Book of the Month Poll Winner ~ 32 Days – A Memoir of Love and Death by Deborah Sabin


32 Days – A Memoir of Love and Death by Deborah Sabin
Publisher: Self-Published
Genre: Non-Fiction, Memoir
Rating 5 Stars
Reviewed by Nymphaea

Voted BoM by LASR Readers 2013 copy

Mitch and Debbi were beshert. Soulmates. She knew it from the first day of law school. He came to the same conclusion just a few months later. From that day on, they were rarely apart. Debbi made one, five, and ten-year plans for their future. Mitch always replied, “Yeah. Maybe someday.” Someday came too soon.

A terrible freak accident put Mitchell in a hospital remote from home, with a spinal cord injury that left him paralyzed from the neck down. Alone in the ICU with her husband, away from her children and family, Deborah struggled to manage their days and find a way to keep their love and their marriage alive. Every night, she wrote him a note of news, hope, and love. But, thirty-two days were all they had. Mitch died and Debbi was left with two small children. With the help of family and friends, she struggled to make a life for three seem as good as the life they had when they were a family of four. All traces of her time in the hospital with Mitchell were stored in the “sad” box, stuffed high on a shelf in the back of the closet.

Twenty-five years later, the notes resurfaced in an unlikely space. Deborah knew it was time to share the letters with family, friends, and the world. 32 Days is the story of a wonderful man, taken from this world much too soon. A husband, father, son, brother, friend, lawyer and advocate, and the courageous battle he fought to stay alive. Until someday. Mitchell and Deborah’s story is one of love that transcends time and space. Of faith that grows stronger even in the face of the unimaginable. Of the healing strength given by family and friends. Of hope that life will go on. Of someday.

READ THE FULL REVIEW HERE!

Friday Five Writing Prompt Challenge for July 28, 2023

Each Friday, Long and Short Reviews hosts a weekly five word writing prompt. For more details on how to participate, please click here.

Today’s five words to use as your prompt are:

arrange, cottage, stretch, idea, partnership

Thank you for joining our Friday Five Writing Challenge! Please put the direct URL to your blog post here so other participants can visit your post. Thanks!

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Wednesday Weekly Blogging Challenge for July 26, 2023

Each Wednesday, Long and Short Reviews hosts a weekly “blog hop”. For more details on how to participate, please click here.

Today’s topic is: A Job I’d Be Good At

Thank you for joining our Weekly Wednesday Blogging Challenge! Please put the direct URL to your blog post here so other participants can visit your post. Thanks!
1. George L Thomas  6. M | RAIN CITY READS  
2. Lydia Schoch  7. Patrick Prescott  
3. Judy Thomas  8. Priscilla King  
4. Stephen @ Reading Freely  9. Stephanie @ Books Less Travelled  
5. Michael Mock  

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Movie Review: Take the Ice


Take The Ice
Director: Rachel Koteen
Producer: Rachel Koteen, Judah-Lev Dickstein, and Batya Feldman
Editor: Judah-Lev Dickstein
Rated: 4 Stars (8 stars on IMDB)
Review by: Astilbe
Find the movie on IMDB

Take the Ice is a feature documentary that tells the story of world-class female hockey players fighting for recognition and equality in their sport, and in the process, making history.

Ten-year-old Dani Rylan was obsessed with hockey and dreamed of growing up to play in the NHL. As one of the best players on the Florida state junior team, Dani saw no reason not to have the same ambitions as everyone else. But, as the only girl on the team, “at some point, reality sets in.” Seventeen years later, Dani decided to change the history of the sport by founding the first professional women’s hockey league.

Take the Ice goes behind the scenes as Dani creates the National Women’s Hockey League and 88 elite female athletes compete to win its first championship. As Dani struggles to keep the league afloat, the players must come together in the wake of an on-ice accident that leaves their teammate paralyzed. Take the Ice is a moving, intimate story of a group of elite athletes making strides for recognition and equality, and in the process, making history.

What could be better than making history and setting new records?

This documentary worked for dedicated hockey fans and those of us who virtually know nothing about that sport alike. I appreciated how the director was careful to explain certain aspects of this business like the difference in pay scales and marketing techniques between men’s and women’s hockey that many folks might not be aware of. While most of the screen time was dedicated to the games themselves, it was the player’s stories about the sexism they face that originally piqued my interest. Many of them were discouraged from playing hockey, especially as they grew older and were still the only girls on their youth teams. These early life experiences can discourage women and girls from pursuing all sorts of interests in life, and I nodded along as I compared their love of hockey to my interests in other things that girls aren’t encouraged to do. The joy of seeing young girls cheer for these teams and ask for autographs gave me hope that future generations will feel more comfortable pursuing all of their interests without discouragement.

I had some trouble keeping track of who everyone was. As cool as it was to get so many different perspectives on what it was like to be part of the first season of professional women’s hockey, including all of them meant that there wasn’t much time to invest in any one particular storyline. Taking notes along the way about who was part of which team helped, though, and I’d recommend that to anyone who watches this.

Some of the most interesting scenes to me were the ones that explored the private lives of the players. On the weekends, they were professional hockey players, but all of them had weekday jobs as well due to how little they were paid as athletes. This was in stark contrast to the millions of dollars men make in this field. The medical consequences of playing hockey were shown as well, and I was intrigued by how many risks these women were willing to take with their health despite all of the reasons they had to stop playing.

