Booking Through Thursday: Definition

Posted on June 26, 2008 by Barbara Harper

The Booking Through Thursday question for today is:

What, in your opinion, is the definition of a “reader.” A person who indiscriminately reads everything in sight? A person who reads BOOKS? A person who reads, period, no matter what it is? … Or, more specific? Like the specific person who’s reading something you wrote?

This seems similar to this question from a few weeks ago, but I don’t think what a person reads determines whether he is a reader. To me a reader is someone who reads beyond what he has to to minimally function: he reads some genre and some amount because he wants to, for information and/or for pleasure. For some people reading for information is pleasurable and they aren’t so much interested in “stories.” But they are just as much readers who read interesting tidbits on the Internet as are those who read novels.

Booking through Thursday is a weekly meme around the subject of books. The hostess poses a question which participants answer according to their own thoughts and opinions on their own blogs, linking back to the BTT site, which can be found by clicking on the button above.

I Remember Laura Blogathon, Week 4: Musical Memories and Beautiful Books

Posted on June 23, 2008 by Barbara Harper

Miss Sandy of Quill Cottage is hosting an “I Remember Laura” blogathon on Mondays through the month of June in memory of Laura Ingalls Wilder, author if the “Little House” series of books. There will also be an art swap going on each week in connection with the theme: Click on the picture for more information. Also throughout the month she will be sharing parts of an interview with Laura Ingalls Gunn of Decor to Adore, a fourth cousin of Laura Ingalls Wilder.

Both books and music played a large part in Laura’s upbringing, as Miss Sandy so beautifully explained.

Anyone who has read my blog for very long has noticed I refer to books often. Reading has been a favorite hobby for as long as I can remember, but it has grown to be more than just a hobby: it has greatly impacted my life.

I don’t know quite when my love for books was developed or how it started. I don’t remember my mother reading to me, though she may have. And though both my parents loved reading in their later years, I don’t remember that they read a lot when I was growing up. My earliest distinct reading memory comes from first grade in a parochial school: our class was combined with a second grade class, and I soaked up the reading classes, spurred on by wanting to be up to the level of the “big” second graders. One of our texts was A Child’s Garden of Verses by Robert Louis Stevenson and A Child’s Garden of Bible Stories by Arthur Gross. I remember Little Golden Books and good old Dick and Jane readers. I don’t specifically remember reading the Little House books, but I must have, because the stories were familiar to me. I do remember Little Women by Louisa May Alcott. There was one baby-sitter we had whose home seemed to be lined with bookshelves and books: I don’t remember the lady’s name or face at all, but I remember reveling in all those books! I must have been a very easy child for her to watch, with my nose in a book all the time. I remember one book about a girl from England named Merry who had moved to the US but felt out of place when other children made fun of her different words for items and who taught them how to make primrose chains — I wish I could remember the name or author of that book! I’d love to revisit it.

I don’t remember a lot about books in my junior high and early high school years: it was pretty much a vast wasteland of silly romances written for that age group, though I do remember being spellbound by The Robe.

It wasn’t until I got to college that another lady instilled a desire to read missionary biographies in me, and that, next to the Word of God itself, has probably been the greatest impact on my life. Through Gates of Splendor and Shadow of the Almighty by Elisabeth Elliot and her husband’s journals, Amy Carmichael of Dohnavur by Frank Houghton, Hudson Taylor’s Spiritual Secret, By Searching and In the Arena by Isobel Kuhn, Goforth of China and Climbing by Rosalind Goforth were all early favorites whuch have been read over and over again (more are listed here).

Most of my reading now revolves around missionary biographies, catching up on the classics, like Austen and Dickens, that I somehow missed along the way, and Christian fiction. One of the first authors in the last genre that I read was Janette Oke, and I think I have every one of her books. Other include Terry Blackstock, Dee Henderson, Lori Wick, Sharon Hinck, and Jan Karon. Favorites classics are The Chronicles of Narnia by C. S. Lewis, A Tale of Two Cities and David Copperfield by Charles Dickens, Persuasion by Jane Austen, Les Miserables by Victor Hugo, Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte, the Anne of Green Gables series by Lucy Maud Montgomery, and of course the Little House series by Laura Ingalls Wilder.

