Book Review: Searching For Eternity

Posted on January 18, 2016 by Barbara Harper

Searching for Eternity by Elizabeth Musser grabbed me right away, kept me engaged throughout the book, and made me not want it to end while at the same time eager to know what finally happened with the characters.

The story begins in the 1960s with nearly fourteen year old Emile de Bonnery finding that he and his mother have to suddenly leave France, where they have been staying with his grandmother in her 13th century chateau. Though Emile’s French father has been away “on business” often, this time it’s different. His American mother tells him that his father has found someone else and they must leave France immediately to go back to her native Atlanta. Emile protests, to no avail, and barely keeps control over his anger.

Emile feels that his father is a spy, that he’s merely on a mission, and may even be in trouble. Emile’s father, Jean-Baptiste, had been in the French resistance as a teenager during WWII, along with his parents. On each of Emile’s birthdays since he was five, his father has given him a gift of something he used in his resistance days – a book with pages cut away in which to store a switchblade, a thumbtack tin that once held a radio, etc., and told him the story behind that particular item as well as stories of his experiences. Emile knew that his father particularly hated Klaus Barbie, the “butcher of Lyon,” who was responsible for killing multitudes, including national hero Jean Moulin and Emile’s father’s father. Barbie had been condemned to death in absentia, and it was Emile’s theory that his father was hunting for Barbie. But no one agreed with him.

Meanwhile, he has to get used to life in America, especially to starting a new school. Being small for his age, new, and having an accent all seem to make him a target for the class bullies and friendless. Finally at lunch he sits near a girl named Eternity Jones, who, though somewhat aloof, at least doesn’t rebuff him. Gradually they become friends, and Emile eventually learns that Eternity comes from a broken home with a drunken, abusive mother. Eternity acts as protector for her two younger siblings. Wanting to extend help as well as friendship, Emile invites Eternity and her brother and sister to his grandmother’s home.

His grandmother and mother had been estranged for the 15 years his mother had been in France, and she and Emile showed up on her doorstep with no advance warning when they first left France. His mother had told him that her mother was controlling and they didn’t get along, but she welcomed them both with kindness, and her home radiated peace. His mother notes that her mother has changed in many ways. His mother and grandmother both try to make their home a safe haven for Eternity and her siblings.

There is so much in this book, it’s hard to know what to share. The rest of the book covers the next 23 years of Emile’s life and touches on racism, abuse, bullying, being a victim, faith, second chances, as well as what happens to Eternity and her family, Emile’s father, and even Klaus Barbie. It ended just as I hoped it would, but the author kept me guessing until nearly the last few pages.

Here are a few quotes from the book:

The wrong kind of love grabs and holds and chokes and demands and expects.

It’s a lot harder to hate a whole race of people, like the Negroes, or a type of person, like alcoholics, when you start getting to know individuals. Prejudice likes to make generalizations and stay far away. I wanted to get to know [Eternity’s mother] before I judged her too harshly.

Grandma had always said that suffering etched character into God’s people, making them stronger, better, holier, more useful to God and man. I had believed her for many years, but I did not see it on this night.

“I know it seems wrong and cruel. But this is what you must do. Let go. Give up the control, Emile. Be mad, grieve, accept that you cannot figure it out. Give up.”
“Giving up is weakness!”
“This time it will be strength.”
“How?”
“You must give up, not out of resignation, but out of trust. Trust that God knows and cares and will let you in on all the secrets you need to know in His time.”

There is more to life than looking for answers. Some answers you will never find–some you will. As long as the most important question is answered, the ‘not knowing’ of the others doesn’t seem so unbearable.

“The good thing about following Jesus is that His Word eventually seeps way down into your heart. And then, when you need to respond as He would, somehow that love blooms, watered by years of tears and tended by His Spirit. It blooms. Maybe not all at once, Emile. But eventually. He doesn’t waste your obedience. It counts. It works.” I said nothing, but I was listening, begging God to let her words–His words–penetrate my heart.

Victims could move on, but deep down they were still victims. Maybe there were parts of us that would never recover from the injuries of the past. And maybe that was all right, because we could still be useful in our maimed and injured state. ‘For when I am weak, then am I strong.’ I grabbed on to those words of the apostle Paul.

Elizabeth Musser’s being from Atlanta, being a missionary in France, and her teen boys being “third culture kids” all contribute to the realism in the book. The occasional mentions of eating at the Varsity in Atlanta have me questioning why I never went there the few years we lived in the area!

I don’t feel I have done this book justice at all, but I don’t want to say more about it and give too much away. So I’ll just say, it’s good. You should read it. It comes up occasionally on sale for the Kindle app. So far I have enjoyed all of Elizabeth Musser’s books, and I am eager to read more. And I am going to miss these characters!

(Sharing at Semicolon‘s Saturday Review of Books)

Book Review: Gilead

Posted on January 14, 2016 by Barbara Harper

In Gilead by Marilynne Robinson, set in the small town of Gilead, Iowa, in 1956, 76 year old John Ames knows that he is dying and wants to leave behind for his seven year old son the things that he would have told him along the way as he grew up.

Part of his writing conveys family history. John’s grandfather was a fiery one-eyed Elijah of a Congregationalist preacher, active in the abolitionist movement, the Civil War, and in raids, encouraging his congregation to go and do likewise. John’s father was also a preacher, but was a pacifist with a very different personality. Thus, though they cared for each other, there was inevitable conflict between his father and grandfather, some of it mild and some drastic. One thing he said of his grandfather, and his tendency to believe his way in anything was the only way, was, “He may, so to speak, have been too dazzled by the great light of his experience to realize that an impressiveness sun shines on us all” (p. 91). Later he says of them, “They loved each other’s company when they weren’t at each other’s throats, which meant when they were silent (p. 192). And in another place, “A man can know his father, or his son, and there might still be nothing between them but loyalty and love and mutual incomprehension.”

