Engaging Father Christmas

One of my book groups on Shelfari held a contest over three months to try and pare down each participant's to be read stack. At the end of the three months, the group admin gave a list of questions that needed to be answered using only words from those book titles. I read, I think, 128 books in those three months, so I had quite a few titles to choose from. I didn't win the contest for best entry years, but I did place in the top four. I think I did a pretty good job, so I thought I'd share it with you. Remember, every word, including every a, and, of, and the came from a book title. TBR stands for to be read and I am describing my tbr stack.

Queen of Story Land
2. What place from the list you've read from your TBR would you like your TBR to live: A Crazy Land of Bottomless Dreams
3. In what kind of home/structure would TBR reside: The Bedlam House Library.
4. How old is TBR: That's a Secret!
5. How much does TBR weigh: 5 Saturdays of Dawn to Midnight tales
6. What color hair does TBR now have: Silver and Gold
7. What color eyes does TBR have (the better to read all those lucious books, my dear): Passion Most Purple
8. If TBR has a pet, what is it: A mixed-up, muddy white wolf with big ears
9. What is TBR's musical preference: Guilty pleasures
10. What occupation would TBR likely pursue: singer, painter, president, billionaire!
11. TBR is preparing a Spa Brunch; what is the featured item on the menu: Christmas Candy Pie, Bon Appetit!
12. TBR's two favorite authors are: Lisa Samson, Laurie R. King
13. If TBR could combine the titles of 1 book each from the two favorite authors, what would the title of that book be: (Choose 2 favorite authors you've got on the list you've read from this challenge and combine one title from each of those 2 others for a made-up book): The Art of Goodbye
14. If TBR likes to dance and could make up a new dance (think Dancing With The Stars), what would that dance be called: The thrill and wonder of a waterwalk
15. TBR would banish this book (a book you read for this challenge) forever from his/her shelf: Generation Hex
16. If TBR could make everyone read one book (from the list you read for this challenge), it would be: The Glass of Time
17.TBR prefers to read at what kind of pace: From Dawn to Sunset on any given day
18. TBR is absoposilutely enchanted with: Heavenly Grace
19. TBR loathes with a passion that can barely be described: Forsaken, wounded bunions
20. When TBR catches a whiff of this, there's nothing good afoot: Geckos in Tutus
21. When TBR wants to kick back and relax, the air is heavy with this scent: Sweet basil candles 22. Where does TBR hide the odds and ends of its parts (books) that will no longer fit on the permanent shelf: streets, roads, and farms
23. TBR is writing an autobiography. What is its title: The Paper Rosetta Key to Life and the World According to Me
24. If TBR decided to take a trip, what mode of transportation would (s)he prefer: giant dragonfly
25. If TBR were to be described by someone who'd never seen it before, how would a stranger depict it: What in the name of God?
26. If TBR had a spouse, describe what that person would be like: A good man of particular circumstance
27. Describe TBR's perfect read: A jewel of a novel with engaging writing of tombs, bodies, passion and murder.
29. Other than read, what's TRB's favorite thing to do: save the world
30. What one book from the list you read for this challenge would TBR recommend and to whom (member's name) would (s)he recommend it: Novel Destinations to Ma, cause she seriously needs a vacation!

I ran this review a few months ago, but wanted to run it again today as we get closer to Christmas.

Engaging Father Christmas by Robin Jones Gunn is the follow-up to Finding Father Christmas. It's a short, engaging novella about finding your home and trusting God to lead you there. Miranda Carson is returning to England for Christmas again this year with the hope that her boyfriend Ian will be asking her a rather important question, one that will give her a home for life. Miranda will be celebrating her first real Christmas as a part of her biological father's family, but his wife is still distant making Miranda question where she really belongs. Gunn captures the spirit of Christmas and weaves it through this enjoyable tale. I don't think I've ever read a more romantic proposal! It's incredible the amount of story that Gunn packs into just a few pages. This is one story I'll be glad to come back to year after year.

