classic poem #3

Paradise

I BLESSE thee, Lord, because I G R O W
Among thy trees, which in a R O W
To thee both fruit and order O W.

What open force, or hidden C H A R M
Can blast my fruit, or bring me H A R M
While the inclosure is thine A R M?

Inclose me still for fear I S T A R T.
Be to me rather sharp and T A R T,
Than let me want thy hand and A R T.

When thou dost greater judgements S P A R E,
And with thy knife but prune and P A R E,
Ev'n fruitful trees more fruitfull A R E.

Such sharpness shows the sweetest F R E N D:
Such cuttings rather heal than R E N D:
And such beginnings touch their E N D.

George Herbert (1593-1633)

book review: Necessary Heartbreak by Michael J. Sullivan

Title: Necessary Heartbreak: A Novel of Faith and Forgiveness
Author: Michael J. Sullivan
Publisher: Gallery Books (SimonSchuster.com), March 2010, paperback, 256 pages
ISBN-10: 1439184232
ISBN-13: 978-1439184233


When single dad Michael Stewart takes time out of his busy Saturday to help Elizabeth, his teenage daughter, earn needed community service points at a church food drive, he has no idea what a time commitment he has really made. A trapdoor in the church basement lures Elizabeth into an underground tunnel. Michael follows and they emerge a short walk later onto a first century Jerusalem street in Necessary Heartbreak, a first novel by Michael J. Sullivan. They are soon in the thick of Jerusalem events with Michael arrested and put in prison while Elizabeth is rescued by a beautiful stranger named Leah. During the days they spend in the city they witness and take part in scenes from the Passion week. In a face-to-face encounter with Jesus, Michael experiences an epiphany that changes his life.

Setting-wise, the characters are suitably surprised when they go from technology-driven 21st century America (complete with Bruce Springsteen T-shirt, though thankfully they left cell phones behind) to the simple life of first century Jerusalem. Their reaction made the contrasting settings feel credible.

However, the plot seemed creaky in parts. Michael and Elizabeth repeatedly voice intentions and make attempts to return to the tunnel and home, which always end in postponement of failure. In this regard, it didn’t take long for me to feel like I was trapped in a bad dream – one which I quickly realized wouldn’t end until the Passion story had played out. One of the questions in the Reading Group Guide at the end was, “Why do Michael and Elizabeth keep finding excuses to stay in Jerusalem one more day?” The answer seemed obvious: because the author needs them to, in order for them to take part in the Easter story.

The ongoing narrative is interrupted by many flashbacks giving back-story scenes from the lives of Michael, Elizabeth and Leah. Despite the sometimes less-than-stellar reputation of the flashback as a storytelling device, I felt these worked well. They are told in the same brisk style as the main narrative (read an excerpt) and fill the reader in on pertinent background information.

The main characters are likeable enough. Sullivan does a great job of depicting Elizabeth as a typical teenager in the modern setting part. Elizabeth and Michael’s relationship is warm and tangible – though he does have a tendency to smother her, and she is often whiny, demanding, and acts like a typical spoiled only child. Both Michael and Leah gained my sympathy through the flashback scenes of Michael’s difficult childhood, his relationship with his wife, and the death of Leah’s husband.

One of the big issues that Michael struggles with is how to make sense of his wife’s tragic and untimely death. In this regard, I thought Sullivan’s explanation (in the “Author Q&A” section) of how he came to explore handling life’s pains in the way he did is revealing and speaks to what he hoped to accomplish in the book:

“I was without money and a roof over my head, riding the E train in New York City at night. I sought help from many including a family friend who helped run a church. He turned me back into the cold New Year’s eve night in 1983…. I found myself questioning the wrong person – Jesus Christ. So I wanted to send my characters back in time to restore the meaning of life to myself. I wanted my characters to be part of history’s most important moment. I wanted them to experience what the true meanings of life, faith, and sacrifice really are” pp. 248-9. (Read more personal thoughts written by the author on his blog.)

All in all, in Necessary Heartbreak Sullivan has written a thought-provoking book about the roles that pain and the healing of faith and time play in maturing us and helping us live fully. A sequel – The Greatest Christmas Gift – is in the works.

food

Mural - Commercial Drive, Vancouver, BC

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Thursday Challenge

Next week: FACE (Portrait, Self-Portrait, Happy Faces, Emotions,...)

classic poem #4

I’m Nobody! Who are you?

I'm nobody! Who are you?
Are you nobody, too?
Then there's a pair of us -don't tell!
They'd banish us, you know.

