New Children’s Book about Elisabeth Elliot

Posted on July 2, 2026 by Barbara Harper

My friend Susan recently shared that there was a new children’s book about Elisabeth Elliot: Elisabeth Elliot: The Brave Girl Who Chose to Love by Ellen Vaughn, who wrote a two-volume biography of Elisabeth a few years ago.

I’ve considered Elisabeth my “mentor from afar” for decades, so I was delighted to learn there was a children’s book about her. The story is written for 4-7-year-olds, though I am sure older children would enjoy it as well.

The book provides a very simple overview of Elisabeth’s life, from the time her parents hosted missionaries in their home, which inspired Elisabeth, to her marriage to Jim, their ministry in Ecuador, and the birth of their daughter, Valerie. Jim’s death is shared straightforwardly. The name of the tribe who killed him is shortened to “Wao” here. Elisabeth later decides to try to tell the tribe that Jim loved about Jesus, thinking maybe “they won’t be scared of a woman and a little girl.”

After a few years, Elisabeth and Valerie leave for the United States so Valerie could go to school. The rest of Elisabeth’s life is summed up in a couple of paragraphs.

The author shares Isaiah 43:2 at intervals as something Elisabeth leaned on when she was tempted to fear: “When you pass through the waters, I will be with you; and when you pass through the rivers, they will not sweep over you” (NIV).

At the end of the book are questions to think about, a timeline of her life, a world map that notes where significant parts of Elisabeth’s life took place, and a link to some printable pages that children can draw on or fill in.

The illustrations by Emma Randall are nicely done and not “silly.”

This is a great introduction to Elisabeth’s life for children, touching on themes of missionary service, forgiveness, and trusting God when afraid.

I can happily recommend this book.

I noticed it was part of a “Do Great Things for God” series by The Good Book Company. There are fifteen books in the series so far, on people like C. S. Lewis, John Knox, Susannah Spurgeon, Amy Carmichael, Corrie ten Boom, Joni Eareckson Tada, Queen Elizabeth, and others, some of whom I had never heard of. I’m excited to see these biographies being made available for very young children.

Review: Mist of Midnight

Posted on July 1, 2026 by Barbara Harper

Mist of Midnight by Sandra Byrd is a “novel of Victorian Romantic Suspense.” Rebecca Ravenshaw is English but has lived most of her life in India with missionary parents. However, they died in the Indian Uprising of 1857, and Rebecca escaped just with the clothes on her back. She is interred with other refugees until passage for England can be arranged. She looks forward to the safety and peace of her family’s home in Hampshire.

When she arrives, however, she discovers that someone claiming to be her had come some months before her, and died, apparently by her own hand. The servants all seem to think Rebecca is the imposter.

The house is occupied by a Captain Luke Whitefield, a distantly-related cousin. He insists on Rebecca staying in the house while he moves to the guest house until all is sorted out. The family solicitor is called in, but he didn’t know Rebecca or her parents–he is taking over for his deceased father. He’ll have to contact the mission agency in India, but with the upset after the uprising, it may take months to hear from them.

Captain Whitefield generously allows Rebecca funds for clothing and a ladies’ maid and anything else she might need. Rebecca promises to pay him back when her claim is verified. If it’s not, she doesn’t know what she’ll do.

In the meantime, they just wait. Whitefield had some social events already on the calendar, which he invites Rebecca to. Most of the townspeople have never known Rebecca and look at her with suspicion. But they seem standoffish with Whitefield, too.

The more Rebecca learns of her imposter’s death, the more suspicious it sounds. Several people seem to have ulterior motives–Whitefield, her maid, the servants.

I had missed the description of this book as romantic suspense. I was confused at first wondering what type of book it was. Then I reread the description on Amazon and saw mention of Gothic themes. I did get Jane Eyre vibes–not from the imposter and the time in India, but the mysterious master of the house, the odd things going on, the wing of the house she wasn’t supposed to go down. The mists arising from the grounds each night added to the mysterious Gothic feel. I felt the author went a little overboard in telling us the mists were a metaphor for Rebecca’s life–I got that without her having to state it obviously.

