Even if you don’t listen to contemporary Christian music, you’ve probably heard the song “I Can Only Imagine,” a crossover hit by Bart Millard and Mercy Me.
The inspiration for the song came from a comment Bart’s grandmother made after Bart’s father’s funeral: “Bart, I can only imagine what Bub must be seeing now.”
Bart’s relationship with his father had been rocky, to say the least. He described his dad as a monster who either beat him severely, or checked out completely, saying he didn’t care what Bart did.
But, miraculously, Bart’s father became a Christian. Bart had a front row seat to the dramatic changes in his father’s life as he cared for him during final decline with pancreatic cancer.
I had seen the film of Bart’s life by the same title as the song and was deeply touched. He said the original taping was six hours of material, so four of those had to be cut for the final product. He decided to write a memoir, also titled I Can Only Imagine, to tell the more complete story.
The first part of the book tells about Bart’s family, his sports career coming to an end with an injury, his interest in music, and the last years of his father’s life. The rest of the book tells about forming a band and the events leading to and following the release of the song “I Can Only Imagine.” Through some amazing twists and turns, that song launched the band’s career.
Bart said he was tempted to leave the story there with the fairy tale ending. But he went on to talk about his experiences with depression, his young son’s diabetes, his unhealthy lifestyle, his mistaken spiritual beliefs that he had to somehow earn God’s blessings by doing all the right things. As a Christian, he knew he was saved only by God’s grace. But like so many of us, we forget living for Christ is is just as much by His grace.
A few quotes from the book:
Thank the Lord for the prayers and provision of grandmas! I’m not sure what would have happened to Stephen and me without those two sweet saints being the constants in our lives (p. 10, Kindle version).
I once heard a pastor say that when it comes to the sins of our fathers, we either repeat or repent (p. 55).
Isn’t it interesting how some life-changing devastations are actually like the crossover switches on train tracks that take you in a totally new direction, often forcing you onto the path you were supposed to be on all along? God had certainly brought a divine interruption into my life, taking me out of sports and putting me into choir (pp. 61-62).
The moment I realized all of my creativity and talent was simply an overflow of a healthy relationship with Christ, everything changed (p. 172).
While I am here on earth, I am both a work in progress and already made whole because of the cross. I am a child of the risen King who will wrestle with the flesh. I’ll win some and lose some, but it can never change how Christ sees me because the cross was enough! (p. 172).
I’m thankful Bart wrote this book and that I read it. It was just as touching and inspiring as the movie.
In Beneath a Golden Veil by Melanie Dobson, Alden Payne is a Harvard law student whose father owns a tobacco plantation in 1853 Virginia. Alden’s father expects him to help with and take over the plantation after he finishes school. Alden approaches Christmas break planning to tell his father that he cannot acquiesce to his father’s plans. He braces himself to face his father’s wrath.
At Harvard, “Both students and professors liked to rant about freedom for all men—and pontificate about the evil Southern planters—but in Alden’s opinion, none of them were willing to sacrifice a thing—especially not their cigars—to help free the slaves” (pp. 13-14, Kindle version). Alden doesn’t know what else he can do against such a strong institution, but at least he doesn’t have to be a part of it.
Arriving at home, he finds his father is livid over a runaway slave, a young man with whom Alden played when they were boys. Witnessing his father’s cruelty toward the young man only reinforces Alden’s decision. But now he feels compelled to do more: to help the young man escape. His best bet is to get the young man to Sacramento, where he can then find a way for him to go to Vancouver.
In Sacramento City, Isabelle Labrie owns one of the nicer hotels. She and her aunt had bought part ownership with Ross Kirtland. But Isabelle’s aunt died, and Ross sold his share to go to the gold fields. They plan to marry and run the hotel together when Ross returns. Meanwhile, Isabelle keeps her past a guarded secret, even from Ross. If anyone found out now, she would be ruined, perhaps even in danger.
When a scared young slave runs into her establishment one day, Isabelle and her porter, a freedman, hide him and get him to safety. This starts Isabelle on a mission to look for other slaves she can help. California is a free state, but allows for travelers to bring their slaves to help in the gold fields. The laws concerning slaves are a little murky on finer points.
