A Tree, A Book, and A Breeze

Martyr’s Fire Sigmund Brouwer Waterbrook It’s almost a little funny how I’ve managed to read all three books in this series. When I first picked up The Orphan King , it was on a whim, and I wasn’t really planning to read the rest of the series. But each of these books managed to be available at just the right time for me to have access to them, and by now I suppose I should finish out the series! The whole idea that Thomas doesn’t know who is on his team and who isn’t- and so not being willing to trust anyone- kind of drives me up the wall. As the reader, I know that a certain character is a good guy, so I keep wanting to pull out my hair screeching, “Stop fighting this person! They’re okay!” Of course, I know that this isn’t Thomas’s fault. After all, he doesn’t get to see inside other people’s minds the way the reader does. Oh, and did I mention Robin Hood made a cameo appearance in this novel? Bonus points there ;) However, one thing that I’ve noticed about all ...

Every Waking Moment Chris Fabry Tyndale House Treha Langsam is a mysterious young woman who has fallen through the cracks, much like many of the elderly people she works with at Desert Gardens Retirement Home. But Miriam Howard, director of the facility, sees her extraordinary gift and untapped potential. Treha is a whisperer of sorts, calling those who have slipped into dementia back to a life of vibrant, if only temporary, clarity. When Treha's and Miriam's stories intertwine with a documentary team looking for stories of the elderly, Treha's gift is uncovered, and the search begins for answers to the mysteries of her past. As their paths converge, each person is forced to face the same difficult question: What if this is as good as my life gets? If you haven’t noticed, I’ve been trying to read and review some more contemporary fiction. I’ve read so many pieces of historical fiction that they’re all starting to seem the same to me, so I’ve been shaking ...

Kerry Grace Livingston Hill Barbour When I first made the leap from the children’s section to the adult section of our pervious church’s library, Grace Livingston Hill was one of the first authors that I tried. Her stories were a sweet, clean breath of fresh air. Even though they can be (for lack of a better word) a bit sappy, there is something very pure about them, and I love the old-fashioned way they are written. I’ve read dozens of her books, but I don’t think I’d ever picked up Kerry , so when I saw it available on netgalley, being re-released from Barbour Publishing, it was an easy choice for me. It’s been at least a couple of years since I’ve read any of Grace Livingston Hill’s books, so I was wondering if they were as good as I had remembered. The thing about her novels is that they never pretend to be anything they aren’t: they’re just sweet stories with a very strong message about Christ. Somehow, Grace Livingston Hill manages to include a strong Gospel...

Healer of Carthage Lynne Gentry Howard A modern-day doctor gets trapped in third-century Carthage, Rome, where she uncovers buried secrets, confronts Christian persecution, and battles a deadly epidemic to save the man she loves. One thing in this book that really bothered/confused/annoyed me was the way Lisbeth treated her mother. Lisbeth kept behaving as though her mother had abandoned her on purpose , which was ridiculous. Magdelena had accidently fallen in time the same way Lisbeth had, so it seemed spoiled and silly for Lisbeth to be so begrudging. I mean, Lisbeth didn’t have all the facts. For all she knew, it was impossible to get back to their correct time, so why was she so mad at her mother for not coming back? And for someone with a lot of head knowledge about the Roman world, Lisbeth didn’t seem to really understand how the people behaved and acted. However, as the book went on, she did become more likable. Also, it’s normally hard for me to really ...

Greetings From the Flipside Rene Gutteridge and Cheryl McKay B&H Hope Landon has been rewriting other people's greeting cards since she was six years old -- there's always a funnier caption. She's all set to chase those creative dreams with her musician fiance in New York City until he leaves Hope at the altar, deciding he must not really love this girl if he can't write a song for her. That may give her something to write about . . . Hope disappears alone on what was supposed to be the couple's monthlong honeymoon. Upon returning she learns of her funeral -- everyone in her life concluded Hope must have killed herself after being jilted. Needing a fresh start more than ever, she heads for the Big Apple only to discover it's not that easy to rent a place when you've been declared dead. I got this book because it looked cute and funny, but it was NOTHING like I expected. At all. The book blurb is really misleading. It tells you, tech...

Winter in Full Bloom Anita Higman River North When I first saw this book, I thought it was a historical novel; however, when I clicked on it, I found out that it was, in fact, a contemporary. Anyway, I shrugged, thought, “why not?” and so requested this title for review. The book immediately got my attention with the first chapter. Anita Higman’s writing was quirky and relatable, although it was really hard for me to imagine someone spilling their heart out to complete strangers the way Lily did. That just ‘does not compute’ in my mind- I can’t imagine just meeting someone on a plane and then spilling out my heart to them (although I know that does happen!) This book deals with some heavy issues (most of them family-related) and I wouldn’t recommend it to younger readers for that reason, but also I don’t think it would be as interesting to them, anyway. Winter in Full Bloom still wasn’t quite my cup of tea; it was a lot about relationships, issues with family (esp...

Return to Me Lynn Austin Bethany House The strength of this book was probably the fact that you can tell that the author has been to the Holy Land; many of her descriptions were very detailed about Israel and its culture. Though I’d need to re-read the books of Zechariah, Haggai, and Ezra before saying whether or not it was accurate to the Biblical accounts, nothing stood out as being grossly inaccurate. (And the Bible references used in this story are located in the back of the book, so you can easily look them up) I really wanted to like Iddo, but I just couldn’t. He just seemed really pushy to me, and I know it sounds terrible because nothing is more important than the Lord, but many times he seemed more concerned with building the temple than with his family. I did like Zechariah, but all of the characters annoyed me at one time or another. Sometimes I wanted to shake Yael and *SPOILER* when she finally gave up her sorcery and turned to the Lord, it seemed as...

The Brontë Sisters: The Brief Lives of Charlotte, Emily, and Anne Catherine Reef Clarion Books I originally got this book because, as I’ve mentioned on my other blog, I’ve never cared overmuch for the Brontë’s novels, and I was hoping that by reading about their lives I would understand and like them better. As I must admit after reading this book that though I do understand them better, I wouldn’t say I liked them better. However, I did like this biography. It was on the shorter side, and included some nice pictures and even some photographs. For someone who knew very little other than a few basic facts about the family (especially on Emily and Anne- I think most classic literature fans know at least a little about Charlotte), this book was informative. I probably would have liked it to have been a little longer, as I like a tad bit more detail, but as all of the Brontë siblings tragically lived such short lives, I suppose it’s only to be expected that their biogra...

The Mysterious Benedict Society Trenton Lee Stewart Little, Brown, and Company Not long ago, Petie posted a bit of a mini-review of this book, and since she recommended it, I decided to try it out- and am I glad I did! The Mysterious Benedict Society was quirky and altogether delightful. It was one of the few young adult novels I’ve read that’s been completely clean (even though it’s categorized as YA, it’s about a group of younger, more middle-grade kids) and I enjoyed every minute of it! Near the last half I was totally getting a bit of Doctor Who déjà vu, though (Seriously, there were some elements that really reminded me of the season finale of series three. Totally) But I wouldn’t say that’s a bad thing. ;) I’ve read a couple other books that began wonderfully and mysteriously like this one only to peter out and either become too creepy or too boring for me to go on, but this one was a perfect mix of excitement, science fiction, and old-fashioned fun....