How dreary to be somebody!
How public, like a frog
To tell your name the livelong day
To an admiring bog!

Emily Dickinson (1830-1886)

classic poem #5

A Birthday

My heart is like a singing bird
Whose nest is in a water'd shoot;
My heart is like an apple-tree
Whose boughs are bent with thick-set fruit;
My heart is like a rainbow shell
That paddles in a halcyon sea;
My heart is gladder than all these,
Because my love is come to me.

Raise me a daïs of silk and down;
Hang it with vair and purple dyes;
Carve it in doves and pomegranates,
And peacocks with a hundred eyes;
Work it in gold and silver grapes,
In leaves and silver fleurs-de-lys;
Because the birthday of my life
Is come, my love is come to me.

Christina Rossetti (1830-1894)

what's up

Lately it's been all book reviews, Thursday Challenges and classic poems here at promptings.This is just to let you know, there is a real person behind all the words - and photos, and here's what's up with me lately.

Wild bleeding heart - April 4, 2010 at Elgin Park in Surrey

(Click on any photo to enlarge)

I'm loving spring. It's early this year and so welcome. The trees are already in leaf. Daffodils are finished, tulips still opening here and there, the azaleas and rhodos,
the latter especially usually reserved for May, are popping all over the place.

Shield your eyes! Just had to capture this pink explosion of azalea color.

April 14, 2010 in Langley

I had some fun with my computer just over a week ago when I upgraded from Mac OSX 4 - (Tiger) to OSX 6 (Snow Leopard). I  always find installing software stressful no matter how easy it's supposed to be. Fortunately the install went smoothly, though I lost the ability to print for a few hours, until I got in touch with one of the boys at Simply who told me to 'simply' delete my printer, then add it again. It worked!

I also noticed, after a few days of the new OS, that all my applications were loading very slowly. Mail was positively spastic. Since Snow Leopard is supposed to improve speed, I wondered what I had done to make old Newton the exception. When things got ridiculous, I had visions of $$'s worth of repairs / memory upgrades etc. Before I did anything drastic, though, I tried the trusty old cure-everything fix from PC days: shutdown and restart. Voila! Just like that my computer was back to its zippy old self. What a relief!!

One of the main reasons I upgraded was for the Time Machine backup feature. Now I'm backed up daily - actually hourly as long as I leave it on - a good feeling. (A few days after I upgraded, hubby saw a feature on the evening news on another backup system - an external hard drive called Click Free. It looks interesting too!)

Creamy magnolia blossoms - captured on 

one of my walks around Langley this week.

Volunteer-wise the Alpha season is over. My job as kitchen setup and cleanup coordinator is done. It's nice to have Tuesday nights free again.

Writing-wise I've given my notice for the Poet's Classroom columns at Utmost. Two more and my columnist days there are done. I enjoyed writing those and learned so much. But after almost two years' worth of monthly articles I'm squeezed dry. It's time for someone else to take up the baton.

Tulips just outside our front door

I still write though - a poem a day so far in April using Robert Brewer's prompts at Poetic Asides. And I still blog daily at Other Food: daily devo's. Writing daily devotions is probably the most challenging and significant writing I've ever done - and I love it! What better subject to write about than the Bible, God, His relationship with us and ours with Him!

That's what's up with me. What about you?

green

Japanese Garden (part of Butchart Gardens - Victoria, BC)

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Thursday Challenge

Next week: FOOD (Meals, Restaurants, Eating, Vegetables, Unusual Foods, Cooking, BBQs,...)

classic poem #6

The Oxen

Christmas Eve, and twelve of the clock.
"Now they are all on their knees,"
An elder said as we sat in a flock
By the embers in hearthside ease.

We pictured the meek mild creatures where
They dwelt in their strawy pen,
Nor did it occur to one of us there
To doubt they were kneeling then.

So fair a fancy few would weave
In these years! Yet, I feel,
If someone said on Christmas Eve,
"Come; see the oxen kneel,

"In the lonely barton by yonder coomb
Our childhood used to know,"
I should go with him in the gloom,
Hoping it might be so’

Thomas Hardy (1840-1928)

classic poem #7

A Vagabond Song

There is something in the autumn that is native to my blood--
Touch of manner, hint of mood;
And my heart is like a rhyme,
With the yellow and the purple and the crimson keeping time.

The scarlet of the maples can shake me like a cry
Of bugles going by.
And my lonely spirit thrills
To see the frosty asters like a smoke upon the hills.

There is something in October sets the gypsy blood astir;
We must rise and follow her,
When from every hill of flame
She calls and calls each vagabond by name.

