Two book reviews

Posted on January 12, 2008 by Barbara Harper

I finished two of my Christmas presents!

Sabrina by Lori Wick is the second in the Big Sky Dreams series taking place in the little town of Token Creek, Montana. According to the Publisher’s Description at Christianbook.com,

Sabrina Matthews, a young prostitute in the rough frontier city of Denver, is befriended by a police officer and his wife. Because of their kindness, she listens to what they have to say about Jesus and believes in Him.

Sabrina stays with Danny and Callie until she’s ready to make a fresh start in a new town. She boards the train for the long trip to Token Creek in Montana Territory, where she meets Jeanette Fulbright and is befriended by the church family and many of the townsfolk there.

All is well until she finds herself falling for Pastor Rylan Jarvik, who has begun to care for her as well. Will she be able to tell him about her past? How will Rylan respond? A moving novel about past mistakes and forgiveness—both from God and people.

This is a little different subject matter for a Christian novel, but Lori handles it as discreetly as can be done. Among the many things that Sabrina learns is, in her compassion to reach others in the same predicament she was in, she still needs to handle things carefully and safely and needs to know when to set boundaries. But in some ways this contrasts nicely with some of the other townspeople who need to learn to expand their boundaries a little bit.

One little thing bothered me somewhat at first: the Pastor tells Sabrina at one point that once people know that he is available for them, he doesn’t feel the need to go and seek them out. In the context it almost sounded like lifestyle evangelism. I do believe your lifestyle should be such that it reflects the gospel and attracts people to the Savior, but there are times we need to seek people out just as the Good Shepherd does His lost sheep. But at that part of the story he is talking with her about her efforts to reach another woman from the profession she was once in, a lady she had already witnessed to and befriended, and he was trying to get across to her that she did not necessarily need to keep going into this lady’s neighborhood. So that makes sense.

Overall I enjoyed the story.

The second Christmas present I finished was Between Sundays by Karen Kingsbury. It’s about an 8-year-old boy named Cory whose mother dies. Her best friend, Megan, takes Cory in as a foster son and wants to adopt him. Cory insists that his mother told him that his real dad is NFL star Aaron Hill. Another major character is Derrick Hill, a Christian NFL pro who has been a star and won two Super Bowls and in his final year. He had promised his youngest son he would win one last Super Bowl for him and wants to make good on his promise, but realizes God may have him where he is for the witness he can be to others on the team, particularly Aaron.

The book gives a peek into the world of pro football as well as the world of foster kids. It’s interesting and informative, and it many ways I enjoyed it, yet it’s not my favorite Kingsbury book, and personally I don’t believe it’s one of her best. There were some mistakes that I am really surprised made it past the editor, an excess of sentence fragments, and the end seemed a little too fairy-tale-ish. The Publisher’s Weekly review on Christianbook.com echoed some of my thoughts, but the reader’s review were enthusiastic, so don’t take my word for it. 🙂 I did like Derrick’s character and his relationship with his family, especially his wife, and I did like Aaron’s journey. And the window into the world of foster care reveals many needs there.

Let me take a moment and say that I love to read and love to share that passion with others. I love to discuss books I have read with others. That’s the main reason I do book reviews. But I am going to be honest: if every review was glowing and marvelous, they wouldn’t seem genuine. In an interview about writing quality book reviews, Dr. Jim Hamilton says, “Sometimes people in our culture are so fixated on being nice that they won’t tell the truth. If a book is bad, we should find a way to lovingly, appropriately say so in a godly way. If we refuse to tell the truth, we’re not honoring the Lord and the people reading the review won’t be well served.” I don’t think I have ever said any book I have written about here is bad, but if I felt one was, I could only be honest if I said so: similarly, if I think a book is good overall but has a few problems, I feel I need to express that. I wouldn’t want someone to buy or read a book on my recommendation and then be disappointed or wonder why in the world I said it was so good when it had this or that problem.

