A Sheltered Life by Jeremy Reynalds

A Sheltered Life: Take it to the Streets  by Jeremy Reynalds, West Bow Press, 2013, ISBN 9781449790202

This was an interesting book that I was asked to review. While the review that I wrote doesn't mention it, please note that the book itself has strong Christian content. You can allow that to turn you off from the book's message of the homeless need our help or you can appreciate or ignore the Christ centeredness of this book, whichever your leanings on the topic.

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We hear much about the homeless these days, but this book brings is home and makes it personal. The author, Jeremy Reynalds, helped found and directs Albuquerque, NM largest homeless shelter. Not only do they have a homeless shelter, they have a food ministry where they take food to the homeless where they are, on the streets. They also have different programs where the people can stay an extended time while they get their lives in order again.

Many of the homeless aren’t that way due to drug and alcohol addiction although many do slip into that along the way, but also by way of job losses that send them to other parts of the country where they hear the promise of jobs. For many their car breaking completely down or running out of gas and money at the same time stranded many in his town. One of the things that is different about this ministry than in many others, is that if you call them, they will come and pick you up.

This book brought home to me the many needs of the people on the streets. Business owners won’t let them use their facilities for cleaning up or toileting, with no home there is no kitchen to get food warm even in the midst of winter. I thought of many things while reading this book that I’m sure many homeless shelters would appreciate receiving to pass onto their clients. This is just a short list I made up when I finished the book:

Toothbrushes and toothpaste, deodorant and soap, wet wipes for baby and adults (they have no other way to get clean), disposable diapers for babies and adults (babies since they don’t have laundry facilities to wash cloth diapers and adult ones since many of these people have to ‘hold it’ until they can find a place to go which may be longer than their bladders and bowels can tolerate). Also tampons, sanitary napkins, mini-pads for females. Bottled water packs, white tube socks which can fit a variety of foot sizes, blankets for the winter along with hats, mittens, coats, sweaters. The shelters themselves can always use supplies of food if they serve food.

For live-in shelters, especially ones that take in women and children they can use shampoo, child’s barrettes and pony tail ties, soaps, shower gels, brushes, combs, make-up, nail polish, nail polish remover, razors. Why things like barrettes and shower gels? These women and children have lost so much, giving them those articles like other females use, allows them to regain some dignity, femininity and feel that others care about them. Children’s books, coloring books and crayons can be used by bored children as well. Check with your nearest shelter that you would like to bless with these articles and check whether they can use them.

This book has a powerful message and for that I give it five stars although the writing itself could use some help with editing, etc.

Coming Through the Fog

Coming Through the Fog by Tami Goldstein, OutskirtsPress, ISBN 9781478714132

This is a book where a mother shares her journey with her daughter through autism and sensory Processing disorder to what they call functional recovery to independent living.

As a mother of a high functioning son, who I would assume could now be described as being in Functional Recovery; I am always interested in reading what I can about children on the Autism spectrum. All our experiences are so different. Some parents practically stop their own lives to take on getting their child the best possible help and taking up the call to deal with doctors, schools, therapists, etc. I know I couldn't do that so am very thankful for what we could do with my son and I'm very proud of where he has come from and what he has now accomplished.

Probably one of the best things about this book is learning a bit about the different therapies, tests, etc. that are now available to children. I wish the book would have gone into more detail describing some of the more useful therapies. At least though they were named which would allow parents to look them up on line to get more information.

The book also seemed to be out of sequence as the story unfolded which made it hard to follow. I felt like we heard more about the difficulty the mom was having with Heather's school districts than actually about Heather. I think better editing would have made for a tighter book that made it easier to follow the story.

I also think that we were denied parts of the story that would have helped us understand what Heather was going through during her early years. In the timeline in the back of the book, we find out that during her life Heather had at least eight surgeries but why and what for is missing. I assume the author was trying to shield Heather's privacy, but I can't think of any series of surgeries that wouldn't have affected her autism in a negative manner, as any child going through 8 surgeries would certainly be impacted and not necessarily for good. Also how mom and dad deal with an autistic child going in and out of surgery might have been helpful information to those of us that also have to put an autistic child through surgery. Handy hints are always helpful.

