Books and a new year just seem to go together! Today, I’m sharing 5 books that I plan to read this year…at some point anyway. Some I’ve had for a little while, others, I just got and one I haven’t bought yet, because it’s not in print yet. So, without further ado, let’s dive in! (Disclaimer: These aren’t exactly endorsements; I’ve only read a draft of one of these. So don’t take this as a recommendation until a positive review goes up 😉)

Speak Truth in Your Heart by Sarah Mally

I received this book for Christmas, and I am so excited to read it! Sarah Mally is a favorite of mine (though I wish all her stuff was King James) and I adored her book Before You Meet Prince Charming. This is her most recent book and teaches how to immerse yourself in the truths of God in order to avoid belief in the lies of the devil…even the ones you don’t realize are lies. I’ve started this one already and I’m loving it so far!
 
The Last Jihad by Joel C. Rosenberg

I read his book The Auschwitz Escape last year and enjoyed his writing style. After reviewing it, so many people told me I had to read The Last Jihad. And I just happened to have it. (Goodwill finds, y’all!) I know it’s supposed to be about the possibility of a terrorist overthrow, but other than that, I’m actually not quite sure.  So…we’ll see if I end up liking it or not 😉
 
Unbroken: Young Adult Edition by Laura Hillenbrand

Since I enjoyed the original (minus some edits…) I figure this one will be even better, since I know certain words won’t be in there and probably a few scenes as well. Looking forward to proofing this one for my siblings!
 
Through All Things by Malachi Cyr

This is a historical fiction I bought in a sale in 2018…so yeah, I need to read this. From what I read about it, it’s set about the time of the French and Indian War and may involve a character going on a search for a kidnapped younger sister and her friend. I’m thinking along the lines of Alone, Yet Not Alone, though that is another book I haven’t read…
 
Tattered Wings by Kassie Angle

I cannot wait for this book to release! I was privileged to get to beta read this book prior to final edits and let me tell you, even there it was good! I can’t wait to read the final copy…and hold it in my hands! The cover is just gorgeous too!

So that's it for today! Have a blessed Weekend!
Ryana Lynn
Jude 22

And I’m back with the third review out of 4 (so far! Book 7 was just announced!) of the Soldier Dog Series and y’all! This one was one of my favorites! I’ve mentioned this before, but our ministry is located near Cherry Point Marine Air Station, so when I read this story, I couldn’t help but picture some of the fellows that have attended our church over the years! It made for a fascinating reading experience! Let’s dive right in!

My Rating: 4.5 Stars

My Review: I’m gonna break tradition and tell you the one thing I didn’t like about this book first, that way, I don’t have to break from all my squealing later *grins*. The one thing that stood out to me was the fact that the author really doesn’t seem to like the fact that America owns the country of Guam. Did we get it fairly? I have no idea. Should we let the people be independent from us? I don’t know. All I know is that the author is planting the idea of American’s being good bad guys subtly in this story and I didn’t like that at all. But it was a minor issue touched on maybe twice towards the beginning and is easy to fix. Maybe this is a conversation that should be had, whether Guam should be it’s own country or not, but this isn’t a conversation that should involve impressionable kids, who are already being attacked with anti-American sentiment enough through various media/education outlets. Let the kids love their country! *clears throat and steps off soapbox 😉*

Now, on to the good stuff. First off, can we just adore that cover? There is something so pleasing about a jungle, all the green and that gorgeous dog! Okay, Dobermans are not my favorite, per say, but they are cute in a dorky kind of way! And this dog in the story! He’s so good!

I loved how we got to see the plight of the natives on Guam without it becoming too violent or gory for children. And even though there were battle/medical sequences, I don’t think the descriptions were too much for young ones to stomach. It has a good balance of valor and reality of war to make children admire the GIs and realize war is not a game.

AND THE MARINES! Okay, I’m a total Army girl, but the hospital scene at the end was so good and so Marine Corps! I could go on and on about it! It was so good! I told my family about it and all of us are like, “That better be a true story, because that is true Marine Corps Spirit, right there!” You have to read the book for no other reason than to read that one scene! I still haven’t found out if it really happened or not, but I’m looking into it!

So yes, this was one of the best books in the series! Be sure to check it out!

Be sure and keep your eye open for our next post about 5 books I want to read in 2020!

God Bless!
Ryana Lynn
Jude 22

I’m so excited to be bringing back another post in my Soldier Life Series! This series (for anyone not familiar) is a compilation of posts I’m writing about the life of a soldier during the War Between the States. These are unbiased posts (North and South pretty much ran their armies the same way) and are meant to be a help to those writing about the War Between the States, or to inform those who are just interested in 1860’s of some of the inner workings of nineteenth century soldiering. It’s not an exhaustive guide, but I do hope it saves another writer from having to run all over the place to get basic information! Let’s get into it!

