The Noticer

Although I read a lot there aren't many books that I would recommend to just about anyone. The Noticer by Andy Andrews is one of the few.



Jones an old man of undetermined age and background helps a young homeless man - not by giving a handout but by giving him the tools to improve his life. Later the young man finds out about the others that Jones has helped: the couple on the brink of divorce, the old woman who thinks her life is over, the business man who is too busy getting ahead to notice what he is leaving behind.

Based on a true story but weaving in fiction and allegory, The Noticer is a beautifully crafted story from the young homeless man. It is a fairly quick read except, in my opinion, this is one to read slowly and savor. This is an excellent book to add to any collection.

As a side note, as a homeschooler I love how much Jones taught through biographies. We must read more biographies.

I was able to read this book through the Thomas Nelson Book Review Blogger. I get no compensation for doing this review, only the book to read. If you are interested in doing some reviews yourself, click the button in the sidebar.

Max Lucado's Fearless

Everyone has fears of some kind. Everyone.

There are the fears that can mostly be avoided like the fear of crowds or airplanes or needles. But then there are those fears that keep you awake at night - fears of not mattering; fears of not protecting your kids; fear of death. These are the fears that we are powerless against, they gnaw at you and they distract you from the One who can give you peace.

Max Lucado's new book is Fearless and it takes on these fears as well as others: fear of disappointing God, fear of running out, fear of overwhelming challenges, fear of worst case scenarios, fear of violence, fear of the coming winter, fear of life's final moments, fear of what's next, fear that God is not real, fear of global calamity, fear of God getting out of my box. We live in a society that is incredibly fearful and rather than depend on the One who can conquer fear, we walk around as if we have been defeated.

Here is a brief video talking about fear:


Like Max Lucado's other books, this is not a dry, weighty tome full of big, hard to understand words. Nor is it a fluff bit of work. Fearless is an engaging book written in an easy to understand language. Included in the book is a study guide that can be used with groups or by an individual.

I recommend reading through the whole book, some of the chapters I was surprised by the direction they took. I have read through the whole book, and while I can't say I enjoyed the whole thing - some of it was too close to sensitive areas - I got alot out of it. I plan on going back and taking a closer look at those sensitive areas and useing the study guide along with it.

This is a book I highly recommend to anyone. I was very glad to be able to review this book for Thomas Nelson Book Review Bloggers.

By the way - I am not getting anything from Nelson or Max Lucado other than the book to review. I am not being paid or anything like that. I just got a free book.

Rick and Bubba's Guide to the Almost Nearly Perfect Marriage

Do you have the perfect marriage?

No?

Neither do I.

Neither do Rick and Sherri or Bubba and Betty.

They do have an "almost nearly perfect" marriage though. What does the almost nearly perfect marriage look like? Well, there is a lot of laughter mixed with some forgiveness.



Rick and Bubba are not know-it-all geniuses, they each have a real marriage and their stories about their marriages will make you laugh while giving you insights on your marriage.

Included are

• "Rules of Engagement for Women" and "Rules of Engagement for Men"
• "Top 10 Worst Ways to say, 'I'm Sorry'"
• "Top 10 Reasons Some Husbands Don't Pick Up After Themselves"
• The Book of Blame

While there is a lot of laughter and jokes, there are also some real gems of insight:

Show us a good marriage, and we'll show you a union of two good forgivers. In fact, one reason the divorce rate is so high, especially among christians, is that many of us have forgotten how to forgive.

And

Men want to be their wife's hero. Yet many wives find it easier to love, feed or clothe their husbands than to show them respect.

This is not a dry dull book on how to improve your marriage. I would even say if your marriage is having trouble, this is probably not the book you need. But is is a fun book to read.

I have to confess I had never heard of Rick and Bubba before.

I never heard their radio show, never saw their website, nothing. I really wish I had listened to the CD that was included with the book first, because I would have had a better idea what I was listening to. As stupid as it sounds, I was not expecting a couple of guys I might run into at the feed store, or at a gathering of Hubbies co-workers, or at church. These guys are totally down to earth, but without getting into the muck.

Some comedians seem to think that the dirtier you get or the fouler the language the better of a comedian you are. These guys are funny without doing that. This is something I would be comfortable listening to with the kids or my parents.

Plus, it gave me the opportunity to see the guy's side and a chance to see my marriage in a new light.

I am really glad I chose this book as my first reveiw for Thomas Nelson Book Review Bloggers.

Rock of Ages - the musical

Ok, I have a confession. Sometimes I skim read and jump to conclusions. When I saw that I could review Rock of Ages for One2One network I leapt at the chance. How cool to review a musical based on hymns.

Or not.

Because that is not what this Rock of Ages is. Boy do I feel dumb. For those of you like me, Rock of Ages is the new five time Tony nominated Broadway musical starring American Idol finalist Constantine Maroulis. It is set in 1987 on the Sunset Strip in a club where a small-town girl meets a big-city dreamer and they fall in love to some of the greatest metal songs of the 80's. It is told through the hits of Journey, Bon Jovi, Styx, Reo Speedwagon, Pat Benatar, Foreigner, Twisted Sister, Poison, Asia, Whitesnake and more.

These are songs I remembered from Jr high (even though I wasn't a metal head). Some of these I haven't heard in 20 years so I really enjoyed listening to it.