One thing I was extremely curious about is what kind of grant Heather got to buy her home. How does she maintain a home with all the costs of home ownership on 25 hours of work a week? How she copes as an adult would have been a very interesting chapter in the book and one that would give some encouragement to parents still struggling in the early stages of this syndrome.

 

Lamby by Nikki Polidori

Lamby: A Mother's Journey Through a Twisted Medical System to Save her Son by Nikki Polidori. SMA Publications, ISBN 9780578118659

Lamby is a book that if anything shows the problems within our medical services. A child is born and released from the hospital with a bad cough, frequent vomiting (as opposed to spitting up) and other problems. His mom, an RN, calls the pediatrician over and over only to keep being told he has reflux and to give him a medication and just wait it out. Three years later Dylan is still sick with multiple medical problems. He has been averaging something like 60 doctor appointments a year, where for the most part mom is being blown off as a nervous Nelly, doctors never want to even see him to check him out in person so for a year he hasn’t even seen his respiratory doctor, they fly to different states to see specialist that didn’t bother to read his chart before he showed up and the doctor only gives them 15 minutes of his time. Then you throw in his non-custodial father taking him for weekends and never bothering to give him his medications and breathing treatments which left Dylan sicker by every Sunday evening. And so the story goes.

The book is written as a journal/diary that is mostly about Dylan and his needs and how absolutely exhausted his mom was. The only jarring thing in the book is her suddenly married to Mike, we got the drift along the way that Dylan’s father and her weren’t getting along and so the divorce wasn’t unexpected. But the first indication we had that she was with someone new was the entry talking about her having gotten remarried and then another journal entry that she just had another baby. Other than that, there wasn't a lot of personal history other than to see what his mother was doing to get her son well.

It is easy to relate to, as I got very sick 11 years ago with all sorts of weird symptoms. One of which was intense pain. When we asked our doctor at the time if it could be fibromyalgia, he blew us off and said it was too hard to diagnosis! Since when does difficulty with diagnosing a problem mean you don’t try to diagnosis it anyhow? It is very hard to find truly competent doctors including those that are smart enough to say that something is over their head instead of treating something that they don’t know how to treat. This is what the author went through. Only one doctor ever took his time with her, as he discussed Dylan’s truly rare problem but had to admit that he didn’t know how to fix the problem. At least it gave his mother a stepping stone to find a doctor that could.

This was a very interesting book and you feel sorry for this child that had to go through so much pain and discomfort in his early life.

Suffering in Silence by Carolyn Outlaw Kuhn

Suffering in Silence by Carolyn Outlaw Kuhn ISBN 9781478715146

This is an independent book review that I have posted on Amazon. Please note, that while I gave the book one star, the other 6 reviewers at this point have all given it 5 stars at Amazon. Perhaps I am wrong in my evaluation, but I don't think so. Just because someone has a compelling story to tell doesn't mean that they need to publish a book about it, especially if using a self-publishing press.

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This is a story that should never have to be written. It is one of family misery, physical, emotional, verbal and sexual abuse written by the daughter that survived it all. For too long people try to keep ‘family secrets’ while doing great damage to the family that they are trying to preserve. If you read these types of books as research into this type of family dynamic and to learn how to counsel survivors, then it should be of great interest to you. It is a heart felt story written about generations of family problems.

I really hate to say bad things about a book, but with reviewing books, at times I have to. It is to let the ultimate reader be warned. While this was a sad story written out of a woman’s anguish, it is very poorly written and edited. The timeline of the book gets jumbled so at times it is difficult to follow the story. I never could see or understand how she came to drop her anger towards her mother and then started loving her. She spoke about her mother going blind due to a stroke but when a subsequent stroke affected her hearing, they used a whiteboard to write on to communicate with her. These things she might have wanted to be clearer on.

