You Can Buy Happiness

You Can Buy Happiness (and It’s Cheap): How One Woman Radically Simplified Her Life and How You Can Too by Tammy Strobel

Strobel is easy to connect with. She relates her struggle with “stuff” and the decision she made to change the focus of their life. Strobel and her husband trade in their hectic, middle class suburban lifestyle for a small home with less stuff. This allows them to focus more on their true priorities in life.

I admire her for the choices she has made and find her new lifestyle very intriguing.

Clean

Clean: The Revolutionary Program to Restore the Body’s Natural Ability to Heal Itself by Alejandro Junger

Junger presents a doctor-approved program to cleanse your body. His system is designed to be easy and sustainable. He believes that purging toxins helps to increase your health, weight loss and energy levels. The information is well researched and Junger is very respected in the health community.

A recommend for those interested in health/weight loss.

A Warrant to Kill

A Warrant to Kill: A True Story of Obsession, Lies and a Killer Cop by Kathryn Casey—

A recommend for the true crime reader.

Amazon.com Description:

“She tried to tell her friends. She even went to the police. No one would believe her--and now she was dead. Problems had always followed Susan White, but when she remarried and moved to Houston's posh suburbs, she thought the past was behind her--until she met a deputy sheriff named Kent McGowen who would soon become her worst nightmare. McGowen was an aggressive cop with a spotty record. When Susan rebuffed his advances, she claimed he stalked and harassed her, using her troubled teenage son as bait. And then, in an act of arrogance and revenge, he made good on his threats, setting her up for the kill. In A Warrant to Kill, Kathryn Casey meticulously pieces together the tragic shards of the case to create a riveting story of vengeance, fear, and justice--of the terrifying power a badge can have in the wrong hands.”

The Weird Sisters

The Weird Sisters by Eleanor Brown

Description from Amazon.com:

“Three sisters have returned to their childhood home, reuniting the eccentric Andreas family. Here, books are a passion (there is no problem a library card can't solve) and TV is something other people watch. Their father-a professor of Shakespeare who speaks almost exclusively in verse-named them after the Bard's heroines. It's a lot to live up to. The sisters have a hard time communicating with their parents and their lovers, but especially with one another. What can the shy homebody eldest sister, the fast-living middle child, and the bohemian youngest sibling have in common? Only that none has found life to be what was expected; and now, faced with their parents' frailty and their own personal disappointments, not even a book can solve what ails them...”

My Thoughts:

I was not overly impressed with this book. First, the narration is strange. The narrator is a collective of the sisters. So everything is “we.” I never got used to that, and it kept throwing me off. Another area of annoyance were the frequent Shakespeare quotes. They were overdone and didn’t really seem to fit. One redeeming quality was that the sisters were fairly engaging. I could see bits of myself in each one.

Overall, there was just too much going on for me to really focus and enjoy the story.  

Between Two Worlds

Between Two Worlds: My Life and Captivity in Iran by Roxana Saberi

Description from Amazon.com:

“On the morning of January 31, 2009, Roxana Saberi, a brilliant and fearless Iranian-American journalist working in Iran, was dragged from her home by four men and secretly arrested. The intelligence agents who captured her accused her of espionage - a charge she denied. For eleven days, Saberi was cut off from the outside world, forbidden even a phone call. For weeks, neither her family, friends, nor colleagues had any knowledge of her whereabouts. After a sham trial that made headlines around the world, the 32-year-old reporter was sentenced to eight years in Iran's notorious Evin prison. But following broad-based international pressure, she was released on appeal on May 11, 2009. Now, Saberi breaks her silence to share the full story of her ordeal. In this compelling and inspirational true story, she writes movingly of her imprisonment, her trial, her ultimate release, and the faith that helped her through it. Her recollections are interwoven with stories of her fellow prisoners - many of whom were women, student and labor activists, researchers, and academics - many of whom were jailed for their pursuit of human rights, including freedom of speech and religious belief. "Between Two Worlds" is also a deeply revealing account of this complex nation and the six years Saberi lived there. A citizen of both the United States and Iran, Saberi sheds new light on the Iranian regime's inner political workings and the restrictions to basic freedoms that have intensified since President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's victory in 2005. The recent uprisings in Iran - and the astonishing outbreak of support for Iranian citizens from across the globe - mark a critical turning point as the nation hangs on the precipice between democracy and dictatorship. From her nuanced perspective, Saberi offers a rich, dramatic, and illuminating portrait of the country as it undergoes a striking transformation.”

I recommend it…A very interesting memoir about life in Iran.

Empty Chairs

Empty Chairs: Much More Than a Story About Child Abuse by Stacey Danson

Stacey Danson survived a childhood of horrific abuse. I’m glad that she was able to tell her story. She takes the reader through the abuse that she suffered from the beginning of her memory. Such an awful existence for an innocent child. I cannot fathom the evil of her Mother.

She was able to run away at 11, but then she lived alone on the streets. Although she was scared, she was grateful to be free from the abuse.  

I wish Ms. Danson many years of peace. Her story reminds me how important it is to support abused children. These children have no voice and are tied to the control of their abusers.

The Deep Dark

The Deep Dark: Disaster and Redemption in America’s Richest Silver Mine by Gregg Olsen

Olsen tells the story of Sunshine Mine in Kellogg, Idaho. Though this mine was thought to be fire-proof, in 1972, there was a fire. Over a hundred people were trapped, too deep in the Earth to get out. Many died instantly. Many others lingered.

Olsen gives voice to the families who waited to discover if their loved ones were alive. He brings the life of the working class to the page. I found this to be a very moving account of a town that has never fully recovered from this tragedy