By Bliss Carman (1861-1929)

classic poem #8

Spring’s Saraband

Over the hills of April
With soft winds hand in hand,
Impassionate and dreamy-eyed,
Spring leads her saraband.
Her garments float and gather
And swirl along the plain,
Her headgear is the golden sun,
Her cloak the silver rain.

With color and with music,
With perfumes and with pomp,
By meadowland and upland,
Through pasture, wood, and swamp,
With promise and enchantment
Leading her mystic mime,
She comes to lure the world anew
With joy as old as time.

The bluebird in the orchard
Is lyrical for her,
The blackbird with his meadow pipe
Sets all the wood astir,
The hooded white spring-beauties
Are curtsying in the breeze,
The blue hepaticas are out
under the chestnut trees.

The maple buds make glamour,
Viburnum waves its bloom,
The daffodils and tulips
Are risen from the tomb.
The lances of Narcissus
Have pierced the wintry mold;
The commonplace seems paradise
Through veils of greening gold.

Quick lifts the marshy chorus
To transport, trill on trill;
There's not a rod of stony ground
Unanswering on the hill.
The brooks and little rivers
Dance down their wild ravines,
And children in the city squares
Keep time, to tambourines.

O heart, hear thou the summons,
Put every grief away,
When all the motley masques of earth
Are glad upon a day.
Alack, that any mortal
Should less than gladness bring
Into the choral joy that sounds
The saraband of spring!

Bliss Carman (1861-1929)

CD reviews: Awesome God and To Be Like Jesus - worship music for kids

A variety of singable kid-friendly songs with theologically sound yet easy-to-understand lyrics are what you’ll find in the two CDs of worship music for kids (7-10 years) produced by Sovereign Grace Music.

“How do children learn about God’s greatness? One excellent way is to sing songs that express God’s character and nature in words that kids understand.”

(about Awesome God - Sovereign Grace Music)

Awesome God, released in 2004, contains twelve songs that explore the attributes of God. In music styles that range from rock to folk, these songs touch on many aspects of who God is and what He is like. He is proclaimed creator (“Almighty God”), eternal (“Forever God”), omnipresent (“You Are Always With Me”) and omnipotent (“Sovereign One”). There are songs about Jesus (“Mighty Mighty Savior”) and the trinity (“Three In One”). The album ends with a strong presentation of the Gospel in “The Gospel Song and “Have You Heard?”

Lead voices (not all children) combine with children and teen choirs to give the songs lots of variety and keep it from being too treble-shrill (something that easily happens when only children’s voices are used).

The lyrics, besides being biblically based, are easy for kids to relate to. What kid wouldn’t understand:

“When I’m all alone and afraid
I will trust in You....
When I don’t get to have my own way
I will trust in You” (from “Sovereign One”)

Songs are sung in a straightforward way, making the CD easy to sing along with. The Awesome God project has a choice of four CD case pictures so kids can choose their own covers. Of course lyrics are included.


Listen to clips and purchase Awesome God here.

“Did you know that God says your life is supposed to be like a fruit tree?

He’s talking about something much more important than apples, oranges, or bananas. The fruit God wants in our lives is the kind the Holy Spirit produces in us when we know and follow Jesus.”

(about To Be Like Jesus - Sovereign Grace Music)

The To Be Like Jesus project (2009) has a spiritual fruit theme. Its twelve songs address topics like “Joy,” “Peace,” patience (“Gotta Wait”), Kindness (“Show Me Your Kindness”), hope (“Jesus You’re My Hope”) and more.

Many of the songs have the same rock band sound of the earlier project. If anything it has even more variety in musical styles. “Gotta Wait,” for example, sounds a lot like the Beatles, “You Show Me Kindness” has a reggae sound, while “Give Me Self Control” has bluegrass overtones. The same mix of vocalists (adult and child leads, along with a couple of children’s choirs) again tones down the high-pitched sound of children’s voices, ensuring a very listenable CD.

I highly recommend both these musical projects. Give them to your kids for personal use, or sing the songs and talk about them during family devotions at home. Teachers in church or school will also find them useful to supplement teaching about God and how to live the Christian life. The original lyrics (included in the CD notes) are solidly based on Scripture. The original tunes are lively and done in a modern style kids (and their parents) will relate to.

Listen to clips and purchase To Be Like Jesus here.


To Be Like Jesus from Sovereign Grace Ministries on Vimeo.

