My Journey to Heaven: What I Saw and How It Changed My Life by Marvin J. Besteman

In the book My Journey to Heaven: What I Saw and How It Changed My Life, Marvin J. Besteman tells about the time he had pancreatic surgery.  He was in horrible pain since the surgeons moved all of his innards around to get to the tumor on his pancreas. 

During the night after surgery, he went to heaven for a short period of time.  He describes what he saw while at the gate of heaven and some of the people who he spoke to or who were in view of the gate. 

He wasn't able to speak to anyone inside nor was he allowed to step foot inside.  He admits to being angry that he had to come back to earth.

I've read a few books written by people who returned from death.  This book has more description and does not have the tunnel of light.  Instead, Marv is escorted to the gate by two angels.

The author is presently back in heaven.  He died a couple of weeks after finishing his part of the work on the manuscript.  He claimed that he was sent back to earth to tell people what he saw.

I enjoyed reading this book more than some of the others on the same topic.

Kathi Linz

8 MInutes to Digital Winter by Mark Hitchcock and Alton Gansky

What would happen if a worm got into the computer systems and shut everything down.  No refrigeration, no electricity, no cars that have computer chips...  What would the government be able to do?  What would be the priorities if such a thing happened?

There are a number of players in this gripping book, but the main focus is on Colonel Jeremy Matisse, military expert on all things computer, and his wife, surgeon Roni Matisse.  When the world collapses around them, they each feel that their duties take presidence over any personal wishes they might have.  Jeremy follows President Barlow into a safe place similar to NORAD and struggles to find the antidote to the computer problems.  Roni stays at her post in the hospital - not just for a couple of extra shifts - but for months, as she tries to save people's lives with medicine gone back to WW I or before.

President Barlow tries to make executive decisions for the good of the whole country with few advisors and extremely limited information and resources.

Demonic spirits are at work in this book published by Harvest House.  They set up the story but don't overshadow it.

I'm betting this is the first book in a series based on the way the final chapter plays out.

Kathi Linz

The Wild Girl: The Notebooks of Ned Giles, 1932 by Jim Fergus

The Wild Girl is a good book that will speak to your inner adventurer.  It is a very well written story in third and first person views (of at least 3 different people).  I loved the fact that it switched back and forth between characters.  I think it kept it fresh. 

Parts of the book were about this "wild" Apache girl (recently turned "woman") who was captured by a crazy mountain man.  Other parts of the book were based on a teenaged orphan boy turned photographer who sets out West to avoid his troubles.  He joins the 1932 Great Apache Expedition on a search for the young son of a wealthy Mexican land owner who was stolen by the wild Apaches a couple years earlier. 

The two stories merge when the Expedition encounters the wild girl in a Mexican jail cell and decide to take her along to trade for the boy.  The story continues to switch perspectives from there. 

If you like stories, based on actual events, with drama, peril, and adventure (with a bit of romance) then, give this one a try.  I give it a 9.5 out of 10.

P.S.  If you get the first edition published by Hyperion that has a red cover with a necklace on it--It has a Q&A with the author in the back that's pretty good. :)

Joanna Jackson

Jasmine Nights: A Novel by Julia Gregson

If you like works of fiction dealing in adventure, conflict (both physical and emotional), humor, romance, suspense, and travel; this book is for you.

The main characters: Saba Tarcan (a half Turkish - half British 23 year old who has hefty dreams of becoming a professional singer) and Dom Benson (a half French - half British 23 year old Pilot Officer who learned to fly at Cambridge). 

The setting: Wales, London, Africa, and mostly the Middle East. 

This is a fictional novel based on true accounts of female entertainers used as spies during WWII.  It has just about everything you would want out of a book.  I like that the author was very detailed.  The only thing that I had a problem with was when she used British slang for a lot of things.  I kind of got lost during those parts.  Other than that... awesome read.  I give it a 9 out of 10.

Joanna Jackson

A Plain Death by Amanda Flower

A Plain Death is Amanda Flower's third book with more on the way.  Her first book, Maid of Murder, was nominated for an Agatha Award.  I was sure I had this mystery figured out by page 4.  I was partly right and mostly wrong. 

Chloe Humphrey is a young computer whiz who moves to a small middle-of-Ohio town complete with a thriving Amish community.  Her first two friends are an ex-Amish brother and sister, Timothy and Becky Troyer.

All is not well in Appleseed Creek.  Chloe's first task as head of the computer department at the local college is to fire one of her staff.  Since she doesn't know any of them, she is hard pressed to make a decision.

Chloe's house needs work and, since she rescues Becky from a pair of bullies before she hits the city limits, she ends up with an unplanned roommate on day one.  This ends up as an unexpected blessing, because Becky's brother is a carpenter.  It also ends up as less than a blessing because Becky borrows Chloe's car without permission.  When the brakes fail, Becky runs into the Amish bishop's buggy and he is killed instantly. 

Accident?  Murder?  How could it be murder unless someone knew Becky and the bishop would be on the same road at the same time?  Will Becky be shunned by her family?  Will she end up in jail?  How is Chloe going to find her way in a new job and a new town in the middle of all this chaos?

