The Deepest Waters by Dan Walsh wasn’t on my Spring Reading Thing list or even on my radar, but I saw it when looking for books for my mother-in-law for Mother’s Day, and I had enjoyed Dan’s two previous books, so I picked it up.

The book is inspired by a true story: though details of the characters are fictionalized, the main “bones” of the story are true.

John and Laura Foster are on their honeymoon on the steamship SS Vandervere in 1857, heading to New York in order for Laura to meet John’s family when the unthinkable happens: the ship is damaged in a hurricane and begins to sink. The women and children are rescued by another ship, but the falling darkness makes it too dangerous to go back to rescue the men. The captain and first mate decide the Vandervere could not have survived the night and the men are given up as lost. The rescue ship, the Cutlass, is not even equipped to handle the number of women and children on board: conditions are crowded and food is limited. Laura’s future is grim with no possessions but the clothes on her back and the pouch of gold John gave gave before they parted, all her wedding gifts sunk with the ship, heading to meet John’s family for the first time, uncertain of their reception — and that’s if the food holds out and they encounter no other storms or further setbacks.

It’s not much of a spoiler to tell you that John does survive, because that is revealed early on in Chapter Three, but he and several other men are hanging on to debris from the ship with no other ships in sight, wondering how long they can last without food or fresh water in the blistering sun by day and the cold water by night.

Interesting subplots involve a slave on the Cutlass, Micah, who helps the passengers as much as possible with an uncommonly cheerful spirit and John’s family, whom he had left not on the best of terms.

I have to admit the book started out a little slow for me. The first few chapters went back and forth between John and Laura, with some detail of their current situation provoking memories of their courtship, and, though interesting, it seemed a little formulaic and almost boring. But just about the time I was ready to pronounce deep disappointment in the book, new information and twists were brought in and the action picked up, and then I was caught up in the story and wanted to keep reading.

Some of the events that the reader might be most tempted to pass off as handy miraculous plot twists are in fact true!

I had said of one of Dan’s previous books that it would make a good Hallmark movie, and I think this one would as well.

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

Lady in Waiting by Susan Meissner caught my eye when both Susanne and Quilly highly recommended it.

It’s a dual story of two Janes. Jane Lindsay’s husband unexpectedly walks out on her, and she is stunned. They had been married twenty-two years, and she thought everything was fine. Giving him the space he says he wants, she occupies herself with her antique business, confiding in her friend, who urges her to see a counselor, yet trying to keep the situation from her meddlesome mother. She finds an unusual, very old ring in the binding of an old book, a ring that happens to have her name engraved inside it, along with a phrase in Latin. Intrigued, Jane tries to learn who her namesake might be.

Lucy Day becomes the new dressmaker to a very young Lady Jane Grey and assists her for the next several years, becoming as close a friend and confidant as their two different stations will allow. Lady Jane’s entire life seems to be under the control of others, and as events unfold and political forces begin to swirl, Lucy fears not only for her lady’s happiness, but for her life.

Both Janes seem to be victims of their circumstances and the choices of others, but both find, as the back of the book says, they each have “far more influence over her life than she once imagined. It all comes down to the choices each makes despite the realities they face.”

Lady Jane Grey is one whose circumstances I could never remember, though I thought she came to an untimely end. But I am sure that from now on I’ll remember her story. Though Lucy and the ring and Jane’s possible love interest are all fictional, Susan Meissner paints a realistic portrait of the kind of person Jane might have been.

I could empathize with Jane Lindsay’s situation as well and wanted to defend her against everyone else and cheered her on in her journey. Though I appreciated the way the author ended with a glimmer of the future rather than neatly tying the story up, I didn’t want my time with Jane to end: I wanted to see what happened down the road!

Susan Meissner did an excellent job weaving the two stories together and bringing out the theme. Different points or subtexts keep coming to mind from the story even after finishing it. This is the first of Meissner’s books that I’ve read, but it definitely will not be the last.

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

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. You can learn more about it by clicking the link or the button.

It’s been a busy month, but I’ve been able to get some good reading in.

Since last time I finished:

A Novel Idea: Everything You Need to Know about Writing Inspirational Fiction, reviewed here. Probably a must-read if you’re thinking of writing Christian fiction.

Women’s Ministry in the Local Church by Ligon Duncan and Susan Hunt. Hope to have a review up soon.

Leaving by Karen Kingsbury, first in a new series with Bailey Flanigan from previous series.

