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Review: My Foolish Heart

Description: Unknown to her tiny town of Deep Haven, Isadora Presley spends her nights as Miss Foolish Heart, the star host of a syndicated talk radio show. Millions tune in to hear her advice on dating and falling in love, unaware that she’s never really done either. Issy’s ratings soar when it seems she’s falling in love on-air with a caller. A caller she doesn’t realize lives right next door. Caleb Knight served a tour of duty in Iraq and paid a steep price. The last thing he wants is pity, so he hides his disability and moves to Deep Haven to land his dream job as the high school...

Review: The Shape of Mercy

Description: Expected to gracefully embrace a life of privilege, a young woman cuts the purse strings that bind her to plot a new life course. But startling self-realization challenges everything she knows as she begins to study the diary of a seventeenth-century victim of the Salem witch trials. My review: My first experience with Meissner’s writing was “Lady in Waiting” and I was hooked. So when the opportunity to read this came up, I jumped on it. Meissner expertly weaves the past and present into a beautiful work of art with characters that leave lasting impressions. In this story, Lauren Durough must confront her own misconceptions in life and grow...

1940s Era Music

This early 1940s music compilation/commentary courtesy of my friend’s brother-in-law, AKA music lover extraordinaire! Enjoy! The theme of separation — due to soldiers suddenly being overseas — are the key to music of this time period, combined, I suppose, with a need for some back home to find something to smile about. Anyway, here are some songs, and remember that a lot of these are “big band with vocal” recordings, meaning that the song would typically start with the band playing a verse, then the vocal starting a minute or so into the recording. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rIH3HAUrfDc
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Story Behind the Story: Marlo Schalesky

  Shades of Morning was a gift from Andy on one ordinary Sunday morning at church. I went not expecting to see anything different, or special, or extraordinary. But God had other plans. And so did Andy. In the middle of the third song, a noise came from the far side of the church. A loud noise. Strange, awkward, and off-key. Then, it grew louder. I furrowed my brow. Was that someone singing . . . badly? I stood on tiptoes and peeked toward the sound. And there was Andy. His arms were raised, his eyes closed. And he was singing to his God for all he was worth. Andy,...

Story Behind the Story: Shannon Taylor Vannatter

  Years ago, my dad started sending me and my mom Valentine’s gifts, either flowers, balloons, or candy. When my dad hit 60, it hit me that my parents were aging and I wouldn’t have them forever. Feeling melancholy, one Valentine’s Day, my flowers came and I wondered how I’d feel the first year they didn’t come. My husband sends me flowers or gifts at other times of the year, but never Valentine’s Day. That’s Daddy’s day. I hoped that in Daddy’s future absence, my husband would continue the tradition. Then I decided I might go first and if that happened, Daddy would probably bring the flowers to the cemetery.