Always Baby

As writers, we seek to convey the reality of emotion. As readers, we relate the emotion in stories to our actual experience. The young daughter of one of my beloved law partners died suddenly a few days ago. Her obituary filled my heart with the love she brought to her family. I have no life experience to comprehend the reality of this loss, which is so very real. Please read her story and then include Always Baby, and her family, in your prayers.

Rebecca Lauren Woodruff
6/13/07-10/21/11

We called you "Always Baby." When you told mommy you were getting big, she said "you'll always be my baby." And you loved your mommy so much that you named yourself Always Baby just to make her happy. You had a hundred loving nicknames like "Little Girl", "Fickle Pickle", "Rebecca Cheeks", "Moon Monkey", but Always Baby said it all.

You were an inseparable part of Mommy; an extension of her soul and an answer to her prayers. You filled her with love and light and laughter. When you departed, an emptiness was left too great to be filled with anything but God's love. I know you will dispatch the angels to watch over her – you always took care of her and always will.

We all fought for your attention and you had us each wrapped around one little itty-bitty finger.

You commanded Daddy's attention on your terms, in your time. When I worked at home, you treed me like a cat, climbing in my lap and insisting we play games or make letters together. You ran outside to meet me when I came home, saying: "hold you, Daddy, hold you." You gave me daily shopping lists, constant reminders and sweet little girl kisses when once in awhile I would get it right - I never had to wait for my performance assessment. I'd give the world to have given in to you a few more times and the universe for one more super tight hug with your pretty little head buried deep in my neck.

You loved your sibbies so much and they loved you in ways that cannot possibly be expressed in words. Your lyrical relationships were each a verse in a round – a different meter and key, yet somehow in perfect harmony. The works of the bards and the poets pale in reflection.

We cannot possibly understand why God took you from us. We only know that the light that you brought into our lives will illuminate heaven now. The healing gifts of generosity, laughter and love that you brought into our lives must have been needed somewhere else. We miss you so, so much Always Baby! You will always be our Always Baby!

Kingwood Funeral Home


Warms, Cym

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Winner of the Wednesday Blog Book Review Party and Blog Spotlight!

*all winners are selected by Random Number Generator *

And the winner of the Amazon Gift Card ($25 value) from Wednesday's Review Party is...

(**Drums Rolling in the Background**)

Congratulations to Book Diary!




Be sure to check out Book Diary and leave a comment!


Send me your email address for the Amazon eGC.

Warms-
CYM

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Amazon's Books From Hell - The 10 Best Horror Books Ever Written

Just in time for Halloween...

1.  It by Stephen King

2.  Books of Blood by Clive Barker

3.  Bloodcurdling Tales of Horror and the Macabre by The Best of H.P.

4.  Song of Kali by Dan Simmons

5.  The Shining by Stephen King

6.  I am Legend by Richard Matheson 

7.  The Silence of the Lambs by Thomas Harris


8.  In the Flesh by Clive Barker


9. Pet Sematary by Stephen King


10. Koko by Peter Straub

What's the scariest book you have ever read??

~Happy Halloween~

Beachbrights

(guest blogger)

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$25 Book Review Party Wednesday - LIVE!

The last party of the year!!!

<a href="http://cymlowell.blogspot.com/" target="_blank"><img alt="CymLowell" src="http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2442/3960797566_f11cfb2f41_o.jpg" /></a>

Welcome to Book Review Party Wednesday.

It is real simple. Link up any (old or new, any genre) book review that you have
written to the below MckLinky.

A couple of things to remember while you're linking.

1. Add a permalink to your specific post, not the main page of your blog (only one review per blog).
2. Add my Book Review Wednesday Badge or a link-back to the party at the end of your review post.
3. List the name of your blog, Title of Book or Genre. Be sure to use spaces and limit characters to 50. For example: The Lost Symbol, thriller

4. Become a follower of my blog, pretty please (not mandatory).
5. Visit the other linked up reviews and leave comments....it's a party, have fun!
6. I will announce the winner in a weekend post. The winner is chosen from the linked up reviewers using Random Number Generator. All included.

