Life's That Way by Jim Beaver

On March 3, 2004 Cecily April Adams died of lung cancer, leaving behind her devoted husband, actor Jim Beaver and 2-year-old daughter Madeline Rose Beaver, who had recently been diagnosed with autism. This book is the story of their struggle with the disease, with Maddie's diagnosis and with grieving the loss of a wife and mother.

Two days after Cecily's initial diagnosis Jim began writing a nightly email to update friends and family on everything that was going on. This email started going out to a little over 100 people but within a month or so was being recieved by more than 4,000 people across the country, some whom Jim had never even met. Life's That Way is an edited collection of those emails, telling the story of that year of their lives as it was told during that year. As Jim tells the reader in the introduction, these emails were only edited for length and relevance; there was no hindsight added after the fact. They are Jim's thoughts and words as he wrote them at the time.

As you can imagine, at times this book was difficult to read and there were many tears shed as I was turning the pages. But this is truly a beautiful story. Jim opens up his heart and shares many of his deepest thoughts, fears, regrets and joys during this time period. I am extremely grateful he chose to publish them this way, five years after the death of his beloved wife.

This book isn't just the story of losing a loved one to cancer. Jim continues the nightly emails until exactly one year after he began writing. In the months following Cecily's death, you see Jim and Maddie embark on their new life together, Jim's struggles with being a single father and working a job that has him away for long days and just coping with simple day to day changes in their life. You see Jim's grieving process and how he was able to accept what happened and come to terms with his loss.

I would recommend this book to anyone and everyone. Whether or not you were familiar with Cecily Adams' work, whether or not you're a fan a Jim Beaver, whether or not you've also experienced the loss of a loved one to cancer. This book is a story of life. It's not just another celebrity memoir. It describes a family during it's most difficult time and shows that everyone, famous or not, faces the same struggles, emotions and problems as everyone else. We are all human. This book also shows how generous, caring and supportive people can be in a time of need.

This was an amazing story, not only of loss, but also hope. Yes, it will probably bring tears to your eyes, but sometimes crying is good for the soul. One thing this book will teach you is that you can't dwell on the loss and the pain, you have to move on, because, after all, life's that way -->.

Turn Coat by Jim Butcher

This is the newest novel of the Dresden Files, which came out on Tuesday. Once I started reading this book I just could not put it down. I love Dresden so much.

I think this novel may overtake White Night as my favorite book of the series. In this book Morgan has been falsely accused of killing a member of the White Council and he comes to Harry for help. Harry sees this as a chance to finally discover the identity of the traitor within the ranks of the Council and help an innocent man at the same time.

I loved this entire book. The way they ended things with Thomas upset me a little, but given the events of the book it made sense. I'm just hoping the next book will set things right again with Thomas, because he was been one of my favorite characters since he was first introduced.

This novel was filled with suspense from the very first chapter, and I couldn't stop reading till I was finished with the entire book. I highly recommend this series to anyone interested in Sci-Fi.

From Dead to Worse by Charlaine Harris

This novel is the last one currently in print, the next doesn't come out until May. In this book Sookie has to deal with the aftermath of the vampire summit, a brewing werewolf war and a possible hostile take-over of Louisiana by rival vampires.

Just as I was really starting to like Quinn, this book turns him into a sort-of bad guy by having him almost betray Sookie to enemy vampires. Granted, I think I would have been a little more forgiving than Sookie had been given the circumstances, but I'm still disappointed. I can see them moving further ahead with a possible Sookie/Eric relationship. I love the book version of Eric, I wish we could see more of that Eric in the TV series.

All Together Dead by Charlaine Harris

This novel takes place post-Katrina, during a summit of vampires. Sookie has been asked to attend as an employee of the Queen of Louisiana to use her telepathy to aid the Queen in overcoming the trial she's facing and other matters.

This book bothered me a little as I felt Harris had re-written the original plans for this novel to incorporate a post-Katrina Louisiana. No other book had more than a few weeks time period between books, but this book has the longest time-jump, about 6 months between the last novel and this one. Not to mention that two previous novels referenced the summit taking place in March. The delay of the summit is explained logically in this novel, but I still feel like Harris was trying to make a profit from incorporating Katrina into the novel. This probably isn't the case at all, that's just how I felt about it as I was reading it.

Definitely Dead by Charlaine Harris

Book 6 in the Sookie Stackhouse series finds Sookie headed to New Orleans (Pre-Katrina) to take care of things after learning that her cousin Hadley has died for the final time. Unbeknownst to Sookie, Hadley had become a vampire who was then murdered by another Vampire about a year later.

While I was adamant in my last post about being annoyed with Sookie's ever-growing line of suitors, I have to admit that I grew rather fond of Quinn during this novel. I've also given up hope of Sookie and Bill getting back together. And wow, I can't believe I'm this interested in a series that reads so much like a soap opera!