Category Archives: Books

Book Review: Here Burns My Candle

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Here Burns My Candle by Liz Curtis Higgs is set in Scotland in 1745 and drawn somewhat from the Biblical book of Ruth. What does Ruth have to do with 18th century Scotland, you ask? I’ll get to that in a moment.

Lady Marjory Kerr lives very happily with her two Lowland sons and Highland daughters-in-law in fine style, her only sorrow buried in Greyfriars Churchyard. But life is just on the verge of major changes. Bonnie Prince Charlie is heading their way, seeking to build up his army and coffers to take the city and eventually the crown. She would never dream that her loyal sons might some day follow the Prince, that the sordid rumors swirling about son Donald are true, or that daughter-in-law Elisabeth has secrets of her own. As one by one everything she trusts in is taken away, and her own faults and failures become all too clear, she senses a call from a voice she had long ago stopped listening to.

Elisabeth, meanwhile, keeps the auld ways of worship of the moon that her mother taught her, yet her soul is not satisfied and her prayers are not answered. Grieved and disillusioned in her faith, the words of the Buik begin to open her eyes and her heart to the unseen Holy One.

Marjory and Elisabeth, you may recognize, are based on Naomi, the mother in a pagan land who loses her husband and sons, and Ruth, the daughter-in-law who loses her husband and leaves her home and her god for her mother-in-law’s. I’ve mentioned before in other reviews that I am a bit wary of Biblical fiction because so often it takes the story too far afield from the Biblical narrative. I don’t think this story is meant to be an exact retelling or parallel, but rather, the characters and basic plot arc are just drawn from the Biblical story. If this kind of a parallel bothers you, you could probably enjoy the book on its own. I can see the value, though, in exercising the imagination this way to explore a little more what the characters were going through (sort of like if a pastor or Sunday School teacher were telling a Biblical story and then, trying to make it more understandable to hearers, said, “Now that would be like…” and relating it to something the readers might more readily identify with). Knowing that the story was based on Ruth helped to hold my interest in some points, anticipating what was to come and feeling with them what they might have felt in the face of their losses, wondering how Ruth came to be dissatisfied with her own rites and what brought her to faith even when she did not have the best of examples before her, experiencing and understanding Naomi’s bitterness and wondering how and when the Lord first began to call her not only back home to her country, but to Himself.

It took me a good third of the book to really get into it, however. I am not sure why: I enjoy historical fiction, and the details were pertinent to the plot. Liz Curtis Higgs’ actually having been in Scotland was evidenced in the rich details, and I found myself inclined to speak with a wee bit of brogue myself. But, as I said, knowing what was going to happen and wanting to see how it played out kept me reading, and after a while I was riveted and sorrowing along with Marjory and Elisabeth in their losses.

Some readers may be especially miffed at Donald’s character, especially as there is no hint of his particular besetting sin in his Biblical parallel, but Higgs explains in her notes at the end that both his and his brother’s characters were drawn from the meaning of their Biblical names.

Here Burns My Candle is drawn from Ruth 1:1-18. The rest of the story will be told in Mine Is the Night, due out next spring.

Here is a trailer for Here Burns My Candle:

(This review will be linked to Semicolon‘s Saturday review of books and the next 5 Minutes For Books I Read It column.)

 

The Week In Words

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Welcome to The Week In Words, where we share quotes from the last week’s reading. If something you read this past week  inspired you, caused you to laugh, cry, think, dream, or just resonated with you in some way, please share it with us, attributing it to its source, which can be a book, newspaper, blog, Facebook — anything that you read. More information is here.

Here are a few that especially spoke to me this week:

From a friend’s Facebook:

Men stumble over the truth from time to time, but most pick themselves up and hurry off as if nothing happened. — Winston Churchill

Sad, but all too true.

From another friend’s Facebook:

This life therefore is not righteousness but growth in righteousness; not health but healing; not being but becoming; not rest but exercise…. We are not yet what we shall be, but we are growing toward it. The process is not finished, but it is going on…This is not the end, but it is the road. All does not yet gleam in glory, but all is being purified.” — Martin Luther on sanctification

Though we are made righteous in Christ at the moment of salvation, the outworking of that into our everyday lives takes a lifetime. It can be discouraging that we’re so far from what we should be — for me, it seems like the farther I go along the farther away I am — but it is encouraging that we’re still in a process of growth.

