Jeremy’s first birthday
Hope you have a great day! I’m so glad you could be here for it!
Friday’s Fave Five
Friday’s Fave Five is hosted by Susanne at Living to Tell the Story, who invites us to share five of our favorite things from the last week. It’s a wonderful exercise in looking for and appreciating the good things God blesses us with. Click on the button to learn more, then go to Susanne’s to read others’ faves and link up your own.
Thankfully this week has been a bit quieter than the last several. Here are some of the highlights:
1. An early birthday present. I had been hoping for a new iPhone with more storage space for my birthday in a few weeks. A couple of weeks ago the one I had stopped playing sound, other than the regular phone ringing and speaking, except through the headphones. My son looked online for fixes and we tried them all, but nothing worked. When my husband took the phone to the Apple store, he was told that they replace them rather than fix them, but mine was out of warranty. So Jim went ahead and upgraded to the new iPhone 5 with the next level of storage space for me. So nice to have sound back and more room to work with!
2. A Gifts basket for Grandma. Jason and Mittu brought some yellow flowers for her (her favorite color) and some very practical and helpful items. One, in fact, was very timely because we were running low on it.
3. The right tools. My husband has often said that the right tools make all the difference in car or home repairs. The same is true for kitchen and craft room! I’d had a cordless hot glue gun with a stand as well as a mat and other hot glue gun helpers for a while, but yesterday was the first time I got them out and used them for a project. (Said project has to remain secret for now. 🙂 ) They helped the whole hot glue gun experience go so much more smoothly than usual.
4. A wand or immersion blender has been another wonderful tool for pureeing Grandma’s food. Much better than the big blender. Wish we’d had these when we had babies – homemade baby food would have been a breeze!
5. Fun moments with Grandma. Sometimes when we get her ready for bed, she’s sleepy and groggy or just patiently enduring. Sometimes she is in more pain than other times – she is so arthritic that you can’t really move her without hearing and feeling snap, crackle, and pop throughout her body. But one night recently she had the giggles. We never could understand what she thought was so funny (though I thought our saying, “OK, time to wake up so we can get you ready for bed” was rather amusing), but she has us giggling as well. Then another night Jim said at about 2:45 in the morning, she very earnestly and a little agitatedly said, “How do you spell Ovaltine?” (So that’s what she thinks about when she’s quiet. 🙂 )
All in all a good week. Jeremy is coming next week for his birthday, so I may not be online as much – although he likes his computer time as well, so I may be here about as much as usual.
Have a great weekend!
Book Review: Invisible
I sought out Invisible by Ginny Yttrup because I dearly loved her first novel, Words: it was one of my favorite books of 2011.
Invisible tells the story of three very different women who become friends. Normally I don’t just copy the publisher’s description of a book, but in this case it seemed the fullest yet the most concise way to sum them up:
Ellyn DeMoss — chef, café owner, and lover of butter — is hiding behind her extra weight. But what is she hiding? While Ellyn sees the good in others, she has only condemnation for herself. So when a handsome widower claims he’s attracted to Ellyn, she’s certain there’s something wrong with him.
Sabina Jackson — tall, slender, and exotic — left her husband, young adult daughters, and a thriving counseling practice to spend a year in Northern California where she says she’s come to heal. But it seems to Ellyn that Sabina’s doing more hiding than healing. What’s she hiding from? Is it God?
Twila Boaz has come out of hiding and is working to gain back the pounds she lost when her only goal was to disappear. When her eating disorder is triggered again, though she longs to hide, she instead follows God and fights for her own survival. But will she succeed?
Though two of the characters have issues pertaining to weight, the book is not about weight: it’s about what it means to be made in the image of God and what the implications of that are in our lives. Each character has to learn that we don’t do certain things outwardly in order to be made in the image of God: we already are. And when rightly understood, that truth permeates our being and affects our thinking and then our outward actions.
I don’t want to reveal much more about the plot than that. Though the book didn’t grab me from the first page and not let go like Words did, it still provided much food for thought and I enjoyed it.