I can only share my own opinion, after all. If yours is different, by all means feel free to say so, as long as you do it in a civil manner. 🙂

Booking Through Thursday: Finding favorite authors

Posted on January 10, 2008 by Barbara Harper

The Booking Through Thursday question for this week is:

How did you come across your favorite author(s)? Recommended by a friend? Stumbled across at a bookstore? A book given to you as a gift?
Was it love at first sight? Or did the love affair evolve over a long acquaintance?

I found Terri Blackstock and Dee Henderson when I was looking in the Christian fiction genre for something my mom might like. My mom’s tastes ran along the lines of action, mystery, suspense type novels, which wasn’t quite to my tastes (then), but I wanted to choose books I thought she might like. I wanted to read them first both so I would know what I was giving her and also because, sad to say, all Christian fiction is not created equal: some just plain isn’t written well (though you could say that about any genre) and in some either the doctrine or the practice is a little “off.” I feel I can read the latter type on my own and exercise discernment and still benefit from the book, but I am wary of giving that kind to someone else.

Looking on the shelves of the Christian bookstore fiction section, somehow I came across Terri Blackstock’s Newpointe 911 series about a group of “first responders” — firefighters, police officers, and paramedics — who were friends in a town in Louisiana. I was hooked. I was riveted. Not only were the stories compelling page-turners, but the characters were so real, so genuine that I felt I knew them, that they could have been my neighbors. They were flawed, as we all are, yet learning and growing. Truth, beauty, and poignancy were hallmarks of the series. I found Dee Henderson’s O’Malley family series in the same way and had a similar reaction. Both of these authors became ones whose next works I eagerly anticipate.

Sharon Hinck has become a similar author to me within the last year. I found her on the same bookstore’s shelves when none of my favorite authors had anything new out and I was looking for something good to read and found The Secret Life of Becky Miller. I guess you could call it “mommy lit,” but I think it appeals to a wider audience than just moms. It’s rollicking good fun but contains deeply heartfelt crises and spiritual truths as well. Sharon has become another “must read” author.

An older lady who spoke at a Mission Prayer Band meeting when I was in college got me started reading missionary stories and biographies, and that has had a major impact on my life.

Among the classics — Charles Dickens, Laura Ingalls Wilder, Louisa May Alcott, and others — I think I must have been exposed to them in childhood, probably in school, and as an adult sought them out again.

I’ve discovered some after seeing a film version of their work: L. M. Montgomery and Tolkien were among those.

I also find favorite books from friends’ recommendations. My to-be-read list has grown considerably since I started blogging and discovering other book-lovers!

Book Review: Never Say Can’t

Posted on January 5, 2008 by Barbara Harper

Some years ago I read a book called Never Say Can’t about a missionary who didn’t feel he had much natural ability but who determined that he would do whatever God called him to do and not make excuses, trusting God for the ability. In fact, he and his wife made a little ceremony of burying the word “can’t.” I couldn’t remember their names or the author’s, but I remembered that incident.

I was excited to find a used book by the same title and ordered it — but it’s not the same book. 🙂 It was an enjoyable read, though.

This Never Say Can’t by Jerry Ballard was about a missionary with the same motto, Thomas Willey, who ministered in Panama and Cuba. Rather than recapping the whole story, I want to just touch on a few things that stood out to me.

He had had to quit school,early to help take care of his family. Later when he felt called to preach he knew he needed to go to Bible college. He had been a hard worker and had saved money to go. But he was so out of touch academically that when the registrar asked him how many credits he had, he said, “How much do I need, sir? I have money in the bank and my credit is good as gold.” The ripple of laughter from the other students nearby caused him to realize he was missing something. Tom later wrote, “Who could forget the amazement on the dean’s face when he realized that he had an ignoramus on his hands, a young man past 20 who wanted to go to college yet couldn’t work fractions and had no knowledge of grammar or spelling.” The registrar asked to meet with him privately and told him he would have to take a lot of background courses in the academy before he could start college and that it would be a long, hard haul. Tom knew God had called him and settled in to work hard.

When Tom began missionary work with Indians in the jungles of Panama, “He knew civilization wasn’t their primary need. White man’s civilization without Christ would simply replace their primitive sins with more sophisticated ones. He only wanted to share his Savior.”

