Review: Christmas Truce by Aaron Shepard

• Format: Kindle Edition
• File Size: 9115 KB
• Simultaneous Device Usage: Unlimited
• Publisher: Skyhook Press (May 27 2014)
• Sold by: Amazon Digital Services, Inc.
• Language: English
• ASIN: B00KHHBYU6

Book Description

In time for the World War I centennial, Aaron’s popular story of the Christmas Truce of 1914 is available as the picture book Christmas Truce. Illustrations are by Wendy Edelson, author of Aaron’s Christmas picture book The Baker’s Dozen: A Saint Nicholas Tale. The book is available now on Kindle and will be published in September in hardcover and paperback. The story may be found on this site in versions for reading, reader’s theater (both regular and small-team), and storytelling. Aaron’s Extras includes performances of the story by Lakes Area Theatre and the Chamber Readers.

Christmas Day, 1914

My dear sister Janet,

It is 2:00 in the morning and most of our men are asleep in their dugouts -- yet I could not sleep myself before writing to you of the wonderful events of Christmas Eve. In truth, what happened seems almost like a fairy tale, and if I hadn't been through it myself, I would scarce believe it. Just imagine: While you and the family sang carols before the fire there in London, I did the same with enemy soldiers here on the battlefields of France!

The Christmas Truce of 1914 is one of the most extraordinary incidents not only of World War I but of all military history. Providing inspiration for songs, books, plays, and movies, it has endured as an archetypal image of peace. Yet much about the historic event remains shrouded in myth and legend.
In this fictional letter -- illustrated in authentic detail by Wendy Edelson -- award-winning author Aaron Shepard draws from firsthand accounts of soldiers at the front to portray the truce in its true nature and spirit.


About the Author and Illustrator

Aaron Shepard's many books for young people have won honors from the American Library Association, the New York Public Library, the Bank Street College of Education, the American Folklore Society, and the National Council for the Social Studies. Visit him at www.aaronshep.com.

Wendy Edelson has been honored with the Pacific Northwest Book Award, the Moonbeam Children's Book Award, and the Mom's Choice Award. Her other illustrated books include Aaron's "The Baker's Dozen: A Saint Nicholas Tale." Visit her at www.wendyedelson.com.

My Review

 2014 is the 100th anniversary of the start of World War I. This delightful book for older children is available now on Kindle and will be published in hardcover in September.

War is much different in our present world than it was 100 years ago. World War I was fought by emperors and kings who were power hungry and all actually related to each other. It was not an ideological war. Europe is not a large place. The myths surrounding the Christmas truce are replaced by fact in this book which is beautifully illustrated by Wendy Edelson. This book shows young people how similar the opposing forces actually were. It was a time when Christmas was still magical. It had not been replaced by crass commercialism and by political correctness.

I highly recommend this book for young and old alike. It is eye-opening and heartwarming. Great Christmas book!

Review: The Jesus Code By O. S. Hawkins

• Imitation Leather: 288 pages
• Publisher: Thomas Nelson (July 29, 2014)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0529100827
• ISBN-13: 978-0529100825

Book Description

Jesus gets attention not with exclamation marks, but with question marks.

Jesus was always asking questions. Whether with a small group or large crowd, Jesus opened hearts and minds by asking questions that grasped attention and made one think. In The Jesus Code, author O. S. Hawkins poses fifty-two thought-provoking questions found throughout the Bible that believers should be able to answer as they grow in their faith and share their faith with others. Each question features a devotional thought to help readers find answers and promote further reflection.
Sample questions include:

• What does the Lord require of you?
• Where can I go from Your Spirit?
• Who is my neighbor?
• What is your life? A vapor that appears and vanishes away?
• Why do you seek the living among the dead?
• Will a man rob God?

As with The Joshua Code, all royalties will go to Mission:Dignity, whose mission supports retired pastors and their wives (or widows) living near poverty level.
Features & Benefits:

• Includes 52 thought-provoking questions and answers
• Handsome burnished leathersoft binding for a rich, classic look
• This release follows peak of O.S. Hawkins’ book, The Joshua Code with sales of more than 150,000 units
• All royalties go toward Mission:Dignity, an organization that supports retired pastors and their spouses living near the poverty level

About the Author

 O. S. Hawkins came to GuideStone Financial Resources in 1997 as President and Chief Executive Officer. Prior to his tenure at GuideStone, he served as Pastor of First Baptist Church of Dallas (1993-1997) and Pastor of First Baptist Church of Fort Lauderdale, Florida, for 15 years (1978-1993). Prior to these two pastorates, he served as pastor of two Oklahoma churches, First Baptist Church of Hobart (1972-1974) and First Baptist Church of Ada (1974-1978).

