Over the last few weeks I've been cleaning out some shelves. In the process, I've come across a few books (paper books) that I have been meaning to read, but never got around to. Christianus Sum by Shawn Pollett is one. I read it earlier this year. Here's what I thought. When Senator Valerianus returns… Continue reading Christianus Sum – Review
Calm Before the Storm by Janice L. DickMy rating: 5 of 5 starsThe year is 1914. All is idyllic on the Hildebrandt’s Succoth estate in Crimea—but for the death of mother. This has left the well-to-do Hildebrandt family (father Heinrich, children Katarina [16], Maria [14], Peter, Nicholas, and Anna) wifeless, motherless, and without a teacher.… Continue reading Calm Before the Storm (review)
Beyond The Purple Sky by Eunice Cooper-MatchettMy rating: 5 of 5 starsIn dramatic scenes fueled by an informed imagination, Cooper-Matchett takes us into a little-known time in Israel’s history. The Jews are in exile in Babylon. Zerubbabel—a brilliant Jewish lad and companion of Nebuchadnezzar’s successor Belshazzar and sister Belshalti-Nanner, is being groomed for service to… Continue reading Beyond the Purple Sky – review
Anna Karenina by Leo Tolstoy My rating: 4 of 5 stars I’ve just finished reading Anna Karenina—that 140-year-old tome by Leo Tolstoy. I read it on the recommendation of another old book—If You Want to Write (first published in 1938) by Barbara Ueland. (By the way, Ueland’s book is one of the most inspirational books… Continue reading Anna Karenina (review)
The Antioch Testament by Donald Joiner My rating: 3 of 5 stars When a wounded Syrian Christian refugee entrusts Chaplain Charles Monroe with a heavy and ancient-looking manuscript, Monroe is sure he's in possession of something precious. Sending it to his brother Ken in the States for its preservation proves wise. Monks in a U.S.… Continue reading The Antioch Testament (review)
The Silver Locket by Sophia Bar-Lev My rating: 5 of 5 stars “ ‘I think that there’s something special happening here—a kind of “hashgacha pratis” like the Rabbi talks about. ... Oh, that’s Hebrew for “an intervention of divine providence” ’ ” – The Silver Locket, p. 23. The “something special” Rosalie Lapkin refers to… Continue reading The Silver Locket (review)
Threaten to Undo Us by Rose Seiler Scott My rating: 5 of 5 stars When Churchill, Roosevelt, and Stalin meet in Yalta in 1945 to carve up the WWII German-conquered lands, someone suggests that German-occupied Prussia and Pomerania should be part of the new Poland. While Churchill demurs, fearing that this will lead to more… Continue reading Threaten to Undo Us (review)
An Untamed Land by Lauraine Snelling My rating: 5 of 5 stars An Untamed Land by Lauraine Snelling begins in Norway with a prologue dated 1877. Then Far (father Gustaf Bjorklund) and his family begin planning for the immigration of several of his sons from Norway to America. Roald, married to Anna with 21-month Thorliff… Continue reading An Untamed Land (review)
Other Side of the River by Janice L. Dick. My rating: 5 of 5 stars Luise Letkemann and Daniel Martens have been sweethearts for almost as long as they can remember. Luise expects they will marry soon. But the spring of 1926 is not a time life goes along according to expectation for the lovers… Continue reading Other Side of the River (review)
Tina Janz feels torn between her parents’ wishes that she marry an upstanding (but boring) Mennonite boy and her desire for the man she loves—Frank Warkentin, the son of a Mennonite father and Gypsy mother. But the tug-of-war in Elma Schemenauer’s novel Consider the Sunflowers is more than between just Tina and her parents. For… Continue reading Consider the Sunflowers (review)
Violet Nesdoly 