Reversible Skirt by Laura McHale Holland (Book Review)

Title: Reversible Skirt
Author: Laura McHale Holland
Publisher: Wordforest

Synopsis: When the mother of three little girls commits suicide, their father wants more than anything to keep his family together. He remarries in haste and tells his daughters his new wife is their mother. The youngest, Laura, believes her mother must have gone through a kind of magical transformation.

 Reversible Skirt is written from Laura's perspective as a child sifting through remnants of her mother's existence and struggling to fit into a community where her family's strict rules are not the norm. When Laura's father dies, her stepmother grows increasingly abusive, which propels Laura and her sisters into a lasting alliance. Their father's wish that they stay together comes true, although not in the way he'd imagined.

My thoughts:  Laura has done a great job in portraying her life as a child from a child's perspective.  I could easily picture her and her sisters in different situations.  Many times I wanted to grab their stepmom and just shake her 'til her teeth rattled!  I could not believe some of the things she said to these little girls.  There was a little physical abuse, but it was the mental/emotional abuse that was just horrendous! The stepmom actually told them that their real mom committed suicide because of them!  How do you say that to children that are under 10 years old?? It seems like the step mom picked on each of the girls about different things, and then would be all sugar and cream when their dad or anyone else was around. 

It wasn't just the stepmom though, but pretty much her entire family.  Her father (their step grandpa) was also pretty mean to them, and the extended family didn't really accept the little girls at all.  They did have some good times when their father was alive, but after he dies there homelife was rarely pleasant.  I think it is amazing that they survived and thrived and were able to stay close after they left home. 

This book pulled me in almost immediately.  I really liked it that she wrote it from her perspective as a child and didn't write it as an "adult" sharing her memories.  I commend her for growing up so wisely so as to recognize the circle of abuse and not perpetuate it.

~I received a complimentary ebook of Reversible Skirt from Author Blog Tours in exchange for my review.~

About the author: Laura McHale Holland is a writer, editor and occasional storyteller living in southern Sonoma County. Her award-winning memoir, Reversible Skirt, was recently released by Wordforest, and her short fiction has appeared in The Best of Every Day Fiction Three, as well as the 2009 and 2010 Vintage Voices anthologies. She has also been a feature writer for such local publications as NorthBay biz, the Noe Valley Voice, and the original San Francisco Examiner. She is posting new flash fiction weekly in 2011 at http://lauramchaleholland.com.

Reversible Skirt Publisher/Publication Date: Wordforest, March 2011
ISBN: 978-0982936504
268 pages/1339 KB

Mailbox Monday (Aug 29, 2011)

 Mailbox Monday's host for August is Staci at Life in the Thumb. In My Mailbox is hosted Sundays at The Story Siren. Please visit these posts and take a look at what packages everybody else got this week! 

The Winters in Bloom

by Lisa Tucker

Every marriage has three stories: the husband's, the wife's -- and the one they create together.

Kyra and David Winter are happier than they ever expected to be.  They have a comfortable home, stable careers, and a young son, Michael, whom they adore.  Though everyone who knows the Winters considers them extremely overprotective parents, both Kyra and David believe they have good reasons for fearing that something will happen to their little boy.  And then, on a perfectly average summer day, it does, when Michael disappears from his own backyard.  The only question is whose past has finally caught up with them:  David feels sure that Michael was taken by his troubled ex-wife, while Kyra believes the kidnapper must be someone from her estranged family, someone she betrayed years ago.

As the Winters embark on a journey of time and memory to find Michael, they will be forced to admit these suspicions, revealing secrets about themselves they've always kept hidden.  But they will also have a chance to discover that it's not too late to have the family they've dreamed of; that even if the world is full of risks, as long as they have hope, the future can bloom.

Lyrical, wise, and witty.  The Winters in Bloom is an enchanting, life-affirming story that will surprise readers and leave them full of wonder at the stubborn strength of the human heart.

A Thousand Lives

by Julia Scheeres

In A Thousand Lives, New York Times bestselling memoirist Julia Scheeres recounts the chilling story of the Peoples Temple members who followed Jim Jones to Guyana.  They went for the promise of a better life, yet the Jonestown community that started as a Utopian dream soon devolved into a terrifying work camp run by a madman, ending in the mass murder-suicide of 913 members in November 1978.

A Thousand Lives gives voice to the people who followed Jim Jones to Guyana -- including an English teacher from Colorado, elderly African American sisters raised in Jim Crow Alabama, a troubled young black man from Oakland, and a working-class father and his teenage son.  Each went for different reasons -- some were drawn to Jones for his progressive attitudes toward racial integration, others were dazzled by his claims to be a faith healer.  But once in Guyana, Jones's mental imbalance and substance abuse quickly overcame the idealistic spirit of the community.  Scheeres chronicles the disturbing path that Jim Jones led his congregants down, piecing together rare firsthand interviews with the diaries, letters, and tapes collected by the FBI after the massacre.

Scheeres's own experiences at a religious rehabilitation camp in the Dominican Republic, detailed in her remarkable debut memoir Jesus Land, allowed her to gain the trust of survivors who had never spoken about their experiences on the record before.  Vividly written and impossible to forget, A Thousand Lives is a story of blind loyalty and daring escapes, of corrupted ideals and senseless, haunting loss.

