Book Review: The Restorer’s Journey

Posted on March 25, 2008 by Barbara Harper

The Restorer’s Journey by Sharon Hinck is the third book in the Sword of Lyric series. In the first book, The Restorer, Mom Susan finds herself pulled through and unexpected portal into another world where she finds herself in an unsought for and unwanted leadership position that she feels totally unqualified for, and she finds God’s grace is sufficient even for all of that. In Book 2, The Restorer’s Son, just as Susan and her husband, Mark, get back to their own world, they discover their son Jake has accidentally gone through the portal, so they have to go back for him and get caught up once again in Lyric’s destiny, it’s enemy, Hazor, and their friend, the reluctant new Restorer, Kieran.

The Restorer’s Journey opens with two problems: Cameron, the evil, self-seeking Council leader, and Medea, a Rhusican whose race specializes in controlling people’s minds and using them against them, have come through the portal back to Susan’s world and disappeared after trashing her house, and she and Mark have no idea where they are and what they want. Secondly, Jake is now showing the signs of the Restorer. The family isn’t sure what that will mean and when and if he should return to Lyric.

After many days Cameron and Medea return with bags of equipment and force Mark and Susan to tell them how to get back to their own world, then they suddenly pull Susan back with them as they go through. Mark and Jake gather the supplies they will need and try to follow, but Mark can’t get through. Jake finds a very different Lyric, tries to find people he knows and determine what is going on and what to do.

The point of view shifts back and forth between Susan and Jake as they are separated through most of the story. Susan finds herself enduring a cruel captivity with the Rhusicans but has to find the grace not to just endure but to pray for her captors. Jake faces a people who feel deserted by the One due to Cameron’s lies and almost gives up to go home, but once he is sure of his calling, he finally earns their trust, but then faces a stunning betrayal.

I loved the spiritual parallels in this book as in the others and the fact that the struggles and lessons are real and true even though couched in a fantasy world.. Cameron had failed to ascend previously while people turned to the Verses, so he undermines the Verses by adding to them. Truth is undermined by a different tactic for Susan as her captors twist the truth, just as those in captivity for their faith in other places have had to deal with the propaganda and psychological torture. It seems that for us to grow, God often calls us beyond what we can do in our own strength, and Susan learns to rest in Him even when mentally beaten and defeated and to go beyond natural instincts to be concerned for and pray for her enemies.

Jake knows what he is called to as the Restorer and thinks he will go in like the cavalry with guns blazing to save the day. It doesn’t quite work that way, and he has to learn to follow and to trust God to lead when he can’t see what to do or what steps to take.

Though the signs of the Restorer are the same for each, each has his or her own different gifts and inclinations. Jake finds he can’t heal others like Kieran did, but songs of praise come to him.

Susan’s story in the first book had parallels to Old Testament Deborah while Kieran in the second book had similarities to Jonah, Jacob, and Gideon. Jake reminds me a lot of a David with his youth, warrior status, and propensity for song.

I had thought this book was the last in the series, but the ending leaves the door open for future stories. I loved each of these books and wouldn’t mind at all another trip through the portal.

Spring Reading Thing 2008

Posted on March 20, 2008 by Barbara Harper

Katrina at Callapidder Days is hosting another Spring Reading Thing, beginning the first day of spring, March 20, through the last day of spring. The idea is not to make a hard and fast list that you will feel guilty for not completing: it’s entirely flexible.

As Katrina says here, “Spring Reading Thing 2008 is simply an opportunity for you to set some reading goals, share them with the blogosphere, and work toward them this spring. Perhaps you want to add some variety to your fiction reading. Or maybe you’ve had very good intentions as far as reading that book on budgeting or marriage or starting a home business, but…you haven’t even cracked the cover yet. Some might want to read more with their children; others might feel guilty for never having read Wuthering Heights. Or maybe you just love to read and want to share your reading list and check out everyone else’s.”

More information and a Mr. Linky sign-up is here.

