Father Figure – Book Review

Jay’s first book, Watching Glass Shatter gave me an unproductive next day because he kept me up all night!  Knowing how the first one went, I was smart and started this one on a weekend!

While I didn’t know what to expect, I really liked this book.  I liked the way we moved back and forth between time periods, but in a logical way.  You know how some books weave a story, but you get lost?  Not with this one!  But you’ll get the opportunity to figure out the puzzling bond that the characters share.

As male author, I thought it was interesting how he was writing from the younger female points of view which I found amazing that he’s so versatile.  Full of family drama/saga,  suspense and an intricate plot, it’s a great read.

You can find Jay here on his blog – this is the link to his first book!  Jay’s got book reviews, travel stories, his dog stories (RIP Ryder and welcome Baxter!) along with his 365 Challenge and all sorts of fun stuff!  Take a moment to blog hop!  He’s such a sweet guy with lots of friends.  You won’t be disappointed!

Shine On!

xo

Watching Glass Shatter

By James J. Cudney

Recently, I connected with a newly published author who’s also an incredible blogger.  Jay, as he’s known to friends, is a great connector as you’ll find on his blog This Is My Truth Now.

Jay writes about so much that it’s impossible for me to put him in a neatly boxed description so you’ll just have to trust me on this one and go over to visit him.  You won’t be disappointed.  He has a plethora of subjects from his favorite dog Ryder who debuts on Mondays (for all you dog lovers) to his numerous book reviews which I can’t imagine how he reads so much, but he does!  Then, there’s his delightful sense of humor and banter with his blogging pals.  It’s almost like dancing, when you ‘talk’ with him.  You know, that give and take as you move through the blogosphere?   As those who fish say, he’s a keeper and I’m glad to share his blog and book with you today!

Let me start by telling you that Watching Glass Shatter reviews can be found here for Good Reads.  You can also find them here on Amazon! Oh, and here’s the link to buy it here!  For old school readers, the paperback book itself is now available too on the same link!

When I recount that it’s Jay’s fault that I had a sleepless night and an unproductive next day, I mean it.  I usually read a little on my kindle before bedtime, so I started his book as I usually do, thinking I’d read a chapter or two.  Honestly, I picked it up because he’s a fellow blogger and I’m loyal like that – and the subject of family interests me.  I was smitten by reading the description of the book so I thought, what the heck!  What I didn’t expect was the depth to which his characters touched me, each with their own individualized perceptions and feelings to round out the formation of a family in every sense of the word.  If you’re a part of a family, you know there are nuances between members, subtle and yet sometimes stark reminders of a shared past.  Delve into the family unit long enough and you’ll find all sorts of relationships, beliefs and hidden secrets.

Jay’s book makes no exception as he invites us into the Glass family with open arms.  Beautifully written, detailed and believable, we journey with them through the death of their patriarch father Ben and experience the aftermath of Glass shattering.

This is why I couldn’t put his book down until I finished it.  Pulling my heartstrings with each character, Jay kept me reading until the very wee hours of the morning.  When I was finished, I fell asleep sated with the love and connections of a family I just met.

Please join me in welcoming  James J. Cudney to the realm of newly published author.  This is a book you won’t want to miss!  Be sure to pop over to his blog too and tell him Misifusa sent you!

Here’s the tour schedule if you want to follow it!  Join the community of bloggers who are supporting Jay and his book tour!

And if you feel inclined, please stop by GoodReads or Amazon to write a book review for him after you’ve read it.  Thank you!  I always love to support other bloggers and I know you do too!

Shine On!

xo

 

Save

Save

Book Shares Wanted

I love to share books.  Having a kindle means I can keep my favorites all in one spot.  I can reference quickly and easily when needed.  One of my staples is  You Can Heal Your Life by Louise Hay (click for more info on blog post) which I frequently search when a friend confides an ailment to me and wants more information about it.  The books written by Florence Scovel Shinn are also in my fingertip library to keep me humming along with my affirmations when distractions slide me away from the Law of Attraction.

There are little escape books which make me feel good to read, relax and rejuvenate.  There are long-time favorites like Gone With the Wind, The Secret Garden and various books written by friends who are authors.  There are the usual array of positive, inspiring books in there as well.