Living Beyond Your Feelings

Controlling Emotions So They Don't Control You

by Joyce Meyer

The average person has 70,000 thoughts every day, and many of those thoughts trigger a corresponding emotion.  No wonder so many of us often feel like we're controlled by our emotions.  Our lives would be much improved if we controlled them.

In Living Beyond Your Feelings, Joyce Meyer examines the gamut of feelings that human beings experience.  She discusses the way the brain processes and stores memories and thoughts, and then -- emotion by emotion -- she explains how we can manage our reactions to those feelings.  In doing so, she gives the reader a toolbox for managing the way we react to the onslaught of feelings that can wreak havoc in our lives.

In this book, Joyce blends the wisdom of the Bible with the latest psychological research and discusses:

• The four personality types and the influence of each on one's outlook.
• The impact of stress on physical and emotional health
• The power of memories
• The influence of words on emotions
• Anger and resentment
• Sadness, loss, and grief
• Fear
• Guilt and regret
• The power of replacing reactions with pro-actions
• The benefits of happiness

In Living Beyond Your Feelings, Joyce gives you the tools to live beyond emotions, make proactive choices, and regain control of your life.

Grace for the Good Girl

by Emily P. Freeman

You're strong. You're responsible.  You're good.  But. . .

. . . as day fades to dusk, you begin to feel the familiar fog of anxiety, the weight and pressure of holding it together and of longing left unmet.  Good girls sometimes feel that the Christian life means doing hard work with a sweet disposition.  We tend to focus only on the things we can handle, our disciplined lives, and our unshakable good moods.

But what would happen if we let grace pour out boundless acceptance into our wornout hearts and undo us?  If we dared to talk about the ways we hide, our longing to be known, and the fear in the knowing?

In Grace for the Good Girl, Emily Freeman invites you to release your tight hold on that familiar, try-hard life and lean your weight heavy into the love of Jesus.  With an open hand, a whimsical style, and a heart bent brave toward adventure, Emily encourages you to move from your own impossible expectations toward the God who has graciously, miraculously, and lovingly found you.

Death in the City of Light

by David King

Death in the City of Light is the true story of the hunt for Marcel Petiot, a respectable physician by day and brutal serial killer by night in Nazi-occupied Paris.  Petiot was charged with twenty-seven grisly murders, though his victims -- many of whom were Jews seeking to escape the Nazis -- may have numbered in excess of one hundred.  Petiot was not only skilled at evading detection and capture, he was also expert at dismembering his victims beyond any chance of identification.  The investigation was led by commissaire Georges-Victor Massu of the Homicide Squad (himself the partial inspiration for Georges Simenon's Maigret), who became entangled with a cast of captivating characters leading him through the shadowy world of the Gestapo, gangsters, nightclub owners, Resistance fighters, pimps, prostitutes, spies, and other nefarious figures of the Parisian underground.

This is a gripping story of adventure, glamour, intrigue, and abhorrent decadence on the eve of disaster.  It is also an empowering tale of men and women braving great dangers to reveal the horrors of the Nazi regime.

Le Freak

by Nile Rodgers

Today’s pop music—genre-crossing, gender-bending, racially mixed, visually stylish, and dominated by dance music with global appeal—is the world that Nile Rodgers created. In the 1970s and 1980s, he wrote and produced the songs that defined that era and everything that came after: “Le Freak,” “Good Times,” “We Are Family,” “Like a Virgin,” “Modern Love,” “I’m Coming Out,” “The Reflex,” “Rapper’s Delight.” Aside from his own band, Chic, he worked with everyone from Diana Ross and Madonna to David Bowie and Duran Duran (not to mention Mick Jagger, Debbie Harry, Bob Dylan, Eric Clapton, Michael Jackson, Prince, Rod Stewart, Robert Plant, Depeche Mode, Paul Simon, Peter Gabriel, Grace Jones, Bryan Ferry, INXS, and the B-52’s), transforming their music, selling millions of records, and redefining what a pop song could be.

But before he reinvented pop music, Nile Rodgers invented himself. He was born into a mixed-race, bicoastal family of dope-fiend bohemians who taught him everything he needed to know about love, loss, fashion, art, music, and the subversive power of underground culture. The stars of the scene were his glamorous teenage mom and heroin-addicted Jewish stepfather, but there were also monkeys, voodoo orishas, jazz cats, and serial killers in the mix. By the time he was sixteen, Nile was on his own, busking through the sixties, half-hippie and half–Black Panther. He jammed with Jimi Hendrix, rocked out at Max’s Kansas City, toured with Big Bird on Sesame Street’s road show, and played in the legendary Apollo Theater house band behind history’s greatest soul singers. And then one night, he discovered disco.

During pop’s most glamorous and decadent age, Nile Rodgers wrote the biggest records and lived behind the velvet rope—whether he was holding court in the bathroom stalls at Studio 54, club hopping with Madonna, or scarfing down White Castle burgers with Diana Ross. Le Freak is the fascinating inside story of pop and its tangled roots, narrated by the man who absorbed everything in his topsy-turvy life—the pain and euphoria and fear and love—and turned it into some of the most sparklingly ebullient pop music ever recorded. Nile Rodgers is a brilliant storyteller who gives readers the surprising behind-the-scenes tales of the songs we all know, and lovingly re-creates the lost outsider subcultures—from the backstreets of 1950s Greenwich Village to the hills of 1960s Southern California to the demimonde of New York’s 1970s and 1980s discos and clubs—that live on in his music and in the throbbing, thriving world of pop he helped to set in motion.

