Book Review: Songs for the Missing

A girl goes missing. Family and friends struggle to deal with the thought that they many never see her again. A suspense story with family drama and loss mixed in? I don’t think the author was able to pull this one off. This is a slow moving book that will put you to sleep at different points in the story.

Kim has a boyfriend, a job and a good family, but one day she goes missing. Her friends and family gather to go out and find her on their own when the police leads go cold. Kim’s dad feels he must lead the search and has to keep looking until she is found. Her mom stays home and does the media and web site work to keep Kim’s name out there. Kim’s younger sister seems lost in the whole experience, unsure of what to do. The story leads you in to their lives and those of her friends to discover the secrets and feelings they are having throughout the search for Kim.

I was at a loss for words and unsatisfied by the time I finished this book. Where was the suspense or thriller part of the book that the synopsis described? The characters in the book seemed to be skimmed over and you never really got to know many of them in depth. I felt lost most of the time with certain thoughts being alluded to, but nothing was ever explained. The story falls flat in the second half of the book where we get more surface reactions from the family and friends about what has happened to Kim. The worst part was the ending. I was reading along and all of a sudden I felt like I ran in to a wall. I kept looking to see if I was missing some pages at the end, but I wasn’t.

“The Songs for the Missing” was missing a big chunk of depth to the story. I can not say I would recommend this book, but you be the judge. I would recommend having another book ready to read because this one will leave you wanting to read a better book.

Received book from Barnes and Noble First Look Club

Rating: 2/5 stars

Been Away!

Sorry it's been so long since I posted, but I will get caught up this weekend. I have about 5 books to post ...so watch out!!

Book Giveaway at Bookshipper

Bookshipper has a contest for the book "Lovehampton" on her blog, go take a look! (in her comments when you leave your answer, leave my name if you can that I refered you!)

Book Review: Sacred Grief: Exploring a New Dimension to Grief

“Sacred Grief” is one women’s discovery of her ‘sacred’ self among the chaos of her life. The author, Leslee Tessman, shares the knowledge she gathered through her years of good and bad life changing events (rape, alcoholism, divorce and death).

The author writes in a simple manner that allows you to reflect what she is saying to how it pertains to your own life. The chapters in the book; Power of Language, Mischief, Authenticity, Middle Way, Compassion and Making Waves, cover the topics of how she created a sacred life for herself. She very openly states that she is not ‘telling’ us this we should believe or follow what she says, but hopes the understanding of what she has learned may help someone who might need a different approach to overcome grief. She includes an appendix of self reflection questions to ask yourself as you read each chapter.

Ms. Tessman state in the book “I shifted from relating to the grief process as something to survive, and instead began the journey of learning to relate to it as ‘sacred.’ By sacred, I mean giving reverence and respect to every precious moment and experience.” These few words turned on a light bulb in me and I realized how true these words are to my life. After the loss of my husband, I felt thrown in to the cycle of getting ‘through’ the grieving stages and getting on with life, but everyone is different in how they handle grief. This book helped me understand to love the days I had with my husband and consider them a sacred part of my life. Also, that grief is in our lives more than just in death. It is a part of our lives more than we might think, which is why living a sacred life is important to every day living.

I would recommend anyone that has had any type of grief in their lives to consider reading this book. This book gives another option to those looking for answers at the time of grief. It might even give you a ‘ah-ha’ moment to reflect upon!

**Thank you to Love Healing Press for the Review Book Copy

Rating: 5/5 stars

Tuesday Thingers

Today's Tuesday Thingers question is: Why LT?

Why did you choose to open and maintain an LT account? Do you/did you use other online cataloging/social networking sites, like GoodReads or Shelfari? Do you use more than one? Are they different or do they serve different purposes?

My sister, a media technology professor, told me to check out LT and I did and I've been there ever since! I love being able to catalog all my books, be able to find what I've already read and see other peoples' reviews for books I've read or yet to read....ALL in one place! I haven't used any other site for my books or socializing...but I love LT..and plan to use it for quite a while!!

Book Review: Admit One: The Journey into Film

Book - Admit One: A Journey into Film
Author – Emmett James
2007

“If you have every truly loved a film, you will surely find yourself within these pages” is a caption, on the back of the book, that truly expresses the feelings that Emmett James writes with in this childhood to adult story of his life so far.

I went back in time with him at the beginning of each new chapter as he used a movie title to describe the content of each section. He is detailed in his writing about his childhood of family outings to the movie theater, where he went from falling asleep before the movie began to sitting through a whole movie. His love of movies spread from just going to the movies to wanting to be an actor. He doesn’t get the support for his acting in England, so he decides to try making it in Hollywood. Emmett James gives a wide eye view of how hard it can be for those people trying to ‘make it’ in Hollywood. He explores having to live in a YMCA, forge his travel papers to stay in the U.S., disguise himself to get in to an Academy Awards party, be characters he didn’t like and knock on the door of a producer’s house to try and get part. His break finally comes when he gets a small part in a BIG movie called “Titanic.”

Even after finishing this book, I am unsure about how I feel about it. When I first started, Emmett James’ candor and English slang usage about his life almost turned me off to the book. I slowly got use to his writing style and respected his ability to speak so openly about life. He did make me smile and laugh at his use of relating certain movie titles to different parts of his life. “Grease” reminds me of a special summer camp I went to that changed my life before going in to high school.

I am glad I finished the book. It definitely was an eye opening view in to the life of an actor and the extremes he had to go through to achieve a dream he had since childhood of being in the movies.


Rating: 3.5 / 5 stars

Tag: Six Random Things about Me!

Here is my first tag, thanks to Jacquie at Calliope's Coffee House, you can see her 6 things here.

I don't know if I can come up with six things, but here we go!

1. I have a scar on the inside part of my thigh that I've had since I was about 9 yrs. old. I was visiting my cousins and we had gone to a park. We were building a little nest (why? I have no clue now) and we were looking around for scaps of paper things along the ground. For some reason, I chose to walk along this low wire fence, with the wire between my legs. I was so in to looking for things, that I didn't see this piece of wire sticking up off the main wire!! and ouch...I learned 2 things that day...never walk with a wire between your legs..and never let anyone use Dairy Queen thin napkins to cover something bleeding...they will never come off!!!

2. I've been single, lived with someone, then married them, then divorced,single again, married, and became a widow. So, I've just about covered all the possibilities..so if anyone has any questions..just ask!! hahaha

3. I love horror/thriller movies, especially the older ones...give me a Lovecraft or Vincent Price movie and I am set for the evening!

4. I am a sodaholic...I love my Caffeine Free, Diet Mt. Dew.

5. I lived in Arizona for 24 years and loved it, but left last year to move to Missouri and start over after my husband died a few years ago. Left my job, left my home and friends..and am starting over. Some say I am crazy, but sometimes you just have to take that step...to find yourself again! :-)

6. I love watching sports!! Tennis, golf, football, softball, basketball, college and professional. I played tennis, softball and basketball growing up and dreamed of playing professionally, but knew I wasn't good enough. I do play a mean game of minature golf...so watch out!! ;-)

Rules of the game - Link to the person that tagged you, post the rules somewhere in your meme, write the six random things, tag six people in your post, let the tagees know they’ve been chosen by leaving a comment on their blog, let the tagger know your entry is posted.

Tagged:(here are 2, will add more later!)
The Printed Page
Shhh I'm Reading