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?

I won two books in the Sand Dollar series, A Walk In the Park and A Long Walk Home by Barbara Andrews, in a contest held by Mocha With Linda, who knows the author. Either could probably be read as a stand-alone book, but their enjoyment would be enhanced by reading them both.

In A Walk In the Park, Barbara Andrews tells a very sweet and tender story of Mac Richmond, who became a troubled young child acting out his grief over the death of his parents until he found an outlet for his emotion in sculpting. He grew up to become a brilliant, well-known sculptor of female figures, and though he talked easily to “his girls,” as he called them, he was too shy to talk to women in real life…until he met Maddie.

A Long Walk Home tells the back story of Berdine, Mac’s housekeeper from the previous book, and then ties the two stories together at the end. Though small of stature, Berdie  had “the heart of a lion,” fiercely protective of others whom she loved and ready to defend them. Her childhood friendship with Michael became complicated as they grew older, and Berdine’s parents did not want her to see him. Berdine came upon a fight between Michael and the school bully, and jumped in to defend him, not realizing she was embarrassing him. When he left town the next day without a word to her, she grieved, fearing she had ruined her friendship with him. She withdrew from her family due to their lack of understanding and threw herself into her studies. Just after her senior year, she accidentally runs into Michael at Parris Island, where he is in basic training as a Marine recruit, and is stunned by his coldness to her…until they get a chance to talk and learn of the changes the years have made for each of them. Is there any hope of renewing their friendship, or of something more? And what about Michael’s new-found faith and Berdie’s disinterest in it?

Barbara knows how to weave a tale and pull the heartstrings. Both books were very realistic, the characters were well-developed, and the plots pulled me in emotionally. You might need to keep a box of tissues nearby.

My only quibble was the amount of physicality between Michael and Berdie in the second book. I know I am more conservative than many in this area, so I know not to expect most books to follow my convictions of how much physical contact an unmarried couple should engage in, yet I know some of you feel the same way, so I feel I should mention it. There were no sexual scenes at all, but Michael is trying to keep the physical aspect of their relationship under control, yet in one scene he spins Berdine around and stops to “slowly let her body slide down his until her feet met the sand” (p. 215), I want to tap him on the shoulder and say, “Um, fella, that’s not the way to avoid temptation!” That’s probably the worst incidence, and if it were not for that I would give the book 5 stars.

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

Just Between You and Me by Jenny B. Jones is one of the most fun books I have read in a long time, yet it is not without depth: the subtitle is “A Novel of Losing Fear and Finding God.”

Maggie is a cinematographer who has traveled all over the world and loves to challenge herself in her spare time by sky-diving, exploring caves, etc. Yet the thought of returning to her hometown of Ivy, Texas has her quaking in her boots…not that she’d admit it to anyone. But a family emergency calls her home, and she finds a serious situation with a sister who refuses to take her meds for her bipolar condition and her niece, Riley, left behind with Maggie’s widowed father. Riley has seen too much and been left too much on her own and is totally out of control, and the last person she wants to tell her what to do is an aunt who is basically a stranger.

Riley does respond well to the local vet, Conner, but Maggie and Conner butt heads over…just about everything. Conner begins to find that his first impressions of Maddie may have been wrong, and Maddie finds that helping her niece entails facing her own fears.

The dialogue just zings in this book — talk about witty repartee! And the bits between the dialogue aren’t bad either. Here are a few samples:

John’s hand strokes along mine, and my stomach does a little flip. Not the good kind that makes you want to break out into a show tune. More like the sort of quivering that happens when you’ve swallowed one too many bites of questionable sushi (p. 6).

I go directly to the aisle with candy. It’s like I have the gift of sugar prophecy (p. 13).

“Well, thank you, Dr. Phil. I appreciate the parenting advice. If only it were that easy for the rest of us.” I walk toward the door, my shoes slapping the tile. It’s hard to make a dramatic exit when you’re wearing flip flops (p. 186).

From a message about Jonah: “Fear is the opposite of faith, and where does that get you? Swimming in the guts of a fish. You can’t outrun God. But you know what the good news here is? You also can’t out love him” (p. 209).

From what I can tell, it looks like most of Jenny’s books are Young Adult fiction, but I’ll be seeking out her other books for adults and looking forward hopefully to more. I may even try one of the YA ones. This was my first Jenny B. Jones novel, but it won’t be my 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.

Since last time I finished:

A Memory Between Us by Sarah Sundin, set in WWII — riveting. hard to put down, very good, reviewed here.

The Book Lover’s Devotional: What We Learn About Life From 60 Great Works of Literature by various authors, one of whom is blog friend Laura Lee Groves of Outnumbered Mom, reviewed here.

One Thousand Gifts by Ann Voskamp, a book about learning to give thanks and see God’s hand in every moment, reviewed here.

The Damascus Way, biblical fiction by Janette Oke and Davis Bunn about the early believers, reviewed here.

Just Between You and Me by Jenny B. Jones, one of the most fun novels I’ve read in a long time. I hope to have a review of it up in just a bit. My review is now up here.

I’m currently reading 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.

Next up is A Long Walk Home, also by Barbara Andrews, and after that something from my Spring Reading Thing list — not sure what yet!

Happy Reading!

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!