Christine Blevins
417 pages

Maggie Duncan is the only survivor of an attack on her village in Scotland. Because of this she is thought to be cursed by the superstitious people of the village where she resides after she is taken in by Hannah, the Midwife. Despite this, Maggie grows up and learns to be a gifted midwife at Hannah’s side. However, upon Hannah’s death, people revert to their superstition and don’t want Maggie to treat them.

Unable to provide for herself, Maggie sells herself into four years of indentured service for passage to America. When she arrives there  she learns that she has only exchanged on set of problems for another.

I found Midwife of the Blue Ridge to be pretty engaging from the beginning. The fact that the beginning takes place in Scotland caught my interest immediately and then the fact that it was also set in Colonial America was another plus. I like Maggie, Tom, Seth and many of the other characters that populate the book.

There were some things that I have to count as negatives too though. There were elements of the story that remind me of the Outlander series by Diana Gabaldon. I have read the first three of the series and am not really a fan. I LOVE the time travel element and the historical element to the stories but I don’t tend to be a huge fan of the romance genre. It’s not that I don’t enjoy romance so much as I get bored with the formula:

• Man and woman are attracted to each other
• Man and woman can’t resist the physical attraction to each other and give in to sex, always with regret.
• Tragic elements align to keep them apart.
• Man and women realize how much they love each other and can overcome anything( different times, indians, crazy villians, hurricanes etc.) to be together.

It’s hard to find something really original. That was my beef with Midwife of the Blue Ridge. The romance seemed a bit formulaic to me.

Another thing that I didn’t like about  was that some of the violence committed in the book is pretty graphic. I wasn’t really expecting that. I don’t have a problem with violence, necessarily, if I can understand the point in it’s being there. I couldn’t understand it in this instance though.

I also  detested the villain, Julian Cavendish. I suppose that’s the point since he is the villain but he is so creepy that he reminded me a lot of Jonathan Randall from the Outlander series and I really disliked the Jonathan/Jamie storyline.  I guess I was hoping that both Maggie and I would feel some sympathy for Julian at the end. She didn’t but I did. It made me like her less because she left him to a fate so horrid that I can’t imagine leaving anyone to that. Maybe I am a sucker. I dunno.

At any rate, I did enjoy Midwife of the Blue Ridge, just not as much as I was expecting. I would recommend it if you enjoy historical romantic fiction. I would caution that I found some of the violence disturbing. (3/5)

Shelly Beach
288 pages

Mona Vander Molen sustained a head injury during an accident in the book Hallie’s Heart. I assume that Morningsong picks up where that book left off but I am not sure because I haven’t read it. However, in the beginning we find Mona dealing with the after effects of the accident plus trying to come to terms with the needs of her friends and family members. Her sister Ellen is an alcoholic and her niece Hallie is a teen who is tired of picking up the pieces for her mother. Then there is Adam who is loving and supportive of Mona but she has to work through what she feels for him. She is also running a business plus dealing with new symptoms and trying to recover from her accident.

I enjoyed reading Morningsong. A lot of the area in the book is extremely familiar to me. I have friends and family in a couple of the places that were mentioned. This turned out to be sort of a good and bad thing for me. I enjoyed being familiar with the setting but I also found that the way the characters talked to be sort of strange.

Morningsong is a touching story of faith and human relationships. It was an enjoyable read. (3/5)

Tom Pawlik
417 pages

Connor Hayden had a heart attack two months ago. His heart stopped beating and during that time he had a near-death experience. He spent time in a place called Interworld which is a place that is a passage between this life and the next. During his time in Interworld he encountered other people: Helen, Howard, Mitch, and Devon. Valley of the Shadow is primarily about Connor’s interactions with Howard, Mitch, and Devon.
Mitch is trapped in Interworld but he doesn’t know it . Devon was revived but he didn’t return alone. <insert spooky music here>

Seriously, Valley of the Shadow was a page-turner from the get-go. It was one of those books that I really  didn’t want to put down. Interworld is a really creepy place. The reader is presented with just enough mystery that you keep reading to find out that extra little tidbit. The only problem is that once that mystery is solved you’re immediately faced with another. It took great restraint to put the book down and go to sleep when I needed to.