Captains were in command of a company, which could be infantry, cavalry or artillery, respectively. A company consisted of 100 men, divided. He would also accompany his men to battle, giving orders and acting under the commands of the Colonels (Regiments) and Generals (Brigades, etc.)

 (Information Sourced from: Here and Here. You can find more details on this site that I won’t be covering here for the sake of brevity 😉)

As Company commander, the Captain is responsible for keeping up the morale of his men, through whatever justifiable means he can. He is also responsible for recommending promotion and demotion of non-commission officers (Sergeants and Corporals) and for meting out punishments for misbehavior and rewards for valor and service.

Not only did they enforce the discipline of his company and lift the spirits and stir the heart of the warrior, but the Captain was also expected to be well versed in military tactics and insure that his subordinates knew how to train the men in the performance of these tactics. One was never to stop learning. It was also a means of controlling the men and insuring that they behaved as befitted soldiers of their respective countries.

The Captain had to have his colonel’s agreement to promote or demote a soldier in his command. This prevented favoritism from taking hold of the chain of command, as even the best of commanders could fall to.

An interesting point on the relationship between the Captain and the First Sergeant was noted from this Source …

“The Captain must always sustain his First Sergeant, and the other non-commissioned officers, as far as is consistent with justice; above all things he should not appear to take sides with the men against them.  If the non-commissioned officers do wrong, they may be punished for it as any other man in the company, but where the matter is simply an error of judgment, the non-commissioned officer should be privately corrected, instructed, or reproved, as may be deemed necessary, but never in the presence of the men.  The men must be taught to respect their non-commissioned officers, and to recognize their authority to the fullest extent.”

When a soldier was mistreated by his First Sergeant (ex. Struck by the sergeant unjustly), he did not have the right to fight back. Instead of lowering himself to that level (unless, of course, the officer intended him fatal harm), the soldier was to personally report the incident to his Captain, who would investigate and punish the offender, just as though he were one of the men.

One of the things that made the Captain close with his men was the fact that he was (supposed to be) always there. He was to be there for any and all matters of business, great and small, to hear of grievances and requests and encourage the men to maintain discipline and a fighting spirit. His attitude greatly effected his men. If he seemed not to care about the success of his company in battle, neither would they.

More than anyone, the Captain has control over his men. It’s his job to make sure they understand their duty, follow it, and if they fail, investigate and punish the guilty party to insure no repeats from the offender or his fellows.

The men look up to their Captain. He needs to be brave, fearless even, assuring them that they can accomplish their goal. He needs to foster a respectable relationship with his men by seeing to even the simplest of issues that are brought to his attention. The men need to know he cares about them and that they can trust him.

There is also administrative duties the Captain must attend to, supply issues, reports to write, review or send out, but for sake of brevity, I’ll not give you the laundry list 😉 Refer to this link if you wish to know more (scroll down to the point that says “Administration”).

There is also the role of Officer of the day, which is basically an honor bestowed on different Captains in the regiments, with additional administrative duties attached to it. But because this can tend to get a bit dull, I will give you this link in case any of you would like more details.

That’s it for now! Next time this series roles around, we will be taking a look at the Major!

Have a blessed day!
Ryana Lynn
Jude 22

And as promised in this post, I am finally ready to post the rest of my reviews for the Soldier Dogs series! Well, I only have 4, and there will be at least 6 before it’s all said and done, but I have to get my hands on 5 and 6 first, so…

Inspired by the stories of the real dogs who courageously served during World War II, this action-packed book takes readers into the action during the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor.

When Skipper, the street dog all the Navy guys love, follows Joe home, Joe can’t believe his luck. But with a new baby brother in the house, he knows his family can’t afford the extra mouth to feed.

So he and his friends hatch a perfect plan: present Skipper to Joe’s dad, who works on the USS West Virginia, as a mascot dog for the ship. But when Joe is interrupted by the Japanese surprise attack on the harbor, it may be up to Skipper to make sure they all make it out alive.

Published 2018 by HarperCollins

My Rating: 2 Stars

My Review: This story had a unique kid’s eye-view of the battle of Pearl Harbor. Skipper was such a sweet dog and how they get involved in the action is quite entertaining, but deceptive. And since there was no mention of the boy being reprimanded later, I’m not too keen on that.