Eleanor Roosevelt's Life of Soul Searching and Self Discovery

by Ann Atkins

Noble cause?

Have a dream that needs direction?

Whatever the scale of your rendezvous with destiny, the fact remains it is up to you to live it.  Eleanor's story is a 'do it yourself' guide that shows us how to:

• Persevere in the face of betrayal, critics and exhaustion
• Leverage media tools to educate the public
• Discern core issues behind the raucous babble
• Forge friendships for just causes and personal support
• Maintain a noble heart in times of trouble

From a childhood plagued with drunks and drama queens, Eleanor must now discard her dependency on Franklin and face off with her grand dame mother-in-law.  Refusing to cave in to society's rules, Eleanor's exuberant style, wavering voice and lack of Hollywood beauty are fodder for the media.

First Lady for thirteen years, Eleanor redefines and exploits this role to a position of power.  Using her influence she champions for Jews, African Americans and women.

Living through two world wars Eleanor witnesses thousands of graves, broken bodies and grieving families.  After visiting troops in the Pacific she says: 

"If we don't make this a more decent world to live in I don't see how we can look these boys in the eyes."

She defies a post-war return to status quo and establishes the Universal Declaration of Human Rights within the U.N.  She earns her way to being named "First Lady of the World."

The audacity of this woman to live out her own destiny challenges us to do the same.  After all, it's not about Eleanor.  HER STORY is history.  HER LIFE shows us how to live.

E-Books:

Welcome to Fred

by Brad Whittington

Mark Cloud has his doubts. He's not sure if he'll ever feel at home in Fred, Texas. He's not sure that he can work up the nerve to declare his love to the girl of his dreams. He's not sure he will survive another ride with Darnell Ray, Terror of the Back Roads. And he's not really sure he buys the whole God thing. Which is an uncomfortable position for the son of a Baptist preacher.

This award-winning novel is a moving and hilarious tale set against the vibrant backdrop of the 1960s and rural America. It is the timeless and classic story of Everyteen in the hands of a master storyteller.

In the Brief Eternal Silence

by Rebecca Melvin

Enter into the world of the Duke of St. James in Victorian England, 1863. . .Lizzie Murdock has heard of this Duke, derisively known as merely 'St. James' in an ironic twist to the title he holds versus his lifestyle known to be anything but saintly. The fact that he is rich and once considered 'the catch of the decade' holds no attractions for her.When he offers her an astounding proposal, she is more offended than flatteredand vows to rebuff his determined advances. Little does she know that their continued sparring over her future will lead to the revelation that he believes he won't be sharing in it for very long. "I simply believe there is a very good possibility that you shall become a widow at an extremely young age," he tells her. "Now doesn't that make the prospect of marrying me much more pleasant?" With those words, Lizzie is sucked into his world, a world where one would expect to find a self-centered man enjoying privilege and ease, but where instead she finds a man of uncommon character fighting for his life and prepared to make the ultimate sacrifice for those he loves.With her involvement will come consequences that neither of them can foresee,and an arranged proposal meant to flush out evil produces much more until their very survival will depend upon their love for each other.

BOOKS WON:

Hard Whispers

by Pamela Martin and Carl Henegan

After recently graduating from college, Pamela Graham, heir to the Graham publishing empire, sets off to fulfill a humanitarian goal of volunteering at a russian orphanage.  When Pamela impulsively takes one of the children out of the country to avoid an otherwise grim future, she inadvertently sets in motion a series of dark events.  While evading the Russian authorities by flying to Spain, she meets a biologist from Maryland who reveals a sinister American government conspiracy.  This knowledge takes her on a time-sensitive race to survive long enough to expose the truth before the clock runs out for a vast number of unsuspecting victims.  A gripping saga of covert government action, classism, and modern espionage, Hard Whispers runs at full speed with a spellbinding intensity that dances on the edge of reality.

The Venus Fix (ebook)

by M.J. Rose

As one of New York's top sex therapists, Dr. Morgan Snow sees everything from the abused to the depraved. From high-profile clients with twisted obsessions to courageous survivors, the Butterfield Institute is the sanctuary to heal battered souls.

Morgan Snow's newest patient is a powerful, influential man — secretly addicted to watching Internet Web cam pornography. He's not alone in his desires. She's also working with a group of high school teenagers equally and dangerously obsessed with these real-time fantasies.

Fantasies that are all too accessible.

Then the women start dying online, right in front of their eyes.

Now it's all about murder.



What books came home to you this week?

Winner of Chasing the Red Car!

Winner of Chasing the Red Car by Ellen Ruderman, which ended last night at midnight is:

LINDA KISH!  

Congrats Linda! 

Summer in the South by Cathy Holton - Giveaway!

Title: Summer in the South

Author: Cathy Holton

Publisher: Ballantine

Synopsis: After a personal tragedy, Chicago writer Ava Dabrowski quits her job to spend the summer in Woodburn, Tennessee, at the invitation of her old college friend Will Fraser and his two great-aunts, Josephine and Fanny Woodburn.  Her charming hosts offer Ava a chance to relax at their idyllic ancestral estate, Woodburn Hall, while working on her first novel.

