inspiration

N for NOISE

/ Dora Hiers / 8 Comments
Photo courtesy of Bing Images

Hyperacusis …

a health condition where a person is overly sensitive to noise, possibly every day sounds, that may be loud and painful to them, but not necessarily to others.
So that’s what I have? 

I’ve never been diagnosed by a physician with hyperacusis, but it wouldn’t take a doctor visit to confirm my hypersensitivity to noises. 

No, my diagnosis comes from years of wincing at various noises, of asking my hubby to turn the tv down or off, of him telling me that I’m speaking so softly that he can’t hear me. But when his voice booms, I feel like the whole restaurant can hear him, not just me. 

Can you listen to music in the car if there’s a conversation going on around you? Shaking my head here. I can’t even follow a GPS instruction if someone’s talking in my car.

Here are some noises I find soothing:
Clomp clomp of a horse’s hooves

Gurgling creek

Fountain
Peaceful nature sounds around a lake

Obviously, water sounds soothe a person with this condition, but what about the opposite? What’s annoying?
A bus’s belch
Lots of people
More annoying noises:
Any siren
A saw blade’s whir as it slices through wood
Silverware clinking
An air conditioner that rattles
Any noise my car makes
Garbage truck as it empties cans or dumpsters
And a constant drip or a person chomping gum really sets me on edge. 

It’s not from aging because I’ve lived with it forever. I hope it’s not hereditary because just recently my grandson has been asking…

“What’s that noise, Meme?”

Uh-oh.
Can you relate to hyperacusis? What sounds do you find soothing? What about annoying?
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Have you read WHEN THE CLOUDS ROLL BY by Myra Johnson?

/ Dora Hiers
When the Clouds Roll By
DeeperShopping.com Buy Link

About the book~
Annemarie Kendall is overjoyed when the armistice is signed and the Great War comes to an end. Her fiancé, Lieutenant Gilbert Ballard, is coming home, and though he is wounded, she is excited to start their life together. But when he arrives, her dreams are dashed when she learns Gilbert is suffering from headaches, depression, and an addiction to pain killers. This is not the man she had planned to marry. After serving in the trenches, Army Chaplain Samuel Vickary is barely holding onto his faith. Putting up a brave front as he ministers to the injured soldiers at the hospital in Hot Springs, Arkansas, he befriends Gilbert and eventually falls for Annemarie. While Annemarie tries to sort out her confused feelings about the two men in her life, she witnesses firsthand the bitterness and hurt they both hold within. Who will she choose? Will she have the courage to follow her heart and become the woman God intended her to be? As the world emerges from the shadow of war, Annemarie clings to her faith as she wonders if her future holds the hope, happiness, and love for which she so desperately longs.

Sharing my thoughts~
Ceramist Annemarie Kendall couldn’t be happier when WWI comes to an end and her fiance is on his way home, but from his recent letters, she knows the war’s changed him. What she doesn’t know is if he’ll still love her and want to marry her. After an injury that leaves him feeling dependent and less masculine, Lieutenant Gilbert Ballard isn’t sure he want to return home to Hot Springs. Bitter and in constant pain, the last pill he wants to swallow is pity on his fiance’s face. 

Johnson sets up a robust conflict when Gilbert talks to Army Chaplain Samuel Vickary about his dilemma over Annemarie while on the ship headed home.

“He studied the girl in the portrait and realized with sudden certainty that if things were different–if he were coming home to a woman like Annemarie–he’d fight harder for her love than any doughboy ever fought on the Western Front.”


After hearing Gilbert’s intentions, how can Samuel help but fall a little in love with Annemarie before he ever sets eyes on her? And then when he meets her, she’s more lovely and sweet than he imagined. But Samuel’s suffering his own crisis, a result of the war. 


“If he could just be certain God still listened. If he dared to hope the doors of heaven hadn’t been barred against him for eternity.”


Gilbert tends to be a bit cranky at times, but in my book, he’s still a hero because of the pain he’s in and the suffering he endured. Samuel refuses to move in on Gilbert’s territory, and insists that Gilbert not make any foolish, rash decisions. I won’t tell you which man I was rooting for. You can make your own choice. But I will admit to being very satisfied with the ending. 🙂


While this story is fictional, the characterization was so life-like and the conflict so believable. I can imagine similar scenarios happening back then, even now. Men and women still return home from war, scarred emotionally and physically. 

While I’m not a huge history buff, I enjoyed how the author tucked in little nuggets of historical goodies, like how people conserved food during World War I. That, plus the tidbits about Hot Springs and the nice sub-plot that ran through the book made the story so rich and complex.


Although this book is a hefty 338 pages, I finished it in only a couple sittings. After being forced to put it down the first time (you know, sleep, work, life…), I wasn’t going to put it down again until I found out who won Annemarie’s heart. When the Clouds Roll By is a winner, and I’m excited that there’s another two books in the series!


Disclaimer: Sending a big thanks to Myra Johnson, Abingdon Press and NetGalley for sending me an advance review copy of this book in exchange for my fair and unbiased opinion. This review is my opinion, and I received no compensation.
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Have your read TRAPPED by Irene Hannon?

/ Dora Hiers / 2 Comments
Purchase Link –
DeeperShopping.com

About the book~
When librarian Laura Griffith’s sixteen-year-old sister disappears on a frigid February day, leaving only a brief note behind, Laura resolves to do whatever it takes to track down the runaway teen. That includes recruiting ATF agent turned PI James “Dev” Devlin to help. But the deeper he digs, the more he begins to suspect that something sinister is at work in the girl’s disappearance. And the closer he gets to uncovering the truth, the clearer it becomes that the situation isn’t just dangerous-it’s deadly. 

Sharing my thoughts~Besides strong main characters, this book also has multidimensional secondary characters, and I especially enjoyed the camaraderie between the three PI’s and Nikki, the office manager. I also feel like I got to know Darcy as well as Dev and Laura. After Darcy’s free-spirited mother died, and then her elderly father, Darcy moved in with Laura, who didn’t know anything about raising a teen. Stifled by Laura’s old-fashioned rules and feeling responsible for her father’s death, Darcy runs away, headed towards Chicago, but a storm grounds her in St. Louis. Little clips showing Darcy’s transformation from obnoxious to grateful as the story unfolded helped me better understood her motivation. 

“Even if Laura’s intentions were good, rules were for kids. If she had stayed, they’d keep clashing, just as she and her dad had. And look how that had ended.”


At one point in the book (not giving away any spoilers here!), I felt Laura acted irrationally for the danger she was in, but since she was worried about her sister, I decided to cut her some slack. If I’d been faced with a similar predicament, I probably would have rushed into the same situation. How many times have I made spur-of-the-moment decisions and then regretted them later? 

What a fast-paced, chilling thriller made even more frightening because it’s something that happens in real life! We inherently trust people because they look “safe” or because of their occupation. Scary! I picked up Trapped one evening while my husband was gone, and at times, my palms were sweating and my heart pounded with fear, but did that stop me from reading? Noooo. I just had to keep reading because with every page I flipped, the situation was too intense to put the book down. While the plot moved along at extreme speed, I felt the romance was a bit on the lean side, only really heating up at the end of the book, but I guess that’s to be expected with the amount of action in this one. The faith thread was a gentle strand, weaved subtly through the book. 

Trapped is the second book in the Private Justice series, but can be read as a stand alone. I just don’t recommend reading it alone. I’m still turning on lights and checking doors. 🙂

Disclosure: Sending a big thanks to NetGalley and Revell for providing me with an advance review copy. The opinions expressed in this review are my own, and I received no monetary compensation.