Part of his writing tells of his own history, the loss of his first wife and daughter, years of personal loneliness while preaching and ministering, then the unexpected treasure of a second marriage to a much younger woman, and then the birth of his son.

Part of it details his theological musings and conundrums.

When you encounter another person…it is as if a question is being put to you. So you must think, What is the Lord asking of me in this moment, in this situation? If you confront insult or antagonism, your first impulse will be to respond in kind. But if you think, as it were, This is an emissary sent from the Lord, and some benefit is intended for me, first of all the occasion to demonstrate my faithfulness, the chance to show that I do in some small degree participate in the grace that saved me, you are free to act otherwise than as circumstances would seem to dictate. You are free to act by your own lights. You are freed at the same time of the impulse to hate or resent that person. He would probably laugh at the thought that the Lord sent him to you for your benefit (and his), but that is the perfection of the disguise, his own ignorance of it…I am reminded of this precious instruction by my own great failure to live up to it recently…(p. 124)

(Re a secular article about religion) It says 95% of us say we believe in God. But our religion doesn’t meet the writer’s standards, not at all. To his mind, all those people in all those churches are the scribes and the Pharisees. He seems to me to be a bit of a scribe himself, scorning and rebuking the way he does. How do you tell a scribe from a prophet, which is what he clearly takes himself to be? The prophets love the people they chastise, a thing this writer does not appear to me to do (p. 142, emphasis mine). It seems to me that the spirit of religious self-righteousness this article deplores is precisely the spirit in which is is written. Of course he is right about many things, one of them being the destructive potency of religious self-righteousness (p. 146).

I am thinking about that passage in the Institutes where it says the image of the Lord in anyone is much more than reason enough to love him, and that the Lord stands waiting to take our enemies’ sins upon Himself. So it is a rejection of the reality of grace to hold our enemy at fault…People tend to forget that we are to love our enemies…because God their Father loves them (p. 189).

Part of it relates the miseries of aging.

You probably don’t remember much about old Boughton. He is a little cross now from time to time, which is understandable considering his discomfort. It would be a pity if that is what you remembered of him (p. 18).

To be useful was the best thing the old men ever hoped for themselves, and to be aimless was their worst fear (p. 49).

(When someone jumped in to help him) I’d rather drop dead doing for myself than add a day to myself by acting helpless. But he meant well (p. 218).

I feel as if I am being left out, as though I’m some straggler and people can’t quite remember to stay back for me.

Part of it captures the magic of everyday moments, and I think this is where Robinson’s writing shines brightest.

It was the kind of light that rests on your shoulders the way a cat lies on your lap (p. 51).

I feel sometimes as if I were a child who opens its eyes on the world once and sees amazing things it will never know any names for and then has to close its eyes again. I know this is all mere apparition compared to what awaits us, but it is only lovelier for that. There is a human beauty in it. And I can’t believe that, when we have all been changed and put on incorruptibility, we will forget our fantastic condition of mortality and impermanence…(p. 57).

His lovely wife tends her zinnias in the mild morning light and his find young man comes fondly mishandling that perpetually lost sheep of a cat, Soapy, once more back from perdition for the time being, to what would have been general rejoicing” (p. 93, one of my favorite sentences).

Well, but you two are dancing around in your iridescent little downpour, whooping and stomping as sane people ought to do when they encounter a thing so miraculous as water.

Sometimes I have loved the peacefulness of an ordinary Sunday. It is like standing in a newly planted garden after a warm rain. You can feel the silent and invisible life.

I wish I could leave you certain of the images in my mind, because they are so beautiful that I hate to think they will be extinguished when I am. Well, but again, this life has its own mortal loveliness. And memory is not strictly mortal in its nature, either. It is a strange thing, after all, to be able to return to a moment, when it can hardly be said to have any reality at all, even in its passing. A moment is such a slight thing. I mean, that its abiding is a most gracious reprieve.

Part of it goes into great detail about his best friend, a fellow preacher who is known by his last name, Boughton, and his prodigal son and John’s namesake and godson, Jack. Boughton is also dying, and is delighted that Jack is back, but there is a shadow over his visit. John alludes to a major wrong Jack had done, and tells us about it later on as well as the more minor indiscretions of his youth that went beyond mischievousness into pure meanness. John finds it hard to forgive Jack and suspects that the time he’s spending at his home interacting with his wife and son means that Jack is setting himself up to take John’s place in their lives after he dies. Much of John’s theological wrestling is over his attitude toward Jack, not only as a fellow man, but also as a Christian, a pastor, and the friend of his father. After one such session with various thoughts relating to Jack, he writes, “This is not doing me any good at all. I’d better pray” (p. 185). I have said similar things to myself.

Part of it conveys his thoughts about his coming death.

Existence seems to me now the most remarkable thing that could ever be imagined. I’m about to put on imperishability. In an instant, in the twinkling of an eye (p. 55).

Our dream of life will end as dreams do end, abruptly and completely, when the sun rises, when the light comes (p. 104).

I have decided the two choices open to me are (1) to torment myself or (2) to trust the Lord. There is no earthly solution to the problems that confront me. But I can add to my problems, as I believe I have done, by dwelling on them. So, no more of that (p. 126).

I admit I had a hard time getting into this book at first. I think part of that is that I had heard it praised so highly that my expectations were so raised that nothing could have met them. It’s written in the form of letters to his son, though it’s not letters so much as a diary, where he jotted down thoughts here and there as they came to him. Neither epistolary nor stream-of-consciousness narratives are my favorite. And it seemed to set off extremely slowly. Somewhere I read that it “forces us to slow down to the pace of a 76 year old man.” But one of my motivations in persevering with it was that I didn’t want to be the only person in the country not to “get” it. 🙂 And I am glad I continued on. Though it will never be my favorite book, there is a richness and a depth that makes it much worth it.

