me interested the whole time.  The second half of the book was so compelling that I couldn't put it down.  The story was so intense and heartbreaking at times.  I can't imagine going through any of the events that happen.  Grant and Jessica both have to face things that they go through.  This story ultimately is about letting go and going after what you really want in life.  This story shows that people should do that before it's too late.  Now, everyone read this so that we can discuss what happens, because I'm dying over here!!!

Buy the book:

·        Amazon Kindle: http://amzn.to/1uXg2Md

·        Amazon Paperback: http://amzn.to/1kVnhk6

Praise for the book:

"Dina Silver's deftly woven tale has all of my favorite fictional elements: romance, action and adventure, and a knock-your-socks-off ending. The Unimaginable is simply superb." —Tracey Garvis Graves, New York Times bestselling author of On the Island

About the author:

Dina Silver is an author, a wine drinker, and an excellent parallel parker. She is the author of Kat Fight, Finding Bliss, and One Pink Line, which was chosen as a 2012 Top Title by IndieReader and was a finalist in their 2012 Discovery Awards. She lives with her husband, son, and twenty-pound tabby cat in suburban Chicago. She’d prefer to live where it’s warm year round, but then she’d never stay home and write anything.

Connect with the author:

·        Facebook: http://on.fb.me/1BCKkFC

·        Twitter: https://twitter.com/DinaSilver

·        Website: http://dinasilver.blogspot.com/

·        Goodreads: http://bit.ly/1lhT4MP

If you want to find out more about the Fall Reading Challenge and the rest of our course schedule, click our student ID above!

Fall Reading Challenge: A Second Bite of the Apple by Dana Bate #FRC2014

This fall, members of the Vise Library are going back to school by participating in a Fall Reading Challenge. We have received copies of several books from publishers for honest reviews. We hope that you enjoy these reviews (and books)!

The book for our Food Journalism class is A Second Bite of the Apple by Dana Vate.

About the book:

Sydney Strauss is obsessed with food. Not with eating it--though she does that too--but with writing about the wonders of the gastronomic world, from obscure fruit hybrids to organic farming techniques. Since food journalism jobs are more coveted than Cronuts®, Sydney pays her bills working for one of TV's biggest egomaniacs--until she's left scrambling for shifts at a local farmers' market. 

Stacking muffins for the Wild Yeast Bakery isn't going to win her any James Beard awards. But soon Sydney is writing the market's weekly newsletter, and her quirky stories gain attention from a prominent food columnist. After years of putting her love life into deep freeze, she's even dating again. And then Sydney gets a shot at the story, one that could either make her career or burn it to a crisp--along with her relationship and her reputation...

At the beginning of this book the main character, Sydney Strauss, is being let go from her job as a producer for a morning television show.  It is at a very bad time (when does losing your job happen at a good time though?) because it is just around the holidays and Sydney is behind on her rent because of some dental work that her insurance did not cover.  By coincidence she gets a job for a bakery (with a ornery owner)  at a local farmer's market.  Around the time she starts her job, she meets Jeremy and eventually agrees to go on a date with him.  However, there is something in Jeremy's past that she has a hard time getting over.  Sydney really likes Jeremy though and tries to look past what happened with Jeremy's sort of shady past.  After sometime at the farmer's market, she is approached to write for the newsletter for the market.  She wants to focus on the human interest aspect of all of the vendors in the market.  Her videos and columns for the newsletter get her some attention from a local paper and agrees to write for them.  She desperately wants a job as a food journalist and feels like working for the paper will be her way in.  Sydney learns about a major scandal and uses someone she is starting to care about to get a scoop to land her a job with the paper.  She does something unethical herself in the process and  she manages to ruin a ton of relationships and trust that she has from friends.  Even though she gets the big story, it makes Sydney question whether she is cut out to be a food journalist and if she can be trusted.  

