Tag: Review

Plugging on – I am now finished with book 5 of the Chronicles of Narnia Series.   The book features the two younger children, Edmund and Lucy, and brings in  their cousin Eustace who’s home they are in when the three are brought back to Narnia through a picture hanging on a bedroom wall.  (NIce touch Mr. Lewis)

The children meet up with Caspian right away on his boat The Dawn Treader, and they all go off to seek out the 7 Lords who were Caspians father’s friends.  Eustace at this point is not a likable child, very spoiled, bratty, and on this adventure he starts journaling the trials of this awful ship and the awful people in it.

I think the best Christian message that comes out of the book is when Eustace while on shore wanders off to a dragons liar.  He falls asleep here, only to wake up and find that he has turned into a dragon, pretty much turning his ugliness of the inside to the outside.  He now realizes what a pain he has been and how good everyone has been to him.  After days of being a dragon, he meets up with Aslan who tells him he much shed his skin to be clean, and through the Dragon’s (Eustace) scratching, the scales began to fall off, however he discovers he is unable to do it without Aslan’s help (Romans 3:20; Galatians 2:16; Philippians 3:8,9)…

Once clean, Eustace works at being a better person, not always succesfully, but the changes are clear.          ( 2 Corinthians 5:17; Colossians 3:8-10)

I see in this book (which I found became a better and better read as I went along) there are several references to a “Holy Spirit” guiding through dangers, from a great darkness to light on the boat, to times when Lucy is reading from a spell book and is tempted to try other spells than what she was sent to do.  (At those times she sees Aslan’s face).

The ending of this book is by far the most powerful scene of the book, and in fact, of any of the books so far, when Aslan returns to the group as a Lamb who feeds them the best meal of their lives.  (Revelation 19:19?)  (John 1:29,36; 1 Peter 1:19).

To have a conversation with C.S. Lewis would have been amazing!  I would love to know more about how these books came together for him, how he came up with the idea to break it into several books, and did he plan where it would end – or did he just know it was complete when he got there.  Maybe as I continue to dive into his works I will find the answers to some of these questions…

**This movie is due out in early 2010:  check here

This book was recommended to me years ago by my friend Sam who wanted to loan me her copy.  I assured her that if it was anywhere near as good as she said it was, I would want my own copy and then ordered it off CBC.  The book then proceeded to spend the next two years (yes, two years) on my book shelf – unread.

Then my friend Sandi  was raving about a book she had just completed.  “It is amazing”, she told me, “I couldn’t put it down, it’s called Safely Home…”

“By Randy Alcorn?” I added.

“Oh, you’ve read it,” she said disappointingly.  I assured her I hadn’t, but had the book waiting for its day to shine.  It became my next read.

Safely home is a fiction book, but it is not fantasy.  This book is about persecution in China and reading this enlightened me with more information  on this area than I had ever known before.  I was saddened to hear what happens to those who call themselves Christians in China and learned that in many ways, I take my faith and my right to it, for granted.

I could hardly put this book down and turned page after page on illegal home churches meeting at night, and people arrested and beaten – even killed – for their admitting that they are a Christ Follower.  I took note after note on the Chinese symbols spelling out the gospel in their meaning – right there in their language!  (Page 169)

I received so much from reading this book, right to the last tearful moments that wrecked me.  This is by far the best book I have read in some time.  If you have not read this I highly recommend you grab a copy and dive right in.

And the King will tell them, “I assure you, when you did it to one of the least of these my brothers and sisters, you were doing it to me!”  ~ Matthew 25:40

Finally I have completed book 4 of The Chronicles of Narnia. This was another great book to read after having seen the movie. I like to read and see the comparisons between the two, and again am impressed at how closely the movie follows the book.

In this book I find C.S. Lewis’s message to speak more clearly than in the previous three… like he is getting to the point. There is of course the part where Lucy is the only one that believes she sees Aslan while the others are left in disbelief. There is also the point where Aslan calls her and she asks her brothers and sisters to follow – knowing that if they do not, she must anyway. This whole part of the book is wonderful and I imagine if this is being read to a young child how much of this they take away with them.

Good read, and now I am in unknown territory with 3 books left to read in the series and having never read them – I have no idea what direction they will take.

This is my favorite kind of book – and if you follow my book blog you would know what that means… loaned to me by a friend who thought I would enjoy it.  I love that.