(I received these CDs as a gift from Sovereign Grace Music for the purpose of writing a review. The opinions expressed are my own.)

small animals

Sparrows

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Thursday Challenge

Next week: GREEN (Plants, Spring Growth, Gardens, Clothing, Green Things,...)

classic poem #9

How Do I Love Thee

Sonnets from the Portuguese

How do I love thee? Let me count the ways.
I love thee to the depth and breadth and height
My soul can reach, when feeling out of sight
For the ends of Being and ideal Grace.
I love thee to the level of every day’s
Most quiet need, by sun and candlelight.
I love thee freely, as men strive for Right;
I love thee purely, as they turn from Praise;
I love thee with the passion put to use
In my old griefs, and with my childhood’s faith;
I love thee with a love I seemed to lose
With my lost saints, — I love thee with the breath,
Smiles, tears, of all my life! – and, if God choose,
I shall but love thee better after death.


Elizabeth Barrett Browning (1806-1861)

classic poem #10

Music, When Soft Voices Die

Music, when soft voices die,
Vibrates in the memory –
Odours, when sweet violets sicken,
Live within the sense they quicken.

Rose leaves, when the rose is dead,
Are heaped for the beloved’s bed;
And so thy thoughts, when thou art gone,
Love itself shall slumber on.

Percy Bysshe Shelley (1792-1822)

april - national poetry month

Happy April - and that's no fooling!

April is National Poetry Month in Canada and the U.S. I have decided to celebrate it by preparing some poetic treats for the blog this month.

1. Top ten classic poems.
A week or so ago, Sherry, who writes the popular Semicolon blog, initiated the top 100 classic poems project. She invited other poetry lovers to submit their top ten classic poems (classic meaning old, as in having stood the test of time, and published before 1923 so in the public domain). I submitted my top favs to her - and thought that I would dish them out slowly here on promptings. So watch for those postings to begin Saturday (April 3rd) with Number 10.

2. 100 Classic Poems:
Stay tuned to the Semicolon blog where Sherry will unveil the top 100 classic poems as suggested by her readers.

3. 2010 - 30 Poets 30 Days:
Gregory K. Pincus at GottaBook is doing an "April 2010 - 30 Poets 30 Days" project. He will post a previously unpub'd poem a day by well-known and published children's poets

4. Poem-A-Day Challenge:
If you're itching to try your hand at writing poetry of your own, Robert Lee Brewer at Poetic Asides will feature a prompt for every day in April and a poem he has written in response to that prompt to help get the creative juices flowing. You can later submit five of your best poems for some recognition (should your poems catch Robert's eye). Challenge guidelines are here.

5. National Poetry Month Blog Tour:
Serena at Savvy Verse & Wit is hosting a National Poetry Month Blog Tour. Catch it here (and join in by linking your poetry month postings via her Mr. Linky; you're even invited to nab a button - I did!)

There are bound to be other things - which I will list here as I become aware of them.

I will also prepare this page as a standalone (called "April Poetry 2010") and linked just under the blog banner. Return any time during the month to find the links and see what more is happening.


A Happy Poetic April to us all!!

environment

"The Hulks" - recycling on a grand scale

According to the tourist sign:

"'The Hulks,' Powell River's floating breakwater of ships have been part of the waterfront since 1930. Over the years, 10 ships built of wood, and reinforced concrete have been brought to Powell River for use in the breakwater. The concrete ships that made up the breakwater were built for use in the First and Second World Wars.

Concrete ships were built when there was a shortage of plate steel for ship construction. They were found to be too heavy in relation to their cargo-carrying capacity to compete with steel cargo vessels during peacetime."

More "environment" photos: Thursday Challenge

Next week: SMALL ANIMALS (Pets, Insects, Birds,...)

book review: Buried Alive by Roy Hallums

Title: Buried Alive: The True Story of Kidnapping, Captivity, and a Dramatic Rescue
Author: Roy Hallums
Publisher: Thomas Nelson, January 2010, hardcover, 256 pages.

ISBN-10: 1595551700
ISBN-13: 978-1595551702

There are some books which you almost dread starting because you know really bad things are going to happen in them. Buried Alive: The True Story of Kidnapping, Captivity, and a Dramatic Rescue is such a book. In it Roy Hallums (with Audrey Hudson) tells the story of his 2004 kidnapping by a group of Iraqi insurgents from an office in Baghdad, the 311 days of his captivity, and his eventual rescue.

The book lived up to all my fears. It is a grueling account of man’s inhumanity to man. But it ends up being much more than a portrayal of humanity at its worst, in large part due to Hallums himself.