There were a few things that didn’t make sense to me. Rebecca questions her sanity at several points, but there doesn’t seem to be a reason to. Something will happen, and she’ll immediately question, “Did that just happen, or did I imagine it?” Of course, she’s undergone several layers of trauma, so maybe that accounts for it. But that didn’t seem to arise organically from the story–it seemed tossed in to make it more Gothic-ish.

Then there are situations like some red flags about her maid. Yet when her maid prepares laudanum for Rebecca one night without being asked, Rebecca wonders if it is safe, but takes it anyway.

The plot is kind of a slow burn, but I liked how it ended up. I appreciated that Scripture and faith elements were brought in naturally, as you’d think would be normal for a daughter of missionaries, though I thought one verse was misapplied. All the questions and mysteries that arise through the story are satisfactorily settled.

I didn’t like that one character seemed to be a supernatural visitor after she left.

I’ve not read Sandra Byrd before. I saw the audiobook was free at Audible at the time (very nicely read by Elizabeth Sastre), so I decided to try it. The audiobook doesn’t include any author notes, but I found this interview with her. I was surprised to read that she had not been to India. This book is the first in a series of three. But I am not that into Gothic novels, so I probably will not read any more.

Review: All Booked Up

Posted on June 25, 2026 by Barbara Harper

All Booked Up by Melody Carlson centers on Riva Owen, a widow in her early sixties. Her husband passed away more than a year before and left her with a lot of medical debts. She’s contemplating selling the Victorian home where she grew up. But one thing holding her back is her book collection in what she calls her library. She still has all her husband’s books there as well. She just can’t bear to get rid of them–they are like friends to her.

When a friend mentions that Riva could make good money renting out her upstairs rooms, Riva has to think long and hard about whether to take in boarders. Doing so would allow her to keep her house. But it would disrupt her quiet lifestyle. She finally decides to give it a try and ends up with four women renting out rooms in her home. She only knows one of them, Laurel. Windy is a new acquaintance with a hippie background, Kitty is Laurel’s hairdresser, and Fiona works at a nearby cafe.

Things start off well, but soon the different personalities clash. The rest of the book is taken up with the issues that come up and how they are worked out.

I enjoyed reading a book about “older” women. I think they were all in their sixties except Kitty. I liked the bookish references but felt there could have been more, given the title and description of the story. I also appreciated the discussions about grief.

Melody has written over 200 books, and I have enjoyed the few that I have read, mostly Christmas novels. But this book was a disappointment to me in some ways. I felt the book took a while to get where it was going, but then the ending seemed rushed. The resolution of the biggest “problem” housemate seemed unrealistic to me.

I got frustrated that everyone kept telling Riva she was repressed and inhibited, pulling her into experiences she really didn’t want to get into. I wanted her to stand up for herself and quit giving in and going to these outings where she then tried to sneak out early. She tells the group later that she was stuck after her husband’s death and thanks them for nudging her out of her comfort zone. True, it’s good to try new things some times. But I felt the friends would have been better to encourage and suggest rather than push and insist.

Two of the women like Windy’s brother, Marcus, and seem totally childish in their jealousies.

Though this is Christian fiction, anything of a Christian nature is only mentioned sporadically until near the end.

Some reviewers felt as I did, but others loved the book. So don’t let me discourage you from trying it. You might like it, too, and I’d love to hear what you think of it.

Review: Life Under the Sun

Posted on June 24, 2026 by Barbara Harper

I’ve read and enjoyed several of Hannah Anderson’s books. So when I saw she had written a Bible study titled Life Under the Sun: The Unexpectedly Good News of Ecclesiastes, I put it on my wish list. After I received it, I put it on my literal “to be read” stack, thinking I’d use it the next time I read through Ecclesiastes.

I forgot I had the book until recently when I rediscovered it while looking for something else. As it turned out, my pastor had just started a series on Ecclesiastes. So I decided to go through this Bible study as a companion to the preaching, to reinforce what I was learning on both fronts.