The author also claims that her mother was “a good Christian and very religious throughout her life”. Being religious does not a Christian make. The Bible says “Ye shall know them by their fruits” Matthew 7:16. From the author’s writing during here entire childhood her mother never exhibited any signs of her mother wanting to follow Christ or follow Christian principles. She went to church on Sundays, period. She never showed love towards her children. She took in as many foster children as she could, not because of her love for children but for the money which she kept careful track of her ‘profit’ in a ledger. Her children never felt loved or safe from abuse. Her mother never called the police on the writer’s stepfather when he sexually abused her and then went on to sexually abuse one of the foster girls. At which point the mother did get rid of the foster children. That seems to be the only rational thing she did in the entire book.

I know that some survivors of abuse are encouraged to write about their experiences as a therapeutic thing. I think that this basically what this book ended up to be. But as a book to be published for the general public, not such a good idea. A ghostwriter could have helped to turn this book into a much more powerful and readable work. I also had a hard time trying to understand if this book was being written from a Christian perspective and if that was supposed to be the reason for the ultimate healing with part of the family. It just wasn’t clear, like many other points in the book.

Joni & Ken: An Untold Love Story

As a member of the Amazon Vine Group, I get to review 4 or more books and items each month. For a prolifica reader like myself this is a jackpot. even more so when a book comes my way that touches my heart and this one did. Here is my review that I posted on Amazon for Joni & Ken: An Untold Love Story by Ken & Joni Eareckson Tada with Larry Libby.

I was only 12 years old when Joni had her accident. She dove into some water that was too shallow and broke her neck. Instantly she became a quadriplegic destined to live the rest of her life in a wheelchair with someone else taking care of all her physical needs. It would have been hard to grow up in any youth group in the late 60's early 70's without hearing about Joni, so it was refreshing to hear the latest on what is going on with this woman. At this point in time she is one of the longest surviving quads, which I am sure that Joni would lay at God's feet and those of her faithful caregivers over the years.

In her thirties, Joni meet a young man named Ken Tada and after much time together, prayer and discussion they took the step to get married. At this point you would think their marriage would somehow be `different' because of Joni's difficulties. Yet as I read this book I couldn't help but compare it to my marriage and others that I have seen. Marriage is hard work whether you are a quad, suffer from severe arthritis like I do, or happily have no health problems. It is so easy to drift apart or just be living in tandem, and forgetting why you married in the first place. As their marriage started getting stale, Ken had an opportunity to both read a book by John Eldredge Wild at Heart and also visit and talk with him. As Ken started understanding himself as a Godly man things started to change for the better with their marriage, but Joni was facing another health care crisis. She noticed a lump on her breast and at the point of diagnosis, it was already at stage 3 cancer. Within days of discovering it, Joni was taken into surgery where she had a mastectomy followed by chemotherapy. I can't even imagine the horror of the nausea when you can't even bend over and aim where the nausea would go or not even be able to wipe off your own mouth. And that would only be the least of dealing with cancer. Yet God was good and Ken with a renewed love for Joni was with her every step of the way.

As I said the story of their marriage really isn't so different than many of ours. They just found out what to do to rescue it from the doldrums and put God back in the center of it. This was a fantastic book to read and I also look forward to reading Wild at Heart as well.

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I found it interesting after writing my review, I read some of the others that were posted and found that some writers felt like the book didn't tell the story well. For someone like me though, who 3 weeks after I got married to my husband came down with a devastating chronic disease that had been creeping up on me for years, but it exploded almost eleven years ago now I knew what they were talking about. We in many ways live through what Joni and Ken do so I didn't need the details for what Joni and Ken go through. I live it every day. I have learned that when we start feeling distant from each other, the best thing to do is pray about it and pray for God's blessings on your mate. I think it is enough that we know that even this woman, that so many look at as so spiritual, also has troubles with her marriage jsut like the rest of us do. It takes work and dedication to your marriage vows to keep a marriage on the same set of tracks instead of parallel ones. I did appreciate the book very much and have also put John Eldredge's books on my wish list. I hope you will read this book and be touched by it as well.

