I’ve finished three books in the last couple of weeks, but for whatever reason haven’t felt inclined to do full-fledged reviews. But who knows — once I get going these may expand. 🙂 My intention, however, is just to mention a few things about these.

The Missing is the second in the Seasons of Grace series by Beverly Lewis. In the first book, the mother of the Amish Byler family, Lettie,  left without explanation one morning (no plot spoilers there — that was the main plot point of the book.) In this book she is still missing and the reasons are unfolded bit by bit. We see her search and her struggles and her family’s continued coping with the consequences and questions and confusion, particularly her husband and oldest daughter, Grace. The everyday running of the household falls largely to Grace. In the last book she broke her engagement to a young man as reserved and uncommunicative as her father. In this book, the boy who had previously shown interest in her friend is now showing interest in her, and at first she does not return his interest, but finds herself attracted to this Amishman with his unusual ways and chatty nature. Then there is Englisher Heather who has come to the area to seek natural methods for fighting cancer, not wanting to put herself through the torment and side effects of the lost battle her mother fought with the disease. She and Grace meet and form an unexpected but pleasant friendship.

Though some parts of the plot are somewhat predictable, the character development is intriguing. I enjoyed the book, as I do all of Beverly’s, and look forward to the final book due out in April.

A Surrendered Heart by Tracie Peterson and Judith Miller is the third in the Broadmoor Legacy series. Each book focused on one of three cousins from the wealthy Broadmoor family. In this book, Amanda has plans to go to college to study to become a doctor and in the meantime is working with a local doctor in her uncle’s “Home for the Friendless.” Her father arranges for her college application to be denied and makes plans for her to marry another wealthy man. Though he had expected her to do so all along, now his finances are in dire straits and he needs her to marry well, not only for the family’s reputation but out of necessity. Will his nefarious scheming catch up with him or will he get away with his wrongdoings? Meanwhile a cholera epidemic breaks out, confining Amanda to the Home for the Friendless under quarantine.

We see the other cousins’ relationships developing as well. I particularly appreciated the struggles shown between party-loving free spirit Sophie and her reserved, serious, minister husband. So many books end with the wedding, but I liked that the authors continued to show the struggles this couple would naturally have. I enjoyed this book as well.

Dr. Frau: A Woman Doctor Among the Amish by Grace H. Kaiser is a non-fiction book about this doctor’s experiences among the Amish in the Lancaster, PA area for 28 years beginning in the 1950s. Grace writes with humor and clarity as we follow along with her delivering babies at homes in blizzards and all kinds of other conditions and handling a variety of other needs. Her picture of Amish life is less idyllic than Beverly Lewis’s but no less appreciative.

I love her phrasing: “The last sticky pan hit the sink at half-past collapse time,” “The room hummed like bees in a June clover field.”

The only thing I didn’t like about this book her father’s response when Grace was tempted to stop pursuing her dream of becoming a doctor: “‘What do you want to do, let some man support you all your life?’ he asked with contempt.” That kind of attitude is a slap in the face to homemakers. Maybe he thought it would goad her on, I don’t know. But we do see glimpses into her family life and good-natured teasing with her husband about his staying in a warm bed when she had to make night calls.

I didn’t realize until I got to the end of this book that she had written another, Detour, about suffering an accident which left her disabled which in turn caused her to retire early. I immediately put it on my wish list!

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

We’re moving in a couple weeks (the first time since I was 9 years old), and I’ve been going through my library of 3000+ books, choosing the books that I could bear to part with and NOT have to pack to move. Which made me wonder…

When’s the last time you weeded out your library? Do you regularly keep it pared down to your reading essentials? Or does it blossom into something out of control the minute you turn your back, like a garden after a Spring rain?

Or do you simply not get rid of books? At all? (This would have described me for most of my life, by the way.)

And–when you DO weed out books from your collection (assuming that you do) …what do you do with them? Throw them away (gasp)? Donate them to a charity or used bookstore?  SELL them to a used bookstore? Trade them on Paperback Book Swap or some other exchange program?

