The Magic(The Secret) by Rhonda Byrne

In the book's predecessor,  The Secret, Rhonda Byrne teaches us about the Law of Attraction.  Like attracts like.  So if you think positively, you attract positive things to you.  If you think negatively, you attract negative things to you.  It's the law of the Universe.

In The Magic, Rhonda advises the reader to practice saying "thank you" and meaning it.
Say thank you deliberately and with meaning.
The more you say thank you, the more you feel gratitude.
The more gratitude you give out, the more abundance you will receive.  

With practice, the book could teach you how to improve your life in the areas of love, health, wealth, and happiness. 

If you think, "I don't like my job," "I haven't got enough money", "I can't find my perfect partner," "I can't pay my bills," "I think I'm coming down with something," "My child is a problem," "My life is a mess," or "My marriage is in trouble," then you must attract more of those experiences.

But if you think about what you're grateful for, like, "I love my job," "My family is very supportive," "I had the best vacation," "I feel amazing today," "I got the biggest tax refund ever," or "I had a great weekend camping with my son," and you sincerely feel the gratitude, the law of attraction says you must attract more of those things into your life.  It works the same way as metal being drawn to a magnet; your gratitude is magnetic, and the more gratitude you have, the more abundance you magnetize.  It is Universal Law!

I believe and I think you should read this book.  What could it hurt?  

Wonderland Creek by Lynn Austin

Wonderland Creek by Lynn Austin

I have to admit when I first started reading this novel, I almost lost interest.  The first few pages seemed like young adult and as I've stated in previous book reviews, I am not into young adult fiction but I kept at it and within the first chapter, I was hooked.

Alice Grace Ripley is a dreamy librarian who always has her nose in a book and is always wishing for a happily ever after story of her own. She finds it when she loses her librarian job in Illinois due to the Great Depression and goes to Kentucky to deliver donated books to a library in a poor mining town. Her life becomes the story when she stumbles onto the scene of murder, betrayal, family feud, and true love.

The characters are endearing and you feel yourself becoming involved with them early on in the story.   Mack, the librarian and his 100 year old roommate and former slave, Lillie, four packhorse librarians, Ike the fiddle player, Belle (Lillie's horse),  as well as various troubled and colorful townspeople of Acorn Kentucky.  Also, I'd like to note that there are similarities to Alice in Wonderland in the story.

This is one of those books that you wish would never end.  There are laugh out loud moments, tearful moments, and sitting on the edge of your seat moments in this book that I won't forget for a long time.   I can't wait to read more by Lynn Austin.  I give this book 5 stars!

Published in 2011 by Bethany House Publishers.

*Note:  President Franklin Roosevelt founded the relief program, the New Deal in 1933 to help alleviate the effects of the Great Depression.  One of the most innovative programs of Roosevelt's Work Projects Administration was the Packhorse Library Project.  The program employed mostly women to deliver books on horseback to neighbors and school houses in rural and remote areas of Kentucky.  The packhorse librarians provided not only entertainment in the form of books and magazines, but they also offered practical help on home health care, cooking, agriculture, parenting, canning hygiene, and machinery.  They also opened the world to these isolated people allowing them to learn not only about their own government and country, but of lands and people across the globe.

When Elves Attack by Tim Dorsey

When Elves Attack:  A Joyous Christmas Greeting from the Criminal Nutbars of the Sunshine State by Tim Dorsey

It's Christmas time in Tampa, Florida.  Criminal mastermind and modern day Peter Pan, Serge Storm and his pot smoking sidekick Coleman are doing Christmas BIG this year.   Dressed in elf costumes and with help from their warranted lady friends City and Country and the G-Unit, a foursome of elderly escapees from a Bayshore convalescent center, they set out to end the war on Christmas.

Some of their escapades include flattening the mansion of a disgraced hedge fund manager so that the insurance could be used to pay back all the people he ripped off, poisoning a criminal who stole and scrapped memorial plaques from a VFW, beating up a mall cop for yelling at little kids, and decorating their rented South Tampa house with the biggest Christmas display ever!

This fast read is absolutely hilarious and was written by a former reporter for the Tampa Tribune.  I can't wait to read more of his shenanigans!  Just don't read it in public or your giggles will illicit oogles.

Published by Harper Collins in 2011.

The Wolf Gift by Anne Rice

The Wolf Gift by Anne Rice

Twenty three year old reporter, Reuben Golding, is doing an interview for the sale of a huge mansion when he desperately falls in love with the place and the owner, thirty year old Marchent Nideck.  While in the house, the woman is killed by thieves and Reuben is bitten by a wolf man.  In classic Anne Rice form, he soon turns into a glorified werewolf, killing only the evil hearted. He can only hide so long until he is hunted by authorities but then he is saved by the "pack".

I was decidedly disappointed with this book because I couldn't ever feel a connection with the characters and I quickly grew bored with the overload of detail at every turn.  But it is Anne Rice and we all know she is a true master of the art of writing so I persevered and all in all, I'm glad I did.  I wouldn't have wanted to miss it even if I wasn't left howling at the moon.

Published in 2012 by Alfred A. Knopf, a division of Random House, Inc. New York.