The folks at 5 Minutes For Books host What’s On Your Nightstand? the fourth Tuesday of each month in which we can share about the books we have been reading and/or plan to read.

Since last month I’ve finished:

(All links in this section are to my reviews.)

Beyond the Shadows by Robin Lee Hatcher (audiobook) about  a woman whose husband is an alcoholic. Very good.

Cold Sassy Tree by Olive Ann Burns, about a small-town Southern community’s reaction when a widower remarries just three days after his wife’s funeral. Not crazy about it but it did have some good points.

Coming Home by Karen Kingsbury. End of the Baxter family saga.

Lost Melody by Lori Copeland and Virginia Smith (audiobook). A promising classical pianist is severely injured in a subway accident, ruining her career hopes and dreams. Then she begins to have a recurring nightmare and an impression that she’s supposed to warn her small seaside town of a coming disaster. Mixed emotions.

Walking on Broken Glass by Christa Allan, about a woman recovering from alcoholism and learning how to respond to her controlling husband.

The Silver Chair by C. S. Lewis. Two children are sent on a quest to find a lost prince held captive by an evil queen. Good stuff. A part of Carrie‘s The Chronicles of Narnia Reading Challenge and July Book Club choice.

I’m currently reading/listening to:

The Horse and His Boy by C. S. Lewis.

The House at Riverton by Kate Morton. A former maid is the only living person associated with an old manor house and has a secret she’s kept quiet all these years. Pretty intriguing so far. I’m sorry to have listed this here. The story ended up being very sordid with some use of vulgar language and I cannot recommend this book or author.

Not By Chance: Learning to Trust a Soveriegn God by Layton Talbert. Excellent.

Roots by Alex Haley, audiobook. This book was not on my radar at all, but I was looking for a new audiobook and scrolling through the classics listing at Audible.com, and saw it.  I don’t know that I’d call it a classic just because it is not that old. But it’s pretty fascinating. I do have another reason for reading it (listening to it) that I’ll share later.

Up next:

I still haven’t decided whether to join in the summer Louisa May Alcott reading challenge but since there is only one more month of summer, I guess I’d better decide soon. I always enjoy a visit with her books. I have The Discovery by Dan Walsh on hand and I’ve got about 38 downloads on my Kindle app, so I should probably work on a few of them.

Happy Reading!

Author Adam Blumer is giving away a copy of his book

 Fatal Illusions

here.

I read and reviewed this book here and can highly recommend it.

In Lost Melody by Lori Copeland and Virginia Smith, Jill King is a talented concert pianist on her way to Carnegie Hall when she’s involved in a horrible subway accident which kills most of the passengers. Jill survives, but sustains an injury to her hip, and what’s worse, to her hand, tragically ending any dreams she had for her future as a pianist.

In the year following she slowly recovers physically as much as possible, but she is still seeing a counselor to deal with the emotional trauma. People feel it’s time for her to move on, and things begin to move toward a permanent commitment to her boyfriend Greg, a lawyer with promising political ambitions.

About this time she begins having recurring terrifying dreams, and she feels they are portending a disaster to her oceanside Novia Scotia town and she’s supposed to warn people. But warning people carries the risk of being thought crazy, which would not only damage her reputation but would also affect her fiance’s career.

I’d seen this pop up on other blogs and always thought it sounded interesting until I got to the part about the dreams, then I’d close the screen and move on to something else. But when I was looking for a new audiobook, somehow I missed that part when I ordered.

For me, I can’t help reading/listening and wondering “Where are the authors going with this? Are they trying to promote a view that God speaks to people in this way today?”

