The Magic Strings of Frankie Presto by Mitch Albom

About the Book

★★★★★

Mitch Albom creates a magical world through his love of music in this remarkable new novel about the power of talent to change our lives.

This is the epic story of Frankie Presto – the greatest guitar player who ever lived – and the six lives he changed with his six magical blue strings

Frankie, born in a burning church, abandoned as an infant, and raised by a music teacher in a small Spanish town, until war rips his life apart. At nine years old, he is sent to America in the bottom of a boat. His only possession is an old guitar and six precious strings. His amazing journey weaves him through the musical landscape of the 1940s, ’50s and ’60s, with his stunning playing and singing talent affecting numerous stars (Duke Ellington, Hank Williams, Elvis Presley) until, as if predestined, he becomes a pop star himself.

He makes records. He is adored. But Frankie Presto’s gift is also his burden, as he realizes the power of the strings his teacher gave him, and how, through his music, he can actually affect people’s lives. At the height of his popularity, tortured by his biggest mistake, he vanishes. His legend grows. Only decades later, having finally healed his heart, does Frankie reappear just before his spectacular death – to change one last life. With the Spirit of Music as our guide, we glimpse into the lives that were changed by one man whose strings could touch the music – and the magic – in each of us. 

A lifelong musician, Mitch Albom’s passion shines through on every page. Written with an ear for rhythm and cadence, The Magic Strings of Frankie Presto is a classic in the making. Heartrending and inventive, Albom’s latest is infused with the message that “everyone joins a band in this life” – and that music, like love, has the power to affect us all.

I didn’t know quite what to expect when I picked up The Magic Strings of Frankie Presto, but for some reason, I certainly didn’t expect to enjoy it as much as I did. Now, I can easily say, it is a highly enjoyable and worthwhile read, and I have no problem recommending it. In this novel, Mitch Albom tells a captivating, musical, beautiful tale of the life of Frankie Presto. Well-written with a great style and full of interesting characters, The Magic Strings of Frankie Presto is a surprisingly hard-to-put-down book and will not leave interested readers disappointed. Read it.

Thanks to TLC Book Tours, I received a copy of The Magic Strings of Frankie Presto and the opportunity to provide an honest review. I was not required to write a positive review, and all the opinions I have expressed are my own. To read other opinions of the novel, click here.

About the Author

Mitch Albom is a bestselling novelist, a screen-writer, a playwright, and an award-winning journalist. He is the author of six consecutive number-one New York Times bestsellers and has sold more than thirty-four million copies of his books in forty-two languages worldwide. Tuesdays with Morrie, which spent four years atop the New York Times list, is the bestselling memoir of all time.

Albom has founded seven charities, including the first-ever full-time medical clinic for homeless children in America. He also operates an orphanage in Port-au-Prince, Haiti. He lives with his wife, Janine, in suburban Detroit.

Find out more about Mitch at his website, connect with him on Facebook, follow him on Twitter, and sign up for his newsletter.

Waiting on Wednesday: At Love's Bidding

Hosted weekly by Breaking the Spine 
to spotlight eagerly-anticipated upcoming releases.

Title: At Love's Bidding

Author: Regina Jennings

Publisher: Bethany House

Expected Publication Date: 1 December 2015

After helping her grandfather at their Boston auction house, Miranda Wimplegate discovers she's accidentally sold a powerful family's prized portrait to an anonymous bidder. Desperate to appease the furious family, her grandfather tracks it to the Missouri Ozarks and makes an outlandish offer to buy the local auction house if they promise not to sell anything until he arrives.

Upon their arrival, however, they discover their new business doesn't deal in fine antiques, but in livestock. And its manager, ruggedly handsome Wyatt Ballentine, is frustrated to discover his fussy new bosses don't know a thing about the business he's single-handedly kept afloat. Faced with more cattle than they can count - but no mysterious painting - Miranda and Wyatt form an unlikely but charged partnership to try and salvage a bad situation getting worse.

Midnight Jesus: Where Struggle, Faith, and Grace Collide... by Jamie Blaine

★★★★★

The heart of God can be found in the unlikeliest places, in the unlikeliest people.

