FINDING GRACE: MEMORIAL DAY POST

REMEMBER!

MEMORIAL

DAY, 2009

FINDING GRACE
BY DONNA VANLIERE
A REVIEW BY "BINGO"
AUTHOR INTERVIEW FOLLOWS
WINNERS POSTED LAST

Donna VanLiere's FINDING GRACE is a book that you will carry with you a very long time. No not physically, but in your heart, as that is where this memoir was written from.

My Review of FINDING GRACE

FINDING GRACE is not the story I thought it would be. I saw the photos of a little girl on the cover and a baby and assumed this was a story about how some parents raised a child named Grace. I guess I should say I wasn’t totally wrong as there is eventually a child named Grace. However, this is not totally the Grace in the title but rather more so the grace that Donna VanLiere eventually finds as she lives her life in pursuit of solutions to questions she thinks she has answers for.

The “Grace” that Donna VanLiere writes about in an endearing, often reflective, as well as humorous way, is the grace she finds in her own life while through God or inspiration or faith or any number of ways one chooses to look at it. VanLiere writes about her life and how she, so far, has spent it trying to first live a life she thought was all planned out in her head only to find that there may another plan in store for her than the one she thought she knew.

Donna VanLiere relives the anguish, guilt, and shame she struggled with having been sexually abused as a very young child. Her pursuit of happiness in life to achieve the all-American dream of a husband and children with the white picket fence are not quite what Donna is going to wind up with, at least not in a traditional manner. But readers should not despair as this is not a sad story but rather one of great compassion and hope as everything in her life comes together but just is traveled along a different route than the one she thought it would take.

The gift of cherishing the good things and miracles in one’s life often only comes following a path of pain and despair. Being able to face one’s problems, to find the answers, and to forgive frequently come after much understanding is achieved. Donna VanLiere ultimately finds that by allowing God’s grace and his love into her life, she then finds herself to be a better and stronger person than she ever thought she could be.

Donna relates stories from her childhood that tells a lot about the adult she came to be. Often her humor is expressed in these stories as she recalls not only the brief horror of the sexual abuse but also the many tales of love and good times and fun her family shared as she was growing up living a simple life in Ohio. When she met and fell in love with Troy, the man who would later become her husband, again Donna has no idea that theirs will not be the normal marriage she always dreamed about.

Finding it hard to conceive when they both were healthy and happy and had so much love to give to a child will tear at your heart. If you are not one of the people who have to go through the various disappointing steps in trying to conceive, suffering through miscarriages, using fertility drugs, doctors, tests and more tests, you will count yourself lucky. And yet, a part of me who “lived” through Donna’s telling all that she and Troy went though and how it happened that little Grace, their first daughter, FINALLY came into their lives was almost envious of the joy in the final attainment of that dream. The beautifully written words and descriptions in this memoir can tear at your heart one minute and tickle your funny bone the next. The joy and hope that is a child name Grace, and the journey to attain this blessing, are what make Donna VanLiere’s FINDING GRACE an inspirational, enjoyable, and heartfelt story of one woman’s travels to find grace and peace in her life.

MY INTERVIEW WITH

DONNA VANLIERE

I want to welcome Donna VanLiere to BOOKIN’ WITH BINGO and thank her for her interview and participation in this interview and giveaway AND of courses for this wonderful book, FINDING GRACE. Welcome, Donna.

1. Can you tell us anything about the next or current book you are working on?

I just turned in The Christmas Secret, which is due out in late October. The Christmas Hope was turned into a movie and will air on Lifetime sometime this winter.

2. What have you just finished reading?

Several Magic Tree House books that I read to my children!

3. What books would you say have made the biggest impression on you, especially starting out?

Anything written by Paul of Tarsus.

4. What gets you started on a new book? A character or story idea or….?

Could be an idea that pops into my head or a great character that I think, “Hmm, I wonder what would happen if she….”

5. What is something about you that you would want people to know about you that we probably don’t know?

I think chocolate covered strawberries should be a food group and I think exercise is soooo boring. I do it but come on!

6. What is your best advice to anyone, including young people, who want to be writers? (I teach middle school Reading to gifted students)

Keep writing. You’ll never know what kind of writing you’re good at unless you write so keep at it!!

For more information on Donna VanLiere, here are some places you can go:

www.donnavanliere.com, Donna VanLiere Fans and Friends on Facebook

FINDING GRACE

WINNERS

IT WAS NICE TO SEE

SOME OF YOU

READ ABOUT THE

EXTRA BONUS

ENTRIES AS IT HELPED!

THE WINNERS ARE:

bermudaonion

Alexa

Andi

WINNERS HAVE UNTIL TUESDAY,

MAY 26, AT 6 PM TO REPLY WITH THEIR

ADDRESSES. THEY HAVE ALL BEEN EMAILED

THANKS TO ALL WHO ENTERED!

DON'T FORGET DEWEY CLOSES TONIGHT!