On a Day Like This by Peter Stamm

Book Description:

On a day like any other, Andreas changes his life. When a routine doctor’s visit leads to an unexpected prognosis, a great yearning takes hold of him–but who can tell if it is homesickness or wanderlust; a deathwish or a fresh lease on life? Andreas leaves everything behind–sells his Paris apartment, cuts off all social ties, quits his teaching job, and waves good-bye to his days spent idly sitting in cafés–to look for a woman he loved half a lifetime ago. The monotony of days had been keeping him in check; now he hopes for a miracle and for a new beginning.

Andreas’s travels lead him back to the province of his youth, back to his hometown in Switzerland where he returns to familiar streets, where his brother still lives in their childhood home, and where Fabienne, a woman he was obsessed with in his youth, continues to visit the same lake they once swam in together. Andreas, consumed with longing for his lost love and blinded by the uncertainty of his future, is tormented by the question of what might have been if things had happened differently.

The Next Thing On My List by Jill Smolinski

From Booklist:
June Parker’s life is meandering along until a freak car accident leaves Marissa, her 24-year-old passenger, dead and June wracked with guilt. June discovers a list Marissa had been keeping of 25 things she wanted to do by the time she turned 25. After a run-in with Marissa’s brother, June resolves to complete the list. Kissing a total stranger and throwing away her scale prove far easier than pitching an idea at work or changing someone’s life. But June approaches the list with aplomb, daring to speak up about being passed over for a manager position, and becoming a Big Sister to a quiet, studious Latina teen named DeeDee. But when June uncovers a secret of DeeDee’s, she realizes changing someone else’s life might involve changing her own as well.

Friday Nights by Joanna Trollope

Book Description:

From the master of literary domestic drama, a page-turning novel that dissects the complexities of female friendship and the choices that define women’s lives.
It is Eleanor who starts the Friday night get-togethers. From her window she sees two young women, with small children, separate, struggling, and plainly lonely—and decides to ask them in.
What began as a lark soon becomes a ritual, and the circle widens to include six very different women. They range in age from Jules, who is twenty-two and wants to be a DJ, to Eleanor herself, a retired professional who walks with a stick. They include one wife, three mothers, three singles, and five working women. All of them, variously, value Friday nights.
Until one of them meets a man—an enigmatic, significant man—and the whole dynamic changes. The bonds that have been so closely forged are tested—and some of them break.
With wit and warmth, Joanna Trollope explores the complexities, the sabotages, and the shifting currents of modern female friendship.

What Shamu Taught Me About Life… by Amy Sutherland

From the Publisher

While observing exotic animal trainers for her acclaimed book Kicked, Bitten, and Scratched, journalist Amy Sutherland had an epiphany: What if she used these training techniques with the human animals in her own life–namely her dear husband, Scott? In this lively and perceptive book, Sutherland tells how she took the trainers’ lessons home.The next time her forgetful husband stomped through the house in search of his mislaid car keys, she asked herself, “What would a dolphin trainer do?” The answer was: nothing. Trainers reward the behavior they want and, just as important, ignore the behavior they don’t. Rather than appease her mate’s rising temper by joining in the search, or fuel his temper by nagging him to keep better track of his things in the first place, Sutherland kept her mouth shut and her eyes on the dishes she was washing. In short order, Scott found his keys and regained his cool. “I felt like I should throw him a mackerel,” she writes. In time, as she put more training principles into action, she noticed that she became more optimistic and less judgmental, and their twelve-year marriage was better than ever.What started as a goofy experiment had such good results that Sutherland began using the training techniques with all the people in her life, including her mother, her friends, her students, even the clerk at the post office. In the end, the biggest lesson she learned is that the only animal you can truly change is yourself.

Full of fun facts, fascinating insights, hilarious anecdotes, and practical tips, What Shamu Taught Me About Life, Love, and Marriage describes Sutherland’s Alice-in-Wonderland experience of stumbling into a world where cheetahs walk nicely on leashes and elephants paint with watercolors, and of leaving a new, improved Homo sapiens.

