Life As We Knew It (Last Survivors #1)

If you have ever needed external motivation to beef up your food storage......here it is.  It heightened my naturally high anxiety level to 'frantic'.  I plan to begin stock piling wood, asprin, batteries, fuel, canned fruit and veggies, and canned chicken, like nobody's business.  And I am beginning to think that my vaulted ceiling was a mistake.  It won't hold in enough heat when the ash comes.  I'm getting ahead of myself.....

Teenager Miranda is your run of the mill girl.  She worries about blog stalking her Olympic crush. She's a little shallow. She wants less homework and worries about her changing friendships.  Then a once a life time meteor collision with the moon goes from block party atmosphere to apocalyptic.  The moon is pushed closer to the Earth causing it's gravitation to spur one natural disaster after another.  No longer is Miranda worried about which sport to play or the fact that she is growing apart from her childhood friends.  Survival is at the forefront.  Sacrifice, starvation, desolation, and death quickly take the place of free spirited American life.  Miranda captures it all in journal entries.

This is a superb work of post-apocalyptic fiction.  It is so believeable that you can't decide whether to keep reading or start hoarding.  It is very simply written and a tad slow at the beginning.  The simplicity makes it scarier on one hand.  The sense of desperation and grueling day to day survival is vivid.  And then sometimes I felt like the simplicity also took away.  I didn't get the sense of urgency that I think would exist during a crisis.  That took it down a point for me.  Also, I am now realizing......hello! Where was your weapon stock pile? How were they going to defend their wood, asprin, and canned chicken for Pete's sake. That part is so unrealistic I can't believe I forgot it was one of the point deductors. And I just have to put in my 2 cents....I realize the author can write any old thing she wants and if I were to author a book I could splatter my opinions everywhere....but I didn't like the Conservative slamming, from President bashing (which granted I would do if the President in the book I wrote were a so Liberal he was suffocating) to making Christians look like Kool-Aid sipping nut jobs. I think I may have been more forgiving if this book wasn't aimed at a younger audience. Just my opinion.



Rating 4
Rating PG 13  Crisis situations, death, destruction, scarey situations, talk of promiscuity.

Recovering Charles

Recovering Charles by Jason F. Wright

Wright is the author of 'Christmas Jars' and 'Wednesday Letters'.   In 'Recovering Charles' Wright's main character, Luke Millward is a lost soul.  He is a successful photographer that has little personal connection to anyone except his friend Jordan.  Jordan and Luke met in college and have remained close, though Luke cannot bring himself to make Jordan his wife.
Hurricane Katrina hits the lower South.  Luke discovers that his estranged, alcoholic father was lost in the fray.  Luke has never come to terms with his father's desperate dive into alcholism.  As a teen, Luke's mother died of a drug overdose.  His father has never been able to reconcile himself and turned quickly to the soft sholder of alcohol.  Charles (Charlie, Luke's father.) stopped contacting Luke at his request.  He became a nomad, traveling for cards, liquor and his deep love of music.  Charlie found his life again, in New Orleans playing jazz and getting clean.
Luke takes his time making the trek from New York to the hard hit South.  He finds way more than he thought he would.  Initially he agrees to go as a photographer.  Through the eye of his lense he sees a nation ravaged by nature but saved by the amazing heart of humanity.
The story as a whole was meaty enough to enjoy.  I was crushed by the aftermath of Katrina.  The characters were very loveable.......except for Luke.  I could never understand exactly when his heart turned from disgust with his father to love and regret.  Luke was a mystery and not very well written as a main character.  The end was rushed and left me to wonder what happened:(

Rating 3.5  There were salvageable parts; Katrina, the characters, Charlie's struggle through alcoholism and twelve step recovery.
Rating PG  Lots of death and destruction.

Zion's Trail Last Days Vol. 2

Zion's Trail by Kenneth Tarr

This is the second volume of The Last Days series.

Pioneer One, the wagon train from Utah, is on its way to Missouri. They are attacked by bandits, shot at, go through a blizzard, dust storm, raging heat, disease, death, and dissension. Satan even makes an appearance.

The Antichrist is rising in power along with his formerly polygamist prophet.

The saints are persecuted in every nation as the Antichrist tries to rid the world of religion.

