Grateful Wed and Book Review

On this sad day I ask your prayers for our friends who will bury their 8 year old boy after his sudden death. I am horrified that anyone would ever have to endure something so awful. It's a rainy, bleak day, one that is actually fitting for the way everyone is feeling. I ask that God would somehow comfort and uplift this precious family, the boy's four sisters and loving parents as they endure this tragedy.

So today I am enormously grateful, more grateful than usual, perhaps, and I ask you to take the time to be grateful, as well.
I am incredibly thankful for
1. the health and well-being of my children
2. the health of my parents
3. great friends
4. the fact that my husband loves his work--it is truly his calling
5. an upcoming trip with my mother and sister--a FIRST!
6. Spring Break when I can love up my babies
7. the peace and comfort of our cottage
8. my writing which helps me sort everything out

Now onto the book reviews. It seems so trivial today to do such a thing, but I'll press on. I've been quite behind on my book reviews (but not my reading, thank you very much), so here goes.

First I'd like to talk about the LUXE series which I just finished reading. I know you've seen these books because the covers are STUNNING. Whoever edited and chose the cover designs of these books is a genius. There are three books at present in this series set in the Gilded Age of New York City (although the ending of the 3rd novel makes it CLEAR that there will be more). I love historical fiction and I really like other works by this author, so I was excited about this series. I confess I even bought all books at once which I NEVER do. When I began the first novel, I read about 25% of it, and I put it down. I was disappointed. It was WAY too predictable and the characters seemed a little thin but the setting was vivid and intriguing so I eventually picked it back up. I have to say that once I picked it back up, I read it through quickly, then the next, and then the next. They were enjoyable reads. The sense of place pulled me through and each book was better than the last. So give them a try. A good vacation read especially if you're a fan of historical fiction. It's a great way to introduce teens to the genre because the characters are timeless.

Rarely do I read from the adult bestseller list the moment a book comes out, but I couldn't wait to read Kathryn Stockett's THE HELP. I was not disappointed. This book was set in the early 1960s in Jackson, Mississippi. The protag, Skeeter, is a recent college graduate and writer. The only job she is able to get is writing the newspaper column on household cleaning tips, which she knows NOTHING about, so she turns to an African American maid she trusts to help her with the column. In the meantime, she's corresponding with a New York editor who tells her to write something she cares about that no one else does. Perhaps spurred by the recent loss of the maid who raised her, Skeeter becomes more and more aware of the injustices between white employers and black "help", so in the midst of an increasingly hostile racial environment, she seeks the help of the "help" to write an expose of sorts. This book was lovely and brilliant and well-told with an immaculate sense of place, and the stories were so real that I began to wonder if Kathryn Stockett is a penname because, like Skeeter, these stories may sound eerily familiar to someone. I highly recommend this book to EVERYONE. It's the kind of story that changes you, Stockett, like Skeeter, tells a truth we all must hear.