Music is another great love. Once again, neither of my parents played and instrument and none of my siblings did. I only found out recently that when my mother and her siblings were growing up, her mother did play the piano and their family sang along around the piano as she played. I grew up with “Your Cheatin’ Heart” and other such lovely little ditties. 🙄 Though now that I have been thinking about it, I do remember enjoying Perry Como, Andy Williams, and Eddie Arnold. I remember going to a symphony orchestra concert with the Girl Scouts and peering over the balcony ledge in wonder and awe. I took one semester of piano in college and enjoyed it, but couldn’t fit it into my already-full schedule. I was in various choruses and choirs throughout elementary and high school (the only song I can remember from those years was “They Call the Wind Mariah.”) In a Christian college, exposure to and availability of the classics and good Christian music developed my tastes in music, and in later years I discovered groups like the King’s Singers and the Irish Tenors, and old English, Scottish, and Irish folk songs. I also enjoy old songs (though I don’t know what era they are from) like “Young at Heart,” “The White Cliffs of Dover,” “I’ll Be Seeing You,” “As Time Goes By,” “The Way You Look Tonight.” I also began seeing old musicals and love a lot of the songs from those. One of my first posts was about favorite CDs (Anthems by Brad Wilson, A Quiet Heart by Soundforth, and Sun of My Soul by Brian Pinner and David Chapman are probably the top sacred music favorites; Barber’s Adagio for Strings, Pachelbel’s Canon in D Major, and Smetana’s The Moldau the top classical) here and listed some other favorite classics here.

Both music and books have greatly enriched my life and taught me much about God and the world around me. I am so grateful for these gifts of God in my life!

Booking Through Thursday: Flavor

Posted on June 19, 2008 by Barbara Harper

(My Spring Reading Thing Wrap-Up is below).

The Booking Through Thursday question for today is:

Think about your favorite authors, your favorite books . . . what is it about them that makes you love them above all the other authors you’ve read? The stories? The characters? The way they appear to relish the taste of words on the tongue? The way they’re unafraid to show the nitty-gritty of life? How they sweep you off to a new, distant place? What is it about those books and authors that makes them resonate with you in ways that other, perfectly good books and authors do not?

The short answer is…yes, all of those. I don’t know that any one of my favorite authors has all of those characteristics. But I love characters that are so real I feel I know them personally, situations that resonate with me and speak to my heart, beautiful language and expression, the ability to “sweep me off to a distant place,” and what I would call realism rather than nitty-gritty (I don’t really want to get in the gutter with someone, but good writing can help you picture a character or situation without dragging you through the gutter).

And in the Christian fiction I love, I also like when the lesson or spiritual application is balanced between preachiness and obscurity. No one wants to be “nagged at,” but there is a trend now to be so subtle that no one knows what you’re talking about. My favorite authors fit nicely between the two extremes.

Conversely, there is one author I read that I benefit from but I can’t say I enjoy. I love where her characters end up and I love the life lessons learned, but I don’t like the characters or how the story is told. I hear other people rave about her and wonder what I am missing. I think she would rather people benefit from her than enjoy her, but I would really like to do both. 🙂

To join in the Booking Through Thursday meme or read other answers, click on the button above.

Spring Reading Thing Wrap-Up

Posted on June 19, 2008 by Barbara Harper

Katrina at Callapidder Days has hosted another Spring Reading Thing, which, this being the last day of spring, has come to a close. It isn’t hard to believe spring is over because it has been feeling like summer for a couple of weeks now. But spring flew by way fast.