There were actually many good points brought up about emergency situations, natural plants and herbs for medication, war, and natural disaster. I had a good time reading this book. I was also thoroughly depressed and freaked out.

This series seems like it needs at least one more book. From the information I have found, it doesn't look like there is one. The rise of the Antichrist, the Saints left in Utah, the Saints around the world, and the nut job prophet that communes with Satan..........all of their story lines drop off and we never know what happens. I would really like to read about the building of Zion once Pioneer one reaches Jackson County.

Rating 4
Rating PG 13 Lots of violence, Satan, rape, murder, gang violence, natural disaster, disease.

The Gathering Storm

The Gathering Storm by Kenneth Tarr

This is an end of days book. Just the kind of book I should never read........mostly because I will never have built my food storage to its maximum requirement.

Steven is raising his children alone in Utah County. He lost his wife to a polygamist group in Southern Utah. His brother John is obsessed with dooms day preaching........and is therefore prepared. There are earthquakes, dam breaks, floods, tornadoes, plagues, wars, nuclear bombs, asteroids, tsunamis, break down of government, martial law, the mark of the beast, weapons removed from all Americans, the rise of the Antichrist, the desperate need for food storage and bomb shelters, and the need to know how to build a handcart. Yes this book has it all.
After natural disaster, plague, riot and death, Steven and his brothers are called to take the first company of Saints back to Missouri. Steven also finds a new wife from his new ward. She helps infiltrate the polygamist group that kidnaps one of his children.

I was pretty entertained........and scared witless. All I can say is I hope the end of the world is nothing like this, or I hope it is ages away because I don't want to be there. Steven and his family, although stricken with many trials don't seem to have the anxiety factor that I would feel. They get along fairly well.
In some ways the book seemed over the top with doom, but I guess if the world is going to end there is probably more than one way to do it. Sure it isn't the best lit out there but all in all I was truly entertained and plan to read the second volume to see what happens when the Saints move east.
Rating 4
Rating PG The book is clean of filth like sex and bad language but the natural disaster alone is terrifying.

Amazing Grace

Amazing Grace by Danielle Steel

I almost didn't write a review for this because all Steel books are semi the same. But then I figured I have to have some way to tell them apart.
Yes I do read D.S. Mostly because my mom likes them.........so I read them after her and we can chit chat about them.
I honestly find Steel using the SAME words every time. I am certain within a small percentile near 100 that I could pick out her writing without knowing the author. She uses the same descriptors all of the time. Good for her I guess........I mean you don't see me writing a best seller.
This book is about a group of characters that come together after an earthquake in San Fransisco. Maggie the cute red headed nun, Everette the recovering alcoholic photographer, Sarah the stay at home rich mom with the financial sleaze for a husband........she puts on benefits, and Melanie the teen pop star.
I mostly liked theses characters. Many times I don't like D.S. characters because they are all the same liberal, self centered cuties between different book covers.
Maggie has a great heart and is committed to her vocation. She works in the field hospital after the earthquake. She and Everette fall in love. She leaves her vocation at the end of the book. Honestly.........I'm glad about that. She was doing great acts of service but I wanted her to have personal connections too.
Everette is about two years sober. He is turning his life around and seems like a genuine guy. I liked hearing about his AA experience and making amends. He reunites with his son Chad whom he hasn't seen in 27 years. Maggie helps encourage this.
Sarah has an awesome life at the beginning.......that's how you know things are going to fall apart quickly in a D.S. novel. She finds out moments after the earthquake that her husband Seth has ruined them financially and will be investigated by the FBI and eventually sent to prison. She must learn to forgive him in order to get on with her life. They mention amazing grace a lot when talking about her situation. I suspect that D.S. doesn't understand grace very well.
Melanie is a teen Grammy winner with an overbearing mother. She is preforming at Sarah's benefit when the earthquake happens. Melanie is a smart, gorgeous teen with a heart. She volunteers at the field hospital with Maggie. She learns that she wants to be able to give more of herself and break away from her mom a little. She meets Tom. He just graduated and is an engineer. They fall in love.
Rating 3 Not too bad D.S.
Rating R My biggest complaint.........the F word. Seriously I know people use it, but you don't HAVE to. There are about a billion other words to use, especially if you are a writer. Other wise the goings on are pretty clean.