His first experience on the mission field came just after college, where the students had been experiencing a wonderful revival. He thought the mission field would be even more of a revival, but within just a few hours sensed “strange tensions” among the missionaries with whom he was assigned to work. He became a sounding board for both sides. “What shocked Tom was the inability of those involved to maintain spiritual victory over their emotions, to forgive in love and to forget.” After a few months “he became more sympathetic as he realized the strange drain which life in a continually threatening jungle environment could be to one’s spiritual resources. How easy it was to become so busy with mission affairs that prayer and Bible reading were neglected, and one became introverted and self-centered through the constant fight for survival.” After two years on that field he left 20 lbs. less, underweight, and “backslidden …himself due to his frustration in seeking to be a reconciling force among his co-workers.”

In the zealousness of youthful Christianity, when I first heard of missionaries having trouble getting along, I was similarly shocked. I thought surely any group of godly people shouldn’t have that problem. Well..after a little more maturity and experience, I’ve realized that any group of Christians can have trouble getting along. If that happens to us here, we shouldn’t be surprised it happens to people on the mission field, especially with the additional stresses they are under. That is an area we should pray for them more — grace and getting along with each other’s faults, foibles, differing ideas of how things should be done, etc.

Another area that stood out to me was the account of the rise of Communism in Cuba. Evidently Castro did not present himself as a Communist at first — there was none of the usual rhetoric or slogans. He was seen as a great liberator from an oppressive government. There is some disagreement as to whether he was really a Communist all along or whether he just chose that political line in order to “institutionalize his revolution.” The missionaries had been sympathetic to the revolutionaries, but had to make “late-hour course corrections to cope with another anti-Christian influence.” Though some of the soldiers themselves had originally seemed friendly to the missionaries, repression began.

Before repression became too bad however, Mr. Willey attended the trials of those deemed war criminals, then asked and was granted permission to visit those condemned to die before the firing squad. “The rebel authorities were impressed with Pop’s obvious concern for the spiritual needs of the condemned men.” Many of them had never heard the gospel. One told him, “Had we had this teaching, none of us would now be in this sad state. Please preach this in the streets, in the country, in the cities. This is the only hope for Cuba!”

Many believed. It was hard to see spiritual newborns put to death so soon after their conversion. “Pop,” as he was known, then took the dead men’s belongings to their families and was able to share the comfort of the gospel with them as well. Though God vitally used him in this way, the experience “took a heavy physical and emotional toll…He was never to be quite the same again.”

It wasn’t long before the missionaries had to leave Cuba. They found a ministry to exiled Cubans in Florida and in speaking to churches to stir up missionary interest. Eventually they ministered back in Panama.

Near the end of the book when the author recorded Tom’s death and the viewing and funeral, I thought he perfectly captured the mixed emotions one feels at the death of a Christian loved one: “Sorrowful because of earth’s loss. Joyful because of heaven’s gain. Awkward because of the paradox of extreme grief and extreme joy mingled in a single sensation.”

Even though this wasn’t the book I was originally looking for, I am glad I read of this servant of the Lord.

Booking Through Thursday: Anticipation

Posted on January 3, 2008 by Barbara Harper

The Booking Through Thursday question for this week is:

What new books are you looking forward to most in 2008? Something new being published this year? Something you got as a gift for the holidays? Anything in particular that you’re planning to read in 2008 that you’re looking forward to? A classic, or maybe a best-seller from 2007 that you’re waiting to appear in paperback?

I’m looking forward to The Restorer’s Journey by Sharon Hinck, third in the Sword of Lyric trilogy, due at the end of February. The series is a fantasy about an ordinary mom who gets suddenly pulled into an alternate universe with responsibilities thrust on her that she doesn’t want and doesn’t feel adequate for. I loved the first two and can’t wait to get the third. Sharon has become the kind of author from whom I eagerly look for the next thing she has coming out.

I’m also looking forward to Karen Kingsbury‘s Sunset with mixed emotions — I believe it’s the last series of series about the Baxter family. It began with the five-book Redemption series, continued with the Firstborn series of five books, and ends now with the fourth book in the Sunrise series. I’ve enjoyed the series immensely and am looking forward to seeing how it ends, but it will be sad that there will be no more new Baxter stories. This one is due out in April.