But Woodburn is anything but quiet: Ancient feuds lurk just beneath its placid surface, and modern-day rivalries emerge as Ava finds herself caught between the competing attentions of Will and his black-sheep cousin Jake.  Fascinated by the family's impressive history -- their imposing house filled with treasures, and their mingling with literary lions Fitzgerald, Hemingway, and Faulkner -- Ava stumbles onto rumors about the darker side of the Woodburns' lore.  Putting aside her planned novel, she turns her creative attentions to the eccentric and tragic clan, a family with more skeletons (and ghosts) in their closets than anyone could possibly imagine.  As Ava struggles to write the true story of the Woodburns, she finds herself tangled in the tragic history of a mysterious Southern family show secrets mirror her own.

Read my review of Summer in the South

Special thanks to Cathy Holton for providing a copy of Summer in the South for this giveaway.  Please fill out the form below - MUST LEAVE LINKS for entry to count.  Giveaway is open to U.S. and Canada only.  This giveaway will end Sept 10, Midnight CST.

Route 66 by Krish Kandiah - Book Tour and Review

Title: Route 66: A Crash Course in Navigating Life With the Bible
Author: Krish Kandiah
Publisher:  Monarch Books


Synopsis: Welcome to Route 66, a journey to discover how the 66 books of the Bible help us to know God--and know how to live for Him. This book is packed with practical help to live your whole life guided by the whole of the Bible.

For many of us, there is a disconnect between the Bible we treasure and the book we struggle to read. We know the Bible is a lamp to our feet, honey on our lips, and the sword of the Spirit, equipping us for every good work. But sometimes the Bible feels more like a confusing collection of ancient texts filled with obscure laws! Using the analogy of a trip, Route 66 unfolds how different passages of the Bible can help us travel through different passages of our life.

Route 66 works with the idea that there are eight identifiable genres within the Bible: narrative, law, psalm, prophecy, wisdom, gospel, epistle, and apocalyptic. Krish Kandiah introduces each in turn, explaining how to read them and how to apply their teaching to your life. He then provides five studies for each.

There are three ways you can use this book: on your own, with 40 daily Bible studies and a "travel journal" to record what God is teaching you; in a small group, with weekly study questions to supplement your personal reading; and with your church, using the eight sections of the book as a great sermon series.

Free supplemental materials, including a Church Leader's Guide and PowerPoint presentation have been produced by Spring Harvest.


My thoughts: As it says above, there are 3 ways to use this book.  I have chosen the 40 Daily Bible Studies for the purpose of my review.  It is broken down to do 5 Bible Studies a week, but this was too much for me.  There is so much great information that Route 66 gets you think about and some great questions in the Travel Journey section, that I wanted/needed to mull over the material for longer than a day!  I am no where near completing the book, but I look forward to reading a little bit of it, along with my Bible, every day. 

In the back of the book is an 8 week Bible Reading Challenge where it suggests you read sections of the Bible as you would a novel.  I would like to do this, but I think that I would have to make it an 8 month Reading Challenge! 

If you are looking for something to take you a little deeper than a daily devotional, and get you really exploring the Bible, you should take a trip down Route 66!

For more information, please see Krish Kandiah's website.

~ I received a complimentary copy of this book from Kregel Publications in exchange for my review.~

And now for an excerpt from Route 66:

Week 1: Living faithfully
The narrative literature and its application to life

Day 1: The ride of our lives

Luke is funny. He is clever. He is 145 cm tall and has brown eyes.

What is your mental image of Luke from that description? Are you imagining a

small clown turning cartwheels? Are you thinking geeky and peculiar? Awkward

and studious? Scheming and tricking? I’m afraid all of these are way off mark.

Describing anyone in terms of a few physical features and personality traits falls

seriously short. So let me introduce you to my son Luke another way – with a story.

Yesterday Luke brought his schoolwork home. When we asked why he hadn’t

completed the work at school, he explained crossly that he had been waiting in

the queue to get the materials from the teacher when he saw one of his friends

struggling. He went over to help him out and rejoined the queue. Just as he was

almost at the front he spotted a girl crying, so he went over to give her a hand and

by the time he rejoined the queue again, she was smiling. By the end of the lesson

he had helped half the class in one way or another, but had hardly started his

project. When his teacher saw his work, she told him off for “doing nothing” and

gave him a warning.

Just from this one short story, we gain an insight into the way Luke relates

to others, his selflessness, and his sense of justice. We read “clever” as mentally

resourceful, and “funny” as good at making other people smile. But more than just

picturing him, you are probably beginning to relate to Luke. You may even have

begun to think about what you would do in his shoes or what you would say to

him if you were his teacher, his friend or his parent.

Statements like “Luke is 145 cm tall” are important. But they are merely the

bones of a skeleton when it comes to getting to know somebody. A story fleshes

out the description, giving us a clearer picture of the person and offering us the

possibility of intimacy and relationship. When God introduces himself to us in the

beginning of the Bible, he does so through story after story after story. This has a

number of effects:

1. Stories reveal God’s character12

Not just in terms of abstract concepts that could be misconstrued, but also in terms

of concrete examples. For the most part the story of the Bible is a retelling of how

God has connected characters, communities, continents and the cosmos itself in his

great big story for all of creation, making the character of the invisible God visible

to us.

