An Open Book – December #anopenbook
I’m joining Carolyn Astfalk and Catholic Mom for An Open Book. Here’s what I’ve been working on or reading this past month.
A Very Chapel Falls Christmas by Amanda Lauer
Amazon Synopsis: An epic breakup finds Nik Forrest, a world–famous musician, back in his quaint hometown at the same time his ex–fiancée returns, making for a Christmas holiday with its share of surprises, calamity, laughter, and love—if the two of them can learn from the mistakes that drove them apart in the first place.
When she moves back to Chapel Falls, Noelle Clark was never expecting to see Nik again, except for on the cover of magazines. Try as she might to avoid him, the two exes keep running into each other throughout the holiday season. From the Ugly Sweater Shuffle to the Christmas Cookie Crawl, Nik and Noelle begin reconnecting at the renowned Christmas festivities that put their city on the map.
Now Noelle is starting to fall, again, for the charming musician. But their future is tested when Nik’s storied past comes knocking. Willow, the woman who dumped him at the most prestigious award ceremony in the world, shows up at Chapel Falls with a ring on her finger and a business offer Nik can’t refuse.
Nik must choose between the dream he has chased for years that cost him his first chance with Noelle or the hope of a second chance with the girl of his dreams. . . if it’s not too late for good. Can Nik prove to himself and to his true love that he has moved on from Willow, the fast life of Nashville, and moved back to Noelle, just in time to pull off a picture–perfect Christmas surprise and start their life together?
My review: This is an entertaining Christmas rom-com. Highly recommend!
Two Patients: My Conversion from Abortion to Life-Affirming Medicine
Amazon Synopsis: After a terrible misjudgment in the delivery room, Dr. John Bruchalski realized that with every pregnant woman he attends, there are two patients—the mother and her unborn child. In addition to this discovery, two remarkable spiritual experiences deepened his understanding of the kind of man he had become and the one he was called to be.
Two Patients is the story of how a physician who practiced abortion came to question the medical status quo and to pioneer an approach to reproductive medicine that respects female fertility, honors the dignity of unborn children, and care to patients regardless of their financial situation. Such health care, writes Dr. John Bruchalski, is merciful medicine, and his memoir gives a glimpse of just how merciful the relationship between a doctor and his two patients—mother and child— can be.
My review: This was a wonderful conversion story. Highly recommend.
Waiting for Baby Jesus by Emily C. Klein, Illustrated by Amy Klein
Amazon Synopsis: “Waiting for the baby, where can He be? Waiting for the baby, waiting to see.”
Through cheery rhyme and whimsical illustrations, this charming picture book tales two children’s happy assembly of the family crèche during Advent.
PLP proudly presents mother and daughter-in-law team
Emily C. Klein (debut author) and Amy Klein (award-winning illustrator).
My review: Delightful new Advent book that I thoroughly enjoyed. Highly recommend.
Donkey Bells: Advent and Christmas by Catherine Doherty
Amazon Synopsis: Discover how Christians celebrated Christmas before the days of television, shopping malls, and the Internet…
Catherine Doherty is well known for reviving many holy Christian traditions. In Donkey Bells: Advent and Christmas, Catherine s three-in-one book on this most expectant of holiday seasons, you ll receive wonderful gifts:
Meaningful and heartwarming stories, the telling of which will surely become a family Christmas tradition. Including: The Little Christmas Angel O’Ryan, How Pride Became Humble, The Christmas Gift, Christmas in Harlem, The Bruised Reed, and others.
Customs which you can adopt into your own Christmas celebration, such as: The Advent Wreath, The ‘O’ Antiphons, Baking Christmas Foods and Decorating, and The Blessing of The Christmas Tree. Traditions surrounding important Advent and Christmas feast days are presented, including: St. Nicholas, The Immaculate Conception, Feast of the Holy Family, New Year’s Eve, Epiphany, and more.
Earthy and inspiring meditations to prepare the entire family for Christ’s coming, including: A Candle in Our Hearts, Little Things, The Gurgle of a Baby, Where Love Is God Is, Looking into the Child’s Eyes, Advent: A Modern Bethlehem, A Short Season–A Long Journey, and many more.
My review: It’s Advent again, and it’s time to mention my favorite Advent book. If you haven’t read this book yet, I highly recommend you purchase a copy. It’s available on Amazon and also at the publisher’s website here.
Five Days in November by Clint Hill
Amazon Synopsis: On November 22, 1963, three shots were fired in Dallas, President John F. Kennedy was assassinated, and the world stopped for four days. For an entire generation, it was the end of an age of innocence.
That evening, a photo ran on the front pages of newspapers across the world, showing a Secret Service agent jumping on the back of the presidential limousine in a desperate attempt to protect the President and Mrs. Kennedy. That agent was Clint Hill.
Now Secret Service Agent Clint Hill commemorates the fiftieth anniversary of the tragedy with this stunning book containing more than 150 photos, each accompanied by Hill’s incomparable insider account of those terrible days. With poignant narration accompanying rarely seen images, we witness three-year-old John Kennedy Jr.’s pleas to come to Texas with his parents and the rapturous crowds of mixed ages and races that greeted the Kennedys at every stop in Texas. We stand beside a shaken Lyndon Johnson as he is hurriedly sworn in as the new president. We experience the first lady’s steely courage when she insists on walking through the streets of Washington, DC, in her husband’s funeral procession.
A story that has taken Clint Hill fifty years to tell, this is a work of personal and historical scope. Besides the unbearable grief of a nation and the monumental consequences of the event, the death of JFK was a personal blow to a man sworn to protect the first family, and who knew, from the moment the shots rang out in Dallas, that nothing would ever be the same.
My review: I read this every year around the anniversary date of the JFK Assassination. Although I was only four years old, I remember the events as if they were yesterday. Highly recommend.
