and the Shofar Blew

 and the Shofar Blew
by Francine Rivers
441 pages hardback
2003

Recently I was at a missions conference and while talking with a couple of ladies I had just met and the subject turned to good books.  The novel The Atonement Child by Francine Rivers was highly praised.  Excited about getting a good recommendation, I returned back to Houston and looked for it at the church library; it was not there so I chose and the Shofar Blew instead. 

Before I got through the first chapter I felt like I had read the book before (there is not too many stories out there that have a zealous Christian leader named Paul whose son was Timothy and Timothy's mom's name was Euny (short for Eunice) and Lois as a grandmother).  As the ending did not stand out to me, I filped to the back of the book, read a few pages and decided that I never finished it.  A few more chapters of reading made me guess why.  It is not a very happy story.  Actually, for most of the pages it is down-right discouraging.  But as timing would have it, I started a migraine (sometimes if the headache subside a bit, reading helps to pass the time, especially through the nights when the pain is too great for sleep to come), anyway, I worked my way through about 15 painful years of what happens to a life of a family and community when a pastor looses sight of growing God's church and grows his own power-hungry ego instead. 

To her credit, Francine Rivers' characters are authentic and consistent throughout the story and as always in her books, redemption's theme rings true.  For that I'm grateful.  But it does not make me any too excited to be a pastor's wife.  But then again, my husband is not Paul and I do not play the piano, so if that is what God wants of me, I pray I have ears to hear and a heart to obey.

This is probably not going to be the first book would recommend, yet I do hope to get the chance to read The Atonement Child someday.  I have read several books by Francine Rivers through the years (A Voice in the Wind, An Echo in the Darkness, As Sure as the Dawn, Leota's Garden, Redeeming Love, The Last Sin Eater) and each of these stories, with wide range of settings and plots, captivated me immensely.  If you have not read a Francine Rivers novel, pick one up, but be fore-warned they are not for the faint of heart.

Shades of Blue

Shades of Blue

Karen Kingsbury
333 pages paperback
2009

Because I had not yet read a novel by Karen Kingsbury, when I asked for assistance at the library at Houston’s First, I was shown the shelf of her many novels.  I chose Shades of Blue because of the subtitle, “sometimes hope lies somewhere in the…shades of blue”.  The story does offer hope and allows readers to really feel the situation of life lived without hope of a young teacher who ten years earlier made a decision where the consequences left deep scars and daily pain and a sense of unworthiness.  The story basically takes place over a three-day weekend at a North Carolina beach in present day.  And if you tried, you can picture the blues of where the water and the sky meet.  Restoring hope is offered.  Will it be accepted?  Will there be the kind of forgiveness and redemption that allows for full life to go forward?  If so, what does that look like for this teacher and her returning high school boyfriend (who at this time is engaged to another woman)? 

Karen Kingsbury does a good job with character development and through these characters she is able to bring about awareness of looking at circumstances from several viewpoints. This was a very fast read for me because in a way I felt drawn into these circumstances and I wanted to see how life would unfold for these new friends of mine.
After reading the book, I wondered if Karen Kingsbury was aiming at a particular audience.  Was she preaching to the choir so to speak, or trying to persuade young people to be careful in their choices or seeking to admonish older people how wise council and compassion is needed to help others?  I wonder, do most authors have particular readers in mind when they write?  I was surprised that at the end of the book, the author writes a letter to her readers sharing personal information that spurred her on in the writing of the novel.  I am unsure of whom to recommend this novel to, although I was thankful that I read it. I was even teary-eyed in a few places and yet at the same time glad that there was not a sequel, for the conclusion left a strong enough sense of closure.

