Song of Renewal by Emily Sue Harvey

ISBN: 9780981608730
Publisher: The Story Plant
Published: July 2009
150 pgs

I have not read a good inspirational novel for a while, so when I was offered the opportunity to review Song of Renewal by Emily Sue Harvey, I grabbed it.

Song of Renewal centered around the Wakefields' family, whose all members seem to have everything. Garrison, the head of the family is a hugely successful graphic artist and his wife, Liza is an active member of the community and a patron of the arts. Their 16-year-old daughter, Angel, is beautiful and a gifted dancer. Before this, Garrison and Liza used to have their dreams - to be an accomplished painter and a ballet dancer but they traded their dreams away, thinking that things and their current lifewould be enough to hold a family together. Plus, they have high hopes for Angel and Liza has hoped that Angel would fulfill her dream to become a ballet dancer.

Unfortunately, all things seem to come to a halt when Angel has met in a car accident. Her boyfriend, Troy, was killed instantly and Angel's injuries are beyond critical. While she lies in a coma from which even the best prognosis is devastating, the relationship between Garrison and Liza became strained. While Liza blamed herself in a way for letting Angel and Troy left for a concert on a rainy night, she is also hoping that she would lent some support from Garrison but his anger and resentment got into the way.

But seeing the critical stage Angel is facing and their heartache over her builds, Garrison and Liza began to question themselves and at the same time, struggle to rediscover who they once were and who they were meant to be. They discover that besides praying for Angel, the other only way they could do for her is to focus all their strength and love to help heal Angel, meanwhile also refocusing their relationship and bringing back the faith and to forgive each other.

Song of Renewal is a great inspirational story without being preachy. Reading this story has made me appreciate my life and my family more than ever. Each family has its story, and no matter how good or bad life is, it always takes trust, faith and love in building and making the bonds stronger, and of course, not forgetting forgiveness and commitment.

I also liked how the story is nicely wrapped up in the end. After all, one must not loses hope and through the miracles and the power of love, one would expect his ray of rainbow after every storm. Don't you think so?

I want to thank Joan Schulhafer and Joy Strazza for sending this book to me for review!

~*~*~*~*~*

The author, Emily Sue Harvey says that grief and therapy catapulted her into writing. She has written numerous essays for Chicken Soup for the Soul and the Chocolate for Women series and Song of Renewal is her first novel. Much of her work grows from reflections on everyday events - life changing and ordinary. Determined to make a difference in people's lives through her writing, she imbues her work with moments from her own life - the good and the bad. The result, she hopes, are stories and messages that stress joy and the promise of triumph as they draw people out and share the struggle of moving forward.

Click here to read more about Emily Sue Harvey and other renewal stories.

Dewey:The Small-Town Library Cat Who Touched the World

ISBN-13: 9780446407410
Publisher: Grand Central Publishing
Published: September 2008
277 pgs


From the blurb:

How much of an impact can an animal have? How many lives can one cat touch? How is it possible for an abandoned kitten to transform a small library, save a classic American town, and eventually become famous around the world? You can't even begin to answer those questions until you hear the charming story of Dewey Readmore Books, the beloved library cat of Spencer, Iowa.

Dewey's story starts in the worst possible way. Only a few weeks old, on the coldest night of the year, he was stuffed into the returned book slot at the Spencer Public Library. He was found the next morning by library director, Vicki Myron, a single mother who had survived the loss of her family farm, a breast cancer scare, and an alcoholic husband. Dewey won her heart, and the hearts of the staff, by pulling himself up and hobbling on frostbitten feet to nudge each of them in a gesture of thanks and love. For the next nineteen years, he never stopped charming the people of Spencer with his enthusiasm, warmth, humility, (for a cat) and, above all, his sixth sense about who needed him most.

As his fame grew from town to town, then state to state, and finally, amazingly, worldwide, Dewey became more than just a friend; he became a source of pride for an extraordinary Heartland farming town pulling its way slowly back from the greatest crisis in its long history.

Dewey (Dewey Readmore Books, as in full) was not your ordinary cat. Named in honour of the Dewey Decimal System, he was discovered by Vicki Myron, a library director of the Spencer Public Library on a frigid January morning in 1988. Someone had dropped him into the library's returned book slot and let him freezes there, but this cruel act did not stop Dewey from trusting people in future, in fact he let people petted him, squeezed him, fondled him and never showed any signs of biting or getting away. Vicki decided to keep him, and he became the first library cat of Spencer Public Library.