Hawkins was baptized as a 17-year-old in the historic Sagamore Hill Baptist Church. Hawkins earned a bachelor of business administration degree from Texas Christian University in Fort Worth, Texas. Upon returning from a mission trip to Matamoros, Mexico, he felt called to the ministry. He earned his Master of Divinity from Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary and his Doctor of Ministry degree from Luther Rice Seminary. He has also received several honorary doctoral degrees.

In addition to his role as GuideStone president and a long-time pastor, Hawkins is a noted author, having published more than 25 books throughout his ministry. Many of those books are available for free download. His most recent books, The Pastor’s Guide to Leading and Living and The Joshua Code: 52 Scripture Verses Every Believer Should Know, are available for sale through fine bookstores and online through Amazon.com. All proceeds and royalties from the sale of these two books benefit the Mission:Dignity ministry.

Hawkins oversaw two of the Southern Baptist Convention’s most noted churches. In Fort Lauderdale, Hawkins oversaw tremendous growth in the church due to outreach efforts within the church. He was named Clergyman of the Year by the Religious Heritage of America in 1993.

In 1993, he was called to pastor the 23,000-member First Baptist Church of Dallas, succeeding the legendary Dr. W.A. Criswell.

He has been married to his wife Susie since 1970, and they have two married daughters, Wendy and Holly; two sons-in-law, Brian and David; and six grandchildren.
 
My Review

Brilliant book. Author and Pastor Hawkins finds 150 questions that God is asking his believers in the Gospels alone. He found over 3,000 questions in both the Old and New Testaments. For Christians to grow they need to ask questions. This book will help you with your Christian growth. 

The book is laid out so that you can utilize it to study the bible over the course of a year...52 weeks...52 questions and chapters. For example the first question and answer:

“Has God indeed said . . . ?” The answer is a resounding, “Yes, He certainly has.” And what He says in His Word is true. We can trust Him. Remember this week that doubt is deadly when the Deceiver comes to you in various ways to get you to doubt what God has said in His Word.

Hawkins ends his introduction to The Jesus Code with:  "So let me pose a personal question: Are you ready to begin looking at the fifty-two questions in The Jesus Code, questions with answers that impact not only today but eternity? After all, some answers for life just can’t be found on Google! Let’s turn the page and begin with the first question recorded in Scripture."

Hawkins concludes with: You can now join millions of Christ’s followers in answering Pilate’s question, “What shall I do with Jesus who is called Christ?” by confidently affirming, “I will believe Jesus is the one and only Savior, and I will put my trust in Him . . . for now and for eternity." In reading this book you will ponder and find the answers to the most important questions Christians should be able to answer. This will be a great help for witnessing to others.

Highly recommend The Jesus Code. It is available at the end of July.

 

Review: NIV God's Word for Gardeners Bible Grow Your Faith While Growing Your Garden By Contributor: Shelley Cramm

• Format: Kindle Edition
• File Size: 5373 KB
• Print Length: 1568 pages
• Simultaneous Device Usage: Up to 5 simultaneous devices, per publisher limits
• Publisher: Zondervan; Special edition (March 25 2014)
• Sold by: Zondervan CA (CA SOR)
• Language: English
• ASIN: B00J1UJ8O4

Book Description

God will meet you personally in your garden... and in his. Throughout the Scriptures God has revealed spiritual truth in the language of growing things. This Bible will take you into a deeper relationship with God through the contemplation of soil and soul. The NIV God’s Word for Gardeners Bible will inspire you to seek God in a personal way through informative essays, devotional readings and prayers that explore the nature of the gardener’s work, the rewards of gardening, the influence of seasons and weather, and the joy of the harvest. In this Bible you will also find botanical-themed pages containing horticultural information for the prominent plants noted in Scripture and landscape-themed pages highlighting the main gardens and regions in which the events in the Bible took place. Draw near to the One whose garden is planted with delight---in you!

Features: * 260 daily devotions and 52 weekend readings arranged in weekly themes and placed near relevant passages in the text to explore the biblical metaphors of gardens and gardening * Beautiful, durable hardcover * Topical Index (for 52 weeks) * Special sections on the Garden of Eden, the garden of Gethsemane and Jesus the Vine.

