This week I read...
Jeremiah 8-20 in the ESV Thinline Bible
Sunday, July 25, 2010
Wednesday, July 21, 2010
Book Review: Courting Morrow Little
Courting Morrow Little by Laura Frantz. 2010. Revell. 368 pages.First line from the prologue:
Red River, KentuckeJuly 1765Morrow paused on the river trail to wipe her brow with the hem of her linsey shift. It was a true Kentucke July, and the woods were hot as a hearth, the leaves of the elms and oaks and sycamores curling for lack of water, the dust beneath her bare feet fine as flour. Even the river seemed like bathwater, its surface still and unbroken as green glass.
From the first chapter:
Fort Pitt, PennsylvaniaJune 1778Morrow took out a painted paper fan, her gloved hands trembling, and recalled the look of horror on her aunt's face moments before when she'd embarked, as if she'd stepped into a coffin instead of a keelboat.
Morrow Little, our heroine, was just a young girl when Shawnee warriors murdered her mother and baby sister and kidnapped her brother Jess. Morrow and Pa were spared--being away from the cabin--but they're haunted nonetheless by what they found that summer day. When the novel opens, Morrow is a young woman. She's had a few years in the East with her aunt. She's learned how to be a lady, a woman. Now, she's returning to her father, to Kentucke.
If it was up to her aunt, she'd never step foot on the frontier ever again. But Morrow feels her place is with her father, who's not in the best of health.
Once she arrives, Morrow finds many men in the community are smitten with her. Though not all think she's equally prepared for the harshness of frontier life. No one is more smitten than the determined soldier, Major McKie. But McKie would not be her choice for her husband. Nor her father's choice. Yet he has a way of intimidating Morrow's other suitors.
Her father wants to see his daughter married. Not because he doesn't love her. He does. But because he knows he's dying. And before he dies, he wants to be sure that his daughter will have a home, will have someone to care for her, someone to provide for her, cherish her. He doesn't want her to marry just anybody. He wants what is best for his daughter. And he has a good idea that Major McKie is not the one.
Who is her choice? The answer might just surprise you! It certainly surprised the community!
I just loved Laura Frantz's The Frontiersman's Daughter. It was one of my favorite reads of the year. So I was super excited to read Courting Morrow Little. And it didn't disappoint me. I loved Morrow. I loved Red Shirt. I loved the richness of this historical novel. I found it very satisfying.
Monday, July 19, 2010
Music Review: Born Again (NEWSBOYS)
I don't know how much of a review this will be. It's more like a gushing. Why? I find myself addicted to this new CD. How addicted? Well, in the three days since I bought the CD, I've probably listened to it 20 times.
I am a Newsboys fan. I've been a long-time fan. Some Newsboys' albums I love and adore. Some I like--nothing more, nothing less. And then there are the few that I become addicted to. Those with addiction status include Going Public, Take Me To Your Leader, Step Up To The Microphone, and In the Hands of God.
Michael Tait is the new lead singer. I wasn't worried. Why? Because Tait is so very, very good. I loved him in dc Talk, enjoyed his solo projects, and became a little Hero! obsessed. So I didn't doubt for a second that the CD would be good. I just didn't know how good.
The CD has twelve songs:
- Born Again
- One Shot
- Way Beyond Myself
- Impossible
- When the Boys Light Up
- Build Us Back
- Escape
- Miracles
- Running to You
- On Your Knees
- Mighty to Save
- Jesus Freak
I do have favorites. "One Shot" and "Way Beyond Myself" are battling it out for top position. Both are so addictive, so catchy. I found that even the few I didn't love at first listen--the first eight seconds of When the Boys Light Up had me scared, I must admit--soon became just as addicting.
The video for "Born Again" can be found at YouTube.
About Michael Tait joining Newsboys:
Peter Furler and Michael Tait talk together about the changes.
Sunday, July 18, 2010
Sunday Salon: Week In Review: July 11-17
This week I read
Esther 3-7 in the ESV Study Bible
Jeremiah 1-7 in the ESV Thinline Bible
Jude in the ESV Thinline Bible
Wednesday, July 14, 2010
Book Review: The Church History ABCs
The Church History ABCs: Augustine and Twenty-Five Other Heroes of the Faith. Stephen J. Nichols. Illustrated by Ned Bustard. 2010. June 2010. Crossway. 32 pages.
A is for apricot, apple and Augustine--Africa's ancient bishop.When I was a young boy, I took some pears that did not belong to me. I did not want the pears; I just enjoyed doing wrong. But God loved me and Christ died to forgive all my sin. Years later when I was serving as a bishop, I wrote two famous books. And I worked hard to remind the church that God loves us before we love him.
