Raising Memories: Making & Documenting Family Memories
Heather Lynne

From raising kids to empty-nest living, join me in exploring ideas for memory-making and intentional living to create a life you love, through every season of motherhood.

Sincerely,

Showing posts with label books. Show all posts
Showing posts with label books. Show all posts

Dragonwatch Book 5: Return of the Dragon Slayers

Talia was very excited to get the opportunity to read Dragonwatch Book 5: Return of the Dragon Slayers, the 5th and final book in Brandon Mull's Dragon Watch series. 


Talia's Review of Dragonwatch Book 5


Dragonwatch: Champion of the Titan Games

The fourth book in Brandon Mull's Dragonwatch series (a stand-alone sequel series to Fablehaven) was recently released and Talia has just finished reading it. Stay tuned to the end of the post for a giveaway!

She's put together a summary of the book, her thoughts and rating of the book, and at the end of the post, you'll have a chance to win the book!

Dragonwatch: Champion of the Titan Games

Wizard for Hire Trilogy (& Giveaway)

The third book in Obert Skye's Wizard for Hire series was recently published and Talia has just finished reading the trilogy.  She has a little teaser for you about each of the books, her thoughts on each one, and on the series overall. Then we have a giveaway- one of you will win the set!


She's put together a summary of each book, her thoughts on their pros & cons, and at the end of the post, you'll have a chance to win the triology!

Willa and the Whale (& Giveaway)

It's time for another book review by Katrina! She recently read Willa and the Whale by Chad Morris and Shelly Brown and once again, we'll share the book with you from her perspective!

Willa and the Whale by Chad Morris and Shelly Brown

In this post, she'll share a brief summary of the story, what she liked about it, and where you can get the book if you (or your child) would like to read it, and a chance for one of you to win a copy!


Potion Masters Trilogy (& Giveaway)

Last month I published a tween book review by Katrina and now it's time for Talia to get in on the book reviewing fun on the blog! She recently read the Potion Masters trilogy (including the newly released third book, The Seeking Serum), by Frank L. Cole and she did a school project on the books and has gathered all of her thoughts into this blog post to share with you!

Teen Book Reviews on Raising Memories Blog


She's put together a summary of each book, her thoughts on their pros & cons, and at the end of the post, you'll have a chance to win the triology!


The Wish and the Peacock (& Giveaway)

It's time for a book review by Katrina! She recently read The Wish and the Peacock by Wendy S. Swore and I thought the best way to share the book with you would be from her perspective!

Peacock Author Wendy S Swore

In this post, she'll share a brief summary of the story, what she liked about it, and where you can get the book if you (or your child) would like to read it, and a chance for one of you to win a copy!


Stevie the Bee (A Self Discovery Picture Book for Kids)

Today I want to share a sweet little children's book with you. It's all about a little bee and his struggle to find his place in the world among so many other bees who seemed to have more of a purpose than he.


We were excited when this book came in the mail because we know the author and his family!


Sweets & Treats with Six Sisters' Stuff - Giveaway

I love fresh, homemade sweet treats and I love to make them, but I hate it when I find a recipe that looks delicious and then read the ingredients and realize that I will need to go on a huge shopping hunt before I can even begin to make it!  So I was pretty excited when I found out that the ladies behind the blog Six Sisters' Stuff just published a cookbook filled with sweet recipes that don't require fancy techniques or crazy ingredients.  Perfect!  It's called Sweets & Treats with Six Sisters' Stuff and it's published by Shadow Mountain.


The first recipe that I tried was No-Bake Cookies.  I've had no-bake cookies before, but I had never tried them like this.  The recipe included peanut butter and I am not exaggerating when I tell you that I ate so many that I had to make another batch- and I got over 2 dozen of these per batch!  I made them and froze them (thinking they'd come in handy later), but I soon found out how delicious they were frozen and it was game over! ;)


Girls Who Choose God

Today I want to share a religious children's book with you that is kind of like a sequel to one that I shared last year. Deseret Book has published a new book called Girls Who Choose God: Stories of Strong Women from the Book of Mormon (similar to the Girls Who Choose God: Stories of Courageous Women From the Bible that I posted about last year).


This book is very much like the one that was published last year- it is also written by Krishna McArthur and Bethany Brady Spalding with artwork by Kathleen Peterson.  If you're a member The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, you will appreciate that there is now both a Bible version and Book of Mormon version.