When Alden’s and Isabelle’s paths cross in Sacramento, they don’t trust each other at first. It’s dangerous even in free California to come out as an abolitionist. Alden has had the young man act as his slave during their travels so they wouldn’t be questioned. But Isabelle thinks he’s an actual slaveholder.
Soon they get on the same page. however. But accomplishing their goals is going to be more dangerous than they thought.
Thankfully, the Kindle version and audiobook came on sale at the same time for a couple of dollars each, so I could go back and forth between them. The narrator did an okay job except for using the same irritating annoyed tone for any bad person, male or female. I’d recommend the print or Kindle version of this one.
Though I’ve read historical fiction about slavery, I haven’t often come across stories from the gold rush era. Melanie’s notes at the end reveal Isabelle’s character is based on a real-life one.
Inhumanity is always hard to read about. But it’s inspiring to read about brave souls who help others at risk to themselves.
There were many layers to this story, especially in Isabelle’s situation. Overall, it was a very good read.
Several years ago, our church’s youth pastor felt led to leave his position at our church to begin another ministry. Then an older couple in the church led the teen ministry for several months—maybe a year or more.
When the church finally found a new youth pastor, but before he came, some of the teens were giving grateful testimony of the couple who had filled in. One girl spoke about how much she hated change.
I thought, “Oh, honey. You’re just starting out, and there is so much change ahead of you!” She would have been in for a rough time.
Some people thrive on change and variety, always looking for something new and exciting.
Others of us don’t mind changes every now and then. But we’re eager to get back to our comfortable routines.
Change is a part of life. Without change, we wouldn’t have:
autumn leaves
spring flowers
butterflies
babies
growth
sunrises and sunsets
the change from law to grace
salvation
resurrection
the progression from friendship to love
. . .and so much more
We like those kinds of changes. We’re not thrilled about hard, unexpected disruptive changes.
So many people in the Bible had to face unexpected changes in their lives.
David went from a shepherd to a king.
Moses went from Pharaoh’s stepson to a shepherd to the leader of Israel from Egypt through the promised land.
Gideon was quietly trying to make do in a country under rule of an enemy when God called him to be a leader and fight.
Daniel was a young man when he was taken into captivity, away from family and country, and taken to Babylon.
Mary thought she’d have a quiet life with Joseph, until an angel announced she would carry and bear the Messiah.
Zachariah and Elizabeth probably thought their opportunity to have children was gone. But in their old age, an angel told Zachariah that he and Elizabeth would have John the Baptist.
Paul’s Damascus Road experience had profound effects not only for himself, but also the first-century church and Bible readers today.
Change can be hard. Most of the changes these people faced were great upheavals to their lives.
But if God brings change, He also brings grace to handle it.
And some things will never change:
God’s character
God’s love
God’s Word
God’s truth
About thirteen years ago, we faced several big changes all at once. My husband’s company was moving us to a new state, which would involve new coworkers, a new city, new house, new neighborhood, and new church. My oldest moved to a different state, the first of my kids to move far away. We left behind my middle son and daughter-in-law. My youngest son came with us and had to navigate a new school, friends, and youth group.
During that time, a line from the hymn “Be Still My Soul” stood out to me: “Through every change, He faithful will remain.” That was a steadying truth through all the changes of that year.
Not too long ago, a line from “Abide With Me” came to mind: “Change and decay in all around I see. O thou who changest not, abide with me.”
The first verse of “Still, My Soul, Be Still” by the Gettys and Stuart Townend brings comfort in the face of change:
Still, my soul be still, And do not fear Though winds of change may rage tomorrow. God is at your side; No longer dread The fires of unexpected sorrow.
God, You are my God, And I will trust in You and not be shaken. Lord of peace, renew A steadfast spirit within me To rest in You alone.
Recently I was reminded of a quote attributed to Helen Keller: “A bend in the road is not the end of the road . . .unless you fail to make the turn.”
God, by His grace, will be with us and help us make whatever turns are in the year ahead.