This is another book involving a lot of secrets.  The secrets keep building up on Sydney to where eventually she loses some control.  She is not only keeping her own secrets, but secrets within her own family.  This book makes Sydney take a long hard look at herself and who she really is.  She learns that people can make mistakes and some people deserve second chances.  Sydney also finds out that some of the relationships she has with her family members are not really the way she has perceived them over the years.  At times you feel bad for Sydney with what she has done to herself and hope she makes it out.  I will say one of my favorite scenes in the book is actually when everything in her world is crumbling around her.  This scene has someone from her past and future in it, along with the FBI.  I won't give anymore of that away, but I found myself laughing out loud at some of the exchanges that were happening.  I enjoyed this book quite a bit and think it will make people think about their own mistakes (along wither other people's mistakes).  This book shows that even if people set out with good intentions to help, the process of doing things can really affect them and the other people around them.  This book also shows that when people make mistakes now in the internet age that the mistake can go on forever, even when other people trying to move on. 

Buy the book:

·        Amazon Paperback

About the author:

Dana Bate is the author of A SECOND BITE AT THE APPLE and THE GIRLS' GUIDE TO LOVE AND SUPPER CLUBS, which earned a starred review from Publishers Weekly and has been translated into five languages. Before writing fiction full time, she was a Washington producer and reporter for PBS's Nightly Business Report, where she won the Gerald Loeb Award for a series she produced on the Indian economy. She studied molecular biophysics and biochemistry at Yale University and received her master's degree from Northwestern's Medill School of Journalism, where she won the Harrington Award for outstanding promise in the field of journalism. She lives outside Philadelphia with her family.

Connect with the author:

·        Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/authordanabate

·        Twitter: https://twitter.com/danabate

·        Website: http://danabate.com/

·        Goodreads

If you want to find out more about the Fall Reading Challenge and the rest of our course schedule, click our student ID above!

Book Review: Waking up Joy by Tina Ann Forkner

Members of the Vise Library were selected to participate in a blog tour for Waking up Joy.  We received a copy of Tina Ann Forkner's book for an honest review.

About the book:

Behind every lost dream lies a second chance… When adored town spinster Joy Talley ends up in a coma after a peculiar accident, she is surprised and incensed to hear what is being said in her hospital room, including plans for her funeral. When she finally wakes, her well-meaning, but bossy, brothers and sisters dismiss her claims, thinking her accident has knocked her off her rocker, but Joy has never felt better, and is determined to set the past right. Now Joy must face her darkest secret and risk reopening wounds caused by an old flame who rejected her more than twenty years ago. But taking risks brings change, as well as a new, younger man into Joy’s life, making her feel like a teenager again. Suddenly Joy’s once humdrum life is anything but boring and routine and the future beckons, exhilarating and bright.

This book starts out with the main character, Joy Talley, being rushed to the hospital.  People believe she had tried to hang herself, but actually Joy was trying to revisit a secret of the past.  She is in a coma while she is in the hospital and can still hear everything that happens around her.  When she finally wakes from her coma she learns to take back control of her life and quit reliving old hurts and rejections.  In the process she learns that during this time she has not been the only one with baggage hanging around.  A lot of secrets are uncovered and Joy has to confront her past in order to move on.

Joy's family in this book was hilarious!  They all had their own quirks but in the end they surround Joy with love.  (Sometimes getting to that point can be a little painful though.)  The whole book centers around a secret that Joy has tried to ignore for decades.  When Joy finally explains what the secret is, she is not only putting her life and happiness at risk, but someone else's.  The story is heartbreaking and even though there is happiness in the epilogue, there is also sadness.  When the final straw is revealed, it is so sad to think about the what-ifs and time lost.  Misunderstandings and resentment happened because of someone else keeping a secret from Joy.  I liked how once Joy woke up from her coma she tried to seize opportunities and try to help people.  This story makes you think about people's hurt that happen in their lives.  Some people may not always be nice, but there may be reasons for that.  Also most of the characters had some sort of secret and in the end they all come out.  This was a great read!

Buy the book:

·        Amazon

About the author:

Tina Ann Forkner is the author of WAKING UP JOY (Tule Publishing Group). She is also the author of RUBY AMONG US and ROSE HOUSE (Random House). When she isn't writing, Tina is a substitute teacher and lives with her family in Wyoming. 

Connect with the author:

·        Facebook

·        Twitter

·        Website

·        Goodreads