The Color of Rain by Michael and Gina Spehn

This is from a book review I did for the Amazon Vine program. I'm very behind in reviews that I would have liked to have written this year as it has been a rough year physically with 2 surgeries on my knees. I have found that too much pain keeps me from reading anything deeper than a cozy mystery. Hoping to get more on track this winter.

The Color of Rain: How two families found faith, hope & love in the midst of tragedy by Michael and Gina Spehn

This book was certainly a tear jerker. Gina nurses and cares for her husband with cancer and during cancer treatments over the course of three years. He dies on Christmas day leaving her a widow with two young boys. She is blessed to have a huge church family and supportive neighborhood that pitched in with food, help and prayers both before and after his death.

Michael's wife, a member of the same church as Gina, hears of her troubles and writes an email to Gina's friend asking what she can do to help this sad family. She never gets a chance to help herself though, as a month later she too dies from a fast growing brain tumor. Michael is left with three children, two boys and girl.

This book is how they came together to help each other in their grief and how God put love for each other in their hearts and they eventually marry and combine families with full support of their children and relatives.

This is a charming book of people helping people. Of people letting God lead the direction in which they should walk. It also shows the often forgotten outpouring of love to the bereft families in the way of food and help. Michael and Gina got so much help, that they had to turn it aside finally, but how nice if more people thought of doing this act of charity towards others in distress and medical problems. This book includes pictures of the family. There is one big editing flaw that I found. No one double checked the spelling of the medications that were mentioned and there certainly was some creative spellings. Read this book with a box of tissue nearby.

I truly enjoyed this book even though there were times that the tears were flowing down my face. I love seeing how God can work and minister in people's lives, especially as they walk through the deep dark valleys of life.

The Frugalista Files by Natalie P. McNeal

The Frugalista Files: How One Woman Got Out of Debt Without Giving Up the Fabulous Life
I'm always interested in reading the latest book on frugal living, especially if I'm given it for free. This one, The Frugalista Files by Natalie P. McNeal, I got through the Amazon Vine Review program. Below you will find my review of the book. My suggestion however is check out the author's blog: thefrugalista.com ,some of the other links I give you or do a Google search for the word 'frugal living'. You will swamp yourself with ideas and ways to make your money go further. I did visit her blog for a few minutes and saw some references to and links to sites that will help you keep the cost of life down. Here is my review:

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When a young single woman in Miami realizes that she is over $20,000 in debt and getting worse each month, she decides she has to do something significant about it. She wants to be able to lose the debt but still wants to live a fun life without doing without anything that is truly important to her. She decides to do a `no spend month' and ends up saving over $400. She also begins blogging about her journey and trying to learn everything she can about saving. This book takes us through her first year as a "Frugalista", during which time she pays off over $7000 in debt. Her blog is located at thefrugalista.com where you can check on her continued progress in saving and being frugal.


As someone who has been frugal most of my life, I was surprised at the things she did to be frugal as they were things that have never even made it into my budget in the first place. Most of the info wasn't new to me but for those who haven't yet been able to get their finances in order, they should learn some valuable information from this book. The best info being, that being more frugal doesn't mean giving up everything important in your life. The author's natural exuberance for life and helping others to be more frugal shines throughout the whole book. This book is written in a style to cater to the 20-30 year old age group with many expressions that I've never even heard of in the book.

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For more info, visit her blog thefrugalista.com  or these other great sites that can help you save such as Groupon for great discounts, Big Crumbs for cash back and savings on on-line purchases, and places like Saving Advice for all round information on saving money to the max.

Redemption: A Story of Sisterhood, Survival and Finding Freedom Behind Bars

No I haven't stopped reading, but between the holidays and an almost non-stop arthritis flare up through the month of December, I got very behind on my book reviews. I also had some lousy pablum type books that I wouldn't inflict the reviews on you. I'm not sure why, but I wasn't offered very many good books in my last few times of picking books for the Amazon Vine Program.

