Review - A Table in the Presence by LT. Carey H. Cash

From Barnes and Noble:

"“You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies.”
–Psalm 23:5

There are some places where you just don’t expect to find God. For the men of the 1st Battalion, 5th Marine Regiment, downtown Baghdad was one of those places. Moving into the heart of Iraq and ever deeper into enemy territory, they found themselves face-to-face with the ruthless Iraqi Republican Guard and Fedayeen militia. But when the smoke cleared, God’s touch was clearly visible.

Serving as a chaplain to the U.S. Marines, Lieutenant Carey Cash had witnessed the miracles that began in the desert of northern Kuwait, and found their culmination in one of the fiercest battles of Operation Iraqi Freedom. With vivid detail and gripping emotion, Lt. Cash gives a firsthand account of this amazing story–how the men of an entire battalion found God in the presence of their enemies."

We have had this book for a long time. My husband read it years ago and has been telling me that I needed to read it since he read it. I'm not exactly sure why but I just could never finish it. (I had to start Harry Potter at least 3 times.)
One of my goals for the year is to read more nonfiction. For nonfiction I have to go no further than the husband's side of the book shelves. Again he urged me to read it and this time I stuck to it. I am so glad.
I loved this book. You expect to see God in church or at Bible study. Sometimes you are surprised to find Him in WalMart or driving down the road. You do not expect to see God in the middle of a war in the middle of Iraq. You hope. You hope that God is there, but to see it so beautifully is pretty rare.
Cash has such a way with bringing everything together. He did an outstanding job of pulling out the pieces that are so special and showing them to you. I see God in big and small ways. It's the small ways that always make me know, but some people need the big stuff. I am thankful to God every weekend that he gave me a husband that I love and actually like to spend time with. Enjoying a drive in the middle of nowhere seems small, but to me it's so big.
The big's, the "Don't make me come down there's!" often times are lost on me. But I can see how men, warrior men especially, would need that. And the fact that he does what we need in order to be able to see is just amazing. I love that Cash showed us a little of both.
This is and is not a typical military book. It has your scene's of gripping war action. It didn't leave out the gritty parts of war. But it was not ABOUT the war or the battles. It was about God, it was about providence.
God has so much to show us everyday, I am so glad that I saw what he has to say through Cash and this book.
Here are a few of my favorites:

He uses a portion of the Marine Corps Devotional Book that I absolutely love:

"O God, for another day, for another morning, for another minute, for another chance to live and serve You, I am truly grateful.
Do....this day free me:
from all fear of the future
from all anxiety about tomorrow,
from all bitterness towards anyone,
from all cowardice in the face of danger, 
from all laziness in the face of work,
from all failure before opportunity,
from all weakness when Your power is at hand.
But fill me
with Love that knows no barrier,
with Sympathy that reaches all,
with Courage that cannot be shaken,
with Faith strong enough for the darkness,
with Strength sufficient for my tasks,
with Loyalty to Your Kingdom's goal,
with Wisdom to meet life's complexities,
with Power to lift me to you.
Be with me for another day, and use me as You will. Amen."

I love this so much, I am so glad to have read it.

"Using the tailgate of my vehicle as an altar, together we sought the Lord. We prayed together, heard God's Word together, shared communion together. The men would come to receive the body of Christ with their heads bowed in reverence, their hands cuppsed together and lifted up - hands that were filthy, sometimes even bloody, but hearts that were pure. "Blessed are the pure in heart, for, they shall see God" (Matthew 5:8). And we saw God. We saw Him move in our lives."

"I have always tried to remind our men that as military personnel they have a unique role in the world. Theirs is not merely a job but a calling, a vocation. I remember saying that the Bible only speaks of three institutions that are specifically ordained of God as having special and sacred worth to society: the family, the church, and the government. Throughout the Bible, these institutions are elevated above all others. I have even joked with a few interested men once, saying that when they'd joined the Marine Corps, in some sense, whether they knew it or not, they had entered the ministry."

And from one of the letters they received wraps up everything very nicely:

"From a little boy:

Dear Marine,
My name is Isaiah. I am four. We are proud of you. I play G.I. Joe at Home. The good guy always wins."

I was blessed by this book.



