Daily Archives: March 7, 2010

It’s Monday, what are you reading?

Sheila from One Person’s Journey through a World of Books hosts this meme and I love to participate in it!  Head on over and check out her blog and the great participants there.

Unlike last week! I’ve had a great week of reading.  Fantastic even! Check out these awesome reads:

Books read this week:

  1. Black by Ted Dekker
  2. The Book of Fires by Jane Borodale
  3. O, Juliet by Robin Maxwell
  4. The Postmistress by Sarah Blake
  5. The Lumby Lines by Gail Fraser
  6. Red by Ted Dekker

Currently reading:

  1. Middlemarch by George Eliot
  2. Son of Hamas by Mosab Hassan Yousef (Author), Ron Brackin (Contributor)

Book unable to be finished:

  1. Wolf Hall by Hilary Mantel (Click link for my GoodReads review)

To be read this week:

  1. Hush, Hush by Becca Fitzpatrick
  2. The Help by Kathryn Stockett
  3. The Other Mr. Darcy by Monica Fairview
  4. White by Ted Dekker
  5. The Picture of Dorian Gray by Oscar Wilde

Red by Ted Dekker

Red Red by Ted Dekker

Buy on Amazon: Red by Ted Dekker
When I finished this book (and finished wiping away the tears it inspired) my first thought was “How in the world am I going to come up with something different to say about this series?”. I couldn’t come up with anything different. So instead of talking about how the writing is and how the pace progressed I’m going to tell you about what this book did to me.

It tore me apart.

When reading something like this it’s easy to forget that this story has a deeper meaning at times. I got so caught up in the adventures and mysteries, trying to unravel everything that I’d repeatedly forget that I already know this story, albeit in a different setting.

It’s a powerful thing seeing the story of the gospel told no matter the setting and this was no exception. When I reached the last fourth of the book I found myself unable to put it down from horror and disbelief. But, like all of Dekker’s books, once I finished it I found that I couldn’t move right on to White. I needed time to digest it and to prepare myself for the rollercoaster his books give my emotions.

I think out of Green, Black and Red.. Red is my favorite thus far. It’ll be interesting to see how White affects me.

View all my reviews >>

Sunday – What’s New?

This is sort of an In My Mailbox/Library Loot type of post.  I pick up so many books each week though it’s going to be difficult to round them all up and remember..but I’m going to give it a try!

In my Mailbox!


Here Burns My Candle Here Burns My Candle by Liz Curtis Higgs

From GoodReads:

“No moon in sight,” Donald observed, resting his forehead lightly on the glass. “No Highlanders either.”
“They’ll arrive soon enough.” Marjory extinguished the candle by her bed,
shrouding the room in darkness. “Sleep while you can. And keep that bonny wife
of yours close at hand.”
“Aye.” The smile in his voice was unmistakable. “So I shall.”

September 1745

Edinburgh is a bustling city of fifty thousand inhabitants, the narrow closes and wynds crowded with rich and poor alike. Tongues are wagging over the impending arrival of Charles Edward Stuart—the young pretender to the throne—and his Highland army. Scotland, though bound by English law, is thick with Jacobites, who support the restoration of James and the overthrow of King George II.

Safely ensconced in their well appointed rooms overlooking the High Street are the Kerrs of Selkirk. Landed gentry from the Scottish Borders, the Kerrs have called Edinburgh home for a decade, all but abandoning their quiet country estate in Selkirkshire, turning their back on the simple folk of the Borders in favor of Edinburgh’s heady mix of culture, commerce, and political intrigue.

A spiritual famine has inflicted this family, a waning devotion to God. The Kerrs don’t belong in the city, and instinctively they know it. Edinburgh is foreign, unfamiliar, and even dangerous. Yet, they remain.

Dowager Lady Marjory Kerr is a widow of substantial means, whose two abiding passions in life are maintaining her place in society and coddling her two grown sons, Donald and Andrew. Her late husband, Lord John, succumbed to a weak heart on a cold winter’s morn seven years past, leaving her to weather life’s storms on her own.

Lady Elisabeth Kerr adores her husband, Lord Donald, who treats her as an equal, discussing books and politics and society as if she’d grown up in a gentleman’s household. Despite her present happiness, Elisabeth harbors a dark family secret, and seeks the help of the Nameless One to overcome her shameful legacy.

Mistress Janet Kerr, newly married to Andrew, is a woman of good breeding from an ancient Highland family. Many people of quality call Janet handsome or regal, and rightly so. Her dress and manner are impeccable, her wit sharp. But they do not call Janet beautiful. Or kind.

Bound by marriage, then torn asunder by cruel circumstance, the three Kerr women will soon be forced to depend upon one another. And that’s when things will get verra interesting…

A mother who cannot face her future.
A daughter who cannot escape her past.
A timeless tale of loss and redemption,
flickering against the vivid backdrop
of eighteenth-century Scotland.

Here Burns My Candle is based on the beloved Old Testament book of Ruth.

An Absence So Great: A Novel (Portraits of the Heart) An Absence So Great: A Novel by Jane Kirkpatrick

From GoodReads:

Did photography replace an absence in her life or expose the truth of her heart’s emptiness?

While growing in confidence as a photographer, eighteen-year-old Jessie Ann Gaebele’s personal life is at a crossroads. Hoping she’s put an unfortunate romantic longing behind her as “water under the bridge,” she exiles herself to Milwaukee to operate photographic studios for those owners who have fallen ill with mercury poisoning.

Jessie gains footing in her dream to one day operate her own studio and soon finds herself in other Midwest towns, pursuing her profession. But even a job she loves can’t keep painful memories from seeping into her heart when the shadows of a forbidden love threaten to darken the portrait of her life.

Also I received a copy of John Bunyun by Kevin Belmonte.

Library Loot!

  1. Before Green Gables by Budge Wilson
  2. A Romance on Three Legs: Glenn Could’s Obsessive Quest for the Perfect Piano by Katie Hafner
  3. Roses by Leila Meacham
  4. Kingdom Keepers by Ridley Pearson
  5. Kingdom Keepers II: Disney at Dawn by Ridley Pearson
  6. Wild Swans by Jung Chang
  7. The Good Son by Russel D. McLean
  8. Secrets of Eden by Chris Bohjalian
  9. Mostly Harmless by Douglas Adams
  10. Willoughby’s Return by Jane Odiwe

Quite the mix.  I’m looking forward to reading them! Especially the first two – SO EXCITED to read them but first.. I have other books I was excited to read too!