I found these quotes about reading through one link from Semicolon‘s blog leading to another and finally ending up here:

“[The fairy tale] stirs and troubles him (to his life-long enrichment) with the dim sense of something beyond his reach and, far from dulling or emptying the actual world, gives it a new dimension of depth. He does not despise real woods because he has read of enchanted woods: The reading makes all real woods a little enchanted.” —C. S. Lewis, in Of Other Worlds

“Since it is so likely that they will meet cruel enemies, let them at least have heard of brave knights and heroic courage.” —C. S. Lewis, in Of Other Worlds

“If good novels are comments on life, good stories of this sort (which are very much rarer) are actual additions to life; they give, like certain rare dreams, sensations we never had before, and enlarge our conception of the range of possible experience.” —C. S. Lewis, in Of Other Worlds

Great thoughts on how even fiction can enrich our imaginations and enhance our understanding.

If you’ve read anything that particularly spoke to you that you’d like to share, please either list it in the comments below or write a post on your blog and then put the link to that post (not your general blog link) in Mr. Linky below. I do ask that only family-friendly quotes be included. I hope you’ll visit some of the other participants as well and glean some great thoughts to ponder.

What makes good writing good and bad writing bad?

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btt button Booking Through Thursday is a weekly meme centering on the subject of books. The question for this week is one I suggested.

Various book memes usually have a question concerning what draws you in to a certain book or author and what turns you off, makes you put down a book unfinished or avoid that author in the future. Almost always people will answer “good writing” to the former and “bad writing” to the latter.

But what makes up good writing and bad writing? Since I suggested this a few weeks ago, I was going to have a really well thought-out response ready. But, alas, I haven’t spent much time with it and am late to the computer today. So just off the top of my head, here are my thoughts of elements of each.

Good Writing

A plot line that is not too simple or too obscure

Characters that I can relate to

Characters with depth, not cliched or one-dimensional

Punchy or beautiful sentences without a lot of wasted words or rambling unnecessary explanations or description

Clarity

Something of truth and possibly beauty that resonate with us even though the times, language, customs, etc. are different

Evokes the feeling of being right there

Believability, even in a fantasy

Bad Writing

Cliches or stereotypes in plot or character

Rambling

Excessive prepositional phrases or linking verbs (He is…or she was…) — action verbs usually make for stronger sentences and show us what the character is feeling rather than telling us.

Transitions that don’t make sense, leaving the reader confused

Foul language. Besides being offensive to me personally, it’s just unnecessary and even lazy in some instances when there are so many great words available.

Most of those characteristics would apply to fiction. Bad non-fiction to me is too or encyclopedic or academic (I don’t know why even textbooks have to seem so dry and dead, but that’s another topic); good non-fiction leads the reader along from point to point in a logical yet interesting fashion. It makes the reader think rather than just disgorging information.

Even still I don’t feel I am really adequately conveying what exactly constitutes good and writing, what engages me or bores me in a book.

What do you think? What makes up good writing or bad writing to you?

(Updated to add: though this meme focuses on books, I thought I’d share a couple of blogs that stand out to me because of the beautiful writing: Lisa Notes and Wrestling With an Angel.)

15 Influential Authors

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Diane tagged me with this on Facebook, and I thought I’d post it here as well:

Don’t take too long to think about it. Fifteen authors (poets included) who’ve influenced you and that will always stick with you. List the first fifteen you can recall in no more than fifteen minutes. Tag at least fifteen friends, including me, because I’m interested in seeing what authors my friends choose.

1. Elisabeth Elliot
2. C. S. Lewis
3. C. H. Spurgeon
4. Amy Carmichael
5. Isobel Kuhn
6. Jim Berg
7. Erwin Lutzer
8. David Martin Lloyd-Jones
9. J. Oswald Sanders
10. Jim Elliot
11. Charles Dickens
12. Nancy Leigh DeMoss
13. Darlene Diebler Rose
14. Edith Schaeffer
15. Gracia Burnham

I got the first 10 in three minutes; I had to think a little more about the last five.

I am not going to tag anyone, but let me know if you do this — I’d love to see the list of your most influential authors.