The character I liked the most was Miles, friend to all three main characters and potential love interest of one. His walk with God and the way he sought His guidance in everyday life was very realistic to me. This is one reason I love Christian fiction: this is the missing element, the ultimate reality missing in secular stories, no matter how good they are. Sometimes people accuse Christian fiction of being a sermon disguised as a story or a story with spiritual bits put in in order to make it “Christian,” but neither is the case in Ginny’s work (or even of the great majority of Christian fiction I’ve read.) Her characters are genuine (if sometimes a bit unconventional, in the case of Twila), and though there is spiritual truth she is trying to convey, each character grapples with it in a natural and realistic way.
Here are a few quotes that stood out to me from the book:
“I’ve learned enough through the years that when God is silent, it’s my cue to hold on tight. Do nothing. Wait on Him” (p. 49).
“When I pass from the discomfort of need to the tranquility of satisfaction, the very transition contains for me the insidious trap of uncontrolled desire. Augustine” (p. 168).
“I have forgiven him and I will forgive him again. But I won’t allow him to use me or mistreat me” (p. 262).
“Oh, Lord, remind me that this confrontation is an act of love and respect for both myself and my mom. It is not retaliation for years of pain” (p. 310).
There were just a couple of things that bothered me to a degree. One was Twila’s worship experience (pp. 166-167), which seemed a little New Age-y to me but would probably be called contemplative (which I don’t know a lot about yet but am not a fan of what I do know). The other was Ellyn asking if a dress had too much cleavage and Sabina telling her it was “lovely and appropriate” (p. 326). In my book no amount of cleavage is appropriate for anyone other than one’s husband in private.
But with those caveats, this is a book I am happy to recommend.
(This will also be linked to Semicolon‘s Saturday Review of Books.)
Solitude vs. Community
(Photo courtesy of Morguefile.com)
“Community” has become kind of a buzzword over the last year or two. As an introvert, I tend to prefer time alone to a lot of community, but few, if any, introverts want to be complete hermits. Everyone needs some interaction with other people. For Christians in particular, the Bible instructs to do certain things to, for, or with others:
Wash one another’s feet—John 13:14.
Love one another—John 13:3; 15:12, 17; Romans 13:8; I Peter 1:22; I John 3:11, 23; 4:7, 11.
In honor preferring one another—Romans 12:10.
Don’t judge one another—Romans 14:13.
Receive one another—Romans 15:7.
Salute one another—Romans 16:16.*
Greet one another—I Cor. 16:20, II Cor. 13:12, I Peter 5:14.
Serve one another—Gal. 5:13.
Don’t provoke one another or envy one another—Gal. 5:26.
Bear one another’s burdens—Gal. 6:2.
Forbear one another in love—Eph. 4:2, Col. 3:13.
Forgive one another—Eph. 4:32, Col. 3:13.
Teach and admonish one another with song—Col. 3:16.
Comfort one another—I Thess. 4:18.
Edify one another—I Thess. 5:11.
Exhort one another— Heb. 3:13; 10:25.
Consider one another to provoke unto love and good works—Heb. 10:24.
I’m told that there are over 50 “one another” passages in the Bible, but these are the ones I found, which would keep me busy for a very long time.
The Bible also tells us we should “Not [forsake] the assembling of ourselves together, as the manner of some is; but [exhort] one another: and so much the more, as ye see the day approaching” (Hebrews 10:25). The early disciples “continued stedfastly in the apostles’ doctrine and fellowship, and in breaking of bread, and in prayers” (Acts 2:42).
So engaging with other people, and especially other believers, is vitally important. Yet any truth can be taken too far.
Our church has been going through Tim Keller’s “Gospel in Life” video series in small groups on Sunday nights. One emphasis in the series has been on the implications of the gospel in every area of life, not just initial salvation; the other emphasis has been on community. My husband and I have had mixed emotions about the study (perhaps another post for another time), but it has convicted me of my tendency to keep too much to myself and the need to be actively involved in the life of others and to be open to their involvement in mine.
But one of Keller’s statements jarred me: “We will not know God, change deeply, nor win the world apart from community.” I take strong exception to that. For me personally, the times I feel I am best getting to know God the most deeply and am most subject to change are times alone with Him and my Bible. Though preaching, church services, and discussions with others may enhance that, it can’t replace or supersede that. Even in listening to preaching, I’ve usually derived more from it those times I’ve been unwell at home and listened to a sermon online while having my Bible program and Word document open for notes. I would not say that time with community is more important or necessary than time alone. Sometimes, frankly, community can be a distraction to growth.
