My Review of "Kill the Silence"

Monika Korra's Kill the Silence: A Survivor's Life Reclaimed tells Monika's story, beginning with her life as a college Sophomore in 2009. She was grabbed by three men on her way home from a party and violently raped. Monika resolved, just immediately after being released from the hospital, that she would not be a victim -- instead, Monika is a survivor. Monika had traveled from her home in Norway to Southern Methodist University in Dallas determined to acclimate to life in the States and excited for the opportunity of a fun scholarship to do what she loved. As an athlete and Olympic hopeful, Monika already knew how to train against extreme fatigue soreness and distraction. She was stepping-stones to achieve her goals.

Persistence and patience had always been her greatest tools. After the attack, she used the same qualities to regain her self-identity and find a "new normal". Stripped of her sense of security, she slowly rebuilt her life with the help of her friends, family and her own unflappable spirit. Monika shares the inspiring combination of mental and physical work that gave her the strength to win her greatest fight yet: The court case against the three men who had attacked her. She testified against them with confidence and a fierce determination that these men would never be able to hurt anyone else. In the end two of them received life sentences one with parole and one, for the worst of the three men without parole.

Monika's story is the story of survival and courage in the face of violence, the story of the importance of friendship and others in overcoming adversity, the story of individual bravery.

Kill the Silence is not a book to be missed.

I received a free copy of this book as part of the Blogging for Books program in exchange for my honest review here.

Comments

My Review of "Come as You Aren't"

Come as You Aren't: A Role-Playing Game for Adventurous Couples is a simple role-playing kit for couples who want to explore and experiment in ways to seduce one another that they simply wouldn't have imagined otherwise. The set is meant to offer one partner who draws a Who, a What, and a Where card at random and places them in an envelope for the other partner. From there, it's up to them to enact the scenarios as they see fit. The instructions are printed on the back cover of the box and the deck comes with a few blank cards for couples to customize. This is a fun little gift for couples -- and just in time for the holidays. I received a free copy of this game from the Blogging for Books review program in exchange for my honest review here.

My Review of "Roadfood"

Jane & Michael Stern's Roadfood gives us another (this is the 10th edition!) gastro road trip across the US. Roadfood is like a road map through backroads and interstates for some of the best food in each state and region in the US. Roadfood celebrates venues most travelers would never venture near, let alone enter. Most of the state-by-state listed restaurants are, however, for dining on the cheap. Like Litton's in Knoville, TN -- which really does have amazing burgers. While one could hardly map a road trip by the Sterns' restaurant finds -- some cities, like Chicago, are overrepresented, while the rest of Illinois is all but ignored -- this fun and fanciful volume is pure pleasure. I received a free copy of this book as part of the Blogging for Books program in exchange for my honest review here.

A review of "Having a Mary Heart in a Martha World"

Having a Mary Heart in a Martha World: Finding Intimacy with God in the Busyness of Life is a book to which I wish I'd been introduced years ago. In it, Joanna Weaver offers challenging and helpful advice for drawing me -- and women like me -- back to the core of those things that really matter in life. My husband has been a pastor for 17 years. I work with developmentally challenged adults in a residential setting. And when we married (just a year ago), I never realized all the ways in which our busy lives would impact our relationship and, more importantly, our spiritual lives. We all have different lives with different choices, pressures, situations, challenges and opportunities. But most of us -- or, maybe just me! -- feel overwhelmed by those choices and pressures, the situations and challenges. This is the book I needed to expose how so much of all that is my own doing. Having a Mary Heart in a Martha World is based on an exc...

The Mrs. & the Minister

Search This Blog