Love Finds You in Camelot, Tennessee by Janice Hanna, a fun romantic comedy but with some depth as well, reviewed here with Leaving.

Words by Ginny Yttrup, destined to be one of my top ten books of the year, I believe, reviewed here.

Lady in Waiting by Susan Meissner, reviewed here. Just finished this one yesterday and hope to review it soon. Loved it.

Currently reading:

The Deepest Waters by Dan Walsh.

Up next:

The Judgment by Beverly Lewis, second in The Rose Trilogy.

Mine Is the Night by Liz Curtis Higgs.

The Judgment is the last of my Spring Reading Thing list unless I want to add more of the non-fiction I was considering. But I have a whole list of recommended books to choose from as well.

Here are a few short reviews of books I’ve finished recently.

Leaving by Karen Kingsbury is a new series with Bailey Flanigan from previous series. I think Karen provides enough background information so that a reader could enjoy the book without having read all the books leading up to it, but the story would probably be richer for those who have shared this journey with Bailey so far.

This book, as the title suggests, sets us up for Bailey’s leaving her family to go out on her own. She has a Broadway audition she has always dreamed of and faces her future with excitement but naturally dreads leaving her family. Cody, her off-and-on love interest is currently off. He has struggled in the past with feeling like Bailey, from an ideal Christian family, would be better off with someone without his baggage of past alcoholism and a mom in jail for drug abuse. He seemed to overcome that in a past book, but threats from his mother’s drug-dealing boyfriend cause him to leave the area completely so as to keep Bailey safe. Unfortunately, he doesn’t tell Bailey what’s going on (a bad habit of his), so she is hurt and confused. They both struggle with their feelings for each other but wonder whether to pursue other relationships.

There are almost parallel plots in Bailey’s and Cody’s lives as well as a subplot with Ashley and Landon Baxter, also from previous series. They struggle as well with their oldest son growing up and a new health issue threatening Landon.

I enjoyed keeping up with the characters and could identify with the feelings of the first child leaving the nest.

I picked up Love Finds You in Camelot, Tennessee by Janice Hanna on a whim because we’re new transplants to TN ourselves. Come to find out the area Janice writes about is not terribly far from were we live. I do want to drive out to it some day. Janice also lives where some of my family members do, so I felt we had a lot in common before I ever got into the story.

That story has to do with a small community called Camelot which sorely needs to raise funds. One member of the city council, Amy Hart, comes up with a grand idea: the townsfolk will put on the musical Camelot to try to draw in tourists dollars from nearby Pigeon Forge and Gatlinburg. As Amy casts various eccentric townspeople, she can’t find a suitable King Arthur — until it dawns on her to ask her childhood friend, Steve, the town’s mayor. He agrees if she’ll play Guinevere. A handsome out-of-towner who volunteers to play Lancelot shows interest in Amy, setting up a love triangle that parallels that of the musical.

I would classify this book as a romantic comedy, and it’s a lot of fun, but it’s not without depth as well as the characters deal with the various issues that arise. I felt the Christianity of the main characters was very natural as was the way they applied Scriptural principles to their lives and situations.

Evidently there are a number of “Love finds you…” books by various authors set in various US cities. I don’t normally gravitate toward this type of book, but I definitely enjoyed it and might be tempted to pick up another in the series or from this author.

I wasn’t planning to review An Unlikely Blessing by Judy Baer, but someone said they’d like my thoughts on it.

In this book, new pastor Alex Armstrong comes from city life to a new rural parish. Alex obviously deals with situations that are completely new to him both in meeting new, often eccentric people and getting the lay of the land both in his church and in the community as well as adjusting to rural life and dealing with having just broken up with his fiancee. He is over two churches, one of which is doing fine, but the other keeps its distance emotionally as well as physically due primarily to the bitterness of it leading member.

The first part — maybe even the first half of the book has Alex meeting the people in his parish, and though that’s necessary and I don’t know how the author could have handled it differently, it just seemed like I was waiting that whole time for something to happen. Indeed, the whole pace of the book seemed a little slow and sleepy to me. That may have been on purpose to reflect the slower rural community. But it was several pages after the climax before I realized, “Oh! That was it!” In fact, when I was assembling my last “What’s On Your Nightstand” post, I had completely forgotten that I had read this book until I saw the title listed. I described it there as a “pleasant but not riveting read about a new pastor of two churches in a rural town. Similar in many ways to Mitford but not quite as charming.” It wasn’t a bad book at all — it just wasn’t compelling, at least to me.

