After the Fall: A Climber's True Story of Facing Death and Finding Life (Craig DeMartino)

Why I have this book: I bought it years ago, and I'm pretty sure it was mostly for my husband. It probably was also one of the free/cheap Kindle books on Book Bub or something. (Yep, just checked... it was free.)

I actually liked this book quite a bit for a good chunk of it. Reading about the fall and the medical/health issues he faced, along with the plan for his recovery was all very interesting. The book became less interesting to me as he talked more about his "ministry." I'm not sure why. I think I never really felt the depth of it, although that doesn't mean it's not there. It just didn't come across in the writing for me.

It's amazing to think that there are lots of people out there with life-altering injuries that affect their lives every day. I appreciated learning about that. It helps me have more empathy for others and what they may be going through.

I gave it three stars on Goodreads.

Clean. 

Live Up to Our Privileges: Women, Power, and Priesthood (Wendy Ulrich)

Why I have this book: I borrowed it from DBS+ as part of my study of priesthood power as per President Nelson's counsel in the October 2019 General Conference. I listened to the audio version.

Okay, so first I want to say that I really liked the author's voice and reading of her book. She did a great job.

I didn't find the book super engrossing, although the idea (comparing various priesthood offices and symbolic and real events of the Savior's life to women and their roles and gifts) was interesting, I didn't really "feel" it that deeply.

I did think she had some great thoughts, though, that I appreciated enough to jot down. (These are in my own words and the way I interpreted her ideas for myself.):

• Think about what we can do within the areas of our lives that can't be changed instead of thinking about how those things limit us.
• Taking care of ourselves and our relationships opens the door to hearing God.
• We can't be "born again" literally... we can't start over in life (as much as we might wish we could), but rebirth is possible and it's enough when we:
• Stop looking back at our difficult experiences and choices not as they exactly were, but through the lens of Christ's power to redeem.
• Creating a new story about what those things all meant and can mean with a perspective of growth and learning.
• Choose to allow our experiences to be for our good.
• When we think of our mistakes in life, focus on how much we've grown in life, not on how we've failed.
• Having compassion for ourselves brings empowerment.

All in all, I did enjoy this book and plan to listen to another of her books soon. I gave this one three stars on Goodreads.

Clean.

The Star Garden (Nancy E. Turner)

Why I have this book: I borrowed it from the ebook library so I could finish out the trilogy. I did read this years ago, but I must have borrowed the book because I know I never owned it.

Okay, so the writing and the story are so engrossing, but I really don't get how the author manages to have such inconsistencies from book to book. In fact, I recently found out that she has written a fourth book for this series, and from what is written on the back, it takes place at least a year after one of the characters in the book has died. She's alive in the new book, but she died in an earlier year in a previous book.

Anyway, I wish she had me read all her books so I could help her to see what needed fixing because it just seems odd that nobody else noticed before they were published. And here is a brand new book that is totally messed up with when someone died and now they're alive again (not really) a year or two later. I don't get it.

Otherwise, I do so love her epic stories, but I couldn't give this another four or five stars on Goodreads with these crazy mistakes. I gave it three stars... but I do still love the writing of Nancy E. Turner.

This book has all the drama and fighting and tragedy as the previous two books. There's also some surprising premarital sex (not described... in fact, I was asking myself, "Wait... did they...?")

What's It Like to Be Married to Me? And Other Dangerous Questions (Linda Dillow)

Why I have this book: I got it for free on Kindle. It was probably when I was on those Book Bub lists back in the day.

While I think the author did make some good points in this book, I also think it could have been about one hundred pages shorter. I ended up skimming quite often.

She used a story in the book that I'm pretty sure has been debunked as an urban legend (but said it was true), and gave another example of a wife forgiving her husband for sexually molesting their daughter. (Forgiving = working things out and staying married.) Listen, maybe that was the best decision for this particular wife/family, but I could never be with a man who molested his own daughter.

In any case, I am just going to delete this book from my Kindle account. It is a Christian based book, but I didn't agree with a lot of it, and I wasn't inspired by a good portion of it. I gave it two stars on Goodreads, though, because it did have a bit of good counsel for wives.

Clean, although there is a long chapter on sexual intimacy in marriage. I still think it's clean, but in case that offends anyone, I figured I'd mention it.

