Striving to create a home strong in the foundations of love, respect, and God's truths ...

Friday, July 30, 2010

Our Upcoming Schedule

Our schedule of events for the next few months currently looks like this:

Tuesday, August 10 - Book Club ('A Time to Mend' by Sally John and Gary Smalley

Monday, August 23 - Bible Study

Tuesday, August 31 - Book Club ('The Princess' by Lori Wick)

After that, we'll need to finalize plans for our new regular meeting day. The way I understand it, our book club schedule will then be as follows (with the meeting to occur on whatever day of this week we end up meeting):

September 28th - 'The Last Jihad' by Joel C. Rosenberg

October 26th - 'The Island of Heavenly Daze' by Lori Copeland and Angela Hunt

We have also scheduled these books and never talked about them, so perhaps these could be added again to the schedule following October:

'A Penny for Your Thoughts' by Mindy Starns Clark

'A Shred of Evidence' by Kathy Herman


Currently, all meetings are scheduled to be held at 8 PM @ Isabelle's house unless something changes.

Thursday, July 29, 2010

"Resurrection in May" by Lisa Samson

Claudius, an elderly Kentucky farmer, finds a drunken May lost along a country roadside and takes her home to care for her until she can find her way home. May, a recent college graduate searching for meaning in her life, becomes fascinated with his simple, purposeful lifestyle and embraces it until she leaves for Rwanda to serve with a priest there. After being attacked during a war of ethnic cleansing in the village where she's living, May returns to Kentucky and tries to find the loving God of her farm and village amidst her memories of a violent world.

Samson has written an emotionally charged book. While the action is slow and much of it is conversational or simply describing the everyday work of a farm, the reader gleans the heart condition of each character from these simple actions. Samson has turned the reader into a cheerleader as May grows and recovers from her ordeal. By the last page, the reader finds that May is stronger - and less predictable - than one would think.

"Resurrection in May" is a wonderful book that will prompt the reader to affirm the power of forgiveness. I will definitely recommend this book and look up Samson's others!

This book was given to me by Thomas Nelson in return for an unbiased review.

Monday, July 26, 2010

Scratch that!

Scratch that! Wrong date. Our next meeting is tonight, July 26th, at 8 PM at Isabelle's. Sorry!

Tuesday, July 20, 2010

August 9th

Hey, everyone,

What a busy summer! It seems as if we're all being pulled in a zillion directions.

Since things are so crazy, we've reset our schedule for this next month and are trying to figure out a more workable schedule before school starts again. Our next meeting will be on Monday, August 9th at 8 PM at Isabelle's house. If you have any questions or need directions, let me know!

I'll post the dates for the next few weeks soon - my notebook isn't handy at the moment.

Have a fabulous week!

Thursday, July 8, 2010

Like Dandelion Dust

Have any of you read this book by Karen Kingsbury? I have it if you want to borrow it ... it's really good. It's been made into a movie and is releasing this September. Girly movie night, anyone?

Go here to watch the trailer and to sign up for updates!

Saturday, July 3, 2010

'A Patch of Heaven' by Kelly Long


Sarah is a quiet, shy Amish girl who has spent years caring for the family's garden when she's suddenly given a new responsibility: managing and manning the family's roadside produce stand. Thrust into contact with the unfamiliar English world, Sarah meets her new neighbor, Grant Williams, a handsome veterinarian who wants to pursue a romantic relationship. Will Sarah venture further into the English world with Grant or will she remain alone in her familiar Amish one?

Long has created wonderful characters. Lifelike and honest, they are not perfect but reflect the situations in which they find themselves. Her writing is compelling and made it impossible for me to put this book down. I couldn't wait to find out what would happen next, and that the characters did not always do the predictable thing made it even better.

With that said, though, for as interesting as the story is, I felt that it was not especially realistic. I grew up in an Amish community, and the biggest decision made by the main characters was one which I've never heard of happening, and despite Long's great writing, there were several gaps not filled in by the end of the book. Yet the strengths of this book far outweighed the weaknesses, and I can't wait to read the next in the series.

Thomas Nelson provided me with a complimentary copy of this book in exchange for a review.