I am so excited to be reading all the reviews! This is always so much fun and gives me the opportunity to add new books to my list (& now check out book covers).

-CYM

**This week is the last link up party for the year. The busy holiday season is almost upon us and I take a link up break for Nov. & Dec. The link up party will resume in January.**

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Kisses from Katie by Katie Davis **Review by FlowerPatchFarmgirl**

**Guest Post from Flower Patch Farmgirl**

I struggle to find new words to relay my journey of the past twenty months. What more can be said? I was slapped in the face by reality. For the first time ever, I touched the very edges of humanity, and I was surprised by the burn. In no time flat, the world didn't make sense any more. It was perplexing. Unfair. I didn't want everything to change. I was cozy under my blankets. I did my best, for a time, to jam the pieces together anyway. Oh, I'll make them fit. I'll still live right here, right in this safe place. I can share a chunk of my broken heart with them without actually going there...right?

Well, of course that didn't work. I knew it all along. Because once your heart changes the only thing left to do is let it lead. It wouldn't be right to trap a changed heart in an unchanged life. It would go back to its old way. It would forget the things it had learned. As much as that sounded safer and a lot less complicated to my mind, this changed heart beat back louder. It almost always wins, this heart.

So right now, right when I'm feeling my way through the aches and the thrills and the pinchy toes of change, I pick up Katie Davis's book and suddenly my life feels easier again, in contrast.

Here is a girl who really understands the dusty vaporness of this life.

She was a regular girl living cushy in the suburbs. She had a nice boy who loved her, the college of her choice on the horizon. Then she took a trip to Uganda and her heart split wide. Her passion to share the love of Jesus - the love that she herself knew - drove her heart to crazy ends. She wanted to stay.

Her parents said no. Her friends thought she was nuts. In time, they relented. She was allowed to go back, one last time, just to get it out of her system. Then she would return to the States and live the life they thought she was meant to live - a life of education, wealth, security. A life blind to the plight across the ocean. A life lead by her head and not her heart.

In the end, that's not the way it all went down. Over time, her parents' hearts changed, too. They let go of the dreams they held up in hope for their daughter and they allowed room for new dreams to take shape.

Katie is now in her early twenties. She is single. She sees to the basic care and education of 400 village children. She has adopted fourteen Ugandan daughters of her own. She is their Mama - forever.

My family, adopting these children, it is not optional. It is not my good deed for the day; it is not what I am doing to 'help out these poor kids.' I adopt because God commands me to care for the orphans and the widows in their distress. I adopt because Jesus says that to whom much has been given, much will be demanded (see Luke 12:48)...
                         -Kisses from Katie

She let go of almost every last thing. She lost her life so that she could find it.

She sees that God doesn't trace a line between his American children and his African children. We're all just His. We're all a family, we need to take care of each other.

This book, written in her own words, cuts to the heart of every emotion involved in laying it down, all of those things that we cling to to the death. She doesn't sugar coat. She talks about how hard it is to break into a culture so different from her own. She talks about the times she gets lonely. The times she gets tired. The times she wants to close her drapes to the death at her doorstep and take an eight-hour bubble bath. But mostly, she talks about the joy that she never even imagined. She talks about the fact that her life right now is a no-brainer.

She quotes Frederick Buechner, saying, "The place God calls us to is the place where your deep gladness and the world's deep hunger meet."

This is why it's not optional. This is why safety and seclusion are not a calling, even when we snap our eyes shut so tight and wish, wish, wish that they could be.

So the anxiety bubbles up a little, reading these words, because it's all so open-ended, the world's deep hunger so vast. Who knows where it is that God's calling me. It's enough to make me just a little jittery. But oh, to know that deep gladness. My heart beats faster at the thought.

Find Katie's book here. Pick up a copy. Pass it around. Let it change your heart. Then lead your heart lead on.


Read Katie's blog. Read Flower Patch Farmgirl's blog.