From the beginning I was struck by Hallums’ ability to perceive details during his captivity and recall them later. Because he is forced to wear a blindfold throughout and lives months in an infrequently lit underground bunker, he has few visual memories. But he does recall smells, sounds, sensations of pain, and the chain of events in excruciating detail. The fact that he is able to keep track of day and night and document the passage of time using things like the call to prayer of the mullahs and the drone of planes overhead is testimony to the mental toughness of the man.

I was also struck by Hallums’ humanity. During the telling he rarely expresses any bitterness toward his captors. His compassion toward fellow kidnap victims is often evident as they invent ways to communicate (despite the ever-present demand they remain silent). He listens to their fears and concerns and tries to comfort them when they’re hurt from beatings or worried sick about their families. Of course, his main anxiety is for his family in the States and how they are coping with his disappearance.

The narrative in the book goes back and forth between what is happening to Roy and what his family is feeling and doing. We are taken from the early days of their obeying FBI orders to remain absolutely silent about his disappearance, to their attempts to advocate for him as precious time passes and he still hasn’t been found. Such a dual telling gives the story depth and gets the reader even more involved in the situation.

The book accomplishes more than just telling a tale of courage and survival. It illustrates the worldview gap that exists between western and middle-eastern cultures. It helps us understand why many governments refuse to pay ransom and how paying it ends up making life more dangerous for all foreigners in the Middle East. It also helps us understand the apparent indifference of governments in such cases. Though the family is greatly frustrated by the silence of the U.S. government concerning Roy’s case, it is just such secrecy that, in the end, leads to Hallums' rescue.

The book disappointed me in one area, however. The jacket notes promise, “…Hallums’ story of suffering is tempered by his faith and his survivalist perspective.” On the strength of that, I was looking for evidence that Hallums’ faith supported him during this whole ordeal (and I expected it to be religious faith – judging by the kind of books that Thomas Nelson usually publishes). It wasn’t there – or if it was, it was so subtle I missed it. Of course, if another kind of faith is meant, i.e. a faith in people, or faith that he would be rescued – that is in evidence all over the place.

On every other front, though, this is a truly remarkable story. The fact that Hallums had the guts to relive it in order to tell it in book form is testimony to what an extraordinary man he is.

Watch a short video of Hallums' rescue.

black and white

Mallards in winter

Thursday Challenge

Next week: ENVIRONMENT (Clean Air, Clean Water, Pollution, Garbage, Ways to Save Energy,...)

book review: Beguiled by Deeanne Gist and J. Mark Bertrand

Title: Beguiled
Author: Deeanne Gist and J. Mark Bertrand
Publisher: Bethany House, February 2010, Paperback, 336 pages
ISBN-10: 0764206281
ISBN-13: 978-0764206283

Rylee Monroe loves her job as a dog-nanny and -walker for the residents of the Charleston neighborhood that’s on the right side of the tracks. But what really keeps her going is the fact that her grandma, Nonie, the person she loves most in all the world, needs her and her dog-sitting income.

Logan Woods’ job on the newspaper’s crime beat is perfect for feeding his real passion – writing his first book of true crime stories. But so far the pièce de résistance — the Robin Hood Burglar — has eluded him. Meeting Rylee and hanging around with her helps in that department. She and that burglar seem to run with the same crowd. He has to make some hard choices, though, when detective Nate Campbell suspects her of the crime. It’s a good thing Rylee’s godfather and his dashing son are lawyers and seem eager to help.

In Beguiled Deeanne Gist and J. Mark Bertrand have collaborated on a fictional tale that lives up to both of its monikers. It’s a hearty main course of suspense served up with a generous side of gooey romance (or maybe it’s really the other way around).

I was prepared to dislike the characters – especially the main female. Rylee is just too pretty, smart, and the embodiment of everything trendy and hip (she runs all these designer dogs on inline skates, for crying out loud). But somewhere in the early going, I started liking her. The book became compelling after that.

Though the story is a romance of the emotional x-ray variety (with lots of potential for nausea as we get many moment-by-moment accounts of how he affects her, she him) some of those first-love encounters of the book were epiphanies that gave their relationship a sense of authenticity – this scene describing their feelings after an early date, for example:

“They had crossed out of clearly defined territory into the shadowland of … something else.

[…] The easy camaraderie of their lunch conversation was gone, replaced by acute awkwardness. Giddy constraint. Happy with the new development but afraid to stay too long in each other’s presence. They both needed to retreat so they could ponder what had just happened.” p. 132

Gist and Bertrand’s writing style is brisk. Taking little time for description and backstory, the authors plunge us, scene after scene, into full-strength action. The dialogue is smart, realistic, and captures these 20-somethings in living audio.