One of the themes is fathers and sons – John’s grandfather and his son; John’s father and himself; John and his son, Boughton and his son, the prodigal son and his father, and God the Father and his children. Race relations are a prominent factor throughout the book. The contemplation of ordinary moments, of coming to terms with our mortality, of what it means to live as a Christian, especially when it’s not easy, are all intertwining themes as well.

There were numerous places I disagreed with parts of Ames’ theology (e.g., water being “the vehicle of the Holy Spirit” in baptism [p. 24], infant baptism, the taking as figurative some Scriptures that many would take as literal, and various other places), or his logic, such as his thought that the people’s lack of taking meaning from the plague was why they’d had continuous war since (p. 43). But, while not setting aside those issues, I can still see and appreciate much of truth conveyed in these pages.

I’ve marveled that a book that is so clearly religious has been so widely loved. This review in the New York Times is a nicely done example. I think perhaps a large part of it is Ames’ personality – humble, struggling, yet sure of truth but not in a belligerent way.

I’ll close with this quote from John to his son, something I think most parents could echo:

I’m writing this in part to tell you that if you ever wonder what you’ve done in your life, and everyone does wonder sooner or later, you have been God’s grace to me, a miracle, something more than a miracle. You may not remember me very well at all, and it may seem to you to be no great thing to have been the good child of an old man in a shabby little town you will no doubt leave behind. If only I had the words to tell you.

(Sharing at Semicolon‘s Saturday Review of Books)

Book Review: Why Christ Came

Posted on January 7, 2016 by Barbara Harper

In the preface of Why Christ Came: 31 Meditations on the Incarnation, authors Joel R. Beeke and William Boekestein state that “Learning the reasons for Christ’s advent will help us more deeply celebrate His birth, allow us to see more clearly how it is connected with the rest of His ministry, and help us understand its importance in our lives.” They add that it also helps when people ask us why Jesus came to have a fuller knowledge of the answer to that question.

They discuss 31 reasons Jesus came but acknowledged there are multitudes more. They range from the familiar, like “To Die,” “To Seek and Save the Lost,” “To Do the Will of the Father,” to others you might not have thought of right away, like “To Bring Peace,” “To Bring a Sword,” and “To Demonstrate True Humility.”

Each selection is only about three pages but is packed with references and thoughts about that day’s subject. The writing is not warm and fuzzy nor what one usually thinks of as “devotional,” but it is a rich treasury.

Here are just a few quotes:

In Christ’s first coming, He implemented a rescue plan conceived in the mind of God before the foundation of the world. He did not come to promote holiday cheer, boost end-of-year sales, or serve as the central figure in a Nativity scene. He came to save sinners. To save sinners, Christ had to put away what makes people sinners–namely, sin.

The Scottish divine Samuel Rutherford was on his deathbed when he was summoned to court for refusing to conform to the new forms of worship decreed by the king. Sensing that his death was near, Rutherford said, “I will soon stand before a greater judge, and this one is my friend!”

Paul refuses to focus on the greatness of others’ sin to minimize his own. He sees his own sins in the light of God’s holy law and perfect character.

Apart from a true incarnation, there is no true atonement.

Christ did not come to earth simply to be our moral teacher. If that were His only mission, He could have come as He did in former times, as the Angel of the Lord, without our flesh and blood to encumber Him. Instead, He had to become like us so that He could raise us up to be like Him.

Some of us have little spiritual vitality because we fail to feed on Christ day by day. Over time, we become spiritually anorexic.

Christ’s advent, in particular, teaches us the joy of anticipating Jesus. The Christian journey is riddled with trials and difficulties, but the brilliance of the One whom we seek turns our mourning into dancing (Ps. 30:11).

As we reflect on the incarnation, we too should be filled with joyous amazement and thanksgiving. Wilhelmus a Brakel explains, “The reason one does not rejoice in the incarnation is for lack of holy meditation upon the subject, its miraculous nature, the promises, the Person, the fruits and this great salvation brought about by His suffering and death. What reason for rejoicing would he who does not attentively reflect upon this have?”

Judgement means to divide truth from error as well as to uphold the good and condemn the evil.

Jesus calls all sinners to repent. True repentance is not a nebulous response of sorrow; it requires definite actions. Repentance so transforms the mind that it results in a changed life. Repentance does not merely say “I’m sorry” (similar to what we say when we accidentally step on someone’s foot). Rather, true repentance says from the heart, “I’ve been wrong and grieve over my sin, but now I see the truth, and I will change my ways accordingly.”

Christ gives us a true thirst for Him by convincing us of sin.

There were just a couple of places I disagreed with the authors. One was “The most important way to seek Christ is in the public worship of His church.” We need that, but equally important is private seeking of Him in His Word in our own homes. Another was the assertion that “Jesus gives us a precious glimpse of His humanity…He experiences the fear of death as we do.” I don’t think it was just a human fear of death that caused His anguish (they quote Calvin as calling this His “cowardice”), but the thought of all that would be involved in taking our sin and its penalty on Himself. They also write from a Reformed/Calvinistic view, and while I agree with a reformed view of faith in many particulars, I disagree on a few.

But mostly I found much food for thought here and enjoyed thinking on its truths during the Christmas season.

