Breathing Into Life

Recovering Wholeness Through Body, Mind and Breath. This little gem by Bija Bennett was very helpful to me. I am in a Dialectical Behavioral Training group to learn skills to help me cope with life with a mental illness. Let me tell you, DBT skills would be useful for anyone! Two of the major skills are mindfulness and breathing exercises. Bennett's little book contains breathing exercises. At the end of each of our sessions our group practices a mindfulness exercise, sometimes led by those who have been in the group longer. It's coming up on my turn... I've just found the perfect exercise for our group given what we'll likely be studying that day. I also found one I can use for my second go-round. The exercises are geared to those who already know the mechanics of deep breathing, yet are easy to follow, even playful. Not something to put undue stress on a scrupulous person. A great find at the Friends of the Library sale!

The Temperament God Gave You

The Classic Key to Knowing Yourself, Getting Along with Others, and Growing Closer to the Lord. This is a treatise on personality by Art and Laraine Bennett. He is a counselor, her background is philosophy. Together they have taken the four basic temperaments identified by ancient philosophers (choleric, sanguine, melancholic, and phlegmatic) and blended this classic wisdom with modern counseling science and Catholic spirituality. They show how to identify your own temperament, including its strengths and weaknesses, and use that knowledge to be a better spouse, parent, friend, and Christian.

This book has a lot of information in it. I highlighted. I took notes. I will still reread this. It is that good. Helpful. Effective. I look forward to sharing it with my children, especially the chapter on Temperament and the Spiritual Life. I think it could really make a difference if utilized wisely.

The Girls in the Garden

This novel by Lisa Jewell sucked me right in. I was intrigued by the mystery, but when I got to the perpetrator...huh? And when I read how the characters responded afterwards...what? It left a terrible taste in my mouth, so to speak, and I wound up not liking the book at all.

Clare and her daughters, Grace and Pip, have been forced to relocate, start anew. They choose the large, settled Virginia Park, with charming parents and a clique of tweens and teens. Then, after a midsummer party, which also happens to be Grace's thirteenth birthday, younger sister Pip finds her lying unconscious and bloody in a secluded corner of the rose garden. The mystery is what happened to Grace? And who is responsible?

The Heart of Virtue

Lessons from Life and Literature Illustrating the Beauty and Value of Moral Character. Donald DeMarco presents twenty - eight different vrtues in this work. He uses stories that personify those virtues and shows how love is at the core of each one. In addition to the personifying story, each virtue is explained through philosophical analysis. A truly edifying book.

Remarkable Creatures

Tracy Chevalier wrote this novel based on actual events experienced by historical people. Mary Anning, who survived a lightning strike as a baby, has "the eye" on the 1820's English beaches around Lyme Regis. She finds fossils no one else can see. Elizabeth Philpot is also a fossil - hunter, and Mary's champion in the scientific world she is increasingly involved with, a male dominated world which doesn't ascribe to women their due for their contributions.

Death of an Avid Reader

This is a Kate Shackleton mystery by Frances Brody. Kate is a private investigator at a time when ladies just didn't do that sort of thing; 1920's England. She is retained to find the daughter of Lady Coulton, the daughter conceived and born while Lord Coulton was abroad. The child was given to a trusted couple to raise as their own. In her search Kate has much to do at her local library, where rumors of a ghost are suddenly recirculating. In laying the ghost to rest the body of a strangled man buried under a load of books is found in the basement. An Italian organ grinder in poor health is also found (Kate has already come across his capuchin monkey, stowed away in her car). Umberto, the organ grinder, is too weak to have committed the murder, but is charged for it by the local police. Kate sets out to find the actual murderer, at some danger to herself. An interesting read. This is actually the sixth in a series, though it works quite well as a standalone.

The Fifth Letter

Written by Nicola Moriarty, this is a fast-moving plot in a novel I devoured in one sitting. Joni has been friends with Deb, Eden, and Trina since high school (year seven in Australia; so I think what we in America would call Junior High). Every year they take a trip together, but work, husbands, children are all threatening to pull them apart. Joni hates this and is struggling to keep the relationship as it was. During their trip, they decide to share a secret anonymously with the others as an antidote to not talking to each other as they used to. These secrets threaten to tear them apart. Then Joni finds a fifth letter, full of hate and images of death, from one of the group toward one of the group. But who? It was all done anonymously!

I found this book to be incredibly realistic, delving our most base selves and bringing out the hope that lies within each heart. A great read. Highly recommended.