Here is my original list:

The Restorer’s Journey by Sharon Hinck, third in the Sword of Lyric series, reviewed here.

Dawn’s Light, Restoration Series #4 by Terri Blackstock, reviewed here.

The Forbidden, The Courtship of Nellie Fisher Series #2 by Beverley Lewis, reviewed here.

Mansfield Park by Jane Austen, completing my reading of Austen’s books, reviewed here.

The Count of Monte Cristo by Alexandre Dumas. I’m only about 1/4 of the way through this. It was very slow-going to me at first but now it is getting intriguing.

To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee. Somehow I forgot this was on my list! 😳 I’ll put it next in the queue of things to read.

In the Best Possible Light by Beneth Peters Jones, subtitled Godly Femininity in the Twenty-first Century. I am about three chapters away from finishing it. Though every reader wouldn’t agree with every point or application, it is a good handbook for just what the subtitle says. I will probably write more about it when I am finished reading.

Then I read these that were not originally on my list, but that’s okay: I believe in flexibility on these kinds of things.

How To Say No To a Stubborn Habit (subtitled Even When You Feel Like Saying Yes) by Erwin Lutzer (which is the title of my 1994 copy: it has been republished under the title Winning the Inner War: How To Say No to a Stubborn Habit), reviewed here.

Sisterchicks Go Brit! by Robin Jones Gunn, reviewed here.

The Listener by Terri Blackstock, reviewed here.

Uncharted by Angela Hunt, reviewed here.

Only Uni, “Asian chick lit” by Camy Tang, not reviewed. I won this at a contest on Sharon Hinck’s blog: I hadn’t really been interested in it until I saw a review there. I hadn’t read the first book in the series yet, but I was able to quickly get into the dilemmas of main character Trish: dealing with an authoritative grandmother, an ex-boyfriend who won’t let go, job challenges, and the desire to regain or maintain purity after having lost it before getting her heart right with the Lord. It’s frank and very funny in places poignant in others, with a major surprise along the way. Though it was a little too slapstick in places for me (it seemed like people were frequently falling or spilling), overall I enjoyed it, especially Trish’s learning that surrender to the Lord is not just making a list of rules.

So, though I only had seven books on my original list, I ended up reading nine and am in the process of two more. I did read one other that I am still processing and have mixed emotions about, so I haven’t mentioned it yet and haven’t decided whether I will.

I don’t know if I read more with this challenge, but it did help me to be more purposeful and to actually plan on including certain books that I’ve been meaning to get to. I probably benefited most from How To Say No. It would be hard to say which one I enjoyed most — they each had things I liked about them.

And, yes, I would love a fall challenge!

I Remember Laura Blogathon: Week 3: Family Recipes

Posted on June 16, 2008 by Barbara Harper

I have so been enjoying this blogathon! Laura Ingalls Wilder’s books have been among my favorites for years, and I have had fun remembering events of her life. I even have two other books by and about her that have been on my shelves for years that I am inspired to dust off and get into. And quilts and buttons are some of my favorite crafty subjects. I’ve enjoyed reading everyone’s responses each week!

I will enjoy this week, too, even though I am sadly lacking in the subject of family recipes. My own mother wasn’t terribly domestic in the first place, and with working full time and more and commuting across Houston, she just didn’t have a lot of time or energy or interest in making dinner (and I wouldn’t have either!) We had a lot of convenience foods and basic, simple things. So I don’t remember much in the way of special family recipes. I do remember that one of her specialties when she had time was a pot of beans. That may sound funny — beans aren’t special to most people. But I grew up on beans and rice and cornbread — usually pinto beans, but sometimes Northern. She seasoned them just very basically with salt, pepper, onion, and garlic. When I was little she was often asked to bring her beans to gatherings, and for those she sometimes put jalapeños in them, which I didn’t care for, personally.