(Sharing at Semicolon‘s Saturday Review of Books)

Book Review: A Prairie Collection

Posted on January 6, 2016 by Barbara Harper

When I first began reading Christian fiction, a great many of its books were set in Western prairies. It also seemed that many of them contained one of three plot lines: a teacher from the East who came West, didn’t like it, and planned to go back home, until she fell in love; a snobby socialite, usually from Boston, who also didn’t like the rougher accommodations and culture of the West and planned to go back home; or a marriage of convenience, where two people who did not love each other and sometimes who had just barely met married each other, usually because one recently lost a spouse and for various reasons needed one, and they ended up coming to love each other by the end. Nothing wrong with any of that, but I just got burned out by it all and didn’t read anything prairie-ish or even Western for a very long time.

So with that background, and the fact that romances and short stories are not my favorites, either, I am not sure why I picked up A Prairie Christmas Collection: 9 Historical Christmas Romances from America’s Great Plains except that it was a good deal for the Kindle app, and I have enjoyed many of Tracie Peterson’s books and have been wanting to read Deborah Raney, two of the authors whose stories are included in this collection. The others are Tracey Bateman, Pamela Griffin, JoAnn, Grote, Maryn Langer, Darlene Mindrup, Janet Spaeth, and Jill Stengl, none of whom I had heard of before.

Sure enough, three stories contain a teacher coming from the East, a snobby Bostonian socialite, and a marriage of convenience. 🙂 But there is enough of a twist in each case that the stories aren’t cliche. Other stories include a widowed father and son moving into a new town and falling for a woman whose heart still belongs to her dead fiance; a woman who has lost everything and is greatly reduced in her circumstances coming to a new town to work as a maid; a woman determined to keep her family home after her mother’s death though her siblings and the railroad want her to sell; a tutor with a troubled background trying to make a new life and taking on a student not at all interested in his subject matter; the wife of a newly married young couple trying to make everything “just right” for her visiting mother-in-law; and a woman with a heart “colder than ice” coming to live with her estranged brother and taking on a job for the preacher. Some characters from the first story appear in the last, but I didn’t catch whether any of the other characters cross over into other stories.

One of the stories probably would have worked a little better as a novel, just because there was so much crammed into it, but overall, I really enjoyed the stories and each character’s journey of faith. They made for very pleasant Christmas and winter reading.

(Sharing at Semicolon‘s Saturday Review of Books)

Reading Plans for 2016

Posted on January 5, 2016 by Barbara Harper

When I’ve mentioned reading challenges recently, a couple of people have commented that they prefer to be free to read whatever they want whenever they want. Believe me, I understand the appeal. That’s how I’ve read for most of my adult life. And there is nothing wrong with that approach.

I’ve found for myself, though, that there are some books I never get to unless I make specific plans to incorporate them into my reading. For instance, I don’t usually read non-fiction, except for biographies, unless I “make” myself, even though I have greatly benefited from them.

I’ve found over the last few years that reading challenges really help with some of those books “I’ve been meaning to get to.” But there has to be a balance: some years I had so many challenges going on that I felt stifled all year. I like to be free to pick up a new release or something on a friend’s recommendation as I feel led without feeling I can’t because of other deadlines. Last year was pretty well balanced, so I am hoping to achieve that again this year. The challenges can overlap, so that helps (one book can be read for different challenges, but not for different categories within a challenge).

There are a few month-long challenges for the year. I’ll be hosting the Laura Ingalls Wilder Reading Challenge in February; Carrie is not hosting her Classic Reading Club this year but will host the Lucy Maud Montgomery Reading Challenge in January and the Narnia challenge in June or July. For the LMM challenge I am planning to read the last of the Emily books, Emily’s Quest. If I have time I may read one of LMM’s stand-alone books. There is also an Emily of New Moon TV series I’d like to try to find on Netflix or somewhere. I honestly didn’t like Emily very well in the second book and I am curious to how her story has been translated into film.

As for year-long challenges, I’ll only be participating in two:

The Mount TBR Reading Challenge has the goal to read books that you already have on hand prior to 2016 (thus no library books or loans: it’s meant to get to those books you’ve had but haven’t started yet). You can chose different levels, each named after a mountain. I am only going to commit to “Pike’s Peak,” or 12 books, but we’ll see how it goes – I may add more. I’m sure I have enough books on hand and in my Kindle app to go another level or two, but I want to leave some breathing space. Here are the books I am planning to read for this challenge:

True Woman 201: Interior Design by Mary Kassian and Nancy Leigh DeMoss (Finished 4/16/16)
The Renewing of the Mind Project by Barb Raveling (Finished 5/28/16)
Beyond Stateliest Marble: The Passionate Femininity of Anne Bradstreet by Douglas Wilson (Finished 5/2/16)
Ten Fingers For God: The Life and Work of Dr. Paul Brand by Dorothy Clarke Wilson (Finished 8/26/16)
What Are You Afraid Of? Facing Down Your Fears With Faith by David Jeremiah (Finished 2/22/16)
Home to Chicory Lane by Deborah Raney (Finished 9/18/16)
The Bronte Plot by Katherine Reay (Finished 2/2/16)
Pride, Prejudice, and Cheese Grits by Mary Jane Hathaway (Finished 5/23/16)
Searching for Eternity by Elizabeth Musser (Finished 1/16/16)
Pioneer Girl: The Annotated Autobiography by Laura Ingalls Wilder and Pamela Smith Hill (Finished 7/11/16)
Our Mutual Friend by Charles Dickens (Finished 2/22/16)
A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur’s Court by Mark Twain (Finished 3/8/16)

As I finish each one I will link the title to my review of it)

You can read more about the rules for the Mount TBR Challenge here; the deadline to sign up is Nov. 1, 2016.

The second is the Back to the Classics challenge. I’ve been doing this one for the past two years and have really enjoyed it. I’ve mentioned before that I somehow wasn’t exposed to many classics in my education, and have been making a point to read several in recent years.

