Easy and fun Christmas Novels!

If you are looking to read fun and easy books with a holiday or Christmas theme, consider the following:

The first is “Mr. Miracle,” by Debbie Macomber.  This author always has a way of writing heartwarming stories that include struggles, relationships and new beginnings for some characters.  Protagonist, Addie Folsom is coming back home to get her life together.  She wants to enroll in college and get the education she always desired.  Harry Mills, local guardian angel of Addie will help her in her life during this season.  As Macomber is known to do, she weaves in a bit of romance, and in this book it includes Erich Simmons. He lives next door.  She remembers him well from high school.  He was the good person everyone liked. She was the exact opposite! As neighbors, their paths will cross more than casually.  One unexpected Christmas event throws them together and soon they both must reexamine their thoughts about the other.  This is a feel good, warm and enchanting Christmas story.  Don’t miss reading it.

Another great book is “Santa Claus Is for Real: A True Christmas Fable About the Magic of Charles Edward Hall has not always believed in Santa.  He did as a kid, but then had the tradition destroyed when he was a youth.  However, while working at Radio City Christmas Spectacular that all changed.  He found himself wearing the red suit. But while filling the role of Santa he found that it challenged his view point and the beauty of serving others changed his whole perspective.  This book too will warm your heart.

Believing,” by Charles Edward Hall and Bret Witter.

A third item is “Candlelight Christmas,” by Susan Wiggs. This is book ten of the Lakeshore Chronicles series. Logan O’Donnell wants Christmas in Avalon to be memorable for he and his son, Charlie.  O’Donnell meets Darcy Fitzgerald. Neither sees each other as one to fall in love with, but then events happen and their relationship is kindled. This book too is another enjoyable read for the holidays!

More spiritual thoughts for the holidays

The holidays are upon us.  This means many enter into spiritual expressions of faith.             While I was preparing the last blog, I could not give you many of the books I've read on the subject. “Heaven is for Real: A Little Boy's Astounding Story of His Trip to Heaven and Back,” by Todd Burpo, Sonja Burpo, Colton Burpo and Lynn Vincent. A young boy of four years old life is in jeopardy in surgery. He later begins to tell his parents his experiences as they live their everyday life.  Needless to say this makes their life more than normal. Read it and enjoy.

“Proof of Heaven: A Neurosurgeon's Journey into the Afterlife,” by Eben Alexander III M.D. This book is a testimony of a neurosurgeon’s personal experience when he is brain dead.  His fellow doctors, nurses and others know that he should not be able to come back to a normal life.  He writes with such technical descriptions of moving from a daily non-spiritual experience or understanding, to one that challenges his colleagues to believe there is more to life than just the physical that we can see.

“Heaven Is Real: Lessons on Earthly Joy--What Happened After 90 Minutes in Heaven,” by Don

Piper and Cecil Murphey. This is a book about a pastor who has a crash. The interesting thing about this book is that the man is not completely healed.  He comes back and must work through breaking almost every bone in his body. I loved the description of his 90 minutes in heaven. If you have someone struggling with life and death processes, think about reading the description to them.  It may bring them peace.

“The Boy Who Came Back from Heaven: A Remarkable Account of Miracles, Angels, and Life Beyond This World,” by Kevin Malarkey and Alex Malarkey. Note: I realize that the young man in the book has renounced the truth of the book.  I have read that the parents are in the midst of the divorce, and the parents have different views of how religion and faith is walked out in real life.  I’d love to interview those whose lives were touched by the son and subsequently written about in the book. The book I reviewed above would seem to confirm that the son could have had such experiences the knowing of situations in other people’s lives. Hence, I leave this book for you to consider. 

Thinking of the spiritual, heaven and such.

      There is a new book out about spiritual journeys and heaven. This is a  non-fiction book that I just finished reading is entitled “Glimpsing Heaven: The Stories and Science of the Life After Death,” by Judy Bachrach.  I enjoyed reading this book because it told stories of normal people making the journey of death and returning to life when sent back.  It brings a person to understand that there is more than just dying and being placed in the dirt.  I personally believed there is more than this mortal human existence; this author brings first-hand accounts to the reader through interviewing others and including her own personal experience. Some would question objectivity of the author. But, we all have personal experience, and I find it difficult to believe that even the most dedicated researcher keeps out subjective experiences to inform their responses. Computers can take raw data and spit out results, but even those are guided by the programs written by humans. 

Some who hold strict religious views may find it not what they want to consider. I found it fascinating to see how people describe their experiences in terms of total love, feeling of peace, no fear, knowledge, others meeting and communicating with the person, the description of objects coming toward them and communicating to them. There were some negative experiences but even those people grew and found that the experience allowed them to refocus their lives to be different.    

This book shows that many in our society have had personal experiences like this, but will not share them because of the stigma from society.  It often personally challenges what the person finds important in life. They become much more outward focused on others. Not driven to success and power. They have a knowing in circumstances that they never had before. I personally am not challenged by many of these descriptions, because if you read the descriptive portions that include visions, prophecy and prose within the Bible they have some similarities to what was communicated in the written text. Read it and you decide. 

Thanksgiving

In the spirit of Thanksgiving and all, let me tell you about some books with the Thanksgiving theme.   The first is a non-fiction item entitled, “Mayflower: A Story of Courage, Community, and War,” by Nathaniel Philbrick. This is a book that was written in 2007.  It is not a new item but it is a great history about the those that landed on what we call Plymouth Rock. Philbrick a consummate historian tells us in the books back flap that he thought he understood the history of the Pilgrims who landed in the new world.  But when he began to research the subject he really had no idea what these people endured, their triumphs and tragedies.