Here is my list:

The Restorer’s Journey by Sharon Hinck, third in the Sword of Lyric series. I am in the midst of this one right now (and loving it!)

Dawn’s Light, Restoration Series #4 by Terri Blackstock. The series deals with a cataclysmic event that knocks out all electrical power all over the earth and the ways people have to learn to cope, and this is the final book, due out April 18.

The Forbidden, The Courtship of Nellie Fisher #2 by Beverley Lewis, due out April 1. I had read the first in the series several months ago and am looking forward to the sequel.

The Count of Monte Cristo by Alexandre Dumas. I’ve wanted to read this for a long time and had it on a previous reading list but just never got to it.

Mansfield Park by Jane Austen. This will complete my reading of Austen’s books.

To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee. Somehow I have never read it or seen the film, but I often see it on people’s lists of favorite books.

In the Best Possible Light by Beneth Peters Jones, subtitled Godly Femininity in the Twenty-first Century. I started this last year but never finished it.

I will probably read more than these, but these will get me started. I have about 28 books on my to-be-read list that I can draw from plus I am sure there will be others that catch my eye along the way.

Book Review: Northanger Abbey

Posted on March 13, 2008 by Barbara Harper

Northanger Abbey is Jane Austen’s first book completed for publication, but the last to be published, with Persuasion, her last book, after her death. It had been sold to a publisher but never published. Eventually Jane bought it back for the same sum for which she sold it, but it was shelved for years.

Northanger Abbey, especially the first part, is a parody of gothic novels popular at the time, with their requisite ingredients of horror, castles, secrets, and villains.

“No one who had ever seen Catherine Morland in her infancy would have supposed her born to be a heroine” is the opening line of the book, and the first several paragraphs expand on the reasons for such a supposition: she is not particularly beautiful nor remarkably intelligent or diligent, and her family, while well enough off, is not rich. All about her is rather ordinary. Her major asset is her trusting, innocent, good-natured heart.

Her adventure begins when she goes to Bath with neighbors and friends of the family, the Allens. Yet it doesn’t seem very adventurous at first: Mrs. Allen is obsessed with fashion and can’t seem to discuss much else, and they know no one in all the crowded places they go. Finally they run into the Thorpes, old friends of the Allens, and one the the Thorpe daughters, Isabella, is a friend of Catherine’s brother, James. And then Catherine and Mrs. Allen unexpectedly meet an affable and pleasant Mr. Henry Tilney at a ball, who engages Catherine for the evening.

Isabella’s brother, John, is a rather boorish young man who pursues Catherine, but Catherine is not interested. Isabella, after becoming engaged to Catherine’s brother, becomes interested in Henry’s brother when he flirts with her. Henry’s father, General Tilney, mistakenly believes Catherine to be richer than she is, and therefore invites her to Northanger Abbey, the family’s home, for a visit. Catherine is delighted, both because of her growing interest in Henry and friendship with his sister, Eleanor, but also because she longs to have the experience of visiting such a structure as is often found in the gothic novels she loves.

One of the many things she learns, though, is that life is not like those novels, and once her views are shaped by reality, she begins to grow and mature.

I don’t want to go further into the plot for the sake of those who might not have read the book. I found it very enjoyable. It contains Austen’s trademark observations of the social mores of her time, though not quite as ironically or satirically as her later books. Plus she includes a spirited defense of novel reading as well as a caution against the wrong kinds. Catherine has to learn not to let her imagination, influenced by highly unlikely tales, get away from her. Catherine also learns one of the most painful lessons of maturity, that, while it is generally good to have a trusting heart, there are people not worthy of that trust. (Update: I just finished listening to this via audiobook 4/22/13, and I can’t believe I thought this book less ironic or satirical. It fairly sparkles with both irony and satire, but in a fun rather than a put-down sarcastic way.)