Jamie Blaine is an unconventional, and actually quite accidental, psychiatric crisis interventionist whose work takes him to "the least of these." A gifted storyteller, Blaine shares heart-wrenching and sometimes hilarious stories of everyday people who need to know God is there in their darkest hours – people dealing with secret shame, doubt, desperation, even suicide. Humans looking for wholeness, looking for Jesus.

Painting beauty where it seems none exists, Midnight Jesus helps readers transcend their own struggles, showing how truth can come from the strangest places. They will meet people like * Skeeter and Wookie, two homeless guys who show that community happens wherever there is shared need and a willingness to give * Pastor Ponder who holds an altar call after his sermon at the psych ward and says it's the best church service he's ever had * Kat, the tattooed hairdresser who dreams about Jesus and longs for spiritual connection, who shows that you can't judge a book by its cover * Jesus, who makes an invisible cameo in every story.

As Blaine writes, "I am one wrecked and dirty treasure, but God still decides I am worth the effort to save." Jamie Blaine is the kind of writer whose view of the commonplace transforms life into the transcendent.

In Midnight Jesus: Where Struggle, Faith, and Grace Collide, Jamie Blaine pulls together stories based on his various experiences and tells a unique and inspiring narrative of finding Jesus in the strangest places. With humor and grace, he portrays a cast of interesting, quirky characters from a variety of environments, including a roller rink, psych ward, and megachurch, and as he tells the stories surrounding them, I really enjoyed Blaine’s voice and perspective. Overall, Midnight Jesus is an engaging read, with thought-provoking insight, and I really liked it. I would have no problem recommending it to interested readers - it’s worth reading.

Thanks to BookLook Bloggers, I received a copy of Midnight Jesus and the opportunity to honestly review it. I was not required to write a positive review, and all the opinions I have expressed are my own. (I am disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission’s 16 CFR, Part 255: “Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising.”)

About the Author

Jamie Blaine is a licensed sex and suicide specialist who has worked in psych wards, megachurches, rehabs, radio stations, and roller rinks. He is the non-fiction editor of the L.A. literary collective The Nervous Breakdown, contributor to the online faith magazine OnFaith, writer for Salon.com, The Weeklings.com, Bass Guitar magazine, Drummer U.K. magazine & America's best-selling street paper The Nashville Contributor.

The Splendor of Ordinary Days by Jeff High

When several military veterans’ emotional wounds trigger anger and unrest in Watervalley, Dr. Luke Bradford learns some important lessons in service, courage, love, and sacrifice in The Splendor of Ordinary Days by Jeff High. As Luke struggles to understand Vietnam War veteran Luther’s past, and restore harmony in Watervalley, an unforeseen crisis shatters a relationship he values dearly.

Join Jeff in celebrating the release of The Splendor of Ordinary Days with a Kindle Fire HD 6 giveaway!

 

One grand prize winner will receive:

• Signed copies of all three Watervalley books
• A Kindle Fire HD 6

Enter today by clicking the icon below. But hurry, the giveaway ends on October 27th. The winner will be announced October 28th on Jeff's blog.

About the Book

★★★★★

Readers of Jan Karon's Mitford series and Patrick Taylor's Irish Country series will fall in love with Jeff High's funny, heartfelt Watervalley series.

The pastoral charm of small-town Watervalley, Tenneesse, can be deceptive, as young Dr. Luke Bradford discovers when he's caught in the fallout of a decades-old conflict…

After a rocky start as Watervalley's only doctor, Luke Bradford has decided to stay in town, honoring the three-year commitment he made to pay off his medical school debts. But even as his friendships with the quirky townsfolk deepen, and he pursues a romance with lovely schoolteacher Christine Chambers, several military veterans' emotional wounds trigger anger and unrest in Watervalley.

At the center of the clash is the curmudgeonly publisher of the local newspaper, Luther Whitmore. Luther grew up in Watervalley, but he returned from combat in Vietnam a changed man. He fenced in beautiful Moon Lake, posting "Keep Out" notices at the beloved spot, and provokes the townspeople with his incendiary newspaper.