This book however was an exception. Redemption: A Story of Sisterhood, Survival, and Finding Freedom Behind Bars by Stacey Lannert and Kristen Kemp. Stacey Lannert was sexually abused by her father for 10 years and tried to protect her younger sister from his advances by placing herself as the sacrifice until the day that he finally grabbed her little sister and raped her. Later she did the unthinkable and shot her father as he slept off a drinking binge on the couch. Stacey was arrested, spent 2 years in jail while waiting for trial and then was found guilty of murder and given a life sentence without parole. 18 years later a compassionate outgoing Governor Matt Blunt commuted her sentence and she was free. This book is her story of a family that became progressively more dysfunctional, a father that she loved as a child becoming her worst nightmare, and the years she spent in prison where she truly did restore her life. While doing her prison work she became a leader and also worked with the helper dog program.


Her story is troubling in that any child could grow up in such circumstances and unfortunately the last statistic I heard is that 1 in 4 girls will be sexually abused by a male relative in her home. Her home that should be a place of safety not one of ultimate terror.

Here is my Amazon Vine Review. I gave the book 5 stars. Everyone should read this book if only to know that this does go on perhaps next door or even in your own home. We all have to stop turning a blind eye. Visit her website Healing Sisters to learn more.
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This was a very interesting book, but I think it could have used some better editing to have it flow better. Some parts of the story seemed to be repeated only with the details slightly changed and the time line falters as well. Those things aside this is a story of horrendous sexual and physical abuse of a daughter by a father and her ultimately killing dear old dad.


Two main things frustrated me about the story. One the legality of her arrest and questioning, lack of a lawyer when she requested one and being taken to the scene of the crime while her father was still laying in a pool of blood. This is supposed to be a true story. How is this possible for that to have happened in the USA? The case should have been thrown out of court for legal violations. If these scenes really didn't happen then how can we believe the rest of the story? Since I assume that this really did happen, then I am very glad that finally someone saw the light and released her from jail.

The other thing that frustrated me the entire time I was reading this book. The statistics of girls being abused by a male relative in their own home are staggering and it seems nothing is being done about it. Every decent human being needs to help children understand that these kinds of 'secrets' aren't secrets and should be told. Teachers, social workers, police, the OTHER PARENT and each and every one of us have a responsibility to stop this terror. If a child's home isn't a place of safety what is? We have to stop having the attitude of not wanting to be involved. When a child's safety and well-being is at risk we have to step in. Abusive fathers (or mothers as the case may be) need lengthy jail terms and counseling. This cycle must be stopped!

Running the Books: The Adventures of an Accidental Prison Librarian by Ave Steinberg is a book I read and reviewed for the Amazon Vine Program. It is an interesting look into the life of those prison workers that feel caught in the cracks. They certainly aren't the inmates, but mostly they don't feel like part of the guard force either.

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At one point in my nursing career, I worked three years as a prison nurse. Being a civilian employee at a jail or prison is a very unique experience so I looked forward to reading this book. This is an autobiographical work by Avi Steinberg who ended up working as a librarian in a large Boston prison when all his other job options had run out. He became one of several librarians who worked along with a trustee detail of prison inmates. While there he learned to walk carefully, and at times not so carefully, the tightrope between being friendly to the inmates as opposed to being friends with the inmates—there is a huge difference! He also had to learn how to deal with the prison staff of guards and other civilian employees in an institute that was state run with all the many nuances working a state funded job can throw at you.


He found that he had to learn many things that had nothing to do with librarianship. Learning what is contraband and what isn’t. Intercepting notes that the prisoners had left in books. Dealing with deaths of inmates he had come to care for. His story is told in a very humorous manner and yet was sensitive to his surroundings. While some parts of the book, I was honestly wondering where the guards were, I felt that the feelings about his work there was very real and honest. It is hard to see that nice friendly inmate face on a daily basis and yet know that you can’t trust him or be his friend. He even recalls being mugged by an inmate while out of work. That is always the strangest feeling when you bump into someone you only basically saw behind bars or finding yourself behind them in line at the movies. If you are interested in prison life from a different point of view, you should enjoy this book. I know I did.