The particular copy I bought is a Barnes and Noble publication, complete with footnotes and endnotes, which were often helpful but sometimes unnecessary and distracting. The introductory notes I felt were better read after the novel than before, especially if one has not read the book yet, as too much is given away.

In the back of the book are a few questions, one of which is “Is there any sign that any of the characters in Northanger Abbey feels sexual desire? Can Austen’s realism be considered complete without this aspect of human relationships.” Good grief, what questions! One of the things I most resent about modern adaptations of classics is the inclusion of sexual scenes, or the spelling out of what had been written with restraint and decorum. The continued popularity of Austen’s books should indicate that an audience can be entertained without going into great sexual detail. Restraint and subtlety are no enemies of realism.

Update: I listened to this story again for the Austen in August challenge in August 2014.

Booking Through Thursday: Hero

Posted on March 6, 2008 by Barbara Harper

The Booking Through Thursday question for this week is:

Who is your favorite Male lead character? And why?

If I think about this very much, I’ll have way too long a list. But the first ones that come to mind are:

David Copperfield in the book of the same name by Charles Dickens. I like how he overcomes his disadvantages to become a decent man — even if it does take him too long to recognize the love of his life. 🙂

Sidney Carton in A Tale of Two Cities by Charles Dickens. He comes from the wrong side of the reader’s sympathies at first, brilliant but drunken and languid, to give himself sacrificially for one he loves with no hope of being loved by her in return.

Jean Valjean in Les Miserables by Victor Hugo. He comes from poverty, prison, and bitterness, changes in response to love and compassion, and becomes one of the strongest and most gracious leading men in literature.

Clark Davis in the Janette Oke Love Comes Softly series. A strong but gentle man, a leader without being a tyrant, with a high and strong moral core.

Colonel Brandon in Sense and Sensibility. Strong, decent, kind, a “tortured soul” who lost the woman he loved twice — once because she was intended for another, and then permanently in her tragic death — who gives himself in his love for Marianne even when there is no encouragement at first.

I am seeing that though none of them is perfect, they have in common moral strength (eventually if not at first), perseverance, the overcoming of obstacles, grace, kindness, and sacrificial giving.

Whom God Has Joined

Posted on March 1, 2008 by Barbara Harper

Next to reading the Bible, reading missionary books has had the greatest impact on my Christian life. Isobel Kuhn‘s books have been among the greatest of those to me. She has a very readable style and is quite honest and open about her faults and foibles, but her books are also laced with humor.

By Searching was subtitled My Journey Through Doubt Into Faith and describes just that. She had grown up in a Christian family yet wasn’t truly saved. When a professor at college condescendingly told her she only believed because that was what her parents told her, she realized he was right, and thoroughly let herself go into the “worldly” activities she hadn’t been allowed to pursue. This book traces her journey to true faith in Christ and her first steps in her walk with Him. In the Arena is not exactly a sequel, but it highlights certain experiences in her life that showcased God’s working.

But the book of hers I want to talk about today is Whom God Has Joined. It was originally titled One Vision Only, and the main part of it was Isobel’s own writings of her relationship with her husband, John, and sandwiched in-between biographical remarks by Carolyn Canfield. It has been long out of print and was just reprinted not too long ago without Canfield’s part.

It begins with their first notices of each other and the attraction they felt despite their determination not to get “sidetracked” by the opposite sex.

As they got to know one another and grew in affection, John graduated from college first and went to China. At first they were interested in different areas of China, but the China Inland Mission assigned him to the area she was interested in. When he wrote to propose, she knew what her answer would be, yet she spread the “letter out before the Lord” with a problem. She wrote, “John and I are of very opposite dispositions, each rather strong minded. Science has never discovered what happens when the irresistible force collides with the immovable object. Whatever would happen if they married one another? ‘Lord, it must occur sooner or later. Are You sufficient even for that?’” The verse the Lord gave her was Matthew 6:33: “But seek ye first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you.”