As Luke struggles to understand Luther's past, and restore harmony in Watervalley, an unforeseen crisis shatters a relationship he values dearly. Suddenly Luke must answer life's toughest questions about service, courage, love, and sacrifice.

I love a good story full of Southern small-town charm (and challenge). In The Splendor of Ordinary Days, Jeff High visits Watervalley, Tennessee and the town’s only doctor, Luke Bradford, for the third time. Now, I haven’t read the previous two books in High’s Watervalley series (More Things in Heaven and Earth and Each Shining Hour), but that did not keep me from thoroughly enjoying this third novel, since High sprinkles in enough background detail to allow me to understand. The Splendor of Ordinary Days offers a delightful story with a steady pace and quirky characters, as Luke continues to develop relationships in the small town and deals with the town’s curmudgeon, Luther Whitmore. An all-around enjoyable read, it has me eager to read more of the Watervalley series. I highly recommend The Splendor of Ordinary Days.

Thanks to LitFuse Publicity Group, I received a copy of The Splendor of Ordinary Days and the opportunity to provide an honest review. I was not required to write a positive review, and all the opinions I have expressed are my own. To read other opinions, be sure to check out what other reviewers think here, and purchase a copy of the book here.

About the Author

After growing up on a farm in rural Tennessee, Jeff High attained degrees in literature and nursing. He is the three-time winner in fiction and poetry of an annual writing contest held by Vanderbilt Medical Center. He lived in Nashville for many years and throughout the country as a travel nurse before returning to his original hometown, near where he now works as an operating room RN in open-heart surgery. He is the author of the Watervalley novels, including More Things in Heaven and Earth and Each Shining Hour.

Connect with Jeff at his website, Facebook, and Twitter.

Coming Clean: A Story of Faith by Seth Haines

★★★★★

“I suppose we’re all drunk on something.”

Seth Haines was in the hospital with his wife, planning funeral songs for their not-yet two-year-old, when he made a very conscious decision: this was the last day he wanted to feel. That evening, he asked his sister to smuggle in a bottle of gin, and gave in to addiction.

But whether or not you’ve ever had a drop to drink in your life, we’re all looking for ways to stop the pain. Like Seth, we’re all seeking balms for the anxiety of what sometimes seems to be an absent, unresponsive God – whether it’s through people-pleasing, shopping, the internet, food, career highs, or even good works and elite theology. We attempt to anesthetize our anxiety through addiction – any old addiction. But it often leaves us feeling even more empty than before.

In Coming Clean, Seth Haines writes a raw account of his first 90 days of sobriety, illuminating how to face the pain we’d rather avoid, and even more importantly, how an abiding God meets us in that pain. Seth shows us that true wholeness is found in facing our pain and anxieties with the tenacity and tenderness of Jesus, and only through Christ’s passion can we truly come clean.

Coming Clean: A Story of Faith by Seth Haines chronicles his thought process through his first ninety days of sobriety. While Haines discusses specifically his experience with a drinking problem, his journaled thoughts also dwell heavily on the broader experiences of pain, healing, and unanswered prayers. A book that offers no easy answers, Coming Clean does tell a genuinely encouraging and accessible journey of faith, doubt, and the mystery of God. It is an excellent read that I found quite thought-provoking, and I would not hesitate to recommend it. It is certainly worth taking the time to read.

Thanks to BookLook Bloggers, I received a copy of Coming Clean and the opportunity to honestly review it. I was not required to write a positive review, and all the opinions I have expressed are my own. (I am disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission’s 16 CFR, Part 255: “Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising.”)

About the Author

Seth Haines is a writer, attorney, and worship leader, but most importantly, he has experienced firsthand the grace that comes from a God who lives in mystery. Seth and his wife, author Amber Haines, live in Northwest Arkansas with their four sons. He writes about faith, creativity, marriage, and culture at SethHaines.com. Seth has been a contributing writing to In Touch Magazine, The High Calling, Tweetspeak Poetry, and to blogs by Ann Voskamp, Lisa Jo Baker, Tsh Oxenreider and many others.