I already finished one of my Christmas presents, Sabrina by Lori Wick (review coming soon), and next on the queue is Between Sundays by Karen Kingsbury.

I’m eagerly anticipating spending more time with another of my Christmas presents, Sew Pretty Homsestyle by Tone Finnanger. It’s a craft book, but whether I ever make a project from it or not, it is a feast for the eyes in itself.

I would also like to read Les Miserables again some time this year. It’s one of my all-time favorite novels.

Booking Through Thursday: Highlights

Posted on December 27, 2007 by Barbara Harper

The Booking Through Thursday question for this week is:

It’s an old question, but a good one . . . What were your favorite books this year?

List as many as you like … fiction, non-fiction, mystery, romance, science-fiction, business, travel, cookbooks … whatever the category. But, really, we’re all dying to know. What books were the highlight of your reading year in 2007?

I had thought today’s question might concern what books we got for Christmas, and I was all ready to tell you!

I had been thinking about making a list of the books I read through the year, and this question gave me an excuse to do so since I was perusing through the book category of my blog anyway to remind myself what I had read to answer this question. I made a list for the year here. I was surprised and pleased at the variety since I tend to spend most of my time with Christian fiction.

The highlights for non-fiction would be Spirit of the Rainforest: A Yanomamo Shaman’s Story by Mark Ritchie, reviewed here, and One Candle To Burn by Kay Washer, reviewed here. I know Kay but only knew parts of her story, so it was a delight to read the book. But it would have been a good book anyway, with insights into the lives and ministries of pioneer missionaries. Spirit of the Rainforest was recommended by Jungle Mom, who I think knew the family of the author and worked with a neighborhood group. It’s a marvelous book and a must-read for anyone who thinks primitive peoples are happily frolicking in the jungle and should be left alone by the outside world.

The highlight of the classics that I read has to be Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte, reviewed here. By the way, the PBS version on Masterpiece Theatre is supposed to air again in two parts Dec. 30 and Jan. 6. It was this version that made me move this book from my “someday” list to wanting to read it now.

Christian fiction is my favorite genre, and the best of it occurs when the stories are good, the characters real, the situations such that we can relate to them, and spiritual truth is conveyed in a way that is touching but not “preachy.” It’s hardest to narrow down highlights in this category, but it would have to be Sharon Hinck‘s books: Renovating Becky Miller, reviewed here, about the life and struggles of an average wife mom who is also taking on renovating a “fixer-upper” and taking in her mother-in-law, and The Restorer, reviewed here, about another average wife and mom who stumbles upon a portal into another world, and The Restorer’s Son, the sequel, reviewed here.

Fall Into Reading Wrap-Up and Reviews

Posted on December 21, 2007 by Barbara Harper

Katrina at Callapidder Days hosted another Fall Into Reading challenge these last few months, and since today is the last day of autumn, it’s time to wrap up the challenge.

Here is my list with links to my reviews of the ones I finished. I’ll answer Katrina’s questions at the end.

Spirit of the Rainforest: A Yanomamo Shaman’s Story by Mark Ritchie, recommended by Jungle Mom, reviewed here.

In the Best Possible Light by Beneth Peters Jones, about Biblical femininity. I started this one but didn’t finish it. I could tell after a chapter or so into it that I wouldn’t get as much out of it from my usual piecemeal style of reading. Usually with Christian non-fiction I incorporate them into my devotional time. I want to do that with this one after Christmas. With everyone on a break from work and school, I have a little more time in the mornings without having to keep one eye on the clock. It’s a timely and important subject that I’ve been wanting to explore.

Return to Me by Robin Lee Hatcher, about a prodigal daughter, reviewed here.

Simple Gifts by Lori Copeland, read but not reviewed yet. Maybe in a few days. 🙂

The Parting, the first in a new series by Beverly Lewis, who is always good, reviewed here. Most, if not all of her stories are stem from her grandmother’s Amish heritage.

Just Beyond the Clouds by Karen Kingsbury, a sequel to A Thousand Tomorrows, continuing the story of Cody Gunner, dealing in this book with the care of his brother who has Down Syndrome, reviewed here.