And even though as Christians we can help strengthen each other by praying for each other, reminding each other of what the Bible says, and helping each other in practical ways, there are times we need to be alone with God and times we have to stand alone with Him.
Think of Joseph, separated from family, friends, and any godly influences when he was sold by his brothers into slavery. If he had not known how to walk with God alone, his story would have been much different than the one we have recorded for us.
Jacob, who had plenty of community with four wives and 13 children, in a turning point in his life was “was left alone; and there wrestled a man with him until the breaking of the day.” Another significant event took place in his life when God spoke to him when he was traveling alone.
Daniel had three friends while in exile, but received visions from the Lord while alone and had to face the lion’s den alone.
David communed with God alone several times (here and here, for example), knew great loneliness, and knew how to encourage himself in the Lord.
Though Paul traveled and ministered with companions, at times he had to stand alone.
Jesus, our perfect example in all things, ministered to crowds, attended gatherings, met with the small group of His disciples and the smaller group of Peter, James, and John, yet He also went out alone to pray often and had to stand alone in Gethsemane and through His trial.
Community is a gift from God, but community doesn’t always mean a crowd. Jesus said, “Where two or three are gathered together in my name, there am I in the midst of them” (Matthew 18:20).
Those of us who tend to aloneness need to be reminded that God made us to need, serve, and interact with others, but those who tend to avoid aloneness need to be reminded that sometimes it is a necessity. Either way we are wired, there are times for community and times for solitude. Sometimes God wants to spend time with us alone and wants us to stand alone with Him, and in those times He will give us the grace to do so.
Book Review: The Hidden Art of Homemaking
Even though I’ve been discussing The Hidden Art of Homemaking by Edith Schaeffer a chapter at a time at The Hidden Art of Homemaking Book Club, I wanted to write an overall review to have one post to refer back to when discussing the book. Too, I thought perhaps some who weren’t interested in reading the weekly chapter summaries might enjoy perusing one smaller review.
The basic theme of the book could be summarized in this quote from it:
“If you have been afraid that your love of beautiful flowers and the flickering flame of the candle is somehow less spiritual than living in starkness and ugliness, remember that He who created you to be creative gave you the things with which to make beauty and the sensitivity to appreciate and respond to His creation” (p. 109).
As a teen I struggled with whether the desire to look “pretty” and dress nicely was a fleshly one, and as a young woman I had the same struggles in regard to wanting an attractive home. Was it a waste of the resources God gave me to use them in such a way, or would it be in better keeping with Christian character to buy bargain basement items, no matter whether they suited me? Were decorative items wasteful and selfish or an enhancement?
It helped me greatly to realize that God could have made the world simply functional, but he made it beautiful as well. Another help was realizing that the Proverbs 31 woman dressed in “coverings of tapestry; her clothing is silk and purple,” the finest in her day.
I read Edith’s book as some point during this time, and I remember feeling so relieved that my natural inclinations were okay. She discusses the principles above, and the principle of balance: we have to keep our artistic desires within the context of our finances, our season of life, our responsibilities to our families and our calling in life at any given point. It’s possible to go overboard. Yet within those contexts, God gives us great freedom of self-expression which in turn can be used to glorify Himself and draw others to Him.
She discusses in turn (these are all linked to my discussions of each chapter):
The First Artist (God’s creativity)
What Is Hidden Art?
Music
Painting, Sketching, and Sculpturing
Interior Decoration
Gardens and Gardening
Flower Arrangements
Food
Writing
Drama
Creative Recreation
Clothing
Integration (of different races, ages, cultures, etc.)
Environment (the type we create in our homes or with our personalities)
She does concede that in some cases we may only be able to cultivate an appreciation for some of these areas rather than a talent in them, and she acknowledges that probably no one can incorporate all of them at once, but she makes a strong case for each one and brings out a variety of ways to employ them in our homes.
