Book Review - Waiting For Morning

Hannah Ryan has the perfect life with the perfect family. Married to her childhood sweetheart, with two wonderful loving daughters, she is convinced that her love of God will always keep things sunny. But in one fatal stroke, her world is drastically changed, and everything she holds dear is severed from her.

On the other hand, Brian Wesley is a recovering alcoholic with several DUIs under his belt. After three weeks clean, a job layoff sends him back to the bar. Two hours and fourteen drinks later, he plows into the side of the Ryan's SUV. As he struggles with his looming prison sentence and his failing marriage, he must find his way to inner peace.

Once again, Karen Kingsbury has written a masterpiece of emotional drama that grabs your heart from the start and doesn't let go. Hannah travails the rocky cliffs of doubt, certain that the loss of her family proves that either God doesn't exist or He just doesn't care. Either way, she is certain that she is better off without Him. She throws herself into hatred and bitterness, and only another tragedy can set her feet back on the Lord's path.

I both love and hate reading Kingsbury's novels. On the one hand, they are an uplifting and realistic experience of people who struggle with real-life difficulties. She knows that bad things happen to good people, and her characters must overcome the resulting emotions that trials might raise. On the other hand, her writing is so clear, so vivid, and so emotional that her writing evokes tears, and my heart literally wrenches as I empathize with her characters.

I really enjoyed the various spiritual journeys that this novel encompasses. We walk in the shoes of both the penitent criminal and the angry victim, both who must find their own way back to Christ. Along the way, we learn of desolation, forgiveness, and a pursuit of justice (instead of vengeance). Although we come to sympathize with Brian and all that he has lost, Kingsbury does not make his world rosy just because he found the Lord. I also enjoyed the fact that Hannah's return to God was gradual and in steps, rather than a full out reversal. This is far more realistic, and made her change of heart more credible.

This was another fantastic, albeit heart wrenching, novel by Karen Kingsbury. I look forward to reading the other two books in this series, and to watching for further growth of her characters.

"I Would Find A Girl Walking" Is True Crime At Its Best!

In what best selling author Michael Connelly describes as "One of the best looks inside the mind and motives of a serial killer that I've ever read", authors Kathy Kelly and Diana Montane give readers a true crime drama in I WOULD FIND A GIRL WALKING. Just prior to the technological age that would change the way law enforcement would handle criminal investigations forever, Gerald Eugene Stano became one of the most prolific serial killers of his time. Without surveillance cameras, cells phones, DNA evidence, and computer communication between law enforcement agencies, it was basically a simpler time allowing the likes of Stano to ride around in his treasured cars looking for young girls for sex...or what started out that way.

Late in the 1960s and 1970s, Stano could be found cruising around the World's Most Famous Beach - Daytona Beach, Florida, in search of his next victim. It is hard to understand why these women went with Gerald Stano who was what we might now probably call a nerd (?) - chubby, polyester pant suits and gold jewelry, large plastic framed glasses, disco music loving drunk (most of the time) and yet, they did. But in I WOULD FIND A GIRL WALKING, Kathy Kelly takes her experience with Stano, goes inside the mind of this madman, and along with Diana Montane, provides a glimpse into what made him tick.

At the time, Kathy Kelly was a reporter at The Daytona Beach News-Journal and being on the "police beat", was the one to write the stories about these killings and Stano. Kathy's reporting caught Stano's attention as he loved to read his own press and he would only agree to interviews if it was Kathy who did them. His other connection was with DBPD Sgt. Paul Crow. Crow, who had studied at the FBI Academy in Quantico, was able to connect with Stano in a way no other lawman could, and so was the one that Stano put his trust in. Since so many of the murders were committed in other jurisdictions, the lawmen from those places would work through Crow to deal with Stano. Once Stano took a liking to Kathy Kelly, he agreed to answer questions for her so she could get all the facts and they corresponded. Kathy kept all his letters in a shoe box in her home with thoughts of someday working to put them into some kind of book.

Along with fellow reporter Montane, they worked for two years to tell Stano's story and the description of the crimes he committed are compelling. More importantly especially to the authors, are the stories of the victims and their families. Taking the details from Stano's letters, the authors have written a haunting story that readers will find hard to put down. Many of the chapters are devoted to the victims and how their part of the story came about. Yes, some of the women were runaways or prostitutes, but there also was the graduating senior on a class trip, a dancer, a cheerleader, a local champion swimmer, and even a tiny, young skater. All of these girls had families and lives ahead of them and Kathy makes sure readers knows their stories. There are even two of the girls who had twin brothers so being victims wasn't the only coincidence. Their families and how they dealt with each loss as well as what some are doing today are included. Intertwined to make an intense and fascinating read, I WOULD FIND A GIRL WALKING will keep you turning pages as it surely did for me.