Book Review: Same Kind of Different As Me

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When I first saw the book Same Kind of Different As Me by Ron Hall and Denver Moore popping up here and there, I saw the front cover went on to say, “A modern-day slave, an international art dealer, and the unlikely woman who bound them together.”

Hmm, I thought. Might be interesting. But not enough to compel me to get it. It just didn’t seem to “grab” me.

Then I began seeing it on more and more blogs, getting rave reviews by people I knew and respected.

Hmm, I thought. Maybe I’d better check it out.

So I got it. And put it on my shelf. And it sat there for weeks.

Finally I had a desire to pick it up and read it — after I found it in a box of books that wouldn’t fit on my bookcases.

Wow. I am so glad I did.

I don’t know if most of us have a truly correct view of poverty in this country. I’ve personally known people who lived quite comfortably and happily under what the government set as the poverty level. I’ve known others who felt they were poverty-stricken because they could not afford cable TV service. The poverty described in this book is raw, real, stark, and almost inescapable — almost unfathomable. Denver Moore escaped from virtual slavery on a plantation in Louisiana by riding the rails to what he truly perceived as a better life as a homeless man in Texas.

Ron Hall began serving at a homeless shelter only because his wife wanted him to come with her. “I hate to admit this now,” he writes, “but I had pictured myself more as a sort of indulgence benefactor: I would give him a little bit of my valuable time, which, had I not been so benevolent, I could have used to make a few more thousand dollars. And from time to time, I imagined, if Denver stayed cleaned up and sober, I’d take him of field trips from hobo land to restaurants and malls, a kind of peep show where he could glimpse the fruit of responsible living and perhaps change his ways accordingly” (p. 111).

It didn’t exactly turn out that way.

Both men were challenged, both learned of their own ignorance, assumptions, and prejudices, both were stretched beyond themselves and the world they had known. Both taught each other, learned from each other, and supported each other.

This is a riveting book. Parts of it horrified me, parts had me in tears, parts were sheer beauty.

And it’s true. A real story with real people.

(This review will be linked to Semicolon‘s Saturday review of Books and the next 5 Minutes For Books I Read It column.)


What’s On Your Nightstand: October

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What's On Your NightstandThe 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.

Wow, I can’t believe it is the last week in October already. The month just flew by.

Here’s what I read since last time:

Her Daughter’s Dream by Francine Rivers, the sequel to Her Mother’s Hope, reviewed here.

The Thorn by Beverly Lewis, reviewed here, the first of a new Amish series about two sisters on different paths.

I’m Outnumbered!: One Mom’s Lessons in the Lively Art of Raising Boys by Laura Lee Groves, reviewed here.

Faithful Women and Their Extraordinary God by Noel Piper, short biographies of Sarah Edwards, Gladys Aylward, Lilias Trotter, Esther Ahn Kim, and Helen Roseveare, reviewed here.

Same Kind of Different as Me by Ron Hall, Denver Moore, and Lynn Vincent, reviewed here, about an unlikely friendship between an art dealer and a homeless man.

I’ve started 50 People Every Christian Should Know: Learning From Spiritual Giants of the Faith by Warren Wiersbe and A Novel Idea: Everything You Need to Know about Writing Inspirational Fiction (that one wasn’t on my Fall Into Reading challenge goals, — it was on my shelf for “some day” — but I felt a sudden urge to start it) and just picked up Start Somewhere: Losing What’s Weighing You Down from the Inside Out by Calvin Nowell and Gayla Zoz.

Next up: Here Burns My Candle by Liz Curtis Higgs, In the Company of Others by Jan Karon, and something by Agatha Christie — still haven’t decided yet.

Happy Reading!

Book Review: Faithful Women and Their Extraordinary God

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Faithful Women and Their Extraordinary God by Noel Piper contains short biographies of five women exemplary in their faith and walk with Christ.

Sarah Edwards came from a distinguished family and was intelligent and noted for her graciousness. Her husband, Jonathan Edwards, was brilliant, shy, and very much lacking in social graces. Their personalities complemented each other in a way helped each fulfill his and her ministries against the backdrop of war, uncertainty, and the consequences of taking a firm but unpopular stand based on Scriptural teaching.