I love to read (and to write).  Usually I read before bedtime for a bit.  My tastes vary, but I have found my local library on my kindle to be a plethora of great reading material for free.  I like to learn when I read and I don’t mean manuals.  I usually have one or two books going at a time on my reading list.

Do you enjoy reading?  What type of books do you gravitate toward?  Would you please list a book or two that you find enjoyable or meaningful in the comments below?  Even an author that you like is appreciated!  I love to read all types of books so it doesn’t have to be spiritual, although I don’t enjoy reading horror-type books.   I’d love to add to my list of future reading material and I thought it would be wonderful if we could all share what we are reading or what we have read and enjoyed.  Thank you in advance for sharing!

Shine On!

xo

Please share your favorites with me!

For the Love of Reading, Learning and Sharing!

Good morning to YOU!  I hope your week has begun on a happy and loving note ~ and if it has not, then you know what you need to do, right?  Change your thoughts and tell yourself that it’s a bright, happy Tuesday morning!  Ta Da!  Yup, it’s as simple as that when you try.  You aren’t your circumstances, you have free will and you have the choice to be happy or sad in this very moment.  Pick Happy!  Pick Loving!  Pick Goodness!

And pick me out a new book to read!

You know I love to share what I find to be incredible books and movies that move me ~ dare I say, SHIFT ME!  In fact, MoJo http://www.momentumofjoy.wordpress.com gave me my last one which I wrote about the other day, but as I went back into my archives, I’ve written about a bunch of books which I find inspiring to read ~ and just plain ol’ good for the soul.

https://misifusa.wordpress.com/2013/01/13/the-little-soul-and-the-sun/

https://misifusa.wordpress.com/2012/10/20/saturday-books/

https://misifusa.wordpress.com/2013/01/08/the-shift-to-feeling-delicious/

https://misifusa.wordpress.com/2012/11/30/looking-for-a-new-normal-continued/

https://misifusa.wordpress.com/2012/11/25/a-bit-of-good-reading-for-the-holidays/

https://misifusa.wordpress.com/2012/10/17/ive-got-the-secret/

https://misifusa.wordpress.com/2012/10/15/love-you-love-me/

https://misifusa.wordpress.com/2012/10/05/denials-and-affirmations-10/

But I’m fresh out of ideas!  I’ve read more books than this, but at the moment, I need something special, something new and I know you have the answer!

So please take a moment and share a book or two that you’ve read that you enjoyed!

I love all kinds of books so please don’t feel restricted!

Thank you!  Happy Tuesday to YOU!

Shine On and Keep Reading!

xo

The Little Soul and the Sun

The Little Soul and the Sun:  A Children’s Parable Adapted from Conversations With God

By Neale Donald Walsch

I love sharing with you and today I wanted to share the special book above which my friend MoJo at Momentum of Joy! recently suggested that I should read because it was such a great little book!  So, I simply hopped on my trusty kindle, the one I gifted myself this year after reading Sharechair’s all-things-kindle  many posts about this wonderful machine!   Within minutes and after a small credit card charge, I had downloaded the book and was ready to read it.  Truly, I love the ease of technology!  We are so blessed, aren’t we?  I could have waited 2 days to receive the book by mail, but I felt that pull to enjoy it today and I am so grateful that I listened to myself!

It’s a children’s book, but it’s also very adult-friendly and as I began to read it and understand it, tears began trickling down my cheeks as I felt my soul start to be soothed in a way I had never before felt.  It was like an avalanche of understanding that had welled up inside of me, burst through the dam that I had erected around my heart and I felt loved.

I know I’m probably not making sense again ~I guess it’s like when I recently said I feel delicious from my post The Shift to Feeling Delicious but I want you to know that this was again ~ a shift, a changing book and I wanted you to be aware of it if you weren’t already.  Do you know Neale Donald Walsch?  Have you heard of him?  He sends daily emails which are inspiring to your inbox when you get on his list.  He also has a few more books out that you can read as well.

You see, with my dad gone, it’s been a bit rocky trying to wrap up his affairs and business while mourning him ~ and having so much left unsaid.  Surely there are others out there reading my blog who may have had this same experience ~ not being able to understand parts of a parent or loved one who’s passed and wanting to ask so many questions?  I am sure I am not the only one, am I?