I spent a lot of time with my father’s mother as I was growing up, and I remember her as the classic Granny with an apron on and cooking all the time, but I don’t remember any distinctive dishes except for pumpkin bread made in coffee cans. My mother’s mother passed away when I was about four, so I have very little memory of her. I do remember discovering a recipe of hers for some kind of cinnamon coffee cake when I was a teen-ager and first learning to cook that I loved and made a lot. But somehow that little recipe card in her handwriting got lost. That’s been one of the saddest losses to me both because it was a good recipe and because it was hers. Last fall my step-father and sisters brought up several things that had been in a trunk for us to sort through and see if there was anything we wanted. One of the items was my mother’s baby book which had these two recipes in them.

One is for Golden Pumpkin Bread and one is for Lemon Pie. I haven’t made either of them yet. I have wondered how often they were made if they were tucked in a baby book…unless my grandmother shared my penchant for tucking papers into odd places (and then forgetting where they were put…). The one on the right for Lemon Pie looks well-used and looks like my grandmother’s handwriting. I am happy to have them because they were hers.

I remember being impressed with the way Laura’s family used everything when they butchered an animal, even a pig’s bladder to be remade into a ball to toss! Industriousness is one of the traits I admire most in pioneer and colonial women. Once when we were at a place where people were dressed and acting out life in this era, I remember watching food being cooked in fireplaces over an open fire and wondering how in the world they ever made things to the right degree of doneness and got everything ready at the same time..and then it would have been so hot to cook that way, especially in the summer time! Even stoves that you built a fire into would have been hard to regulate. And dealing with food while they traveled in a covered wagon — I don’t know how they did it!

One recipe I do have from my mom is for Surprise Jello.

Surprise Jello

1 large package lime Jello
1/2 cup coconut
1/2 cup pecans
1 small can fruit cocktail
Handful miniature marshmallows

Prepare Jello as directed on package. Drain fruit cocktail and combine with coconut, pecans, and marshmallows: add to Jello and chill. Makes 8-10 servings.

I don’t really care for coconut, but I like it ok in this recipe. It could be left out if desired, as could the pecans if anyone is allergic to or doesn’t like nuts.

My own boys have already told me they want some of my recipes when they leave home. Here are a couple of family favorites:

Chicken Enchilada Bake

2 cans cream of chicken soup
2-4 chicken breasts, cooked and cut into pieces, or around 9 chicken tenderloin pieces, cooked and cut into small pieces
1 pint sour cream
3/4 lb. Monterrey Jack Cheese, shredded
6 flour tortillas or 8 corn tortillas
1 small can green chilies, diced (optional)

Mix soup, sour cream, chicken, chilies, and half the cheese, Tear tortillas into bite-size pieces and stir into chicken mixture. Pour into casserole dish and top with remaining cheese. Bake at 350 degrees for about 20 minutes. Or, leave off the remaining cheese, microwave for about 3 minutes, stir, top with remaining cheese, and microwave for another 3 minutes.

Pudding Chip Cookies

2 1/4 cups flour
1 tsp. baking soda
1 cup butter or margarine, softened
3/4 cup packed brown sugar
1/4 cup granulated sugar
1 pkg. (4 serving size) instant vanilla pudding
1 tsp. vanilla
2 eggs
1 pkg (12 oz) semi-sweet chocolate chips

Combine butter, sugars, pudding mix, and vanilla; beat until smooth and creamy. Beat in eggs. Mix flour with baking soda. and gradually add flour mixture. Stir in chips. Drop from teaspoon onto ungreased baking sheets, about 2 inches apart. Bake at 375 for 8 to 10 minutes (mine usually take 10-12 minutes). I used to add chocolate chunks or miniature Hershey’s kisses just for something different, but I haven’t been able to find those lately.

You can find other participants sharing family recipes (or join in!) here at Quill’s Cottage.

Book Review: Sisterchicks Go Brit!

