(a discussion of the tasks, timelines, and needed talent for the Search Committee)

Good Book Column
Hello Readers:  Here are our new contributions.

Carol Partington:  I recently read this nonfiction book by Conor Grennan, Little Princes.
It was subtitled "One Man's Promise to Bring Home the Lost Children of Nepal". It was an enchanting story that captured my heart.  Conor volunteered in an orphanage in wartorn Nepal, called Little Princes Children's Home. After some time there he discovered that the children were not really orphans. Their families had paid for them to be taken by a man who promised a better life for them. Then he had warehoused them in homes that could barely feed them.  After his initial time volunteering in the home, Conor kept coming back.   He became deeply connected to the children and committed to reuniting them with their families against all odds.  The book was published in 2010.

Mary Satterwhite:  The Wave, by Sonali Deraniyagala.  This is an engrossing account of Somali Deraniyagala's experience when the Sri Lanka tsunami wiped out her entire family on December 26, 2004. She lost her husband, her two children, and both her parents in the surge. Following the event, she went into a deep depression with frequent thoughts of suicide, a condition she lived in several years before she finally took up her life again. This book is beautifully written, filled with anguish yet beauty. Over the course of the book she relives her life with her family, detailing the richness of her childhood in Sri Lanka and her love of her husband and her children. It is so well written that one can almost feel the turmoil of the waves as they tossed and tumbled her before they spit her out, alone, on the sand. It is definitely worth the read.

Peggy and Jack McNair:  We are reading the Mistmantle Chronicles by M. I. McAllister. It's a wonderful series of books for young readers, about the adventures of animals living on the island of Mistmantle. It is not a religious book, but it has spiritual themes of good and evil, faith, hatred, courage, etc. I'm glad we found it!

Peggy Mansfield:  The Bride Quartet Series-Happy Ever After is a series by number one best selling romance author, Nora Roberts. Though the four books have been out for some time, they are light-hearted, fun, and very predictable if you have not read them. Involved are four childhood best friends who grew up to plan and stage weddings. Early background reveals the friends spending hours during their childhood staging the perfect wedding. From their animals that were dressed for various parts to the exchange of parts by the girls it seems their playtime events evolved into their eventual business. The planner, the baker, the photographer, and the floral designer had each perfected their role in the wedding industry and then find themselves taking their own walk down the aisle.  Hardly a thought provoking read but each book is a fun look into the personalities, expertise, and relationships of the four friends.  Caution! Guys may or may not enjoy this series.

Thanks to our contributors.  Summer is coming up, so it's a perfect time to hear from our readers about some good  light reading that we can take on our vacations.   I look forward to hearing from you.

Editor, Carol Baker