The Dance by Dan Walsh & Gary Smalley

This is the first book in the Restoration series. The premise is that with God's help all things are possible even the healing and restoration of a marriage that is on the brink of divorce. I enjoyed this book. Gary Smalley wrote a book called The DNA of Relationships and many of the principles he discusses in that book he teaches the characters in The Dance. In The Dance he uses his storytelling ability to show how the concepts would play out - what would they look like in practice. Neat way to get the concepts across. For some this book would be more enjoyable to read then a relationship manual type of book. Highly enjoyable.  

Go Fresh A Heart-Healthy Cookbook with shopping and storage tips

I got this book because I love going fresh. I did find recipes that were wonderful that I can't wait to try. On the other hand, I do have to say I disagree with some of the book's comments or assumptions. 

This is a quote from page 8. "If you're looking to move away from heavily processed foods that rely on preservatives, salt, and sugar and to take advantage of nature's bounty of flavor and nutrition, this is the book for you. We'll show you how to easily combine fresh ingredients with fast cooking techniques to create delicious and healthy meals." Okay I completely agree with eating from 'nature's bounty' and to not eat as many processed foods. Excellent idea for good health. I do think more should be eaten RAW and not cooked. Further, on page 17 they recommend microwaving. They say that "because this method requires no added oils and very little, if any, liquid to keep food from drying out, it is a healthy way to prepare food." I completely disagree that microwaves are healthy at all. Further on page 19 they recommend avoiding saturated and trans fats. Time Magazine just had a cover story on this --- and the new research shows that refined carbs, sugar and processed foods are the real enemy -- and not saturated fats found in foods such as butter or eggs. Here is a link to an article covering this. Click here

Even though I don't agree with their take on what truly constitutes healthy eating -- I still think there are some wonderful recipes that I can't wait to try. For those cold winter nights that we get --- Chicken and Red Lentil Soup sounds amazing. Yummm.

I received this book from Blogging for Books for free in exchange for a honest review.

The Auschwitz Escape by Joel C. Rosenberg

The Auschwitz Escape is a very, very good book but it is not light reading though. It is a heavy subject. At times I just had to put the book down because it is just intense and sad. When Jacob Weisz's parents are killed by the Nazis, he flees and joins the resistance movement. While attempting to stop a train load of Jews heading for a concentration camp, Jacob is apprehended. He winds up at Auschwitz. The book details life at Auschwitz -- the brutal conditions, lack of food, starvation and all the ways people can die at that camp. The underground resistance is alive within the camp, and Jacob becomes a member. Their goal is to get several teams to escape and so that news of what is actually happening at Auschwitz will be told to the allies. They hope the Allies will then either free the camp or bomb it completely so its ovens can no longer be used for mass exterminations. While those in the camp would all die it would ultimately save lives to not have the camp available. The book is fiction but the author did extensive research. Much of what he put into the book is based on things he found to have really happened. The escapes he wrote about were based on real life escapes from Auschwitz. The town of Le Chambon is a real town in France that was recognized by the State of Israel for its exceptional efforts as they "offered shelter in private homes, in hotels, on farms and in schools. They forged identification and ration cards for the refugees and in some cases guided them across the border to neutral Switzerland." Le Chambon is the town that the author has Jean-Luc Leclerc, the person Jacob escapes the camp with, as an assistant pastor. He also winds up in Auschwitz for helping the Jewish people to hide from the Nazis. I really like this quote from the book, "Evil, unchecked, is prelude to genocide." I think that is something we need to never forget. 

Here are a few other quotes I think worth remembering. 

p 179 - "I guess Heine was right. Who? Heinrich Heine. The poet? Yes. ... So what did Heine say? Where books are burned, they will, in the end, burn people, too..... He really wrote that? He did. When? I don't know - 1821, '22, something like that. Maybe he was a prophet..... Maybe he was."

p 456 "..... in the end, evil did not triumph. It tried, but it did not succeed. Evil was defeated because good people rose to the challenge and refused to surrender."