About the Author
 

Shelley S. Cramm, author of NIV God’s Word for Gardeners Bible, is a suburban mom who has found the Word of God to be completely useful and practical in her everyday life—not to mention delightfully fun! Her background includes work in architectural and garden design, as well as involvement in local Bible study groups, Moms in Prayer and Moms of Preschoolers ministries.

Inspiration to write a gardener’s Bible grew out of a routine of morning journaling and an enduring hope to finish up the laundry and get out to the garden. Shelley and her husband Topher have five children and live in Irving, Texas.

http://www.gardenindelight.com/blog/

Shelley S. Cramm, author of NIV God’s Word for Gardeners Bible, is a suburban mom who has found the Word of God to be completely useful and practical in her everyday life—not to mention delightfully fun! Her background includes work in architectural and garden design, as well as involvement in local Bible study groups, Moms in Prayer and Moms of Preschoolers ministries.
Inspiration to write a gardener’s Bible grew out of a routine of morning journaling and an enduring hope to finish up the laundry and get out to the garden. Shelley and her husband Topher have five children and live in Irving, Texas.
- See more at: http://www.gardenindelight.com/about/#sthash.LHMBDoGv.dpuf

Shelley S. Cramm, author of NIV God’s Word for Gardeners Bible, is a suburban mom who has found the Word of God to be completely useful and practical in her everyday life—not to mention delightfully fun! Her background includes work in architectural and garden design, as well as involvement in local Bible study groups, Moms in Prayer and Moms of Preschoolers ministries.
Inspiration to write a gardener’s Bible grew out of a routine of morning journaling and an enduring hope to finish up the laundry and get out to the garden. Shelley and her husband Topher have five children and live in Irving, Texas.
- See more at: http://www.gardenindelight.com/about/#sthash.LHMBDoGv.dpuf

My Review

This is a very interesting format for a bible. I am reviewing the ebook of this bible and I have found it very easy to navigate with the included hyperlinks. It is a unique bible in that it is a bible for people who love to garden and love nature.

This is an introduction to the unique format:

Welcome to God’s Word for Gardeners. We will be puttering together for 52 weeks, gathering information and insight from the Bible’s plants, landscapes, and common cultivating practices into gentle, prayerful daily musings on God’s Word. A hybrid of study Bible and devotional Bible, with an understory planting of quotations from garden writing classics, God’s Word for Gardeners will connect you to all that God intended in our working the land and taking care of it.

Because a garden is a place we go to, to rest and reconnect, to find our way, to breathe the earth; many of our weeks will be spent seeing the landscape places of the Bible, a Garden Tour, so to speak, inspiring us with ideas to try at home . . .

and a garden is a work we do, growing ourselves as we grow our plants — a work in progress, a work of the heart; there is always work to do! God teaches us his ways through the weeks of Garden Work . . .

and a garden is a story. Beginning-middle-end parallels the seed to sprout to flower and fruit — walk with a gardener in his garden and you will hear stories and histories of plants, storms, survival, and surprise, all very personal and endearing. God has so much to impart in his Garden Stories.

Like a cucumber crisp from the vine or dewdrops on needle-tips catching the light, you have not tasted and seen the full goodness of the Lord until you have considered his Word from a gardener’s point of view. The whole Bible is meant to be known with book in one hand, trowel in the other. More than a metaphor, gardening unlocks insight, explanation, practicality and company with God in grasping and delighting in the Word of God. 

RSVP to the garden’s invitation: Come!

Weekly themes include:

GARDEN TOUR: Garden of Eden, Fertile Crescent, Egypt, Sinai Desert, Promised Land, En Gedi, Cedars of Lebanon, Palace Gardens, Mount of Olives, Asia Minor and Macedonia, Revelation’s Urban Garden

GARDEN WORK: Choosing, Preparing the Soil, Planting, Planting Pots, Watering, Cultivating, Weeding, Pruning, Propagating, Composting; Sowing and Reaping, Rooting, Growing, Flowering, Bearing Fruit, Celebrating the Harvest; with age-old spiritual disciplines as Garden Tools — Prayer, Work Ethic, Humility, Thanksgiving, Hope, Peace, Generosity

GARDEN STORIES: Seasons, Sun and Shade, Weather, Pest and Pestilence — because calamities eventually make the best stories; Jesus’ Horticultural Parables, Israel’s Horticultural Allegories, Away from the Last Supper, Jesus, the Seed, Root, Branch and Firstfruit, The Harvest of Righteousness, Intimacy with God in the Garden

 I had not thought of God as a gardener before. What an interesting concept. God's Word for Gardeners has a weekly reading plan that includes readings, devotions and a prayer for each day. As a gardener I find this bible to be very uplifting and helpful. The devotions are thoughtful and encouraging. The information about plants in the bible is fascinating.

