What Now? By Kaitlyn Odom Fielder: Book Review

 Rating 4.5/5

It has been a while since I last reviewed a book. Okay, let's be honest, it's been a while since I last picked up a book. I won't get into that here. When Ambassador International sent me books to review, I was in the middle of podcasting and things got to be too much with my poor health. Sadly, a few books got set aside and forgotten about. This was one of them. Now, with my writing again, I found these books. 

In What Now?, Kaitlyn opens her heart and soul for the world to see. It was honest and thoughtful. I don't normally find myself reading nonfiction books, but I am very happy that I had the opportunity to read this book. The opening line is quirky, but it works, setting the stage for the rest of what is to come. On every page you can feel the author's emotions, her grief, sorrow, and most importantly, her hope. She doesn't hide anything. I loved knowing the questions that she had about life, about her experiences, and what God had in store for her. Through reading this, I was brought back to moments of my own trauma that I had growing up. Though it was not losing someone in the way that she lost her family, but I found myself relating to her emotions and questions.

An overall theme that carries throughout, is that through faith, God brings healing. Just because we experience traumatic events, or bad things happen, it does not mean that God does not love us. God loves us very much, even through the bad, God will bring about good. I loved seeing the journey that Kaitlyn took to learnt to cope and deal with what had happened to her. She breaks it down into a step by step process. 

At some points it did feel slightly disjointed, but part of that is simply her mind processing what she went through and how it has led her to where she is now. I also found at some points my interest waned slightly, but even in those parts, I am glad that she included them. These moments have meant something to her, and readers will connect to various experiences and questions that she was faced with.

Overall, I enjoyed the book. I would certainly recommend this to anyone who has been faced with trauma. Let's face it, that's most of us. 

https://www.abeautifulbelonging.com/book/

Graffiti Photo Book

I have been working hard at trying to get out a photo book featuring Freight Train graffiti that I have taken photos of in Swift Current, SK. It has been an enlightening experience. I first had to start out by editing the photos to showcase them in such a manner that it best shows the work put into making the graffiti. This took quite a long time as I have over 160 photos I hope to put in, and twice as many that did not make the cut, never mind all the time and effort involved in taking those photos. The next step was deciphering what each piece said, to pick out the taggers/crews involved in it's creation. Then came all the research of these taggers and crews to find out where they are from, though many of them I could find very little information on, some no information, which considering the legalities of graffiti art, should come as  no surprise. Even so the research was very intriguing, and I found that by the end I could decipher more of the tags, and even recognize some taggers work without seeing their signature. Now I am working on putting this all into the book form and doing the cover art.
Lots of work, but we will see when I am done if I am happy with the way it turns out. If I am I will make it available for purchase, if not then It was a fun learning experience.