Posted on June 6, 2008 by Barbara Harper

Sisterchicks Go Brit! is the seventh in the Sisterchicks series by Robin Jones Gunn. A “sisterchick” is defined as “A friend who shares the deepest wonders of your heart, loves you like a sister, and provides a reality check when you’re being a brat.”

This series is a lot of fun and very easy to get into, yet it is hard to call it a “light” read because of the lessons, spiritual and otherwise, that the friends learn. Each book has a different pair of friends in different stages of life going off on an adventure, deepening their friendship, learning about themselves, each other, another country, and their relationship with the Lord.

The friends/sisterchicks in this book are mid-life moms Liz and Kellie who end up in England, where Liz has been wanting to visit since she was a teen-ager. In one sense the landmarks and customs were a little more familiar to me: I have never been in England, but of course I have heard and read more about it than other countries.

In a sense this book didn’t seem quite as “fun” to me as compared to the others, but it has been a long time since I read the last one, so I am not sure whether my memory is faulty. But perhaps it is just that I struggle with some of the same things Liz does and would have had a much harder time when things didn’t go according to plan or when glitches came up than she did. I “know” on one level that God is in control and in charge of all such things, but when I seek Him in the planning stages I tend to think that everything will go according to plan…and, of course, it doesn’t, then I get tense and nervous. I appreciated the reminder and the example to learn to just entrust the Lord with the schedule and the events and everything that happens in connection with them, knowing that He is in control and can handle everything that comes up — and that He might have an interesting detour I never would have thought of.

I appreciated the emphasis, too, that “midlife” doesn’t mean your dreams and your work are ready for the shelf, but it can be a time of exploring and expanding on them.

I do recommend the Sisterchicks series. Let me know if you have read this one or any of them and what you think.

“I Remember Laura” blogathon

Posted on June 2, 2008 by Barbara Harper

Quill Cottage is hosting an “I Remember Laura” blogathon on Mondays through the month of June in memory of Laura Ingalls Wilder, author if the “Little House” series of books. Each week will focus on a particular theme: this week is quilts, week 2 will feature buttons, week 3, family recipes, and week 4, books and music. There will also be an art swap going on each week in connection with the theme: Click on the picture for more information.

I don’t remember when I was first introduced to the “Little House” series. I must have read some of them as a child because I was familiar with some of the stories, and in me early married years I bought and read the whole series and thoroughly loved them. I think I have read them more than once and probably will again.

This week’s theme is Quilting Memories, and participants can be found here. I appreciate that in Laura’s time girls were taught needle arts at an early age, and I wish that trend continued. It was a necessity then: there were no Wal-Marts in which to but inexpensive bedding. But besides the necessity, it was a way to teach industriousness, neatness, and even math skills. Years ago I read a quote from an unnamed pioneer woman that went something like, “I make my quilts warm to keep my family from freezing. I make them beautiful to keep my heart from breaking.” That resonated with me. We can kind of romanticize pioneer life in our minds, but it had to be bleak at times, starting completely from scratch, knowing you had to focus on the essentials first before beautifying (we went through this with our fixer-upper of a first house. It got discouraging having to deal with the roof and electricity and hot water heaters before ever getting to painting, wallpapering, and decorating. I can imagine this feeling was multiplied in pioneer days). There would have been the hope and excitement of what was to come, but there had to have been long, tiring, bleak days along the way, especially during the winter. So quilts and other needle arts were also a way to beautify the home and exercise creativity.

I am afraid I don’t come from a family of crafters, much less quilters. I took one adult ed. class in quilting but never really went on with it from there. I love and admire quilting, though: I remember going to one quilt show and just being in awe of the detail, creativity, and work involved.

Besides looking “homey,” quilts are also a great way to incorporate a color scheme into a room. That is what I had in mind with this store-bought quilt from Wal-Mart several years ago. Our bedroom in our previous home had pink, blue, and green wallpaper which the previous owner had installed. Those colors are my favorites, and all the wall decorations and such we collected during that time were in those colors. When we moved and I needed to replace our bedspread anyway, I could find bedding in several different combinations of two of those colors, but not all three in any one set, until I found this quilt.