2. Stories draw us into the story

Stories abduct our emotions, stealing them away into the drama as we recognize

the dilemmas and empathize with the characters.13 By experiencing the stories God

has given us in this way, our imagination, our ambition and our lives are drawn into

the captivating narrative of the Bible.

3. Stories draw us into relationship

As we see God’s character in action, we get to know different aspects of his

personality and foundations for a relationship are built as we share his hopes and

heartaches.

4. Stories make us who we are

“In order to make sense of our lives and to make our most important decisions,

we depend on some story.”14 In a world of competing stories the Bible tells us true

stories about the way things really happened so that we can be caught up into

God’s ultimate story of the grand sweep of history. Sometimes we zoom in and see

the fine detail – like in the story of Joseph and his jealous brothers. Other times we

zoom out to see the genealogies that summarize generations of stories where God

was faithful to his people. It has been said that history is His Story, but it is also

our story, as we too belong somewhere in the sweep of history described between

Genesis 1 and Revelation 21.

5. Stories change our lives

One sweltering summer’s day my wife and I heard a story about a beautiful

newborn baby girl who had no home to go to, as her birth mother was unable

to care for her. She was lying in the hospital that hot afternoon, oblivious to the

uncertainties of her future as social workers phoned around possible placements.

We were newly approved foster carers. On hearing this story we faced a choice.

Our decision to get involved in the story of this little girl had life-changing

consequences as we first fostered her, then adopted her, loving her as our own

daughter. Reading the stories of the Old Testament comes with a health warning:

the more we get to know God, and the more we get drawn into the Bible story,

the harder it will be to ignore the invitation to join the ride of our lives in God’s big

plan for the universe.

TRAVEL JOURNAL: Genesis 1:1–31
1. God is introduced as the lead character in the story of the Bible.
How does this story seek to inspire awe in you as you read?
(See verses 1, 3 and 16.)

2. The story of the beginning of the universe is told with great
artistry. Where do you notice repetitions, poetry or unusual turns
of phrase?

3. The hinge-point of the story seems to be the creation of human
beings (verses 27–31). Find four differences compared to the
rest of creation. Why are they significant?

4. Use the five points about how stories help us to engage with
Genesis 1. How does this story:

⊕ reveal God’s character?
⊕ draw us into relationship?
⊕ draw us into the story?
⊕ make us who we are?
⊕ change our lives?



Day 2: Mirror, signal, manoeuvre

Of the 4,000 or more volumes that my wife and I own, there is one that I

particularly treasure. It is one of my smallest and scruffiest books and even the

letters on its spine have been rubbed away. But every time I see it, I remember the

romance of a day twenty years earlier. I was in Shakespeare’s Stratford with my

soon-to-be fiancée when we discovered this compact copy of Romeo and Juliet in

a second-hand shop. Sitting by the river in view of the Swan Theatre, I gave that

book as a farewell present to my girlfriend as she left to spend a year working in

Germany. Somehow we survived the long-distance relationship and that copy of

Romeo and Juliet now sits on our shelf reminding us of young love, of the pain of

separation, and of the hope of return.

If I were to tell you that some recent visitors to my home spotted that famous

romantic tragedy on my bookshelf, and had never heard of it before, I guess you

would be surprised. But imagine your shock if I then added that I could summarize

the play in just thirteen words:

⊕ Hate destroys families.

⊕ Love is stronger than hate.

⊕ Love is stronger than death.

The statements are true enough, but the story has been stripped of its plot, its

suspense, its beauty, its emotions, its characters, and its context. My summary may

have left my visitors a little more informed, but I doubt I would have inspired them

to go away and discover the play for themselves.

Many of the sermons I hear, and even many I have preached, easily end up

as a bland set of bullet-points, often handily beginning with the same letter!

For example, you could go away from a sermon based on the story of the call of

Abraham in Genesis 12 with these lessons:

⊕ God is patient.

⊕ God is generous.

⊕ God is missionary.

Here are three true statements,15 but the Bible passage, which started out as a

story, has ended up as systematic theology. This is as dissatisfying as going into

a restaurant and ordering their best soup, and being given instead a list of the

ingredients. Or visiting the Louvre to see a Renaissance masterpiece, only to

discover that scientists had immortalized the exhibits by distilling the paints into

test-tubes arranged in alphabetical order of their chemical composition. Sometimes

we are in danger of reducing the Bible so much, that although we may find a truth,

we lose the sensation and the impact that the story was supposed to produce.16

It is the basic assumption in this book that God in his wisdom inspired the

Scriptures and gave us just the kind of book that we needed. It is no accident or

mistake that God inspired so much of the Bible to be in story form and preserved

those stories over the millennia so they would be handed down in the format we

see in front of us. Of course God could have sent us bullet-points instead, but he

chose not to. God’s aim was not that we boil these stories down to their bare

minimum ingredients. God’s aim was the opposite – that the stories could boil over

into the messy reality of our lives.

In order to understand Romeo and Juliet, we need to understand the language

and the culture that Shakespeare was writing in. But that tragic play set in the

fifteenth century, with its rigid conventions of marriage, still has an impact in our

more liberal society. The stories of the Bible are not human works of fiction, like

Shakespearean plays, but divine accounts of history and therefore have endless

potential to impact our own lives. Nevertheless, we still need to acknowledge the

presence of the two worlds, whichever part of the Bible narrative we are reading:

the world of the Bible text with its language, culture and time in history, and our

world with its very different language, culture and time in history.17 The following

tool of narrative Bible study is adapted from that vital all-terrain habit I learned in

my driving lessons: “Mirror, Signal, Manoeuvre”.

