Kit Kat and Lucy

The County Cats Who Changed a City Girl's World

 

Published September 6th 2016

 by Fleming H. Revell Company

Book Description:

After years of vibrant city life in San Francisco, Lonnie Hull DuPont reluctantly trades her three-room apartment on Telegraph Hill for a farmhouse in Michigan. She immediately misses the rhythm and the pace of the city, and the isolation of country living has her longing for something more.

Enter Kit Kat, an obsessive-compulsive tortoiseshell, and Lucy, a playful Russian Blue who can nail a bat right out of the air. These stray cats arrive a year apart and each ask to move into the farmhouse--and ultimately DuPont's heart. From the hysterical process of getting two strange cats to like each other to the exciting years of watching those cats thrive--and inspire DuPont in the process--this book is the heartwarming story of how one woman's world would never be the same.
 

Available for Purchase:

AMAZON   BARNES & NOBLE 

CHRISTIANBOOK   BOOKS-A-MILLION

Meet the Author:

Lonnie Hull DuPont is an award-winning poet, book editor, and writer. She is the author of several books, including five compilations of animal stories under the pseudonym of Callie Smith Grant. A member of the Cat Writers Association, she lives in rural Michigan with her husband and their cats.

My Thoughts:

I loved this book.  

I can't remember a time growing up when we didn't have a cat. 

Yes, I am a cat owner and lover.  

This is a precious story of a woman who opens not only her heart, but also her home to a stray cats.  Ms. DuPont shows what a wonderful person she really is.  I do not know her, but if we were to meet I think we would become fast friends.  The first of the book she sort of introduces herself to us on a personal level by talking about her accomplishments and her marriage.  She talks about the decision to move from California to Michigan and what a big change that was for her on a personal level.  

As Kit Kat comes on the scene she brings much humor to the story, but most of all the author shares the good, the bad and the ugly of having a cat.  As she introduces us to Kit Kat we see just how an animal can touch your heart in a very short space of time and in turn your entire life.  As she introduced Lucy to the story I could actually see it all unfolding.  Of course I'm a cat lover so some of her stories I could easily relate to because I had experience some of the same things. 

 If you are a person who loves animals, especially cats, this is the book for you.  
**I received this book from the publisher as part of their bloggers program.  All thoughts and opinions are my own. 

 

Roots & Sky

A Journey Home in Four Seasons

 

Published February 2nd 2016

 by Revell  

4 Stars

My Thoughts:

Christine Purifoy has written a book that is considered a memoir`, but for me it was almost like reading someone's  journal.  She takes the reader on journey through her life as she and her husband move due to a career change.  They had purchased an old farmhouse located in Pennsylvania. She has an idea of what she wants, but reality is different from dreams.  She is very honest in both her thoughts and experience by divulging both the good and the bad.  Faith is the center of her life and family.  The messages she receives from reading the bible become very important to her and she shares how she tries implementing this into her life.  

This book is written from the beginning of the move which is in September and she has incorporated this into the story.  Each chapter is named for a month and these are further divided into season, i.e. fall, winter, spring and summer.  

This is a well written story. The author vividly describes Maplehurst, the farmhouse, and the surrounding landscape so vividly that you can picture it in your mind.  She shows both real and raw emotions.  There were several parts of the story that quickly drew me in, like the birth of her fourth child and her ensuing battle with postpartum depression.  This is not a genre that I read very much and I do blame this on the main reason I couldn't quiet get into the entire story.  I think to get to the depth of the story the reader must read slowly.  With all that being said if this is the type of genre you enjoy then I would recommend it.      

*I received this book free from the publisher as part of their bloggers program. I was not required to write a positive review. The opinions I have expressed are my own. I am disclosing this in accordance with the  Federal Trade Commission's 16 CFR, part 255.

Available for Purchase:
Amazon|Barnes & Noble|ChristianBook 
Baker Retail 

Excerpt:

I first saw the house on a day of record-breaking heat. I suppose

we never choose the day when our dream will come true. Just as

we do not choose the precise place our dream will carry us. This

Victorian, red-brick farmhouse did not look like the home of my

dreams. That first, terribly hot day, it did not feel like it, either.

But my dreams began rearranging themselves almost the moment I

stepped across the smooth, worn stone of Maplehurst’s threshold.

Did Jonathan open the front door first, or did I? I no longer

remember, but I can see again that first glimpse of the dim front

hall with its staircase turning up and out of sight. Before my eyes

adjusted to the darkness, I only sensed the fans that sat moving

heavy air from room to room. Every one of the tall, elegant windows was tightly closed.Having now lived more than a few summers at Maplehurst, the

first of them while heavily pregnant, I know to open the windows

just before heading to bed. In the morning, I step through whatever

cool night air we have managed to trap, and I shut each window

with a heave. These thick brick walls can hold back a heat wave

for three days.But back then I didn’t know a thing about keeping an old house

cool in the summer. What I knew was the artificial hum of the

central air-conditioning in our tropical split-level and the surprising dream that began to visit us in that lonely place. We called it the farmhouse dream, but it was always about so much more than a house. It was a vision of growing roots, cultivating beauty, and opening the doors to neighbors, wanderers, and pilgrims—near

and far. It was a vision of home.

I see now that it was also a vision of heaven on earth. Of course,

that sounds audacious. As if I imagined I might reclaim Eden in a

vegetable patch. Yet all of us have prayed for something like this for

thousands of years. As Jesus taught us, we pray, “Your kingdom

come, your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven” (Matt. 6:10).

What does the answer to this prayer look like? Just how much

heaven do we get to experience on earth? 
 Meet the Author:





Christie Purifoy (PhD, University of Chicago) has taught literature and composition to undergraduates at the University of Chicago, the School of the Art Institute, Chicago, and the University of North Florida. In 2012, Christie traded the university classroom for a large vegetable garden and a henhouse in southeastern Pennsylvania. She is a regular writer at Grace Table and has contributed essays to numerous websites, including Art House America, A Deeper Story, and many popular blogs. She writes about the beauty, mystery, and wonder that lies beneath the ordinary at her blog, There Is a River.

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