Thematically the book is pretty light. Both Rylee and Logan come from backgrounds of Christian faith and their scrapes with danger test the strength of their beliefs, but not to any earth-shattering degree. Rylee has issues with the past and these threaten her relationship with any many who would get too close. Of course underlying the story is the idea that romantic love will triumph. Can it – even to the tune of challenging Logan’s six-figure book deal?

All in all, Beguiled was a pretty decent read – and fast too. The suspense elements made it hard for me to put down. Let’s hope Gist and Bertrand decide to collaborate on more tension-filled escapades in the future.

*****************
Available now at your favorite bookseller from Baker Publishing Group. I received this book from the Graf-Martin agency for the purpose of writing a review. The opinions expressed are my own.
 
From Amazon.ca



From Amazon.com



Deeanne and Mark talk about co-writing Beguiled

share your ten favorite classic poems

Sherry at Semicolon is doing another survey (she's the one who put together the survey of top 100 hymns some months ago). This new survey is of favorite classic poems ('classic' being poems that have passed the test of time and are currently in the public domain - published before 1910).

Read about how to be part of her project here. Deadline for votes is this Friday - March 26th. (I've dusted off my old poetry text book from high school and am finding that I will have to do some paring to get my list down to 10!)

round

The spider's circle game

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Thursday Challenge

Next week: BLACK and WHITE (Black and White Photos, Black and/or White things, Things with Little Color,...)

book review: Hunter's Moon by Don Hoesel

Title: Hunter's Moon
Author: Don Hoesel
Publisher: Bethany House, February 2010, papberback, 384 pages
ISBN-10: 0764205617
ISBN-13: 978-0764205613

When C. J. Baxter decides to come home to Adelia, New York for his grandfather’s funeral, he is aware there will be a lot to face. You don’t just break with the family when you leave for college and stay away for seventeen years without there being some fallout. One of the things he’s sure will bite him is the ire of his people because of the fiction he has written. Everyone in town reads his books to see if they can guess which incidents or people his latest tales are based on.

However, C.J. and at least some family members know there is one secret he has never shared. Politically ambitious older brother Graham sure hopes he keeps quiet about it, especially now that his campaign for a senate seat is in high gear.

In Hunter’s Moon Don Hoesel delves into the life and psyche of the Baxter family through its returning prodigal. C.J.’s visit home revives disturbing incidents from the past, breathes life into old relationships, and exposes an ambition so ruthless no price is too high to pay to have it realized.

Hoesel’s considerable storytelling skill made the book a pleasure to read. Though it begins slowly, the foundation laid by the detailed description of the town, the Baxter family and C.J.s reaction to the disintegration of his personal life sets us up for the story’s complex situation and web of relationships. Gradually C.J. reveals the secret that has haunted his life. Incident by incident we get to know the various members of his family. As we come to realize what they are really like, tension escalates. By the final suspense-filled scenes, the book is impossible to put down.

Hunter’s Moon has many characters and the author’s clear vision of each one makes for a satisfying read in the people-watching department. Besides the conflicted C. J. we see a lot of his ambitious older brother Graham, his friend Dennis, his aloof and disapproving father George, his old flame Julie and the kind and arthritic Artie. Hoesel does a great job of exploring family dynamics during mass scenes like family dinners and get-togethers, as well as pitting family members against each other in tense one-on-one encounters.

Family secrets and the way they affect all involved is one of the themes the book explores at length. C. J. comes to see that his self-image has been shaped by one such, but so has it affected his opinion of and relationship with others. The possibility that he could choose to forgive is a new concept for him and one which he fights whenever it comes up.

C. J. is also a recent convert to Christianity. If there is one area where the book stumbles, in my opinion, it is in its treatment of his faith, especially early on. Through the first chapters when he is scheming about how to handle things with his ex-, then reconnecting with his family and attending his grandfather’s funeral service there is not a whisper of any spiritual faith. The first hint of it is announced, via his thoughts, when he includes his “newfound faith in God” in a list of topics he wishes he had the nerve to discuss with his former (and now married) girlfriend (page 124).

What "newfound faith in God" I asked myself when I read that. For an author who has been so brilliant at showing (versus telling), this felt like an awkward lapse when there had been lots of opportunities to show this new set of beliefs in operation early on (as he struggles with his attitude toward his estranged wife, reconnects with his family, and attends the Catholic – he now attends a Protestant church, though he was once an altar boy – funeral service of his grandfather).