I thought this was an excellent book.

Kathi

Teach Yourself Visually Color Knitting by Mary Scott Huff

Here's a new book just in at Jackson Co. Public Library for knitters is Teach Yourself Visually Color Knitting by Mary Scott Huff.

Mary shows you how to knit more than one color in any project. She explains stripes, slip-stitch, stranded colorwork, intarsia (cool looking cardigan patterns), entrelac, modules, and embellishments.

This is, in fact, a very visual book loaded with photos and charts to show you exactly how to accomplish the design you've always wanted to knit. After each explanation, there are several patterns for assorted projects you can make using that technique.

Stop by the library and grab it off of the New Books shelves.

Kathi

Sabotaged by Margaret P. Haddix

The adventures of Jonah and Katherine continue as they join forces with another adoptee named Andrea.  JB sends them back in time with a dog named Dare to the Roanoke Colony.  Andrea was actually the first English child born in the Americas, Virginia Dare.  Since she had been kidnapped, she was unable to finish one critical part of her life.  The children needed to put history to rights.

Andrea acts somewhat strange from the very beginning.  It comes out that she had been approached by another time traveler who calls himself Second.  He originally had been working for JB, but decided that there were parts of history that could be improved.  His changes upset time itself.

The children hit one disaster after another.  Even though the first two book ended on something like a cliff-hanger, each story came to a conclusion.  This book falls - you'll understand the term after you read the book - straight into the next one.  I could almost "Dare" you not to grab the next book as soon as you finish this one.

JB, Andrea, and her grandfather Governor John White are left in 1600 in dire straits.  It's up to Jonah and Katherine to complete the next leg of the quest in order to save Andrea and JB from being stranded there for the rest of their lives.

More to come.

Kathi

Sent by Margaret P. Haddix

Jonah and Katherine find themselves flung back into medieval England along with Chip and their new friend Alex.

JB the time traveler sends them back on a mission to fix some loose ends in history.  It seems that Chip and Alex were kidnapped out of their own time, and history has to be returned to its proper course by them finishing out the life they should have led.

Chip's original identity was Edward the V of England and Alex was really his younger brother Richard, Duke of York.  Technically, at the time the children arrive in England, Chip is the king of the whole country.  However, his scheming uncle determines to become king in Edward's place.

If you are a student of history, you will recognize this story as being based on the two princes in the Tower of London who mysteriously disappeared.  It is thought that they were murdered by Richard III or that they died of something natural while they were in the Tower.  The bones of two children were discovered buried in the Tower of London, but no one can prove whose bones they were.  Hence one of the great disappearance mysteries of history.

This is an excellent, page-turning story.  I'm on to the next book in the series.  My compliments to Margaret Haddix.

Kathi

Found by Margaret P. Haddix

Thirteen-year-old Jonah is adopted.  He has a natural-born ten-year-old sister, Katherine.  He has always known he was adopted and his parents frequently tiptoe around him as if his emotions are about to fall apart. 

Jonah and his friend Chip begin getting mysterious letters with no return address.  They say things like, "You are one of the missing," and "They're coming back to get you."

Until now, Chip had no idea that he was also adopted.  The idea seems to damage his usual clear thinking.

Katherine begins a quest to find out what is going on and drags the two boys along with her.  They discover STRANGE things like stories about an appearing and disappearing airplane with 36 babies on it and no adults, people who seem to pop in and pop out of nowhere, and someone searching through their private stuff.

At a meeting for parents of adopted children, 36 teens are separated into a group and taken on a short field trip.  They had no idea that the trip involved time and their real identities.

This book is the first in a series.

Kathi

The Always War by Margaret P. Haddix

The Always War begins in the United States, but not the United States that we are familiar with.  The population is at war - has been for about 80 years.  The best and brightest young people are chosen for military training around the age of 10.  Bombs are dropped by drones flown by remote control.  

(It made me think of a young adult version of Ender's Game by Orson Scott Card in this respect.)

Gideon has been declared a military hero for killing over a thousand enemies.  But he hacks into the general's recording of the hit and sees images of his bomb dropping on a marketplace full of women and children.  He is sickened and determines to fly into the enemy zone and apologize for his actions knowing that he will be arrested or killed.

All unwitting, he ends up with his neighbor Tessa and a young girl named Dek flying along with him in the plane.  Dek was called up for military school, but she found a way to get herself declared dead and has been working with the black market ever since.  Tessa tells you a number of times throughout the book that she is no one special.

These three, with their various skills make a discovery that changes the course of, not just the war, but the whole of their society.

I liked this book well enough that I picked up another book by the same author.

Kathi

The Road to Grace by Richard Paul Evans

The Road to Grace is part three in Richard Paul Evans The Walk series.  The story begins with the death of Alan Christofersen's wife, the theft of his business by his business partner and the ensuing forclosure of his home.  In his grief and anger, Alan decides to walk as far as he can from all of his troubles.  Since he starts in Seattle, his journey is intended to take him to Key West. 

Some people think these books are little more than a travelogue with the sights along the way and the menus of various eateries along the road.  But look a little closer.  Notice the people Alan meets along the way.