Chapter Books to Read to Your Kids (Westly: A Spider's Tale)

I had a goal to read to my girls this summer, as much as possible. I was on a hunt to find good chapter books that I could read to them, that would be interesting to both of them (ages 6 and 9). We found several that we really enjoyed (and are continuing to read now that school has started), so I thought I would share some of the books that we've really liked.

It has been a really nice experience to just relax together and read. The books we've been reading all seem to have lessons woven throughout them that apply to our lives. We've been able to discuss these by talking about the things that are happening to the characters and thinking about how we would react or whether we think they could have made a different choice for a better outcome. Reading together is also a good way to expand vocabulary as new words come up.




Switching from Paper to eReader (Kobo Glo HD Review & a Giveaway)

When I was 12 years old, my Oma & Opa gave me a beautiful hard-cover copy of Anne of Green Gables by L. M. Montgomery. I have loved reading ever since the first time I read it, and I still have that book in my collection. It's a large, heavy, hard-cover, 3-Volume copy that I have kept because of the sentimental connection it holds to my grandparents and because I know it's a book that I will read again, and read to my daughters.

I do a lot of things on the computer or other devices, but until recently, reading wasn't one of them. So, when I was offered the opportunity to try out the new Kobo Glo HD, I thought it was time to give it a try. For one week, I set aside my paper books and took to the eReader!



Practicing for Heaven; The Parable of the Piano

If you like reading my book reviews (which tend to be religious books more often than not), then you may remember when I posted about Brad Wilcox's The Continuous Conversion which was a second book to go with his book, The Continuous Atonement.  I like listening to Brad Wilcox (he was a motivational speaker for youth back when I was going to youth conferences, so I get excited when he comes out with books)!  Anyway, he has come out with a new book called The Continuous Atonement for teens as well as a children's book called Practicing for Heaven; The Parable of the Piano Lessons.


I jump at the chance to review children's books that are published by Deseret Book because they are always beautiful.  The artwork in this one (by Brian Call) is gorgeous, the story about practising the piano is totally relatable (especially for my girls who are taking piano lessons), and it teaches a very important lesson about life and the atonement and how we don't need to be perfect; we just have to keep trying!

Amazed by Grace

Ken and I recently read Sheri L. Dew's new book, Amazed by Grace. It's based on a talk that she gave at BYU's Women's Conference in May, 2014.

Amazed by Grace
Amazed by Grace


The book includes some more stories and thoughts that were not included in the original address and is presented beautifully in a small 5.5x7.5" hardcover book, 80 pages long,  As seems to be common with Deseret Book's recently published inspirational books like this one, the pages are arranged nicely with a border and with meaningful quotes emphasized with occasional pages with quotes over photographs (as shown below).



As we read the book, Ken and I had a discussion about Grace and what it is exactly, referring to Sheri's book, a recent General Conference talk by President Dieter F. Uchtdorf, entitled, "The Gift of Grace", as well as Elder Bednar's talks on the subject and referencing the Bible Dictionary.

I love it when something gets us thinking and studying together like this.  We talked about whether grace is actually a power itself, or whether it is an attribute which leads to the use of power.  I will spare you all of our thoughts and conclusions because I suspect you would have a more enlightening experience if you were to read the book (or talks) yourself.

The book, like her original talk, considers four questions:

What is grace?
What difference can grace make in our lives?
How does the Savior make His power available to us?
What must we do to gain access to the Savior's power?

It's great food for thought and I probably never would have heard of Sheri's original talk, had I not come across her book.  This is another book that I think would make a lovely gift.


Disclosure: I was provided a copy of this book for review purposes. All opinions shared are my own.

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Thursday Thoughts: Working at Happiness

I was recently asked to share my favourite scripture.  I don't think I really have one specific scripture that I would choose, but on that occasion, the one that came to mind is from the Book of Mormon and the reference is 2 Nephi 2:25 which says, "Adam fell that men might be; and men are, that they might have joy."  It's a short verse that I memorized in high school for Seminary (an early morning gospel study class that I would attend every morning before school).  We memorized quite a few scripture references, but that one really stuck (because it was short and easy to remember ;).

It also stuck because of the message. This life is full of challenges and difficult situations. I think it has to be that way. We learn and grow through those experiences and so much of who we are becoming is because of how we deal with the difficult things in our lives and what we manage to learn from them. So I find it comforting that although we are meant to go through "trials" in this life, we are also meant to have joy.

I've written about happiness on the blog before- in terms of being happy "now" and not waiting for good things to happen in the future to make us happy.  The same goes for waiting for material items to make us happy.