How about you? Have you gone through a time when God helped you make a major change?
I’m almost caught up after being several weeks behind with blog reading. So I have a longer than usual list of good reads to recommend. Perhaps one or two will pique your interest.
The Boy at the Front Desk. “I think I will always remember those ten minutes—that conversation that I wasn’t even part of—as a shining example both of what pain children are capable of feeling and of what hope and comfort we adults are capable of offering them.”
Tasting Heaven Now, HT to Challies. “‘If you died tonight, where would you spend eternity?’ I once completed an evangelism training course that taught us to initiate spiritual conversations with strangers by asking that question. . . . The promise of eternal life is a powerful motivator for faith and a precious promise of hope and comfort for God’s people. However, I fear that the church has so emphasized ‘going to heaven when you die’ that we sometimes give the impression that’s all faith is good for.” I’ve often thought that might not be the best question to start with, for reasons mentioned here.
20 Benefits of Being in God’s Word According to Psalm 119. “The Word of God is my anchor. It tethers my mind to the truth when the lies of the enemy are readily available. It wraps me with security when my future is uncertain. It pulls me back into the presence of God when I’ve sought the company of lesser pursuits.”
On Being a Heroic Man. “Rather than waiting and pining for an opportunity to display your heroism on a world stage, be willing and eager to display it on a small stage. Be heroic before your wife. Be heroic before your children. Be heroic before the few people God has called you to serve.”
Counseling Troubled Dreams, HT to Challies. “What do we make of these nighttime mini-movies that we can’t really control; are they just random neural impulses, strung together in some semblance of a narrative by our cerebellum, or are they messages from the “other side” to be painstakingly studied and interpreted? Or might there be some middle-of-the-road understanding that has practical importance in our Christian and counseling lives.”
Time Out: Do Clocks Keep Ticking in Eternity? This was so interesting to consider. I’d always heard that time as we know it will cease in eternity. It turns out that’s not the case.
It Is Bible Reading Time! Ways to keep a Bible Reading Journal plus various Bible reading plans.
When We Hurt Those Who Are Hurting, HT to Challies. “Those who hear these words might overlook the offense yet resolve to never again share their hearts with the perpetrators. Others assume that the comments are representative of the culture of God’s people, in which Christians should always be thankful and never complain. Either way, we isolate those who already feel alone, and we misrepresent the kingdom of God.”
Plan to Grow, HT to Challies. “In no area of my life have I ‘arrived’. I am being sanctified more and more, but there is a long way to Christlikeness. Don’t get me wrong, I’m not hopeless. God has given me His great and precious promises that He has predestined to conform me to the image of Jesus (Rom 8:29). But even still, I’ve learned that if I don’t plan to grow, I’ll be less like Jesus than I could be.”
7 Practical Areas of Christian Stewardship. “The topic that’s been on my mind is a big one: stewardship. Now if you’ve grown up in the church, you may be tempted to roll your eyes, groan, and/or be filled with a general sense of dread. You probably associate this word with a request to open your already tight wallet, since many churches devote one or two months a year to what they call “stewardship” where the main topic is giving to the local church. But there is more to stewardship than money. Yes, it’s part of it, but there is so much more. As Christians, we are stewards of all that God has given us.”
Not Neurotypical: A Love Story, HT to Challies. “With my firstborn, I learned that my child was not a problem to be solved or fixed, but a person to be loved and understood as God made him. I came to believe in my heart that this child was given to us for a reason—because God knew that we were exactly the parents and the family that he needed.”
This Is a Gift You Can Give, HT to Challies. On a family visiting a nursing home at Christmas, but true not just at Christmas: “I want you to know how much kindness and presence means to people. It may be awkward to sing carols or visit with people you don’t know, but this is a gift we can give . . .Our time, our love, our kindness, ourselves. Jesus gave us everything, His very life. His life for ours.”