The book isn’t flawless: some of its examples and illustrations are a bit dated (it was originally published in 1971), sometimes Edith can get just a touch preachy, sometimes she goes on and on with examples when we’ve gotten the point already. But overall it is great encouragement and inspiration to employ creativity. I enjoyed perusing the book again.
I am sure that there is no place in the world where your message would not be enhanced by your making the place (whether tiny or large, a hut or a palace) orderly, artistic and beautiful with some form of creativity, some form of ‘art’ (p. 213).
(This will also be linked to Semicolon‘s Saturday Review of Books.)
Laudable Linkage and Quotes
Here are a few noteworthy reads from the last week:
How to keep Millennials in the church? Let’s keep church un-cool, written by a Millenial. “What I need is something bigger than me, older than me, bound by a truth that transcends me and a story that will outlast me; basically, something that doesn’t change to fit me and my whims, but changes me to be the Christ-like person I was created to be.”
When you think your love story is boring. It’s not like in the movies: it’s better.
The Courage to Keep Going. Another benefit of stories. Especially like the third paragraph from the bottom.
A Fleshy Assessment: Ten Questions to Ask Yourself. Convicting.
And a couple of quotes that have inspired me:
Every new duty calls for more grace than I now possess, but not more than is found in Thee, the divine treasury in whom all fullness dwells. To Thee I repair for grace upon grace, until every void made by sin be replenished and I am filled with all Thy fullness. ~Valley of Vision
“If, thinking of your frailty, you hold yourselves cheap, value yourselves by the price that was paid for you.” ~ Augustine
“Sometimes God doesn’t change your situation because He’s trying to change your heart.” Unknown
Have a great weekend!
Friday’s Fave Five
Friday’s Fave Five is hosted by Susanne at Living to Tell the Story, who invites us to share five of our favorite things from the last week. It’s a wonderful exercise in looking for and appreciating the good things God blesses us with. Click on the button to learn more, then go to Susanne’s to read others’ faves and link up your own.
Here are some favorites from the last week or so:
1. Turning calendar pages. I love turning to the fresh, clean pages of a new month.
2. A parking mat.
I had a hard time parking in just the right place in the garage, and this is simple and less obtrusive than other ways to deal with it.
3. Reading 100+ pages in one morning. Jesse got braces this week, and the appointment afforded me time to just sit in the lobby and read. It was kind of a balm (for me, anyway, not for him, poor guy!) to get away from the hecticness of the last couple of weeks and just sit and read.
4. A good aide. I mentioned in yesterday’s update on Grandma that the home health care aide we have working with her Monday through Fridays has been great.
5. A favorable prediction. On the news last night, the weather man said that August was originally predicted to be hotter than normal, but now he is predicting it will be less hot than normal, just like July has been. We’ve had a few very hot days, but nothing like the usual summer heat, and I am delighted that it looks like that trend might continue!
Happy Friday!
Update: Oops! I forgot Susanne was taking a break from the computer! But it’s good to look back over the week and recount it’s blessings anyway.
Update on Grandma
We’ve had Grandma home from the nursing home for about a week now. There has been a flurry of activity as the physical therapist, occupational therapist, speech therapist, and home health nurse have come in to do evaluations, but I think after this week just the physical therapist will be coming 3 times a week. We know she likely won’t get back to walking or feeding herself, but we’re hoping to try to loosen her up a bit from her contracted position. In the nursing home she most often went into a fetal position with her arms pulled up to her chest, and after just a few days at home we noticed her in a more relaxed position with her hands more naturally laying across her stomach or on her lap, even before the physical therapist came, so I think just being in a more home-like atmosphere, seeing us more often, having more one-on-one attention has been doing her good.
She has been eating well. Preparing meals with an eye to what can be pureed well has been interesting. Mostly we can just puree what we’re having, but I have a few canned or frozen things on hand for her for those times when what we’re eating wouldn’t work for pureeing.