Karen has made a list of the following categories and we can choose to read 6, 9, or 12 classics for 1, 2, or 3 entries in a drawing at the end of the year. For this challenge, all books have to be at least 50 years old. The categories and my choices are :

1. A 19th Century Classic – any book published between 1800 and 1899. Our Mutual Friend by Charles Dickens. I love a couple of Dickens books very much and have been on a quest to read the rest of his books that I am not familiar with. (Finished 2/22/16)

2. A 20th Century Classic – any book published between 1900 and 1966: The Wind in the Willows. I don’t know that I ever read this, either on my own or with my children. I think we saw part of a video of the story once, and I totally disliked Toad and didn’t finish it. But learning that it was one of C. S. Lewis’s favorite stories and reading some of his remarks about it have encouraged me to give it another try. (Finished 6/3/16)

3. A classic by a woman author. Little Town on the Prairie by Laura Ingalls Wilder, part of the Little House series. (Finished 2/15/2016)

4. A classic in translation (originally written in a language other than your own): Around the World in 80 Days by Jules Verne (French) (Finished 3/15/16)

5. A classic by a non-white author. Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass. (Finished 2/29/16)

6. An adventure classic – can be fiction or non-fiction.Robinson Crusoe by Daniel Defoe (Finished 4/29/16)

7. A fantasy, science fiction, or dystopian classic. The Sword in the Stone by T. H. White (Finished 3/24/16)

8. A classic detective novel. The Moonstone by Wilkie Collins is said to be the first English-language detective novel, at least according to this post. (Finished 4/18/16)

9. A classic which includes the name of a place in the title. A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur’s Court by Mark Twain. (Finished 3/8/16)

10. A classic which has been banned or censored. Gulliver’s Travels by Jonathan Swift (Finished 6/23/16)

11. Re-read a classic you read in school (high school or college). The Old Man and the Sea by Ernest Hemingway. (Finished 3/26/16)

12. A volume of classic short stories. (One complete volume, at least 8 short stories, single or multiple authors). Great British Short Stories: A Vintage Collection of Classic Tales (Finished 7/5/18)

After spending way too much time looking at lists of classic titles in different categories, I decided to just commit to 9 rather than 12. Thankfully we don’t have to declare exactly what we are going to read, though we’re encouraged to, so I will see how it goes with what I have so far and maybe add the other categories later if I feel inspired to do so and have time. I did end up completing the challenge!

Up to three children’s classics may be included. The rest of the rules and information are here. Karen also has links to book list ideas for some of the categories.

The deadline to sign up for the Back to the Classics challenge is March 1, 2016;

If you are interested in reading challenges, Tim Challies has one with different levels here. I’m still thinking about it – there would be some overlap between what I am planning to read and the different categories on his list. Also, someone has put together a list of several here. The rereading and new release challenges appeal to me…but I think I am going to just stick to these for now.

Do you make reading plans for the year, the month, the season? Jennifer had a good post about How to Make Reading Resolutions. The main key is to plan for what interests you and works with your schedule yet provides a bit of a challenge as well.

(Sharing at Semicolon‘s Saturday Review of Books)

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The Laura Ingalls Wilder Reading Challenge 2016

Posted on January 4, 2016 by Barbara Harper

The month of February contains the dates of Laura Ingalls Wilder’s birth and death, so it seems a fitting month to focus on her life and writings. This is our fifth year to do so, and I have enjoyed it each time. Many of us grew up reading the Little House books. I don’t know if there has ever been a time when there wasn’t interest in the Little House series since it first came out. They are enjoyable as children’s books, but they are enjoyable for adults as well. It’s fascinating to explore real pioneer roots and heartening to read of the family relationships and values.

On Feb. 1 I’ll have a sign-up post where you can let us know if you’ll be participating and what you’d like to read. That way we can peek in on each other through the month and see how it’s going (that’s half the fun of a reading challenge). You can read anything by or about Laura. You can read alone or with your children or a friend. You can read just one book or several throughout the month — whatever works with your schedule. If you’d like to prepare some food or crafts or activities somehow relating to Laura or her books, that would be really neat too. In the past I think some have made food or clothing from the styles of the day: Annette even had a Little House-themed birthday party for one of her daughters, (and, unrelated to the challenge but just from her own interest she started the Little House Companion blog: you might find some neat ideas for activities and Laura-related books there.

On Feb 29 I’ll have a wrap-up post so you can link back to any posts you’ve written for the challenge or to a wrap-up post. You do not have to have a blog to participate: if you don’t, you can just share with us in the comments that day what you’ve read.

Need some ideas beyond the Little House books themselves? Annette, as I mentioned, has shared several books for children here. I compiled a list of Books Related to Laura Ingalls Wilder, and some others are listed in the comments. Laura fan extraordinaire and historian Melanie Stringer has a treasure trove of information at Meet Laura Ingalls Wilder.

I don’t know how many more years I will continue to host this challenge – at least the next couple, and I’ll reevaluate then. I encourage you to join in before it’s all over – and this year you even have an extra day in February in which to read! 🙂

Have fun gathering your materials and planning what to read and do, and I’ll see you at the sign-up post on Feb. 1!

I am having trouble making a code that you can use to put the button on your site, but in the meantime, you can rightclick on the button below, click on “Save as”, then save it to your computer to use in your post. I’d appreciate your linking back to this post if you particpate in the challenge. Thanks!

Favorite Books of 2015

Posted on December 30, 2015 by Barbara Harper

When I make up my list of books read for the year, I aim to choose about ten favorites, but I give myself permission to go higher or lower, depending on the books. 🙂 Here are my favorite books of the 68 read this year (but not published this year); each title links back to my review of it. They are favorites for different reasons. I may not have agreed with every point in every book, but each book greatly informed, helped, encouraged, touched, or convicted me in a big way.