I Am Hutterite by Mary-Ann Kirkby

I Am Hutterite is another book I read for the Amazon Review program. While in college in Saskatchewan Canada during the mid-1970s, I on occasion saw Hutterites and wondered about them. When I had the opportunity to get this book to read, I was excited to find out more about these people. After reading it, I understood one of my college friends much better as she had grown up highly influenced by the Hutterites in her area. I enjoyed getting to know these people through the book, but one thing became very clear to me. As long as humans are in charge of communal living and are making the rules and regulations, there will never be a true communal experience. Mary-Ann Kirkby's family bore the brunt of the head elder's dislike for her father and rather than treat the family by the beliefs he espoused, he treated them like the enemy. No communal living whether religious in nature or not, will ever be able to truly accomplish the reality of communal life. It is too hard for any one person or group of people to set aside themselves to fairly and wisely lead the group. Even if you get one or two that can do this, eventually the reigns will be turned over to someone who can't and seek power for power's sake and the community life will start to disintegrate.

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While going to college in Canada in the 1970s I saw the occasional Hutterite but didn't have any idea about their beliefs or why they set themselves apart. When the opportunity to read this book for review, I jumped on it as a chance to find out about these people. Written as an autobiography by the author who lived in a Hutterite village in Canada until the age of 10 when her parents left the community. In many ways their lifestyle was perfect. They had everything they needed because they shared all in common. The workload was shared and there were certain procedures for occasions in a persons life. How a new mother was taken care of after a baby was born made me practically drool with longing even though I am many years removed from the birth of my own children. As a person aged their responsibilities to the community lessened although there was always some work that they could do.


Although the author and her family left the Hutterite community when she was aged 10, they still kept a close association with it due to relatives and friends there. Having the community to go visit seemed to help, as the children especially, got over the hump of going to regular public schools and being the victims of ridicule. This is a warm and sensitive book about growing up different yet growing up in a special way where everyone felt like a part of something bigger than themselves. There are still a large number of Hutterite communities in the Midwest and Canada. They split off into smaller communities when their numbers reach over 100 or so.

I'm very glad I got to read this book and would highly recommend it to others, especially those interested in a religious community life. It answered many of the questions I had had about Hutterites back many years ago and gave me a deeper insight into this large group of people that purposefully live their lives in a purposeful way.

A Midwife's Story

I found this book. A Midwife's Story, at a Friends of the Library book sale where I happily shoved it into my bag on bag day. I love to read anything about giving birth and nursing and I am also interested in the Amish as I live near a large population of them. The book takes place in the 1970s and has apparently been republished. My copy that I read was a Bok Club Edition from 1986. This is the review I put up on Amazon after reading this delightful book.

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A fabulous yet touching story of a woman's desire and willingness to become a midwife during a time in our history that midwifery was looked down on, but she persevered. The most amazing thing I found was midway through the book when the midwife herself miscarries a child and her reaction to this loss of a child she never even expected to have was touching.


As a nurse myself that loved labor and delivery the most as a student, I found the stories realistic, especially the comparison to a hospital birth intertwined with a home birth story from the day before. I felt almost every pang she did for the hospitalized mother as that was mostly my story of giving birth, while what I really wanted was what she had with her home deliveries.

Her love of her Amish families, since as a midwife she ministered to more than just the mother and baby, was touching and we got a significant look into the life of the Amish. I found this BCE copy at a sale and was so glad I stuffed it into my bag as this one kept me up way past my bedtime reading as it was so interesting. If you love stories of nurses, babies, midwives or reading about the Amish you should enjoy this book.