We have a home health aide here from 7:30-6:00 right now. Since that is a long day, I thought we might have people coming in two shifts, but so far we’ve had one person Monday through Friday and a different person on the weekend. They’ve both done well, but the M-F person has been great. She and Mom seem to get along well, she does a great job, and even does some of the exercises the therapists have left with us to do. At first it was a little disconcerting to have someone else in the house – usually when that happens, it’s company, and you feel the need to spend time with them, entertain them, etc., so I felt a little guilty doing things in the rest of the house and leaving the aide alone with Mom, but I kept reminding myself that’s why we hired her. I also thought my introvertish self would have trouble with someone else here all the time, and occasionally I feel that way, but overall it hasn’t been bad. We touch base several times a day but I do have some stretches of quiet time, so it works out.
At some point we will probably cut her hours back to something like 7:30 to 1 or 2. Since Mom sleeps a great deal, it doesn’t make a lot of sense to pay someone to sit with her while she’s sleeping. We have to change her position, mainly turning her from one side to the other or on or off her back, every two hours, and I am not sure I could do that by myself yet, but I think I am close. I don’t know about changing her briefs alone yet (adults do not wear “diapers,” I am told. 🙂 ) The aide does it alone but it usually takes both Jim and I to do it at night. Her severe arthritis makes it a challenge to do much with her without causing pain. Mostly she smiles and is patient, but some days she seems in more pain than others.
One blessing before she came was that she needed a Broda wheelchair (it reclines and the footrest can come up) since she can’t sit up straight on her own, but the insurance or Medicare wouldn’t cover it (though they did cover the hospital bed and Hoyer lift). New Broda chair are several thousand dollars, but Jim found a used one in good condition on Craig’s List for a fraction of that. It was in SC, about 3 hours away, but he got up early one day and dashed out to get it and bring it back.
It has been a bit of an adjustment that we can’t just pick up and go like usual. Jim said it is something like when you first bring a baby home, but in this case we can’t pack his mom and take her with us. We do have to figure out how to get her to a doctor tomorrow: she has to have initial visits to get her medications over to his records from the nursing home’s. There is a place that transports patients that can take wheelchairs, but not the Broda chair. Plus we have to be ready an hour before time to leave and may have to wait as late as an hour after the appointment is done, so it is going to be a very long and trying day for someone who is usually only up in a wheelchair a couple of hours at a time. With all the therapists, nurses, etc., who can come to the home of a patient like Mom, it would be nice if there were doctors who could do that, too.
So far we are trading off going to church, even though and aide is here. We figured until we all got used to the situation and each other, that would be best. I think we can ask the agency that sends out the aides to have someone come over during an evening if we want to go out, and we’ll probably do that with a couple of birthday dinner coming up in the next few months, but we don’t want to do that too often.
In the midst of all of this going on, Jesse got partial braces on yesterday and we have an appointment with an oral surgeon today to discuss when he can get all of his wisdom teeth plus two others pulled. I am praying that we can schedule that surgery early enough for him to be healed before school starts at the end of August – preferably even next week, because Jeremy is coming to visit the week after, and we’d all rather not have to spend Jeremy’s vacation time having and recovering from oral surgery, but if it has to overlap we’ll just have to deal with it. (If you feel so inclined, I’d appreciate your prayers for the Lord’s timing in all of this.)
Overall I think we’re all adjusting well. I think she is happier and doing better overall. Jim seems to take things in stride and does the lion’s share of caring for her when he is home. I’ve had one or two “moments” when things seemed overwhelming, but with prayer and time in the Word, God helped me regain perspective and reminded me of His grace sufficient for every need. I think the move has been a positive change in general.
Book Review: The Last Battle
The Last Battle is the last book in the Narnia series by C. S. Lewis. It opens with a false Aslan: a confused donkey coerced to wear a lion skin by a conniving ape, who in turn is being controlled by others. In Aslan’s name, talking beasts are turned into slaves, dryads are dying because their trees are being cut down, Calormenes are overseers. Strange things are afoot, everything seems not quite right to everyone, but Aslan is not a tame lion, after all, so his ways will of course be a little different, and they think they must obey.
King Tirian sees at once that something is wrong, but he sets off rashly without thinking and winds up in trouble, He calls out for help, and Eustace and Jill show up. Together with the few Narnians who don’t believe in the false Aslan, they wage a last battle to save Narnia.
