Book Review: Plain Faith: A True Story of Tragedy, Loss and Leaving the Amish: Ora Jay & Irene Eash

Plain Faith is a true story of Ora-Jay and Irene Eash, Amish farmers originally from Indiana but now living in northwest Montana whose lives changed in an instant when a semi-truck struck the family buggy, killing their two young daughters.

Devastated by the accident and the loss of their two girls, the couple turned to the Amish community for comfort, but they remained haunted by the thought that they might not see their girls again in heaven. Would their deeds be good enough?

Having grown up believing in faith by good works, Ora-Jay and Irene eventually learned that it grace that would ensure their place in eternity. And with this knowledge soon came the realisation that they could no longer living in an Amish community who didn’t share this belief.  Soon began a journey of learning, growing and discovering the hope that is in heaven, a hope stronger than the loss of their children, family, and a way of life – leading to a complete change of life and moving away from the Amish community.

This is a very interesting book about the Amish community from which I learned a lot about how they live and what their faith is actually like.  I recommend this book to everyone, it’s not just a book for those who are religious, it is a book for everyone and all will resonate with this tale of courage, resilience and the redemption found in the grace of Jesus. 

Book Review: My Grammar and I..... by Caroline Taggart

My Grammar and I… is a very eye opening book. I thought I remembered everything from school and university but it seems as if I have gone back to old habits and writing wrongly. 

This book is a refresher course for those who have been stumped by spelling confusion, dangling modifiers, split infinities or for those who have no idea what these things are.  It is a clever, informative and fun book and offers practical and humorous guidance on how to avoid falling into language pitfalls.

I thought I knew everything about grammar before I read this book and realised that there was lots I didn’t know especially when it came to Elements of Style.

I recommend this book to those who are writers, those who are in school and to those who just want to refresh their memory. 

MS: Relapsing

For the past couple of weeks I have been relapsing in my MS – pains, numbness,  low moods, hot sweats, on steroids, needed to use a stick a while – life hasn’t felt too good.

But I kept going. I went out, I did things. I went to work and then at the weekend my body decided enough was enough, it needed rest. So I gave in and have it rest. Should learn that I need to do this at the start of relapses instead of in the middle of them. 

The thing is when your body needs rest your mind doesn’t know when to shut off – and you are sitting at home, resting but feeling sorry for yourself – feeling lonely.

Why do our minds and bodies never hold a meeting and decide to behave at the same time?

I am ok on my own most of the time, but then like everyone else I slump and go into the ground.  I watch TV but it doesn’t always help.  I read but it’s not always a good distraction due to concentration issues.  I colour in, that does help a bit.  I eat but that makes me feel fat.

I am off work with no energy so can’t really go out, but then I have nowhere really to go to.  My body says rest.  As a Christian I feel I should always be content with my situation but it’s hard to feel happy all the time.  I go turn to God but then the devil likes to come and play.  He tells me lies.  Tells me nobody cares about me, tells me I will always be alone, tells me that I am stupid, tells me I am a  failure and I am weak and no one cares about me. 

My mind chooses to believe the lies at times – what am I doing? I am letting the circumstances control me, instead of looking at the big picture.  I am loved – loved by God and also loved by people.  I am alone but I am not alone.

So what do you guys do when you are in the low moods? How do you pick yourself up?

Maybe I need more hobbies. I love writing but more recently this has been hard to do – my muse has gone on holiday.

The best things to do and it is the hardest is to focus on what is true. I am loved and I am doing ok. 

Yes we are doing ok.  Think the key is to stop trying to over live, all we can do is love one day at a time, which can be hard to do but it is the key.  And remember, you are doing ok.

Book Review: Towers of Tuscany by Carol M Cram

This book was recommended to me by a friend.  I found it slow to get into at the start but it intrigued me, the writing was good and the characters were interesting, especially the main character Sofia.  

Sofia Carducci is a daughter of a painter but it unable to proceed with her passion of painting because she is a women and painting is for men and not women.  This greatly annoys Sofia but she is a strong women and claims the right to make her own decisions and her own mistakes as well.  Her first mistake is convincing her father to let her marry Giorgio Carell, a wealthy saffron merchant in San Gimignano, the Tuscan city of towers.

Sofia believes that when she is married she can still continue to paint but this is not the case, and the ends up in a loveless marriage with a man who comes to despise her when she does not produce a son.  However, she still has her father, until that he is taken away from her in an attack motivated by vendetta.

