The Daniel Fast: Feed Your Soul, Strengthen Your Spirit, and Renew Your Body by Susan Gregory

What if you could grow closer to God and improve your health in just 21 days? Susan Gregory, “"The Daniel Fast" Blogger,” has a plan to help you do just that. Widely recognized as the expert on this 21-day fast inspired by the book of Daniel, Susan has helped thousands of people discover a safe and healthy way to fast. The principles you learn from "The Daniel Fast" will change the way you view food, your body, and your relationship with the one who created you. Includes 21 days’ worth of Daniel Fast recipes! Visit www.daniel-fast.com

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Even though I have been a Christian all my life, I have never engaged in fasting before. I decided to take on the Daniel Fast after hearing about it from several people who attend my church. I found the book to be incredibly informative about what a fast is and the reasons behind the act of fasting. Susan Gregory offers several different approaches on how to implement the Daniel Fast and also has free online resources on her website. 

In essence, the Daniel Fast is a vegan diet - no meat, animal by-products, processed foods, leavened breads, caffeine, etc. The only beverage allowed is water. The typical length of a Daniel Fast is 21 days, but can be shortened or extended. The “diet” is very restrictive and definitely takes discipline, but I found that completing the fast wasn’t as hard as I thought it would be. The recipes in the book were very good and fairly easy to make. Many of them made several servings and could be frozen, which meant that it was not necessary to “cook” every day. The hardest part for me was going without my morning coffee. 

I was hoping to get a few things out of my fast. First, I was looking for a way to grow my prayer life. Prayer is not something that comes naturally to me and I knew that I would need to pray a lot to get through this experience. Secondly, I was looking for a way to detox my body and get back on track with my healthy eating and exercise goals. Overall, I accomplished my goals and experienced some great health benefits from fasting (namely a 10 pound weight loss!). The only thing that I wish was better developed was the daily devotionals in the book. I was hoping for more guided reflection.

If you are new to fasting, I would recommend this book as a good place to start.

Brooklyn by Colm Toibin

Hauntingly beautiful and heartbreaking, Colm Toibin's sixth novel, Brooklyn, is set in Brooklyn and Ireland in the early 1950s, when one young woman crosses the ocean to make a new life for herself. Eilis Lacey has come of age in small-town Ireland in the years following World War Two. Though skilled at bookkeeping, she cannot find a job in the miserable Irish economy. When an Irish priest from Brooklyn to sponsor Eilis in America--to live and work in a Brooklyn neighborhood "just like Ireland"--she decides she must go, leaving her fragile mother and her charismatic sister behind. 

Eilis finds work in a department store on Fulton Street, and when she least expects it, finds love. Tony, a blond Italian from a big family, slowly wins her over with patient charm. He takes Eilis to Coney Island and Ebbet's Field, and home to dinner in the two-room apartment he shares with his brothers and parents. He talks of having children who are Dodgers fans. But just as Eilis begins to fall in love with Tony, devastating news from Ireland threatens the promise of her future. By far Toibin's most instantly engaging and emotionally resonant novel, Brooklyn will make readers fall in love with his gorgeous writing and spellbinding characters.

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As someone who is mostly of Irish descent, I am always interested in stories about Irish immigrants. I heard good things about this book and for the most part I wasn’t disappointed. I enjoyed the story and felt sympathetic towards Eilis, who found herself torn between two lives - her old, familiar life in Ireland and her new life in America. The narrative was entertaining, heartbreaking, and well written. I wasn’t crazy about the ending. It felt a little unfinished to me, like there was more to be said. Overall, I would say that this novel is worth the time.

Nothing But the Truth by Avi

Ninth grader Philip Malloy is forbidden to join the track team because of his failing grades in English class. Convinced that the teacher just doesn't like him, Philip concocts a plan to get transferred into a different homeroom. Instead of standing silently during the national anthem, he hums along. And ends up on trial.

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This was a fun narrative because it doesn’t follow the traditional format. The story is told through a series of transcripts, memos, newspaper articles, and letters. It was fun to read this one with my students as it focuses on a conflict between a student and a teacher. My students enjoyed using the documents as evidence to persuade others to agree with them about who was really at fault. I was also able to make some great connections to what they learned in Civics about the First Amendment. This is a great book to use with students when studying perspective, justice, and bias. It is a highly engaging YA novel.

Worlds of Ink and Shadow by Lena Coakley

Charlotte, Branwell, Emily, and Anne. The Brontë siblings have always been inseparable. After all, nothing can bond four siblings quite like life in an isolated parsonage out on the moors. Their vivid imaginations lend them escape from their strict upbringing, actually transporting them into their created worlds: the glittering Verdopolis and the romantic and melancholy Gondal. But at what price? As Branwell begins to slip into madness and the sisters feel their real lives slipping away, they must weigh the cost of their powerful imaginations, even as their characters—the brooding Rogue and dashing Duke of Zamorna—refuse to let them go.