Support Amazima, Katie's ministry.

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Winner of the Wednesday Blog Book Review Party and Blog Spotlight!

*all winners are selected by Random Number Generator *

And the winner of the Amazon Gift Card ($15 value) from Wednesday's Review Party is...

(**Drums Rolling in the Background**)

Congratulations to The O.W.L.!




Be sure to check out The O.W.L. and leave a comment!


Send me your email address for the Amazon eGC.

Warms-
CYM

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A Lonely Death
by Charles Todd
Wm Morrow, HarperCollins 2011

Have you ever wanted to seek revenge for long ago traumas? Do you hear a voice in your head at crucial times?

Ian Rutledge is an investigator for Scotland Yard just after the end of World War II. In a small town in the Sussex countryside, a series of murders occurs disturbing the tranquility of the community. There is no apparent connection between the deaths of the young men, gruesomely dispatched with a garrote while alone and helpless.

There is also a longstanding mystery concerning a death at Stonehedge during a Druid ceremony.

Rutledge must sort through the lives of the deceased, each of whom had served for the Brits in the trenches of France during the war. There are a collage of relationships and possibilities. Old romances, family secrets, family members who had disappeared, potential romance, and threats galore keep the pages turning of this the 13th Ian Rutledge mystery.

Charles Todd develops the characters with patience and skill. So vibrant is the explanation, that the reading of the well crafted words felt like watching the mystery unfold in front of me. The voice in Ian’s head is a charming element of the story. Each time it spoke, I imagined the voices I hear sometimes, usually with a cautionary message.

If you have not become a fan of these fine stories, put one on your list.

Warms, Cym

Amazon
Charles Todd

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Book Review Party Wednesday - LIVE!

<a href="http://cymlowell.blogspot.com/" target="_blank"><img alt="CymLowell" src="http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2442/3960797566_f11cfb2f41_o.jpg" /></a>

Welcome to Book Review Party Wednesday.

It is real simple. Link up any (old or new, any genre) book review that you have
written to the below MckLinky.

A couple of things to remember while you're linking.

1. Add a permalink to your specific post, not the main page of your blog (only one review per blog).
2. Add my Book Review Wednesday Badge or a link-back to the party at the end of your review post.
3. List the name of your blog, Title of Book or Genre. Be sure to use spaces and limit characters to 50. For example: The Lost Symbol, thriller

4. Become a follower of my blog, pretty please (not mandatory).
5. Visit the other linked up reviews and leave comments....it's a party, have fun!
6. I will announce the winner in a weekend post. The winner is chosen from the linked up reviewers using Random Number Generator. All included.

I am so excited to be reading all the reviews! This is always so much fun and gives me the opportunity to add new books to my list (& now check out book covers).

-CYM

**Next week is the last link up party for the year. The busy holiday season is almost upon us! The link up party will resume in January.**

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*Book Review* Moonwalking with Einstein by Joshua Foer

Moonwalking with Einstein
by Joshua Foer
The Penguin Press 2011

Have you ever wished that your memory could be expanded by a few gigabytes? Did it then occur to you that with a bit of effort you might be able to compete in the U.S. or world memory championships?

We have all seen people perform memory exhibitions on stage or television. Sometimes, these demonstrations have the feeling of a circus performance. On other occasions, we may be baffled as to how someone could recall so much information, without being a savant or having a photographic memory.

In my travels, I have had occasion to listen to lengthy recitations ofreligious or historical stories, including heroic tales akin to the Iliad and Odyssey, the Torrah scrolls, or Biblical passages. I am often marveled at the skill and memory of the performer.

I also enjoy discussion of religion with people who have different views than my own. In such discussions, an inevitable issue concerns whether religious texts are the verbatim words of God or His prophets, or other religious figures. Sometimes, I have debates with people who seem to feel that their own faith would be compromised if the Torrah, Koran, or Bible were not absolutely literal. On such occasions, I ask whether it is possible that the holy words were most likely passed along via oral tradition for hundreds of years, then written down and translated to an extent that the general meaning may be traceable to origin, but the literal words are the product of innumerable iterations. This question always produces intense comment.