Home to Holly Springs by Jan Karon, a new novel about Father Tim of the Mitford series, reviewed here.

I also like to include at least one classic, and this time it was supposed to be The Count of Monte Cristo by Alexandre Dumas pere, but I never made it to the library to check it out. So I’ll look forward to doing that in the next few weeks.

I included my daily/weekly reads this time:

Queen of the Castle: 52 Weeks of Encouragement for the Uninspired, Domestically Challenged or Just Plain Tired Homemaker by Lynn Bowen Walker. I finished it a couple of weeks ago. I haven’t formally reviewed it — I might after Christmas — but I have mentioned it many times. Love it! Lots of good stuff. I will probably read it again week by week this year, too. My interview with Lynn is here.

Daily Light on the Daily Path compiled by the Samuel Bagster family. I use this to begin my devotional times and help me get my mind in gear. I’ve used it for years and have mentioned it many times. On Sundays and occasional busy or sick days this might be all I do, but it gives much food for thought.

Wonderful Words by Stewart Custer. It is another daily devotional with a different word for each day and various verses containing that word. It’s interesting and the Lord has used it to speak to me, but I think it would be better if the verses weren’t listed in the order they appear in the Bible but were rather connected by meaning.

The Bible: Finished Psalms, which I was partway into when the challenge started, and went on to complete Proverbs, Ecclesiastes, and Song of Solomon. I’m now about 30 chapters into Isaiah.

Books I read that weren’t on my list:

Shopping For Time was written by the authors of the girltalk blog, mom Carolyn Mahaney and daughters Nicole Mahaney Whitacre, Kristin Chesemore, and Janelle Bradshaw, reviewed here.

The Restorer’s Son wasn’t originally on my Fall Reading List simply because I forgot it was coming out in that time frame. How could I have forgotten? Sharon Hinck is one author whose books I eagerly anticipate. The Restorer’s Son is a sequel to The Restorer (previously reviewed here), second in The Sword of Lyric trilogy. My review is here.

I also read When Crickets Cry after I won it from Deena’s (thank you, Deena!) I haven’t reviewed it yet — I am still pondering it. The writing is excellent, the story is good, but there are a couple of odd situations or people that seemed out of sync to me.

Currently I am mostly through A Victorian Christmas Keepsake, a book of three short novellas. It was part of a set of book all with “Victorian Christmas” in the title that caught my eye at a yard sale because the lead writer in the set was Catherine Palmer, whose other novels I had very much enjoyed. Plus I am also reading Never Say Can’t by Jerry Ballard about Tom Willey. I had first read it maybe 20 years ago from a lending library kept by the ladies’ group of the church we attended then and it made a major impact on me. Mr. Willey didn’t have a lot of confidence and didn’t feel he was very gifted, nor was he very educated (he only had a third grade education when he applied for college: when asked how many credits he had, he told about how much money he had in the bank), but he determined that by God’s grace he would never say “I can’t” do something God wants done, and he was marvelously used of the Lord. The book is out of print, but I just recently found used copies at Amazon.com.

Katrina asks:

* Tell us how you did. Did you finish all the books you had on your original list? If not, why not? Did you get distracted by other books? Were you too busy to read as much as you would have liked? And if you did finish them all, did you read more?

Most of that is answered above book by book.

* Tell us what you thought. What book did you like most? Least? Did you try a new author that you now love? Have you written off an author as “I’ll never read anything by him/her again!”?

I enjoyed Return to Me and The Parting a lot, but I think I benefited most (aside from Scripture directly, of course) from Spirit of the Rainforest. It touched me and instructed me in so many ways.

I don’t think I had read Lori Copland before, but I want to read more of her books.

* Tell us what you learned. Maybe you learned something about yourself, your interests, your reading patterns. Maybe you learned that you love/hate a particular genre. Maybe you learned some fabulous little nugget of truth from one of the books you read. Whatever it is — please share!