When C. J. does mull over aspects of his faith he appears a reluctant convert, more critical than believing (doesn’t like to confide in his men’s group [p.131] and prefers attendance at the bar to being in church [p.209] - where he takes issue with his denomination's beliefs [p. 210]), though repeated references to the buzzword “grace” seemed the author’s way of telling us C. J. had bought into something deeper than the trappings of any organized church. It stayed buried pretty deep though, failing to make too much of a difference in his drinking, gambling etc. lifestyle habits.

The book’s ending is more believable in the faith department, with C. J. making decisions and growing in ways that feel consistent with his character and organic to the story. There are some other nice touches, too, like the way bit-player Sister Jean Marie feels a need to pray during the exact time our hero is in some major trouble.

My quibble aside, the book really is a great read. Its delve into relationships especially within the family is realistic and instructive. Its exploration of the dark side of a family’s life and how things can escalate to the unthinkable is guaranteed to keep you reading way past lights out.

Sample first pages of the story.


Available now at your favorite bookseller from Bethany House, a division of Baker Publishing Group. I received this book free from Graf Martin Communications Inc. for the purpose of writing a review. The opinions I express are my own.

kindled reading

Guess what I did today?! I installed the free Kindle App on my i-pod touch, bought the Kindle version of a book from Amazon.com, and with those two actions I have entered the digital reading era. Who knew it would be so easy (and inexpensive!).

accidental photography

Happy to be home

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Thursday Challenge

Next week: ROUND (Circle, Sphere, Curves, Moon, Clock, Coins,...)

book review: The Rose Legacy by Kristen Heitzmann

Title: The Rose Legacy
Author: Kristen Heitzmann
Publisher: Bethany House, original edition 2001, republished 2009, paperback, 415 pages.
ISBN-10: 076420713X
ISBN-13: 978-0764207136

When I got the fresh-covered but 10-year-published book The Rose Legacy from Bethany House to review, I wondered, why the resurrection? Then I read this first book in the Diamond of the Rockies series by Kristen Heitzmann, and I understood.

It is 1880. Carina DiGratia, a feisty and beautiful Californian, has been betrayed by Flavio, her childhood sweetheart. However, she will make him pay by setting out on her own. She is sure it will be only a matter of time till he comes to fetch her from Crystal Colorado, where she has a job lead.

But things don’t turn out at all as she expects. Even before she gets to Crystal her wagon breaks down. While she’s trying to figure out what to do, a freight hauler comes along. He offers her a ride into town, but not before making room for his rig to pass by pitching her cart over the steep embankment. Trouble only compounds after that when she discovers the house she has paid for is occupied by squatters, and the job on which she has staked her hopes is in a house of ill repute.

Berkley Beck, the town’s only lawyer, comes to her rescue with the promise that he will look into her house problems. As well he gives her a respectable job in his office – along with hand kisses and longing looks. He creeps her out, but what choice does she have? Meanwhile she does retrieve a few things from her wrecked wagon. In fact, the handsome fright wagon driver, Quillan, is suddenly on hand to help her with the salvage effort.

As Carina settles into a room at Mae’s boarding house and her job at Berkley Beck’s, it becomes evident that all is not well in Crystal. “Roughs” rule the night and law enforcement agents seem powerless to stop the beatings and killings.
Carina, the Italian-born belle of the story, charms with her warm, excitable personality. I love the way Heitzmann makes her feel authentic by sprinkling Italian words throughout her thoughts:

“She sounded like Divina, always disparaging, looking for the bad, the weakness in someone. Where was her indole mite, the sweet temper Papa had praised, calling her dolce angelo, his sweet angel?” p. 93.

Her human and womanly qualities, displayed in friendships with other women, homesickness and a love of cooking also won my heart. Here Heitzmann describes the wonderful day she has talked Quillan into getting just the right ingredients for making ravioli:

“Carina thought how it was as much an art as Flavio’s painting. The mix must be just right. Too much flour and the stuffed pillowy pasta would be dry and heavy. Too much oil and they would sag. A poor seal between the layers of dough and the boiling water would ruin the filling. She could feel with her fingers that she had made it just right. The dough had the consistency of fragile skin – elastic yet powdery.” p. 179

Carina grows familiar with the town and its surroundings by going exploring on her mule Dom. Beyond the ghost town of Placerville, she stumbles onto the Rose Legacy, an abandoned mine which, she discovers, has a Quillan connection.