Anyway, my relationship with my dad was messy and I’ve often wondered, pondered, asked out-loud to the air, why he acted the way he did with me ~ why he treated me the way he did and hundreds of other inquiries that I had.  My mom has repeatedly said that he loved me, but there are moments where I seriously doubt that he could have loved someone and still acted the way he did.  His favorite saying was “You hurt the ones you love the most” ~ to which I would always reply in my head, “Then don’t love me.”  It was a true conundrum to me…until now.

I won’t give away this book as I think it may read differently to each person who reads it, but I want you to know that I get it now.  I understand and I am so grateful for my dear MJAngel and for her wise suggestion.

So if you’re interested in getting your own copy for yourself, your children or your grandchildren, click The Little Soul and the Sun: A Children’s Parable Adapted from Conversations With God.  I truly think that whether you get the hardcover book or you get the kindle version, you will be changed by this book ~ in such an amazing way.

I look forward to hearing from you!

Do you know about Neale?

Have you read his books before?

Please share with me!

Shine On Little Souls in the Sun!

xo

Christmas Spirit on its way!

So after I put in one of my favorite scenes in movieland ~ Mame’s rendition of We Need a Little Christmas Now, into yesterday’s post, I began thinking about that special movie ~ all the amazing quotes from it that I loved.  Now the one I gave you, was the 1973 version with Lucille Ball and Bea Arthur which is a classic unto itself.  However, my favorite rendition is the original movie called Auntie Mame with Rosalind Russell from 1958.

So I got my computer, put it on the kitchen table, started some broth in a pot on the stove and checked out my trusty Amazon account (thinking of ShareChair http://sharechair.wordpress.com/in the back of my head…what would she do to find a free version of a the movie) and began!  What I found was a FREE VERSION with my Prime account…and I could watch it from my computer, while I made comfort food for my family and myself.

So as I chopped veggies and chicken and whipped up homemade chicken soup complete with a dash of love and then scooped Nestle Toll House chocolate chip ready made dough from a container and ‘baked’ chocolate chip cookies, I watched my movie in the kitchen by myself…fresh balsam candle twinkling and making the house smell like love and Christmas…and with food ready for our bellies, filled with love and comfort.

In the midst of all of my kitchen antics, my doorbell rang ~ my neighbor brought me a huge homemade wreath ~ made with the branches from our street which had fallen and are being picked up by the town this week…TAngel and her husband had painstakingly picked up branches of magnolia trees, spruce and pine and she had woven the most beautiful wreath I have ever seen, complete with colorful Christmas ball ornaments to brighten my day.  I was in awe of her talent, let alone the fact that she had made it for me.  I feel so grateful and so blessed.  To be given such amazing holiday spirit by a kind friend! (See pic above ~ I just took a pic of it, added a border and voila!  It’s the front of her thank you card from me!  If you’re new, check out my website ~ http://www.rememberchristmas.com/deanery

And when I was all done with my movie, chicken soup ready for the family dinner and homemade (ahem) cookies for dessert, I got online to see if I had any emails waiting…and there you all were…our beautiful blogging community…

Thank you my friends.  Your outpouring of loving comments made me cry…

and I want you to know how blessed I feel…thank you.

I BELIEVE ~  Shine On!

xo

I Am…

I AM…poster above is from SendOutCards, but you can make it yourself ~ add your name,  your own I AM ____ etc.  You can even change the feather and seal below…I left them there because I thought they were cute…but you can make it however you wish.

But I AM is not just about the poster above, the sentences we wrote the other day nor about the cards from yesterday.  I AM is a movie produced by a man named Tom Shadyac who was featured on Oprah.  Below is the link to read about Tom’s movie and what he learned about I AM…

Shining-Like-the-Sun-Tom-Shadyac

Tom’s movie was released in 2011…but you can still watch it on DVD or even rent it on Amazon for as little as $4…I have yet to watch it myself, but it’s one more thing on my To Do list…

Click on the image above and you can watch the movie yourself!  I’d love to hear what you think of it once you see it!  Have you seen it already?

Just thought I’d share a bit of I AM…

Happy Sunday to YOU!

xo

Love You? Love Me?