I don’t think I learned anything new about my interests and reading patterns that I didn’t already know — I love Christian fiction and missionary stories and read every chance I get. I think I learn something — maybe not something new, but sometimes spiritual truths are reinforced — by most of the books I read. Probably out of this list, though, I was impacted again by the power of the gospel to change lives in Spirit of the Rainforest and by the people’s dismay at learning that some think they should be left alone in the jungles.

By the way, many participants posted reviews of the books they read for the challenge on a post of Katrina’s site here if you’d like some good book recommendations.

Show and Tell Friday: Surprising Picture Book

Posted on December 7, 2007 by Barbara Harper

Kelli at There’s No Place Like Home hosts “Show and Tell Friday” asking “Do you have a something special to share with us? It could be a trinket from grade school, a piece of jewelry, an antique find. Your show and tell can be old or new. Use your imagination and dig through those old boxes in your closet if you have to! Feel free to share pictures and if there’s a story behind your special something, that’s even better! If you would like to join in, all you have to do is post your “Show and Tell” on your blog, copy the post link, come over here and add it to Mr. Linky. Guidelines are here.“

This was a souvenir we bought the first time we visited the Biltmore House in Asheville, NC. It’s a reproduction of a Victorian-style book and not an actual antique, but I love the poems and illustrations.

This has an added feature of what’s called “Surprising Pictures.” There are pictures throughout that look one way at first…

but then you pull a little ribbon, and the picture starts to change…

into another picture.

Maybe it’s leftover girlhood — the title does say Surprising Pictures for Little Folk — but I love this. 🙂 It’s also fun to bring it out to show children who come over. I keep it put up and handle it very gently while showing children so it stays in good condition. But little ones, especially, are fascinated by the changing pictures. I love that part, but I also love the Victorian-looking illustrations and poems.

Booking Through Thursday: Out of print

Posted on December 6, 2007 by Barbara Harper

The Booking Through Thursday question for this week is:

Do you have a favourite book, now out of print, that you would like to see become available again?

Yes, I do, though I am guessing they are off the beaten path from the other participants. 🙂

One of my favorites, originally read about 20 years ago, is Sometimes I Prefer To Fuss by Verda Peet. I found a used version earlier this year and reread it (and reviewed it here.) The author and her husband had been missionaries to Thailand for thirty years, and the book is a humorous, honest, and poignant look at missionary life. The title comes from the truth that God’s grace is sufficient for whatever we’re dealing with, but sometimes we choose to fuss instead.

Another missionary book I read years ago is Never Say Can’t by Jerry Ballard, a missionary to Cuba and Panama. All I can remember about it is that he didn’t have much of any self-confidence and felt he had little talent, but he determined that he would never say “I can’t” in the face of any task (in fact, he and his wife wrote those words on a slip of paper and buried them). He went on to be marvelously used of the Lord, trusting in His sufficiency and not his own.

I’ve read most of Elisabeth Elliot’s books, one I’d like to read again that’s out of print is Twelve Baskets of Crumbs. If I remember correctly it’s along the lines of Keep a Quiet Heart — just her thoughts various subjects. There is one particular piece she wrote about widowhood that I have looked for in her other books and old newsletters and can’t find, and I am wondering if it was in that book.

I think I first discovered Richard Armour through a poem in a book, then I searched the web and found he had written lots of books — over 60. He was a professor of English who had a regular newspaper column called “Amour’s Armory,” and many of his books are poems or short essays from that column. Most of his work is humorous in the style of Odgen Nash, but there are some sweet and winsome ones as well.

From his book Richard Armour’s Punctured Poems: Famous First and Infamous Second Lines comes these treasures:

“To err is human, to forgive divine.”

Followed by

“Some errors I forgive, though quickly. . . . Mine.”

From “The Rime of the Ancient Mariner” by Samuel Taylor Coleridge

“Water, water, everywhere;”

Followed by

“The plumbing badly needs repair.”

From “Marmion” by Sir Walter Scott

“Oh, what a tangled web we weave!”

Followed by

“The webs to spiders we should leave.”

I wrote a review of his book The Spouse in the House here.

I’d love to see all of these books come back into print because I feel they’d be both interesting and beneficial. I have found all of them on amazon.com — and even ordered a couple this morning! Other BTT participants have listed other good sites for finding out of print books as well.