The Imposter? by Kip Kreiling

Several weeks ago I received an email from Kip Kreiling asking if I would read and review his book, The Imposter? for Amazon if he sent me a copy. After first checking to see that this was a real person and not a phishing scheme, I agreed to read his book. It arrived in the mail several days ago and I did read it and wrote my Amazon review. I appreciated the fact that he took the time to contact me and to send me his book.

I gave this book a 3 star review. The 3 stars was not due to content, but to the editing of the book. This book would have had a much greater impact if the editing was tighter. The story itself is one that many need to read.

The following is my Amazon Review:

This book shows that it is possible to grow up in miserable circumstances, lead a criminal life and manage eventually to put that life behind you and become an upright citizen. While I doubt that the author of this book will ever win prizes for his actual writing skills, what he has to say is profound and full of usable information in turning your life around. He pulls many of his examples, other than himself, from well known characters and how they handled life experiences. My favorite being Benjamin Franklin and his lists. His book is spot on that we have to want to change and we have to work at it every day. His was a life transformed and he wants the world to know so that others can also be transformed.


I think that the book needs some good editing to tighten up the story and remove some of the typos and hanging sentences, but then each and every prison and jail in out country needs to give a copy to each inmate that comes through the doors as a way of helping them cope with the changes that they need to make to become active contributing members of society.

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In my prior life I worked for three years as a jail nurse as was greatly disturbed at the waste of lives of many of the young men and women that I saw at our county jail. Some had already given up on life but many others still seemed to be reachable and I think Mr. Kreiling has some of the words and background to get these people to listen. I hope he will take the time to revise and re-edit his book so that it will be a smoother and easier read. Even in The Imposter's? current state it does share lessons that many of us could learn from.

My Fight for Faith and Freedom

This is a review of a book I read for Amazon Vine Reviews. While the story at times was horrifying it was also a true learning experience to read it. I do think though, that it could have been edited a bit better as at times instead of feeling like you were reading about a tortured teenager it seemed like you were reading about a spoiled teenager. The last few pages of the book were very powerful as she showed how our world leaders, including Barack Obama, do not understand the Islamic mind and this will be to our detriment.

My Fight for Faith and Freedom is a gripping autobiography of Sabatina James (writing under a pseudonym) as she grows up first in Pakistan and then in Austria, forced back to Pakistan and then finally back to Austria where she now lives alone and in fear for her life. Why? Because at the age of 10 her parents moved her and the family to Austria where, as children tend to do, she assimilated into the culture of Austria and wanted to be like the other girls. For years she endured beatings, yelling and torture as she tried to live a life of a modern young lady. At one point she was returned to Pakistan to learn to be a good Pakistani woman where she was made to go to a school that was so filthy it was incredible. I had to keep reminding myself that I was reading a book that took place in the Twenty-first Century!


Eventually, she returned to Austria and was given a Bible by a friend she had known earlier from school. She had noticed a huge change in him from drug addicted jerk to clean cut nice guy. As she started to read the Bible he had given her and as she compared it to her Koran beliefs she knew that there was a better way in life. Just having the Bible in her hands was worthy of death by Muslin standards and yet she couldn’t stop reading it and craving the comfort it gave her. When she told her parents that she had converted to Christianity they threw her out of their apartment with no money and told her that unless she repented and went back to Islam she would be killed. To this day she has hid from her parents and their threats and those of the rest of the Muslim community. Every time they manage to track down her phone number, they call her and scream and threaten her over the phone. She now lives her life on the run and in secrecy and yet as much as she can she campaigns for reform to help the women of her world and those children caught up in slave labor.

In many ways, this book seemed very much like the story of a typically rebellious teenager but with parental reactions that are completely over the top. But as Sabatina grows older you realize that there is so much more going on and her last few pages of the book are almost the most powerful, as she tells how so many world leaders have no concept of what the Islamic religion entails. Many woman are being tortured and killed, including being burned alive, in the name of religion. The law of the Muslims is worldwide and if a family or the group has declared death on someone, they don’t care what the laws of the land are, they will carry out the murder for the sake of Allah.