I “weed it” every now and then, but not systematically — just whenever the excess stacked in double rows on shelves starts to bug me…like it is now. We just don’t have room for any more bookcases, and I hate the thought of putting them in the attic where bugs or humidity or temperature extremes might damage them, though I do have a few boxes of children’s books up there that I hope stay in good condition for grandchildren. I love the idea of reading them the same books I read to my kids. But otherwise I’d much rather someone got some use out of them now rather than have them stuffed in the attic for years and then rotting.

When I do give them away, first I consider whether anyone I know would want any of them, then whether my son’s school library could use them. I’ve given some away via blog giveaways, but most of the time my giveaways aren’t books I’m trying to get rid of: they’re books I bought extra copies of because I liked them so much I want others to enjoy them, too. But most go to a charity like Salvation Army.  My mom used to live near a store that would let you trade in used books for store credit, but I don’t know if we have any bookstores that do that here — the only bookstore I am aware of is Barnes and Noble, and I am sure they don’t! I haven’t checked out online book swaps. I just don’t want to mess with listing them and then packaging and sending them, though I might think about that if I have a book for a particular audience that I think might languish away at a charity store.

A related question would be how one decides what books to get rid of. That is a very hard task. Some books are almost like dear friends that I have shared special times with: there’s something wistful or nostalgic about keeping them. Plus if I think I might use it again, it will cost more to buy it later, so it is more economical to keep it. But when “weeding” I try to ask myself these questions:

1. Am I ever realistically going to read this again?

2. Do I honestly think I’ll ever refer to it again?

3. Do I seriously think my children might want it some day?

4. Could someone else get more use out of it than it is getting just sitting here on my shelf?

It’s still not easy to part with them, but that last questions especially helps.

I haven’t done a Booking Through Thursday for a while, but today they used one of my submitted questions:

I was wanting to try a certain author and wished I knew someone who had read her works so I could get a recommendation when it occurred to me that having a “YOU ask the question” Booking Through Thursday might be fun. Each participant could ask a question they’ve wanted to discuss with other readers. Perhaps, like me, you’d like a recommendation of a certain author’s best work, or perhaps you LOVE a certain genre or series but no one else you know does and you’d just like to discuss it with someone. Or perhaps you want to try a new genre and would like recommendations from seasoned readers.

I’ve been wanting to try something written by Agatha Christie, probably either dealing with Miss Marple or Poirot, but I am open to anything else she has written.

Do you like Agatha Christie? What do you like about her? Which of her novels would you recommend and why?

And thank you for your responses!

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.

I forgot this occurred on the fourth Tuesday! I thought it was coming next week, so I am scrambling here.

I finished this past month:

How Do I Love Thee? by Nancy Moser about the relationship between Elizabeth Barrett and Robert Browning, reviewed here. It took a while for it to grab me, but when it did, it was hard to put down.

Fatal Illusion by Adam Blumer, reviewed here. Grabbed me from the first chapter!

Things Left Unspoken by Eva Marie Everson, reviewed here. Enjoyed it very much.

I have also been getting caught up on a few magazines.

I am currently rereading Becoming God’s True Woman edited by Nancy Leigh DeMoss.

I just posted my Fall Into Reading goals, but the first two in the queue are A Surrendered Heart by Tracy Peterson and Judith Miller and The Missing by Beverly Lewis.

Now if ony the laundry would do itself and dust-covered end tables became fashionably acceptable…

Happy First Day of Autumn!

With the first day of fall comes the start the Fall Into Reading Challenge sponsored by Katrina of Callapidder Days. More information is here, but the basic idea is to post a list of books you’d like to read this fall and share that via the links on Callapidder Days Fall Into Reading post. It is just a list of goals — there is no need to feel pressured, to feel like you’ve failed if you don’t read everything on your list. Sometimes something unexpected comes up, sometimes we read something other than what we listed. But it is fun to share our reading goals with others — my TBR list has expanded greatly by seeing what others are reading. Plus it is a way make time for books I had been wanting to read but just hadn’t picked up yet. Plus there are prizes! Posting guidelines are here. And even though it starts September 22, I think you can join in any time during the fall season. Then on the last day of fall, December 20, we write a wrap-up post about what we did actually read, and Katrina usually has discussion questions we can answer if we want to.