His First Bible

His First Bible
by Karla Minick
132 pages paperback
2006


The goal of this book is four-fold; firstly, I wrote it to bring about awareness to our prayer partners, and other readers, of the need for the Shan Dai to have a Bible in their language. Secondly, the concept was to take a theme or principle from the Bible and then (thirdly) couple it with an aspect of Dai life so that with this insight an opportunity to pray for the various situations Dai people face is provided (the forth objective of the book).  So I began with the blessings of God from Genesis, and then searched out the treasurers of the following 65 books of the Bible, concluding in Revelation with the promise that one day all will be worshiping God around his throne for he is worthy.
Although this book went to print the end of 2006 it continues to be written as prayer after prayer can be recorded on the journal's pages.
God, I pray still for the completion of your word to be translated for the Shan Dai (presently Luke has been completed and is in the hands of Dai believers and Acts is nearing completion and Titus has just gone through more correction).  I ask for your wisdom to be continually provided to the translators.  I also pray for the Shan Dai to value your word and in reading and studying have a better idea of you, your love and how life can be lived with joy and purpose.
An added bonus to me has been to reread the prayers I have written on these journal pages over the years rejoicing in God's faithfulness.

Deadline

When we lived in China we took a train to Beijing from Kunming and back again.  At the time, Randy Alcorn's novel Safely Home (about Chinese Christians) added great food for thought as we covered many miles of Chinese terrain and I would highly recommend it. So, when I was ready for a novel to read Alcorn's name stood out on the library shelf and I choose Deadline.  Instead of having a write-up of the story line on the back cover, the space was used to say how good the book is (and how good his next book is too.)  That should have tipped me off, but I chose it anyway. For a first novel, it was not bad, I just did not connect well with the characters or their life choices and when the last page was read, I felt more like, "glad that is done" rather than "oh, I'm going to miss them all".  But, if you would like to read about a selfish 50-year old Vietnam Vet who is now a columnist, whose two best friends (one a radical Christian, the other a radical pagan) die in a car accident that was not an accident, than this book might be just for you. It is a detective story and does well to give all the pieces to solve the puzzles, bit by bit. As life is complex, so are the issues covered in this story and it did try to cover quite a few.  In my opinion, the main character, Jake, begins to have some healthy self-awareness on pages 282-283 and I will write what was written to give you an idea about the "hero".  Jake had never thought about Rory's family.  Rory was a one-dimensional fixture in his world like the holodeck images on Star Trek:The Next Generation, as when Jake left Lou's Diner, Rory didn't have a life.  He existed just to round out one little corner of Jake's world.  Open-minded as he liked to think of himself, Jake was beginning to realize he seldom saw any place or anything from someone else's point of view.  He was always the main character. The rest of the world had a supporting role or no role at all.  It struck him as a strange and selfish way to live.   But he goes on living that way for nearly 100 more pages.
The other dynamic to the story is the spiritual dimension that the dead (now fully alive) Christian friend brings interspersed throughout the chapters.  I found it ironic though that readers need to wait until the end of chapter 28 to get a glimpse of the life-after for the pagan friend.
Published in 1994, the story was written in present-day style. It consistently depicts awareness of life as it was lived and offers hope for a society in need.  According to pages of reader's responds to Deadline, many really loved this book, for me it fell a bit flat.

Deadline
by Randy Alcorn
426 pages, paperback
1994

The Story Teller ~ Promises

Promises was recommended to me by my friend Raffia who received it from our friend Kellie and although it has taken me forever to read (first started it on a plane to Burma, then took it on into China and finished it up in Thailand) I'm so glad that I read it on  through, enjoying several chapters as I hula-hooped.

The man with a hundred wrinkles tells the history of Israel in an ongoing camp-fire chat with small gathering of freinds from the People of Promise. He begins with king Jeroboam II all the way through to the birth of the One who "shall be a great king of the royal line of Shepherd. He shall conqueer every kingdom and heal every hurt and bring peace to the Blue Planet."

This book comes complete with a glossary for important names and places and the reading of the story then is fresh and intriguing.  Promises is one book of four in the Story Tellers Series.


Promises
by Steve Stevens
paperback 204 pages
2000

The Princess

If you are looking for a light, make-believe, modern-day fairy tale (but without the fairy, well other then Fairy Cakes, a white cake and frosting confection), then The Princess might be just the read for you. Hannah loaned to me her paperback copy saying I would like it.  Author Lori Wick never kept me from sleeping but the story was a great one to pick up and set down again, reading a page here, a chapter there until the happily ever after ending 294 pages later.  It all begins in the kingdom of Pendaran with a king and queen and a prince in need of a wife.
 