All of these thoughts were brought vividly to mind in this marvelous book. Joshua Foer was a young, struggling reporter, living in his childhood basement when he happened upon memory competition. He had many of the same thoughts that I am sure we all have about memory display. But he became intrigued.

Moonwalking with Einstein is the story of Mr. Foer’s journey. He summarizes extended research into memory and oral tradition, including scientific study. He also recounts his own trip to becoming U.S. then world champion, even being initiated into KL& after many rounds of beer in a pub.

I thoroughly enjoyed this fascinating story. It was interesting to compare my own means of memorizing detail in college and law school with the mechanics of how Mr. Foer and his competitors perform Olympic feats of memory.

My was sad that Moonwalking with Einstein did not address the holy text issue noted above in the context of its excellent narrative of oral tradition. Perhaps, the topic of a sequel.

You will enjoy this read. Be prepared to think.

Warms, Cym

Amazon
NY Times
Joshua Foer

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Winner of the Wednesday Blog Book Review Party and Blog Spotlight!

*all winners are selected by Random Number Generator *

And the winner of the Amazon Gift Card ($15 value) from Wednesday's Review Party is...

(**Drums Rolling in the Background**)

Congratulations to Ellz Readz!




Be sure to check out Ellz Readz and leave a comment!


Send me your email address for the Amazon eGC.

Warms-
CYM

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I love Comments - Get Rid of the noreply-comment@blogger.com -

~Guest Post~

Don't you just love to receive comments? I do. Some of the best conversations come from you commenting. It's a great way to ask questions, give props or just a way to say Hi. I use my comments to also start friendships. When I receive a comment, especially a question, I like to respond by email. My comments get delivered into my email inbox, so it saves me time when I can just hit reply. However, if your email address is not in your Blogger profile then this is what appears when I try to respond to your comment:

noreply-comment@blogger.com

So, if you are not sure what's in your profile. Here is a very simple tutorial on how to add your email address to your comments:

1. Go to your Blogger dashboard and click on the EDIT PROFILE link by the right of your profile picture.

2. A new page called your user edit profile page will open. You will want to check the SHOW MY EMAIL ADDRESS box. When you check this box & share your email address, it means when people access your profile they can email you, or when you make a comment on a blog, the author can respond to you. This also allows for a host of a giveaway to contact you because your email address will be associated with your name on your comment. Be sure to type in the email address you want to use for comments (this can be different than the one you use log-in for Blogger).

See, now wasn't that easy? Leave me a comment if you have any trouble and make sure your email address is associated with your comment so I can get back to you.

**I am by no means a Blogger expert but if you would like to know how to do something in Blogger, please leave me a suggestion and I will try to put together a tutorial for you**

Thanks Cym for letting me guest post-

~Beachbrights~

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Book Review Party Wednesday - LIVE!

<a href="http://cymlowell.blogspot.com/" target="_blank"><img alt="CymLowell" src="http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2442/3960797566_f11cfb2f41_o.jpg" /></a>

Welcome to Book Review Party Wednesday.

It is real simple. Link up any (old or new, any genre) book review that you have
written to the below MckLinky.

A couple of things to remember while you're linking.

1. Add a permalink to your specific post, not the main page of your blog (only one review per blog).
2. Add my Book Review Wednesday Badge or a link-back to the party at the end of your review post.
3. List the name of your blog, Title of Book or Genre. Be sure to use spaces and limit characters to 50. For example: The Lost Symbol, thriller

4. Become a follower of my blog, pretty please (not mandatory).
5. Visit the other linked up reviews and leave comments....it's a party, have fun!
6. I will announce the winner in a weekend post. The winner is chosen from the linked up reviewers using Random Number Generator. All included.

I am so excited to be reading all the reviews! This is always so much fun and gives me the opportunity to add new books to my list (& now check out book covers).