Even though the Narnia series is not an allegory per se, it’s still not hard to see the Biblical allusions to the end times and the antichrist. In Narnia as on Earth, things will get much, much worse before the end comes. And “Aslan’s country” has always typified heaven. All the beasts and creatures and people going “further up and further in” to Aslan’s country, the joyful reunions with those who have gone before, the sense that “this is what I have been seeking and waiting for my whole life” are the best parts of the books to me.
I think this time through the series, that is most what I have carried away with me: that longing, as in the song “Beulah Land”: “I’m kind of homesick for a country where I’ve never been before.” I have to admit that too often I am caught up with the joys and cares of this life. I look forward to having no more sin, sorrow, suffering, and tears some day, but I don’t always carry that personal longing just to be with Christ there, and this series as a whole stirs up that longing for Narnia and Aslan that all who visit experience while they’re away. It calls to mind Biblical texts like Hebrews 11:16: “But now they desire a better country, that is, an heavenly: wherefore God is not ashamed to be called their God: for he hath prepared for them a city,” and Colossians 3:1-2: “If ye then be risen with Christ, seek those things which are above, where Christ sitteth on the right hand of God. Set your affection on things above, not on things on the earth,” as well as Lewis’s own words from Mere Christianity: , “If I find in myself a desire which no experience in this world can satisfy, the most probable explanation is that I was made for another world…I must [therefore] keep alive in myself the desire for my true country, which I shall not find til after death.”
There is sadness for those who choose not to believe, such as the dwarves who are only for the dwarves and refuse to be “taken in.” As Aslan says, “They will not let us help them. They have chosen cunning instead of belief. Their prison is only in their own minds, yet they are in that prison, and so afraid of being taken in that they cannot be taken out.” Unfortunately there will be people like that as well.
There is a point of confusion with the Calormene Emeth, who served the Calormene god Tash, yet is admitted to Aslan’s country, not because Tash and Aslan are one, as some tried to proclaim (Aslan shook the earth with his growl at the very thought), but because Aslan took to himself everything Emeth had done for Tash. For, he says, “he and I are of such different kinds that no service which is vile can be done to me, and none which is not vile can be done to him. Therefore if any man swear by Tash and keep his oath for the oath’s sake, it is by me that he has truly sworn, though he knew it not, and it is I who reward him. And if any man do a cruelty in my name, then, though he says the name Aslan, it is Tash whom he serves and by Tash his deed is accepted…unless thy desire had been for me thou wouldst not have sought so long and so truly. For all find what they truly seek.” I don’t know how much of this reflects Lewis’s personal belief system, but I can’t endorse the idea that someone sincerely serving and seeking a false God is really serving the one true God unaware.
A couple of my favorite quotes:
“I have come home at last! This is my real country! I belong here. This is the land I have been looking for all my life, though I never knew it til now. The reason why we loved the old Narnia is that it sometimes looked a little like this.”
“Your father and mother and all of you are – as you used to call it in the Shadowlands – dead. The term is over: the holidays have begin. The dream is ended: this is the morning.”
It was only the beginning of the real story. All their life in this world and all their adventures in Narnia had only been the cover and title page: now, at last they were beginning Chapter One of the Great Story which no one on earth has read, which goes on forever.”
I have to thank Carrie for sponsoring the Chronicles of Narnia Reading Challenge, which spurred me on to revisit the series. I’ve so enjoyed being in Narnia again! I also marvel at how someone with an intellect as large and complex as Lewis’s can write something simple enough for children to understand yet engaging to adults, too, with such nobility and depth and beauty.
Here are my posts from the whole series:
The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe
Prince Caspian
Voyage of the Dawn-Treader
The Silver Chair
The Horse and His Boy
The Magician’s Nephew
The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe Graphic Novel.
The Way Into Narnia
Narnian Magic.
(This will also be linked to Semicolon‘s Saturday Review of Books.)
Book Review: The Wedding Dress
The Wedding Dress by Rachel Hauck opens with Charlotte Malone trying to find some solitude to think and pray about her current relationship, but she finds herself at an auction instead, one that she had not realized would be taking place at the location she was visiting. As she tries to depart, her attention is arrested by an old trunk with the lock welded shut. She surprises herself by bidding on it in the first place and then bidding much more than she wanted to, but she ends up winning the bid.