Interspersed throughout the the story is prayer for and from just about all of the major characters, who, by the way, are quite likable.

Without giving away too much, here is a little summary of a speech that Princess Shelby gave to the August Garden Club, for one of her new responsibilities is to be involved with kingdom events.  She begins with sharing how she grew up with memories of her parents enjoying their flower gardens each spring and how the sound of the honey bees would send her mother running for fear of being stung, but her father, who was deaf from birth did not flee the noise of the bees.  Shelby then goes on to say, "I found myself asking, 'What do I listen to that causes me to fear?  It might seem like a small thing to you, but over the years the sight of flowers or trees has often helped me remember to whom I should listen when it comes to the subject of fear..." You can read more of her garden talk on pages 84-85, and the response she receives from Prince Nikolai, who is still acutely mourning the death of his first wife as he is getting to know his second wife from an arranged marriage.

The Princess
Lori Wick
294 pages, paperback
1999 (republished in 2006)

No Wonder They Call Him the Savior

I was at our monthly dinner/discussion group and the article we were reviewing focused on what in Norway is called "Jesus Meditation", basically a type of imaginative reading of the Bible where you put yourself in the scene and try to picture it with all of your senses. You seek to see the scene with your inner eye while praying to and worshiping Jesus as if you were one of those involved.  When we were leaving, I asked the group if there is an author that is good at writing in this way, and Max Lucado was recommended.      


Max Lucado, author of several books, writes No Wonder They Call Him The Savior and then for 164 pages he gives 33 short, creative examples of how the Savior is who he is and what that means to a world that is in need of such a Savior. He divides the book in thirds with parts called the cross:its words, the cross:its witnesses, the cross:its wisdom.

  

My favorite bit was called: God’s Testimony. Max Lucado brings the reader along on a trip to the out woods of Rio de Janeiro for a day in God’s creation away from the bustling city. He talked with a 70-plus year old farmer and suggests getting out of the libraries, lay down our pens and step into creation to experience a fresh miracles that happen all around us.  He wrote that the time with the farmer reminds us, “there is a certain understanding of God on the cross that comes only with witnessing his daily testimony.”  The last vignette was also very meaningful. The night that Jesus returns to the locked upper room is imaginatively described and what I liked best was the outcome of that incredible encounter with the risen Lord Jesus. (This one was called The Roar).    

As the short stories do not build on one another and each has their own theme, I suggest reading them one at a time to savor the meaning, maybe over the course of a month.  The book was written in 1986 and some stories and use of language is dated to that time period, but most show forth timeless truths that inspire. 

No Wonder They Call Him the Savior
by Max Lucado
164 pages; paperback
2009

Eve's Daughters

Here it was several weeks into January and I still had not read a book this year..i was craving a good read.  I remembered a post on facebook from my friend Donna D (our friendship began in our post-married, pre-baby days of living in Dallas) and her status was something like curled up on these cold days with a good book.  when i questioned what she was reading lately, she replied, she loved the historical fictions by Lynn Austin.  Our school's library had one Lynn Austin book on the shelf, so that made the choice easy :) and without even reading the back cover of the book, i delved into the life of Louise, a newly married woman living in pre-world war one Germany.  
pages turned easy as the story took you forward and backward over an eighty plus year span into the life of 4 generations of woman, all with choices to make. The preface was from Exodus 20:5 ...I lay the sins of the parents upon their children; the entire family is affected—even children in the third and fourth generations of those who reject me....so that was a clue that not all these choices were easy or good ones.
Getting involved with the lives of Louise, her daughter Emma, her daughter Grace and her daughter Suzanne (who also had two daughters) continues to cause me to ponder who am i in this chain of generational daughters... daughters that go back to the first woman Eve...how did the choices of the daughters before me effect me and what are the effects of my choices on the daughters that come after me....Needless to say, I enjoyed the book and toward the end found myself reading until after 3:00 am (what was I thinking having coffee before bed?). Thank you, Donna, for helping me to start out new year 2011 with good perspective from a well written story.

Eve's Daughters
author: Lynn Austin
paperback;  428 pages
1999