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This was an incredibly creative narrative. I loved how Coakley used the characters and settings of the Brontes’ real life stories in this work of fiction. It made the literary nerd in me very happy to see these references. The switching of perspectives kept the narrative interesting and progressing forward at a good pace. Coakley does a good job of weaving together the story lines of each Bronte sibling without the narrative becoming convoluted and confusing. It is an imaginative, fantastical, YA novel that is sure to entrance.

2016 Reading Challenge: A book recommended by someone you just met

The Girl In the Spider's Web (Millennium Trilogy #4) by David Lagercrantz

She is the girl with the dragon tattoo—a genius hacker and uncompromising misfit. He is a crusading journalist whose championing of the truth often brings him to the brink of prosecution.

Late one night, Blomkvist receives a phone call from a source claiming to have information vital to the United States. The source has been in contact with a young female superhacker—a hacker resembling someone Blomkvist knows all too well. The implications are staggering. Blomkvist, in desperate need of a scoop for Millennium, turns to Salander for help. She, as usual, has her own agenda. The secret they are both chasing is at the center of a tangled web of spies, cybercriminals, and governments around the world, and someone is prepared to kill to protect it . . .

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When I saw this one pop up on my new releases list, I was shocked. I loved the original trilogy, but was surprised that there was another sequel because of Stieg Larsson’s passing. I apparently missed all commotion surrounding the publication of this novel, so I went into it fairly unbiased. There were definitely differences between Larsson and Lagercrantz’s style. I found Larsson’s narratives to be somewhat darker, and Lagercrantz’s Lisbeth to lack some of her bite. Nevertheless, I still found the story engaging. Lagercrantz obviously took pains to mimic Larsson’s style, creating a narrative with many different characters with many moving parts that weave together. Overall, I think it was a successful sequel, and while Lagercrantz certainly didn’t surpass his successor, he certainly did the world and characters created by Larsson justice.

After You (Me Before You #2) by Jojo Moyes

“You’re going to feel uncomfortable in your new world for a bit. But I hope you feel a bit exhilarated too. Live boldly. Push yourself. Don’t settle. Just live well. Just live. Love, Will.”

How do you move on after losing the person you loved? How do you build a life worth living?

Louisa Clark is no longer just an ordinary girl living an ordinary life. After the transformative six months spent with Will Traynor, she is struggling without him. When an extraordinary accident forces Lou to return home to her family, she can’t help but feel she’s right back where she started.

Her body heals, but Lou herself knows that she needs to be kick-started back to life. Which is how she ends up in a church basement with the members of the Moving On support group, who share insights, laughter, frustrations, and terrible cookies. They will also lead her to the strong, capable Sam Fielding—the paramedic, whose business is life and death, and the one man who might be able to understand her. Then a figure from Will’s past appears and hijacks all her plans, propelling her into a very different future. . . .

For Lou Clark, life after Will Traynor means learning to fall in love again, with all the risks that brings. But here Jojo Moyes gives us two families, as real as our own, whose joys and sorrows will touch you deeply, and where both changes and surprises await.

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After You picks up shortly after Me Before You ends, and we get to see the fallout caused by Will’s death. Although the story promises some “bombshell” revelations, it was a fairly predictable story. This sequel is similar to the first novel in terms of humor and character, and I find that I rather enjoy Moyes’s writing style. It’s not the most sophisticated, but is is full of wit, humor, and heart. Even though I was able to foresee or figure out quickly most of the “twists” in the story, I still enjoyed reading this book. I would have liked a bit more at the end...to me, it felt like as soon as the story had finally come together, it veered off into another direction. I’m not sure if there is another sequel planned or not, but I think she definitely left it open for one.

The Man Without a Shadow by Joyce Carol Oates

In 1965, neuroscientist Margot Sharpe meets Elihu Hoopes: the “man without a shadow,” who will be known, in time, as the most-studied and most famous amnesiac in history. A vicious infection has clouded anything beyond the last seventy seconds just beyond the fog of memory.

Over the course of thirty years, the two embark on mirrored journeys of self-discovery: Margot, enthralled by her charming, mysterious, and deeply lonely patient, as well as her officious supervisor, attempts to unlock Eli’s shuttered memories of a childhood trauma without losing her own sense of self in the process. Made vivid by Oates’ usual eye for detail, and searing insight into the human psyche, The Man Without a Shadow is eerie, ambitious, and structurally complex, unique among her novels for its intimate portrayal of a forbidden relationship that can never be publicly revealed.

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I thought this was a really interesting premise for a story. I thought the characters were remarkably well developed. The developing relationship between the two main characters, Eli and Margot, was intriguing. At times the story was repetitive, but I think that was done to give the reader a sense of what Eli’s life was like. I wish Oates had given us more in terms of the flashbacks from Eli’s past. I thought that part of the narrative was particularly interesting, but at times it gave the overall narrative a choppy feeling because of the way that they were dispersed throughout the story. In the end, I liked the book, but I wasn’t crazy about it. The idea behind the story was really interesting, but the narrative itself fell short in fully capturing my admiration.