I just realized that one of the pillow shams is missing in this picture. 😳 For some reason my husband’s came apart and we’ve just been using regular pillow cases.

And even though this isn’t quilted, this is a bedspread crocheted my my great Aunt Dot: it is the only thing like it I have passed down from family:

And even though this isn’t part of the theme this week, another of the needle arts Laura and her sister Mary had to work on were samplers. In our early married years my decorating preferences leaned toward the early American style (possibly even as a result of reading Laura’s books, I cant remember), and it was in that time frame that I started this sampler.

Back to quilting: the only other items I own that relate to quilting are a pillow I did in that one class I mentioned, which I don’t think I have any more, and these Paula Vaughn prints my husband bought for me years ago.

It’s hard to tell from this photo, but each print focuses on one aspect of needle arts. The third one features a quilt.

I have always wanted to make a quilt like this one, but I honestly don’t know if I have the skills. 🙂 Quilting tends to be more exact than a lot of other crafts I do.

Quilts are prominent in many of Paula’s designs, and this combines quilts and cross stitch in this gift my sister made for me several years ago.

Book Review: How To Say No to a Stubborn Habit

Posted on May 31, 2008 by Barbara Harper

How To Say No To a Stubborn Habit (subtitled Even When You Feel Like Saying Yes) by Erwin Lutzer has been republished under the title Winning the Inner War: How To Say No to a Stubborn Habit. My copy was published in 1994: I don’t know if anything has changed other than the name.

It could just as easily be titled How To Overcome Sin and Resist Temptation, because that is basically what it is about. One of the most compelling chapters is the first one: “Why So Much Temptation?” Lutzer discusses that troubling question reasonably and plausibly. Other chapters include “The Freedom of Living at the Cross,” “The Power of the Holy Spirit,” “The Renewing of Your Mind,” “Living With Your Feelings,” “The Taming Your Will.”

I have read this book through at least once before: I think I probably have more than that. I have been making a few notes from it for myself at my other blog, I Corinthians 10:31, which was originally started to chronicle my weight loss (I wanted that separate from this one because I had seen other bloggers’ blogs start talking about dieting and weight loss and having that end up the only thing they blogged about. I don’t kniw, maybe you need to be that obsessive to be successful. But I just wanted to keep that journey separate from this blog, though I do mention it from time to time). After the first seven pounds, though, I got off track and never got back on. That is one reason I wanted to go through this book again.

One of my biggest problems is dealing with feelings. Though I know we live by faith, not by feelings, a part of me still felt that, when I prayed for grace in dealing with this or any other “besetting sin,” a part of the answer would come by way of changing my feelings and desires. But often we must obey in spite of our feelings, and they will catch up later.

I enjoy Lutzer’s style. He is very reasonable, logical, and readable, with very clear and compelling illustrations. For instance, in illustrating the concept of reckoning ourselves “dead to sin” (confusing because we don’t feel very dead to it), he likens it to living in an apartment under new management. The old landlord may come around and demand payment, but we don’t owe him anything any more. Or, in illustrating how, when we decide we are going to get rid of a bad habit or resist a certain temptation and then can’t think about anything else, he writes to try not to think about the number 8. All of a sudden that’s all you can think about! But if you think of the number 1,000, divide it by 5, multiply it by 10, etc., then your mind is off of 8. So also it is not enough for us just to try to remove this one habit or sin in our lives: we have to replace it, preferably with Scripture, prayer, praise, singing a hymn, etc.

And though Lutzer is very firm in instructing about what must be done, he doesn’t rant and rave and wag a finger in your face. He gives simple and clear (though not easy) instructions based on God’s Word and derives hope from the same Source.