Don't forget to sign up for my contest to win one of two copies of When the Soul Mends! Drop me an email today! Today's pic is after the choir concert Saturday night. I wanted to get all three kids dressed up, but Doogie and Molly had already changed out of their concert clothing, and none of them would even give me a decent smile. They were all a

bit goofy.

Until We Reach Home

I'm participating in a reading contest on my favorite online book site: Shelfari. It's a complicated challenge that involves teams and assigning point values to different quantifiers about books: whether they are considered "classic", if they've won an award, if they are over 500 or 800 pages. There are a lot of rules, that I am very thankful I don't have to keep track of (my team has a very efficient scorekeeper), but it's encouraged me to read books that I may never have otherwise picked up. In the last month I've read Lois Lowry's The Giver (it was an interesting read), Selected Poems by Gwendolyn Brooks (she is amazing!), The Little Prince by Antoine De Saint-expurey (I absolutely didn't get it, not one little bit), and Ernest Hemingway's In Our Time (I acquired a serious respect for an author I formerly despised). I just started reading Gone With the Wind. Being over 1000 pages, plus an award-winner and classic, it's worth a huge amount of points, but I have to admit that I'm not looking forward to reading it. My mom and I used to watch the movie every year when it was on television, and I absolutely adored Vivian Leigh as Scarlett, and Clark Gable as Rhett is beyond divine. So far (I'm only 30 pages in), the writing is vivid and polished, maybe I'm just intimidated by the sheer size of the thing. I have until midnight tomorrow night to finish it, so I'd better get going!

Until We Reach Home by Lynn Austin is a quietly stunning historical novel about three sisters quest to find a place they can call home. Elin Carlson has always tried to protect her sisters on their small farm in Sweden, especially since the deaths of their parents, but when their Uncle Sven starts making moves toward youngest sister Sofia like he did to her, she knows she needs to act quickly and decisively to break all three of them free from his control. Salvation comes in the form of their Uncle Lars who is living in Chicago and sends them passage to him. Elin, Kirsten, and Sofia leave behind all that they know in hopes of finding a new future. Elin is fearful and constantly on alert to protect those she loves. Kirsten is angry, at first, at leaving behind the man she loves, but when she discovers his duplicity, she embraces the possibility of a new life. Sofia, the youngest at sixteen, is scared to leave her home and falls into a deep depression, until circumstances force her to stand on her own for the first time and in doing so become the strength for all three sisters. Austin puts these three young women through enormous turmoil, but the lessons they learn and faith they acquire makes the story incredibly moving. All three sisters are intriguing characters, and Austin does a terrific job of capturing their sibling dynamic. One of the strongest parts of the book is how Austin portrays how these girls, rather than turning to God for guidance, run ahead of Him making their own rash decisions, and yet God uses even those actions for His own good purpose. It's an excellent story about faith, hope, and trust.

Today's picture is from the baby shower on Saturday. Each child was given a small gift to bring home, and Mia's was a purple fuzzy tiara. It couldn't' have been more perfect for her, and she was thrilled, as you can see from the smile on her face.

The Other Daughter

I belong to a great book group on Shelfari called Play Book Tag. Each month the group picks a different genre of books and then reads one they haven't before. Then we discuss what we liked and didn't and talk about books in general. The administrator of the group is always coming up with great ideas to encourage more reading and conversation. This month she started a game called Last Tagger Standing. We're divided into four teams (I'm on Team B). Each three day cycle, we have to read as many pages as possible. The team with the lowest total pages is up for elimination, and the lowest reader on that team (if there are more, it's chosen randomly) is eliminated. Fantasy books are counted as double. I've always thought of myself as a pretty prolific reader, but my numbers are nothing compared to what I'm seeing other members put up. It's all in fun, and it's a great community of readers. I have 36 hours left in this cycle and I'm at 1355 pages so far (996 of those fantasy, which was really 498 doubled).