I wanted to like The Church History ABCs more than I did. I wanted to love it. What it sets out to do is introduce to children--elementary-age children--26 'important' church figures. Each entry is written in the first person. (The entries vary in quality.)
The 26 are not equally important. Some great men are left out while lesser men are included. In an alphabet book, it really does all come down to the first letter of the last name. Some of those included are relatively well known--Augustine, John Calvin, Jonathan Edwards, Martin Luther, Charles Spurgeon, John and Charles Wesley. Others were new-to-me like Absalom Jones, Bishop Nicholas Ridley, Zacharias Ursinus, Florence Young, and Francis Xavier. Quite a few were familiar--but not in a religious context--like Lady Jane Grey and Anne Bradstreet. The book includes men and women.
What I did not like about this one were the irrelevant examples in each entry.
E is for eggs, elephants and Jonathan Edwards.
N is for noodles, nachos, and John Newton, writer of "Amazing Grace"
If your child is old enough to comprehend the historical and religious significance of heroes of the faith, then he/she does not need to be reminded that noodles start with the letter n. Though The Church History ABCs is an 'alphabet book', it is for older children.
I also found it funny that John Owen's entry was mostly about John Bunyan and Pilgrim's Progress. Nothing about that entry tells us why Owen was significant, or what Owen believed or taught. It was all about how he played sports, and knew John Bunyan.
Book Review: The Sister Wife
The Sister Wife. Diane Noble. 2010. HarperCollins. 343 pages.
Mary Rose refused to let the sting at the back of her throat turn to tears. Instead, she drew in a deep breath and reached over her swollen stomach to pluck weeds from between the rows of cabbage seedlings.
If ever a woman had cause to cry, Mary Rose does. Her husband, Gabriel MacKay, is about to marry another woman. And not just any woman, her best friend, Bronwyn. True, both claim--for now--that it will be a marriage in name only. Both claim that they're not in love with the other. But Mary Rose suspects that a day will come, a time will come, when all that will change.
Should she leave her husband? Should she leave the faith? Would leaving 'the faith' condemn her for eternity? Mary Rose has plenty of questions. Her marriage didn't start out this way. Her love didn't start out this way. She had every reason to hope for a happily ever after. Both her and her husband were recent--very recent--converts to the faith. Neither expected that faith to come between them and their happiness. But when the Prophet mandates Gabriel to marry the recently widowed Bronwyn, their future happiness comes into question. It's not that Mary Rose doesn't love Bronwyn. She does. She loves both mother and child. But why does caring and providing for her friend mean marriage? Why should she have to share her husband not just for this life but for all eternity?
© Becky Laney of Operation Actually Read Bible
Sunday, July 11, 2010
Book Review: Touching the Clouds
Touching the Clouds. Bonnie Leon. 2010. July 2010. Revell. 320 pages.
Kate Evans pushed open the screen door and stepped onto the broad front porch of her parents' farmhouse. This was supposed to be her wedding day. Instead, her lace, floor-length gown hung in her closet.
Touching the Clouds is a historical novel set in the 1930s.
Kate is a pilot burdened by guilt. Seven years before, Kate lost her best friend. Though conditions were fine when they took off that day, conditions didn't stay that way. The bad weather, the fog, led to an accident. She crashed the plane in a lake. Her friend didn't survive. When the novel opens, Kate is getting ready to go to Alaska. She's saying goodbye to her old life--Richard--and she's ready--more than ready--to move on, to make a new start. In Alaska. She knows it won't be easy starting a new life. Being a pilot in the Alaskan bush. But it's a challenge she wants, a challenge she needs.
I loved this one. I did. I loved it. I loved Kate. I loved her humanity. She was strong and courageous in many ways. Yet, she wasn't perfect. She had doubts. She had fears. She had worries. But she chose to face them.
I loved getting to know Kate's friends as well. Including the two men in Kate's life. Mike, a fellow pilot, and Paul, a cranky (but probably-cranky-for-a-good-reason) wilderness man. She met Paul because he's on her mail route. He's a loner. And he can be temperamental. Mike, on the other hand, was such an easy guy to like. Kate likes both men. She does. But does she love one of them? Does the one she love, love her in return?
Touching the Clouds is an adventuresome historical novel. It isn't strictly a romance novel. It's so much more than that. It's a rich historical novel that does a great job with describing a place, a community, a way of life. Much of the book is dedicated to Kate's flying adventures. Flying is part of who Kate is. It's more than a job; it's more than a hobby.
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