Personally, I don’t believe that He does. No, there is no Bible verse where God says, “I will never again speak audibly or through dreams to anyone ever again until they get to heaven.” But my understanding of I Corinthians 13:8b-10 (“But whether there are prophecies, they will fail; whether there are tongues, they will cease; whether there is knowledge, it will vanish away. For we know in part and we prophesy in part. But when that which is perfect has come, then that which is in part will be done away.”) is that once the Word of God came, the need for the “sign gifts” faded away. I know there are differences of opinion about that, and that’s fine: I don’t mean to start a debate. I’m just relaying my mindset as I listened to the book. The most realistic and seemingly genuine incidents I’ve heard of their use today have occurred among primitive people who don’t have the Scriptures in their languages yet. Plus, I don’t know of a Biblical prophecy that’s just about getting out of town because of a coming disaster: usual it has to do with a call to repentance. There are multitudes of crashes, floods, explosions, earthquakes, and other disasters throughout the world on a daily basis: why would God pick one little town and send a prophecy to them to leave town because something bad is about to happen?

But I decided if I was going to get anything out of the book, I needed to just set that aside mentally, accept it as just a fictional part of a fictional story rather than reality, and just see how it played out.

I felt the authors did handle well the ramifications of such a character with such a message: the disbelief of some, including her fiance, and his wrestling with how to support her while not letting her stance have a negative impact on his career; the support of others, with a tiny few carrying it over into a bit of extreme fanaticism; the media interest and “spin” on it, etc. All of that was very realistic and did make me empathize with the prophets of old, the reluctance some of them may have felt at proclaiming a message that many would not receive. The authors also did a great job with the plot development and the build-up of suspense to the climax at the end.

I enjoyed most the parts about Jill’s recovery and the issues she faced in connection with the loss of her dream. But even regarding the prophecy as fictional, as a plot element, I didn’t really enjoy that part of the book as well.

In the small town of Cold Sassy, GA, in the early 1900s, Rucker Blakeslee shocked and scandalized the town and his family by remarrying Miss Love Simpson just three weeks after his wife died. That was the worst of it, but added to the scandal were the facts that she was “nearly a Yankee” and half his age. Thereafter she was the main subject of gossip (as if the marriage was totally her fault) and could seem to do nothing right in their eyes. That’s the basic plot of Cold Sassy Tree by Olive Ann Burns, but the story is told through the eyes of Rucker’s grandson, Will Tweedy, who is sympathetic with the couple, and whose teen-age perspective causes him to question things and not necessarily go along with the status quo.

I do generally like small-town Southern fiction, but it took me a long while to get into this one. I almost laid it aside many time but persevered because so many people told me they had liked it.  A lot of the town gossip, prejudices, and family competition seemed mean-spirited; Will had a minor obsession with ladies’ bosoms (trying to catch a peek when his sister-in-law nursed her baby, noticing how Miss Love jiggled when she played the piano), there is a smattering of bad language and some faulty theology (I do understand this is not at all meant to be a Christian book, but if a writer is going to get into theology, then, yes, I am going to evaluate that). One example: when Will asks why we don’t get what we ask for in prayer even though Jesus said “Ask and ye shall receive,” his Grandpa says: “Maybe Jesus was talkin’ in His sleep, son, or folks heard Him wrong. Or maybe them disciples tryin’ to start a church thought everybody would join up if’n they said Jesus Christ would give the Garden a-Eden to anybody believed He was the son a-God and like thet” (p. 98). He does decide to “study on this some more” and later decides that Jesus may not give exactly what you ask (healing, a new job, etc.), but He will give you the grace to deal with whatever He allows, which is closer to the truth. But perhaps Rucker’s theological convolutions were meant as just another window into a personality that wants its own way and doesn’t care what anyone else thinks, which is manifested in various ways throughout the book.

I did enjoy Will’s camping trip. I loved the way Will’s innocent but unwise foray into impending doom on the train tracks was told. By the end of the book I grew to like the relationship Will had with his grandfather and the growing relationship between Rucker and Love from a marriage of convenience to a true, deep love. I liked that everything came more or less right in the end though I was sorry for the tragedy that led to it.