Lilias Trotter was a gifted artist whose work impressed John Ruskin and caused him to take her under his wing. Yet she had a heart for ministry and “knew it isn’t possible to be wholly consumed twice” (p. 45) and that one or the other would have to take first place. She chose ministry first among the poorest women in society to an extent which was frowned on in Victorian England, and ultimately to Muslim women in Algiers despite a serious heart condition. Her art influenced her ministry both in her perspective and in producing literature decorated in a distinctly Arab style which appealed where “the visible beauty of a piece of literature” was thought to “validate its worth” (p. 61).

Gladys Aylward was an English parlor maid who dreamed of going to China as a missionary. She thought her hopes were dashed when she was turned down by the China Inland Mission and told that she probably could not handle learning the language, yet the Lord did lead this small 4′ 10″ woman on a remarkable journey to a great and fruitful ministry there. Among other things she was asked to aid in enforcing the new ban on foot-binding, despite telling the mandarin that she would share the gospel as well as enforce the law, and she led 100 children away from the Japanese Army over mountains through several days journey with little food to safety, alone.

Esther Ahn Kim faced the same dilemma as Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego when Japanese authorities in Korea commanded everyone in her school to bow down to an idol. She was the only one who stood firm and erect. She escaped authorities for a while and hid out with her mother, preparing herself for imprisonment, which did in fact eventually come.

Helen Roseveare was a doctor who knew even before becoming a Christian that she would be a missionary. She ministered in the Belgian Congo, where her drive for excellence was challenged in situations where medical standards were a far cry from what she had been taught, yet she persevered and came up with ways to adapt. She chafed against needing to make bricks when her services were needed medically until one man told her that it was when she was down at the kilns with her hands as rough as theirs that they most knew she loved them and that they could trust her and listen to her tell of God. In fact, one hallmark of her life was her willingness to listen to the rebukes and instruction of those around her. It was in her ministry that an incident occurred which you may have received as an anonymous e-mail forward: a hot water bottle was needed to keep a newborn premature baby warm whose mother had died in childbirth. When the orphanage children were told and asked to pray, one girl prayed that they would receive a hot water bottle that afternoon and that a doll would be sent as well so the little baby girl’s sister would know God really loved her. And a parcel from Helen’s home, the first ever after four years there, arrived that very afternoon containing both a hot water bottle and a doll. Helen persevered through hardships, exhaustion, and an attack by rebel insurgents in which she was beaten, had her teeth knocked out, and raped. She was rescued by the National Army and went home for a year, but could not remain away and so went back to the newly renamed Zaire, which was then recovering from the devastation of war. The only one of the five women still living, she now lives in England where she writes and witnesses and tries to encourage others to consider the “fields white unto harvest.”

In some ways I am not sure why I picked up this book, because I had already read full biographies of Sarah Edwards (Marriage to a Difficult Man: The Uncommon Union of Jonathan and Sarah Edwards), Gladys Aylward (The Small Woman), and Esther Ahn Kim (If I Perish), and most of the material on them came from the books I had read. Yet it was a good refresher course of their lives, and there was even a bit of new information on some of them. I didn’t know, for instance, that Elisabeth Elliot had met and talked with Gladys. Lilias and Helen’s stories were new to me: I think I was only vaguely aware of their names before.

One reason I enjoy reading biographies is that the examples speak to me in my everyday life. For instance, when I find myself sometimes fearful to go certain places, I remind myself of situations like Gladys’s when she was alone in the middle of nowhere in Russia in wintertime, having just been put off the train that could go no farther because of the war. If God could keep her safe in those circumstances, can He not keep me, too, in situations far less perilous? I am challenged by women like Esther’s mother: could I help my child prepare to face certain suffering rather than seek for a way to hide her and protect her? There is so much I learn through what they learned and how God worked in and through them.

There is so much I wish I could share of the faith, faithfulness, and examples of God’s working in the lives of each of these women, but I would have to nearly reproduce the book to share all I’d like to. I highly recommend it to you.

(This review will be linked to Semicolon‘s Saturday Review on Books and 5 Minutes For Books‘ I Read It.)

Book Review and Giveaway: I’m Outnumbered!: One Mom’s Lessons in the Lively Art of Raising Boys

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(The giveaway and comments are closed: the winner is Ann!)