In this case it was my friend Key who had purchased this book and sent it my way to read through.  I am so glad she shared this with me.

Nancy Beach is an incredible author and an amazing advocate for women in leadership roles.  Her book gives you insight of her 30 years in ministry, with God given leadership gifts that are not always accepted in the church when they are from a woman.

While many of the scenes Nancy talks about, I have not personally experienced (trying to be accepted in a male dominant group, people leaving a church due to the role she fills and the fact that she is a woman filling that role) I have experienced some of what she speaks of in leading missions.

I loved the book, its openness, its humor and how she tells it like it is.  Her gifts have taken her far and I would love to hear her speak sometime in the future.

This is an excellent read for any woman who is gifted to lead.  Highly recommended.  Check out her next speaking event here!

Thank you Key for the loan!   This was a fabulous read.  10+

I didn’t think you could take such an incredible read As The Summerhouse and then years later come close to topping it… but I think Jude Deveroux just about did.  If you look at my previous blog on The Summerhouse you can read about my love for that book and why.  Now years later Jude comes up with a follow up book that knocked it out of the park again…

Return to Summerhouse is one of those books I was almost afraid to crack open.  After my raving through the years about The Summerhouse, and the shock of finding Jude suddenly out with a sequal 5 years later….(I can’t believe she didn’t call  and tell me!) I was almost afraid the second might tarnish the first if you know what I mean.  Sometimes good things are meant to just be left alone.

Yet Jude must have felt called to continue with this story line and I can’t help but believe that there must be many more out there like me that loved the first one to make her want to go on.  I also have to believe for a writer to write this well, she has to love the topic and the characters she develops as well.

A few days ago after rereading The Summerhouse, I followed up with this one.  I was not dissapointed.  Jude (if I may call her Jude…) used a completely different set of people this time, just left the area and Maddam Zoya the same.  As much as I had hoped that she bring back my favorites from Summerhouse (Leslie, Madison, and Ellie) I am now glad that she didn’t.  These new women were amazing too, and the fact that this time they go back into the 18th century, made me long to create an “orangery” and find a way to get my hands on the original balm out of biblical times…. (you’ll have to read the book to know what I am talking about!)

HIGHLY HIGHLY HIGHLY recommended.  Let this book take you away!  I can not wait to review it for book club and I have a fun idea to go with our review….    A 10.

All readers have a few favorites that they tuck aside to pull out and dust off every few years and read again just for that thrill they got from the first time they opened this treasure.

This is one of those books for me.

Knowing that, you are going to have to imagine what happened when I was recently on The Mother Ship (Barnes and Noble) online looking up book suggestions for our August read for book club and I found a book titled Return To Summerhouse by Jude Deveroux.

I paused and reread the title.  Could this be a reissue of the book that came out in 2003?  Then I read the lines under the title…. “a follow up to Jude Deveroux’s best selling book The Summerhouse….”

I think I screamed in excitement from my home office.

I’m pretty sure I scared Al.

A sequel!  To one of my top reads of all time?  This was like a dream come true!  Haven’t we all had those books where you wish the author would have went further with the characters?  Or you wish that a second book would come out continuing on how the previous book ended?

Of course, I am not writing here about Return to Summerhouse.  This entry is about The Summerhouse which I knew I had to pull off the shelf and read before I read the follow up.

I love this book.  I think I love it mostly because of the strong women characters and of your the chance to go back to a point in our lives where we wonder if we chose right… and get to choose again.  Wow.  But – the review we had on this book in 2003 only adds to my love for the book as this I still believe was one of our best ever book discussions.  This was probably the first book we had read as a group that really made us open up to choices we would change.

Rereading this book for probably the 4th time… I am again in awe of this incredible writing and the unique turn this book takes unlike any I have ever read.  This book is a full 10 rating from me.

Now… to read the follow up…

It took me a bit to get into this third book of the Chronicles of Narnia.  The characters are different than the ones we have grown to love in this series and it is not until about the middle of the book that you catch a glimpse of Queen Lucy, Susan, and King Edmund.

Once I picked up the flow, the book was good and I found myself looking for C.S. Lewis’ story within the story.  I especially liked the part where Shasta is traveling alone on a stubborn horse (not a Narnia horse of course – just a plain old horse…).  Shasta is alone, lost, and it is dark.  He is afraid and feeling a bit sorry for himself and is softly crying when he sences a presence walking next to them.   It takes him a while to be brave enough to call and when he does his voice is a small, “who’s there?”

