Name: Lori Horst
Date registered: June 13, 2011
This is a post by Contributor Lori Horst. To learn more about Lori, go to the About page.
Honolulu
Regret has a constant quest not only for acceptance and love, but also for education. This quest leads her away from Korea as a “picture bride” to a Korean man in Hawai’i. Her life in Hawai’i is a culture shock, an adventure and also an awakening.
Regret, who renames herself Jin, is a lovely and kind character who you’d like to know in real life and whose fictional life is fascinating to follow.
Disclosure: This book was purchased by the reviewer and no compensation was received for the review. The Amazon links are affiliate links which means if you make a purchase using these links I receive a small percentage from the sale. Thank you for your support!
This is a post by Contributor Lori Horst. To learn more about Lori, go to the About page.
So many of us talk about how we’d like to help out others, how we’d like to give back if we could, but we often don’t follow our words with actions. Here are a few small ways that you can actually help someone whose life is filled with many more hardships than your own.
1. Kiva
This is a website where you loan $25 to a person of your choice so that they may start a business. You can read about the businesses and the people and choose accordingly. Your money is refunded to you once the person has made a profit. You will receive your money back in increments usually of a few dollars until it is all back in your kiva account. At that point, you can take all $25 back, or you can re-loan it. I have funded over 3 people’s businesses with the same re-loaned $25. One Christmas, I gave kiva gift certificates to my friends in lieu of other gifts. The coolest parts of this site are that you control where your money is going and also you can get it back. This would be a great way to teach your children about giving or would be a good way to connect with friends by funding an entire business together.
This is a website which sells a variety of handmade items (mostly jewelry) made by impoverished women of Uganda, Africa. The proceeds of the sale go back to these women to help fund their businesses, and to educate themselves and their children (In all of Africa, there are no public or “free” schools.) It is very simple to host a “bead party” of your own. Simply log on to the site, tell the date of the bead party (usually needs 3-4 weeks advance notice), and submit a credit card number and address. What will happen is that you will be sent a large box filled with necklaces, bracelets, earrings and more to sell at your bead party. Instructions are very clear with your box. It even includes Ugandan recipes if you would like to make it a theme party. You then invite friends and host the party. Guests pay in cash or checks for their beautiful pieces of jewelry. You’ll find the jewelry very affordable (ranging from $5 to about $35). You then send back the jewelry not purchased, the money raised (follow the instructions included about this), and your credit card will never be charged. It was simply a precaution in case you never sent back the jewelry. I have hosted many of these and usually can raise about $1000 in one party for these Ugandan women. It would be a great activity for a women’s group or a church bazaar or a school group. The jewelry makes great gifts as well. I usually held a party right before Mother’s Day at my school and also in November (to buy for Christmas gifts). Beadforlife is a simple and lovely way to give back to women in need in Africa.
For the fourth post in my Adoption Series, contributor Lori Larson Horst shares tips for those considering adoption in the form of questions and answers. This is a subject that has been near and dear to her heart for many years. You can learn more about Lori on the About page.
1. Where will we adopt?
This is a deeply personal choice, and when we decided on international adoption, we narrowed our choice to Africa and then to one of the 3 countries currently open. In Africa, only Rwanda, Uganda and Ethiopia are open to outside adoption by the major agencies. Many people chose China or another Asian country as a place to adopt as these countries have been in this business (for lack of a better word) for many years.
We opted against domestic adoption due to the restrictions and possible negative outcomes. Depending on your type of domestic adoption, the adopted child may be taken back by his or her biological mother up until his or her 18th birthday. We felt we couldn’t deal with that type of heartache.
via bringinghomebabychapman.blogspot.com
2. What agency will we use?
This is a difficult decision. I recommend Googling several and then sending off for information and making a pro and con list of the agencies you receive. Things to look for:
3. How much will it cost?
The prices range with countries. You can’t usually access that information without signing up with a particular agency. International adoption ranges with country, and in my research, South Korea was the most expensive and Ethiopia the least. When you research, you may find a different result because it changes according to agency and year. Suffice to say, you will need at least $15,000 and that is a very, very low estimate. I would recommend making a savings account and compiling the funds before you proceed.