⊕ MIRROR: Look back and try to understand how the original audience would
have experienced the Bible passage.

⊕ SIGNAL: Ask God to help you to understand the passage’s significance
today. How is the story used elsewhere in the Bible? How does the story set
the course for our lives today?

⊕ MANOEUVRE: What are you going to do now to change your actions,
attitude or understanding as a result of this Bible passage?
Looking back to what a story meant to its first hearers before we look to our own
situation may take some getting used to. However awkward and time-consuming it
may feel to first look back, and then look around before looking forward, this art
of time travel will protect us from the dangers of misapplying the Bible, and will
resource us to move forward confidently.

TRAVEL JOURNAL: Genesis 12:1–9
1. Flick back through chapters 9–12. What do we learn about the
world as Abram saw it? How do you imagine Abram felt about
God’s call in verse 1, and the promises in verses 2–3 and 7?
From Abram’s perspective, how does the story work out for him?
(Scan through Genesis 12–25.)

2. How does Abram’s call set the direction for how we understand
the life of faith? (See Galatians 3 and Romans 4.)

3. Ultimately God’s promise will be fulfilled at the end of time. How
is Abram’s call therefore still applicable to those of us who are
his spiritual descendants? (See especially Genesis 12:2–3.)

4. How does Hebrews 11:8–12 help us to live out this story? What
are you going to do about this?

Notes
12 See Newbigin, L., 1989, The Gospel in a Pluralist Society, SPCK, p. 99.

13 See Sweet, L., McLaren, B. & Hasselmayer, J., 2003, A is for Abductive: The Language of the Emergent Church, Zondervan, pp. 31–33.

14 See Bartholomew, C. & Goheen, M., 2006, The Drama of Scripture: Finding our place in the biblical story, SPCK, p. 1.

15 Kevin Vanhoozer puts it well: “The gospel is informative: ‘he is risen.’ Without some propositional core, the church would lose its raison
d’être, leaving only programs and pot-lucks. At the same time, to reduce the truth of Scripture to a set of propositions is unnecessarily reductionist.”
Vanhoozer, K., 2005, “Lost in Interpretation? Truth, Scripture and Hermeneutics”, Journal of the Evangelical Theological Society, 48/1, March 2005,
p. 100.

16 For more on this theme see Arthurs, J. D., 2007, Preaching with Variety: How to recreate the Dynamics of Biblical Genres, Kregel.

17 Stott, J., 1998, I Believe in Preaching, Hodder & Stoughton.



Route 66
Publisher/Publication Date: July 2011, Monarch Books
ISBN: 978-0-85721-018-0
192 pages

Waiting on Wednesday: Shelter

This week's pre-publication can't wait to read selection is:

Shelter

by Harlan Coben

Publication Date: Sept 6, 2011

A young adult debut from internationally bestselling author Harlan Coben


Mickey Bolitar's year can't get much worse. After witnessing his father's death and sending his mom to rehab, he's forced to live with his estranged uncle Myron and switch high schools.


A new school comes with new friends and new enemies, and lucky for Mickey, it also comes with a great new girlfriend, Ashley. For a while, it seems like Mickey's train-wreck of a life is finally improving - until Ashley vanishes without a trace. Unwilling to let another person walk out of his life, Mickey follows Ashley's trail into a seedy underworld that reveals that this seemingly sweet, shy girl isn't who she claimed to be. And neither was Mickey's father. Soon, Mickey learns about a conspiracy so shocking that it makes high school drama seem like a luxury - and leaves him questioning everything about the life he thought he knew.


First introduced to readers in Harlan Coben's latest adult novel, Live Wire, Mickey Bolitar is as quick-witted and clever as his uncle Myron, and eager to go to any length to save the people he cares about. With this new series, Coben introduces an entirely new generation of fans to the masterful plotting and wry humor that have made him an award-winning, internationally bestselling, and beloved author.

Waiting on Wednesday is hosted by Jill at Breaking the Spine.

Teaser Tuesday (August 23, 2011)

Teaser Tuesdays is a weekly bookish meme, hosted by MizB of Should Be Reading. Anyone can play along! Just do the following:

• Grab your current read
• Open to a random page
• Share two (2) “teaser” sentences from somewhere on that page
• BE CAREFUL NOT TO INCLUDE SPOILERS! (make sure that what you share doesn’t give too much away! You don’t want to ruin the book for others!)
• Share the title and author, too, so that other TT participants can add the book to their TBR Lists if they like your teasers!
• Then visit MizB and add your link!

Despite all their creativity, teachers and staff were so busy taking care of moment-to-moment tasks like supervision and student discipline that they couldn't take care of chronic issues like fixing the curriculum skills class, coming up with a system to track detention time, or figuring out which teachers were floundering worse than others.  Professional development sessions were planned and pulled together in a rush at the last minute. (Stray Dogs, Saints and Saviors: Fighting for the Soul of America's Toughest High School p100)

Tuesday Recap

Today was the first day of First Grade! It was all I could do to get him to stand still for this picture!

And I thought that even though it was a half day, that I would be able to get some reading done for the readathon this week.  Wrong! 

