The Field by Tracy Richardson

Genre: Young Adult, Science Fiction, paranormal
Source: I purchased a copy. The opinions expressed here are my own.

This book starts out with Eric and his best friend Will trying out for the soccer team. Eric has an uncanny ability as the goalie of knowing just where the ball is going to go. He doesn’t understand why he gets these feelings, he just accepts them. He and his best friend are both taking an AP science class. This is where he meets Rene, the new student and learns that her father, a French scientist is going to guest teach some classes and offer an internship. After his first guest class he has forms for students to fill out if they want to be considered for lab experiments. Naturally Will and Eric are pulled in to this.  Eric and Will have some issues. Eric must use his new found abilities to help get things back on track with his friends. I was hooked on the premise of this book the minute I first read it. If you are a science nerd and really like science fiction then you will really like this book. However, you don’t have to be a fan of science or paranormal to like this book. Those things just make it really enjoyable. It is a quick easy read because it grabs you, pulls you in and you don’t want to stop reading.  I really enjoyed this one and will definitely be adding it to the science fiction section in my classroom. This is one I will recommend to our school librarian.

About the Author

Tracy wasn’t always a writer, but she was always a reader. Her favorite book growing up was A Wrinkle in Time by Madeleine L’Engle. In a weird way her life reflects the book through odd synchronicities. She has a degree in Biology like Mrs. Murry and without realizing it she named her children Alex and Katie after Meg’s parents. (Really, it was not intentional, because that would be weird)!

Tracy uses her science background in her writing through her emphasis on environment issues and metaphysics. Growing up, Tracy’s younger brothers called her ‘sarge’ and once when she took a personality test for a job, the evaluator said she could give a Drill Sargent a run for his money. If you need someone to boss you around, Tracy’s your gal! Tracy lives in Indianapolis.

Midheaven by Ken Kuhlken Review and Guest Post

Genre: Christian Fiction

Source: I purchased a copy. The opinions expressed here are my own. 

My Review:

Midheaven was one of those books that I had to keep reading to find out the why. Jodi is a young teen who has a very dysfunctional family. About the time she feels she has everything under control she makes a decision that changes her. Dating the rich and popular kid has its perks and expectations. Unfortunately, his expectations are different than Jodi's. She gave herself physically to this young man only to find betrayal. It doesn't help that as a new Christian her actions become very confusing to her. I could see her spiraling out of control when she made a forbidden connection to one of her teachers. We know from the beginning of the book that Charley, her childhood best friend is who she has loved for a long time. he was much older than her. However, no matter what she does he remains a true friend to her.

I won't say much more about the plot. I do want to respond to some of the other elements in the book. Charley's good friend Geoff is passionate about his new-found faith. He is the one who leads Jodi to become a Christian. A lot of the other characters in the book reacted differently to the Christian faith. Some became holier-than-thou and had no problem judging others. Some stumbled around with no real idea of what it means to be a Christian. They have no real guidance. As I read this, different people in my life popped into my mind. I have seen them all. Most of all it is a book of hope. No matter how much we mess up, God always leads us back.

Guest Post

What I Do After Midnight

Folks dedicated or obsessive enough to read all my dozen or sixteen novels (depending upon whether the latest, five novella-length books packaged together, counts as one book or five), may remember Cynthia Jones. She evolved from a woman I knew who frequently bemoaned the condition of the world by quoting from "The Night They Burned Shanghai".

Last night, my cat woke me yowling in misery. According to our vet, his kidney is failing, and he's also epileptic. And after I petted him for a while and brought him food and water, I lay awake wrestling with the reality of death, which appears to be stalking our dear cat, while that poem's final lines echoed in my mind:

"For some men die by shrapnel,

And some go down in flames,

But most men perish inch by inch

In play at little games."

I suspect the poem, published in 1938, was meant as a call for Americans to respond to the world's horrors. Last night, more than ever, I took that poem's message to heart and lamented that I haven't done more to relieve suffering or to battle the perpetrators and promoters of death and other miseries.