The hard part is that I don't read much fantasy any more, so I'm hitting up the kids' libraries. I just finished reading Molly's heavily read copy of Twilight by Stephenie Meyer(I can't tell you how many times she's read it, and she's loaned it to all her friends). I was going to read Doogie's copy of Eldest by Christopher Paolini next, but I have to find out what happens next between Edward and Bella. Molly's reveling in the opportunity to lord her superior knowledge of a book over me; I'll let her have her fun for now. Wait until the new book, Breaking Dawn, comes out in August. I already have it on reserve at the library, and I'll get it before she does.

The Other Daughter by Miralee Ferrell starts out with a bomb dropping into Suzanne Carson's world. On the evening of her birthday, a thirteen year old girl shows up on her doorstep claiming to be Suzanne's husband, David's, daughter. While David and Suzanne's two children, especially daughter Megan, accept Brianna without hesitation, as does David's father. But Suzanne is bitterly resentful at David's unfaithfulness and sees it as a sign that his God and religion are illusions. David loves his wife and children dearly, and for fear of hurting them keeps his distance as well from this young, vulnerable girl. It's not often in Christian fiction that in a marriage, the husband is portrayed as the faithful one and the wife as the unbeliever. Suzanne's insistence on relying only on herself separates her not only from God, but from David, Brianna, and even her children. Ferrell's writing is skillful as she portrays Suzanne sympathetically even when she's acting in a way that's not. Because she writes so openly about Suzanne's hurt and pain, it's easy to care about the character and appreciate her growth throughout the story. While the ending may be a little pat (but entirely enjoyable), Ferrell excels at creating a powerful story with realistic characters about the power of trusting in God.

Today's pic is from the Valentine's Day session we had done. I love the looks on the kids' faces.

Off the Record

Jesse and I learned a valuable lesson this week. A four-year-old + chocolate milk + a computer = crash and panic. On Tuesday, Mia took her cup of chocolate milk with her while she played on the computer. I don't know exactly how it happened, but the next thing I knew, she was crying and covered in milk, as was the keyboard and printer. I cleaned her up, grounded her from the computer, and cleaned off the keyboard and printer as well as I could. No serious damage seemed to have occurred. I blogged Tuesday's entry and was in the process of doing some family tree research when I realized that I couldn't type any t's. Or r's. Or anything on the keyboard Q-Y. I shook it upside down to clean it out again to no avail. I restarted the computer thinking that would help, but unfortunately our password to log on has both a t and an r. I shut down the computer and called Jesse to ask him to pick up a new keyboard on the way home from work. He switched keyboards when he got home and found a bigger mess under the printer (oops!) which entailed a great deal of shifting the CPU about to mop up. When he was done and tried to restart the computer, it wouldn't boot up. Nothing he tried would get it to boot, and he couldn't even get into safe mode. He took the hard drive over to his parents' house, and it wouldn't boot up there either. It appeared that our hard drive was fried. We were both tense and started to take it out on each other, but then we prayed about it together, Mia joined in. The drive has all of his schoolwork, our family pictures, genealogy info, my novel and other writings, plus hundreds of music files, not to mention email addresses.

Wednesday afternoon when he got home from work he tried hooking up Mom's old computer up to our drive (we have her computer here to clean off her pics and put them on her new puter). It didn't work. He tried switching things around and was finally able to run a diagnostics on it without actually accessing any of the files. As a last resort he put the hard drive back into our computer and started it up. It booted up quickly with no problems at all. There is no doubt in our minds that God fixed our computer. It certainly wasn't fixed by any of our doings. Thank You God!

Off the Record by Elizabeth White is the story of Laurel Kincaide, a young Southern lawyer who has decided to run for Alabama Supreme Court Chief Justice. Just as she announces her candidacy, she sees journalist Cole McGaughan, the one man who could bring her campaign to a quick end with secrets about their shared past he holds in his hand. Laurel's best friend and campaign manager, who is unaware of their past, asks Cole to follow Laurel through election day for a story that could help them both: his with his newspaper career and Laurel to win a seat on the court. Things are complicated by Cole's friendship with private detective Hogan who has been hired by Laurel's opponent Field. White does a wonderful job of creating the Kincaide family with its delightfully twisted history and members. Laurel is trying to live out her faith during her candidacy, and she struggles to believe that Cole has had a change of heart and faith since they last met. I really enjoyed reading about Cole's faith. White portrayed it in an intimate way that struck home with me. Cole spoke to his Lord often as a good friend and loved son. At one point he runs through his options to calm down: cold shower, shot of alcohol, etc before realizing that what he needed was to talk to God, and it brought peace to his soul. Cole's relationship with God has helped my own grow in the same way. The book ends the way you would expect, but the twists and bumps on the way are worth the ride.