-CYM

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*Book Review* Riotus Assembly by Tom Sharpe

Riotous Assembly
by Tom Sharpe
Atlantic Monthly Press 1971

Do you like to escape in a book that makes you giggle in a world of vivid imagination? Would you wonder about people having sex in rubber suits, with the male wearing a dress and the female other costumes? How about a war between different tribes in a mental institution enacting battles of their people from long ago, perhaps not being able to remember the results?

How about a storyline that makes Woody Allen movies seem tame and unimaginative?

If any of these questions strike you fancy, then branch out an get a copy of Riotus Assembly. It was written during the height of apartheid in South Africa. Not surprisingly, it was banned in that country for many years. The story is a parody of the relations between white, Afrikaneer, and English peoples. It begins with an old, aristocratic woman using a custom made elephant gun (with four barrels) to blast her black lover into pieces hanging from the trees.

The commandant investigating the self-confessed crime embarks on a crusade to demonstrate that the woman is innocent. He believes that the crime was committed by her brother, a bishop.

Parody turns to farce as the story comes to a close. When you get to the war at the end you will be giggling at the antics of the warriors, as you also guffaw at the lawyer with a lisp defending the brother in court hoping to save the man from the gallows.

We read this wonderful story in our Philosophers’ Club this month. One of our colleagues lived in South Africa at the time. This group of joyful men, usually intend eviscerating the books chosen by their colleagues, gave Tom Sharpe an unanimous salute for a fine read. What a hoot!

Warms, Cym

AMAZON

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Winner of the Wednesday Blog Book Review Party and Blog Spotlight!

*all winners are selected by Random Number Generator *

And the winner of the Amazon Gift Card ($15 value) from Wednesday's Review Party is...

(**Drums Rolling in the Background**)

Congratulations to Avery's Book Nook!




Be sure to check out Avery's Book Nook and leave a comment!


Send me your email address for the Amazon eGC.

Warms-
CYM

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Around the Web...Book Style.

1. Writerland: Is Blogging a Waste of Time? The weekend before last, I attended a publishing panel at the San Francisco Writers’ Grotto during which literary agent Andy Ross of the Andy Ross Literary Agency said, “Publishers say they expect you to blog and to use social media. I blog and I get about 100 hits a day, and I’m relatively famous, and that’s not enough to impress a publisher.”

2. High Tech News Portal: Mobile Game Developers Rovio Breaking Into The Publishing Scene? [Angry Birds Makers Rovio My Be Looking To Use Cash Surplus To Get Into Publishing] Read: Mobile Game Developers Rovio Breaking Into The Publishing Scene? [Angry Birds Makers Rovio My Be Looking To Use Cash Surplus To Get Into Publishing]

3. Dean Wesley Smith: Book Cards Work. You walk into any major store and see a huge stand of gift cards. Now imagine that rack full of cards are all cards that represent electronic books. All the buyer of the card has to do is log in a code on the back of the gift card to download the book to any device.

4. The Nex Web: Love books and hate carrying a wallet? The BookBook iPhone case is for you. Twelve South has a history of making very well thought out cases and stands for iPhone, iPad and Mac. The BookBook for iPhone is its attempt to shrink down the success of their book-inspired cases for the MacBook and iPad into something that you’ll want to carry around in your pocket.

5.  Pretty Spine Designs. Penguin By Design.

Have a great weekend!

Beachbrights

(guest post)

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Book Review Party Wednesday - LIVE!

<a href="http://cymlowell.blogspot.com/" target="_blank"><img alt="CymLowell" src="http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2442/3960797566_f11cfb2f41_o.jpg" /></a>

Welcome to Book Review Party Wednesday.

It is real simple. Link up any (old or new, any genre) book review that you have
written to the below MckLinky.

A couple of things to remember while you're linking.