Ecclesiastes is unique in that it seems somewhat cynical on first reading. Solomon, who many feel is the author of the book, uses a word nearly forty times that is translated as meaningless, vanity, or useless. He talks about the frustration of things like working all your life only to end up with nothing or leaving your money and possessions to someone who may not manage them well; finding injustice in the very people who are supposed to promote justice; sometimes it seems like good people suffer calamity while wicked people have it easy; life seems like an endless cycle of the same old thing, and so on.

But that word translated meaningless or vanity is the Hebrew word hevel, which means something more like vapor, smoke, or mist. Solomon speaks of chasing after the wind: you can’t catch it, and if you could, you can’t hold on to it. Life seems like that sometimes–endlessly pursuing but never grasping anything of permanence. Life is also as brief as a mist that disappears, language used elsewhere in the Bible as well.

Ecclesiastes is part of what we call both the wisdom literature of the Bible as well as its poetical books. Rather than straightforwardly telling us what it means, like Paul does in his epistles, the wisdom books use figurative language. Hannah says this “forces us to slow down and consider the truth being presented. And thus, it seeks not only to inform, but to transform” (p. 21).

The study is divided into eight weekly sessions of five days worth of reading in each. The first couple of lessons discuss the author and the nature of Ecclesiastes.

But then the rest of the book is laid out topically, covering wisdom, goodness, work, community, justice, and time “under the sun.” I suppose that makes sense in a study like this, because Solomon doesn’t lay these out in a neat and orderly outline. He seems to scatter them throughout the rest of the book. Hannah says that is due to the chaotic nature of life as represented in Ecclesiastes. But I have also read that Eastern literature is not laid out in a linear fashion like Western literature is: it’s more cyclical. Perhaps both ideas come to bear here.

But I felt like the topical nature of the study had us hopping around all over the place and seemed like we were missing some parts of Ecclesiastes. Our pastor is going through the book section by section, which I prefer.

As a whole, I felt this was a little lightweight compared to other Bible studies I have done. I liked her other books much better. That’s not to say this study was without merit: it’s very good as far as it goes. I did glean some good points throughout, and the topics often did intersect with what my pastor was preaching or what the church’s podcast on Ecclesiastes covered, even though they may all have been in different parts of the book.

I appreciated Hannah’s discussion of reading biblical poetry. She brought out some aspects I had not heard before. Some of the other quotes that stood out to me:

One benefit of studying Ecclesiastes is that it helps us realize our questions need to be refined. Again, it’s easy to come to the Bible demanding answers. It’s much harder to let the Scripture change our questions before answering them. But part of coming to Scripture honestly means letting it rework and restructure the way we think (p. 26).

If God invites us to enter His kingdom like little children, I have to believe He means for us to come with all the curiosity and audacity of a child trying to make sense of her world. And just as we would never shame a child for trying to understand the life she inhabits, so too, our heavenly Father does not shame us when we ask similar questions (p. 26).

What kept David from despair [in Psalm 27:13] was his confidence that he would experience the goodness of the Lord in this life–here, in the land of the living. Here, under the sun. He believed that despite all the difficulties, life still held the promise of goodness because it still held God. So instead of trusting in goodness itself, we should trust in the God of goodness, believing He who made the world good will continue to fill it with His good presence (p. 72).

While God’s work does not depend on us, our work does depend on Him. He has given us good work to do, and we must pursue it in order to find fulfillment (p. 104).

Applying wisdom to relationships often begins with confusion. While proverbs are neat and contained, the problems of life require us to puzzle through them. Wisdom happens in the process (p. 138).

Though we grieve the state of our world, a crooked world holds its own kind of hope because a crooked world hints to the fact that a straight one exists. The fact that we long for life to be other than it is tells us we know it should be something more. The fact that we instinctively know life is not fair confirms we know it should be fair. In fact, this reasoning is what eventually brought Oxford don and author, C. S. Lewis to faith (p. 152).