I first “met” Laura Lee Groves at her blog through Susanne‘s Friday’s Fave Five weekly meme (thanks, Susanne!) I identified with her immediately as we’re near the same age and stage of life and she has four boys while I have three. She mentioned in one of her earliest comments that it was like we were in parallel universes. 🙂

When she announced she was about to have a book published, I was on the alert for it. And then when I heard it was about raising boys, well, that especially made me want to read it even though I only have one still at home.

In I’m Outnumbered!: One Mom’s Lessons in the Lively Art of Raising Boys, Laura Lee Groves draws from her own experience in raising four young men as well as her years of experience in the classroom as an English teacher, plus she weaves together quotes from a number of books on the subject. She writes as a mom who was the only female in her house trying to relate to the male mindset and who wants to share what she has gleaned with other moms. There are a few pointers for those households who have girls and boys especially along the lines of their relating to each other.

There is a lot of practical wisdom as well as a solid Scriptural basis in Laura Lee’s advice. She writes in a conversational style that is easy to follow. The book includes chapters on managing expectations, sibling rivalry, intentional parenting, education, conversation, organization, respect, and media influences and management. She also includes a chapter titled “A Word From the Boys” with some of their thoughts on the way they were raised and a list of resources.

I think this book is a treasure trove for any mom of boys. In fact, I’d like to give this copy to a mom who would benefit from it, so if you’d like it or know someone who might, just let me know in the comments. I’ll draw a name a week from today, Thursday, October 21.

Laura also sends out a helpful weekly newsletter which can be signed up for at her blog.

(The giveaway and comments are closed: the winner is Ann!)

(This review will be linked to Semicolon‘s Saturday review of Books and the next 5 Minutes For Books I Read It column.)

Booking Through Thursday: Rewrite

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btt button Booking Through Thursday is a weekly meme centering on the subject of books. The question for this week is:

Suggested by Joy:

If you could rewrite the ending of any book, which book would it be? And how would you change it?

I wouldn’t really rewrite an ending: I respect the author’s decision to end things as he or she sees fit. But I have wished for a different ending some times. The only one that comes immediately to mind is Angela Hunt’s Uncharted, reviewed here. Of course, I can’t reveal the ending without spoiling the book, but it is very sobering. It fits with what the book is portraying, and the warning that choices have consequences, some of which cannot be undone, and that we only have a short time in life to make the right choices or rectify wrong ones. The ending does reinforce the gravity of the message, so it is justified and understandable. I guess there is a part of me that wishes the characters could have somehow had a wake-up call and have been allowed to make changes based on what they learned, yet I understand that a happier ending might have taken away from the message of the book. God does warn that “My spirit shall not always strive with man” (Genesis 6:3), and some day an end will come for each of us, with no do-overs, and we need to be prepare for that now.

98 books and book series that have enriched my life

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Sherry at Semicolon posted a link to one pastor’s list of 99 Books That Made My First 50 Years Worth Living. He was going to make a list of 50 but ended up with 99. That, of course, got me to thinking about what books I would put on such a list. If I keep strictly to the first 50 years, I can’t include the ones I have read in the last three, which is unfortunate since I’ve only been chronicling the books I have read since starting a blog. But I might just sneak a couple of those on the list. I think I am going to separate them into categories just because that will help me, I think.

Later in his post he asked for ideas for books one should not die without reading. That would be a much shorter list. So I am going here for those that have most enriched or impacted my life.

OK, let’s see how many I end up with…

Classics:

David Copperfield by Charles Dickens

A Tale of Two Cities by Dickens

Little House on the Prairie series by Laura Ingalls Wilder

Little Women, Little Men, and Jo’s Boys by Louisa May Alcott

Anne of Green Gables and all its sequels by Lucy Maud Montgomery

Pilgrim’s Progress by John Bunyan

Les Miserables by Victor Hugo

Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte

To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee

The Princess Bride by William Goldman

Ben Hur by Lew Wallace

The Chronicles of Narnia by C. S. Lewis

Lord of the Rings by J. R. R. Tolkien

The Count of Monte Cristo by Alexandre Dumas

Uncle Tom’s Cabin by Harriet Beecher Stowe

Persuasion by Jane Austen

Biographies:

