What Your Husband Isn't Telling You: A Guided Tour of a Man's Body, Soul, and Spirit by David Murrow

 

 

When I saw the title of this book, I was intrigued. I wanted to read it and find out what does make my husband tick. While I may be delusional, I think my husband and I have a pretty good marriage. We usually communicate and we love to hang out with each other, for the most part. But I'm always looking for books that can help me understand this man I married, or books that can help me see ways I can personally improve our marriage. I am so glad I read this book.

 

I read this book in about 24 hours and I really haven't had a chance to test or talk to my husband about my new-found knowledge of the inner-workings of his mind, so for all I know this book was way out there and doesn't relate at all to how my husband thinks. But this book was very clear and insightful on how men, in general, think.

 

For the most part this book just describes what is going on in a man's mind, or body, or soul and doesn't really give anything applicable to us wives. Notice, I said, for the most part - the last portion of the book specifically deals with how we as wives can relate to our husbands.

 

I really enjoyed the insights and the reading style was extremely easy to read. The book goes into details, but not too deep of details on some parts - enough for you to know what is going on, but not too much to be super graphic.

 

This book is written from a Christian perspective which as a believer who is married to another believer, I really appreciated. I would highly recommend this book to any wife. I was going to qualify that statement, but I'm just going to stop there. If you are a wife, read this book! It really will help you understand where your husband is coming from.

 

 

In conclusion, I received this book for free from Bethany House in exchange for an honest review, I was under no obligation to give a positive review. All the opinions are my own. 

 

The Tempted Soul: An Amish Quilt Novel by Adina Senft

This is the third book in the Amish Quilt Novel series by Adina Senft and another very good book!

I believe that there are times in every believers life where God will test their faith. It may be that there is a job loss which causes financial stress for many years - whether that is because of not finding another job or because you found another job, but had to move someplace to get that job and you now have a mortgage and rent. You cry out to God knowing that He is all powerful and that He can change anything and yet, seemingly nothing happens. You keep believing that God will provide because He promises He will and you pray that the desires of your heart will be answered. For some, it is financial difficulty. For others, it may be the loss of a loved one. And still for others, it may be that they long for a child of their own to love. These things that are good things, things that you know God could change in a heartbeat, but that He allows you to go through for some reason unknown to you. This book is one such book. This book deals with Carrie Miller, who longs to have a child of her own through any means possible and how she cries to God to allow her to have a little one of her own. 

Carrie Miller has been married for many years and loves her husband deeply, yet the one thing she wants most seems to elude her. For in Amish culture, children are seen as a blessing and a woman isn't fulfilled if she doesn't have children of her own but for some reason God doesn't seem to be answering the cry of Carrie's heart. This book chronicles her life and her desire to serve God even with no children of her own. She befriends the young people in the community and when one of the girls gets pregnant out of wedlock, she prays that she might be a blessing to her. 

I really enjoyed reading this book as it spoke so much to me in my life. Having gone through and still going through many trials and wondering why God hasn't seen fit to answer them, this book was a good reminder that God loves us and He will take care of us and continue to draw ourselves to Him.
I would recommend reading this book if you enjoy reading books about the Amish, or just want a book that lets you forget about your own problems for a little bit and lets you see other people's problems. While this is the third book in the series, I think it would be easy enough to read it on its own. If you are interested in the other books, you can read my reviews of those as well. For the first book about Amelia, who has been misdiagnosed and seems to be losing everything, see my review here. For the second book about Emma, who longs to be married to the only person she has loved since she was 18 (she's now 30), see my review here.

In closing, I did want to mention that I received this book for free in exchange for an honest review through  FaithWords a division of Hachette Book Group. I was under no obligation to give it a positive review. All the thoughts in this review are my own.

No Safe Harbor by Elizabeth Ludwig

 

 

Years ago, I had the opportunity to visit Ellis Island and I loved it! I'd always liked learning about history and visiting historical sites, but for some reason even now many years later Ellis Island and the Statue of Liberty hold special places in my heart. Perhaps it is because of the hope that so many immigrants sought after and seeing the Statue of Liberty and being processed through Ellis Island gave them their opportunity. For whatever reason that I loved Ellis Island, that was a big reason why I wanted to review this book.

 

This book is about a girl that didn't really have any reason to stay in Ireland, her parents were dead and for many years she thought her brother was dead as well. When Cara Hamilton receives a letter from her brother, Eoghan, to come to the States, she can't believe that he is alive and she might get to see him again! Everything is very secretive though as the last time she'd seen him he'd been caught up in a group called the Finians that were causing political upheaval in Ireland.

 

Cara leaves her home and goes to America to start a new life and to see her brother again. He warns her to not trust anybody and she tries to keep his secret though everything in her wants to tell people who she really is. While on the boat to America, she meets an elderly man who is kind to her and gives her the name of a boardinghouse where she can stay and find some work. She has just gotten through processing on Ellis Island when she meets a young man named Rourke. Rourke isn't exactly what he seems, but he is kind to her and continues to be a friend to her.

 

Knowing that she is supposed to not trust anyone, Cara wars within herself to tell Rourke why she came to America. With intrigue, mistaken identities and of course a little bit of a love story thrown in, this book was a delight to read.

 

The main characters sometimes frustrated me because I like people to just tell what they are thinking and not to skirt around issues, but that also was a big part of the book so I understood the reasoning behind the secrecy.

 

I did enjoy this book, I think that if you like mysteries and historical fiction this will probably be a book you'll enjoy. There are many other delightful (and some not so delightful) characters in this book that just really help to give the book substance.

 

 

I received this book for free from Bethany House in exchange for an honest review. I was under no obligation to give it a positive one. All the thoughts in this review are my own.