Spying in High Heels by Gemma Halliday

From Gemma's website:

"L.A. shoe designer, Maddie Springer, lives her life by three rules: Fashion. Fashion. Fashion. But when she stumbles upon the work of a brutal killer, her life takes an unexpected turn from Manolos to murder. And things only get worse when her boyfriend disappears - along with $20 million in embezzled funds - and her every move is suddenly under scrutiny by the LAPD's sexiest cop. With the help of her post-menopausal bridezilla of a mother, a 300 pound psychic and one seriously oversexed best friend, Maddie finds herself stepping out of her stilettos and onto the trail of a murderer. But can she catch a killer before the killer catches up to her..."

I found this set (the first five books) on sale in the nook book corner for $2.99. What a deal! Anywho, I really liked it. I thought that it was super cute. I read it about the same time that One for the Money came out in the theaters. I had seen Halliday compared to Evanovich, I was intriqued.
I liked it alot. Maddie is super cute but there were times she was that super cute that gets annoying. All the rest of the characters are a hoot! It was a quick read and nice to have something fun and cute to read.
I was pleasantly surprised by this one!


Hidden Summit by Robyn Carr

From Barnes and Noble:

"Sick of running into her cheery ex-husband and his new wife, Leslie Petruso accepts a job at the Virgin River branch of Haggerty Construction and takes the high road right out of town. Now she's got Paul Haggerty's business running like a well-oiled machine. In fact, things are so busy Paul jumps at the chance to hire an extra set of hands.

Just like Leslie, Conner Danson has been burned by love. But if Leslie was disappointed by her relationship going bad, Conner was decimated. He's got no time for women…although he spends an awful lot of time pretending not to notice Leslie. And she's pretty busy "ignoring" the chemistry between them.

According to Conner and Leslie, they have only one thing in common—they're done with love. But everyone in Virgin River can see that things are heating up at Haggerty Construction. And as far as Paul Haggerty can tell, the best thing he can do is hang on to his hard hat and watch the sparks fly!"

I love Robyn Carr. This series is definately one of my favorite's. I have gushed about her enough, it was about time to find a less than LOVE from her.
This book was not really up to Virgin River standards. I liked Leslie ok, just ok. The story line behind Conner was just a little much. What I love about Carr is that she uses characters and the story lines seem like a person you could know. But this storyline had a few too many things that were too book-like to be real people.
I know that sounds ridiculous but there it is. This was ok, nothing to write home about! 

Bring Me Home For Christmas - Robyn Carr

From Barnes and Noble:

"This year, Becca Timm knows the number one item on her Christmas wish list—getting over Denny Cutler. Three years ago, Denny broke her heart before heading off to war. It's time she got over her silly college relationship and moved on.

So she takes matters into her own hands and heads up to Virgin River, the rugged little mountain town that Denny calls home, as an uninvited guest on her brother's men-only hunting weekend. But when an accident turns her impromptu visit into an extended stay, Becca finds herself stranded in Virgin River. With Denny. In very close quarters.

As the power of Christmas envelops the little town, Becca discovers that the boy she once loved has become a strong and confident man. And the most delicious Christmas present she can imagine."

I love Robyn Carr. I forgot just how much until I read this book. This is part of her Virgin River series and I was so glad to get to read a bit about all the folks in town that I've grown to love in the last 13 books.
One of the reasons that I love her so much is because she gives her characters real problems that real people have in the real world. There are no beautiful super models and jamming rock stars that just can't make their relationship work. Alot of her characters are somehow connected to the military and I love that too.
This book we meet Denny again. He did two tours with the Marine's. He lost buddies and his mom along the way. He was dealing with alot of issues and along the way that contributed to his and Becca's relationship.
We see them both grow up as a result. I love the long lost love stories and this one didn't disappoint. I love that she doesn't feel the need to use bad language and doesn't get too tacky with the love scenes. She makes sure to put most of her emphasis and words to the story line instead of to things that don't add much to it. I like her alot and after this one I will continue to.



Hello there!

So last year I totally sucked at updating the book blog. I am going to New Year's Resolution this thing and get it back up and running.
I'll start by linking you to my latest review, American Sniper. It's a great book and I apparently had alot to say about it!

Anywho, I wanted to give you a few resources that I use quite a bit when it comes to picking books.