Isobel was assigned and sent to China where they were to be married. One of the first problems they faced was that there were two ladies with very different personalities who each took charge of “helping” the young couple with their wedding plans — and neither plan was what the young couple wanted. God enabled them to very graciously navigate that situation without offending either party.

Isobel wrote in a very engaging way that lets us know missionaries are “of like passions” as we are. We feel like we are right there with her feeling what she is feeling. She not only had the adjustments of marriage but the adjustments of a new culture. Though she was ready and willing for both, sometimes it still threw her for a short while. One example was in her natural “nesting” as a new wife. The CIM way was to live directly with the people as they did, and Isobel was willing for that. She did have a few things to pretty up her home a little bit — nothing extravagant. She was excited to receive her first women guests, and as she began to talk with them, one blew her nose and wiped the stuff on a rug; the other’s baby was allowed to wet all over another rug. Isobel knew that they were not being deliberately offensive: those were just the customs of the country people in that time and place. Yet, naturally, resentment welled up and she had a battle in her heart. She wrote, “If possessions would in any way interfere with our hospitality, it would be better to consign them to the river. In other words, if your finery hinders your testimony, throw it out. In our Lord’s own words, if thine hand offend thee, cut it off. He was not against our possessing hands, but against our using them to holds on to sinful or hindering things.”

In their early marriage they had disagreements over the couple who were their servants (in primitive cultures it was not unusual for missionaries to employ helpers for the many tasks that would have taken up so much time). They were not only lazy, but helped themselves to some of the Kuhn’s own things. John was slower to see it because he had always gotten along fine with them before he was married. At one point when Isobel brought up something the man had not done, hoping for John to correct him, John instead sided with him against her. Angry and resentful, Isobel walked out of the house, not caring where she went, just to get away from it all. Gradually she came to herself and realized she was in a little village as darkness was nearing. In that time and culture that was not done: “good women were in their homes at such an hour.” She felt as if the Lord were saying to her, “You have not considered Me and My honor in all this, have you?” and then convicting her that she had not even invited Him into the situation. She confessed that was true, asked Him to work it out, and went home. And He did.

Isobel was more artistic and exuberant by nature, and once when she was telling a story she mentioned that it was “pouring rain.” John corrected her, saying it was “merely raining.” She was indignant that her story was being interrupted by such a minor detail and said, “I didn’t stop to count the raindrops.” He replied that that was just what she should do. He felt she exaggerated and wanted to break her of it. He began “correcting” her prayer letters and stories and began to use the catch-phrase, “Did you count the raindrops?” It was discouraging and distressing to her and she felt it had a stilted effect on her writing. She tells how over time the Lord used this to help her husband appreciate his wife’s gift of imagination and expression and helped her to be more accurate. She comments,

Similar situations are not uncommon among all young couples. If we will just be patient with one another, God will work for us…Until the Lord is able to work out in us a perfect adjustment to one another, we must bear with one another, in love…With novels and movies which teach false ideals of marriage, young people are not prepared to ‘bear and forbear.’ They are not taught to forgive. They are not taught to endure. Divorce is too quickly seized upon as the only way out. It is the worst way out! To pray to God to awaken the other person to where he or she is hurting us, to endure patiently until God does it: this is God’s way out. And it molds the two opposite natures into one invincible whole. The passion for accuracy plus a sympathetic imagination which relives another’s joys and sorrows—that is double effectiveness. Either quality working unrestrained by itself would never have been so effective. But it cost mutual forgiveness and endurance to weld these two opposites into one! Let’s be willing for the cost.

With humor and poignancy Isobel tells of further challenges and adjustments in the midst of ministry and growing love for each other and growth in the Lord.

Booking Through Thursday: Heroine

Posted on February 28, 2008 by Barbara Harper

The Booking Through Thursday question for this week is:

Who is your favorite female lead character? And why? (And yes, of course, you can name more than one . . . I always have trouble narrowing down these things to one name, why should I force you to?)

I am glad we get more than one choice here!