This attack motivates Sofia to act and she decides to try and free herself by running away from the misery she is in. She ends up in Siena and under the disguise of a boy she begins to pain again in Maestro Manzini’s workshop.  On doing this Sofia enters a life of disguise and that of mis-trust as well – she mistrusts those around her worried that her secret will come out – which would in turn destroy her and those around her as well.

Towers of Tuscany is a story of love, passion, desire, disguise, mis-trust, death, survival, friendship, family as well as painting.  It is a story you get invested in because the author makes you care deeply for Sofia, which is in truth great writing.  I was for Sofia from the beginning, routing for her, hoping she would succeed in her actions and that life would turn out happy for her.    To me this book is a must read and I look forward to reading more by Carol Cram. 

TV Reviews - Crime Dramas

I have been watching a lot of crime dramas on TV recently and they are not all very straight forward.

What have I been watching? Well, there was DCI Banks on ITV. That was straight forward detective drama – very intense and sad episodes but fantastic viewing as always.  Then there is The Fall – not a patch on the first two seasons but it is still compelling viewing and am looking forward to seeing where it has to go and whether Paul Spector will be brought to justice.

So what are the confusing crime dramas? Well there is Paranoid on ITV – to me this is very confusing and annoying but yet am still going back every week to watch it.  The characters are very annoying especially the police woman Nina – she seems to be a typical women needing a man to feel like they are worth something.  Then there is Alec – he has a strange history with his mother – am wondering what the back story is here?

For me in this drama the acting seems very forced and I am not really into it. The storyline is all confusing as well – who has killed who? Who is on the run? Who is the Ghost detective?

And we move over to Germany, why do we do that? There is just confusion for me and I don’t like it, yet am still watching it every week. Why? Because I need to know how it turns out.

Then there is Level, which is also on ITV – another confusing drama.  What’s the story? Someone was murdered, the police are investigating it and one of the police is involved – not in the murder but she is being chased by the murderers. What is going on?

Then there is another policeman who seems to be involved, we don’t know what but he is and he and Nancy are running after each other, wary of each other. Corrupt police! There is a deadly knot here and someone is the murder of La Saux.

There are more questions and then answers in the Level. Who is Gunnar? What is his involvement in the case? What does Nancy’s dad have to do with it all? What will happen to Nancy?  It is very confusing crime drama but also compelling too.  I am still watching even though am confused because I need to know what happens.

That’s the problem with our brains – they are weird to need to do what happens. 

Language: Language is Confusing!

 In 2012 while living in Peru I embarked in learning a new language – Spanish – it was hard going but I picked it up. I am not fluent but I got by and still can. I seem to understand more Spanish then I can speak, but that is a good thing.

I thought Spanish was a hard language to learn because of all the different conjugations and past, present, subjunctive participles etc. But then my Peruvian friends said that English was far more difficult language to learn. And I wondered why.

Well, one of the reasons is because we have so many words that sound the same even if they are spelt differently and this can be very confusing for a learner.  

So what are some of these words?

There                    Their

Where                  Wear

Hear                      Here

Fair                        Fare

Pail                         Pale

Knot                      Not

Plain                      Plane

Beech                   Beach

Weather              Whether

It can be hard for non-native speakers to pick up the different meanings of the words, and it is hard for us native speakers as well!!

And did you know what to call such a word that sounds the sane as another word but differs in meaning? – It is called a homophone.

I learnt that new today. It is always good to learn something new every day.

And then to add to the confusion of the English language – there are differences between the English spoken in America, Britain, Australia, South Africa etc. But Spanish is just as confusing as every country that speaks it, speaks it differently and words can have mean different things too like they can in the different English’s!

Language is confusing.   

Book Review: After the Crash by Michel Bussi

After the Crash

Michael Bussi

This book was recommended to me by a friend and after reading the first few pages I wondered why she thought it was so good, but then I got into the book and I couldn't actually put it down.

After the Crash starts off on the night of 22 December 1980, when a plane crashes in the mountains of the Franco-Swiss border and is engulfed in flames. There were 169 passengers on board and only one of them survived, all the others were killed instantly. The miraculous sole survivor is a three months baby girl who becomes involved in a tug of hour between two families claiming to own her – one rich and the other poor. This sparks an investigation that will last for almost two decades. Is the baby Lyse Rose or Emilie?

It’s the 1980s so DNA testing has not taken off yet, so a private detective called Crédule Grand-Duc is hired to find out the truth behind who the baby girl is. This leads to a lot of angst within himself, between the families themselves and within the girl herself. It also brings out of red herrings and plot twists and brings about many themes for us to get into, ranging from murder, madness, deceit, heartache and love – it is a tale of suspense and with many twists and turns you are left guessing to the end.