Erwin Lutzer is the pastor of Moody Church in Chicago and has a radio program called Running to Win. I hear part of his program if I have the radio on after I drop my youngest off at school, and this is the only book of his I have ever read, so I don’t know if I might have any disagreements with his stand on anything, but I agree with everything in this particular book. It is quite edifying and I would recommend it highly.

Booking Through Thursday: What is Reading, Fundamentally?

Posted on May 29, 2008 by Barbara Harper

The Booking Through Thursday question for today is:

What is reading, anyway? Novels, comics, graphic novels, manga, e-books, audiobooks — which of these is reading these days? Are they all reading? Only some of them? What are your personal qualifications for something to be “reading” — why? If something isn’t reading, why not? Does it matter? Does it impact your desire to sample a source if you find out a premise you liked the sound of is in a format you don’t consider to be reading? Share your personal definition of reading, and how you came to have that stance.

Well, I think all of them are reading (except audiobooks. That’s listening. I like doing that sometimes, too, though). Dragging your eyes across a page or screen to understand words and derive meaning from them is reading in any format. So this seems a bit of an odd question to me.

On the other hand, I used to lament that my sons weren’t the readers that I had hoped they would be when we read multitudes of books when they were little. But then I realized my oldest son does read all the time — not the classics I love and would like to share and discuss, but multitudes of things online and on his PDA. It’ still reading. He’s just more interested in newsy and techie things.

So to me it’s more a matter of just preference. I love curling up on the couch with an old-fashioned real live book, especially a classic or fiction. I do read more on the computer than I used to. I don’t have a PDA, and there are times I would like the portability and compactness of it, but I don’t think I could stand to read very much for very long on that tiny screen.

Book Review: Dawn’s Light

Posted on May 23, 2008 by Barbara Harper

Dawn’s Light is the fourth and, I believe, final installment of the Restoration series by Terri Blackstock which focuses on the effects of a global blackout on one community and particularly one family.

The subject matter of this series normally would not have drawn me to it, because I am afraid I like my creature comforts all too well, and I know how I am after even a few hours of no electricity. But, this is Terri Blackstock. And I love Terri Blackstock. I think I have read every novel she has written. So I knew it would be good, suspenseful, and convicting. And it was.

I am not going to say much about the plot beyond what you would find on the first few pages so as not to spoil it, but I can’t say the same for the comments. If you’ve read the book, let me know what you think — I’d love to discuss it.

In the previous books we’ve seen the struggle and growth of various members of the Branning family. Thirteen year old Beth has witnessed a lot of trauma which has caused her to be fearful of “The Next Big Thing.” So when she begins to exhibit even more fearful behavior, her family thinks she is just having further trouble handling everything that has happened emotionally. She won’t open up to them or to a counselor. What no one knows is that she has witnessed a double murder: she got away from the scene, but the killer saw her and threatened her and her family.

Meanwhile the pulses from a dying star which caused the blackout have finally stopped, and the massive effort to get electricity flowing again begins. Terri did a lot of research into the technology behind what this would mean and does a good job giving enough information to make it plausible yet not so much that the book gets bogged down.

Oldest daughter Deni had left her high-powered Washington career and fiance behind and fallen in love with a friend she had known for years, but her fiance comes back into town, not only to help with the electrical situation but to win Deni back.

One of the things I love best about Terri is that her characters are so real, so genuine, you feel like they are your personal friends, and they struggle with exactly the same issues I would in their place. When a family tragedy occurs, they wrestle with all the questions and issues almost any Christian would in the face of seemingly unanswered prayer.

A blurb on the front page says, “Terri Blackstock weaves a masterful what-if series in which global catastrophe reveals the darkness in human hearts — and lights the way to restoration for a self-centered world.” I am embarrassed to say that it wasn’t until I read that sentence that I “got” the symbolism of the darkness and the restoration — not just of electricity, but more importantly, in hearts. Though perhaps much of what I have said about it focuses on the “darkness,” the series ends with restoration and hope.