I have been reading a new book by Jeffrey R. Holland called To My Friends; Messages of Counsel and Comfort (published by Deseret Book).  Chapter 18 is called: "To my friends who seek happiness".  He quotes Aristotle as having said, "Happiness is the meaning and purpose of life, the whole aim and end of human existence."  Then he focuses the rest of the chapter on how we can "pursue" happiness.

Sam's Christmas Wish

It's time for another book review, and this one is a children's Christmas book! :)  The book is called Sam's Christmas Wish and it's written by George D. Durrant and published by Shadow Mountain.  


This is a hardcover book (29 pages) with beautiful illustrations.  I'm sharing a couple of page spreads so you can get a glimpse of the interior.  The illustrator is Dan Burr.

Fairy Tale Christmas Review & Giveaway

Talia & I just finished reading Fairy Tale Christmas by Michael McLean and Scott McLean (published by Shadow Mountain). This was a fun one to read together and we received it at the perfect time because we had been reading the Anne of Green Gables series together and just finished one of the books, so we were ready for something new :)



Since I knew I would be posting a review of this book on my blog, my plan all along was to read it to the girls.  I told Talia we had a new book to read and the next thing I knew, she had already read half of it on her own!  (This girl soaks books up!)  I had to tell her to stop so we could read together! (Turned out she finished reading it on her own between our reading together, so she knew the ending before I did! :)




Katrina wasn't as into the book as Talia was, so you can take that as an age guide (Katrina is 5, Talia is 8).

The book is classified as "middle grade fiction", and includes black and white pictures (always a bonus for kids' chapter books).

The book is hard cover with 176 pages. (It's also available as an ebook).

There's even a note in the book about where you can go to download the free music and listen to the songs sung by the fairy tale characters!  I can't wait until the website is ready because I am already a big fan of Michael McLean's music and I'm guessing he had a little something to do with this! :)




Since this book is for children, we decided it would be fun for Talia to do a "guest review" for you. Here it is:


Talia's Review



This book is about fairy tale villains and they all get together and call themselves the Clandestines.  They're making a plan to kidnap Santa and they trap him in a snow globe!  In the end, the fairy tale heroes find a way to convince the villains to work together to save Christmas.  

If you like fairy tales, I think you'll like this book. I really liked that it has so much action. In some stories, evil triumphs over good, but most of the time, fairy tales end happily ever after. The Clandestines want to change that- read the story to find out if they succeed!



Giveaway

You can enter to win one of 4 signed copies of this book below!

a Rafflecopter giveaway



Disclosure: We received a copy of this book to facilitate this review. All opinions are our own!

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Visions of Hope

I have another book review for you today from Deseret Book. This one is a beautiful book of illustrations with text from the scriptures. The book is illustrated by Annie Henrie and I think her artwork is gorgeous! The book is called Visions of Hope; An Illustrated Portrayal of God's Plan For Us.


In our religion, we often talk about God's plan, calling it The Plan of Happiness or The Plan of Salvation. This plan answers questions about where we came from, why we are here, and where we are going.

Henrie has visually interpreted the plan of salvation from pre-earth life to the Creation, the Fall of Adam and Eve, life on earth, the spirit world, the Atonement, the Resurrection, and the kingdoms of glory.

We often use a little sketch to illustrate the stages or order of the plan when discussing it, and the book includes that at the top of each page, with one section highlighted to show which part of the plan we are focusing on for that page.

This might be my favourite painting in the book:


I love the warmth in her paintings.  In that image above, the leaves appear to be golden and I love how happy the mother looks, encircled by her husband and children.  I'm feeling the love ;)

Here's another spread from the book, so you can get an idea of the feeling that continues throughout the book.  It's a 10x10" hardcover book with 48 pages.


This book would be a beautiful tool for teaching what we believe about the plan of salvation to someone who wants to know more about what we believe, or for teaching our children, or just for personal reflection.  The artwork is just gorgeous, with 14 different paintings included.


Disclosure: A copy of the book was provided to me for review purposes. All opinions shared are my own.


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An Update & A Book Review: How Do I Know?

*Phew!* You guys, I have had a BUSY week, and it has largely been because of this blog. Lots of exciting things seem to be happening lately with the blog. This week something really cool happened that has never happened to me before (at least not to this extent) and that is that one of my posts from last year has become really popular in the last few days. It has been getting shared across facebook and it's so exciting! I started this blog to share ideas and information with other parents, so it's really fulfilling to be able to see that something I post is useful to other people.

