Happy Monday!

Monday Recommendation List

Random list of 10 books Monday! I have read and enjoyed each of these enough to flag for a potential personal library purchase.

Be bold and just choose randomly, stick to your normal genre...or step outside of your normal reading zone and try something you usually wouldn’t. You can look up the descriptions at Amazon.com, or search my blog for old posts by entering the title in the little search box in the top left-hand corner and clicking the magnifying glass.

This week-- 10 recommendations (in no particular order):

1. Long Walk to Freedom by Nelson Mandela
2. Don’t Know Much About the Bible by Kenneth Davis
3. The Color Purple by Alice Walker
4. The Help by Kathryn Stockett
5. Heaven, Texas by Susan Elizabeth Phillips
6. The Hathaway Series (Starts with Mine Til Midnight) by Lisa Kleypas
7. Forbidden by Elizabeth Lowell
8. A Child Called It by Dave Pelzer
9. The Total Money Makeover by Dave Ramsey
10. On Dublin Street by Samantha Young

Monday Recommendations

Monday Recommendation List

Random list of 10 books Monday! I have read and enjoyed each of these enough to flag for a potential personal library purchase.

Be bold and just choose randomly, stick to your normal genre...or step outside of your normal reading zone and try something you usually wouldn’t. You can look up the descriptions at Amazon.com, or search my blog for old posts by entering the title in the little search box in the top left-hand corner and clicking the magnifying glass.

This week-- 10 recommendations (in no particular order):

1. Shelter Me by Juliette Fay
2. A Child Called It by Dave Pelzer
3. Remembrance by Jude Deveraux
4. In For the Kill  by John Lutz
5. Chelsea Chelsea Bang Bang  by Chelsea Handler
6. Cry No More by Linda Howard
7. Walden by Henry David Thoreau
8. Half Broke Horses by Jeannette Walls
9. Nicholas and Alexandra by Robert Massie
10. The Autobiography of Malcolm X  by Alex Haley

Monday Recommendation List

Monday Recommendation List

Random list of 10 books each Monday! I have read and enjoyed each one enough to flag for a potential personal library purchase.

Be bold and just choose randomly, stick to your normal genre...or step outside of your normal reading zone and try something you usually wouldn’t. You can look up the descriptions at Amazon.com, or search my blog for old posts by entering the title in the little search box in the top left-hand corner and clicking the magnifying glass.

Let me know what you think!!

This weeks 10 recommendations (in no particular order):

1. For the curious…or a gift for the curious: A World of Curiosities by John Oldale
2. Religion focused on love: Love Wins by Rob Bell
3. Creepy…Never seen the movie? Even better!: The Silence of the Lambs by Thomas Harris
4. Sweet Romance: Heaven, Texas by Susan Elizabeth Phillips
5. Sassy Romance: Smooth Talking Stranger by Lisa Kleypas
6. Emotional/Dramatic: Handle With Care by Jodi Picoult
7. Classic/Iconic: Gone With the Wind by Margaret Mitchell
8. Intriguing: Veronika Decides to Die by Paulo Coelho
9. Crime Drama Series: The Alex Cross series starts with Along Came a Spider by James Patterson
10. Will compel you to support victims of child abuse: A Child Called It by Dave Pelzer

A Child Called It

I first read “A Child Called It” by Dave Pelzer in high school. This story has stayed with me and I have since read it again. Gripping and heart-rending, Pelzer’s memoir details his childhood of severe child abuse.

Children are my soft spot. When I hear a story of neglect or abuse, it affects me. I think of these children often and I hurt for them. The horror of Pelzer’s abuse is absolutely impossible to fathom. As a small boy, he experienced a loss of his very identity. All of his rights, to even basic human dignity, were denied. The emotions I experienced through Pelzer’s words were so intense.

The moral of the story, the strength of his spirit to overcome such atrocities, is worth so much to me. Watch out for signs of child abuse and don’t let other children go through a childhood like this. Pelzer was robbed of a childhood of unconditional love and support; robbed of innocent dreams and whimsies. And these are things he can never get back. If I can touch even one hurt child's life, that is a true meaning to my life.

Pelzer has a follow up book in "The Lost Boy." This is also a must-read.