Take the Ice was a thoughtful look at the birth of the National Woman’s Hockey League.

Friday Five Writing Prompt Challenge for July 21, 2023

Each Friday, Long and Short Reviews hosts a weekly five word writing prompt. For more details on how to participate, please click here.

Today’s five words to use as your prompt are:

notion, uncertainty, attic, investment, alcohol

Thank you for joining our Friday Five Writing Challenge! Please put the direct URL to your blog post here so other participants can visit your post. Thanks!

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Wednesday Weekly Blogging Challenge for July 19, 2023

Each Wednesday, Long and Short Reviews hosts a weekly “blog hop”. For more details on how to participate, please click here.

Today’s topic is: Share one Interesting Fact You Know

Thank you for joining our Weekly Wednesday Blogging Challenge! Please put the direct URL to your blog post here so other participants can visit your post. Thanks!
1. Tanith Davenport  6. Michael Mock  
2. Lydia Schoch  7. M | RAIN CITY READS  
3. George L Thomas  8. Kel @ rewritingkel  
4. Stephen @ Reading Freely  9. Alex Isle  
5. Patrick Prescott  10. Priscilla King  

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Top Ten Tuesday: One-Word Titles


Hosted by That Artsy Reader Girl

We’ve reached the hot, humid portion of the year where I live. Along with eating ice cream and other cold foods, I spend a lot of free time reading and trying to stay cool.

Here are ten books that have one-word titles that could be good reads as the temperature soars.

1. Pawcasso by Remy Lai

2. Allegedly by Tiffany D. Jackson

3. Kitchen by Banana Yoshimoto

4. Warcross (Warcross, #1) by Marie Lu

5. Alaska by James A. Michener

6. Mooncakes by Suzanne Walker

7. Girl by Jamaica Kincaid

8. Heartstopper by Alice Oseman

9. Brass by Xhenet Aliu

10. Sadie by Courtney Summers

Friday Five Writing Prompt Challenge for July 14, 2023

Each Friday, Long and Short Reviews hosts a weekly five word writing prompt. For more details on how to participate, please click here.

Today’s five words to use as your prompt are:

banana, embark, pillow, ego, foot

Thank you for joining our Friday Five Writing Challenge! Please put the direct URL to your blog post here so other participants can visit your post. Thanks!
1. Echo Ishii  

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Wednesday Weekly Blogging Challenge for July 12, 2023

Each Wednesday, Long and Short Reviews hosts a weekly “blog hop”. For more details on how to participate, please click here.

Today’s topic is: Describe Your Fashion Sense

Thank you for joining our Weekly Wednesday Blogging Challenge! Please put the direct URL to your blog post here so other participants can visit your post. Thanks!
1. George L Thomas  5. Michael Mock  
2. Lydia Schoch  6. Stephen @ Reading Freely  
3. Priscilla King  7. Patrick Prescott  
4. Snapdragon Alcove  8. M | RAIN CITY READS  

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Top Ten Tuesday: Bookish Summer Quotes


Hosted by That Artsy Reader Girl

Long and Short Reviews has a small team of people who take turns writing Top Ten Tuesday posts. I feel excited every time Freebie posts pop up and try to request them as often as I can.

This week I’m going to use the freebie post to share ten bookish summer quotes.

 

“Summer afternoon—summer afternoon; to me those have always been the two most beautiful words in the English language.”
Henry James

 

“All in all, it was a never-to-be-forgotten summer — one of those summers which come seldom into any life, but leave a rich heritage of beautiful memories in their going — one of those summers which, in a fortunate combination of delightful weather, delightful friends and delightful doing, come as near to perfection as anything can come in this world.”
L.M. Montgomery, Anne’s House of Dreams

 

“The library in summer is the most wonderful thing because there you get books on any subject and read them each for only as long as they hold your interest, abandoning any that don’t, halfway or a quarter of the way through if you like, and store up all that knowledge in the happy corners of your mind for your own self and not to show off how much you know or spit it back at your teacher on a test paper.”
Polly Horvath, My One Hundred Adventures

 

“I have only to break into the tightness of a strawberry, and I see summer – its dust and lowering skies.”
Toni Morrison, The Bluest Eye

 

“It was summer and moonlight and we had lemonade to drink, and we held the cold glasses in our hands, and Dad read the stereo-newspapers inserted into the special hat you put on your head and which turned the microscopic page in front of the magnifying lens if you blinked three times in succession.”
Ray Bradbury, The Illustrated Man

 

“The sound of crickets, the feel of warm dried grass on the soles of his feet and the scent of baked earth pleased him. The big thick glass was icy in his hands. When he set it down, the tinkle of the ice cubes sounded personal.”
Ian McEwan, Lessons

 

“There are not enough jam jars to can this
summer sky at night. I want to spread those
little meteors on a hunk of still-warm bread this
winter. Any trace left on the knife will make a kitchen sink like that evening air

the cool night before
star showers: so sticky so warm so full of light”
Aimee Nezhukumatathil

 

“The thing about a deep summer’s evening is that it is filled with an array of sounds that never intrude on the silence because they were created to accentuate it, not fill it.”
Craig D. Lounsbrough

 

Meeting someone on a summer’s evening is like giving a dead flame new life.”
Caleb Azumah Nelson, Open Water

 

“And I spent a wonderful summer, below the trees in the Godavari, writing my poetry.”
Avijeet Das, Why the Silhouette?

 

What are your favorite bookish summer quotes?