Archive for August 7th, 2009

At 14 months my little one is growing like a weed. She is now wearing 18 month old clothes and she wears a size 5 in infant shoes. Just a month a go she wore size 3 shoes and was just wearing 12 month outfits. Keep in mind, she’s still as skinny as a twig. It truly is amazing when kids have growth spurts! One minute they are tiny the next you are wondering if they some how got into the miracle grow.

It’s been getting cooler in Oregon now, despite the 100 degree a week or so ago, so we purchased Melody a few new Carter sleepers from Costco this evening( great deal $6-$7.00!). Now she’ll stay warm at night instead of waking up nearly freezing. Any parent knows it’s almost impossible to keep you child under the covers at night so sleepers are a must during the cooler time of the year! I am so happy that she likes the ones with the little footsies too. I know some kids hate those with a passion, if my memory is correct…I believe one my younger sisters could not stand them.

I don’t know about everyone else but after that draining heat wave here, I’ve been looking forward to the fall and winter seasons. I miss cooking hearty meals and baking delicious cookies…all which seems completely ridiculous during the summer. I’ll miss the fresh fruit and the nice breezy summer days but now I think it’s time for a change.  I was not trying to rhyme, it just happened.

Well, I best get some rest now, we’ll be visiting my husbands side of the family tomorrow and I’d like to be rested up as well as getting my hyperactive daughter to bed. She’s running around giggling trying to wear all her new sleepers on her head…Silly girl! I’m hoping she goes to bed before midnight for the 3rd night in a row!

THE BLUE STAR
by Tony Earley

Scott Turow from the New York Time Book Review praised THE BLUE STAR saying, “I galloped through the novel and relished every page….Earley’s simple prose is always informed by Jim’s good heart….’The Blue Star,’ like its hero, is irresistible.”

Seven years ago, readers everywhere fell in love with Jim Glass, the precocious ten-year-old at the heart of Tony Earley’s bestseller Jim the Boy. Now a teenager, Jim returns in another tender and wise story of young love on the eve of World War Two.

Jim Glass has fallen in love, as only a teenage boy can fall in love, with his classmate Chrissie Steppe. Unfortunately, Chrissie is Bucky Bucklaw’s girlfriend, and Bucky has joined the Navy on the eve of war. Jim vows to win Chrissie’s heart in his absence, but the war makes high school less than a safe haven, and gives a young man’s emotions a grown man’s gravity.

With the uncanny insight into the well-intentioned heart that made Jim the Boy a favorite novel for thousands of readers, Tony Earley has fashioned another nuanced and unforgettable portrait of America in another time–making it again even realer than our own day.

This is a timeless and moving story of discovery, loss and growing up, proving why Tony Earley’s writing “radiates with a largeness of heart” (Esquire).

About Tony Earley

Tony Earley is the author of four books: Here We Are in Paradise, a collection of stories; the novel Jim the Boy; the personal essay collection Somehow Form a Family; and The Blue Star, a novel released in Spring, 2008. A winner of a National Magazine Award for fiction, he was named one of the twenty best writers of his generation by both Granta, in 1996, and The New Yorker in 1999. His fiction and/or nonfiction have appeared in Harper’s, Esquire, The New Yorker, The Oxford American, The New York Times Book Review, Tin House, Best American Short Stories, New Stories from the South and many other magazines and anthologies.

He is a native of western North Carolina and a graduate of Warren Wilson College and The University of Alabama. He lives in Nashville, Tennessee with his wife and daughter, where he is the Samuel Milton Fleming Associate Professor of English at Vanderbilt University.

Interview with Tony Earley

Read a Chapter Excerpt

Win it: Thanks to Tony Earley and Hachette Book Group, I am giving to 5 readers one copy of The Blue Star by Tony Earley. (Value of $23.99 and up.)

How to win: Leave a comment about why this book interests you. Please, leave your email in the comment or make sure that you’re email is easily accessible.

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This contest will run until August 24th 2009. The books will be shipped by Hachette. If a winner fails to reply within 48 hrs, a new winner will be chosen. Also, if you have won this book in a previous giveaway, please tell us so we can pick another winner. US & Canada, No PO Boxes, please. Thank you.

I anticipate my future studies in the Word of God using the wonderful resources found in the various NLT Life Application Bible Studies guides available from Tyndale.  These books are wonderful whether you are on the go or are just looking to have all your information in one place. I’ve found the various guide incredibly useful for myself and imagine that others will greatly benefit from them as well.

I’ve recently been using NLT Life Application Bible Studies guide of John. In reading, we are taken on an in-depth examination of the book of John separated into 13 lessons. Each lesson will take about an hour to go through, so if you want to read a little at a time you can do that.  I personally like to go at a slow pace so I can let what I am reading soak in for further discussion with those around me.  The beauty of this guide is that you can set your own studying pace.

This guide like many of the others offers easy to understand study notes, application notes, and biblical profiles along with maps & charts as they would appear in the Life Application Study Bible.

You can use this study guide for self study, a small group, or even as guide to go by at church. You can use this guide alone, or with other sorts of resources though it’s not required because I imagine that most people will get a lot of this guide as it is.

Much like the other application studies in this series, each lesson is made up of the six following parts:

• Reflect
• Read
• Realize
• Respond
• Resolve
• More

Tyndale has done a great job putting together everything that someone would need to encourage one to grow in the knowledge of scripture and to learn how to apply it to their lives.  I already own the Hebrews guide and highly recommend  the remaining guides to all who are interested.

You can find John, NLT Life Application Bible Studies at Christian Book on sale for just $6.49, if you are looking to add it to your collection.