Face the New Year with the Old Book. Face the new needs with the old promises. Face the new problems with the old Gospel. – Author Unknown
This week didn’t turn out to be quite as restful as I was anticipating after the last couple of lovely and busy weeks. Wednesday morning just before my shower, I discovered we had no hot water. The water heater kept setting off the breaker. Jim tried an easy fix, but it didn’t work. He ordered a new hot water heater, which won’t get here until next Thursday (the 11th). So by that time we’ll have been eight days without hot water.
But even among frustrations, there are blessings. Here are a few I’m sharing with Susanne at Living to Tell the Story. Please feel free to join in!
1. Provisions. Though it’s frustrating and inconvenient not to have hot water, we have options. We have a tiny shower in the RV. And Jim set up a camp shower he’d gotten some time ago in one bathroom. It’s not as warm as a normal shower, but it’s tolerable. We have disposable plates and utensils. I can warm up water to wash dishes the old-fashioned way. The laundry was caught up, but I use mostly cold water for that, anyway. I’m aware that many places in the world don’t have clean water, much less running water in the house or hot water. I try to remind myself of these things when I start feeling grumbly.
2. More family time. Jeremy left for RI Monday morning, so we had the whole weekend still for the family to do things together. He made a wonderful halel chicken and rice dish on Saturday. One year when he came to us by train, he found a food truck at one of his stopovers and had some, then went home to look up how to make it.
Jesse had us over Friday night for some amazing nachos.
After church Sunday, we all went out to one of our favorite restaurants.
3. Fun games. We often play Jackbox games via Apple TV. Timothy can play some of them, and what he doesn’t play, he watches while playing something else on his iPad. He also got Uno Attack this year, which includes a little machine that makes funny noises and spits out anywhere from 0 to a handful of cards.
Then Jeremy brought a game he had received as a white elephant gift: Poetry for Neanderthals. At first it sounded a little weird—you choose a card and have to describe it with one-syllable words so your team guesses it. If you mess up and say a two-syllable word or say the word on the card, someone from the other team gets to bop you with an inflatable “No” stick. It turned out to be so much fun and had us all laughing.
4. A handy husband. I’m so thankful Jim’s knows or can easily figure out how to fix many things.
5. Antibiotics. I have a couple of wounds on one leg that got infected. I finally got in to see the doctor yesterday, so I’m hoping the medicine kicks in soon.
I like reading challenges that broaden my horizons. But I also like the freedom to pick up a book on a whim or because it’s just out or intrigues me. I’ve participated in a number of different reading challenges over the years, and these work best with my interests and time. They work well with what I already read, but provide some challenges. They combine intentionality and flexibility.
Bev at My Reader’s Block hosts the Mount TBR Reading Challenge, which encourages us to get to those books we already own but have not read yet. That’s something I need to do every year, and I have enjoyed participating with Bev the last few years. She has the goals set out as a series of mountains, and we’re supposed to declare which one we’re aiming for. I think I’ll shoot for Mount Blanc (24 books), even though I’ve reached the next level a couple of years. The sign-up and more information for this challenge are here.
The TBR 24 in ’24 Challenge hosted by Rose City Reader dovetails nicely with the Mount TBR challenge. It’s the same idea—to read books you own but haven’t read it (though rereads count, too). The difference is, we aim for 24 and list them some time during the challenge. I don’t have my whole list figured out yet, but I know I want to read Adorning the Dark: Thoughts on Community, Calling, and the Mystery of Making by Andrew Peterson, Lenten Lands by Douglas Gresham, Whose Waves These Are by Amanda Dykes, and The Lazy Genius Way by Kendra Adachi.
Shelly Rae at Book’d Out hosts the Nonfiction Reader Challenge. This can be done one of two ways. Shelly has twelve books in different categories that we can aim for. Or we can be a “Nonfiction Grazer” and make our own goal. Although I might hit a few of her categories, I’ll go the grazer route.
This year, I’d like to hit these categories:
At least one biography, autobiography, or memoir.
One writing book
One Bible study book
One Christian living book
One book of letters or journals
One book by C. S. Lewis that I have not read yet
One book on organization or productivity
One book pertaining to a holiday (probably Christmas)
I used to participate in the Back to the Classics Challenge hosted by Karen at Books and Chocolate, but she hasn’t done it the last couple of years. I miss it and hope it comes back some day. Meanwhile, I do like to read a few classics a year. I’ve made it a mission to since I wasn’t exposed to many growing up. I love the quote that a classic is a book that has never finished saying what it has to say.