Her fiance is not at all pleased that she spent so much money, but as he later helps her get the trunk open, she finds a wedding dress in it. The dress is supposedly about a hundred years old but looks new and has never been altered. Charlotte is intrigued by the dress and starts to search for the dress’s history. She is also the owner of a contemporary bridal shop and longs to find the perfect bride for this special dress.
The story moves back and forth primarily between Charlotte’s perspective and Emily’s, the first owner of the dress, as we learn more of their situations and relationships. Charlotte doesn’t find out about Emily’s life until much later, but in the process she finds two other wearers of the dress and gets to know them and their history.
It seems the dress only gets passed along to very special brides in unique ways, and each bride in this case had some need, something to learn, some way in which to grow that the dress, or rather the circumstances involving the dress, helped along.
There is a bit of fairly tale-ish supernaturalness (though the book itself is not told in the style of a fairy tale) with a mysterious man in purple who visits at least two of the brides and facilitates their acquiring the dress. Or perhaps he is supposed to be more allegorical: later in the book we’re told what the wedding dress represents (though I find the analogy of what it represents breaks down in light of Charlotte’s having paid a great sum for it, whereas what it represents is free. Although, on the other hand, Charlotte paid for the trunk, not knowing the dress was in it, so I guess the dress was indeed free in a way)…but I can’t say more without spoiling the storyline).
Overall I liked the premise, the journey of each bride, and how the story ended up.
But there were elements that just irritated me or that I found just strange (like a certain scent associated with Charlotte’s coming to Christ and certain encounters afterward). It may just be me – the reviews on Amazon are mostly good. I’ve been wrestling with myself about whether to go into them and decided to do so, but I don’t want to come across as hypercritical or sound like I am just “tearing into” the author. That’s not my tone, but I figure if these bothered me they might bother someone else, too, and that might be helpful for writers to know. 🙂 So here they are:
Sentences like, “The feathery kiss of destiny sent a shiver over her soul as the breeze rushing over the mountaintop tapped her legs.” I don’t even know how to explain why that makes me cringe.
Grown women talking baby talk to each other: “Don’t deny me my one widdle talent.” Shudder. Thankfully I think there is only that one instance.
Charlotte’s talking to the dress. “This is a TV, dress. Have you ever seen TV before?” Really?
Emily’s chastising a potential suitor one minute about his love for baseball (“Imagine, grown men running around all day in the dirt, chasing a small white ball”), then chastising him again when he tells her he has quit the game to be near her (“I can’t believe you’re quitting the game you love. I declare it makes me almost not respect you.”) I suppose that may be there to show her immaturity at that point?
“Mary Grace popped the air with her lightly-fisted hand. A don’t-you-just-know gesture.” I have no idea what a don’t-you-just-know gesture is supposed to look like. Someone popping a fisted hand in the air, I guess.
“The wind raced through the trees. Her thoughts raced through her mind.” OK. I get the picture. But how about something like, “Thoughts raced through her mind as fast as the wind raced through the trees.”
Ms. Hauck has published several successful books, whereas I have published exactly zero, so obviously she knows what she is doing and I am not speaking from the point of an expert. I’m “just your average reader” expressing an opinion. 🙂 Perhaps I was a little more sensitive with this reading, because on the day I started it I had just insisted to Carrie, who doesn’t like Christian fiction, that not all of it is poorly written. 🙂 And I would not say this is poorly written – as I said, there were just these few instances that rubbed me the wrong way.
I went back and forth listening to this book via audiobook and reading the Kindle version – both were on sale at the time for a low price, and the “Whispersync” system between Amazon and Audible allows one to pick up in one version where one left off in the other. That worked quite well. Usually an audiobook enhances a story for me, but I didn’t like this one (sorry to sound so grumpy today! You know I am not usually when talking about books.) The narration wasn’t distinct enough for me to be able to tell who was talking during the dialogues.
But, as I said, I liked the overall story. Many people have posted great reviews and loved the book, and you might, too.
(This will also be linked to Semicolon‘s Saturday Review of Books.)
Stray Thoughts 