While Ecclesiastes might seem cynical or pessimistic at first, the book reaches the conclusion to enjoy God’s good gifts in a fallen world, live for Him, obey Him, and trust that He will work everything out in the long run. Or, as Hannah put it:

Ultimately, for the Teacher, the secret to life under the sun was found in remembering what life can and can’t give us. Rest from “hevel” comes from confessing our limits and remembering God’s limitlessness–including remembering our need of His limitless grace and mercy. So that when we run up against our own injustice, pride, and arrogance, we learn to run to Him. Time and time again, in each new season of life, we can run to Him confessing our need and surrendering ourselves to His loving hand (p. 205).

How to Read More for Less Money

Posted on June 23, 2026 by Barbara Harper

I strongly believe in paying full price for books. Authors work for months, sometimes years, to get their books finished and published. Most don’t make a living at writing unless they’re mega-best-sellers. The Bible says, “The laborer is worthy of his hire.” It’s good and right to reimburse them for the goods and services they provide.

Paying for a book is a good value. A specialty coffee drink only lasts an hour or so. A good book may cost twice as much but lasts ten-twenty hours.

Plus, selfishly, investing in authors we love enables them to write even more books. If I want them to keep books coming, I need to support them.

For many of us, however, our reading appetite outpaces our budget. We can read more books if we can find deals on them.

Here are some ways I’ve found to get more books for my reading dollar.

Free books. The library is a wonderful institution to make books available to the public. They may not always have what we want, or there may be a waiting list for the most popular books. But they are a good first resource. If they don’t have a book you want, many of them have a form you can submit to request it.

Project Gutenberg has the text of many older books online.

Librivox has audio versions of books in the public domain. Some are excellently done, but some are read by volunteers who don’t use inflections or character voices. But it’s easy to take a chance when the book is free.

Net Galley will send readers free books in return for an honest review. I haven’t tried them yet, but I am looking into them. I think there are similar sites that do the same thing. Sometimes authors will send out a few of their newest books for that purpose as well. The reviews don’t have to be all five-star–in fact, it looks a little suspicious if every review is the highest rating. Reviews also don’t have to be long and involved.

Sales. Yard sales, thrift stores, library sales, and used book stores will sometimes yield great books at good prices. They may have some damage or markings. Even Amazon will list some used book options. Most used books I’ve bought have been fine. There have only been one or two that were so damaged or icky that I regretted buying them.

Thriftbooks sells both used and new titles.

Some sites online will curate book sale listings. Gospelebooks.com and Inspiredreads.com list current Christian books sales for the Kindle app, but I mention them with caution. I would not agree with everything they recommend, so some discernment is needed. Tim Challies also curates a list of mostly Christian books but also a few general market ones. I’m much more willing to take a chance on a new author or a book I am not sure about when I can get it for a couple of dollars.

Of course, many booksellers have regular sales as well. Following them online or signing up for their catalogs or emails will keep you informed.

Also, if you follow your favorite authors on social media, they’ll often list when one of their books is on sale.

Pre-orders. There are a few authors (Amanda Cox and Amanda Dykes, to name a couple of my favorites) whose every book I buy. Since I have read all their books so far and loved them, there’s a good chance I’ll like their new books as well. I got both of their soon-to-be published paperbacks at 25% off plus free shipping for pre-orders. Publishers like pre-orders because it gives them some idea of how much interest there will be in the book, so they’ll often offer incentives like a discount price and/or free shipping or some little gifts if you order early.

Rewards. We have an Amazon credit card which gives me “points” every time I buy something with it–especially something from Amazon. Sometimes it will let me use my Amazon points for book purchases.

I’ve only ordered a few books at Thriftbooks, but apparently they have some kind of reward system, too.

Audiobooks. My Audible subscription is $14.95 a month, which nets me one credit, good for one book. However, they often have 2-book-for-one-credit sales on selected titles. They also rotate some titles for free in what they used to call their “Plus” catalog. Now, at the top of the Audible site, those books are listed under a tab titled “Included.” (I would suggest listening to the free audiobooks you choose right away, because when they are rotated back into the general circulation, they’ll no longer be available in your Audible app.) Plus, they’ll have many of their regular titles marked down if you want to buy them for cash rather than a credit. I save my credit for the more expensive books but occasionally buy audiobooks for a few dollars. I’ve found many classics there for just a dollar or two.