It is of course, Aslan.  A great conversation takes place here between Aslan and Shasta and I love the way Lewis has presented that even in the darkest night, in our darkest fears – He is with us.  We are not alone.

Still plotting through the series, I am excited to get into the 4th book which is Prince Caspian, the movie that recently came out.  Great reads – highly recommended.

A new author for me.  Occasionally I will pick up a few light ready through ChristianBooks.com.  The book prices through them are fantastic.

This book was labeled as a Christian Fiction book and I was surprised as I read through the book that God was not mentioned once.  I found this to be a bit different and was curious to find out why and how this book received the genre of Christian…

At the very back of the book the author explains that she loved the way Jesus told stories.  The parables Jesus used made the listeners think for themselves and draw their own conclusions.  In His story of the prodigal son, Jesus never said, “Listen up folks – the father in the story is God and the prodigal son is you…”.  The son never had a “come to Jesus” moment; he simply returned to his Father and was welcomed home.  The author felt this book allowed us to see the familiar in a fresh and powerful way.

I have to disagree.  While I enjoyed the book (it actually reminded me a lot of the fiction book I just finished), – daughter comes back to a home town to an inheritance and a fixer upper home, family secrets, and meets someone…  Same story line.   And while I do love a good fiction read…. when I read a Christian book I like it to be a Christian book.  In this case I did not find that.

While our characters are likable, I actually liked the role of Landon ( the back up character) over the main character of Samantha.  I found Samantha to be an annoying pain that wore her past on her shoulder like a badge and played that card so often it was worn out.  Samantha’s repeated act of running to a bar or to another mans arms whenever things got to close was enough to make me scream.   She was the queen of excuses and hurt many people with her actions.

If there is a Christian message in the book it must have been about forgiveness.  I struggle when the act that is forgiven is repeated and repeated…

Anyway, in the end, it seams that alls well that ends well but it left me wondering if a person can really change that fast.  I’d love to hear other opinions on this book.

A 2 rating out of 5.

Any one that has followed my readings through the years knows that I was once apon a time a huge Koontz fan.  When the kids were growing up – Dean was the author I would read.  I owned every book he had ever written and couldn’t wait for the next book to come out.

Now – after 7 years of book club I read so much more – different authors, all styles of books…that Dean has gone to the way side…. yet, once in awhile, I like to check in to see if what he is up too….

So this book has sat on my shelf for many months.  I can not even remember how it got here, but over the last week I picked it up and dove in.

I loved the story line on the golden retrievers.  Dean owned one himself and apparently by the dedication in the front of the book, their dog Trixie, had passed on.  I believe this is where his story stemmed from.

The dog part of the book – extremely well written, I like the main character Amy, her faith, and her heart.  I like all the facts about the dogs, their manners, and even learning about the dog mills – which is horrifying, yet I know it is true.

I didn’t like Moongirl and Harlow and found this part of the book as these two characters slowly intertwine with Amy – creapy.  Dean pushed the envelope a bit far this time and the whole story line about what they did to the little girl was a bit much for me.

I finished the book because I knew all would end well – and I had to know how it all became that way.  The ending that we lead up to for so long – is complete in a matter of a couple paragraphs.  That surprised me.  Not pleasantly.

Overall – not a good read.  Sorry Dean – but next time, don’t try so hard.  Your writing was fine just the way it was.  Not all of us like crude and creepy.

Continuing on my journey through the book series of The Chronicles of Narnia, I sat down to enjoy the book with the title that most of the population has heard of – The Lion , The Witch, and The Wardrobe.

By this book, I am now used to C.S. Lewis’s talk as he writes this book in his manner of ‘grandfatherlyism’ (“Why yes, Edmond was surprised- just like we left him in the last chapter!” and “Oh, boys and girls, what would you do if this happened to you?”)  I actually am starting to enjoy this style of writing and imagine him as a loving grandfather excited to share his stories with children eager to listen.

This book so closely follows the movie that I applaud Disneys producers for respecting the family of C.S. Lewis and holding on to the truth that made this book the remarkable legend it is today.  There were times in the book where things that were said by the children or by the talking animals that I was sure that was the exact wording that they used in the movie.

I thoroughly enjoyed this book and look forward to moving on to book 3, The Horse and His Boy.

Brilliant.