But to be honest, this book was a disappointment. The author went out of his way to make sure the readers knew blacks and whites hated each other…which wasn’t always true. In fact, for the most part, the two races got along pretty well in the 1940s. Yes, there was bigotry. I will not deny that. But it goes both ways, as this story unintentionally reveals. In trying to overstate that prejudice exists, the story doesn’t come off as “all people are created equal” but rather, “A white person treated me bad; therefore, all white people are bad. And if I meet one that is kind, he’s the exception.” While I am all for explaining the sin of bigotry to young people as a means of preventing them from falling into that, I do not condone putting down another race to lift up another. And comparing the bigotry of the sailor to the racism of Hitler was taking it way too far. While both are wrong, there is a marked difference between disliking someone for something they cannot help (nor need to, there is nothing wrong with anyone’s skin color) and wanting to kill them because of it. Big difference. The handling of this subject matter significantly dropped my rating. It had potential, but it missed the mark completely.

The author also made it seem like no one cared that Hawaiians were killed in the attack. In reality, the fact that civilians were killed in a military engagement gave the American people even more reason to support our going to war with Japan.

And I believe I also had to mark out a few bad words, but this was easily fixed.

The historical aspect of the story was well done. It was easy to be swept into the story and think that you were right there. I thank God I have never had to witness an attack such as that in person. (I did watch the Twin Towers fall on TV as a child, but like I said, it was on a screen.) It’s a frightening thing to imagine. It does make you appreciate all our Soldiers, Sailors, Airmen, Marines, and Coastguardsmen do to keep us safe, often under the radar. (BTW, please be in prayer for our troops more than ever in these uncertain times. They need God’s protection, guidance and wisdom.)

Overall, I would only recommend this book if you have the time and desire to edit/explain the problems to your child/younger sibling. Otherwise…I’d recommend you save your money.

That’s it for now! Our next post will be a history post, so be sure and keep an eye out for that!

Have a Blessed Day!
Ryana Lynn
Jude 22

There is only so much time in a day and only so many days in a year. And yet there are so many things we wish to accomplish. How can we ever get it all done, especially when one is writing a novel? Well, today, we are going to look at the art of setting goals and see how I am planning to get a novel written this year!

1. Pick your project. This one seems like a no brainer, but when setting goals, you must select one project to break down into goals. Sure, you can work on multiple projects at once, but when setting your goals, it’s crucial to stay focused. For the sake of illustration, I will select “A Song of Home” as my sample project. (No, you will not see my real timeline 😉. This is just for example.)

2. List the steps needed to accomplish your goal. Take out a sheet of paper and map out everything that needs to be done from start to finish. You may find that you need to add more steps as you progress, and that’s fine! Just get down the basics.

Ex. Brainstorm Novel, draft, revise, edit, team edit, beta-readers/proof edit, publish, market.

3. Set your deadlines. Be sure you have at least a tentative schedule of when (realistically) you want to have these goals met. Now, I’m in a ministry family. We travel…a lot. We get meetings spur of the moment that throws my plans to the wind. So give yourself grace if you have to take several weeks (months, years) to realistically complete a goal.

Ex. Brainstorm, 2 weeks; Draft, 3-6 months (depending on the length of the novel, how well you have it outlined, etc.); Revise, 1 month; Edit, 2 months; Beta-Read/Proof, 1 month; publish, set tentative month you want it out by. The turnaround time for printing and binding varies according to who you use and what time of year you order; Market…you never really stop, so this one doesn’t need a time limit. (Disclosure: These are totally random time slots I chose for this example and do not represent the ideal timeline. You do what works for you. I’m not even sure I could follow this!)

4. Break Up your steps. This is kind of like Step 2. Take each step and divide them into mini-steps.

Ex. Brainstorm: Book synopsis/blurb; picture file; playlist; outline; character questionnaire, etc.

5. Set Deadlines. Yep, this again! Look at the time frame you’ve given yourself and assign a deadline to each mini-step to help you accomplish your goal. This can also help you take stock of how realistic your plan is.

Ex. Brainstorm (2 Weeks): Book synopsis/blurb, 1-2 days; picture file, ongoing; playlist, 1 day; outline, 1 week; character questionnaire, 1 week. Okay, so it looks like this might be accomplished in 2 weeks if you multitask, but better safe than sorry. I’ll give myself another three days.

6. Get to it! Once your plan is in place, jump in, and get to work! And try to stick to your plan. Again, the unexpected happens. This is simply a tool to help you avoid laziness and procrastination. Don’t beat yourself up if other commitments call you away and throw everything off. Adjust and carry on!

This really can apply to any long-term project you want to accomplish.

I hope this post is a help to you and makes your writing/life process less stressful.

Have a blessed day!
Ryana Lynn
Jude 22