In book one, he learns to accept that he is still alive and should not seek death for himself.  (He verges on suicidal in the beginning.)  Book two included him helping someone else to choose life and find a kind of healing for himself.  This book, book three, focuses on forgiveness.  He deals with his mother-in-law who had abandoned her family when Alan's wife was very young.  He falls sick and spends a couple of days with an elderly Holocaust survivor who tells him that if he doesn't forgive his business partner, he will be ceding his life to that man.  Alan would be imprisoning himself without his hatred having the slightest effect on his enemy.

The book doesn't have a twist at the end.  It has road construction (literally) and a boulder in the road for Alan to deal with.  I'm assuming there will be a part four.  I very much wish to know what Alan is going to do next.

The scenery extends from Rapid City, South Dakota, to St. Louis, Missouri.  I think this book is worth the trip.

Kathi

The Grimm Legacy by Polly Shulman

What if all of those magical items in the Grimm fairy tales existed and actually still worked?  What if there were a circulating material repository that kept all of these wondrous things and much more?  And what if you were a high school girl who had helped a fairy godmother without knowing it and then suddenly been offered a job as a page at the repository?  This is the story told in The Grimm Legacy by Polly Shulman.

Things are going oddly at the repository.  Some items have been stolen.  Others have mysteriously lost their magic.  And four teens - two boys and two girls - have to solve the disappearances, the dissipating magic, and sort through their relationships, all at the same time.  To make it even more fun, they are being followed by an odd man and a gigantic bird.  Throw in a high school teacher who used to work at the repository and his wonder dog Griffin and things get entertaining.

When the repository director and more than one of the pages go missing, the others find that time is running out and it become critical for them to get to the bottom of the mysteries surrounding the Grimm Collection.

This is a Young Adult book, but anyone with a love of fairy tales and those who are young at heart will enjoy this story.

Kathi

The Mystery of Mary by Grace Livingston Hill

In my younger days, I read Grace Livingston Hill's stories as often as I could find one I hadn't read. 

Many authors have a formula of sorts that they follow.  If you read several of their books in a row, you find that the stories are basically the same with different names for the main characters. That isn't true for Grace Livingston Hill.  Each of her stories has a uniqueness about it.

This weekend, I found The Mystery of Mary in the new book section.  I read it in about 2 1/2 hours.  In spite of it being a short book and having been writing in the context of 1912, it is still a very readable story.  It has stalkers, would-be kidnappers, an "escapee" from a mental institution, and a "knight in shining armor" type of hero. 

If you liked Grace Livingston Hill in the past, this is your next good read.  If you've never read any of her books, this is a fun one to start with.  It is a gentle romance with an interesting plot.

Kathi

Welcome to the World, Baby Girl

Fannie Flagg’s Welcome to the World, Baby Girl  is a bit of a departure from the usual happenings of Elmwood Springs. Oh, our favorite characters-- Neighbor Dorothy,  poor Tot, and Aunt Elner—are all present but the main character of the book is Baby Girl, Dena Nordstorm.  Dena lives in Elmwood Springs as a toddler but suddenly leaves with her mother after a visit from a mysterious German-speaking stranger. And so Dena’s story begins.

Dena and her mother move from place to place seemingly on the run.  Not until Dena is grown and is trying to achieve a successful career in New York City’s competitive TV news arena does she begin to wonder about her childhood.  Health problems brought on by anxiety force Dena to question many events of her past.  A return to Elmwood Springs gives Dena the opportunity to make some reasonable decisions about her future.

Characters you love and hate, the TV news ratings game, and  Elmwood Springs history  make this Fannie Flagg novel an interesting combination of her usual humor in a different sort of story. Pick up a copy of Welcome to the World, Baby Girl at the JCPL check-out desk and join the Fantastic Fictioneers on Friday, June 15 at 11 AM. You’ll enjoy the book and the discussion.

Jane Kaufman

Friendship Bread by Darien Gee

Last summer, the Fantastic Fictioneers, one of our library's book discussion groups, read The Day the World Came to Town by Jim DeFede. This book is a true account of what happened in Gander, Newfoundland on September 11, 2001. Thirty-six planes with more than 6,000 passengers were diverted to Gander (population 10,000) because of the 9/11 attack. This small town and nearby communities amazingly provided these stranded people with every comfort they could imagine.
Friendship Bread by Darien Gee is another wonderful story of people-helping-people. In the fictional town of Avalon, Illinois, a young mother is struggling with a personal tragedy. Julia receives a starter of Amish friendship bread and the story begins. By sharing the recipe, she meets newcomers in town and connects with old friends. In a tiny tea shop, friends and neighbors bond by sharing the friendship bread, adding their own variations to the recipe. When a nearby community suffers a weather disaster, the ladies of Avalon use the tea shop and lots of friendship bread to help the neighboring town cope with their catastrophe.
I was reminded of this book again with the recent outbreak of tornades to the South. I'm sure many moving stories came out of Henryville and the neighboring communities--a lot of really feel-good stories. So read this really feel-good book.