Here is the tracklist:

Just Like Paradise / Nothin' But A Good Time
Sister Christian
We Built This City / Too Much Time On My Hands
I Wanna Rock
We're Not Gonna Take It
Heaven/More Than Words / To Be With You
Waiting For A Girl Like You
Wanted Dead Or Alive
I Want To Know What Love Is
C** On Feel The Noize / We're Not Gonna Take It (Reprise)
Harden My Heart / Shadows Of The Night
Here I Go Again
The Final Countdown
Any Way You Want It / I Wanna Rock (Reprise)
High Enough
I Hate Myself For Loving You / Heat Of The Moment
Hit Me With Your Best Shot
Can't Fight This Feeling
Every Rose Has Its Thorn
Oh Sherrie
The Search Is Over
Don't Stop Believin'

I really enjoyed it. I could see myself continuing to listen to it except it does have some non-family friendly bits and I am usually with my littles. There are things I don't want to explain yet to them. Like what a strip club is.

I have recommended it to some friends but just those that don't spend all their time with kids (or have older kids).

Some added info:

Making of Soundtrack video

Link to buy album

Just so you know, I get no payment of any sort for the review. I do get the CD but that is only so I can do the review. These are my thoughts and opinions on the CD. I also get no payment of any kind if you chose to buy the disk.

Listen to the radio

Hmm, it seems like there are some songs that say that.

Oh well. I thought I would tell you about my newly discovered favorite way of listening to the "radio".

I suppose it isn't a true radio because you don't tune into ninty-eleventy FM.

And you have to have internet access.

And you get to say that you never want to hear a song again and they won't play it anymore.

Ok, maybe it is not so much like a radio.

Anyway, it is Pandora.com - I really don't know what radio has to do with a girl who opens a box and lets all the evil things in the world escape but anyway.

You go to Pandora.com and pick out a musician you want to hear (you can also do a song but I don't suggest it.) Pandora will then play that artist and other music that is like it.

For instance, I put in Journey and I have heard

• Bon Jovi's Wanted Dead or Alive,
• Journey's Lovin' Touchin' Squeezin',
Aerosmith's Dream On,
• Kansas' Carry On My Wayward Son
• REO Speedwagon's I can't Fight This Feeling Anymore,
• Journey's Ask the Lonely
• and of course no play list from that time is complete without The Eagles' Hotel California.

Each song you can vote on whether you like it or not, if you like it then they play more songs similar.

Like I said, you can put in a specific song and they will play music similar to it but if you are wanting to hear that song, you will have to wait awhile. Something about their licensing laws that they have to wait a certain amount of time before they can play that song. For instance if you want to hear The Search is Over you are better off imputing Survivor because it might come up.

And the music selection is much wider than you might suspect. I have found Christian artists (Chris Tomlin) as well as old stuff like Gene Autry (I have very eclectic music tastes).

Do I get any benefit from saying all these nice things about Pandora? Yes! I get free music to listen to, and it is music that I like.

Of course, you do too. And you don't have to review Pandora to get free music. And they probably don't care that I have said all this. And they didn't ask me to do it.

So really I don't get a thing.

Diane Birch - Bible Belt

I suppose she thought the title was appropriate having been raised as a missionary kid. I disagree. While I like the CD, it is not christian.

On the other hand, I feel ok with my kids listening to this one.

Now that I got that outta the way, Diane Birch does have an amazing voice. The songs on the album transported me. Fire Escape made me think of sitting outside on a hot Mississippi night sipping wine (I don't know exactly why). Valentino made me think of 2 little girls in the 40's dancing around in the kitchen to the music on the radio.

I am not sure exactly what genre of music this would be, iTunes classifies it as pop but I would say closer to jazz or blues. She also reminds me of Norah Jones so Diane Birch could be in the "vocal" category.

This is my first review for One2One, unfortunately I was not able to get it in quite as timely as I would have liked. I was supposed t be doing the review while the CD was delayed in the mail. It arrived after we left for a nearly 2 week vacation so at first I thought "oh well" but then I got to thinking about it and realized that I needed to do the review even though it is well after when they wanted it.

Anyway, if you like jazzy, bluesy pop you ought to check out Diane Birch's CD Bible Belt.

Despereaux and Marley and Me

After hearing our weather reports for the weekend, I thought that some movies sounded nice. We enjoy having "Family Movie Night" when we can, maybe once a month. No one is allowed to do something else, no playing on the computer, no reading a book; to be honest these rules are for the grownups though.

So Friday night, we popped some popcorn and settled down to watch Despereaux. All in all we enjoyed it, some parts were confusing - what was the deal with the magical man made out of vegetables? - but the kids gave it an enthusiastic thumbs up. We may need to read the book. I was a little worried this would turn out to be a Ratatouille makeover since there is a rat and food in the beginning. It doesn't take long before you forget Ratatouille though.

Would I recommend it? Yes, we enjoyed this movie and there was nothing really objectionable.

The other movie was Marley and Me. I should have known better. Stacey had mentioned a language issue but you know different people have different definitions of words they don't want their kids to hear. And it is rated PG but they are apparently alot more lenient than I would be. Among other terms there was S.O.B. (not abbreviated), b*st*rd, B*tch, *ss, etc. Not to mention there was also discussion about "making a baby," activities that lead up to making a baby, and a scene with a squeaky bed. Yep, lottsa stuff I wanted to explain to my kids.

Actually Junior got bored and left the room, which is good because he wouldn't have wanted to see the ending. Daisy did watch the ending, but she didn't like it.

Would I recommend it? Ehhh, it was ok. If I was watching it with teens, sure. With younger kids, no.