Book Review: Molina by Bengie Molina with Joan Ryan

This book is a deviation from what I normally review here. Almost all of my reviews have been on fiction titles. This  is a non-fiction work,  so we are branching out here at JABG.

I received this book as a gift from my in-laws and was very excited to receive it. I'm a lifelong St. Louis Cardinals fan and have been watching Yadier Molina play for many years so it was interesting to get some insight on his life and upbringing through the eyes of his brother.

This book is well written and very readable.  Some non-fiction titles are slow and hard to read but not so with this book; it reads like a fiction title.

The story of the Molina family is very amazing if you think about it. One family that put three children into the Major Leagues and all of them as catchers. This book takes us on the journey of the boys learning to play from their father, who is referred to as Pai throughout the book. Pai was a beloved member of his community and quite the baseball player in his own right. It was so amazing to see the influence he had on not only his family, but his entire town.

It was also pretty cool to see life through the eyes of Bengie Molina who worked hard to get into the major leagues. He seemed to have to put in more time and effort than his brothers did. It was a great story of perseverance.

I would recommend this book to anyone that is into baseball or into books that have a great message for life in general about not giving up and seeing your dreams through to the end.

Overall I give this book a 4/5

An unplanned break

Hey all, it's been a long time since my last post. I apologize for that. Apparently I decided to take a 6 month break from posting. Rest assured this blog is still alive and well and will have new content soon. I'm reading 3 different books right now that should be done within a week or so and then there will be new posts happening again. As always, thanks for the support of this blog.

A Book Review: The Last Words of the Holy Ghost by Matt Cashion

Last Words of the Holy Ghost is a Gothic short story book. A little disclaimer here; short stories and gothic are not two genres I generally like to read in. So, there was some bias coming into my reading of this book.

As I read the first short story I must say that I was not a huge fan because I didn't like the language and I feel like the story just ended very abruptly without closure of any kind. This is what drives me nuts about short stories; I never feel like the story is developed enough or that it ends in a way that is satisfying to me as a reader.

I tried to read a couple more of the stories and just couldn't get into them.

Having said those things, I think that this book will indeed appeal to folks who enjoy short stories and the gothic genre. I'm just not that person.

I would like to thank University of North Texas Press for an opportunity to take a look at this book. 

A Book Review: Grief Light by Julie Yarbrough

Grief Light by Julie Yarbrough is a wonderful devotional that talks about grief. She breaks it down into 6 sections. They are entitled: 

1. Shadow Light
2. Life Light
3. Grace Light
4. Love Light
5. Hope Light
6. Joy Light

Each section has devotions that focus on each kind of light. The layout of this book is very well done. The devotions are each about 2 pages long. They begin with some thoughts from Julie or a story about her life and her dealings with grief and then she transitions into a paragraph or two on thoughts from the bible and always includes a bible verse that's applicable to the topic and then ends it with a short prayer. This is a very well done devotional and it's well worth having on your shelf, if not for yourself then for someone you know who is struggling with grief. It would make a great gift for someone who is going through the grieving process.

Julie is a fantastic writer. It's sometimes hard to get all your thoughts in and make them coherent in a two page layout, but she does it well. I didn't find any of these devotions to be disjointed or all over the place as some people are in the habit of doing. They are on point, well thought out, and written wonderfully. 

This is a great devotional and you can't go wrong picking up a copy for yourself.