I had wondered how author Shelley Cramm would handle my favorite verse in the bible, Isaiah 58:11. She wrote:

With the words of Isaiah, God reminds us of his continual, enduring way of meeting our needs and using us to meet the needs of others (Isaiah 58:10 – 11). It is the moving current of his two commandments: with God as the source, loving him flows into loving others (Mark 12:29 – 31). As we help friends or strangers, the Lord reassures us in the beautiful language of the garden that he will guide us, satisfy our needs and keep us strong in doing so (Isaiah 58:11). He brings us from sun-scorched land, so to speak, to well-watered gardens, refreshed so we will refresh others.

Gardener and author Rebecca Cole reminds us of the personal nature of tending the garden through the chore of watering.

 To summarize, gardening makes me happy and worshiping the Lord makes me happy. The two of these things combined is a winner as far as I am concerned. A great addition to my bible collection.

Review: Mission to Murder (A Tourist Trap Mystery #2) by Lynn Cahoon

• Format: Kindle Edition
• File Size: 1196 KB
• Print Length: 263 pages
• Publisher: eKensington (July 31 2014)
• Sold by: Amazon Digital Services, Inc.
• Language: English
• ASIN: B00IO3QR98

Book Description

In the California coastal town of South Cove, history is one of its many tourist attractions—until it becomes deadly…

Jill Gardner, proprietor of Coffee, Books, and More, has discovered that the old stone wall on her property might be a centuries-old mission worthy of being declared a landmark. But Craig Thomas, the obnoxious owner of South Cove’s most popular tourist spot, The Castle, makes it his business to contest her claim. When Thomas is found murdered at The Castle shortly after a heated argument with Jill, even her detective boyfriend has to ask her for an alibi. Jill decides she must find the real murderer to clear her name. But when the killer comes for her, she’ll need to jump from historic preservation to self-preservation …

About the Author

 An Idaho native, her stories focus around the depth and experience of living big in a small town. Currently, she’s living in a small historic town on the banks of the Mississippi river where her imagination tends to wander. She lives with her husband and four fur babies.


My Review

New to me author Lyn Cahoon,  is the author of the Tourist Trap Mystery series. Mission to Murder is the second in the series.  

I really enjoyed this cozy mystery set in a small tourist town on the central California coast. I'm still trying to figure out if it is based on Cambria or San Simeon or a mixture of both. Jill Gardner owns a small coffee bookstore in town. Her boyfriend is the local police detective. She is still trying to find her place in the small town. The manager of the town's biggest tourist attraction is murdered right after Jilly argued with him. So of course she is the first suspect. Jill tries to solve the mystery herself to her boyfriend's chagrin. Good story in a cozy full of interesting characters.  I recommend this book if you are looking for a light read.

Mission to Murder will be released on July 31st.

Review: NIV Essentials Study Bible Easily Grasp the Fundamentals of Scripture through Lenses from 6 Bestselling NIV Resources

• Hardcover: 1856 pages
• Publisher: Zondervan Bibles (Nov. 18 2013)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0310442419
• ISBN-13: 978-0310442417

Book Description

The NIV Essentials Study Bible helps you quickly and easily understand, interpret, and apply God’s Word to your life. The variety of features in this Bible presents a multifaceted, exciting format for studying Scripture. There are many different ways to explore God’s Word: question-and-answer studies; detailed in-text study notes; timelines, photos and charts; helpful devotional insights; and profiles of Bible characters. Now you don’t have to choose, because the NIV Essentials Study Bible provides you the chance to explore the Bible using all these study methods and more. With each of these lenses included in one Bible, you will discover how to best understand the essentials of Scripture.This edition includes the entire NIV Bible text with the world’s best notes for learning. It incorporates the finest content, images, and study tools from the most popular Bibles that are loved and used by Bible readers just like you. It features:

• Flyover Lens: Start each book of the Bible with the right perspective from easy-to-read introductions from the popular Essential Bible Companion.
• Unpack Lens: Easily understand and interpret Bible passages with bottom-of-the page study notes and in-text charts from the best-in-class NIV Study Bible.
• Dig Deep, Look Close Lens: Understand the fascinating historical significance of the Bible with articles and photos from the bestselling NIV Archaeological Study Bible.
• Q&A Lens: Get concise, easy-to-grasp answers to your most perplexing questions about the Bible with questions and answers from the beloved NIV Quest Study Bible.
• People Lens: View Scripture from the perspective of the 100 most important people in the Bible with notes for the student of any age excerpted from the timeless NIV Student Bible.
• Guided Tour Lens: Get a bird’s eyes view of Scripture with a Guided Tour, also excerpted from the category-leading NIV Student Bible.
• Insight Lens: Find meaning in the Bible by reading these magazine-style call-outs from the NIV Student Bible.
• R&R Lens: Reflect & Respond with this quick inspirational focus time, which unveils the sweeping narrative of the Bible as seen in the award-winning The Great Rescue, NIV.

My Review

This is an amazing bible...so many wonderful study bibles combined into one bible. The NIV Essentials Study Bible is the one bible that you need that contains so many different study elements.

It corporates parts from six study bibles into one volume: NIV Study Bible, NIV Quest Study Bible, NIV Archaeological Study Bible, NIV Student Bible, The Great Rescue Bible, and The Essential Bible Companion. The NIV Essentials takes the best of the best. The Quest Study Bible has long been my favorite for bible study but I have found my new favorite!!

A must have for your bible collection...and if you only want one, this is it!

Review: One Kick (Kick Lannigan #1) by Chelsea Cain

• Format: Kindle Edition
• Print Length: 384 pages
• Publisher: Simon & Schuster (Aug. 19 2014)
• Sold by: Amazon Digital Services, Inc.
• Language: English
• ASIN: B00HT55270

Book Description

From the author of the critically acclaimed New York Times bestselling Archie Sheridan/Gretchen Lowell thrillers: The first in a nail-biting new series featuring Kick Lannigan, a young woman whose complicated past has given her a very special skill set.

Famously kidnapped at age six, Kick captured America’s hearts when she was rescued five years later. Now, twenty-one, she finds herself unexpectedly entangled in a missing child case that will put her talents to the test.

Trained as a marksman, lock picker, escape artist and bomb maker by her abductor, Kick could not return to the life of the average young girl after her release. So, in lieu of therapy, she mastered martial arts, boxing, and knife throwing; learned how to escape from the trunk of a car, jimmy a pair of handcuffs, and walk without making a sound—all before she was thirteen.

Kick has trained herself to be safe. But then two children go missing in three weeks, and an enigmatic and wealthy former weapons dealer approaches her with a proposition. John Bishop uses his fortune and contacts to track down missing children. Not only is he convinced Kick can help recover the two children—he won’t take no for an answer.

With lives hanging in the balance, Kick is set to be the crusader she has always imagined herself. Little does she know that the answers she and Bishop seek are hidden in one of the few places she doesn’t want to navigate—the dark corners of her own mind.

A heart-stopping, entertaining thrill ride, One Kick announces the arrival of a blistering new series by a stunning talent in the thriller realm.

About the Author

Chelsea Cain is the New York Times bestselling author of the Archie Sheridan/Gretchen Lowell thrillers Heartsick, Sweetheart, Evil at Heart, The Night Season, Kill You Twice, and Let Me Go. Her next book One Kick (August, 2014) will be the first in her Kick Lannigan thriller series. Her book Heartsick was named one of the best 100 thrillers ever written by NPR, and Heartsick and Sweetheart were named among Stephen King's Top Ten Books of the Year. Her books have been featured on HBO's True Blood and on ABC's Castle. Cain lives in Portland, Oregon with her husband and daughter.


My Review

One Kick by Chelsea Cain will grab your attention immediately. And it is impossible to put down. Even though at times you want to...but be brave and keep reading.

Chelsea Cain knows how to tell a terrifyingly good story! She has moved on from the Gretchen and Archie stories with a new character, Kick Lannigan. Kick is a rescued kidnap victim who has all the mental scars you can imagine. Since her rescue she has obtained all the skills that will make it improbable that she will ever be victimized again.

When two local children go missing, Kick is contacted by the mysterious John Bishop to help find the children. Kick's years in captivity have given her unique information that can help. She knows how child abductors think...what type of  buildings and neighborhoods they choose to hide in plain sight. Can Kick help John Bishop save the two children....

