celebrate Canada Day with a Canadian book

 Sunday is Canada Day! What better way to celebrate than with a book by Canadian authors? A Second Cup of Hot Apple Cider is just such a book. I highly recommend it.

The book's cover description is followed by my review (first published in Faith Today earlier this year).

The much-anticipated sequel to Hot Apple Cider: Words to Stir the Heart and Warm the Soul.

Features:
• A unique collection of inspirational stories, poems and articles
• Real stories, real people, real faith
• Great writing
• Honesty and vulnerability combined with hope
• Well-known, experienced writers and passionate, new writers
• Gentle humor, warm encouragement, and stimulating challenges
• Attractive, gift book layout

My review:

Some books surprise you with their ability to take your breath away. A Second Cup of Hot Apple Cider is such a book. This anthology of 51 short pieces (fiction, non-fiction, poetry, and even a play) was written by 37 members of The Word Guild (a Canadian organization of writers, editors, publishers, and speakers who are Christian).

I was impressed with the honesty, transparency, and raw life portrayed, especially in the true stories. We meet a host of fellow Canadians—our neighbors—whose lives are as unpredictable as our own.  A mother of young children gets a diagnosis of cancer. A 36-year-old magazine editor has a stroke. A man who is forced to take early retirement asks, what’s next? A woman prays for patience and a few days later breaks her back. A man tries to surprise his wife with a five-day bathroom renovation. What binds all the pieces together is a cord of faith as we see how God is involved in the very real circumstances of life.

The book is wonderfully Canadian with its representation of writers from across the country. It reflects Canada’s mosaic-like population with its pieces from the First Nations perspective to the home-born Canadian to the immigrant, the young to the old, the urban to the rural. Though the writing styles are varied, the book was skillfully edited to preserve the individual voices while providing a smooth read with few technical or stylistic distractions.

The short selections makes this a perfect book for even indifferent readers. It would be a fabulous addition to an office waiting room, your beside table, briefcase, backpack, or purse.  But be sure to buy more than one, for you will probably have the urge to share this gem of a collection with others.

Find about more about this series on the Hot Apple Cider books website.

Title: A Second Cup of Hot Apple Cider: Words to Stimulate the Mind and Delight the Spirit

Editors: N. J. Lindquist and Wendy Elaine Nelles

That’s Life! Communications, 2011

336 pages

$19.99 (paper)

This  book is submitted to Semicolon Blog Saturday Review of Books, June 30, 2012 where links to many more book reviews are available.

book of the month

Check out the 100 Huntley Street book of the month. I'm so proud to say it's authored by my friends and colleagues at The Word Guild.




Read a review of it here.

HAC also has its own web page with all kinds of interesting tidbits about the contributors and links to interviews and web sites.

If you want to order it from 100 Huntley Street online, the order page is here.

book review: Hot Apple Cider Edited by N. J. Lindquist and Wendy Anne Nelles

Title: Hot Apple Cider - Words to Stir the Heart and Warm the Soul
Author: Edited by N. J. Lindquist and Wendy Anne Nelles
Publisher: That's Life! Communications (May 15, 2008)
ISBN-10: 0978496302
ISBN-13: 978-0978496302

True stories that deliver a shot of inspiration, non-fiction pieces that get you thinking, Robert Service-like poetry that champions the cause of the poor and hurting, and fiction that delivers truth with a pinch of drama and humor: Hot Apple Cider - Words to Stir the Heart and Warm the Soul has them all. This anthology of 44 pieces by 30 Canadian authors was conceived and compiled by N. J. Lindquist and Wendy Anne Nelles, co-founders of The Word Guild, an association of Canadian writers who are Christian.

“Today many Canadian Christians are realizing that they’d like to read literature that reflects their own culture, values and experiences,” says Lindquist in the introduction. Janette Oke in the foreword says, “I feel a bit proud in knowing that we, here in Canada, have so many skilled, inspirational writers who are able to present their work – their words – in this way.”

Hot Apple Cider does feature writing from across the dominion (although it's light on writers from Quebec, the Maritimes, and the Territories). In it you’ll read about a Lethbridge pioneer woman who championed the rights of women and the poor, a perceptive Yukoner who kept showing up, like an angel, when a lonely soul needed her the most, a childless Ontario couple who had their prayers answered in a most unexpected way, and many other accounts about the intersection of life and faith. Stories from abroad are also well-represented and include a tale of tragedy in the Australian Outback, a birth crisis in Nepal, and a terrifying night in a drug dealer’s apartment in Boston.

Besides being a powerful book in its own right, Hot Apple Cider also has value as a sampler. Many of the pieces are extracted from full-length works. Don’t be surprised if this book has you adding titles to the list of volumes you’ll want to read in their entirety – books like Seven Angels for Seven Days by Angelina Fast-Vlaar, Where Have all the Mothers Gone? by Jean Froese, M.D., Why Does God Allow Suffering?: An MD Examines by Brad Burke M.D., and a host of others.

Hot Apple Cider’s honest and thought-provoking writing combined with its tasteful cover and apple-themed photo illustrations may find you thinking of purchasing copies as gifts. And what better gift could you give than a book brimming with heart-warming stories to sip at over the Christmas season – or any season for that matter?