One sign of the first day of spring is Katrina‘s annual Spring Reading Thing! The idea is simply to set some kind of goal for what you want to read this spring, as short or long as you think you can manage, write up a post, link to Katrina’s, and then write a wrap-up post of how you did at the end of spring. It’s a fun way to check in with others who love to read and see what they’re up to, add to the ever-growing TBR list, and maybe incorporate some of those books you’ve been meaning to get to. And maybe even win an Amazon gift certificate! More information is here posting guidelines are here, and the sign-up/link-up post is here.

I have no shortage of books to read — it’s just a matter of deciding which ones to choose for the challenge. But here are some:

Fiction:

A Walk In the Park (just started — enjoying very much!) and A Long Walk Home by Barbara Andrews, won from Mocha With Linda, who knows the author).

Faithful by Kim Cash Tate

Leaving by Karen Kingsbury, due out this week, a new series with Bailey Flanigan from previous series.

The Judgment by Beverly Lewis, second in The Rose Trilogy, due out April 5.

An Unlikely Blessing by Judy Baer, received in a book swap.

Love Finds You in Camelot, Tennessee by Janice Hanna. I’ve never read this author, but as a recent transplant to TN, this caught my eye.

I like to include at least one classic: I think I’ll choose A Tale of Two Cities by Dickens. I’ve read it before — it’s one of my top two favorite classics — but it has been a long time.

I’m still working my way bit by bit through A Novel Idea: Everything You Need to Know about Writing Inspirational Fiction — it wasn’t one I wanted to read straight through so I read a bit between other books.

And I like to include one or more non-fiction, but because I forgot this was the first day of spring I didn’t have this post prepared beforehand, I haven’t decided which one to choose. Besides 10 Gospel Promises For Later Life by Jane Marie Thibault, which I definitely want to read, I also have on hand Feminine Appeal by Carolyn Mahaney, Women’s Ministry in the Local Church by Ligon Duncan and Susan Hunt, Loving the Church by John Crotts, and Worldliness: Resisting the Seduction of a Fallen World by C. J. Mahaney. Can I let you know on this one? 🙂

I am also considering going through Jesus, Keep Me Near the Cross: Experiencing the Passion and Power of Easter, compiled by Nancy Guthrie, again in the weeks before Easter. I highly recommend it if you’d like some meditative Easter reading to prepare your heart for the season.

So…that should keep me plenty busy!

Happy Reading!

The Damascus Way, is the third installment in biblical fiction series Acts of Faith by Janette Oke and Davis Bunn, yet I think it could easily be read as a stand-alone book if you’ve not read the previous two in the series.

If you’re very familiar with the story of the Apostle Paul’s conversion on the road to Damascus in the book of Acts, then the title of this book would suggest to you that it might be about him. It does cover that incident, but until it reaches that point, Paul — known as Saul pre-conversion — is seen once and referred to many times. He is less a character in the story through most of it than a sort of dark cloud of threatening persecution of the believers.

That increasing persecution drove many of the early believers from Jerusalem in the Bible, having the effect of scattering the gospel with them across the land, and that’s the background of the story that is portrayed here. Abigail, the widow of Stephen, reluctantly leaves with her young daughter, Dorcas, and a group of believers heading one way. Jacob, her brother, is a guard for a wealthy merchant’s caravan and becomes a courier for the underground network of believers. One of his contacts, to his surprise, is Julia, the beautiful daughter of his employer.

Julia is the only daughter of the merchant, and though well-to-do, she realizes that she and her mother are not welcomed in the community. Discovering why shakes her world to its core, and her turmoil leads to faith in Christ. She and Jacob are the primary characters in this story, though there are strong subplots involving Abigail as well as Linix and Alban, two Roman soldiers who became believers in the previous books.

I enjoyed seeing how believers from various backgrounds and nationalities who would formerly have been enemies became one in Christ.

And one passage that came back to mind many times after reading it involved the testimony of what we call “the woman at the well.” I knew that she came out to draw water alone at a time when other women were not there because of her shame and her status. I knew that she was surprised that Christ spoke to her in the first place and that He knew all about her. But one sentence in the story said, “He seemed to know all about her, yet He did not shun her” (p. 265). Though the last few words are not explicitly said in Scripture, they are implied, and though I knew that in one sense, in this reading the contrast between the shunning of “good people” and the kindness and respect shown by the Savior really stood out to me.

For all the possible intrigue of the dangerous activities of the couriers and the secrecy of the believers to avoid persecution, you would think this would have been a real page-turner, but the plot seemed to drag to me in a few places, which I don’t remember happening in the previous books. But I may have just been a little “off” somehow while reading it — other reviews of it I have read use words like “sweeping,” “intriguing,” and “vivid.”

Nevertheless, I am glad to have read it and can recommend it. I’m not sure if there will be further books in the series — since it is covering the book of Acts and there are several more chapters after Saul’s conversion, I would hope so. If so, I’ll be looking forward to them.

(This review will also be linked to Semicolon‘s Saturday Review of Books.)