“The most important thing in life is to

learn how to give out love,

and to let it come in.” Morrie Schwartz

I think that for me, giving out love is easier for me than receiving it.  Is that the same for you?   My gravatar and my chosen career is SendOut Love…I send out love through my blog, through my cards and through my connections to others.  To me, it comes easily and I love the enjoyment that comes with giving from the heart as it brings happiness to others as it in turn, brings me a wealth of happiness.

Multiple times a day I say, “I love you” to my family, friends, loved ones, 2 sweet kitties etc…and I mean it from my heart.  I am a very affectionate person by nature ~ spontaneously hugging and kissing my family daily.  I love that human connection and have more than once, reached out to a stranger that I felt needed a smile and a hello which have sparked many conversations much to the chagrin of my family who want to get going and not start talking in the grocery store to others.  But I get that ‘feeling’ and I just go with it.

Self-love on the other hand, in the scheme of things, is usually on the lower end of my ‘to do’ list.  Yes,  I love me, but somehow I feel it’s selfish and ego-istic to say that I love myself…at least that’s what I used to think.  Nowadays, I am finding that the more I love me, the more I love others.  As I’m beginning to take better care of me, I am finding that it’s changing the dynamic I have with others ~ for the better!

I’ve shared how routines can truly get us in a rut and it’s hard to break free when we’ve been so out of tune with ourselves.  I’m the first to admit I’m guilty of this, especially this year as I’ve been bombarded with crisis after crisis.  I felt like I was a chicken running around without a head, but no more.

I’ve told you about You Can Heal Your Life by Louise Hay.  Louise is a big believer in self-love and has many exercises in which you can bolster the love you have for yourself so that you can love others.  In fact, I highly recommend Louise’s book as it changed my life!

I remember when I was first diagnosed with breast cancer 10 years ago and BAngel gave me Louise’s book.  Dutifully I opened it and began to read.  Immediately I scoffed at the idea that my cancer was a dis-ease in my body and that with self-love, affirmations and a shift in thinking, I could help myself to heal.  At that time, my mind immediately turned off ~ what sort of hocus pocus was this book ~ I had CANCER!  Not a head cold or something that didn’t matter.  I was fighting for my life!  What was BAngel thinking?  And she was someone whom I’d known for years and respected…had she gone off of her rocker with this type of thinking?

So I went on with my life, lumpectomy, double mastectomy, chemo…until one day while laying in my bed after chemo, with my darling cat purring next to me on the bed, I picked up the book again…it had been a few months since I had tossed it by the wayside.  I started to read it in the quiet of the afternoon and it was as if a light began to grow inside of me.  The theories Louise explained so simply in her book grew inside of me like a small seed of hope.  Her ideas made complete sense to me and I felt like I spent the rest of the afternoon nodding my head in agreement with her.

I won’t take away the joy you will find in reading her book, but I will leave you with a link to get it!  You’ll know when the time is right to read it ~ when you’re ready, I”ll be here ~ we can have fun together knowing that YOU CAN HEAL YOUR LIFE!

xoxo

The Law of Karma and the Law of Forgiveness 5

Boomerang anyone?

What goes around comes around…sound familiar?  What about Let Go, Let God?  Perhaps you know the Serenity Prayer?  God, grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change, the courage to change the things I can, and the wisdom to know the difference.  Well then, you’re a bit familiar with the Laws of Karma and Forgiveness!  So let’s keep going with Florence’s chapter 5!

The Law of Karma and the Law of Forgiveness

Excerpt from Chapter 5

Man receives only that which he gives. The Game of Life is a game of boomerangs. Man’s thoughts, deeds and words, return to him sooner or later, with astounding accuracy.  This is the law of Karma, which is Sanskrit for “Comeback.” “Whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap.”

The divine pattern is the only safe pattern to work by. Desire is a tremendous force, and must be directed in the right channels, or chaos ensues. In demonstrating, the most important step is the first step, to “ask aright.”  Man should always demand only that which is his by divine right…and the curious thing is, man always gets just what he desires when he does relinquish personal will, thereby enabling Infinite Intelligence to work through him.

“Let go, and take your mental hands off; put it in God’s Hands, and use this statement:”

“I put this situation in the hands of Infinite Love and Wisdom;

if this ___ is the Divine plan, I bless it and not longer resist,

but if it is not divinely planned, I give thanks that it is now dissolved and dissipated.”

Happy Friday to All of YOU!

xo