1. Add a permalink to your specific post, not the main page of your blog (only one review per blog).
2. Add my Book Review Wednesday Badge or a link-back to the party at the end of your review post.
3. List the name of your blog, Title of Book or Genre. Be sure to use spaces and limit characters to 50. For example: The Lost Symbol, thriller

4. Become a follower of my blog, pretty please (not mandatory).
5. Visit the other linked up reviews and leave comments....it's a party, have fun!
6. I will announce the winner in a weekend post. The winner is chosen from the linked up reviewers using Random Number Generator. All included.

I am so excited to be reading all the reviews! This is always so much fun and gives me the opportunity to add new books to my list (& now check out book covers).

-CYM

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Folly Beach by Dorothea Benton Frank *Book Review**

Folly Beach
by Dorothea Benton Frank
William Morrow 2011

I often wonder about the real story behind artistic success. In this sense, art could be painting, singing, music, writing, or whatever. Is the person popularly given credit for the work in question actually responsible for the composition? Or is it a collage of skills blended together and had to be the named artist. Shakespeare is a fine example, as there has always been question about whether one man could have written all of the plays and other dramatic works bearing his name.

Folly Beach is a story about what might have been the reality behind the authorship of Porgy & Bess, the fascinating Broadway play featuring the music of George Gershwin and the composition of DuBose Howard. His wife Dorothy played an ambiguous role as well. Folly Beach explores whether Dorothy played a larger role in the composition than she is generally given credit for performing. The story is told partially from the viewpoint of Dorothy in a play telling her own story, having risen from the grave to do so.

The main story is explored from the viewpoint of the niece of a woman who acquired the home in which the Howards allegedly composed their work. Cate was living a life of luxury until her husband hung himself over her prized piano, revealing his own bankruptcy, multiple affairs, and child out of wedlock. She is penniless and returns to the low country, coastal area of South Carolina populated with picturesque offshore islands. She and her sister Patti had been raised there by an Aunt, Aunt Daisey, and her long term partner Ella.

With a grubstake from Aunt Daisey and Ella, and her sister, Cate begins a new life living in the home of the Howards, including the desk where they wrote. She meets and falls in love with a sort of single college professor who encourages her to examine her feelings about the role of Dorothy Howard in the local archives. Amidst intense physical healing, he also suggests that she compose her own play about Dorothy (which is the additional viewpoint in the story).

Folly Beach is a lovely story of family, love, and redemption. I enjoyed getting to know the characters, feeling that Ella was making a mouth-watering pecan pie for me as well as for the characters in the story. Cate’s daughter, Sara, disapproves of her mother’s new love, only to become a pivotal element of Cate’s new composition.

We all wonder about going home. Is it possible? Can I? What would I find? Cate did and found her life, once again, probably to be followed by her sister.

Dorothea Benton Clark is a talented storyteller, making the characters seem like old friends. My sweetheart is fond of saying that “if I can’t get into the characters, I put the book down.” She did not put down Folly Beach , neither did I, and neither will you.

Warms, Cym

*Thank you Shawn Nicholls & Chelsey Emmelhainz for sending me this book to review*

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Winner, Winner and an Italian Bread Salad Dinner!

Random Number Generator picked comment #9. 

Thank you Neer for participating in the 11 book giveaway.

Please email me with your shipping address.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

And now for the Italian Bread Salad dinner...

Italian Bread Salad 

4 cups cubed French Bread

6 T Olive Oil

3 T Red Wine Vinegar

1 garlic clove, minced

1 t Dried Oregano

1 t Salt

3/4 t Black Pepper

1/8-1/4 t dried crushed red pepper

1 large head of Romaine, chopped

4 plum tomatoes, chopped

8 oz of fresh mozzarella cheese, cubed

2 green onions, chopped

Place bread cubes on a baking sheet. Bake at 325 for 15 minutes or until lightly browned. Set bread cubes aside. Whisk together olive oil and next 6 ingredients. Reserve 1 cup bread cubes. Scatter remaining cubes on a large serving platter. Top with lettuce and next 3 ingredients. Drizzle with dressing and toss. Let stand 5 minutes before serving. Sprinkle with reserved bread cubes and green onions.

-CYM

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