But this is not all about Dewey, there is also story of Spencer, the small town and how the farm crisis of the 1980s affected the residents, and the farmers in particular and how they had rebuild and made things seem right and normal again. Dewey was an inspiration to them all, because he made them believe that a terrible event may turn out to be the best thing that ever happened, just like the way he survived through the bitterly cold night and ended up as the library cat. His confidence, his trust and his sociality charmed most library patrons, both children and adults.

Not only did Dewey bring hope to Spencer, but he also reached out to the people as well when they were feeling a loss of confidence or simply having a bad day. Dewey seemed to be able to know their moods and he would jump into their laps and allow them to pet him. Occasionally, he was being pushed away but rejection never deterred him. Then things started to change; the older patrons who came to the library to flip through magazines or browse for books started to show up more frequently and stayed in the library longer. And their conversations would lead towards Dewey. There was one scenario of a man who looked through the job listings in the library and he was always quiet and unflappable, and whenever Dewey approached him, he would push him away until one day, Dewey was sitting on his lap and the man was smiling for the first time, even though there was sadness in his eyes. This was a fine example how much impact Dewey had made on people. He was always so warming and trusting.

There was a stage where Vicki experienced an emotional distance with her teenaged daughter, Jodi and it was Dewey which brought their relations closer again. There was also a time when Vicki found out there were lumps in her breasts and she needed to have a surgery. Dewey's company made the difference as he would sit on her and snuggled in her arms. Soon news of him began to spread worldwide and the media started to take notice of him.

Alas, old age is slowly creeping on Dewey and he began to show signs of loss of hearing and sickness. The library board directors were concerned about these but Vicki had argued and explained that old cats, or even older people have something to teach everyone, or at least to ourselves if not about the world. In the end, Dewey stayed. It was only towards the end when I read about Dewey's death that set tears to my eyes. His story, his life journey and what he had done to the people had touched me, but that is not all, I was equally moved by Vicki's story as well. A purr-fect and inspiring read which I highly recommend to anyone, cat lover or not.

Christmas Jars

ISBN: 1590384814
Publisher: Shadow Mountain
Published: 2005
122 pgs

From the back cover:

Hope Jensen is a young, single woman and an aspiring newspaper writer, and when she receives a much-needed but anonymous Christmas gift, she's determined to find her benefactor. That search leads her to an unusual family with a longstanding Christmas tradition. Sensing a front-page feature article, Hope desperately wants to publish their story, but doing so would be a breach of trust. What she decides to do will change her life forever.

Destined to become a classic Christmas tale, Christmas Jars is a heartwarming story that will restore your faith in mankind and make you want to start your own Christmas Jar tradition.

Louise Jensen is expecting a quiet and peaceful Christmas Eve, just like it had been for her for the previous years. However, something, or someone unusual expecting for her when she dines alone at Chuck's Chicken 'n' Biscuits, the usual place where she always spent her Christmas Eve dinner. Seeing the abandoned baby behind her booth and knowing this was no random moment, Louise reaches out to her and decides to bring her home, naming her Hope.

Hope Jensen turns out to be a cheerful and bright little girl; she has big dreams of being a newspaper writer and aimed to be the next great American journalist besides Bernstein, Woodward and Graham. Through patience and hard work, she works her way up slowly. Just when things seem bright and hopeful for her, Louise told her she has cancer. But this news does not discourage them any further as they continue to be positive and supportive of each other. Unfortunately, Louise lose the battle in the end.

Feeling loss and sad, Hope turns to her work and work even harder than before. Then it happened one night someone broke into her apartment and stole away her things. After making a report and the police collected all the evidence, she finds a brown sack sitting inside the open apartment door. It is large glass jar filled with money.

Curious and eager to find out who and why someone left the money jar with her, she decided to do a little investigation and write a story on it, and hoping that one day it will make it to the front page. It then leads her to the Maxwell family, and soon Hope gets closer to the family as they share with her stories about their Christmas Jars and how they started this tradition. But writing this story will be a breach of trust and in the end, what she did and the moral behind this little story will touch your heart and makes you think of the Christmas spirit and the power of giving.

Though the story a little short in my opinion, the message behind this story is both heartwarming and a powerful one. The Christmas Jar tradition really interests me and I might want to start one myself one day. This is a true Christmas classic which I will find myself reading again and again during the festive seasons.

Other blog review:
Stephanie's Confessions of a Book-a-holic