I would love to go back and read Vanish by Tom Pawlik to see how this all started. Fortunately for me, I recently acquired a copy from PBS.

I highly recommend Valley of the Shadow. There’s a blurb on the front cover that says, “Fans of Dean Koontz and Ted Dekker will appreciate Pawlik’s debut novel, Vanish.“- Library Journal.

I can tell you that I am a big fan of one of these authors. The other, not so much. However, I am a fan of Tom Pawlik’s. If you love edge-of-your-seat fiction without gore, check out this series. (5/5)

Bonnie Grove

368 pages

“You said you were still working on forgiving him.” I’d thought about his statement many times since. It made me realize that perhaps forgiveness wasn’t a singular event, but a progression, or better, a dance that took some figuring before you could perform the steps. -Talking to the Dead, page 305 

Kate’s husband Kevin has just died. She’s barely gotten through the funeral when she starts hearing his voice. With her memory filled with holes and no one she feels she can trust, Kate begins to doubt her sanity. As Kate tries to figure out exactly why Kevin is talking to her, life begins spiraling further out of control. Finally, after having a mental meltdown, Kate is forced to deal with, the return of her memory and many other issues.

Talking to the Dead is one of those books that is hard to classify. While it is Christian Fiction with a message of faith, it is not preachy. Kate is funny, vulnerable and human but man, is she surrounded by a bunch of stinkers. Everyone who should be there for her lets her down. But Kate finds support in a quirky support group filled with a bunch of frail, vulnerable people just like herself. She also meets Jack, a pastor, but a different sort of pastor and through his example of unconditional love and acceptance, she comes to understand her need for God. Then she begins on the road to healing.

I enjoyedTalking to the Dead very much. It has a little bit of everything: romance, suspense, humor and there were even a few times when Kate’s pain was so intense that a lump formed in my throat. I wanted to comfort her because no one else was. I highly recommend this one if you enjoy clean, faith-based, fiction. (5/5)

Amity Shlaes

Audiobook (Narrated by Terence Aselford)

The Forgotten Man  is a book that is packed with information. It recounts The Great Depression from several different viewpoints. There are snippets of thought(complete with quotes)of the major players including Roosevelt and Hoover but we also learn of lesser known characters such as Rex Tugwell, Andrew Mellon and Raymond Moley.

Since I am primarily a visual learner, I struggled quite a bit with the volume of information contained in this audiobook. It would have been much easier for me to absorb the information if I had been reading a physical copy. However, non-fiction is one genre that I find well-suited to audio so that’s why I chose this one. I found The Forgotten Man fascinating and there were several times that I wanted to make notes about the parallels to the things that I see happening today. However, because I was busy doing other things as I was listening, that didn’t happen. 

The overall theme I came away with this book was that though it may have been well-intentioned, the experimentation done by Roosevelt and other people during this time in history actually prolonged The Depression. We see some of the same things being repeated today as far as huge spending versus scaling back and reducing the deficit. 

In all honesty, though I found this a fascinating book as I was listening, I didn’t retain a lot of it. I would like to revisit the print version because there is a wealth of information there. In light of current events, I highly recommend reading this one. Just take notes. (4/5)

Timothy Egan

Audiobook(Narrated by Patrick Lawlor)

I’ve always been fascinated by The Great Depression. I am not sure exactly why but I it has always held a particular interest when I am choosing to read about history. However, in learning about The Great Depression, I had never taken the time to learn about The Dust Bowl. 
As I mentioned in a previous post, I thought The Dust Bowl was a brief incident that happened during the same time period as the depression but in reading The Worst Hard Time , I came to understand how little I knew. I must have been talking during that section of history class.