One of my favorite lines was when Will was pondering being in mourning (wearing a black armband, not being able to do anything fun) over the death of his grandmother as opposed to what it meant to actually mourn for her: “But to mourn, that’s different. To mourn is to be eaten alive with homesickness for the person” (p. 56). If you’ve ever mourned anyone you loved, I’m sure you can sympathize with that feeling.

My other favorite line was more humorous. When Miss Love models some driving attire in the store window because Rucker won’t buy a mannequin, Will’s Aunt “Loma was jealous. The store window being like a little stage and her having taken elocution, she considered herself the only person in Cold Sassy qualified to act like a dummy” (p. 282).

I went online looking for some more insight into the book, and these SparkNotes helped (warning: they do contain spoilers to the plot since they’re discussing it more in depth). It is a mark of good writing that I’m still thinking about the book days later and discovering angles, connections, and layers that I’d missed at first, but it still won’t go down as one of my favorites.

I finished a couple of books that I just wanted to mention briefly rather than writing a full review.

 Coming Home is Karen Kingsbury’s latest and supposedly last book about the Baxter family. Though the family is the subject of some 22 previous books, I don’t think one would need to read all of them before enjoying this book.

The extended Baxter family is coming home for a surprise party for patriarch John Baxter’s 70th birthday. As each of his children reflect on their lives in order to write him a letter about what he means to them, their stories are summed up for the reader. But a tragedy turns their world upside down and shakes and tests their faith.

I can’t say much more than that without revealing too much. I enjoyed the book very much.

 Walking on Broken Glass by Christa Allan is the story of Leah Thornton, who at 27 confronts the truth of her alcoholism and checks herself into rehab. She comes to realize that there are more problems with her life than just alcohol, and that everything she blames her husband for may not be entirely his fault.

I loved Christa’s witty writing and Leah’s self-discovery, but I thought her admission of her alcoholism came a little too easily. I’ve mentioned before that my father was an alcoholic for most of his adult life, losing his family and his health, I don’t think he ever did admit that he had a problem, at least not that I ever heard. But I suppose it is possible to admit such after one confrontation.

There is also much more about Leah and her husband’s sexual life than I like to read. It is integral to the story and and for the most part it is no more explicit than what you’d find in Song of Solomon or Proverbs 5:19. Still, I’d rather the issues between them were expressed through some other venue.

I also felt the ending was left hanging unresolved. I do appreciate that not every thread of a story needs to be wrapped up in a neat bow at the end, but this ending was so abrupt that at first I thought perhaps not all of it came through on my Kindle download.

I did, however, really enjoy Christa’s writing and will look for more of her books in the future.

In Beyond the Shadows by Robin Lee Hatcher, Deborah Haskins’ husband has just died in a farming accident, leaving her a young widow alone on a 40 acre farm. Unbeknownst to her, her husband Andy had offered his old Korean war buddy, Gideon Clermont, a job on the farm, and Gideon happens to arrive the day of Andy’s funeral. Gideon finds another job but wants to help Deborah out by volunteering his services at the farm on Saturdays.

Both Gideon and Deborah are Christians but not in close fellowship with the Lord. After several months they fall in love and elope. Some time later Deborah experiences a renewal of her faith, but Gideon is aloof spiritually. It takes a long while for Deborah to realize that Gideon has a drinking problem, and then longer to acknowledge that he is a full-blown alcoholic.

As the daughter of an alcoholic myself, I felt the actions and emotions of the characters rang true. Experience with alcoholism with a member of Robin’s family lends an authenticity to the story.

One of the things I most appreciated about this book was the realistic use of Scripture and Scriptural principles. Some Christian authors today seem to think they have to veil, to downplay, or to merely suggest spiritual truth, but it should be a normal part of a Christian’s life to read and be instructed and convicted by God’s Word. The book is not preachy at all, but the characters do grapple realistically with God’s Word and its claims on them.