My middle daughter called from school.  She was dizzy, short of breath, tingly hands - so the school nurse sent her home and I had to take her to the doctor.  (This is the daughter who is pregnant).  After about 45 minutes at the doctors, she sent us on to the hospital for some additional lab work just to make sure she didn't have pre-eclampsia.  She is at high risk because of her age and because I had pre-eclampsia with her.  Thankfully everything came back fine and she was just told not to push herself like she might do if she wasn't pregnant.  (Maybe hearing it from someone other than mom it might sink in!)  So we were at the hospital for about 3-4 hours - my neighbor had to get my son off the bus and then my husband left work early to go home and get him.  So it is 9pm and I am just getting to sit down at the computer!  I did get a little reading done at the hospital, but not anything to write about!

But - I do have BIG NEWS!  I started work yesterday as the Library Aide at my son's school!  How cool is that??  It is only 12 hours a week, but it is going to be a lot of fun!  It should be approved by the school board tomorrow, but since the Superintendent introduced me at the all district staff meeting yesterday with the rest of the hires, I figured it was ok to announce it here now.   

It's Monday! What are you reading? (Aug 22, 2011)

What are you reading on Mondays is hosted by Sheila at One Person's Journey - You can hook up with the Mr. Linky there with your own post - but be sure and let me know what you are reading too!  Hasn't been much change in this post from last week.  Still behind on reviews.  Hoping to catch up before the end of the month!  I am beginning to forget the details of some of the books - I can remember if I liked them or not, but not specifically why!

Currently Reading:
Stray Dogs, Saints and Saviors by Alexander Russo
Route 66 by Krish Kandiah

Next Up:
In Search of Rose Notes by Emily Arsenault
Whistling in the Dark by Lesley Kagen

E-Book:
Singular by David Porteous
Reversible Skirt by Laura McHale Holland

Bathroom Book:
Pie Town by Lynne Hinton

Reviewed Since Last Post:
The Arrivals: A Novel by Meg Mitchell Moore
The Midwife's Confession by Diane Chamberlain
Following Polly By Karen Bergreen
Summer in the South by Cathy Holton


Children's Books Reviewed Since Last Post:



Waiting for Reviews:
 White Sleeper by David R. Fett and Stephen Langford
The Place of Belonging by Jayne Pearson Faulkner
The Blackberry Bush by David Housholder
The Girl in the Green Raincoat by Laura Lippman
Book Thief by Markus Zusak
Airmail by Naomi Bulger

E-books waiting for review:
Sudden Moves by Kelli Sue Landon
This World We Live In (The Last Survivors, Book 3) by Susan Beth Pfeffer

Children's Books waiting for review:
Pearl's Wisdom by Auntie LuLu
Bug Meets His Friend (Bug's Adventure Series) by K.M. Groshek

READY - SET - READ!

Dear Anonymous

I recently received this comment on a blog post which ended up in my spam mailbox -

Anonymous has left a new comment on your post "Mailbox Monday (Aug 22, 2011)":
I think you should stop spamming other people's blog with back links to your own. I already reported your blog to google as a spam and they are investigating. You can read this forum and see how other people are complaining about your abuse of "link to this post" on others' blogs.

So Dear Anonymous,

This is the way that I understand back links.  Evidently I follow your blog or have linked to your blog in someway on mine - whether it is in a sidebar or in an actual post or my blog roll. This is what creates the back link.  It is not a person, physically going to your blog and adding a link - although I do believe they can be added that way also.  Since you are "anonymous", I have no way of knowing whether you are on my blogroll or not.  The forum that you referred me to in your comment is from March of 2010 and I have no idea whether or not I was the "Needlepoint Lady" referred to in the forum. I am guessing that I am though as the person originating that forum had been in my blogroll.  If they would have taken the time to actually read my blog and not just the name, they would have seen that my blog is more about Books and Book Blogging than Needlepoint and as they were a writer, maybe would have liked knowing that they were in my blogroll.  (I have since removed them from my blogroll as it seemed to cause them issues). 

I do not have the time or the inclination to journey around the blogosphere and leave links randomly here and there, and I would never post a link on someone else's site without their permission first.  Blogging to me is a community, and whatever we can do to support one another is high up on my list.  If you would like to contact me at my email address - clearly listed in my profile - I would be more than happy to try to figure out why my links are showing up on your blog and remove that information from mine.

Meanwhile, if any of my readers understand the issue of backlinks, or can explain it better - please feel free to jump in here.


Now maybe I can get back to reading. . .

Mailbox Monday (Aug 22, 2011)

 Mailbox Monday's host for August is Staci at Life in the Thumb. In My Mailbox is hosted Sundays at The Story Siren. Please visit these posts and take a look at what packages everybody else got this week! 

The Most Dangerous Thing

by Laura Lippman

 

 

Years ago, they were all the best of friends.  But as time passed and circumstances changed, they grew apart, became adults with families of their own, and began to forget about the past -- and the terrible lie they all shared.

 

But now Gordon, the youngest and wildest of the five, has died and the others are thrown together for the first time in years.

 

And then the revelations start.

 

Could their long-ago lie be the reason for their troubles today?  Is it more dangerous to admit to what they've done or is it the strain of keeping the secret that is beginning to wear on them and everyone close to them?

 

Each one of these old friends has to wonder if their secret has been discovered -- and if someone within the circle is out to destroy them.