Audible also just started a rewards program. But even before that, they’d sometimes offer a $5 coupon for listening to three audiobooks within a certain time period.

I mentioned at the beginning the desire to support authors. Does it lessen their support to get books on sale or for free? As I said, I like to pay full price for books often. But I think many authors would rather their books be read on sale or from the library than not at all. Many offer sales on their own books at times. I’ve often started reading the rest of an author’s books after trying one that I found for free or on sale.

Plus, we can also support authors in other ways. Requesting and checking out their books at the library helps keep their books available there.

One of the best ways to support an author is to leave reviews of their books, especially on Amazon but also on sites like GoodReads or on our blogs. Even a mention on social media helps. Many book sales are generated by word of mouth these days. Not only do our reviews help promote books among other readers, but publishers look at them closely as well. I’ve read that Amazon doesn’t put a book in its promotional algorithm until that book has at least fifty reviews.

Have you found ways to read more books than you can afford? Please share with us in the comments.

(I often link up with some of these bloggers.)

Review: Playlist Theology

Posted on June 18, 2026 by Barbara Harper

Several years ago, in a post I’ve lost track of, a worship leader told of being approached by an older woman at church who felt the musicians should not use drums on the older, traditional hymns. He told her she didn’t have a right to impose her preferences on others.

He didn’t seem to realize that he was imposing his preferences on her.

In similar articles I’ve read since then, that seems to be the running theme–the person with more conservative music standards who voices a concern, is written off as old, out of touch, domineering, or, worst of all, a legalist.

It’s true, a lot of people want to keep things the same way they have always been “just because” that’s what they know and feel comfortable with. But a lot of people are not operating from that point of view. They’ve been taught that certain kinds of music are right and wrong. And whether they’re correct or not, their consciences have been trained in a certain way.

I’ve read that the Bible contains over 500 references to music. But it doesn’t say much about styles. It tells how music can help people emotionally, physically, and spiritually, as it did when young David played for King Saul. But when Joshua and Moses came down from the mountain with the ten commandments in Exodus 32, Joshua thought he heard noise like war in the camp. Moses said, no, it’s not war: it’s singing. Considering the people were involved in idol worship with the golden calf, and the chapter says earlier “the people sat down to eat and drink and rose up to play,” the sound was likely that of the wrong kind of revelry. So there is an indication of certain kinds of music going with certain kinds of behaviors.

The Bible tells us, “So, whether you eat or drink, or whatever you do, do all to the glory of God” (1 Corinthians 10:31) and “Do not love the world or the things in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him. For all that is in the world—the desires of the flesh and the desires of the eyes and pride of life—is not from the Father but is from the world” (1 John 2:15-16). There is a kind of music that appeals to the flesh–not just lyrics, but music. But exactly where are the lines between what’s worldly and what’s not? That takes some discernment. And some of it falls within the Romans 14 areas of differing convictions.

How much of our convictions about music are due to the culture we grew up with, to our consciences, or to the Holy Spirit’s leading? That’s what many of us wrestle with.

I recently came across Ben Everson’s book, Playlist Theology. He’s a “musical evangelist” from a conservative background who has given much thought to these issues. His book explores many of these questions in a careful, thoughtful, gracious way. He has the musical knowledge, experience, and vocabulary to discuss aspects of music in detail. He explores what Scripture says about music and how we can apply it.

I read one review of this book that brushed it off as saying music is amoral. That is not what Ben is saying. But he says certain aspects of music are not good or bad in themselves. The context and amount of their use can determine whether they are being used for good or bad purposes.

For instance, some people have a problem with syncopation. Ben explains what it is and names both classical music and some traditional old hymns that employ it.

Theologically, the mere presence of syncopation can’t be equated with sinfulness any more than dissonance in harmony can. Both are forms of tension that demand resolution. When tension resolves toward meaning, toward beauty, truth or praise, it becomes part of the art’s redemptive arc.

Where the moral question enters is what the tension serves. In worship, syncopation can mirror spiritual joy, spontaneity, or the exuberance of grace. . . In sensual contexts, the same rhythmic techniques can amplify bodily pleasure as an end in itself when all the other elements are bent toward lust (p. 118).