Jo in Little Women. I am not like Jo at all — I am more of a combination of Meg and Beth. But I love her spirit and her propensity for “getting into scrapes” and her strength in not marrying Laurie. I love how she grows into a strong woman with a bit more decorum but still with an adventurous spirit.

Elinor Dashwood in Sense and Sensibility. I am more like Elinor — the steady, dependable, but not flashy older sister. I love how she shows that quiet, reserved people have as great a capacity for love and emotion as those who are more open — in Marianne’s case, a bit too open.

Jane Eyre. I love her perseverance, her humor, her insight, her strong morality, and her passion.

Anne Shirley in Anne of Green Gables. “Anne with an e.” I love how that little detail is important to her, important enough to make a point of it. I love how she overcame many disadvantages; I love her spirit and her imaginativeness and her love of the people in her life.

In Christian fiction, the one that comes first to mind is Becky Miller in The Secret Life of Becky Miller (reviewed here) and Renovating Becky Miller (reviewed here) by Sharon Hinck (I’m providing links because some might not be as familiar with these as they would be with the classics). She’s a young mom who is trying to “do big things for God” and serve her family as well. She learns many of the same things I’ve had to learn along the way.

If I think about this much more I am sure I could add to the list, but I had better stop now!

Books Review: Symphony of Secrets

Posted on February 26, 2008 by Barbara Harper

I have mentioned several times that Sharon Hinck is one of my favorite authors, and I have reviewed her Becky Miller series (here and here) and the first two Restorer books (here and here).

Symphony of Secrets is one of her newer publications, out just this year. Amy Johnson is a single mom of a teen-age daughter. She teaches music lessons and suddenly realizes her dream of performing when an opening for a flutist comes up in the Minneapolis Symphony. She had had to abandon that dream as a student at Juilliard who found herself unexpectedly pregnant and abandoned by the baby’s father, and now she is thrilled to have the opportunity to pursue it.

Meanwhile her daughter seems to be abandoning her own musical talent for cheer leading. Amy doesn’t feel she quite fits in with other cheer leading moms, but she joins in the activities for her daughter Clare’s sake.

Amy knows she is not a “normal” mother in many respects, and she deals with the angst of that, the fact that Clare seems to be moving away from her with her different interests and new friends and now even an interest in God, Whom Amy doesn’t think would have any interest in her.

Meanwhile, things are going wrong with the symphony orchestra — financial problems, jealousies, even acts of sabotage. Amy has a penchant for seeing mysteries where there are none, but does she have a real, live case on her hands this time?

Overall I have liked everything I have read of Sharon’s but I would have to admit this one was not my favorite of the five of her novels I have read. I think a lot of it had to do with it taking me a while to warm up to the main character. Amy’s tendency to find “mysteries” without thinking of the plausible explanations (like assuming a student’s syringe is for illegal drugs rather than insulin) irritated me at first, though I realized it was a set-up for the conflict of the real mystery behind the goings-on of the symphony and Amy’s not being taken seriously when she thinks someone is behind it all. She’s also pretty tightly-wound, and, to an outsider, would probably seem snappy and standoffish. But we do get inside her heart and see the reasons for her actions, and I felt I “befriended” her over time. I even have her tendency toward reserve and closing-in, and though the Lord has helped me with that a lot over the years, I could empathize with Amy in that respect.

Sharon also does a good job portraying what the thought of a relationship with God might look like to an unbeliever, how unreal and even frightening it might be at first, with a gradual dawning of a yearning to know more.

The novel does have Sharon’s trademarks of underlying humor and the genuineness of her character’s struggles. In all of her books, whether general fiction, “mom-lit,” or fantasy, she deftly captures the internal struggles and issues a character faces in a way that touches something real in my own heart. And that’s what keeps me reading her books! I hope you will give them a try, too.

Non-fiction meme

Posted on February 16, 2008 by Barbara Harper

Alice tagged me for a non-fiction meme. I’m always up for a good book meme!