The Worst Hard Time  chronicles the events in areas of Texas, Oklahoma, New Mexico, and Colorado where the grasslands were plowed up during the wheat boom and the destruction that was left behind when the land was left blowing and desolate. After finishing the book I am amazed at the perseverance of the people who managed to hang on and at the same time I am horrified that they tried.  They seriously must have thought the world was ending with huge walls of dust descending upon them followed by hoards of grasshoppers. Every time they tried to plant something to sustain themselves it was killed either by dust, hot, dry, winds or grasshoppers.

Some of the other nightmares they faced:

• People went five years or more with absolutely no income and after selling off everything they owned, they resorted to pickling tumbleweed to avoid starving to death.
• Hungry livestock chewed on fence posts. They died because their digestive tracts were so full of dust that food couldn’t get through.
• People hung wet sheets and wore face masks made of sponge in an effort to keep the dust out of their homes and lungs yet people still died from “dust pneumonia.”
• Towns and counties were decimated by this tragedy and in some areas both the population and the land have never been the same.

One part, in particular, that touched me was when a woman was found burning a diary written during that time because it was such a bad time that there was nothing worth remembering. I am so glad that diary was rescued and parts of it are found in The Worst Hard Time. It’s hard to even imagine being in the writer’s circumstance and how hopeless he must have felt but at the same time, I am glad his voice survived for those of us who weren’t there to see the devastation. It is unimaginable but Timothy Egan helps to give us a glimpse.

I thought this book was so good that I plan on owning my own copy so I can read it again. I highly recommend The Worst Hard Time whether you are a fan of history, this particular era, or if you are just looking for a fascinating book to read. The writing is excellent and I absolutely didn’t want to stop listening. It’s very informative. The speculating that we saw in the recent housing boom has eery similarities to the wheat boom right before The Dust Bowl. There are lessons to be learned about human greed that runs unchecked. This is my favorite book, so far, of 2009 and I understand why it is a winner of the National Book Award.(5/5)

Lynn Austin
432 pages

Violet Hayes has always thought that her mother, who left when she was nine years old, was in a hospital somewhere struggling to recover and return to her family. However, upon announcing his intention to remarry her father tells her that her mother didn’t want to be tied down and that she left and divorced him. Violet discovers that her mother is in Chicago and since the World’s Fair(the year is 1893)is in town, Violet convinces her father to let her go there, stay with her grandmother, and see the Fair. She has intentions of searching for her mother and finding a little adventure. She also hopes to find love. Everyone seems to have their own agenda for Violet but she must do some soul-searching and discover what she truly wants as well as God’s will for her life before she is ready to fall in love.

Lynn Austin is one of my favorite authors. I have read several of her books and loved them all. Since A Proper Pursuit is a Christy award winner, I decided to read it for the Book Awards Challenge. As I mentioned this book was set at the turn of the century. In the past, this hasn’t been one of my favorite time periods to read about but since I have loved everything else written by Lynn Austin, I didn’t let that deter me. Violet is headstrong and beautiful as you would expect from our heroine. She is proposed to no less than three times in one week. However, each gentleman that has proposed has done so for his own selfish reasons and has not mentioned love to Violet. It takes her a while but Violet sorts out her life and reaches a satisfactory conclusion. It seemed to take her a bit too long, in my opinion, but she gets there eventually.

Overall,I enjoyed reading A Proper Pursuit. I found it a bit predictable and not my favorite Austin book but still very sweet. (3/5)

Carrie Ryan
320 pages

Since I have seen this one on several different blogs recently, I am going to save time and skip the synopsis. Here’s what’s on the flap:

In Mary’s world there are simple truths. The Sisterhood always knows best. The Guardians will protect and serve. The Unconsecrated will never relent. And you must always mind the fence that surrounds the village; the fence that protects the village from the Forest of Hands and Teeth. But, slowly, Mary’s truths are failing her. She’s learning things she never wanted to know about the Sisterhood and its secrets, and the Guardians and their power, and about the Unconsecrated and their relentlessness. When the fence is breached and her world is thrown into chaos, she must choose between her village and her future—between the one she loves and the one who loves her. And she must face the truth about the Forest of Hands and Teeth. Could there be life outside a world surrounded in so much death?