Some have trouble with the “beat” of rock music. All music has a “beat” It’s stronger in some kinds of music than others (like march music or children’s rhythmic songs). But a heavy rhythm can stir sensual feelings. (The main thing that made me throw out my rock albums as a teenager and new Christian was reading quotes from rock musicians themselves saying that their music–not just the words, but the music–was about sex and rebellion.) Ben suggests asking questions like whether the rhythm supports the melody or drives it, “What is this stirring in me? Is it leading my spirit or just exciting my body? Is it enhancing the message or overwhelming it?” (p. 142).

I have multiple quotes marked, but here are a few that stood out to me:

What’s taught in song is often remembered longer than what’s preached in a sermon (p. 34).

While the Bible doesn’t give us a list of forbidden styles, it does give us clear principles: music must glorify God, teach truth, be distinct from the world, stir the Spirit not the flesh, and flow from the heart (p. 36).

The same Bible that gives us freedom also gives us boundaries. The same God who created beauty also hates what distorts it. Discernment doesn’t mean endless openness; it means knowing where the lines actually are so we can hold them with integrity (p. 155).

I’ve realized over time that some of what I was taught about music, especially Christian music, as a young adult may have gone beyond what the Bible actually says. But I also didn’t think that meant “anything goes” now. Ben’s book was a great help to me in learning discernment about where problem areas in music are beyond “I know it when I hear it.”

I realize that for some of you, this whole conversation is totally foreign. You may have grown up with rock music and contemporary Christian music and never had a problem with it. Part of what I wrote at the beginning of this post was to try to help explain why that’s not true for everyone and hopefully encourage a little tenderness and understanding and less judgment on both sides.

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(To those who receive these posts via email: the last couple of times I’ve used the “quote” block in my blog posts, the quotes haven’t shown up in the email version. It was suggested to me that it might work better to use shorter quotes. I’ve done that here, so hopefully everything will come through. If it looks like something is missing, I invite you to click through to read the whole post.)

Review: Echoes of a Silent Song

Posted on June 10, 2026 by Barbara Harper

Echoes of a Silent Song is a dual-timeline novel by Amanda Wen.

Blair Emerson has been the accompanist–or collaborative pianist, as she prefers to be called–for all of Peterson High School’s choirs for several years. But the last five years, no one conductor has stayed more than a year. The lack of continuity has hurt the kids and the music program. And the newest conductor, some hotshot from Boston, is no better. He has said upfront that he only plans to be there for a year.

Callum Knight had been a successful composer and conductor in Boston. But the pandemic brought everything to a screeching halt. And then his fiancee died. His old friend, the retired conductor from Peterson, Illinois, told him about a job opening at the high school–the last thing Callum ever would have considered if he wasn’t desperate. But it would pay the bills for a year and hopefully help his composing muse to come back.

Blair and Callum clash immediately. She has been the only constant in the students’ musical lives for years and feels protective of them. Callum feels they need to be challenged. She feels he’s choosing material that’s too hard and settling them up for failure. She reminds him they are children, not professionals. She thinks he’s arrogant. He thinks she is an ice queen.

They go round and round until they discover an unsigned partial piece of music in an old box in the choir room. They play a part of it on the piano and feel it’s brilliant, but they can’t find any more of the music. As they search, Blair remembers an Iris Wollingford, a student at the school who was said to have composed music but died by suicide before graduation. As Callum and Blair work together to find out more about Iris and her music, they come to understand each other better. But what they find out about Iris stuns them.

Some chapters tell Iris’ story from the late 1960s and early 70s. She was indeed a high school student whose mind was obsessed with music. She was not antisocial, but she didn’t have many friends. Then Victor, a boy in her class, saw a piece of music she was working on and confessed he was a composer, too. They became a couple with big plans to go to college and compose together. But then the draft for the Viet Nam war changed everything.

I’ve not read anything by Amanda Wen before except a Christmas novella, but I saw this as a free audiobook for Audible subscribers and decided to give it a try.

