In the Shadow of Lions - Review

In the Shadow of Lions is a beautifully written book by Ginger Garrett. It is the story of Anne Boleyn and the possible role she played in bringing the English version of the Bible into being. I sometimes shy away from books written in this era - something about the way they are written is just too "flowery" and unbelievable for me. This was not the case with this book.

A Scribe comes to visit a dying author in the hospital and tells her this story. The story of Anne and a peasant girl, Rose, during the reign of Henry VIII. It takes you through the "courtship" of Anne, through her marriage and the birth of her children, and gently leads you to her death, all the while hinting at the role she may have played in making the Hutchins Bible available to the common people. Rose, meanwhile, is living in the house of Thomas More, a man much opposed to this new Bible. During the telling of their stories, it also hints at a story behind the woman who lay dying - the one transcribing for the Scribe.

I really enjoyed reading this book - it makes me want to dig deeper into the story Anne Boleyn and also of William (Tyndale) Hutchins. I am considering using them as the basis for a themed reading challenge that I am going to sign up for.

This is Book 1 in the Chronicles of the Scribe series - and you can bet that I will be waiting for Book 2! 5 Stars!

Assaulted by Joy

Title: Assaulted by Joy - The Redemption of a Cynic
Author: Stephen W. Simpson
Publisher: Zondervan
Copyright: 2008

Assaulted by Joy is my first ARC that I am reviewing. What an exciting book! The question that was posed when I was asked if I would review this book was "Is this the perfect gift for the man in your life?" and I must answer with a resounding "YES!" I have already asked my husband if he would read it. But let me back up a little here. The author accepted Christ at the age of seven - (I love it when he says that this is where the story begins.) "When I walked down the aisle of a Baptist church as a boy to receive Christ as my Saviour, nobody told me that being a Christian is difficult, dangerous even. . .the closer you were to God, the happier you would be. The less you sinned and the more you followed God's Word, the more your life would be meaningful, happy, and complete. In my years as a follower of Christ, however, I've discovered that the opposite is often true. Don't get me wrong - the most ecstatic, victorious moments of my life resulted from having a relationship with Jesus, but so have the most aggravating and painful ones."*

His story, about his sometimes painful high school years (can everybody relate?), to college, losing a close friend, and meeting his wife and starting a family is engaging, humorous, in many instances I caught my self shaking my head in agreement - and is full of insight and wisdom that touched my life. I would like to share two of those nuggets here.

From chapter 3: What we don't realize is that we teach one another wisdom even when we hurt each other. We learn how to love in the midst of brokenness and imperfection. Those who hurt us sometimes teach us far more than those who love us. Sometimes they're even the same person. Those we care about have the greatest capacity to hurt us. Love creates the possibility of pain like nothing else. It's just like our relationship with God.*

From chapter 6: We could only make the best decision in a situation where there was no obvious choice. He told us that either choice involved potential guilt and loss. We might have to ask forgiveness from God regardless of what we chose.*

Now -for the question about a perfect gift for my husband. I would hope that this book would bring him a little closer to accepting Christ. He has been on the journey for awhile now and I have hope that letting him see someone else's walk with Christ (other than mine..) would open his heart even more.

I highly recommend this read for where ever you are in your personal journey -

*any quotes from this book are from an Advanced Reader's Copy and may not reflect the final published version.

This book also fulfills a book for the following challenges: What's in a Name, From the Stacks, Unread Authors, Countdown Challenge.

Duma Key by Stephen King

How do you write a review for a 600+ page book? Especially one by Stephen King!? This was a terrific book in true Stephen King style - he has a way of building the tension (or the terror) and then backing off.. only to start it up again. As I was reading, I thought I was coming to climax of the book, only to realize that I had 200 pages left - in which a lot of ground was covered! Ok - let's try to sum it up.

This is the story of a man(Edgar Freemantle) from Minnesota who lost his right arm as well as messing up his brain in a construction accident. The rage that comes with the accident causes him to lose his wife/marriage. He relocates to Duma Key after his psychologist suggests a "geographic cure".

He rents out a house which he names "Big Pink". Here he begins to draw and then to paint - many of the paintings are preceded by a burning itch in his phantom arm that can only be appeased by painting. From here I cannot explain it better without giving away too much than what is on the cover:

A visit from Ilse, the daughter he dotes on, starts his movement out of solitude. He meets a kindred spirit in Wireman, a man reluctant to reveal his own wounds, and then Elizabeth Eastlake, a sick old woman whose roots are tangled in Duma Key. Now Edgar paints, sometimes feverishly, his exploding talent both a wonder and a weapon. Many of his paintings have a power that cannot be controlled. When Elizabeth's past unfolds and the ghosts of her childhood begin to apear, the damage of which they are capable is truly devastating.