Sacred Pathways by Gary L. Thomas

*** READ & REVIEWED ***

From the Back Cover:

“THOU SHALT NOT COVET THY NEIGHBOR’S SPIRITUAL WALK“

After all, it’s his, not yours. Better to discover the path God designed you to take–a path marked by growth and fulfillment, based on your unique temperament.

In Sacred Pathways, Gary Thomas strips away the frustration of a one-size-fits-all spirituality and guides you toward a path of worship that frees you to be you. If your devotional times have hit a snag, perhaps it is because you’re trying to follow someone else’s path.

This book unfolds nine distinct spiritual temperaments ~ their traits, strengths, and pitfalls. In one or more, you will see yourself and the ways you most naturally express your relationship with Jesus Christ. Whatever temperament or blend of temperaments best describes you, rest assured it’s not by accident. It’s by the design of a Creator who knew what He was doing when He made you according to His own unique specifications. Sacred Pathways will show you the route you were made to travel, marked by growth and filled with the riches of a close walk with God.”

Authentic Faith by Gary L. Thomas

From the Back Cover
Fortify your commitment to Christ by examining ten authentic disciplines God uses to forge a fire-tested faith

What if the spiritual disciplines that bring us closer to God are not the ones we control? Best-selling author Gary Thomas reveals the rich benefits that derive from embracing the harder truths of Scripture. With penetrating insight from Scripture and the Christian classics, along with colorful and engaging stories, this eye-opening look at what it means to be a true disciple of Jesus will encourage you, bolster your faith, and help you rise above shallow attachments to fix your heart on things of eternal worth.

Seeking the Face of God by Gary L. Thomas

From Publishers Weekly
Thomas (Sacred Pathways) offers readers a simple method for fostering greater devotion to God. He uses excerpts from Christian spiritual classics, by authors ranging from Augustine, Pascal and Fenelon, as springboards into topics such as the journey of faith, setting spiritual goals, cultivating simplicity and spiritual gluttony. Thomas explains in seven steps how one can train both body and soul to draw closer to God. Seekers should invest time studying the writings of godly men and women of the past, learn to imitate contemporary models of holiness, cultivate godly character virtues, use bodily discomfort as a way to free the soul, rise early to begin each day with God and live life reflectively. Hoping to inspire and guide readers in their journey, Thomas lists his favorite authors’ works in an appendix. Like a fine wine, Thomas’s practical guide must be savored slowly to appreciate its fullness and flavor.
Copyright 1998 Reed Business Information, Inc.

January 2008

LADY OF MILKWEED MANOR by Julie Klassen (Historical Romance) After a mistake forces her to hide away in London’s forbidding “Milkweed Manor,” Charlotte Lamb comes face to face with a suitor from her past — a man who now hides secrets of his own. Both are determined, with God’s help, to protect those they love. But neither can imagine the depth of sacrifice that will be required.MY REVIEW CAN BE FOUND ~HERE~!

DREAMING BIG by Bobb Biehl and Paul Swets (Christian Living/Inspirational) This book invites readers to dig to the roots of their passions, to weed out what isn’t productive, to water what brings real happiness. It is divided into 31 chapters that serve as a guide for a month-long journey to developing a Life Dream — a crystal-clear vision of the difference you want to make in the future.

CHASING SKINNY RABBITS: What Leads You Into Emotional and Spiritual Exhaustion…and What Can Lead You Out, by Dr. John Trent (Christian Life/Personal Growth)
A national epidemic of exhaustion is raging across all cultures and social statuses with a huge price being paid in our lives and relationships. As award-winning author John Trent advises, if you don’t understand and deal with life’s Skinny Rabbits — those things that distract you and lead you to a negative place — more can’t-miss strategies for gaining time and energy will simply lead to more exhaustion. Reviewed by Margaret Oines.