Saturday, February 05, 2011

Book of Days



I am excited about the game tomorrow! I've been a fan of the Green Bay Packers since Halloween 1996. For some reason that day, while I handed out candy to the kids who came to the door I started watching a game and become completely hooked. I've rarely missed a game in the fifteen years since and often annoy the rest of my family by my need to be near a TV or radio on game days. I don't think most people would expect me to be quite the rabid fan I am. I'm a fairly quiet person, introverted, voracious reader, private, keep to myself. But put me in front of a Packer game, and I scream, yell, groan, and occasionally throw things. There's something very special about the Packers. As the only team in the NFL to be owned by a city, instead of a person or corporation, there is a true sense of ownership in the state. Sure, when other teams win, their fans say, "We won!", but when Packer fans say it, there's a deeper feeling of belonging. Lots of people have tried to identify or name just what it is that captures the world's imagination about the Green Bay Packers, America's Team, from Titletown. It's more than Lombardi or Lambeau or Starr or even Favre. It's impossible to quantify, but easy to recognize.

Tomorrow I'm heading over to Mom and Jeff's for homemade pizza, lots of different dips, soda, and community. Gotta love the Super Bowl, especially when the Packers are in it. Go Pack Go!

Book of Days by James L. Rubart is a fascinating look at memory, forgiveness, and God. Cameron Vaux watched his father die eight years ago, but even more terrible than his death was watching him lose his memories to a devastating illness. Now, two years after the death of his beloved wife Jessie, Cameron is starting to worry that he may suffer from that same illness. He's forgetting conversations moments after they happen, missing appointments, and reading notes in his own handwriting as if for the first time, but even worse than that, he's losing his memories of Jessie. Just before his father and Jessie died, each told Cameron of a book of days that he must seek out, but he's ignored their instructions until now, as he begins losing himself, he feels that the book just may hold the answer he needs. He heads to Three Peaks, Oregon in his search and asks Jessie's best friend Ann Bannister to help him in his quest. Ann has her own reasons for going to Three Peaks, more than just her long hidden feelings for Cam. She wants to find out more about her mother who died of a heroin overdose when Ann was just eleven. Cameron and Ann meet Taylor Stone, who seems to have all the answers they need; Jason Judah, whose malicious manipulations and desire to own the book turn them off, and others in the small town, all of whom are enigmatic at best and threatening at worst. Their investigation tells them that the Book of Days was written by God with everyone's memories, the past, and the future all written out for anyone to read, and each person has their own reasons for wanting, or not wanting, to find it. Rubart's writing is compelling and fascinating, as he pulls readers in farther and farther with each turn of the page. My one quibble is that in his attempt to throw readers off in the identity of the bad guy, he leaves them confused as to just why the antagonist was willing to go so far; it's motivations are a mystery. Still, the story is thoroughly entertaining, and the revelation about the Book both satisfying and poignant. Rubart is an exciting new Christian fiction who will be changing the face of the genre with each book he writes.

Thank you to B & H Fiction for providing me with a copy of this book for review!

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