REVIEW - Seven Brides for Seven Texans

In late 2015, I was privileged to be invited to be a member of The Vetsch Posse, the street crew for Christian author Erica Vetsch. I'd read (and liked 😉) some of her works before, not knowing this was the same author. That's how I came to hear about this book. When I decided to create this blog, Erica was very instrumental in helping me get started and, along with my mom, coming up with the blog's name. For her help, I promised one of her books would be my first review.

I admit, at times, when I initially hear the concept of a book, I can  be skeptical. However, when Erica first announced a book based on the same idea as the classic film Seven Brides for Seven Brothers, I was intrigued. This wouldn't be a single story, but a collection of seven novellas by seven different authors centered on the Hart family of Hartville, Texas.

George Washington Hart is a wealthy rancher, owner of the massive 7 Heart Ranch. He is the father of seven sons, all named after important Texans. He gathers his sons and issues an ultimatum. They must each marry before the end of the year or lose their share of the inheritance. Each of the ensuing novellas tell the story of a different brother and is journey to matrimony. Gabrielle Meyer tells about John Coffee Hays Hart in First Comes Love. In  The Heart of Texas by Lorna Seilstad, we meet Ranger Jesse Chisholm Hart. Amanda Barratt writes Dr. William Travis Hart's story in  The Truest Heart. A Love Returned by Keli Gwyn tells the story of Sam Houston Hart. Susan Page Davis writes about Davy Crockett Hart in her novella For Love or Money. Stephen Austin Hart and James Bowie Hart round out the Hart brothers. We read their tales in Mail-Order Mayhem by Vickie McDonough and Erica Vetsch's Love at Last respectively.

These seven ladies manage to weave these stories together seamlessly. You can see each writer's different style and how it lends itself to the unique touch to each character. They each add something to make the individual story "theirs", but still keep a cohesiveness. The transition between stories are smooth, so the change in author isn't a distraction.  Any doubts or drawbacks about reading a book with multiple authors disappeared the further I got into the book. This isn't something that everyone can do, but this group of ladies did it beautifully. However, don't just take my word for it. This is a definite "recommend" to all my friends and followers who enjoy good Inspirational Fiction or just a fun read. You can find out more at the official blog, http://7bridesfor7texans.blogspot.com. 

I, for one, would love to see more from this talented group of ladies. Until then...

Happy reading,
Donna

Books My Mother Read to Me

There's never been a time in my life when I wasn't around books. I was read to before I learned myself and read with after that. My mother made it a point that there were always plenty of books at home for me and my brother. One of the highlights of my childhood was our library trips, even if I did usually end up checking out the same books over and over. (I have read Lou Gehrig: Iron Man of Baseball at least 27 times...and cry every single time.) Even after we were well-able to read on our own, Michael and I would choose books for Mama to read to us. Out of everything we ever heard, nothing ever beat Mrs. Piggle-Wiggle.

In case you are unfamiliar, Mrs. Piggle-Wiggle is a series of books created by Betty MacDonald. (This is the same Betty MacDonald who wrote The Egg & I and introduced the world to Ma & Pa Kettle of movie fame.) She was a sweet old lady who loved children and lived in an upside-down house. Parents would consult Mrs. Piggle-Wiggle for help with their children and their bad habits. These children had all sorts of different maladies. There was the Radish Cure where a little girl refused to take a bath. Mrs. Piggle-Wiggle's advice was to not make her, let her be as dirty as she wanted. Then, one night when she was really good and filthy, go in while she was asleep and plant radish seeds on her arms. Eventually, the radishes sprouted and the little girl decided she would rather take a bath than have plants growing on her. In the Selfishness Cure, she told the parents of a selfish little boy to label everything he owned with his name and "Don't Touch." This worked well for a while until he found out that he also wasn't allowed to touch anything that didn't have his name on it. He couldn't play with friends or even pet the family dog. That's when he changed his mind. Our absolute favorite was The Thought-You-Saiders Cure. I remember laughing hysterically at the mixed-up phrases the kids would say. The dad asked "Where is my briefcase?" One child said, "I thought you said leaf race." One child said, "I thought you said thief's face." The other child said, "I thought you said meat paste." Several more instances like this occurred until the exasperated mother called Mrs. Piggle-Wiggle who gave her a powder to put into her children's ears so they could hear every little thing. Spiders crawling on the ceiling sounded like marching troops. Cracker crumbs sounded like boulders rolling down a hill. After this, the children began paying more attention.