In one instance, Deborah has come across the verse “‘I hate divorce,’ says the LORD God of Israel” in Malachi 2:16a. At first it seems like a promise that her marriage will be salvaged, but as Gideon’s initial denials that he has a problem turn into multiple relapses despite promises to quit all chisel away at Deborah’s love for him, the verse begins to feel more like a prison sentence. It reminded me of a quote from Jane Eyre: “Laws and principles are not for the times when there is no temptation: they are for such moments as this, when body and soul rise in mutiny against their rigor.”

And I also thought it was quite realistic that once both Deborah and Gideon came to a place of surrender and decision, it still wasn’t easy and they still had their ups and downs.

For all of that, though, the book is not dreary and gloomy. It’s meant as a story of hope.

The book is mostly told through Deborah’s voice, but there are occasional paragraphs of various other characters’ viewpoints.

I listened to it via audiobook and it was quite well done. It appears to be out of print right now, but used copies are available and it is also available for the Kindle and the Nook as well as audiobook. There is an interesting interview with Robin from a few years back that covers this book as well as other information.

Annette at This Simple Home and Dorie at These Grace Filled Days have teamed up to create Together on Tuesdays as “a casual way to meet and connect with other women” over the summer. They’ve created a schedule of topics to discuss in order to get to know one another better, and the topic for this week is favorite books and films.

I would have a hard time narrowing books down to a couple of favorites, as reading has been a lifelong favorite activity. But I’ll try to suggest a few from favorite genres (links are to my reviews).

Missionary biographies: probably my favorite category or at least the one that has most impacted my life: Amy Carmichael of Dohnavur by Frank Houghton, Evidence Not Seen by Darlene Diebler Rose, Through Gates of Splendor by Elisabeth Elliot, To the Golden Shore about Adoniram Judson, By Searching and In the Arena by Isobel Kuhn, Goforth of China and Climbing by Rosalind Goforth, Mountain Rain by Eileen Crossman, Second-Mile People by Isobel Kuhn (an excerpt here), In the Presence of My Enemies by Gracia Burnham, Green Leaf in Drought by Isobel Kuhn.

Non-fiction books: When God Weeps by Joni Eareckson Tada and Steve Estes, How To Say No to a Stubborn Habit by Erwin Lutzer, Changed Into His Image by Jim Berg, Spiritual Depression by D. Martin Lloyd Jones, Spiritual Leadership by J. Oswald Sanders, On Asking God Why by Elisabeth Elliot (just about anything by Elisabeth Elliot!), Beyond Suffering: Discovering the Message of Job by Layton Talbert, The Art of Homemaking by Edith Schaeffer.

Classics: The Chronicles of Narnia series by C. S. Lewis, Little Women by Louisa May Alcott. the Little House books by Laura Ingalls Wilder, A Tale of Two Cities by Charles Dickens, Les Miserables by Victor Hugo, Anne of Green Gables by L. M. Montgomery, Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte, the Lord of the Rings series by J. R. R. Tolkien.

Christian fiction: the Mitford series by Jan Karon, A Quiet Strength by Janette Oke, The Secret Life of Becky Miller by Sharon Hinck, Francine Rivers’ Mark of the Lion series, The Princess and Sophie’s Heart by Lori Wick.

More are listed at 98 Books that Have Enriched my Life and Favorite Books: Non-Fiction and Favorite Fiction Books and Authors.

Favorite films: That would be a much shorter list. Newer films tend to have explicit scenes or bad words, so most of my favorites films are older. Some of my favorites are the Lord of the Rings series, The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe, Toy Story, the Toby Stephens/Ruth Wilson version of Jane Eyre. both the Gwynneth Paltrow and Romola Garai version of Emma, The Princess Bride, Camelot. Having boys, we’ve watched a lot of action/adventure type movies, and I really did like the Iron Man films, Captain America, and The Avengers even though I wouldn’t normally gravitate to those.

Sorry for such long lists — it is hard to narrow down favorites of these categories!