I like and benefit from non-fiction, but I usually gravitate to fiction. There is just something about a story that is easier to get into and easier for its lessons to stick with me. Nevertheless, good non-fiction is highly valuable.

What issues/topic interests you most–non-fiction, i.e, cooking, knitting, stitching, there are infinite topics that have nothing to do with novels?

I like biographies, missionary stories, some history in story form rather than encyclopedia form, books dealing with Christian life and growth. I have a lot of Christian parenting on my shelves that I perused a lot when my kids were younger. I also love various craft books.

Would you like to review books concerning those?

Yes, and I have.

Would you like to be paid or do it as interest or hobby? Tell reasons for what ever you choose.

Well, if anyone wanted to pay me for it, I certainly wouldn’t turn them down! I have a few times gotten a free book in order to review it. But mostly I do it because I love to read and love to share what I am reading. I love to discuss what I have read with others who have read the same book. I have noticed, though, that when I have been reviewing a book for someone else, I feel a little more inclined just to say positive things, but I have to be honest: otherwise it’s just a commercial.

Would you recommend those to your friends and how?

Yes, I usually do recommend books I like here on my blog and by word of mouth to friends.

If you have already done something like this, link it to your post.

I don’t have a separate non-fiction link, but all of the books I’ve reviewed can be found here.

I decided to go through and list the non-fiction I’ve reviewed:Never Say Can’t by Jerry Ballard
Spirit of the Rainforest by Mark Ritchie
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
Sometimes I Prefer to Fuss by Verda Peet
One Candle to Burn by Kay Washer
Dr. Phil’s Ultimate Weight Loss Solution by Dr. Phil McGraw
In the Presence of My Enemies and To Fly Again by Gracia Burnham
From Cannibalism to Christianity by Margaret Stringer
Finding Your Path by Mitch Raymer
Mountain Breezes: The Collected Poems of Amy Carmichael.
The Spouse in the House by Richard Armour
Queen of the Castle: 52 Weeks of Encouragement for the Uninspired, Domestically Challenged or Just Plain Tired Homemaker by Lynn Bowen Walker(not a review but an interview with the author)
John Paton by Benjamin Unseth

One of my first posts was a listing of favorite books. The non-fiction list is here. I haven’t reviewed them since I read them before starting my blog, but there are many I’d love to promote for others to read, so I might do that some time.

Though not fully reviewed, excerpts or parts of some books are mentioned here:

Second Mile People by Isobel Kuhn
Goforth of China by Rosalind Goforth
Another mention of Goforth of China
Rose From Brier by Amy Carmichael
Amy Carmichael of Dohnavur by Frank Houghton
Climbing by Rosalind Goforth

Please don’t forget to link back here or whoever tags you.

I’ll just tag whoever would like to do this. Let me know!

Book Review: Homeland Heroes Series

Posted on February 11, 2008 by Barbara Harper

I’ve just finished reading the four-book set of the Homeland Heroes series by Donna Fleisher which I won at Deena’s (thanks, Donna and Deena!)

Wow! Talk about intense!

The series traces the friendship of Chris, a medic, and Erin, a trauma nurse, from the time they met as members of the military in Desert Storm.

In Wounded Healer, Chris and Erin meet and become friends, but Chris seems to hold everyone at arm’s length to a certain degree. When Erin accidentally discovers a traumatic secret from Chris’s past, Chris draws further away. Then when a rescue mission turns tragic, Chris blames herself. When Desert Storm is over, Christ volunteers to stay, and Erin loses contact with her. Several years later, Erin hears that Chris in involved in another tragedy for which she blames herself, and Erin travels from Portland, Oregon to Colorado to find her. The back of the book says, “When Chris’s fear of God and Erin’s faith in Him collide, they are involved in a different kind of war that only one of them can win. As Chris wrestles with grief, fear, and ghosts from the past, Erin fights to pull her from the brink of self-destruction.”