Some of my favorite childhood memories are those nights when Mama would come into the bedroom Michael and I shared, pull a chair between our twin beds, and read to us one of Mrs. Piggle-Wiggle's adventures. I will let you in on a little secret: I am 41 years old and would still sit and listen to my mother read to me as long as she wants. There's always been something so soothing about it. I don't know if it's my mom's voice or the memories it conjures up or exactly what the reasoning is, but, she could read It  or The Shining and I could fall asleep. I have always contended that I had a happy childhood. Looking back, I have discovered that it was so because it was a childhood filled with simple pleasures like bedtime stories. She always stressed to us, as I heard her do to the students in her class many, many times, that if you can read, you can do anything. I believe this. I have already started a collection of books for my future children, some read-alouds and some for them to experience as readers on their own. In this collection, I need to make sure that there is a copy of each of the Mrs. Piggle-Wiggle books for Mama Gail to read to them. I want him or her to have the same wonderful childhood experiences that their Uncle Bubba and I did.

I love you, Mama. Thank you for not only the gift of life, but also the gift of reading. Happy Mother's Day.

Donna

It started with a book...STAR WARS Day Memories

Today is my favorite unofficial holiday of the year. May 4th...Star Wars Day. The BFF and I celebrate with greeting cards and gifts just like a regular holiday. I am trying hard to find a rationale to wear my Princess Leia shirt to work. I saw Star Wars (I refuse to call it A New Hope) for the first time when I was six-years-old. My mom had to spank me because I pitched such a mad, stomping, screaming, crying fit in front of half of my dad's family who had gathered at my Granny's house to watch it on HBO. Mama said, "Now, sit down and I do not want to hear another word out of you until this movie is over." She didn't have to worry about that. From the first minute I saw Darth Vader walk onscreen, I was mesmerized. This asthmatic kid thought it was awesome that everyone was afraid of the cool guy who wheezed like I did. Everyone, that is, except one girl who wasn't afraid of him or anybody else. This girl would eventually fall in love with the handsome pilot who rescued her. I would appreciate the roguish smuggler-turned-hero and their relationship more and more as I got older. (Han/Leia led me to discovering the wonderful love story that was "Carrison" which would take several posts to explain. Ask me about it sometime when you have a spare couple of hours. 😉 ) Over the years, as my SW love grew, so did my collection of memorabilia. I will never forget my first piece of merchandise, though.

I was in the second grade and it was that magical time of year in elementary school...the Book Fair. By nature, I am a "saver" and not a "spender." Book Fair, though, was one of my rare exceptions. I hoarded my allowance and left-over lunch money change like a miser until I had a pretty good little sum saved for the Book Fair. My goal was to buy something small for everyone in my family and then get me something pretty good. The first day our class went, I bought everyone else's stuff first. The deal was, if you were a good student, did all of your work and stayed out of trouble, you got to go back at the end of the week. That's when I was planning on making my big purchase. I had even sorted through the SW stuff, found what I wanted, and hid it so I could go back and get it. Sounds like a great plan, right? It would have worked perfectly had it not been for this one mean-spirited boy named Ben who was upset because he said girls weren't supposed like SW. He saw me uncover my stash, snatched it away from me, and ran to the counter to pay before I could get there. I was heart-broken. Since my second grade teacher was Satan's younger sister, she wouldn't even listen as I tried to explain. I bought a bookmark and went back to class.

Mama was working at the same school as a teacher's aide. A couple of weeks later, she came home after a Teacher's Work Day. She said, "Our book order came in and they sent a free gift. Mrs. Chandler (the teacher she worked with) said you can have it if you wanted it." My mother then produced a copy of the official Return of the Jedi picture book. I was on cloud nine! This was better than any of the other things I had picked out for myself at the Book Fair. I will never forget what it looked like. It had Luke Skywalker in his black Jedi outfit with his lightsaber drawn ready to fight on Jabba's party barge on the front cover. I went straight to my bedroom and started reading. I hadn't seen the movie yet, so everything was all new. I took it everywhere (even to church on a couple occasions). It was the book I requested for the bedtime story when it was my night to choose. I created a classroom reenactment of it. (I was the biker scout who tried to capture Princess Leia, but was attacked by Wicket the Ewok. Directing this production was more important than a starring role.) By the time I actually got to watch the movie, I was more than ready to see played out what I'd read about so many times. It was like I had been right there...rescuing Han from Jabba's palace, riding the speeder bikes through the forests of Endor, meeting Ewoks, dueling with Darth Vader, tossing the Emperor down the shaft...because I had read about it so often.