The tenacity of love, the perils of creativity, the mysteries of memory and the nature of the supernatural - Stephen King gives us a novel as fascinating as it is gripping and terrifying.


I highly recommend this book! 5/5 stars

The Countdown Challenge

Here is an interesting challenge - though it does involve a lot of books, you can retroactive in back to August. That should help with some of the reading!

Go here to sign up - but rules are below.



The goal of this challenge is to read the number of books first published in a given year that corresponds to the last digit of each year in the 2000s — 9 books from 2009, 8 books from 2008, etc. The total number of books required, therefore, is 45.
This challenge lasts from 8/8/08 through 9/9/09. Yes, it is retroactive to August 8th!
Crossovers with other challenges are allowed and your lists may change at any time.

After looking at the books I have read since august - already have these books done:

2009 - Gatekeepers - Robert Liparulo
2009 - Be Strong and Curvaceous - Shelley Adina
2009 - For the Love of Pete - Julia Harper
2009 - Lost in Las Vegas - Melody Carlson
2009 - Scrapping Plans - Rebeca Seitz
2009 - Lessons From San Quentin - Bill Dallas
2009 - Simple Wishes - Lisa Dale
2009 - The Spring of Candy Apples - Debbie Viguie
2009 - Age Before Beauty - Virginia Smith
2008 - Duma Key by Stephen King
2008 - Assaulted by Joy - Stephen Simpson
2008 - In the Shadow of Lions - Ginger Garrett
2008 - Drinkwater - Eric Hopkins
2008 - The Christmas Edition - Robin Shope
2008 - House of Dark Shadows - Robert Liparulo
2008 - Watcher in the Woods - Robert Liparulo
2008 - Walking with Wolf - Kay Chornook & Wolf Guindon
2007 - A Thousand Splendid Suns by Khaled Hosseini
2007 - The Maidenstone Lighthouse by Sally Smith O'Rourke
2007 - Heart Shaped Box by Joe Hill
2007 - Diamonds in the Shadow - Caroline B. Cooney
2007 - Wicked Lovely - Melissa Marr
2007 -
2007 -
2006 - Water for Elephants by Sara Gruen
2006 - The Road by Cormac McCarthy
2006 - Murder, Mayhem and a Fine Man - Claudia Mair Burney
2006 -
2006 -
2006 -
2005 - Never Let Me Go - Kazuo Ishiguro
2005 - Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince - J.K. Rowling
2005 -
2005 -
2005 -
2004 -
2004 -
2004 -
2004 -
2003 - Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix - JK Rowling
2003 -
2003 -
2002 - Coraline by Neil Gaiman
2002 -
2001 -

Heart Shaped Box by Joe Hill

I thoroughly enjoyed this book. It interested me at first because I am a big Stephen King fan, and wanted to know if his son would write similarly. I have come to the conclusion that he does, and yet he doesn't. It is definitely a spooky story about a ghost, but the time span seems to be just a matter of days. From the ones that I remember by Stephen King (except for Cujo) the time span was much longer. (Currently reading Duma Key and it has covered about 9 months so far).

This book was easy to read with a good flow to it. I couldn't wait to get back to it. I could easily see the ghost as he described him "The dead man was sitting two-thirds of the way down the corridor, in the Shaker chair on the left, his head lowered in thought. A drape of morning sunshine fell across where his legs should have been. They disappeared where they passed into the light. It gave him the look of a war veteran, his trousers ending in stumps, midway down his thights. Below this splash of sunshine were his polished black loafers, with his black-stockinged feet stuck in them. Between his thighs and his shoes, the only legs that were visible were the legs of the chair, the wood a lustrous blond in the light." And then later "But where his eyes belonged was only a black scribble. It was as if a child had taken a Magic Marker-a truly magic marker, one that could draw right on the air-and had desperately tried to ink over them. The black lines squirmed and tangled among one another, worms tied into a knot."

I will be surprised if this book isn't made into a horror movie soon. Okay - more about the book.

It is about an aging rock star, Jude, that collects an odd assortment of the macabre - used hangman's noose, a snuff film, etc. So when he receives an email about a ghost for sale, he doesn't hesitate, but immediately puts in the bid to buy it. The sale says that he will be receiving an old suit, but that the ghost is attached to it. A few days later he receives the suit in a black heart shaped box. (The book never really did go into detail as to how the old man arranged to "come back from the dead" and why if Jude bought the suit he would be able to come with it.)