But, as Levar Burton used to say on Reading Rainbow, you don’t have to take my word for it — the reviews of this book I skimmed through on Amazon were all quite positive, so I may have just been a little off while reading it.

And my shortish reviews ended up longer than I had planned, but I’d rather keep them together than string them out throughout the week.

The book I am reading now IS a riveting, don’t-want-to-put-it-down, wish I could let everything else go to read it type of tale. Can’t wait to finish and tell you about it!

(These reviews will also be linked to Semicolon‘s Saturday Review of Books.)

I’ve mentioned before that years ago I tried to read A Tale of Two Cities by Charles Dickens a few times before I finally was able to complete it, but once I did finish it, it became one of my all-time favorite novels and I immediately reread it. I am not sure how long ago that was, but I decided to revisit it. I love Dickens, but it has been a long time since I read any of his work, and I was afraid the time away might have made the language harder to wade through and the book less enjoyable. But happily that was not the case. I love it even more and saw things I don’t remember seeing in previous readings and am more convinced than ever that Dickens was a master craftsman.

The two cities in question are Paris and London, and most of the main characters have dealings in each city. Charles Evremonde is the nephew of a Marquis in France, but has turned his back on his uncle’s profligate ways and emigrated to England under the name of Charles Darnay to earn his living as a French tutor.

Doctor Manette was cruelly and unfairly imprisoned in France for 18 years and lost touch with reality before being found and rescued and reunited with his daughter, Lucie, who nurses him back to physical and mental health. The reason for his imprisonment is not revealed until near the end of the book and plays a key part in the plot. On their way to England they run into Charles Darnay, and thus begins a relationship which eventually culminates in marriage between Lucie and Charles.

While the elements leading to the French Revolution foment, Lucie and Charles begin a happy home with her father and guardian, Miss Pross, and eventually a little Lucie. They are visited often by longtime family friend and banker, Mr. Lorry, and Sydney Carton, a dissolute lawyer who once helped defend Charles. When Charles receives an appeal for help from a steward of his late uncle’s estate who is facing danger, Charles naively believes he will be safe going back to France to help him since he has renounced aristocratic ways. The first half or so of the book leads to this point, and the latter tells what happens to Charles and everyone else involved. I don’t want to tell you much more than that: I’d rather let you be drawn into the intrigue yourself. The ending was a complete surprise to me the first time I read it, but in subsequent readings I’ve discovered clues leading toward it all through the book.

I think perhaps what gives many people trouble with Dickens is that he doesn’t tell you anything outright if he can lead you to it and draw you in until what is happening dawns on you. He is accused of being overly descriptive, and by today’s standards he would be, but even his descriptiveness has purpose. For instance, he goes into a great deal of description about the chateau of the Marquis, particularly the stone faces decorating the outside. After taking almost two full pages to describe the normal activities of the village going to sleep and then awakening the next morning, he begins to clue the reader in that something abnormal has happened this particularly morning, and then slips in “there was one stone face too many, up at the chateau” — meaning that the Marquis has been killed. The first time I read that it sent chills up my spine! I have to admit, though, that the first time I read this section, before getting to that sentence, I thought, “What is it with these stone faces?!” Yet getting to that sentence gave me the answer!

The beginning of the book can be confusing, too, as different individuals are introduced in different settings, but it takes a while before their identity and relationship with each other becomes clear. That technique of beginning a story is used a lot these days in films and TV shows, but I wasn’t used to it then. But I learned to trust that eventually all the different threads would come together.

These days we’re also used to the fact that filmmakers set the tone or mood of a scene with lighting, camera angles, background music, etc. Dickens does so with words. That and a perhaps heavier use of symbolism than we’re used to in modern literature accounts for a scene such as the one in which the characters are gathered together one hot evening at Dr. Manette’s house when a massive storm “comes slowly” yet “comes surely,” and the echoes make the footfall of people in the streets who are scurrying to get out of the storm sound like a great crowd surging toward the group. The darkness, eeriness, tension, and the sensation of a crowd all foreshadow the coming events when they encounter the effects of the Revolution for themselves.