Running Scared: Fear, Worry, and the God of Rest by Edward T. Welch. This would be my #1, top favorite, most helpful book read this year.

Out of a Far Country: A Gay Son’s Journey to God. A Broken Mother’s Search for Hope by Christopher and Angela Yuan. This would probably be #2. So astounding the way God brought both mother and son to Himself.

The rest of the books are in no particular order.

Becoming More Than a Good Bible Study Girl by Lysa TerKeurst was not necessarily about getting more out of your Bible reading, though that’s discussed: it’s more about “to move Bible study from our to-do list and just acquiring knowledge, to living out what God is teaching us, to enjoy a deeper connection with God.”

Being Mortal: Medicine and What Matters In the End by Atul Gawand. As I said in my review, if you plan on getting old or dying or helping parents as they age, you need to read this book. The author and I look at life from different worldviews, so I didn’t agree with every single point, but I so appreciated his honest look at aging and death and the multitudes of facets of it to think about.

The Girls of Atomic City: The Untold Story of the Women Who Helped Win World War II by Denise Kiernan was a fascinating look at the then-secret complex involved in processing uranium for the first atomic bomb – only most of the employees had no idea what that’s what they were doing until after the bomb was dropped.

I Dared to Call Him Father: The Miraculous Story of a Muslim Woman’s Encounter with God by Bilquis Sheikh. Bilquis was a Pakistani Muslim woman who began studying both the Bible and the Quran, searching for truth. Understanding that the Bible portrayed God as a loving Father was pivotal in turning her to faith in Jesus Christ.

Knowing God by J. I. Packer. I don’t know how I missed it all these years, but it definitely deserves its place as a Christian classic.

I Deserve a Donut (And Other Lies That Make You Eat) and Taste For Truth: A 30 Day Weight Loss Bible Study by Barb Raveling. I appreciate Barb’s straightforward style and the truths she brought out of her studies of the Bible. I need to reread them again already.

Walking With God in the Season of Motherhood by Melissa B. Kruger. I first read this because of a link I saw to a post on Melissa’s blog in order to see if I could recommend it to you moms and became convicted and instructed myself.

The Little Prince by Antoine de Saint-Exupéry started out really odd to me, but as the themes began to emerge and the layers unfolded, I loved it.

The Yearling by Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings is about a young boy who adopts a pet fawn, but on another level it’s about his own growing up. Loved this on many levels.

The Butterfly and the Violin by Kristy Cambron is about the search for the story behind a painting of a young woman with piercing eyes, a shaved head, and a number tattooed on her wrist holding a violin. A gripping, fascinating, heart-breaking, yet beautiful story.

The Swan House by Elizabeth Musser has several threads, but it’s mainly about a teen-age girl from a wealthy family in Atlanta in the 1960s facing family tragedy, becoming aware that her mother may have a more serious problem than an artistic temperament, becoming aware of the black community, and developing her faith. I love the two Musser books I have read and need to read the others.

Taken by Dee Henderson tells about a long-missing kidnap victim who escapes and then helps an investigator find and capture the people involved, who are part of a large network of abductors. Dee’s books are always fascinating to me, both in the story and in the characters journey of faith.

The Screwtape Letters by C. S. Lewis. This is another classic I just got to this year. Lewis’s cleverness as a writer and thinker shines here, and his way of expressing truth from the Enemy’s point of view really makes one think.

Most of the books I read this year affected me for the better in some way, but these stood out above the rest.

What were your favorite books read this year?

Sharing at

Booking Through Thursday

And

Semicolon‘s Saturday Review of Books

Books Read in 2015

Posted on December 30, 2015 by Barbara Harper

At the end of the year I like to list the books I’ve read, for my own records and to remind myself of them. This is something I would be doing anyway, but Sherry at Semicolon invites us this Saturday to share any kinds of books lists – all we’ve read, or just favorites, or reading plans for the coming year, or whatever – in the usual Saturday Review of Books space.

I’ve divided these into a few genres and alphabetized them the old-school way I was taught, disregarding articles at the beginning. Each title links back to my review – or should, if I haven’t messed them up. 🙂 I haven’t differentiated between audiobooks and paper ones, but many of the classics and a few of the other fiction titles were audiobooks. Even with audiobooks, though, I looked at many passages of the book in print either from a Kindle version, library copy, or a Project Gutenberg online edition of the book.

Shortly I’ll have a post up with my favorites from these lists.

Non-fiction:

365 Meditations for Grandmothers by Grandmothers from six different authors
Becoming More Than a Good Bible Study Girl by Lysa TerKeurst
Being Mortal: Medicine and What Matters In the End by Atul Gawande
Better To Be Broken by Rick Huntress
A Captain’s Duty: Somali Pirates, Navy Seals, and Dangerous Days at Sea by Richard Phillips
Caregiver Devotions To Go by Gigi Murfitt
Daily Light on the Daily Path, not reviewed
Everyday Grace: Infusing All Your Relationships With the Love of Jesus by Jessica Thompson
Feeding Your Appetites: Taking Control of What’s Controlling You by Stephen Arterburn
Gentle Savage Still Seeking the End of the Spear: The Autobiography of a Killer and the Oral History of the Waorani by Menkaye Aenkaedi with Kemo and Dyowe
The Girls of Atomic City: The Untold Story of the Women Who Helped Win World War II by Denise Kiernan
He Is There and He Is Not Silent by Francis Schaeffer
I Dared to Call Him Father: The Miraculous Story of a Muslim Woman’s Encounter with God by Bilquis Sheikh
Growing Up Amish: A Memoir by Ira Wagler
I Deserve a Donut (And Other Lies That Make You Eat) by Barb Raveling
Knowing God by J. I. Packer
A Million Little Ways: Uncover the Art You Were Made to Live by Emily Freeman
The Monday Morning Club: You’re Not Alone — Encouragement For Women in Ministry by Claudia Barba
My Emily by Matt Patterson
The Narnian: The Life and Imagination of C. S. Lewis by Alan Jacobs
Out of a Far Country: A Gay Son’s Journey to God. A Broken Mother’s Search for Hope by Christopher and Angela Yuan
The Problem of Pain by C. S. Lewis
The Pound a Day Diet by Rocco DiSpirito
The Pursuit of God by A. W. Tozer
Running Scared: Fear, Worry, and the God of Rest by Edward T. Welch
She Is Mine: A War Orphan’s Incredible Journey of Survival by Stephanie Fast
Songs of the Morning: Stories and Poems for Easter compiled by Pat Alexander
Taste For Truth: A 30 Day Weight Loss Bible Study by Barb Raveling
Walking With God in the Season of Motherhood by Melissa B. Kruger

