The Dog That Saved stewart Coolidge, by Jim Kraus

Hubert doesn't always know where his next meal will come from. Stealing rawhide bones from the Tops Super Market seems to be the answer; even after storing up a few under the rug at his newly found hideout.

Stewart has been ordered by Mr. Arden, his boss, to catch that four-legged bandit before someone complains to the health department about a dog shoplifting at the supermarket. The problem was, Stewart didn't want to catch the dog because he was already harboring the canine criminal at his apartment.

Jim Kraus has become my favorite Christian auther. He does an excellent job at entwining the lives Stewart, and his neighbor Lisa through the antics and subtle actions of a dog that knows there is only peace and security in living in a pack. Stewart and Lisa need each other and it up to Hubert to make it happen. After all, it is God's master plan for the three of them.

The Giver - audio edition, by Lois Lowry

I read the student edition of The Giver, by Lois Lowry, in 1998 while teaching a high school lit class. This was the first time I had read it. Now I have enjoyed it on CD. 
It's amazing how much deeper I understood the story line by listening to it instead of reading. This time I grasped a deeper understanding of the father's job as a Nurturer, the selection process and the overall oppression. The Giver is a classic that should be read over and over. The reader will discover something new every time. Hopefully, it won't be another 18 years before I read it for the third time.

Hope For Tomorrow XFACTOR1 cover

This is our son, Dustin. I just found out about this video. What a blessing to have this.

A Cup of Dust: A Novel of the Dust Bowl, by Susie Finkbeiner

A Cup of Dust: A Novel of the Dust Bowl, by local West Michigan author Susie Finkbeiner was a depressing book. That said, I would still recommend it. The story is very well written and it is obvious the author spent a lot of time researching this time in American history. 

This is more than a story of life during the Depression of the 1930's. It is about life in a dying, dried up, dust-filled town in Oklahoma, inhabited by strong (and weak) survivors. 

As sad as the story was, I couldn't put the book down. And when I wasn't reading it, I was thinking about it; wondering when the happy part would start and just hoping it would have a happy or at least a satisfying ending.

I received this copy from the October 2015 LibraryThing Early Reviewers giveaway.