If you want to check the post out (or share it or pin it ;), please do!
It's my list of 100 Non-Toy Gift Ideas. Click Here to check it out!

I also co-hosted my first twitter party which was a really neat experience and I'm excited to have another one coming up, too! If you've never attended a twitter party, you should definitely give it a try! All it takes is one twitter party and you should have a good idea of how they work. If you have any questions about them, let me know in the comments or send me a message on my contact page, and I'd be happy to fill you in!

Today I'll be on a little day trip doing something fun with some other bloggers that I'll fill you in on soon. It will be the second time I've had a chance to meet some other bloggers "in real life" (you can read about the first time here if you're interested).

So, those are a few of the fun things that have been going on and I'll have more to share as time goes on!

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Today I have the opportunity to share another new book published by Deseret Book called How Do I Know If I Know?, written by John Bytheway (a favourite speaker of mine), and I'll warn you that I'm about to get religious here ;)


When it comes to testimony, I have always been the kind of person who just always believed in the gospel. I didn't have a big "a-ha moment" or a pivotal spiritual experience that marked the moment that I gained a testimony of my Church. I always just felt that it was true. I've certainly had questions along the way, and I've continued to study and learn and grow when it comes to my knowledge and understanding of the gospel. There have been times when I have wondered if I should be trying to achieve this monumental moment of spiritual revelation that would cement my testimony and give me that story to tell of the moment when I acquired a testimony.. but I have learned that that is not always the way things work! For me, I have learned over and over, through experience, that the things I believe are true. I often think of the scriptures in the Book of Mormon in Alma 32, that talk about "experimenting upon the word". As I have lived it, I have seen the results of living it, and that reinforces my belief.

So because of these things, I was excited to see that John Bytheway had published this book for youth that asks questions like "Is my testimony strong enough?" and "How do I know if I really have a testimony?". In the book, he uses the acronym "F.E.E.L." to discuss how we feel the truthfulness of the gospel through feelings, experiences, evidences we encounter, and logical conclusions of how a loving God interacts with His children on the earth.
Just like turning up a dimmer switch, understanding the ways we F.E.E.L. a testimony will help to make it brighter.
I love John Bytheway's style.  his approach to explaining spiritual things is both easy to understand and entertaining.  Perfect for youth, and perfect for me!  This is a great addition to his list of books and talks and I'm glad he wrote it!

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The Miracles of Jesus (Book Review)

I've been reading a new book by Eric D. Huntsman called The Miracles of Jesus, published by Deseret Book. It's another gorgeous full-colour, hardcover book laid out with tons of beautiful visuals including artwork, maps, charts, and photographs.


Huntsman is an associate professor of ancient scripture at Brigham Young University. He organizes this study of Jesus' miracles into 5 categories: Power over the Elements, Healing the Sick, Casting Out Devils, Raising the Dead, and Causing the Blind to See and the Deaf to Hear. Each section outlines numerous miracles and refers to the record of those events recorded in scripture.


The stories of these miracles are explained clearly and in light of historical background and situations. Then they are applied to us, to our present day and the difficulties we face. It's easier to see how we can compare these experiences of the past to the situations and challenges we face and those around us are facing currently.


One thing I liked about the book was how it talked not only about what physically happened, but how that can represent other, more spiritual miracles. Here's a quote from the concluding section of the book:

"What manner of man, then is this Jesus?... His great acts of healing remind us that he came to heal our hearts and souls as well as our physical bodies, forgiving our sins and strengthening us to do good and enabling us to endure in faith... Restoring sight and hearing reflects Jesus' ability to open our spiritual eyes and ears, helping us learn to recognize truth, especially the truth about himself and his mission... raising the dead points our minds forward to the universal resurrection when Christ will fully and completely defeat death and erase the sorrow of loss..."

That quote is only a small part of the conclusions Huntsman makes in his book, but it gives you an idea of the aim of the book. There are also a couple of appendixes included. One shares a personal experience from the author and one is a survey of the biblical scholarship behind the book. It includes lists of every miracle story, summary, and report in the Gospels, the different approaches each of the four Gospels takes to the miracles, and reviews how scholars evaluate the stories historically.


Reading a book like this always opens my eyes to how much is to be gained from studying the scriptures more thoroughly, spending more time reading, studying, and really pondering the scriptures. I always enjoy doing so, but it is easy to get out of the habit of doing it. I'm grateful for books like this that inspire me to want to learn more!

Disclosure: A copy of the book was provided for review purposes. All opinions shared are my own.

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