4. What will my family say?
About adoption, usually the responses are: when and why? And also, the common question arises: are you going to have “your own” kids? Be prepared to explain your timeline and reasoning behind adoption. It’s also a good time to remind them that this child will be “your own” whether or not he or she is a biological child.
About international adoption, the response usually is why not domestic adoption? Again, be ready to explain your thought processes to your family members and understand that some people will never come on board with this idea. Most are usually happy with the idea, but others are prejudiced against adoption completely.
About interracial adoption, the response sometimes is about the differences of race. I would affirm that love and compassion reaches beyond racial barriers. It is better to have a child loved and cared for rather than abandoned simply because the child looks different than his or her parents.
5. How long will it take?
Expect anywhere from 6 months to 2 years, usually, once the paperwork is filed. This varies greatly due to country and, well, Murphy’s law.
This is a post by Contributor Lori Horst. To learn more about Lori, go to the About page.
Cleopatra: A Life
via kingtutshop.com
Everyone knows Cleopatra and many of her exploits and experiences, but this biography makes her truly come alive. She was not the great beauty soon to be portrayed by Angelina Jolie on the big screen. Instead Cleopatra’s allure had nothing to do with beauty, but with charm and intelligence. She lived in a country where women were the equals of men in a time when that was not only unheard of, but also unholy.
Schiff’s footnotes are sometimes even more interesting than her prose above it (so don’t skip them!). Unfailingly fair and well-researched, this biography is a must-read and happily, it is even more read-able than a novel. I would HIGHLY recommend it to anyone and hope the great Cleopatra will live on due to this remarkable book.
This is a post by Contributor Lori Horst. To learn more about Lori, go to the About page.
Don’t Breathe a Word
Looking like a good ghost story, or a simple suspenseful summer read, this book tempted me at Barnes and Noble. I should’ve left it there. Filled with ideas striving at the fantastical, but always falling flat, this book is rather a waste of time.
via goodreads.com
The ending left it open for a sequel in pure blockbuster fashion, but unfortunately, the characters were so boring or inconsistent that I could care less about what happens to them. The premise of a town disappearing completely and the idea that fairies were involved promised to be dark and filled with magic. Instead, it was an undone world seemingly patched together by recollections and observations of bland characters.
McMahon has written other suspenseful stories, but based on the quality of this one, I won’t be buying them.
Have you recently read a book that disappointed you?
This is a post by Contributor Lori Horst. To learn more about Lori, go to the About page.
Cover of The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks
The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks
This book traces the facts and the people surrounding the discovery and use of the famous HeLa cells, but most importantly, this book tells Henrietta’s story. The book begins by telling the reader that everything in it is true. That is a daunting statement, but it is verified throughout the book. Many times a true story lacks the flourish of a fiction, but that is not the case with this book. Not only will “cell culture” be revealed to the reader, but also a tender rendering of Henrietta and her family. Her family is fully-fleshed as characters with flaws and compassion and most of all, humanity. This book is a compelling read and should be something anyone who has benefited from HeLa cells should know about.
This is a post by Contributor Lori Horst. To learn more about Lori, go to the About page.
Fall On Your Knees
The book centers around one family living in Canada from the early to mid 1900s. The parents, James and Materia Piper, have a complicated relationship at the best of times. Their daughters are the true stars of the story. Beginning with the luminescent Kathleen with the voice of an angel and the glittering quality of a star and also a yearning for something more, MacDonald weaves a story that is equally character- and plot driven. Her characters are so moving and fully fleshed, that when you finish the book, you might mourn the loss of them. Yet MacDonald isn’t too attached to the characters that she doesn’t allow the story to flow in painful and shocking directions.
This book isn’t for the faint of heart as it has controversial and sometimes horrid events in it. It is still, despite that, a powerful and compassionate story of a family torn apart and in the end, somehow patched together again.