When I was in third grade I visited Plymouth Rock and the famous Plymouth Plantation.  The rock is encased in a gazebo type structure to keep vandals from harming it.  It is right on the coast where the ocean laps up. I still remember the reenactment that was done at the Plantation. The workers who acted out the life style of the people, helped to underscore the difficulty of the immigrants.   When I visited the rock again in 2010 and then had time to enjoy the Plymouth museum I renewed my understanding once again the hardship the people endured.  The book discussed the hardship traversing the seas and then building a colony. 

The meal the inhabitants ate, be they natural born or immigrants was not something that just happened.  The fact that they made it through the harsh winter and had food to eat was a miracle in itself. Let alone the fact they shared a meal of thanksgiving! If you have not taken time to reflect on the meaning yet of this wonderful holiday; the past events that allow us to celebrate and the things that make us truly thankful ourselves, I hope you take the time. 

Take a chance to share with children simple stories about Thanksgiving. Even adults enjoy these. Some you might be able to find on a library shelf would be: “Pete the Cat: The First Thanksgiving by James Dean and Kimberly Dean; “What Is Thanksgiving?” by Michelle Medlock Adams and Amy Wummer; “Over the River and Through the Wood: The New England Boy's Song About Thanksgiving Day,” by L. Maria Child and Matt Tavares. 

3D Printers new rave in technology!

Have you heard about one of the newest raves in technology? This beginning may one day change the way we sell things like replacement parts. It will definitely change the way medical devices are invented and produced.  Our library has just added a 3D printer to its technology offerings. We will have it for the public's use. We have just unpacked it and begun to use it, so we are still in the learning stage.

If you have not heard about 3D printers before, let me tell you of an amazing result using one.  Just in the last few years, Garrett Peterson was born with tracheomalacia. His windpipe was would close down and he’d not be able to breath.  Dr. Glenn Green at the University of Michigan contacted a biomedical engineer with the same university and asked him about his 3-D printing capabilities.  They teamed up and created a device from the 3-Printer to keep the windpipe open (http://goo.gl/UwVTIL).  Below is
the picture of the child saved by the use of a 3D printer 
and the new technology!

You may say, this is an extreme case but what about the hand created for a child (https://goo.gl/0xd2Wh).

Mashable on YouTube tells us that 3D printers are being used as adaptive manufacturing (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vx0Z6LplaMU). Objects are created by adding materials layer by layer that create complex parts for parts, machines, cars, planes, you name it! It produces prototype examples that are inexpensive yet give the understanding of what the object or material will look like when finished.  Architects, mechanical engineers, clothing and assessory designers, and many other industries are beginning to use 3D printers.  If you have something you’d like to try and create, come and schedule a time for creating and printing. 

I believe that many will begin with just downloading objects to print, but one day I hope creativity will be sparked and our citizens will begin to design materials that benefit others.

(All photos downloaded from Google Images). 

A new book is out by the award winning author of poetry, Sophie Hannah. It is entitled, “Agatha Christie: The Monogram Murders,” by Sophie Hannah. Hercule Poirot is enjoying himself in a little French coffee house called, Pleasant’s Coffee House. He has just been enjoying hot coffee when a rather intense lady enters the restaurant. He notes her discomfort and decides that he will approach her and ask if there is anything he can do to help her.  He introduces himself to her and tells her he is a retired policeman in London.  He tells her he recognizes that she seems to emanate fear at this time. Jennie, the woman in distress does not want help.  In fact she tells Poirot that she just wants the situation to happen.  She has been running too long and is tired of hiding.  She must endure the murder and let things just happen.  Poirot is really Belgium and has come to hibernate in France as a means of a break. However, he cannot resist this damsel in distress.  The dialogue and mystery go on from there.  It is a fast easy, enjoyable read.  Please take some time and enjoy this mystery. 

Hannah also won first prize in the Daphne Du Maurier Festival Short Story Completion for her Novela, “The Octopus Nest”  (http://www.sophiehannah.com/other-writing/the-fantastic-book-of-everybodys-secrets). 

If you have not tried a new author lately, try this writer. You may be pleased by her writing. 

Ebola Virus a pandemic?

The Ebola Virus is killing many in the nations of Guinea, Sierra Leon, and Liberia. It is a pandemic in the regions around these nations in Africa.  It has not become a world wide pandemic health care professionals are trying to make sure this does not happen. 

It is a deadly disease that has no vaccination that is effective.  The only thing that seems to be effective to date for defeating the spread of the disease is cleaning with bleach.  

The CDC tells us the symptoms include:  

Fever                                                   Fatigue                
Severe headache                                 Diarrhea

Muscle pain                                        Vomiting

Weakness                                            Abdominal (stomach) pain

Unexplained hemorrhage (bleeding or bruising)

Symptoms may appear anywhere from 2 to 21 days after exposure to Ebola, but the average is 8 to 10 days. Recovery from Ebola depends on good supportive clinical care and the patient’s immune response. People who recover from Ebola infection develop antibodies that last for at least 10 years (http://www.cdc.gov/vhf/ebola/symptoms/index.html). 

I realize that many are panicking in America because it would be so easy to transmit this disease to others in our large cities within weeks, but we must move cautiously. I have lived overseas and understand some of the reasons a disease like Ebola takes hold of a population.  Truthfully, many of the poor in third world are still dealing with TB and other communicable diseases.

Because we have no real cure for Ebola, and we know it can be transmitted so easily, but it is not air born.  It is fluid born and I dare say that those who have contracted it were in close contact with a sick person. 

If you want to learn about the treatment of Ebola, please checkout the CDC website page http://www.cdc.gov/vhf/ebola/treatment/index.html.