Classics:

All Creatures Great and Small by James Herriot
By the Shores of Silver Lake by Laura Ingalls Wilder
The Case-Book of Sherlock Holmes by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
The Dead Secret by Wilkie Collins
Emily Climbs by L. M. Montgomery
Grimm’s Fairy Tales (only about 14 of them)
His Last Bow: Some Later Reminiscences of Sherlock Holmes by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
Little Dorrit by Charles Dickens
The Little Prince by Antoine de Saint-Exupéry
The Long Winter by Laura Ingalls Wilder
The Masqueraders by Georgette Heyer
Pygmalion by George Bernard Shaw
Quo Vadis: A Narrative of the Time of Nero by Henryk Sienkiewicz
The Screwtape Letters by C. S. Lewis
The Valley of Fear by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
The Yearling by Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings
War and Peace by Leo Tolstoy

Christian fiction:

The Butterfly and the Violin by Kristy Cambron
The Captive Maiden by Melanie Dickerson
Child of Mine by David and Beverly Lewis
Christmas Lessons by Patty Smith Hall
Christy by Catherine Marshall
Come Rain or Come Shine by Jan Karon
Emma, Mr. Knightly, and Chili Slaw Dogs by Mary Hathaway
The Fairest Beauty by Melanie Dickerson
Forever Christmas by Robert Tate Miller
Lizzy and Jane by Katherine Reay
A Promise Kept by Robin Lee Hatcher
The River by Beverly Lewis
Strait of Hormuz by Davis Bunn
The Swan House by Elizabeth Musser
Taken by Dee Henderson
Things We Once Held Dear by Ann Tatlock
Through Waters Deep by Sarah Sundin
To See the Moon Again by Jamie Langston Turner
To Whisper Her Name by Tamera Alexander
Where Treetops Glisten: Three Stories of Heartwarming Courage and Christmas Romance During World War II by Cara Putnam, Sarah Sundin, and Tricia Goyer

Other Fiction:

The Incorrigible Children of Ashton Place, Book 5: The Unmapped Sea by Maryrose Wood
The Sweetness at the Bottom of the Pie by Alan Bradley

By my count, that’s 68, 14 of them audiobooks. I’m amazed that 28 of them are non-fiction. I don’t usually gravitate to non-fiction, but reading challenges help me incorporate them.

It’s been a good reading year, and I am already looking forward to next year!

What’s On Your Nightstand: December 2015

Posted on December 29, 2015 by Barbara Harper

The folks at 5 Minutes For Books host What’s On Your Nightstand? the last Tuesday of each month in which we can share about the books we have been reading and/or plan to read.

This is one month I am especially glad the Nightstand posts were moved to the last Tuesday of the month – I don’t think I would have gotten one in last week! It’s been a fun and busy month, but I am thankful for quiet moments of reading here and there.

Since last time I have completed:

The Yearling by Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings, audiobook, reviewed here. Loved this – it is now one of my favorite classics.

The Butterfly and the Violin by Kristy Cambron, reviewed here. Excellent!

Caregiver Devotions To Go by Gigi Murfitt, reviewed here. Very good.

A few of Grimm’s Fairy Tales for Carrie‘s Reading to Know Classics Book Club for November, reviewed here. I knew I wouldn’t be able to get the whole book in, but I enjoyed several more stories than I had thought I would.

Forever Christmas by Robert Tate Miller, reviewed here. Very nice.

Christmas Lessons by Patty Smith Hall, short review here. It was ok.

365 Meditations for Grandmothers by Grandmothers from six different authors, short review here. Not recommended.

All Creatures Great and Small by James Herriot, audiobook, reviewed here. Enjoyed it.

I’m currently reading:

Gilead by Marilynne Robinson. It is still slow going, but I am getting more from it now.

Why Christ Came: 31 Meditations on the Incarnation by Joel R. Beeke

A Prairie Christmas Collection: 9 Historical Christmas Romances from America’s Great Plains by authors including Tracie Peterson and Deborah Raney.

Next Up:

I am not entirely sure yet. I’ve been thinking over reading plans and challenges for the next year but haven’t worked out my plans yet. But I know at some point I’ll be taking in these Christmas presents along with the chocolates beside them. 🙂

I’ll be working on year-end book lists and favorite books of the year in the next couple of days.

Christmas afterglow and a few short reviews

Posted on December 28, 2015 by Barbara Harper

We had a wonderful Christmas week and even some extended time with my oldest son – not only was he scheduled to be here a couple of days more than normal, but his flight out got canceled, so he was here for another night. I was thankful it was his first leg of the flight that was cancelled and not the second, so he could spend the time at home and not in an airport halfway there.