In Warrior’s Heart, there is a different kind of battle, but it is more of an undercurrent: Erin’s husband, Scott, wants to try to minister to Chris, but he is fiercely protective of Erin and feels that Chris is a harmful influence. Chris senses Scott’s disapproval right away, which makes her uncomfortable around him. Plus she is adjusting to a new life in the city of Portland yet misses her cabin and the open air in Colorado. Added to this are her baby steps in her newfound faith. A heavy storm blows over the area, knocking out power for days, and the Christian community pitches in to seek out those in their area who might need help. Chris is paired with…Scott.

In Valiant Hope, Chris becomes aware that a child who frequents her community gym may be abused. Chris has no real evidence to take to the police, so she decides to take matters into her own hands and visit the child’s home — where she finds more than she bargained for. Dealing with this child’s situation brings to the forefront the battle in her own heart with an inability to forgive. She’s brought to a crisis point, knowing that God requires forgiveness of her and yet feeling she just can’t face it. From the back of the book: “One remarkable man may hold the answers to help Chris sort through the agonizing secrets of her past, to help her find a road to peace. But the route threatens to take her to a place she thought she’d never again have to go, a place she swore she would die before ever seeing again.”

In the final book, Standing Strong, several friends formerly from the same military unit have come together to work in an outreach center on Kimberley Street near their church. They’re dismayed to find that an old gang has reformed and a gang from another area of town is seeking to expand its territory right into their neighborhood. Threatening confrontations with the gangs have Chris and Erin and the others in fear, wondering the best way to handle them. Chris’s romance with Jason is a healing balm to her, yet she finds that Jason has turned his back on God due to a crisis of his own, and though she loves him, she doesn’t want anything to pull her away from the Lord she loves and so desperately needs.

As I said, the story is intense, especially reading the books right after each other, both because of the magnitude and depth of the struggles faced in each book. Donna shares a riveting story with realistic struggles and believable characters.

Some time back on a message board forum for writers, one man claimed that he had to use bad language in his writing so that the characters were realistic. I disagreed, and Donna is a brilliant example of how to show unsaved people leading normal unsaved lives — even lives deliberately antagonistic to the gospel — in a genuine way without getting unnecessarily explicit.

I enjoyed the friendship between Chris and Erin, the message of redemption, and Chris’s struggles to understand and live out her newfound faith as well as her pure joy in the Lord.

I don’t know if this was deliberate — I imagine it was — but I also like that the cover art for each book successively shows a bit more of Chris’s face. That seems to parallel more of her story coming to light.

Deena has an interview with Donna here.

Booking Through Thursday: But enough about books

Posted on February 7, 2008 by Barbara Harper

The Booking Through Thursday question for this week is:

Okay, even I can’t read ALL the time, so I’m guessing that you folks might voluntarily shut the covers from time to time as well… What else do you do with your leisure to pass the time? Walk the dog? Knit? Run marathons? Construct grandfather clocks? Collect eggshells?

Well, obviously I blog. 🙂 I enjoy playing games, especially with real live people, but often I play Boggle or Scrabble against the computer. I enjoy crafting, though I haven’t done much of it in a while: I used to cross-stitch a lot, and now I like paper crafting like making cards and bookmarks. I’d like to experiment with One Stroke Painting: I’ve taken a couple of classes and have a couple of videos but just haven’t carved out the time to do it. I also like home decorating, finding heart-shaped things, attending church-related functions, writing, watching a little TV, and visiting with friends and family.

I missed out on last week’s question about quirky characters. Dickens wrote some of the quirkiest: Mr. Micawber, Uriah Heep, and Betsey Trotwood, all from David Copperfield, easily come to mind. They were all annoying to some degree, but Micawber and Aunt Betsey grew on me. I was thinking when I saw this question that in TV the eccentric character often steals the show (Fonzie, Steve Urkel), but I can’t think of an incidence of that in books.