I’m not usually a fan of zombies but I have seen this one pop up on a few of the blogs that I read frequently. The zombies weren’t what reeled me in initially. It was the fact that this is dystopian fiction.

I often wonder why I enjoy dystopian fiction so much. I think it has to do with the fact that it makes this world look a lot less crazy to me once I have wrapped up a novel such as The Hunger Games or The Forest of Hands and Teeth where their world is just a nightmare. Makes my world tame by comparison.

Even though this story doesn’t unfold quickly, I was drawn in from the beginning. Mary’s world is dark and scary because of the zombies but for some reason The Sisterhood and the life in the village are what really captured my interest. It kept me hooked until it started to be more about what Mary wanted and less about the society. Then I started to have a hard time relating. I was really rooting for Mary to follow her dreams…until she stopped caring about what it cost the people around her. Then Mary went from losing my interest to getting on my nerves.

Even though I was having a hard time, I wanted to finish the story for several reasons. I wanted to find out how it was resolved(It wasn’t. At least not the way I was hoping it would be.) I think the author is a talented writer and I enjoyed her writing very much. I just didn’t like the direction Mary’s character took. However, that’s a personal preference sort of thing and I would definitely try something else by Carrie Ryan.

If you like zombies and dystopia….you should give The Forest of Hands and Teeth a shot. (2.5/5)

Sibella Giorello
270 pages

In the middle of a hot Richmond summer two men(one white and one black) fall from the top of a warehouse during a racially-charged rally. Though there are hundreds of people at the rally, no one sees anything.

Raleigh Harmon is an FBI Agent who specializes in forensic geology. She is assigned to investigate this case as a civil rights case. Her supervisor considers it a waste of time and manpower and she is breathing down her neck to wrap it up quickly. Raleigh wants to do it right but can Richmond’s racial unrest be contained while she solves this case?

The Stones Cry Out falls into the mystery category but it’s also Christian Fiction. I wouldn’t say that it’s a thrill ride or grabs you and won’t let go but I would say that it’s steadily paced to keep your interest. Raleigh’s field of geology is interesting and I thought that it was handled well. It’s the type of information that is interesting in small does but could easily be overdone if it was written in minute detail. That’s not the case in this story.

Raleigh is a Christian and there are definite elements of faith in the story but, once again, they are handled nicely and don’t come off as pretentious or preachy.

My only problem with The Stones Cry Out came during dream sequences where Raleigh’s dead father directs her investigation. It just seemed sort of been there, done that, to me. Yet, on the other hand, it’s very sweet to think of her father helping her even after his death. It’s a bit contradictory but I guess I both liked and disliked the dreams.

I would recommend The Stones Cry Out if you enjoy good, clean, mysteries. It’s an enjoyable read and it also won the Christy Award for Best First Novel in 2008. (3.5/5)

Jackina Stark

304 pages

Audrey Eaton is a widow. She kisses her husband Tom goodnight and later awakens to find he has not come to bed. She gets up and finds that he has passed away quite unexpectedly in the middle of the night. Overcome by grief at the loss of her husband, Audrey shuts down. She basically disengages from her life and gives up participating in all the things she loves. She stops listening to music, reading, and really conversing with the people around her. In short, she is just going through the motions.

Fifteen months later, Audrey begins recording her thoughts in a journal and an idea begins to take root. She will take a road trip with no specific destination or time frame planned. After informing her children and their families what she is doing, Audrey packs her bags, her laptop, her husband Tom’s bible,and she takes off. When she begins reading Tom’s bible and comes across his notes in the book of John, she begins the true journey that will heal her heart.

Tender Grace is a story of the deepest pain we face in life and of the tender graces that God uses to show that we do not walk alone.  Audrey becomes a widow after having retired young to travel and spend time with her husband after their children are grown. She is at a complete loss and trapped in the desire to have her old life back. She has much of her life ahead yet ahead of her and she realizes that it has been so long since she has been grateful for what’s around her. Her need to come to grips with her loss and move on are beautifully written and Audrey seems real. I read this book almost entirely with a lump in my throat.

I highly recommend this one and will definitely look for more by Jackina Stark. (5/5)