So, here is the list of books I would like to read this fall:

Christian Fiction:

A Surrendered Heart by Tracy Peterson and Judith Miller, third in the Broadmoor Legacy series.

The Missing, second in the Seasons of Grace series by Beverly Lewis.

American Haven by Elisabeth Yates.

Plain Perfect by Beth Wiseman.

The Heirloom by Colleen L. Reece and Julie Reece-DeMarco, given to me by my friend, Carol.

My Heart Remembers by Kim Vogel Sawyer.

The Hidden Flame by Janette Oke and Davis Bunn. second in the Acts of Faith series. This doesn’t come out til Dec. 1, but I think I can get it in.

Nonfiction:

How To Read Slowly by James W. Sire. I keep saying I am going to read that and keep not getting to it. But I plan to.

Becoming God’s True Woman edited by Nancy Leigh DeMoss. I had read it earlier this year but am going through it again.

Dr. Frau: A Woman Doctor Among the Amish by Grace H. Kaiser.

My Heart Restored, a Bible study by June Kimmel.

I do have many more both on my shelves and on a list of books to read, so if I get through all these, I still have many more to choose from.

I also usually like to include one classic novel, but I don’t have a specific one in mind yet. Then again, I have so many other books stacked up to read, perhaps I’d better just concentrate on those.

You can visit the sign-up post at Katrina‘s to check out what others are reading or to join in.

One of the unexpected blessings of blogging about books is that every now and then I hear from an author. Eva Marie Everson commented on my earlier review of one of the Potluck Club books and e-mailed me a while back to offer to send me a copy of her new book if  I would like to review it. Of course I jumped at the chance!

In Things Left Unspoken by Eva Marie Everson, Jo-Lynn Hunter has come home to Cottonwood, Georgia, for the funeral of her great-uncle Jim, who had been like a grandfather to her. She discovers while there that a company wants to revitalize the town, “bringing it back to its former glory,” renovating or replacing old buildings, bringing in new businesses, etc., and they want to use Aunt Stella’s house as a museum.  Unhappy in her marriage and on indefinite leave from her job as an interior decorator, Jo-Lynn accepts her great-aunt’s invitation to stay and renovate her home. But as she digs into the work, she begins to uncover clues to more than one old family secret, and sightings of strange men leaving the barn at night and increasingly serious acts of vandalism indicate that someone wants those secrets to remain unknown.

Some parts of Aunt Stella’s story are told in a series of flashbacks, so the reader is in on it early on, but the rest is uncovered in Jo-Lynn’s research along the way. J0-Lynn has to wrestle with the state of her marriage and the consequences of her agreement with her husband not to have children as well as the realization that Uncle Jim might not have been the kind of man she thought he was.

This book took me back to my younger days with my great-Aunt Jewel. I was not as close to her as Jo-Lynn is with Stella, but the setting, the relationships, the vivid immersion into old Southern culture was much the same and brought back warm memories. As a reader I liked being in on the one secret, wondering how or if it would come to light, while being in on Jo-Lynn’s other discoveries along the way. I really liked how the book ended, which was a little different from where I thought it was going.

As a Christian, my only quibble is with Jo-Lynn’s thoughts about her relationship with God. When she says she knows God personally and has gone to church all her life, on first reading it sounded to me like she was basing her relationship with God on her church attendance rather than on faith. But looking back over that section again, I can see that the church attendance was part of her life of faith and not necessarily the basis of it. In the parts of the South I have lived in, people are prone to believe they are Christians because of such things rather than having a personal relationship with God based on faith, so I might be more sensitive to that than other readers. I don’t think every book of Christian fiction necessarily has to spell out the full plan of salvation, but I do like for any mention of it to be crystal clear.

Eva Marie’s own Southern heritage gives the book its authentic ring, and while the story is not from her own family, it is based on an old home of her great-grandparents. The theme of renovation touches many levels. I enjoyed the story very much.

(This review will be linked to Semicolon’s Saturday Review of books.)