 

 

A Bitter Truth

by Charles Todd

 

When battlefield nurse Bess Crawford returns from France for a well-earned Christmas leave, she finds a bruised and shivering woman huddled in the doorway of her London residence.  The woman has nowhere to turn, and propelled by a firm sense of duty, Bess takes her in.

 

Once inside Bess's flat, the woman reveals that a quarrel with her husband erupted into violence, yet she wants to return home -- if Bess will go with her to Sussex.  Realizing that the woman is suffering from a concussion, Bess gives up a few precious days of leave to travel with her.  But she soon discovers that this is a good deed with unforeseeable consequences.

 

What Bess finds at Vixen Hill is a house of mourning.  The woman's family has gathered for a memoiral service for the elder son, who died of war wounds.  Her husband, home on compassionate leave, is tense, tormented by jealousy and his own guilty conscience.

 

Then, when a troubled houseguest is found dead, Bess herself becomes a prime suspect in the case.  This murder will lead her to a dangerous quest in war-torn France, an unexpected ally, and a startling revelation that puts her in jeopardy before a vicious killer can be exposed.

 

 

Sanctus

by Simon Toyne

 

The certainties of modern life are about to be shattered by an ancient conspiracy that has been nurtured by blood and lies.

 

A man climbs a cliff face in the oldest inhabited place on earth, a mountain known as the Citadel, a Vatican-like city-state that towers above the city of Ruin in contemporary Turkey.  But this is no ordinary ascent.  It is a dangerous, symbolic act.  And thanks to the media, it is witnessed by the entire world.

 

And few people understand its consequence.  For foundation worker Kathryn Mann and a handful of others, it's evidence that a hopeful, new beginning is at hand.  For the cowled and secretive monks who live inside the Citadel, it could mean the end of everything they have built -- and they will break every law in every country and even kill to stop it.  For reporter Liv Adamsen, it spurs the memory of the beloved brother she has lost and begins the next stage of a journey into the heart of her own identity.

 

At that journey's end lies a discovery that will change everything. . .

 

 

 

All These Things I've Done

by Gabrielle Zevin

 

In 2083, chocolate and caffeine are illegal, water is carefully rationed, books are scarce, and New York City is rife with poverty and crime.

 

And yet, for Anya Balanchine, the sixteen-year-old daughter of the city's most notorious (and dead) crime boss, life is fairly routine.  But when she finds herself falling for the son of the new assistant district attorney, and her ex-boyfriend is poisoned by the chocolate her family manufactures, Anya is unwillingly thrust into the spotlight -- in the news, and, more important, within her mafiya family.

 

 

 

52 Things Kids Need From a Mom

by Angela Thomas

 

Mom, do you need inspiration? encouragement? affirmation?

 

Angela Thomas, bestselling author and mother of four, draws on personal experience and biblical principles to help you raise healthy, responsible kids and establish strong family ties.  Whether you have one baby or six children, you'll enjoy insightful stories, practical information, and loads of encouragement in each short reading.  Covering childhood through the teen years, the 52 chapters are packed with specifics to help you:

• make your children feel loved and secure
• teach and encourage communication
• establish a positive, wholesome atmosphere
• know when and how to correct behaviour and set consequences
• help your kids persevere and succeed.

52 Things Kids Need from a Mom is upbeat, guilt-free, and designed to be read in short bursts -- perfect for today's busy schedules.  You'll discover how to lead with God's love and grace and create family moments that will be recalled with delight for years to come.

 

 

 

Darn Good Cowboy Christmas

by Carolyn Brown

 

He's one hot cowboy. . .

Raylen O'Donnell is one smokin' cowboy.  He could have any woman he wants, but he's never been able to forget a certain dark-haired girl who disappeared from his life.  So when she suddenly returns to the ranch next door, Raylen's not fixing to let her get away again. . .

 

And she's out for a sizzlin' Christmas

Raised in a traveling carnival, Lizelle Hanson thought all she wanted was a house that didn't have wheels and a sexy cowboy for her very own.  But settling down's going to take some getting used to, and catching Raylen, the hotter-than-hell cowboy next door, might just take a little holiday magic. . .

 

 

Thunder of Heaven

by Tim LaHaye and Craig Parshall

In the sequel to the New York Times bestselling novel -- Edge of Apocalypse, homeland America is under attack.

Joshua Jordan's reputation is on the line when his controversial RTS system fails to protect Flight 199 as it takes off from Chicago and is shot down by a terrorist missile.  The government is taking no chances and starts an investigation of Joshua's entire defense program. Unfortunately, the Israelis, longtime allies of the United States, are desperate for the technology.  When Joshua flies to the Middle East to assure them of the RTS's reliability, he is captured by Iranians who want the secret for the defense tool for their own use.

With Joshua out of the country, Abigail Jordan is left in charge of the Roundtable and sets out to defend her husband to the media and to the commission set up to investigate RTS.  But America is under attack -- a bombing in the Mall of America and rumors of even more potential atrocities have this covert team desperate to find additional bombs before they are set off.

As man vs. man and nation vs. nation come together in an epic battle, nature takes over and makes the final blow.  And as world events begin setting the stage for the "end of days" foretold in Revelation, Joshua Jordan must weigh the personal price he must pay to save the nation he loves.

What books came home to you this week?