A difficult choice facing us every day: Sweatpants or Stilettos?

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Many months of this year were what I call the sweatpants days. Don’t even try to tell me you don’t understand what I mean by that statement. But just so we’re all on the same page, sweatpants days are those days that all you want to do is stay in bed with your sweatpants on and have Netflix at your beck and call to create your own marathon event. They are the days in which the sun should not shine, the world should not move on, and no one should smile, laugh or be happy.
Thankfully, I have learned this year that sweatpants days don’t last forever. I have seen them go from sweatpants to jean days to leather pant days and then on to stiletto days. Those days where you feel the absolute best and are 100% yourself, doing what you were created to do, with people you love to be around, and everything is falling into place. Blessings from heaven abound. Yeah. Those days. They are the stiletto days. They are the take-on-the-world-tell-them-whose-boss-no-one-can-stop-you kind of days. And they are awesome. I love those days.
Educator, DIY junkie, and Believer, Rachel candidly reveals some of her darkest days and brightest moments. In Sweatpants and Stilettos, she speaks to the truths of Christ that have been put on display through life’s variety of circumstances. She gives light to real and honest conversations we have with ourselves while battling life’s trials, all while still managing to be both brutal and comical.

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(Not a review - Book cover and blurb posted as part of an advertising package - review to follow)

An Epic Adventure!!! A Humble Heart by Tim Vander Meulen

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Book Description

An epic fantasy of war and adventure! Set in the world the Elves call Iělŗenväd, where peace has been upheld between the Elves, Dwarves, and men for a century, the human country of Gemdals is conquered by those that possess the Mark of Evil. Receiving this news from two young boys who escaped the battle, the leader of the Elves must decide, per their request, to take the long journey to the West and recapture the lands of men. 

As far as anyone knows, the two young refugees are the only remnants of the 

human race in the world. As they decide to comply with the boy's request and seek out the allied races to join with their cause, the characters find that the war is not only something external, but is within their own selves. They are not out to fight another race entirely, but they fight the Possessors - Elves and Dwarves and men who have chosen to abandon their old ways and join a cause that opposes the survival of their former kindred. 

It takes great courage to survive the growing night, and morality has no place in the grand shift of the world. "

A Humble Heart" is a term applied to Delenas Farlong, the leader of the Elves, who throughout the tale faces tremendous adversity and who shows great valor and humility as he leads his people on their dangerous journey.

From the Back Cover

Sightings of Northerners...

An attack on the Elven tournament...

The appearance of a band of Dwarves and two human boys who possess three magic stones...

Could it mean war?

For a hundred years there was peace in Elveran. Now the Elves learn that the kingdom of men has been invaded. The two young refugees, Henty and Clese, ask that the Elves and Dwarves go to recapture their homeland, and so the choice is laid before Delenas, leader of Elveran. But it is not an easy decision, for it would mean marching an army across half the world, facing unspeakable dangers, and joining forces with people who would not easily agree to the venture.

Can the boys succeed in their mission? Will the Elves and Dwarves agree to their request? Will they all be strong enough to resist not only the enemy but their own inner conflicts, both of which seek to destroy them?

"Whether we go to our deaths, or to end all darkness, now is the time of testing."

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(Not a review - cover and book blurb as part of paid ad) 

Cutting the Soul: A journey into the mental illness of a teenager through the eyes of his mother

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Theresa Larsen’s son, Matthew, comes to her with a cut on his hand, explaining it away as an accident with a pocket knife. But as she cleans and treats the wound, she discovers dozens of slashes covering both of his arms. Thus begins Larsen's compelling personal memoir about what it's like to be the parent of a mentally ill teenager.

Cutting the Soul offers a firsthand look at mental illness, both financially and emotionally. Matthew, fourteen years old when he starts cutting, goes on to face other hardships, including suicide attempts, severe depression, and multiple stays in psychiatric hospitals.

Readers get an inside look at Matthew's life through the inclusion of his selected journal entries, and Larsen shares her own struggles with personal demons as she tries to help her son. It's a first-person account and an educational guide worth reading for any parent who’s coping with the mental illness of a child.

Check out this 5 star review by a customer!

Will and love for her child to do what was necessary---even when ...

by Thomas Phillips on January 13, 2015

This is an extremely important book for anyone who cares for someone suffering from mental illness. If you haven't been touched by this disease, you will be touched by one mother's determination, will and love for her child to do what was necessary---even when necessary was heartbreaking. Cutting the soul is an honest,open and emotionally jarring read with the power to offer hope and resources to those who need it and don't know where to turn.

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(This is not a review - this is the cover and book description from Amazon and is part of an advertising package purchased by the author).

Summer reading? Get lost in "The Labyrinth" by Dorian Zari

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Dan, a suicidal painter, is having trouble convincing his shrink that he’s not blind but sees through everything. Which he can. And that somewhere in the world, he has a soul mate. Which he does. Three in fact, each with a debilitating superhuman sense:  Zack, who drowns the tastes of the world in booze, Carly, a stripper who buries smells in cocaine and Sarah, a "deaf" cellist who can hear everything but silence.

When the four become aware of each other, they set out to meet. But something else wants to find them too: a monster in a suit and sunglasses calling itself the Guardian. After barely surviving their first encounters with it, their journey turns into a race against time across Europe.

Their only hope comes when Dan inadvertently has a flashback to a previous life in which he faced the Guardian. They realize that to survive, they have to relive their fatal encounters with the monster for a chance to discover its weaknesses. But remembering an entirely different life has a cost.

Armed with the new found knowledge of who they and the Guardian really are, the four hope their impending clash will be the last.

Yet even if they succeed they have to face the sinister reality of what having a soul mate truly means.