Sarah's Quilt (Nancy E. Turner)

Why I have this book: I have the book in print, but I borrowed the ebook version to re-read the story. I'll probably be passing the books from this series on (only because I'm trying to clean out books) so others can love them, too.

I really loved this book. I wanted to give it five stars on Goodreads because it has all the feels for me. I think I loved it more this read than the first time I read it. I'm older now and have more life experience which helps me understand and relate to the protagonist so much more.

I do have an issue with how the dates of the "diary" are compared to what she writes. Like it's dated a particular date and starts with "this morning," but then partly through the same date's entry, it says "the next day..." That didn't really make sense to me, and I remember it bothered me the first time I read it. It also doesn't read like a diary as much as the first one. I don't know. I kinda had to just look at the dates like chapter titles and forget the idea that it was supposedly diary entries.

I think one character could have not even been part of the story and it might have been a good thing. In some ways, I thought he detracted from the story.

The digital version did a a handful of typos, as well. I gave it four stars on Goodreads just because of those few issues, but if I was just basing it on all the emotion of it, it would have been five stars from me.

This book is much like the first with all kinds of drama and violence common to the era, including a hanging and a couple of sexual assault attempts.

These Is My Words: The Diary of Sarah Agnes Prine, 1881-1901 (Nancy E. Turner)

Why I have this book: I actually read the print version years and years ago, and I loved it. I'm cleaning out print books, so I bought it on Kindle at some point, and now I'm re-reading it.

I still love this book. I'm not sure I believe any mom would shoot at a rattlesnake inches from her child's face, but maybe I'm wrong. I do wonder if there are any women who were really like this back in the day.

In any case, I love all the emotions of this story, and I love the way Sarah thinks and feels. I could relate to a lot of it, although I am nowhere as tough as she is.

I'm looking forward to re-reading the two sequels of this story. I gave this one 5 stars on Goodreads.

I don't remember if there are any swear words. If there are, they are of the cowboy variety, I think. There is quite a bit of war-like violence (Settlers and Army vs "Indians" and bad guys). There is a rape (not graphically described) and other violence common to this era. None of it is detailed, but it's not glossed over, either. There's also some talk about marital sex, but it's not at all described and it's as vague as it would be for decent folk of that time.

Like a Fire is Burning: The Work and the Glory Volume 2 (Gerald N. Lund)

Why I have this book: I borrowed the audio version from DBS+.

As I mentioned earlier, I gave the whole Work and the Glory set to my daughter, and then decided to listen to the audio versions.

I just finished this second book in the series, and I have to say I only gave it 3 stars on Goodreads. I'm sure I would have liked it better in print than audio just because I don't like the way the narrator reads it. (Also, the narrator must not be LDS, because he mispronounced "Lamanites" over and over.)

I also realized that the depiction of the fictional Steed family is probably one of the sources of my apparently impossible expectation of what I wanted my in-law family to be like: everyone banding together in a shared faith, welcoming in all those who married in, etc. I wanted that for my own family of children as they grew up. Now I'm thinking it's not really realistic (or I've just failed), so yeah. I have to say I got really annoyed with the Steed family now that I've experienced more of life. Or maybe I'm more annoyed with the author for how nearly perfect he made the Steed family...

I also was bothered by how he made Joseph Smith seem nearly perfect, as well. We know from the Saints book the Church published that he wasn't as perfect as this book makes him seem. Interesting that the Church painted a more controversial picture than this fiction book did.

I don't know if I'll listen to the rest. I don't think I will, but I did really love these back in the day when they were first published!

Clean other than violence against the Saints by those who wanted them gone.

Good Hope Road (Lisa Wingate)

Why I have this book: It's the second in the Tending Roses series, both books recommended to me by my friend, L.

I really liked this one. I liked it better than the first. The funny thing is my friend liked the first one better than this one, but I guess books speak to us all differently!

Great story that takes place in just a couple of weeks... maybe even less than that. So much happens emotionally in that time, though, and I loved it. There was one part that hinted at an adoption, but it was never discussed again, and I don't know if it will be explored in a future book in this series or if it was just some random piece of information. It definitely made me want to check to see if there are more books in the series and where this story will go.

I gave it four stars on Goodreads.

Clean. I don't remember if there was any swearing, but if there was, it was mild and infrequent.