I’ve been trying to read through Dickens novels that I haven’t read yet. All I have left are Martin Chuzzlewit, Barnaby Rudge, Dombey and Son, and The Mystery of Edwin Drood, so I’ll try to read at least one of those. I’d love to read more D. E. Stevenson and Anthony Trollope. And I may revisit some old favorites like Jane Eyre.
I think that’s it for this year. Do you participate in reading challenges?
Some of the reading challenges I participate in require an end-of-year wrap up.
Bev at My Reader’s Block hosts the Mount TBR Reading Challenge, which encourages us to get to those books we already own but have not read yet. She has the goals set out as a series of mountains, and we’re supposed to declare which one we’re aiming for.
I planned for Mt. Vancouver (36 books). I’ve easily surpassed that in previous years. But this year I only got 30 read. Still, that’s 30 books! I gave myself permission to read more hot-off-the press books or books that caught my eye this year. So though I have a little regret at not meeting a goal I could have if I had been paying attention, I don’t have any regrets about my reading last year.
Shelly Rae at Book’d Out hosts the Nonfiction Reader Challenge. This can be done one of two ways. Shelly has twelve books in different categories that we can aim for. Or we can be a “Nonfiction Grazer” and make our own goals.
I chose the “Grazer” route because I knew I wouldn’t read from all of Shelly’s categories. My goals and the books I read for them are (titles link to my reviews):
One book of humor: Though many of the books contained humor, none of them had humor as a main point. The one on my shelf I made this category for last year was a dud. So I’ll probably eliminate this category next year.
One Bible study book: seven of Warren Wiersbe’s “Be” commentaries on different books of the Bible.
One book pertaining to a holiday (probably Christmas); Heaven and Nature Sing by Hannah Anderson
One book related to midlife or aging: Somehow I overlooked this one as well.
So, I have mixed results there. I don’t want my challenges to be stressful or controlling, but I do like them to broaden my horizons. I enjoyed the 23 nonfiction books I did read, even though I didn’t hit all my categories.
One of my most enjoyable posts to write is naming my favorite books read each year. It’s like revisiting old friends, almost like enjoying the books all over again.
Most of these weren’t published in 2023, but were read this year.
Sarah, Plain and Tall by Patricia MacLachan is a classic, but not one I had ever read. I did see the movie version with Glenn Close years ago and loved it. A widowed farmer with two children on the prairie places an ad for a new wife. He receives a reply from Sarah in Maine, who wants to come out and visit the family. There are some bumps along the way, but the blending of a new family is told with gentleness and tenderness.
All That’s Good: Recovering the Lost Art of Discernmentby Hannah Anderson. I read Hannah’s Advent devotional, Heaven and Nature Sing, in 2022 and loved it. So I read three more of Hannah’s earlier books this year (as well as reading Heaven and Nature Sing again). I could honestly list each of them among my favorites this year. But I figured I’d just list one, and chose the first one I read. I love that Hannah approaches discernment not from the standpoint of avoiding the bad, though we need to do that. But she proposes discerning bad from good in order to pursue the good. That shift has many ramifications to our thinking.
Becoming Free Indeed: My Story of Disentangling Faith from Fearby Jinger Duggar Vuolo. Jinger was a member of the Duggar family featured on 19 Kids and Counting. As Jinger grew up and talked with other Christian young people, including her fiance and her sister’s husband, she began to realize some of the things she had been taught were wrong. Though writing about difficult subject matter, Jinger displays a gracious spirit. I especially appreciated that she didn’t “deconstruct” her faith and throw everything out. She studied and read and sought counsel to “disentangle” the good from the bad.
Blogging for God’s Glory in a Clickbait World by Benjamin Vrbicek and John Beeson helps not only with the mechanics of blogging but also with keeping our motives in the right place.