This is a post by Contributor Lori Horst. To learn more about Lori, go to the About page.
Sidney Poitier is an unparalleled talent on the Hollywood screen with amazing movies such as Lilies of the Field (for which he was the first African American to win an Oscar), To Sir, With Love and Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner. His “spiritual autobiography” is essentially a journey through his life that emphasizes his thoughts even more than his actions. It begins with the idyllic Cat Island where Poitier was born and lived in childhood. The island has a magical quality and the chapters dedicated to it are also magical.
Cover via Amazon
Poitier’s family’s move to Nassau brought with it the promise of a job, but also the poison of racism. Poitier will then immigrate to Miami where racism plays a major role in his move north to New York City. He will find his biggest enemy to be the winter that his Caribbean blood is unprepared for.
Throughout the book, Poitier offers spots of wisdom based usually on his experiences. One such gem is:
“…I’ve learned that I must find positive outlets for anger or it will destroy me. I have to try to find a way to channel that anger to the positive, and the highest positive is forgiveness.”
The book does tend to become a stream-of-consciousness mental conversation towards the end that frankly, is rather tedious. Poitier’s charm as a writer comes through his stories and what he learns from them. Whenever he veers from that, the writing weakens. The memoir feels like a conversation with an interesting and intelligent man and is a conversation worth enjoying.
This is a post by Contributor Lori Horst. To learn more about Lori, go to the About page.
Nancy Mitford is probably best known for her novels The Pursuit of Love
via literarious.com
During Mitford’s lifetime, it was not reprinted because of a family falling-out regarding its characters who were obviously based on Mitford’s own family. The most controversial character is Eugenia Malmains, the wealthy, lovely and eccentric heiress whose current hobby horse is “social unionism” which essentially is Nazism wrapped in a Union Jack flag. When Mitford was writing Wigs on the Green in the mid 1930s, her sister Unity had essentially joined the Nazi party.
The novel Wigs on the Green offers a surprising glimpse at the attitude in England towards Germany pre-WW II and before Germany’s Nazi movement escalated to the horrors modern people associate with it. That said, Wigs on the Green is a humorous read. Nothing, not even Eugenia’s Union Jack movement, is taken seriously. Mitford again offers such spectacles of humanity like Mrs. Lace, the local beauty bent on greatness and filled with drama, or Jasper Aspect, the charming gentleman without funds who spends his days mooching off his friends and seeking out pleasure. One could easily see a Mrs. Lace or Jasper Aspect in modern-day life.
The action of the book takes place over the course of a few weeks when Noel Foster and Jasper Aspect decide to head to the sleepy town of Chalford to pursue an heiress, Eugenia. Eugenia, being consumed with the Union Jackshirt movement, quickly proves only amusing for her antics and not marriage-material. The action continues when two women come to Chalford one escaping an unwanted marriage with a duke and the other escaping a would-be adulterous husband. When Noel encounters the beautiful Mrs. Lace, they embark on one of the novel’s most ridiculous love affairs. The true entertainment of the novel culminates in a garden party gone awry, which is where the name Wigs on the Green comes from.
Mitford has created a charming, eccentric world that would be perfectly delightful to read, yet is somewhat jarring to a modern audience because of its references to “social unionism”. Still, Wigs on the Green is a character-driven, funny novel that shouldn’t be left on the shelf because of its lack of political correctness.
This is a post by Contributor Lori Horst. To learn more about Lori, go to the About page.
Ron Rash is a Carolinian author whose books generally have a deep sense of place, usually in the mountains of North or South Carolina. Rash often has an obvious yet well-intended and at times heroic theme of environmentalism. This environmental theme almost always has a David and Goliath overtone. Rash’s David is the lone person or group trying to save these mountains or stream and his Goliath is the big, bad, money-driven business bent on destroying them.
via Amazon.com
In previous novels (One Foot in Eden
Rash tells in his interview about the book that he modeled Serena after Christopher Marlowe’s Tamburlaine
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