Book Review

A few weeks ago, I was waxing poetic about a fabulous novel.  I didn’t mention it at the time but it was the best book I’ve read in months.  Until I read Love’s Sacred Song.   This novel by Mesu Andrews completely blew the other one away.   Love’s Sacred Song is the story of King David’s son Solomon (author of Song of Songs in the Bible).   As with most, biblical history, I was only vaguely familiar with the story of Solomon so I can’t say how accurate the history is.

What I can tell you is how spellbinding this book is.   The transfer of power from King David to Solomon is not the easiest thing ever.  An older brother attempted to steal power and political forces (called Sons of Judah) are aiming to take over the kingdom.   Meanwhile, the “black sheep” northern tribes of Israel are FURIOUS about a woman of theirs given to King David.  Their leader is offering his only daughter to the new King as a treaty bride.

Love’s Sacred Song is the tale of the love story between a confident girl who has loved Solomon since she was 7 and the king who is trying to follow in the footsteps of the greatest king that ever lived.   Full of intrigue, deception, misunderstanding, pain and love, Love’s Sacred Song is a fabulous novel about the story of King Solomon and the wife that inspired the Song of Songs, the most beautiful love poetry in the bible.

If you love a good story, especially historical or biblical fiction, you will LOVE this Love’s Sacred Song.   Available March 2012 at your favorite bookseller from Revell, a division of Baker Publishing Group.

Disclaimer:  This book was received in exchange for an honest review.   As always, all opinions are my own.  This post contains affiliate links.

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So if you were promised something by God, how long would you wait before it drove you nuts and you took matters into your own hands?   A month?   A year?  A decade?   Beyond all hope of human knowledge?   Sarai had that very problem.   Married to Abram, she requested that he never married another.  In return, she promised to bear him a son.   Barren for years, Abram was promised by God to have an heir.   But Sarai, his wife, already frustrated with her barrenness, took matters into her own hands and gave him her maid.   Sarai is the first of the Wives of the Patriarchs series by Jill Eileen Smith.  It’s the story of their love affair, Sarai’s bitter disappointment and how God turned even her silly impatience into good.

I really liked how Jill Eileen Smith has again taken a story in the bible and brought it home to me in a way that will stick in my head.   I love the detail she brings to life in that time period…the food, the customs, the living conditions and weaves it masterfully into a tale that brings life to the Old Testament.   If you like historical or biblical fiction, you will LOVE this book!   It’s a fabulous way to spend an enjoyable few hours getting away, if only in your head .

Available March 2012  at your favorite bookseller from Revell, a division of Baker Publishing Group.

Disclaimer:   I received a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.  As usual, all opinions are my own.

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I’m kind of a snot.  I love to read, yet I have all sorts of qualifications that determine whether a book is worth my precious reading time.  Laurie Alice Eakes new Midwives book, Heart’s Safe Passage, added a dimension that I’ve never encountered.  The story that (almost) never ends.  In a GOOD way!

From the publisher:

It’s 1813 and all Phoebe Lee wants out of life is to practice midwifery in Loudon County, Virginia. When Belinda, her pregnant sister-in-law, presses Phoebe to accompany her onto a British privateer in order to cross the Atlantic and save her husband from an English prison, Phoebe tries to refuse, then finds herself kidnapped.

Captain Rafe Docherty is a man in search of revenge. His ship is no place for women, but he needs Belinda in order to obtain information about the man who destroyed his family and his life. Between Belinda’s whining and Phoebe’s hostility, Rafe can’t help but wonder if he made the right choice.
When it becomes apparent there is an enemy among them on the ship, the stakes are raised. Will they reach the English shore in time? Can love and forgiveness overcome vengeance?

I was about 1/3 of the way through and thought that with all that had happened, I must have been further than I thought.  I was delighted to learn I was wrong!   Heart’s Safe Passage was full of mystery, suspense, lies, deception action and adventure.  Oh, and a love story, too .  The settings,  descriptions and storytelling were fabulously woven together and she managed to fit an almost epic story in only 374 pages.  That most certainly didn’t feel like 374 pages, I might add.

So if you like historical fiction/romance, clean books, love stories, action, adventure, pirates or midwives, you will probably enjoy Heart’s Safe Passage.  Check out your copy today–Available February 2012 at your favorite bookseller from Revell, a division of Baker Publishing Group.

Disclaimer:  I received a copy of this book in exchange for a review.  As usual, all opinions are my own.

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I recently received a copy of Living into Focus: Choosing What Matters in an Age of Distractions by Arthur Boers as a part of the Patheos Book Club.   As I had mentioned earlier this month, I’m not as intentional, or as focused as I think I am or want to be.   This book was a really different take on being focused.   Mr. Boers spends a large part of the book explaining what he calls a focal practice and why it’s important.  That is, something that is meaningful and at your heart.  It requires something of you — energy, effort, discipline, attention and focus.   A Baptist theologian & professor, he brings in a wide variety of references and examples to make his points, including a (positive) reference to Catholicism .

Like most people, I’ve never thought about what my focal practices are or realized just HOW essential they are to slowing down and being able to focus.   What is my focal practice?   This.  Blogging.  Well, writing in general.   Journaling, blogging, stories.  Heck, even my grocery list and menu plan and notebook full of lists, notes, and someday’s speak to something inside that helps me focus and slow down.   I never realized that that is what this was until I had picked it back up after a 10-year break.   No matter how many times I think I need to drop blogging, I find ways to fit it in.   Even more than what I plan on doing or think I need to do to keep a blog with decent readership.  I guess God will provide right?

If you are frazzled, exhausted or looking for hope without being given a laundry list of things you need to do, Living into Focus is the book for you.   He offers a few areas of examples to consider but never makes any pressure to do it all.   I’m sure something will come to mind when you read this.   Read, explore, live, focus.

What is YOUR focal practice?  What could you spend hours doing and not even realize time passed?

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