Updated to add: I thought of another one. Years ago I was fascinated with a book titled Charlie’s Victory by Charlie Wedemeyer. He was an athlete and coach who developed ALS (Lou Gehrig’s disease). By the end of it, he was an inspirational and motivational speaker — even though he couldn’t speak. It was a wonderful book. I gave my copy away to a friend who is paralyzed, but I’d love to read it again. Two things remain in my memory from this book: one was during a particularly bad night when he finally said his family would be better off without him. His wife said, “I’d rather have you this way than not at all.” Later, when he got to the point where he couldn’t breathe on his own, he was rushed to the hospital where doctors tried to tell his wife it was time t let him go. A nurse told her about portable ventilators. When she asked the doctor, he was angry (!) Finally they found someone who would put her husband on a portable ventilator, and he was able to travel and do many things. So many people regard ventilators as a death sentence or as signal that that’s enough, but for many people, a portable vent can give them enough help to lead a wonderful life — though not ideal and not the life they would have chosen, I know personally people who are paralyzed and on a vent who lead full, active, happy lives.

Bloggy winnings!

Posted on November 26, 2007 by Barbara Harper

I was delighted to receive two items this week that I won recently on various blog contests.

The first was a Scripture tote given away by Paulette at Capturing Today. She’s hosting a giveaway every week until Christmas, with a new item featured on Tuesday and a winner drawn on Saturday.

Secondly, I won a set of four books, the Homeland Heroes set by Donna Fleisher through Deena at A Peek At My Bookshelf.

Autographed, even!

If you’re a book lover, you need to check Deena’s site out — she reviews and frequently gives away books.

I had read the first book in the series, Wounded Healer a couple of years ago, a quite suspenseful Christian novel of two very different female friends who are veterans of Desert Storm. (There is a short interview with Donna at the bottom of that link.). I’m going to reread it to remind myself of what was going on, then continue to the sequels.

Thanks so much Paulette, the Scripture tote folks, Deena, and Donna!!

Book Review: Home to Holly Springs

Posted on November 24, 2007 by Barbara Harper

Jan Karon’s Home to Holly Springs is the first in a new series involving Father Tim. It’s distinct from the Mitford series because it takes place primarily out of Mitford and Father Tim and his immediate family are the only characters, so far, continuing on in the series, though others are referred to occasionally.

In this book Father Tim receives an unsigned note in the mail with only two words: “Come Home.” It is from the town he grew up in, and he has enough curiosity and time in his schedule that he can drive there to spend a few days. There follows the trepidation of facing some of the painful memories of his past, particularly in connection with the harshness of his father, meeting old friends, visiting the old home place and the cemetery where his folks are buried, not to mention finding out who sent the cryptic note and what momentous news they have to share. It’s a journey that, though painful, I imagine many people would like to take to find resolution and closure.

All of Karon’s charm from the Mitford series is displayed in full in this new book.

I did have a couple of disappointments with the book, though. One was the use of some coarse language. I don’t remember this being a part of the earlier books, though it may have been and I have just forgotten. It is the type of thing you might hear as a Christian in the everyday world interacting with non-Christians, but, still, I don’t believe it was necessary to the story and I regret its presence.

Secondly, in the flashbacks we become aware of some of Father Tim’s youthful indiscretions. Of course we wouldn’t expect him to be as a child or teen-ager the man he was in later life, and none of us is perfect, but I was disappointed in the kinds of indiscretions the author had him experiencing, especially a very serious one in his teens. Perhaps the author had in mind to show that one can be forgiven from and recover from the sins of youth, which is certainly true.

The third initial disappointment was resolved later in the book. When in a flashback a young Timothy is being questioned by his priest and is asked about how to become a child of God, his answer is baptism. This was disappointing to me because the way of salvation as being by grace through faith and not of works was very clearly demonstrated in the earlier books. But later on Father Tim explains to someone else that it wasn’t until he was an adult and after he had been a priest for many years that he knew what it was to truly believe and to have truly been changed, and it is much more clear there.

If you liked the Mitford series, I am sure you will like this new one even without some of the characters from Mitford. It’s every bit as heart-warming.