There are moments of pathos: Dr. Manette’s “flashbacks” to his mindset in prison and Lucie’s patient dealings with him, until the time she leaves for her honeymoon; Sidney Carton’s promising talents and seeming decline into ruin except for an unrequited love that has the potential to ennoble him. There are moments of humor as well: Mr. Cruncher, employed by Mr. Lorry, remonstrating with his wife for her “flopping” (praying) against his moonlighting business (which business seems at first an unnecessary sideline concerning a secondary eccentric character, but does tie into the main plot later). There are moments of high suspense as well, particularly when Miss Pross, to protect her beloved Lucie, faces off against antagonist Madame Defarge. Even though I knew the outcome of the scene from previous readings, or maybe because I knew the outcome, I was on the edge of my seat with the tension of the moment.

Beyond the story of Charles, Lucie, the Doctor, and those dear to them, Dickens gives us a window into the excessiveness and cruelty of some of the aristocracy that led to the French Revolution and then shows as well how the oppressed became oppressors themselves. He also contrasts the results of choices we make: the cruelty of the Marquis and his contemporaries backfires, Dr. Mannette handles his unjust suffering with grace and eventually with forgiveness, but the Defarges in France and others of their ilk handle theirs with bitterness and vengeance. But fascinating though that terrible time in history was, I believe the core of the story is true unconditional love.

Sarah has posted a lovely, well-written review of A Tale of Two Cities as well as great advice to help in reading classics.

I have a VHS copy of a production of A Tale of Two Cities that was on PBS in 1989, which I watched and enjoyed then, and I have started viewing it again but am only partway through. So far some of the events are out of order, there are interpretive bits of conversation not in the book, etc., as is usually the case with any film based on a book, but by and large it’s a faithful representation and I’ve enjoyed it. Sarah recommends a 1980 version with Chris Sarandon, and I’ve seen several recommendations for a 1935 version with Ronald Coleman. I’d like to see those some day as well.

Though it pains me to hear someone say they don’t like Dickens, I do understand. Not every author appeals to every person. I’ve been surprised to discover that I don’t like some highly regarded classics that I’ve loved film versions of, like Pride and Prejudice (though I do want to give that one another chance some time and see if I feel differently after a second reading.) But I encourage you to see A Tale of Two Cities through to the end and then see if your opinion is the same as when you started. As for me, it will always be one of my favorites.

Updated to add: I read, or listened to, this again in December of 2013 for Carrie’s Reading to Know Book Club, and decided just to link back to this review since I’d say about the same things. This time I listened to the audiobook version read by Dick Hill, who did a marvelous job. There were several audiobook versions, and I listened to samples of each before choosing his, but his expressiveness and the different voices he lent to the characters surpassed what that little sample foretold. Highly recommend!

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

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. You can learn more about it by clicking the link or the button.

Since last time I finished:

A Walk In the Park by Barbara Andrews, a very sweet and tender story about a sculptor who easily talks to “his girls” that he sculpts but can’t seem to talk adequately to a real, live one — until he meets Maddie.

A Long Walk Home, also by Barbara Andrews, which gives the back-story of the housekeeper of the sculptor in the first book and then ties the two stories together at the end. Both Andrews books are reviewed together here.

Faithful by Kim Cash Tate, reviewed here, about three friends in various situations who learn what being faithful means. That sounds like a bland description, but it was a very enjoyable and beneficial, hard-to-put-down read.

10 Gospel Promises For Later Life by Jane Marie Thibault, reviewed here. Sadly, I cannot recommend this one because of serious doctrinal problems.

An Unlikely Blessing by Judy Baer, not reviewed, a pleasant but not riveting read about a new pastor of two churches in a rural town. Similar in many ways to Mitford but not quite as charming.

Jesus, Keep Me Near the Cross: Experiencing the Passion and Power of Easter compiled by Nancy Guthrie. Excellent. I read and reviewed it last year and read it again in the weeks before Easter this year.

A Tale of Two Cities by Dickens. I just finished it — I’ve read it at least twice before. but it had been a number of years. Loved it, loved it. Hope to have a review up soon. My review is here.

Selfishness: From Loving Yourself to Loving Your Neighbor by Lou Priolo is just a 31-page booklet, but, wow, it packs a punch. Very convicting. I shared some quotes from it yesterday.

I’m currently reading:

A Novel Idea: Everything You Need to Know about Writing Inspirational Fiction — bit by bit in between other books.

Women’s Ministry in the Local Church by Ligon Duncan and Susan Hunt

Leaving by Karen Kingsbury, a new series with Bailey Flanigan from previous series.

Up next:

The Judgment by Beverly Lewis, second in The Rose Trilogy

Love Finds You in Camelot, Tennessee by Janice Hanna.

What are you reading?