The Mrs. & the Minister

James Goss is no stranger to  Doctor Who novelizations.  So I was excited to give  The Blood Cell  a read.  The third in recent Twelfth Doctor novels, this one is more like the Doctor Who lite stories of the First Doctor.  The focus here is on The Governor of The Prison, a story told from his perspective.   And Prisoner 428 -- the Doctor -- gives him enough to worry about.  He's impatient, intimidating, prone to arguing, and heroic.  In short, he's everything we're getting accustomed to seeing in Peter Capaldi.  With his frequent attempts to escape, Prisoner 428 keeps gathering information as only the Doctor can do.  And the novel slowly builds its plot.  We're introduced to a story that has readers asking all sorts of questions -- reminiscent to me of Ten's  Blink .  Which makes it a good story.  Not great, but good.  Because, in following the plot line out, it gets convoluted.   The Blood Cell  i...

Lynn Cowell's  Magnetic:  Becoming the Girl He Wants  is a resource I've wanted for years!  This amazing book takes each of the "fruits of the Spirit" to help women focus on what matters most:  God.  In a culture that teaches us to ask deadly questions -- "Why am I not enough?" or "Why won't he ask me out?" -- Cowell cuts through the anxiety and confusion with a pastoral wisdom and a mother's heart.   This book is accessible in all the ways we need it.  Her conversational style makes this book readable in one sitting.  Her thorough treatment of all the questions we regularly ask ourselves is refreshing.  This is a book I've hoped for for a long time.   And it's one I will recommend for some time to come.  Because this book focuses on  who  we are, rather than defining us by our boyfriends.  Because this book turns a microscope on narrating what we want out of our lives as  Christians .   This book is si...

My husband got me hooked on watching the BBC sci-fi show Doctor Who.   So you can imagine my excitement when I saw this novelization.  After detecting an abnormal power spike, the 12th Doctor and Clara once again arrive in Victorian England where they reunite with their old pals Strax, Madame Vastra, and Jenny.  The gang is back together, and, of course, a man named Marlowe Hapsworth is found dead at home in no time at all.  After some investigating by the Doctor and gang, they discover Hapsworth had attended the local Frost Fair where he took in a mysterious shadow puppet show (at the Carnival of Curiosities) run by the even more mysterious woman Silhouette.   More brutal murders follow.  Who's the mastermind behind the plot?  Well, that has to wait on the closing pages.  But what struck me about Silhouette  is the way it captures the voice of Peter Capaldi as The Twelfth Doctor.  While I've only seen him in a couple of episod...

When We Were on Fire:  A Memoir of Consuming Faith, Tangled Love, and Starting Over by Addie Zierman is a memoir I needed to read.  Her story starts in Tenth Grade.  Her mom drops her off at the flagpole for "See You At the Pole," a phenomenon experienced by many of us who grew up evangelical in the nineties.  Once a year, Christian teenagers were challenged to meet at the flagpole before school, pray for their fellow classmates, and risk their high school status for the sake of Christ.  As her mom drives away, Addie is left alone, in the rain, wondering why no one is there to pray with her.  Her mind drifts from one realization to another.   Pride -- she's the only Christian student who bothered to show up in the rain and pray for her school.  Isolation -- her lonely stand also leaves her insecure about her place. It's that drift from one realization to another that sets the tone for this excellent memoir.  Part life story, ...

I have worked with troubled teens from broken homes, teens whose lives are themselves more broken than any thirteen year old girl should endure.  I have worked with adults in residential facilities, who developmental disabilities have broken my heart.  I now work with adults with autism.  My work has taught me to grieve at the world's brokenness.  These are jobs you shut off when you clock out.  That kind of brokenness sticks with you.  So in reading Holly Burkhalter's Good God, Lousy World, and Me:  The Improbable Journey of a Human Rights Actuvist from Unbelief to Faith , I found a kindred spirit.  I cried -- tears of joy.  But also tears of pain.  This book is her honest journey from unfaith to faith.  And rather than glossing happy and pious, Burkhalter writes with all the honesty that is at the heart of following Jesus.  There is darkness and evil in the world.  She's seen it.  And her accounting of all that pain...

This book was difficult to read.  Jonathan Wilson-Hartgrove and his wife, Leah, are the founders of Rutba House in a small section of Durham, NC, called Walltown. Walltown is a predominately African-American community.  Rutba House is a Christian communal house that takes in  homeless men and women so that they can land safely and try to take control of their lives.   Strangers at My Door:  True Stories of Finding Jesus in Unexpected Guests  is an account of all those folks.   And that's where this book was difficult for me.  It's a challenge to all I've thought about homelessness, poverty, and prison.  It's also a challenge to think about and practice a radical Christian hospitality.  A hospitality that moves beyond supporting our local food pantry, and, instead, making a place at our  table.  My husband is a minister.  So you'd think this wide-open, mind-blowing love that looks a lot like the Jesus of the Gospels is...

I was pleasantly surprised with this novel.   Set against the tumultuous backdrop that is World War II, Marlow introduces us to Sullivan.  He's a nice guy.  He's also a rather bland guy.  And he's put in the nearly impossible situation in the early 40s:  His girlfriend, Agnes, becomes pregnant.  So they marry.  Sullivan, being that nice guy, is determined to provide a good life for his wife and daughter.  He's also determined to live his dream.  So he joins the US Navy.  His first post:  Pearl Harbor.  Leaving his family behind in Boston, Sullivan sets off on a journey that'll land him not only in the midst of war, but on a quest of gratitude.   He's wounded in the attack on Pearl Harbor, but saved by a fellow seaman.  When he searches out this savior, he discovers he's been part of the attack's carnage.  Sullivan discovers the man has a sister in college back in Boston, and decides since he cannot thank the...