Gay Girl, Good God: The Story of Who I Was and Who God Has Always Been by Jackie Hill Perry is her testimony first of all of becoming a Christian, then how Christ changed her heart and her sexuality. She’s received a lot of flack, because the world cheers people who go from straight to gay, but not gay to straight. Jackie dispels a lot of glib Christian notions about what it means to become straight. This book opened my eyes to many things. Plus I appreciated Jackie’s poetic way of expressing herself.
I read so many good novels this year, they’re harder to narrow down to a few favorites.
All That Really Matters by Nicole Deese is the first of Nicole’s books that I read, and so far it’s my favorite. It’s a novel of a perky social media influencer with half a million followers who needs to show a compassionate, involved side to potentially get a gig as a show host. Her brother recommends a a mentor program for kids transitioning out of the foster care program. The director, Silas, is not impressed and thinks Molly is shallow. But once they start working together, they are both changed. I loved that this book isn’t silly or frothy but goes deep.
Chasing Shadowsby Lynn Austin is a novel that follows three women in the Netherlands through WWII. One is a farmer’s wife trying to keep things together at home with food shortages, a husband absent first as a soldier, then as a member of the Resistance, and helping others in desperate need. Another is a Jewish young woman trying to find a safe place for herself and her father. The third is a young woman in her first employment outside her home. She’s dating a policeman when the Nazis take over and commandeer the police force. She’s astonished by the changes she sees in her town and starts helping the Resistance.
When the Day Comes by Gabrielle Meyer has a most unusual premise for a novel: Libby Conant is a time crosser, living on alternating days in 1774 Williamsburg and 1914 New York. On her twenty-first birthday, she’ll have to decide which time she wants to stay in the rest of her life. I loved everything about this book: the characters, the history, both timelines, and the ending.
In The Space Between Words by Michele Phoenix, a trip with friends to Paris is shattered when bombers attack a nightclub the friends were visiting. Jessica is shot, traumatized, and wants to go home as soon as possible. One friend does go home, but the other urges her to stay and go on to their flea market excursions. Jessica finds an antique sewing box with a secret compartment containing several sheets of handwritten paper and a few pages from an antique French Bible. Jessica feels compelled to learn more about the writer, who was from a family of seventeenth-century Huguenots. This story was captivating and touching and makes me want to find more of Michelle’s books.
A Place to Hang the Moon by Kate Albus reads like a classic children’s book, but was just published in 2022. I agree with C. S. Lewis that children’s books can and should be enjoyed by adults, too. Three children in 1940s England were orphaned and taken in by their aloof grandmother. When the grandmother dies, the solicitor suggests the children join the evacuees being sent to the countryside: perhaps they might find a foster family that will take them in permanently. The children are billeted in a couple of problem homes and seek refuge often in the library. The kind librarian is something of an outcast herself, having a German husband who is away. I loved the well-told story, the beautifully drawn characters, the descriptions of both warm and cozy and difficult scenes, references to beloved classic children’s books, and Polly Lee’s British accent narrating the audiobook. I didn’t want the book to end.
Though part of me wants to keep listing good books. I think I’ll stop at an even ten.
Have you read any of these? What were your favorite books read last year?
By my count, I read 83 books last year. I’ve enjoyed a variety of older and newer, fiction and nonfiction. Reading is my favorite hobby, entertaining as well as educational. I’ll post my favorites from this list next.
I didn’t keep close records of which were audiobooks, but about half of them were, mostly in the Classics and Christian fiction categories.
The titles link to my reviews. MTBR stands for Mount TBR, or To-Be-Read, a challenge for reading books we already own.
I was able to finish some Christmas reading the last couple of weeks, but didn’t have time to review them. Many of them were short, so I’ll bunch them all together here.
In The 20th Christmas by Andrea Rodgers, Arianna Tate faces a parent’s worst nightmare: her almost 2-year-old son is taken from her in a coffee shop just before Christmas.
Al the searching, detectives, and appeals come up with zero results. People remembered seeing a young woman in the coffee shop, but no one could remember much about her.