Amy Carmichael of Dohnavur by Frank Houghton

Hudson Taylor: Growth of a Soul by Dr. and Mrs. Howard Taylor

By Searching, In the Arena, and Second Mile People by Isobel Kuhn

Mountain Rain: A New Biography of J. O. Fraser by Eleen Crossman

Goforth of China by Rosalind Goforth

Climbing by Rosalind Goforth

The Small Woman by Alan Burgess (about Gladys Aylward)

Evidence Not Seen: A Woman’s Miraculous Faith in the Jungles of World War II by Darlene Deibler Rose

In the Presence of My Enemies by Gracia Burnham

Mimosa by Amy Carmichael

Gifted Hands by Ben Carson

The Valley Is Bright by Nell Collins and Mary Beth Moster

Marriage to a Difficult Man:The Uncommon Union of Jonathan and Sarah Edwards by Elisabeth D. Dodds

Through Gates of Splendor, The Savage My Kinsman, Shadow of the Almighty, The Journals of Jim Elliot by Elisabeth Elliot

To the Golden Shore: The Life of Adoniram Judson by Courtney Anderson

Heir to a Dream by Pete Marovich

Beyond My Dreams by Dr. Bill Maher

Twice Pardoned by Harold Miller

The Autobiography of George Muller

The End of the Spear by Steve Saint

Daktar: Diplomat in Bangladesh by Viggo Olsen

Mrs. C. H. Spurgeon by Charles Ray

Mary Slessor: Queen of Calabar by Sam Wellman

Cowboy Boots In Darkest Africa by Bill Rice

The God I Love by Joni Eareckson Tada

Charlie’s Victory by Charlie and Lucy Wedemeyer

One Candle to Burn by Kay Washer

Children of the Storm: The Autobiography of Natasha Vins

The Reel Story by Larry D. Vaughn

More Precious Than Gold: The Fiery Trials of a Family’s Faith by John Vaughn

Dorie: The Girl Nobody Loved by Doris Van Stone

Biography of William Cary (can’t remember which exact one I read)

The Hiding Place by Corrie Ten Boom

Christian Books (not fiction or biography):

The Bible

Changed Into His Image by Jim Berg

Spiritual Depression by David Martin Lloyd Jones

Spiritual Leadership by J. Oswald Sanders

Full Assurance by H. A. ironside

Sometimes I Prefer to Fuss by Verda Peet

Let Me Be a Woman by Elisabeth Elliot

Winning the Inner War: How To Say No to a Stubborn Habit by Erwin Lutzer

The Shaping of a Christian Family by Elisabeth Elliot

Dare to Discipline by James Dobson

The Ministry of Marriage by Jim Binney

On Asking God Why, Passion and Purity, Keep a Quiet Heart, A Path Through Suffering by Elisabeth Elliot

The Power of a Praying Wife by Stormie Ormartian

When God Weeps by Joni Eareckson Tada

When Is It Right To Die by Joni Eareckson Tada

Rose From Brier by Amy Carmichael

A Woman After God’s Own Heart by Elizabeth George

Becoming God’s True Woman by Nancy Leigh DeMoss, et al

The Art of Homemaking by Edith Schaeffer

Hoping For Something Better by Nancy Guthrie

Disciplines of the Beautiful Woman, Disciplines of the Heart, and Disciplines of the Home by Anne Ortlund

Hints on Child Training by H. Clay Trumbull

Christian Fiction:

Jan Karon’s Mitford series

Not My Will by Francena Arnold, possibly the first Christian novel I read

Janette Oke’s Love Comes Softly and A Prairie Legacy series, particularly A Quiet Strength

Ted Dekker’s Circle trilogy

Francine Rivers’ Mark of the Lion series

The Princess and Sophie’s Heart by Lori Wick

This is an almost impossible task, especially with the last category, because I have enjoyed and been greatly enriched by many books, but to keep this list at all manageable, I’ve just listed the ones which had the most major impact on me in some way. They are in no particular order — I mostly jotted them down as they came to mind. By my count that is 98 if I only count each series as one. On any given day this list would probably vary a bit, but these, I think, are the standouts. Yet even so, I feel I must be forgetting something….

Any of these on your list? Which ones? What others would you include?