If you know me then you know that I love to read.  I jumped at the chance to read and review this book for several reasons.  One is… I just love the name.  It really caught my attention.  The second is that I have struggled with weight and thought this book might have something I needed to read.  The third is… well, I just love to read so I’m not going to turn it down.  :-)

This book is called My Big Bottom Blessing, How Hating My Body Led to Loving My Life and it is written by Teasi Cannon.  Here is the blurb from the back of the book

Loving the girl in the mirror isn’t about changing how you LOOK but allowing God to change how you SEE.

Teasi Cannon’s lifelong battle with body image nearly destroyed her.  Yet today she feels blessed – not because the size of here lower half has changed but because her perspective has.  In her often hilarious, no-nonsense style, Teasi’s gut-honest journey and transparent insights will propel every one of us who struggles with… you name it: bad hair or chubby cheeks, skinny arms or wide hips… to realize our value and beauty.  Even if nothing ever changes on the outside.

So on to the review.  As I said in the beginning I was excited to read this book because I have struggled with weight and body image.  Now, just a disclaimer…. I think this book would apply to anyone who is struggling with body image for whatever reason.  It doesn’t have to be weight (too much or too little) it can be anything that causes you to not see the beautiful woman that God created you to be.

With that in mind I don’t know a single woman who has not struggled with something.  My friend who is absolutely beautiful and could be a model if she wanted still shares with me that she has struggles.  When I look at her I think “how can she be unhappy with the way she looks” but that’s just the way it is for us women.  We always see even the tiniest imperfections that most others never notice.  The good news is…. God doesn’t see these imperfections either.  To Him, we are perfect.

I really like the way the author wrote this book.  She introduces us to different characters/voices in her head.  These are those thoughts we all have about ourselves.  An example…. she starts the first paragraph of chapter one off this way.

Imagine yourself standing in front of a mirror right now – completely naked.

As you just read that I am sure you heard some of your own voices.  :-)  You know, those evil ones that make you shudder at the thought of looking in the mirror so vulnerable.

Also, the author, Teasi shares some very personal stories with us.  I cried as she told about how she met her husband and some of her childhood experiences.  I felt like I could relate to her throughout this entire book.  Even if I hadn’t experienced exactly the same things she did I could still apply the concepts to my own life.

I also like that at the end of each chapter there is a review with questions that you can answer about yourself.  You could do this on your own or if you are feeling brave this could be a great book study with a couple of close girlfriends.

This book was such a pleasure to read.  I am so thankful that Teasi Cannon chose to write it and share her personal struggles with us.  I really think this is a book that most women should read.  Even if you don’t struggle with body image you will probably know someone who does.  My husband and I teach 7th grade boys & girls at church each week.  I know that I can apply some of what I learned in this book to help the girls in my class.  This was a quick read book and so worth it.

I received a copy of this book for review purposes. I was not

compensated for my review. All opinions expressed are my own.

Last Friday I mentioned that I had been reading a new book called Need You Now.  I wanted to write a short review on this book for you guys.

From the back of the book…..

My thoughts…….

From the very first page of the book I didn’t want to set it down until I was finished reading it.  Of course I did have a connection with the book as the first few pages describe an event happening to the main character that I have lived almost word for word.  It brought back memories and just drew me in.

I found myself becoming invested in the characters of the book.  I feel the author did a great job with character development.  Not just the main character but even the supporting characters were well done.  The book was entertaining enough to keep you reading but also shared real life experiences and challenges that life brings, whether you are a Christian or not I think this book has a powerful message about family and the struggles we deal with.

I don’t want to go into detail and ruin the book for you but I really want to encourage you to read this book.  This is the first book that I have read by Beth Wiseman but it won’t be the last.  I am so excited to find her other books soon.

GIVEAWAY – GIVEAWAY – GIVEAWAY

Now the fun part…… I have been given a copy of this book to give away to one lucky reader of my blog.  There are two ways you can enter to win this book.

1) Just leave a comment on this post letting me know that you would like a chance to win

2) If you send a friend to my blog who has never visited before and they enter to win then you will get a second chance.  Just send them over and tell them to leave their comment.  Once they have done that just come back and leave a second comment yourself letting me know the post number of your friend you sent.  Woo hoo, unlimted chances to win.