Gerald Stano's background is also written about from when he was the unwanted child of a prostitute to a very much wanted baby of an adoptive parent who fought to keep him even after he was labeled "inadoptable". Gerald's relationship with his adoptive parents even up until the end is described. In confessing to killing about 40 women all around Florida, you would think Stano would have remorse and yet he is described as someone who you never would believe was spending years on death row, even at some point next to another infamous serial killer, Ted Bundy. Stano could be found knitting blankets for inmates' children and even sending Kathy a scarf and hat he knitted for her one time. It was obvious as you read the book and later in the letters that are there verbatim in the appendix, that Gerald took a liking to Kathy. He even asked Paul Crow if she was married. For Kathy, it was a difficult and emotional journey to "get the story" and keep herself sane while this madman thought of them as friends. The letters in the back of the book are quite meaningful after reading the story as Kathy interjects personal observations to explain some of what Gerald writes about. In fact, it is from one of the letters that the authors got the title of the book. Gerald Stano had written to explain how he picked a victim, and he said very casually that "I would find a girl walking....". In a second appendix, all the letters to his "good friend" Paul Crow are also included.

How Stano is finally convicted and which of the murders is the one that finally gets him executed is described. The book even has some photographs but as the authors are quick to say, none of them are gruesome. Stano was executed in 1998 and always one to make people think, he changed his stories, recanted his confessions and put the blame on Paul Crow while claiming his innocence in a letter left with his lawyer! With his hints at knowing more than he was telling before his death, we will never know how many more women he really killed. However, the suspicion he tried to throw on Crow was investigated and of course, cleared. Montane in a recent radio interview said about Stano, "I felt he was a very average but cunning individual...self-inflated with a grandiose image of himself...a lady killer, a real lady killer". I guess that says it all but one thing I know for sure is that it has made me look at strangers differently, no matter how charming they may appear, I am careful when I am out alone. As a resident of Daytona Beach, chills still run up and down my spine as I think of all the places Stano worked and frequented that are so familiar to me. I ask myself each day where I was at a certain time and wasn't it REALLY possible I, too, must have run into him? Good thing for me I rarely walk anywhere!

BOOKLIFE - Strategies and Survival Techniques For the 21st-Century Writer by Jeff VanderMeer

May is National Get Caught Reading Month. Will people be discovered reading your book? Are you writing a book? Do you desire to pen one in the future? Today's publishing industry is radically being reinvented. To experience success as a writer and author requires a new mindset and assertive career management. Internationally known mid-list writer, Jeff VanderMeer captures the profession's direction in Booklife: Strategies and Survival Tips for the 21st -Century Writer (Tachyon, 2009).

Booklife focuses on two main elements, your Public and Private Booklife. Both are necessary to enjoy a productive writing career says VanderMeer. He encourages readers to question his point of view. "Part of achieving your unique Booklife will be to reject parts of Booklife too." He also informs readers that Booklife is not a technical manual. Its purpose isn't to teach the art of blogging or social media participation. Nor is Booklife a writing instructional tool.

Public Booklife illustrates how, as today's writer, you're more accountable for your own success, mainly due to the arrival of the Internet. Your Public Booklife engenders several qualities, including Vision, Adaptability, and Risk-Taking. VanderMeer highlights the importance of having one-year and five-year career goals. You need to feel comfortable promoting your own work. He advocates confronting one or two things that make you uncomfortable so you can grow and change. VanderMeer highlights the power of blogging and the importance of personal branding. Having worked on both sides of the editor's desk, he defines a successful editor/writer relationship.

Private Booklife defines Part II of VanderMeer's text; and is the foundation of your creativity. It's composed of several qualities, including Curiosity, Imagination, and Endurance. Rejection from other writers, editors and Reviewers is endemic to the craft. VanderMeer says it's an important part of improving your writing, toughening you up for a long-term career. Envy too can taint professional progress. "The only true balm can be to tend to our own work, our own business, and be as sound and honest in it as we can be," he says.

VanderMeer exudes transparency as he details splurging a book advance, including the purchase of 13 pairs of expensive shoes. They haunt him today from the bottom of his closet. He also missed Booklife's original submission deadline due to over commitment. These stories, and others, demonstrate VanderMeer's literary challenges; elements all writers experience in variation.

VanderMeer collaborates with other industry leaders to present Booklife's Appendices. Five agents share their perspective on the agent/writer relationship. Questions answered include, "What do you look for in a client besides talent?" Other topics include Booksellers, and PR Plans.