I felt the narrator of the audiobook overdid things in places. I think I would have enjoyed the print version more, but the library didn’t have the book and the Kindle version was more than I wanted to pay. About halfway through the book, either I got used to the narrator by then or she settled down into the story better.

It took me a little bit to get into the story. Some of Blair’s early conversations with her best friend, Joy, seemed downright juvenile. But once we got past that, I became more intrigued. The story seemed to get better as it progressed. We find out what is driving both Blair and Callum, what’s keeping them from opening up to each other, and what really happened to Iris.

I didn’t like the multiple uses of the word “crap.” The faith element seemed a little lacking in the first part of the book, but came out beautifully by the end. Overall, I enjoyed the story, especially the latter half.

The audiobook didn’t contain any notes from the author, but I found one interview she gave about the book here.

Review: The Lumber Baron’s Wife

Posted on June 3, 2026 by Barbara Harper

The Lumber Baron’s Wife by Lynn Austin is a dual-timeline novel set in Michigan.

In 1873, Hannah Wagner had lost three children to diphtheria. Her husband, John, was a doctor but was unable to save them. To keep from feeling the pain of her loss, Hannah has numbed herself and closed herself off to love and the risks that come with it. She’s civil, but distant.

An old friend of her husband’s, Henry Abernathy, comes to visit them in Brooklyn. He has started a lumber mill in the untamed area of Michigan, and the bustling new town there needs a doctor. He wants John to start a practice in Michigan and promises to build him a home. John welcomes the new start, but Hannah doesn’t want to leave her children’s graves and everything else familiar to her. But eventually she agrees to go.

Hannah finds Henry’s wife, Kate, to be much younger than her husband and quite uncouth. Kate claims Hannah’s friendship with puppy-dog eagerness that drains Hannah. Hannah has no choice but to socialize with the younger woman, who scandalizes her with stories from her past.

When Kate goes missing (not a spoiler, as we’re told this on the first page), multiple possibilities arise that may have led to her disappearance. Yet none of them satisfies Hannah. She knows something must be wrong.

In the present day, Ashley Gilbert comes to Michigan with her new husband, David. She didn’t wanted to come to Michigan, but David has found his dream job there. Trouble arises when they search for a home: David wants something sleek and modern, but Ashley is a historian who is intrigued by an old but beautiful home once owned by the town’s doctor and his wife in the 1800s.

A mansion built by the area’s lumber baron in the same time period has fallen into disrepair. It has been used as multiple businesses through the years, including a daycare, an antique shop, and a Red Cross headquarters the second floor was even chopped up into apartments. A local group is volunteering to try to restore it to some of its former glory. When Ashley learns of the restoration and offers her services, she is viewed as a godsend. That strikes her as odd. She has never given God much thought.

Ashley becomes fascinated with the unsolved mystery of the lumber’s baron’s wife from all those years ago.

The point of view switches between Hannah, Kate, and Ashley. There are many layers to this story: overcoming difficulties and learning to work together in marriage, the power of friendship, the power of the gospel lived out and gently shared. The past affects and influences us but can be overcome.

The story drew me in from the first page. I don’t know when I have identified with a character as much as I did with Hannah. Though our circumstances were different, our personalities are similar.

When I finally found out what happened to Kate, I was totally surprised and did not see it coming.

I had never thought of Michigan as a nearly wilderness area, but I guess much of America was early on.

The audiobook, wonderfully narrated by Sarah Zimmerman, didn’t include the author’s notes, in the narration. But it did have PDFs of her notes and discussion questions. I also found interviews with Lynn here and here where she gives some background into the story. She’s from Michigan, which really was a hub of the lumber industry. Short-sighted lumber barons didn’t think about the long-term results of their industry, which devastated the area for many years. The Abernathy mansion in the book is based on a couple of similar mansions in MI that were turned into museums.

Overall, I greatly enjoyed this book and highly recommend it.

Review: Blueprint for a Nonfiction Book

Posted on June 2, 2026 by Barbara Harper

Jennie Nash started out as an author, but then switched to become a book coach, helping authors shape their ideas into readable and saleable books. She shares some of her coaching tips in Blueprint for a Nonfiction Book: Plan and Pitch Your Big Idea.

