Free audio book

Amazon's audio book site, Audible.com, is giving everyone one free audio book download. There are a bunch to choose from, old and new. I chose the Winnie the Pooh complete collection because I am going to burn it for the boys to listen to in the car. You can download it to your computer, iTunes, or any device. You do not have to enter credit card info. This offer expires July 2.

Thanks, Money Saving Mom!

Free Bedtime Story

A Story Before Bed is offering a free bedtime story ($9.99 value)! All you need a a camera and microphone on your computer and you can record a cute story for your kiddos. This would be great to have grandparents or family out of state do for your kids. The only downside is you can't save it to your computer but Deal Wise Mommy had the great idea to record it with your camera and put it on a DVD so you can save it.

Thanks, Deal Wise Mommy!

Free Twilight Novella

Here's one for all you Twihards! You can read Stephenie Meyer's newest edition to the Twlight Saga, The Short Second Life of Bree Tanner, for free here. It's not a download so it won't help to have a reader but it will save you $8 to read it online. 

Thanks, Deal Seeking Mom!

Book Review: I am Hutterite

I am Hutterite by Mary Ann Kirkby

First of all, I need to admit to a minor (major) obsession I had when I was a child (in high school and college.) I wanted to be Amish. I didn't just want to learn about their culture or read everything I could about them, which I did, but I wanted to actually BE Amish. I even had a brown dress that I called my Amish dress and spent an entire day at a youth convention telling people I was Amish.

So, when I was sent this book to read, I was thrilled. While Hutterites are not Amish (the biggest difference being that Hutterites do not claim ownership to anything), they live a very simple life. In 1528, Jacob Hutter, an Austrian hatmaker, led a group of refugees to the Czechoslovakia. He placed a blanket on the ground and they put all of their combined possession on the blanket. This is how the Hutterites began. The lived together, worked together, and shared everything. They based their lifestyle on Acts 2:44-45 which says, "And all that believed were together, and had all things in common; and sold their possessions and goods, and parted them to all men, as every man had need." 

The first Hutterite Colony was established in the United States in South Dakota in 1874. Mary Ann Kirkby's story begins in Western Canada in 1952 when her father came to the colony where her mother lived. Her mother, Mary, told her friend, "He's mine" as soon as she saw him.

This is the story of a girl raised with one ideal and way of life drastically different than the rest of the world but then moving, with her family, away from her early years to create a new life. This book is part history, part coming of age, and part journal. While I loved the story, it was, at times, very dry reading. I felt like there were moments when the author felt she HAD to write the book. It read like it was her mission to get the story out of her head, but not necessarily intended for others to read. That did, however, give the book a raw openness that I appreciated. I did enjoy reading about a people group of whom I had no previous experience.

Disclaimer: I received a copy of this book from booksneeze.com to review. I did not receive monetary compensation for my opinion.

Free book

Gospel for Asia is giving away free copies of the book Revolution in World Missions. If you fill out the form, you can get up to 5 copies of the book to read and share with others totally free. I have heard alot of great things about this book so it's the perfect time to read it!