I reproached myself for failing to more actively work for healing and justice. Except for a few spells of volunteer work and some donating, all I have done is raise three good kids and written lots of books and stories that, aside from entertaining, attempt to advocate compassion and condemn the hunger for revenge and the lust for power. Maybe my books should allow me to forgive myself for not doing other, more helpful things like becoming a doctor or an honest politician. Maybe.

So it goes.  

My books are nine Hickey Family crime novels; Midheaven, a Hickey Family companion; Newport Ave, a noir tribute to my cousin Virgie; Cars, a short story collection; Reading Brother Lawrence, a memoir; Writing and the Spirit, reflections on finding and using inspiration; and For America, an epic story of the post WWII years in five small books, coming later this year. To get clued about their release, please subscribe to less is more, a more or less monthly publication.

My stories most always begin with an experience or observation. Here's how Midheaven got conceived:

When I was eighteen, I attended a Billy Graham crusade and came away with a sense that the Christian faith was far different than I had previously thought. So I started reading the Bible and tried attending churches. The Bible reading continued, the churchgoing did not, at the time.

Over the next few years, I started earnestly writing, and in King's Beach, on the shore of Lake Tahoe, I attended a party where, on one side of a large room, a group of kids held a Bible study, while across the room other kids drank, smoked stuff, and laughed a lot. 

A girl stood between those groups, gazing left and right, looking bewildered, before she dashed out of the house. I followed and watched her run down the road and plunge into the lake.

I saw myself in that girl, often torn between what appeared to offer pleasure and what felt good and beautiful but required sacrifice. Together, the girl and I became Jodi, the narrator of Midheaven.

That's a benefit of being a writer: we get to become other people.

About the Author

Some of Ken’s favorites are early mornings, the desert in spring, kind and honest people, baseball and other sports played by those who don’t take themselves too seriously, most kids, and films he and his Zoe can enjoy together.

He reads classic novels, philosophy, theology, and all sorts of mysteries. On his blog, he offers some hard truths and encouragement about living as a writer.

He has long been the author of novels, stories, articles, poems, and essays. Lots of honors have come his way, including a National Endowment for the Arts Literature Fellowship; Poets, Essayists and Novelist’s Ernest Hemingway Award; Private Eye Writers of America Best First Novel and Shamus Best Novel; and several San Diego and Los Angeles Book Awards.

Though he advocates beer in a video, he actually prefers Scotch.

He also posts regularly on his own blog, and sort of preaches for Perelandra College.

The Write Honor by Anna Dynowski

Genres:  Adult, Romance

Source: I received a copy to facilitate my review. The opinions expressed here are my own.

The first thing I have to say is that I absolutely loved this book from the very beginning. I was pulled in emotionally right from the start. A book that can grab me emotionally and hold me all the way through is a winner in my book.  Krysia Barciniak is hurting. At the age of sixteen she has a child that she gives up for adoption. There isn’t a day that she doesn’t feel that empty hole in her heart. It is one thing to know that God forgives you for something and another to forgive yourself. As a romance writer she has decided to leave the romance to her books. She was betrayed once and wants no part of love.

 Connor Tierney had the best of life. He had a loving wife, a beautiful daughter until he lost his wife in an accident. A year has gone by since his wife’s death. He feel’s his daughter’s pain of loss. He knows that his daughter needs a mother, but he doesn’t want a wife. He decides to compromise. He takes a job in Harmony Village. This is where his daughter Brenna’s biological mother lives. He can’t give Brenna her mother back so maybe he can let her biological mother into her life as a sort of substitute. However, the townspeople and a certain cat named “Cupid Cat” have other ideas.

I loved this. You rode the emotional rollercoaster with the characters, yet felt the strength in their faith that whatever happened in their lives was because God wanted it.  I have to be honest and say I don’t usually read romance. However, there are a few authors who write romance in a manner I love to read.  This author is one of them.