Fantastic Fiction is a Fantastic resource. Don't be put off by the look of the site. It lacks that professional look in the design. In fact the first few times that I used it I was a bit put off and scared that the info wasn't correct because of how the site feels. Get.over.that. At the library, I used this site all day, every day. Let me tell you a few things I love about it.
First of all it has every author that I have ever had to look up. Seriously, I cannot remember ever looking up someone and they weren't in that database. Each person has a page and it does a little blurb about them. Then you have the books this person has written. Each book also has a page. Then at the bottom of the author page if gives you a list of authors that this author recommends AND a list of authors that read similar to that author.
The main reason that I use this site is that they have an up-to-date and correct list of the order you read books in a series. That was a big hassle at the library, which book you read first in a series. Fantastic Fiction is my go to place for this. I choose that even over the author's website, here's why. On most author website's they list their books in order of publication. That is not always the order in which you should read the series. Something like the Silence of the Lamb series. You don't watch those in the order they were made because the LAST one is actually the beginning. That's why I use FF for the series listing. I can get lost all day on this site.

Baker and Taylor is the company that we used to order books. I know that there are other companies out there, but this is the one that I'm most familiar with. They put out tons of magazine's each month to keep you up to date on what's going on in the book world. You can look at these magazine's online :) The link that I sent you to is to their magazine Forecast. That is the magazine that will generally give you the main stream fiction and non fiction. This let's you see what debut authors are causing a stir and what new things your favorite's are working on. This magazine is generally what I use to make out my "To Be Read" list.

Always Time To Die by Elizabeth Lowell

From Barnes and Noble:

"The powerful Quintrell family of New Mexico has spent decades in the public eye. Now the recent death of the clan's patriarch, a former U.S. senator, has placed his son, Governor Josh Quintrell, squarely in the spotlight as he prepares his run for the highest political office in the land. It is not a good time to be rattling skeletons in the family's closets.

Researching personal histories isn't just Carolina "Carly" May's profession, it's her passion. When the governor's eccentric Aunt Winifred invites Carly into the Quintrells' private Taos compound to compile a genealogical record of the illustrious residents, she can hardly believe her good luck. But digging into the past is raising troubling questions about the would-be president's private life, his late father and catatonic mother, and the grisly street crime that left his notorious drug-addicted sister dead. And it soon becomes frighteningly apparent that the motivation of the dotty old woman who hired Carly might be something more akin to revenge -- and that someone is determined to remove the inquisitive genealogist from the picture by any means necessary.
As a dark world of twisted passions and depraved crimes slowly opens up before Carly, she realizes that there is no one whom she dares to trust -- perhaps least of all Dan Duran, a dangerous and haunted mystery man who's somehow tied to the Quintrells' past. But she will need an ally to survive the terrible secrets a father carried to the grave and an even more devastating evil that lurks among the living -- because following the bloodlines of the wealthy and power-hungry can be a bloody business ... and some dead secrets can kill. "

I like Elizabeth Lowell. I usually can't wait for her to come out with another book. Most of them are connected in some way but you don't have to really read them in any order. I feel like I can generally see an author progressing with each new book. Sometimes it's a good progression, sometimes not. This is an older book by Lowell and it was good, but not nearly as good as her newer ones.
I like it when things progress that way. I see it oddly as a child that has grown when I see an author getting better with each passing book.
I like how Lowell lets you meet the characters. All their good and bad. Their impatience and grumpiness. Every little thing.
This was a fast paced book that gave me plenty of suspense and romance. I liked it. Not my favorite ever, but it was good.



The Rescuer by Dee Henderson

From Barnes and Noble:

"Stephen O'Malley is a paramedic who has been rescuing people all his life. His friend Meghan is in trouble: Stolen jewels are turning up in interesting places, and she's in the middle of it. Stephen is about to run into a night he will never forget—a kidnapping, a tornado, and a race to rescue the woman he loves.
Introducing the O'Malleys, an inspirational group of seven, all abandoned or orphaned as teens, who have made the choice to become a loyal and committed family. They have chosen their own surname, O'Malley, and have stood by each other through moments of joy and heartache. Their stories are told in CBA best-selling, inspirational romantic suspense novels that rock your heart and restore strength and hope to your spirit.  "

What a great conclusion to a good, feel good series.
Henderson did a great job rounding out the series and finishing it all off. I would like to see Tom later, but overall this ending was great.
I loved that Meghan had a few moments of pity and tiredness (like we all would) but she bucked up and moved on.
I love that Stephan got settled and found what he was looking for.
I loved that it was Kate that had a baby.
I had a great time reading this series, Henderson did a great job with it.