To this day, RTOJ is my second-favorite movie ever. Part of me wonders if that book isn't the reason why...at least partially. Somewhere along the way, I lost that book, but I never forgot it. Then, about three years ago, someone donated a copy to the Library's book sale. I snatched it up so quickly it would have made second grade Ben jealous. I know exactly where it is right now.

Today, I got ready for work and slipped my Millennium Falcon lanyard over my head that's holding my work ID badge. I drove in a car nicknamed "Honda Solo" who is equipped Star Wars sun shades. I walked into my office where my SW Build-A-Bear poster hangs and pulled a SW pencil from one of three SW pencil cups on my desk. I check dates on my SW wall calendar (there are two more at home). I text people on a gold-colored phone ("Threepio") ensconced in a phone case depicting Han Solo frozen in Carbonite. Tonight, before bed I will mix-and-match one of my multiple Star Wars-related t-shirts with one of my pairs of SW pajama pants. If I want, I can even drink sweet tea in a Princess Leia cup with Han Solo-shaped ice cubes. Yes, I do own lots of books, posters, pictures, t-shirts, hats, stuffed animals, and scores of other items. All of them are special to me. However, I think my favorite will always be the book that started it all.

2017 - The Year of the Book?

It all began with the Winter Reading Challenge at the Library. Staff was allowed to participate in their own separate category. My competitive nature met with the prospect of a Barnes & Noble gift card and created the perfect storm. Half-way through, I did the math. If I finished the WRC (and I would finish it), I would have read 24 books in the first 3 months of the year. My Goodreads goal for all of 2016 was just 25 books (met mainly because of a 40-something book juvenile series I came across, but that's a story for another post). Being the brave soul that I am, I upped my 2017 goal to 50 books. Six months to read 25 books...I could do that. In mid-January, my father began what would turn into an almost three month hospital stay in Asheville. This would, of course, mean long nights sitting up at the hospital. However, I also discovered that #1 Audiobooks counted on the WRC and #2 I could listen to about 2 discs a day on the roughly 90 minute commute up the mountain and back every day. SCORE! It was like racking up twice the books with half the effort. After this came a Book Challenge I found online and a Book Bingo I began with a few coworkers. Thirty books came, then forty. I was a veritable reading machine!

Then, one day, I found myself doing what I always despised hearing people do. I caught myself saying, "Well, I have read *insert number* of books since January." I stopped. My first thought was "Oh no! I have become a 'book bragger.'" A "book bragger" is not an official library term, but, you know who they are. They're the ones who check out a stack of books and make those annoying comments like "This may seem like a lot to you, but I will have them finished before the week is out." They're the ones who try to make you actually believe they flew through The Pilgrim's Progress before lunch so they would have plenty of time to finish Gone With The Wind by bedtime. They're like the kid in High School who started each conversation asking about your class rank, GPA, or what you made on the S.A.T. You know them...and you secretly detest them. Worst of all, I was becoming one of them. This made me step back and evaluate. WHY was I doing this? Was it really because I wanted to unplug and get back to reading more like I had told everyone or was it for a more selfish reason? Did I want to branch out and read some different things or was it just to look impressive?

I decided I would rather have fun with it. I read because I enjoy it, not just to look like a book snob. (F.Y.I. - If I make a reference to something Shakespearean I've read, it's not to look smart. It's because I actually like his stories. I know...I'm weird that way.) There's no one to beat. It's not a race. It's okay to get side-tracked and spend a lot of time on one book or read it again (which I did with The Princess Diarist by Carrie Fisher...4 times). The Challenge and the Book Bingo are just guidelines, not commandments. (This is a good thing, I've decided. Since I've discovered Craig Johnson, all bets are off. 😀) I did up my Goodreads goal to 60 books. When I reach that, I will probably raise it again. There's still the little voice in the back of my head that wonders if I could possibly read 100 books in 2017. If I don't, though, it's okay. The goal is take something away from each thing I read (even if it's "this author should never write again") and enjoy the journey. 365 days is a long time to read.

Donna