One Kick is incredibly well written..you are drawn into the story immediately and you cannot stop reading. Chelsea Cain's books are not for people who like to read cozy mysteries. They are gritty and full of tough situations.

Highly recommend One Kick by Chelsea Cain. It will be released in August.

Review: Wayfaring Stranger: A Novel by James Lee Burke

• Print Length: 448 pages
• Publisher: Simon & Schuster (July 15, 2014)
• Sold by: Simon and Schuster Digital Sales Inc
• Language: English
• ASIN: B00HB62NII

Book Description

From “America’s best novelist” (The Denver Post): A sprawling thriller drenched with atmosphere and intrigue that takes a young boy from a chance encounter with Bonnie and Clyde to the trenches of World War II and the oil fields along the Texas-Louisiana coast.

It is 1934 and the Depression is bearing down when sixteen-year-old Weldon Avery Holland happens upon infamous criminals Bonnie Parker and Clyde Barrow after one of their notorious armed robberies. A confrontation with the outlaws ends as Weldon puts a bullet through the rear window of Clyde’s stolen automobile.

Ten years later, Second Lieutenant Weldon Holland and his sergeant, Hershel Pine, escape certain death in the Battle of the Bulge and encounter a beautiful young woman named Rosita Lowenstein hiding in a deserted extermination camp. Eventually, Weldon and Rosita fall in love and marry and, with Hershel, return to Texas to seek their fortunes.

There, they enter the domain of jackals known as the oil business. They meet Roy Wiseheart—a former Marine aviator haunted with guilt for deserting his squadron leader over the South Pacific—and Roy’s wife Clara, a vicious anti-Semite who is determined to make Weldon and Rosita’s life a nightmare. It will be the frontier justice upheld by Weldon’s grandfather, Texas lawman Hackberry Holland, and the legendary antics of Bonnie and Clyde that shape Weldon’s plans for saving his family from the evil forces that lurk in peacetime America and threaten to destroy them all.


About the Author

James Lee Burke is an American author best known for his mysteries, particularly the Dave Robicheaux series. He has twice received the Edgar Award for Best Novel, for Black Cherry Blues in 1990 and Cimarron Rose in 1998.

Burke was born in Houston, Texas, but grew up on the Texas-Louisiana Gulf Coast. He attended the University of Louisiana at Lafayette and the University of Missouri, receiving a BA and MA from the latter. He has worked at a wide variety of jobs over the years, including working in the oil industry, as a reporter, and as a social worker. He was Writer in Residence at the University of Louisiana at Lafayette, succeeding his good friend and posthumous Pulitzer Prize winner John Kennedy Toole, and preceding Ernest Gaines in the position. Shortly before his move to Montana, he taught for several years in the Creative Writing program at Wichita State University in the 1980s.

Burke and his wife, Pearl, split their time between Lolo, Montana, and New Iberia, Louisiana. Their daughter, Alafair Burke, is also a mystery novelist.

The book that has influenced his life the most is the 1929 family tragedy "The Sound and the Fury" by William Faulkner.


My Review

Wayfaring Stranger by James Lee Burke is a departure from Burke's usual. It is a historical novel set in the Depression, World War II and the Cold War era. Burke does not stray from his basic theme of good versus evil. He has an amazing capacity to get into the hearts and minds of those of us among us who are evil to the core.

The book opens with Weldon Holland encountering Bonnie and Clyde. The meeting foreshadows later events to some degree. Weldon heads off to war during World War II where he rescues the love of his life from a concentration camp. Rosita accompanies Weldon back to the United States at the end of the war. Life won't be easy for the two of them as Rosita is a Spanish Jewess whose family are communists. This story will be a wonderful introduction to young people who did not grow up during the Cold War and who did not personally witness the hysteria the word communist could summon.

This is a story that only an accomplished writer who puts his heart and soul into his words could write. The main story is set in the oil fields of Texas and Louisiana where scoundrels abound. Besides meeting Rosita in the war, Weldon also met Herschel Pine who became his business partner in the pipeline business. Hershel and his wife Linda Gail figure prominently in the story as well. Linda Gail is seduced by the bright lights of Hollywood and the men who run it.

James Lee Burke captures a period in American history in a way that no other author can. This is a brilliantly told tale that I know will be hard to forget. You need to read this beautifully written book. It is available this month.