She doesn’t talk so much about how to write here. She says “Writing a book is a complex intellectual, creative, and entrepreneurial undertaking and to write a good one, you have to put in the work—and I don’t just mean cranking out words. The work that is going to have the most impact is the work you do before you write a single word of the book itself” (p. 9, Kindle version).

The book is divided into five parts: Book Fundamentals (reasons for writing, why you’re qualified, title, genre, main point), Get to Know Your Ideal Reader (who is your ideal reader, what are you promising him or her), Design a Structure, Developing a Book Proposal, and How to Pitch Your Proposal.

The days are gone when a writer pounded out her manuscript and sent it off to a publisher. These days, one first sends a query to a literary agent (though there are a few exceptions, especially with smaller publishing houses, you can’t get to a traditional publisher except through an agent). If the agent wants to know more, he’ll ask for your book proposal, which contains specific information, like an overview, sample chapters, comparable titles, marketing plan, and more.

Even if an author wants to self-publish, it’s helpful to think through these issues.

Jennie includes examples of each of her points that come from her own clients and clients of those she has trained through her Author Accelerator, where she trains other book coaches. These examples were valuable in seeing her tips fleshed out.

I read this book mainly because I know what elements I want my book to contain, but struggled with the best way to arrange them. The section about design structure helped a great deal. But I benefited from reading the other material as well.

Review: Angel Sister

Posted on May 26, 2026 by Barbara Harper

Angel Sister by Ann H. Gabhart takes place in the fictional town of Rosey Corner, Kentucky, in 1936.

Kate Merritt is the middle of three sisters. Evie, the oldest, is flighty and self-centered. Victoria is too young to be of much help. Kate is her mother’s main help around the house as well as with her father.

Flashbacks show us how Kate’s parents, Victor and Nadine, met and fell in love. They married right before Victor shipped out for WW1. Victor had never had a good relationship with his own father, who has never seen Victor as good enough. Plus his father blames Victor for the death of the cherished older son, Preston. With that baggage plus the horrors he experienced in the war, Victor becomes addicted to alcohol.

Nadine’s father, Preacher Reese, managed his home and church with an authoritarian hand. He never approved of her marrying Victor and continues to remind of of her poor choices.

Nadine still loves Victor but can’t understand why he won’t give up drinking for her and the girls. “Something wasn’t quite right between a man and his wife when that man had to get comfort from a bottle.”

One day when Kate went to the church to deliver something to Grandfather Reese, she finds a little girl on the steps outside. The girl, Lorena, said her parents left her at the church and told her an angel would take care of her. Her brother was sick and her parents didn’t have much money, so they left to find work and help. Lorena has a note with her name and birth date written on it. She thinks Kate is her angel, despite Kate’s assurance that she’s not an angel.

Kate brings Lorena home, where she fits right in with the family. But Grandfather Reese calls a meeting at the church to say that Lorena will be given to an older childless family in the church. (Apparently there was nothing along the lines of Family Services in that day). Despite the Merritt family’s protests that Lorena has bonded with them and is doing well, Preacher Reese doesn’t feel they can adequately care for her.

Kate had prayed with everything in her that Lorena would be able to stay with their family. When that doesn’t happen, her faith is shaken.

The story continues with how these various threads interact as well as those of other characters.

I felt the narrative moved a little slowly in parts. I wasn’t sure if it was meant to be that way since it was set in KY and would have a different pace than a story set in NYC, or if it was just the author’s style.

And the author kept repeating the phrase that someone “mashed” their mouth or lips together. I don’t know if that’s a Kentucky colloquialism or a pet phrase of the author’s. I had never heard it before, and it was jarring and distracting.

But I liked how the story arc ended up, with themes of love and forgiveness. I thought the way Nadine and Victor were initially attracted to each other was especially sweet.

The author shares in her end notes that the story grew out of her mother and aunts’ discussions of their family stories and the small town they grew up in with some of its quirky characters.

I didn’t know until I finished the book that it is the first in a trilogy about the Merritt sisters and Rosey Corner. I’ll probably read the next two at some point, but not right away.