Fatal Illusions is the first novel of Adam Blumer.

Gillian Thayer is a pastor’s wife in Chicago grieving the loss of stillborn twins, trying to keep busy with a calligraphy business and her teen-age daughter, Crystal. When her husband, Marc, is attacked and accused by an out-of-control counselee, Gillian doesn’t know what to think. Reluctantly the family agrees to take a sabbatical in Michigan’s Upper Peninsula until the publicity over Marc’s attack dies down.

Unbeknownst to them, amateur magician Haydon Owens is also taking a sabbatical in the area, but for different reasons. He has committed four murders in Cincinnati and has decided it is time to make a clean break just to be safe, even though the police have almost no leads on the so-called Magician Murderer. He grew up in Michigan’s UP and decides to head back there to lay low for a while…until he discovers that Crystal Thayer has the same blonde hair, blue eyes, and wire-rimmed glasses as his other victims…

Fatal Illusions is a suspenseful, can’t-put-it-down page turner with well-defined, genuine characters. I felt the Thayers could have been from my own home church: their reactions and ways of thinking and reasoning are similar to my own.

I think I am not alone in that, when I read a mystery, I can’t help but try to put the pieces together and figure out how it is going to end, but, though I may experience some satisfaction in doing so, I don’t really want to figure it out. I want to be surprised. Adam doesn’t disappoint on that front: just about the time I thought I knew where things were leading, the next few pages proved my theory wrong. A few scenes that didn’t seem to make sense to me at first became clear in good time.

It wasn’t until I typed the title that I realized there were so many shades of meaning in it as most of the main characters deal with various illusions or misconceptions.

I don’t normally read scary books, at least not since the last one I read left me afraid to be alone at night for a while. But when I heard that Adam Blumer was publishing his first novel, I wanted to read it. I sort-of know Adam from the Sharper Iron site and I have always appreciated his reasonable, articulate voice there. I almost didn’t want to mention that because I didn’t want that knowledge to cause readers to think I wasn’t being objective. I don’t review any book that I don’t feel I can be honest about, and those of you who have been reading here for a while know I don’t hesitate to share what I don’t like as well as what I like about books. But I honestly can’t find fault with this one except for a couple of what seemed to me to be cliched phrases.

And though I would call Fatal Illusions more suspenseful than scary, I would still recommend not reading it while home alone at night…but I do highly recommend it. I can’t wait to see what Adam publishes next.

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

My son recently alerted me to the news that PBS’s Reading Rainbow was coming to an end.

Reading Rainbow used to be almost daily fare in our house, but we hadn’t seen it in a while as our children got older. I hadn’t even known Levar Burton had left the show over philosophical differences. Seems the company that bought the show was also the parent company of Sylvan Learning Centers and Hooked on Phonics, which teach how to read, wanted to take the show that direction: teaching the mechanics of reading.

I think that was the wrong approach — at least changing the show over totally that direction was. Teaching mechanics is necessary. But I think kids are more inspired and motivated to learn to read by experiencing great books. And even those who know how to read well and experience great books don’t go on to become book lovers themselves, so  a show like that exposed them to a lot more than they would encounter themselves. And those who did love to read would find some good recommendations, like those of us who love to read and peruse other people’s reading lists to get some good ideas.

So even though I am beyond the stage of life of having small children, I am still sad that the show is gone.

When I have grandkids, reading is one of the main activities I want us to do together.

Janet had some great thoughts about teaching and inspiring reading.

I‘ve traveled the world twice over,
Met the famous; saints and sinners,
Poets and artists, kings and queens,
Old stars and hopeful beginners,
I’ve been where no-one’s been before,
Learned secrets from writers and cooks
All with one library ticket
To the wonderful world of books.
~ Author Unknown ~

Books are the legacies that a great genius leaves to
mankind, which are delivered down from generation to
generation as presents to the posterity of those who are yet unborn,
~ Joseph Addison  ~

Of all the diversions of life, there is none so proper to fill up
its empty spaces as the reading of useful and entertaining authors.
~ Joseph Addison ~

Reading is to the mind what exercise is to the body.
~ Joseph Addison  ~