For the next 20 years, Andrea and her husband descend into the lowest depths of despair. They almost lose their marriage, but make determined efforts to make things work. They’re finally able to move on, though the pain never goes away.
Meanwhile. Lydia Feller’s estranged, drug-abusing sister shows up on her doorstep with a child. Lydia had heard her sister was pregnant a while back, but the timing doesn’t seem to match up with the age of this child. When her sister dies of an overdose, Lydia adopts her child to show him love and grant some stability to his life.
Twenty years later, the pathways of all involved meet.
I felt Arianna’s life before the kidnapping was almost too perfect. And there were a number of parenthetical statements in the writing I was surprised got past an editor.
But this was a good book overall.
In A Cliche Christmasby Nicole Deese, Georgia Cole left heartache and humiliation in her home town of Lenox, Orgeon to become a Hollywood screenwriter famous for heartwarming but cliched Christmas movies. Since she works with Christmas themes all year, in December she usually takes her grandmother on an exotic vacation to get away from traditional Christmases.
But this year, her grandmother ropes her into putting on a Christmas play in her hometown to benefit a little girl with cancer.
Georgia runs smack into her old crush, Weston, who happens to be the uncle of the girl in question. She thought he lived elsewhere. They clash at every encounter until they finally start listening to each other.
Though in many ways this was a sweet story, I didn’t like all the manipulation going on with Georgia’s grandmother and Weston. Weston seems kind and caring in many respects, but he’s also a little pushy, pinning Georgia to a car at one point until she answers him. I don’t think the writer intended to make him seem as controlling as he came across sometimes, but in real life, I would’ve had reservations about him.
I read this because I loved a couple of Nicole’s other novels and I liked the unusual premise. Though I didn’t like this as well, I loved where the story ultimately ended up.
My friend Melanie mentioned rereading Shepherds Abiding at Christmas. The book comes in the middle of Jan Karon’s Mitford series. When I wanted something warm and Christmasy to finish out the year, I decided to listen to this again. I was afraid it might pull me into wanting to reread all the Mitford books. That’s a bit of a temptation, but this can be easily read as a Christmas book alone.
Various subplots are going on among Mitford’s residents, but the overarching story involves Father Tim trying to restore a mismatched Nativity set bought from local antiques dealer, Andrew Gregory. He wants to do it as a surprise for his wife, but keeping a secret is hard in Mitford.
This book showcases Karon’s trademark blend of warmth, humor and truth. The version I listened to also included short stories “Esther’s Gift” and “The Mitford Snowmen.”
The Christmas Dollby Elvira Woodruff reads like an old-fashioned nineteenth-century classic, but it was published in 2000.
Two young sisters, Lucy and Glory, are orphaned and spend several years in a London workhouse with barely enough food. A deadly fever sweeps through the facility, claiming many of their friends. When Glory becomes ill, Lucy knows that if she’s taken to the infirmary, she’ll never come back. So she takes Glory and escapes.
But city streets are unfriendly to the poor, especially on winter nights. The girls suffer various mishaps. Finally someone tells them of “mudlarkers,” people who dig around in the muck by the river looking for things to sell. Lucy finds a dirty old doll with a quirky smile, setting off an unexpected series of events.
This book has some of the melodrama and fancifulness of a Dickens story. It was sweet and very well done. The audiobook was free for Audible subscribers at the time and wonderfully read by Bernadette Dunn.
I had not heard of the Christmas in My Heart series by Joe Wheeler, but apparently he’s compiled several books of Christmas stories, his own as well as others’.
The Best of Christmas in My Heartis made of several heartwarming stories from the series gathered over the years. Many are old-fashioned, but some are new. Most are fiction, but some, like John Cain’s account of Christmas in a POW camp, are true. I had not heard of most of the authors, but a few familiar ones are represented, like O. Henry and McCain. One story about a tablecloth made the rounds of the Internet a few years back.
Wheeler begins the book with telling how he came to start writing and then start compiling this series.
There are eighteen stories, so it would be easy to spread this out over December with almost a story a night.
That wraps up my Christmas reading! Have you read any of these? Did you read anything Chrismasy in December?
Stray Thoughts 