Friday Book Club and Friday Letters

All the best link ups are on Friday, so today I'm going to do a two-parter so I can link up with Friday Book Club and Friday Letters.

First up, for Friday Book Club, I've got a report on my two February reads.

Fearless by  Max Lucado

 I do love me some Max Lucado.  This guy has a gift for taking Biblcal principles and applying them to every day life that is seriously amazing.  This book is all about letting go of the fears that we let control our lives.  I can't say it was my favorite Max Lucado book, but it was good and the topic was pretty appropriate for this time in my life.  Here are some of my favorite quotes.

Fear never wrote a symphony or poem, negotiated a peace treaty, or cured a disease.  Fear never pulled a family out of poverty or a country out of bigotry.  Fear never saved a marriage or a business.  Courage did that.  Faith did that.

Fear corrodes our confidence in God's goodness.

To sin is to disregard God, ignore his teachings, deny his blessings.

If Jesus' tomb is empty, then his promise is not.

Every trial and trouble has a place in God's scheme.

When Christ is great, our fears are not.

The Art of Hearing Heartbeats by Jan-Philipp Sendker

In breaking my trend of reading pretty much only non-fiction books, I made an exception for this novel that I heard about on another blog.  It's the story of a daughter who sets off to find her father who mysteriously disappeared the day after she graduated law school.  What she finds is an amazing story of his childhood, of which she knew nothing.  I really enjoyed this book---it was interesting and sort of kept you guessing as to how things would all play out.  I can't give it my illusive 5 on the Goodreads chart (only two fiction books have ever gotten that from me....The Help and The Fault In Our Stars) but I would still highly recommend it.  Here's a few quotes I enjoyed.

And so there must be in life something like a catastrophic turning point, when the world as we know it ceases to exist.  A moment that transforms us into a different person from one heartbeat to the next.

There are wounds time does not heal, though it can reduce them to a manageable size.

It's not the size of one's nose, the color of one's skin, the shape of one's lips or eyes that make one beautiful or ugly.  It's love.  Love makes us beautiful.

Love has so many different faces that our imagination is not prepared to see them all.

He expected nothing more from life.  Not because he was disappointed or embittered.  He expected nothing because there was nothing of importance he had not already experienced.  He possessed all the happiness a person could find.  He loved and was loved.  Unconditionally.

Second, for Friday Letters, here we go.

Dear College Roomie, Thank you for being the best friend in the whole world and being on board for a ex-roomie road trip to my new casa in Texas.  I am seriously beyond excited about this.  You bring the mixed tapes, I'll bring the orange juice!

Dear Treadmill, We will be spending some quality time this weekend---about 5 miles worth on Sunday.  Be kind to me.

Dear King of Capitol Hill, You know you want to come to Europe.  Just do it.  We might even have more fun than the picture below...

Dear Creator of Magic Bullet Blender, Someone should give you the Oscar of inventing.  Your little creation changed my life and has probably tripled my veggie intake.  Nice work, sir.

Dear Cardinal Dolan,  I know that the selection of the next Pope is not a popular vote election, but when you write things like this and make speeches like this it seriously makes me want to make a "Team Dolan" t-shirt to wear while the conclave is going on.  PS, you are on my list of dream dinner party attendees, so feel free to come over any time.

Dear Super Mom,  Thank you for sending me the photo below of my precious friend dressed like Elmer Fudd.  I do not think he could be any cuter.  This made my day.