I've totally fallen in love with Shelfari. The list on the side is no longer books on my to read list; I'm trying to list all of the books I've read in my adult life, or at least the last ten years. It's extremely addictive, plus I can post my reviews there as well.

Satan's Circus

I woke up in pain and felt exhausted this morning, but I needed to go into work, so I prayed for strength and deliverance. I dropped Mia and Molly off a the park. The sky was overcast, and Molly asked if it was going to rain. I foolishly quoted the weatherman from this morning who said that it was going to blow over without bring us any rain. I got to work and refilled some brochures in the waiting rooms. Just as I was going back downstairs to start working on the computer, I saw that it was raining. No, raining doesn't quite cover it: it was POURING in sheets. I jotted a note to my boss that I had to get my girls and clocked out 23 minutes after I had punched in. Running the 50 feet to the van got me completely soaked head to toe. I head to run through puddles that were up to my ankles. I drove to the park and found it empty, so I called Molly on her cell. My very intelligent daughter had gone to her dad's office at the first sound of thunder and took Mia with her. So my deliverance from the day came in the form of a rainstorm.

The interesting news (explaining the picture above), is that Voldemort's name is Bob, and he bags groceries at Piggly Wiggly. I was checking out at the grocery store when Molly whispered in my ear "Isn't that him??" I looked at the bag boy, and sure enough, he had been dressed as Voldemort at the Barnes & Noble book release party. I asked him to confirm his identity, and we talked a bit about the bit of notoriety he's gained for the costume. We chatted all to the van about the new book and the movie. When I got in the car, I realized that I had been channeling my mother. It is such a Mom thing to start up a conversation with a bag boy, find common ground and talk forever. I'm only 33, and I'm already turning into my mother!

Satan's Circus: Murder, Vice, Police Corruption, and New York's Trial of the Century by Mike Dash is the story of Charley Becker, the only police officer in the history of New York to be executed for murder. I love books like this that take place around the turn of the 20th century featuring what newspapers called "the trial of the century". Crime seems less frightening when it's removed by 100 years or so. Dash builds his case well: he tells the story of Becker's life as well as many gangsters and politicians who will eventually effect the case. Satan's Circus was an area around Broadway in New York City that was filled with brothels and gambling dens. Police officers took graft (bribes) from these places so that they could continue to operate. The graft went all the way up to the district attorney and mayor on occasion and recipients ended up with amounts in the millions. Becker himself took in what would be $500,000 in today's money while he was working on a task force to stamp out graft. He crossed a small time gambler named Herman Rosenthal who determined to get revenge on Becker and the rest of Satan's Circus by spilling the beans on all the cozy arrangements to a new district attorney, Charles Whitman, who was trying to make a name for himself. Quickly Rosenthal ends up dead, Whitman decides that Becker did it and pushes the suspects in custody until they come up with a story that Whitman likes: Becker hired Bald Jack Rose to get some gunmen and take Rosenthal out. Becker's first trial was a farce that was thrown out by the appeals court. The second trial was better but despite the weak evidence, the jury found Becker guilty of first degree murder, and he was sentenced to death in the electric chair. Dash makes a good case for Becker's innocence (at least of murder, his guilt for graft is unquestioned). Dash does a terrific job of creating scene, establishing characters and building a story out of history. It's a fascinating read on the way politics in old New York worked through Tammany Hall and the power that gangsters held.

If you notice on the right side, I've joined Shelfari. It's a website devoted to getting people talking about books. The books on my list are the ones I intend to read next. If you are interested in joining up, add me as a friend!