Although VanderMeer primarily writes Fiction, any writer will benefit from reading his text. He enhances his narrative with inspirational moments, including "You have a greater ability now to control the path of your career and the breadth and depth of your opportunities than ever before in the history of publishing."

Booklife's cover depicts three; open-faced, golden yellow books majestically perched atop vibrant green stems. To enjoy a thriving writing career similar to Booklife's illustration, personalize VanderMeer's message. Cultivate the seeds of your Private and Public Booklife and watch your literary accomplishments flourish.

The Liberator Written By Alex Kershaw

I have always been interested in WWII books that tell the true story of so many of our military exploits from that war. I think this book by Alex Kershaw is told better than any book I have read on the subject. He knows how to write about his subject by using words and phrases that make the reader thoroughly understand what they are reading and finds the story getting better as it goes. The European zone in which our gallant military fought contains so much information told in a great way. Felix Sparks was born and raised in Miami, Arizona, an area that suffered the ravages of the great depression as much as the rest of the nation. Felix hunted, ran traps, and got food any way he could. When he wasn't hunting he was studying. His military training started in the Citizens Military Training Program where he learned how to march and drill in very high heat environment. He wanted to go to college and he loved the military-anything that was military. He ventured away from the area and found himself being asked by an army recruiter if he wanted to join the army. He figured "why not" and joined, a decision that forged his life forever.

Felix Sparks, now married with a baby, prepared to shove off on a troop transport that ended up in Europe prepared as well as possible for fighting a war. While on the ship General George Patton announced that from that point and time they would be a part of the 7th United States Army and they were going ashore to attack Sicily, Italy in small troop transport boats. None of the men knew what they were in for. Sparks was a part of the National Guard Thunderbirds, all green recruits. The book describes several of the generals associated with army leading and planning duties, Patton, Marshall, Eisenhower, Mark Clark, and others and how they made their battle plans, some with and some without arguments. Sparks at this time had no idea he would move up in the ranks to eventually become a general too, and that was far from his mind at this time. He just wanted to defeat the Germans and Italians. The many battles he and his group fought were tough and brutal while killing and wounding many men. Their drives would advance one day and lose ground the next. The Germans were tough while the Italians were not since they were not sure if they were staying in this war or not. The Thunderbirds along with the rest of their groups moved up the boot of Italy towards Rome. The Germans fought back for every inch of ground in Italy with both sides killing and wounding thousands of men along the way. New raw recruits kept coming up the pipeline adjusting to war as they had never imagined it to be.

The description of the battles is beyond imagination. The men would dig a small foxhole if none was available, they would jump into any hole large enough to cover as much of them as possible. The sounds of shells coming from both the enemy and their own units as they sailed over their heads or landed very close to them was such a caustic and nerve wracking and body shaking experience. To have a man sharing a foxhole one minute and killed the next is incomprehensible to those that were never in battle. Sometimes friendly fire fell short of its mark and hit our own men. When they tried to advance, they had to carry such huge heavy packs on their backs containing survival gear as well as ammunition, grenades, shovels, military packed food including good old Spam that was a real war ration. When the chance came to take a break, they would move away to a nearby town and relax as much as possible with wine, women, and song. They danced, they had sex even though they were all pre-warned about the disease that was so prevalent in the entire area due to the women being both lonely with most of their men at war, and the demands the German soldiers made of the women.

Sometimes the men would find some great caches of wine and they really enjoyed that. But the many grievous losses of men from so many battles were so enormous that it was hard to wrap their minds around that and keep going. Blood flowing from wounded and/or killed men on both sides were everywhere. Some of the rivers and canals flowed red. As the men went through towns that they were taking back from the Germans, the citizens went wild with chants of thanks and food and drink coming out of the cellars and caves. All through this time, Sparks led his troops while taking battlefield rank promotions. His men loved him because he cared about them and would be there with them as much as possible. As they progressed through Italy and into France and Germany, they came to one of the concentration camps, Dachau, where they found the most disturbing sights they had seen during the entire war. The description of bodies just thrown on top of other bodies, the ovens that still had some in them that had been burned, the piles of clothes that the prisoners had to dispose of, and so much more that makes the reader gets chills. One of the last battles of this group was the march to Hitler's own compound but by the time they had gotten there Hitler had committed suicide.

I know this review is long but to write telling less doesn't give the reader a real idea of what all is contained in this super book. You must read it. You will get an idea of what the foot soldier went through during WWII. How the ones that survived made it through mentally is beyond my imagination. Praise to these men for their help in giving us the freedoms we take for granted. Believe me, they are not free-freedoms.