As you can imagine, little Timothy was the delight of this Christmas. At the last couple of family birthdays, he was really into this presents thing and was right in the middle of whosever presents they were, so I thought he’d suffer significant sensory overload with everybody getting presents. He happened to open a little kid-sized chair we had gotten for him first, and that worked out well, because he was delighted to sit in it the rest of the time. He loved opening his gifts but didn’t feel the need to help everyone else open theirs. His reactions were so cute. I wish I could upload a video without having to go through YouTube or Vimeo – his unwrapping of a stuffed dog was particularly sweet. Over the weekend we enjoyed tons of food, family time together, rewatching the first three Star Wars DVDs (and deciding we liked Star Trek better generally), playing Settlers of Catan, bowling, and visiting. And though it was all lovely, I think everyone is glad to be getting back to the routine today. I am personally reveling that there is no place I have to go today and nothing that has to get done besides laundry, dinner, and dishes, though I do hope to accomplish more than that.

Here is our yearly photo, in front of the house this time instead of in front of the tree:

Christmas 2015

We couldn’t get Timothy to smile, so we just said he was being very thoughtful. 🙂

In this transition week from the old year to the new, I’m going to have some posts later in the week about favorite books read this year and some of my favorite posts from the year. Before that, though, I have a few reviews I need to wrap up. I was actually hoping to have a couple more, but couldn’t quite get them finished yet.

Christmas Lessons by Patty Smith Hall is about a teacher named Claire who uses a cane as a result of contracting polio. She had broken off her engagement with Billy Warner some years earlier without giving him a reason: she had the absurd notion that her disability would hold him back in his coaching career. We’re not told until later in the book why she thought this. Suddenly Billy is back in town as the new coach at the school where she teaches, and the principal teams them together to work on a Christmas project. Of course, you can guess where the plot goes from there. It was just a touch predictable, and there were a few odd grammar issues (like “The old coach would have saw her” instead of “seen her), but overall it was a good, clean, Christian-based story.

I picked up 365 Meditations for Grandmothers by Grandmothers from a clearance table long before I ever became a grandmother. I rediscovered it at the end of last year and, having a new first grandbaby, thought it would be a perfect time to read it.

It is authored by six different women, each penning two months’ worth of devotional thoughts about grandparenting. Each day’s selection includes a Bible verse, a couple of paragraphs, and a closing prayer.

Though there were a few good nuggets here and there, unfortunately, this is not a book I can recommend. My notes in the margins contain a number of question marks, “X” marks (meaning I thought something was wrong or off about a passage), and the phrase “wrong application.” The last is the biggest problem with this book. Sometimes what the devotional had to say was fine: even though it was a misapplication of what the quoted verse was saying, it was sometimes something that the Bible did say somewhere else. But sometimes it was totally wrong. Sometimes there were questions raised that didn’t need to be raised, like whether Paul was the author of 2 Timothy. Sometimes the gospel was clear; sometimes it was obscured or even contradicted; for example, one page says it is important to “help our grandchildren become like Jesus so that they will have a personal relationship with God” (p. 238) rather than showing them how to have a relationship with Jesus so that He can make them like Himself. Sometimes it’s just odd, like one devotional on Isaiah 55:10, about God’s Word being like the snow and rain that comes down from heaven and accomplishes God’s purpose, where the author goes on to say, “Can you imagine looking up into the sky and seeing God’s Word coming down from the sky? We can run into the fields like the birds and catch His Word as it falls from the sky” (p. 254). That paragraph earned a question mark beside it.

I was disappointed in the book early on but kept with it because, with six authors, I felt some parts of it would have to be better than others. I probably should not have: after the first few weeks I probably should have looked at representative excerpts from each of the others and then decided whether or not to keep it. If you know of a good devotional for grandmothers, let me know: sadly, this is not one of them.

Finally for today, I just finished listening to All Creatures Great and Small by James Herriot. I had enjoyed a few episodes of the old BBC series based on the books years ago but then had forgotten about them until Melanie mentioned them.

Herriot is a pen name for James Alfred Wight, and I was surprised to learn that the books are only semi-autobiographical. Maybe that was to protect the anonymity of the people he wrote about. But they are largely based on his experiences as vet in the Yorkshire area for 30 years, beginning in the 1930s.

In the books he starts out as an assistant for Sigfried Farnon, whom he describes as brilliant yet mercurial and extremely forgetful. Mostly he is very kind, though many frustrating yet comedic moments arise due to his forgetfulness. Soon Sigfried’s brother, Tristan, comes to live with them: he is an idle vet school dropout whom Sigfried keeps forgetting that he has kicked out. James’s vet skills are put to the test right away with farmers who often trust old folk remedies rather than veterinary science. In one of my favorite parts of the book, one farmer tells of putting onions in his horse’s rectum for some kind of cure, but his horse became “uneasy in the legs.” Sigfried told him he’d be uneasy in the legs, too, if someone had put onions in his rectum.

Another favorite passage is when James is invited to an elite social gathering hosted by a wealthy lady whose beloved and spoiled dog, Tricky Woo, had been treated by James. After the unfamiliar yet pleasant experiences of the evening, James is awakened in the middle of the night to come to one of the poorest farms in the district. As he contemplates the differences between the highs and lows of the night, he acknowledges that being a vet even in the most humble circumstances is where he is at home.

Sometimes his job has him nearly pulling his hair out in frustration and wondering why anyone would choose that profession, but most of the time he loves it and feels he has the best job in the world.

I enjoyed his descriptions of the Yorkshire area and people – warm, hospitable, honest, hardworking, almost a little stoic, and thrifty.

Along the way he meets a Helen Alderson, and although he hasn’t had time to think about dating much, something clicks with Helen despite two disastrous, yet humorously told, first dates.

The only flaws in the book are a fair amount of swearing and alcohol consumption, but overall it’s a funny, poignant, and heartwarming set 0f tales.

(This review will also be linked to Semicolon‘s Saturday Review of Books.)