I am going to pick the winner on May 1st.  I will be shipping the book to you so please make sure to leave a way for me to get ahold of you.  If you are not comfortable leaving your email just be sure to check back on May 1st because I will post the winner on my blog and then you can contact me.

Seriously, grab a friend you know who loves to read and send them over.  This book is worth winning.

I was given 2 copies of this book by Handlebar Marketing for the purpose of reviewing and a giveaway on my blog.  I was not compensated for this post.  All opinions are my own.  I truly do recommend this book to everyone to read.

I am currently reading the book Need You Now by Beth Wiseman.  It is soooo good so far.

Stay tuned because I will have a full review next week plus I will be giving away one copy to a lucky reader.  Check back!

I recently had the pleasure of reviewing this book.  I took my time and read this book over the last month or so.  I love the way the book was laid out.  In each chapter you had the point of view of each of two girls, Perri & Dobbs.  It made it easy to pick up even if you only had a short amount of time to read.

This was a great story about the unlikely friendship between two girls.  It starts out with Perri meeting Dobbs for the first time and disliking her right away.  Then tragedy strikes for Perri and Dobbs becomes the one person she can count on.  The characters were well developed and the time period well defined.  I learned alot about what it may have been like to live during the depression from this book.  I thought the author did a fantastic job of making you feel like you were right there with them, drawn into their stories.

God’s love and grace are a contast theme in this book as well.  We get to see characters come to faith which is always a beautiful thing to witness.  For that reason I feel like this book would be a fantastic one to read.  Grab this and finish up your summer reading with an excellent book.

I received this book for free to review by Bethany House.  All opinions are my own.

Oh my goodness, I have so many things to say in this post.  I am sorry in advance if it is too long.

A couple of days ago I purchased and IPod Touch.  One of the neat things I found out is that my local library system will let you download book rentals for free to your IPod Touch.  You can keep them on your Ipod for 3 weeks and then the library pulls off.  The way this works is you open an account with your library online and enter your user name and password into your Ipod. 

This works out great for someone like me.  I almost never return my books before the date due.  I guess I still need alot of help in organizing myself.  At any rate…. now I never have to worry about a book being overdue again if I check it out with the IPod.  Score one for me 

I also get to take my books with me wherever I go.  Going on vacation but don’t want to pack a bunch of books?  Sitting in the doctor’s office waiting room for what seems like forever?  Sitting in carpool line to get your kids?  Now you can pick up and read a few chapters of your book.  This is awesome for a book lover like me.

Now, on to the book pictured above.  This was the first book that I rented from my library.  It was published in October of 2010 so it is not super new.  Here is a note about the book copied from Amazon’s website.

This book was one of the best books I have read in a long time.  I fell in love with the characters right away.  I cried, I laughed and I wanted the story to never end.  I do not have any personal experience with autism so I don’t know how it would affect me if I did but I know I was affected after reading this book.  I would like to hope that I would be like the character Ella.  She stands by Holden even when it is hard.  I admire her character for that.

This is not like one of my normal book reviews.  I borrowed this book from the library.  I am not being compensated in any way for this review.  I just love the story and thought you might too.

I would love to hear from you if you have read this book too.  Just leave a comment or send me an email.

Do you review books on your blog?  If you do then I have some tips for you.

I review books for several different publishers.  Each publisher has their own requirements as far as where you publish your review and who they want you to contact when the review is done.  Also, if you review for multiple publishers it can get confusing to remember which publisher your book came from.

Well, I came up with a solution that I am excited to share with you.

What I did was make bookmarks, several for each publisher.  On these bookmarks I put the name of the publisher and the info that they require right on it.  Then when I get a book in from that publisher I just stick one of these bookmarks into it.  Not only is my place saved but I don’t have to worry about looking up the info when I get ready to publish my review.  It is right there at my hands.

The way I made these is as follows.  I opened a blank word processing document and then typed in all the information I needed.  Then I printed them out on colored cardstock.  After that I cut them apart and the laminated them for extra durability.

Now I am ready to go and no longer have to worry about remembering which book came from where.  I hope this has been helpful to you.

I will post pictures soon of the finished product.