From the cover: But what UPS delivers to his door in a black heartshaped box is no imaginary or metaphorical ghost, no benign conversation piece. It's the real thing. And suddenly the suit's previous owner is everywhere: behind the bedroom door...seated in Jude's restored vintage Mustang...standing outside his window...staring out from his widescreen TV. Waiting-with a gleaming razor blade on a chain dangling from one bony hand...

Must read for anyone who likes this genre. 5/5 stars

Other reviews:
Things Mean Alot

Coraline

From the book jacket: In Coraline's Family's new flat are twenty-one windows and fourteen doors. Thirteen of the doors open and close. The fourteenth is locked, and on the other side is only a brick wall, until the day Coraline unlocks the door to find a passage to another flat in another house just like her own.
Only it's different....
At first, things seem marvelous in the other flat. The food is better. The toy box is filled with wind-up angels that flutter around the bedroom, books whose pictures writhe and crawl and shimmer, little dinosaur skulls that chatter their teeth. But there's another mother, and another father, and they want Coraline to stay with them and be their little girl. They want to change her and never let her go.
Other children are trapped there as well, lost souls behind the mirrors. Coraline is their only hope of rescue. She will have to fight with all her wits and all the tools she can find if she is to save the lost children, her ordinary life, and her self.

This was a good scary store for a YA. I think in every young child at some point, they wish that they had another family, or house, or life. Even in this story, though the grass looked greener on the other side, it was worse. It also helped to remember how the shadows seemed to come alive in the dark and that sometimes the worst things were those that you couldn't see, but that lived in the dark. It was an entertaining book and a quick read. 4/5

The Maidenstone Lighthouse

This book was a very quick read and was a nice way to start out the month of October. From the book cover: Nestled in a coastal inlet a few miles north of Newport, Rhode Island, Freedman's Cove is known for its superb seafood, its postcard-pretty waterfront, and its exquisite Victorian homes - a legacy of the town's past as a summer resort for wealthy families. Manhattan antiques appraiser Susan Marks inherited one of these ornate mansions from her great aunt. After suffering a devastating loss, she retreats to Freedman's Cove to nurse her grief.

This book was an interesting mix of mystery, love story and ghost story. I enjoyed it because it was not too complicated and was in the need of a story line that was not too heavy. It does have a general storyline that as I was reading seemed so familiar that I thought I had maybe read this book at some point in the past - but I think it is just that it is a common story. Altogether though, it was fun to read a ghost story to start out the month! 3 1/2 of 5.

Water For Elephants

Loved this book! It was a very quick read, or maybe it was just that I couldn't put it down! Told in flashbacks by a 90 (or was it 93) year old man living in an assisted living home. Involves many circus "characters" and an elephant named Rosie. From the first page, the first remembrance - I was hooked. Highly recommend!5/5

Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix

This is the 5th book in the Harry Potter series, and for me it has been the best (but longest to get through) so far. Harry starts his fifth year at Hogwarts after being attacked by dementors near his home, and finding out about a new Order of which his Godfather, Sirius, is a member. I started out reading this book, and changed to listening to it when I needed something for a long car trip. I even sucked my husband into the story. Somewhere about 2/3 of the way into the book, I caught the last half of the movie on cable - Wow - talk about not following the book at all! I believe that the book is MUCH better than the movie. The book was able to tie together the first 5 years at Hogwarts and sort of give us a direction in which to expect the last 2 books to take. The movie left me feeling very vague as to anything that had been happening. I definitely recommend this book and cannot wait to start the next one! 5/5

A Thousand Splendid Suns

The history of Afghanistan is marked by death and loss and unimaginable grief. And, yet, Laila sees that people find a way to survive, to go on. Ultimately, this is more than a story of survival in the face of what seem to be insurmountable odds. It is a story of the unconquerable spirit of a people and individuals seen through the eyes of two indomitable women. A Thousand Splendid Suns is a must read for those who wish to understand the modern history (1964 - 2003) of Afghanistan, which is told eloquently through the eyes of Laila and Mariam. (From About.com ContemporaryLit)

I have not yet read A Kite Runner, so I did not know what to expect going into this book. It has made me watch the news with a whole new perspective. I know that this was not a true story, but it is very easy to believe that this could and does happen. The characters of Laila and Mariam, while very strong apart, were even stronger together. The way the author wove them into each other was amazing. I went through many emotions reading this book, but two stood out for me - Sorrow and Hope. 5/5