That dark, mysterious and pirate-like character is fighting his own demons.  He realizes Carina may be useful to him in his vendetta with Crystal. Slowly Heitzmann pulls Carina and us into his past history in a chain of events that transfix with their action, emotion and horror. The parts of the story told from his point of view make for tension as we watch a relationship develop between them – one that can best be described as magnetic with moments of repulsion as well as attraction.

The story delves into many meaningful themes, among them forgiveness, dealing with the past, the importance of family and community, and the possibility of faith in God even when those who claim to be His followers have let you down.

The historical setting makes the story timeless. The author’s skill is manifest as she keeps us reading to discover what happens between Quillan and Carina as much as what will be the next tragedy to galvanize the town.

A re-release of Book 2 of the Diamond of the Rockies series, Sweet Boundless, is in hand. If The Rose Legacy is any indication, its new lease on life will be welcomed. I know I sure want to – no, need to — read it.

(I received this book free from the publisher for the purpose of writing a review. The opinions I express are my own.)
 

spring almanac

I love spring, which has arrived on the Lower Mainland about a month early this year.

These magnolia blossoms were threatening to pop on February 19th.
(click on any photo to enlarge)

Crocuses from February 21st.

Under the blossoms - March 1st.

How is spring treating you? 

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I also blogged here today ("Did you believe?" personal reflections on the 2010 Olympics).

high or low

You are not on a ship.

(Top view of a Vancouver Convention Centre balcony)

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Thursday Challenge

Next week: ACCIDENTAL PHOTOGRAPHY (Photos Taken Accidentally or Unintentionally, Mistakes with Exposure or Focus, Strange Photos)

curling blues (call them silver)

Cheryl Bernard delivers a rock in the second end - yesterday's game. 

(Global TV photo)

The Canadian women's loss to Sweden yesterday in the gold medal women's curling game bothered me way more than I thought it would. What's wrong with silver, I kept asking myself. Nothing, except that it's not gold.

However, I think more than even that they didn't get their gold, was the way that game was lost. The whole match was a roller coaster ride for Canadian fans, and just when the gold was within Bernard's grasp it slipped away - twice!

I prefer endings where my team wins with authority, or comes from behind and triumphs, or if they have to lose, the game has a 'predestined' feeling of loss to it from the beginning. This business of having what felt like an inevitable win slip through your fingers, not so much. (Maybe another reason I'm feeling so bummed out is because the ending to that game is a lot like life. Sometimes victory, or success or whatever we want most slips away just as we can taste it.)

But do I fault the Canadian women? Not for a minute. They gave us hours of wonderful entertainment and fabulous shot-making. What a classy foursome. When I think back on these Olympics, the focused look on Bernard's face as she settled herself in the hack in preparation for her throw will be one of my most vivid memories. Congratulations on a well-deserved Silver Medal, Canadian women's curling team!!

Now to get ready for another rock-fest! Kevin Martin plays for gold at 3:00 this afternoon.

Update: 
Kevin Martin won the gold Saturday afternoon! So did the Canadian men's hockey team a few hours ago. Canada broke the records for most gold medals won by any country at a Winter Olympic Games (with the final gold medal count at 14), and most gold medals won by a host country (previously held by Norway and the U.S. at 10).  Canadian pride is running high today. How sweet it is!!

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Psst - notice the little headings ("Home" "About" and "Index") at the top of this page? I've discovered Blogger's stand-alone pages, and posted an 'about' page in my own style, as well as an index to some of my frequent subjects here at promptings. Keep tuned for more pages. A compilation of favorite quotes is in the works, and I have some other ideas too...

sky

The Pier,  White Rock, BC

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Thursday Challenge

Next Week: HIGH or LOW (Photos from a different perspective, Photos from the top or bottom of Buildings, Mountains, Towers, Underneath,...)

vancouver 2010 - our golden friday

Yesterday E. and I joined the masses of Lower Mainland Olympic fans partying and celebrating on the streets of Vancouver. We had decided to do the whole day on public transportation, and so got an early start boarding the 502 bus from Langley at 8:00 a.m. (7:57 to be technical). We arrived at the Waterfront Station in downtown Vancouver at 9:18 - excellent time, we thought, with no parking worries to boot.

We headed first to the Pan Pacific Hotel (nice washrooms there!).

(click on any photo to enlarge)

The Olympic Cauldron was our first Olympic destination. As we had heard on the news, they have now designed a camera slit in the chain link so it's easy to get unobstructed photos of the cauldron.

You can also get in line to take photos from one of the balconies of the Convention Centre but since we had set out promising ourselves we would not get in any lineups, our photos through chain link will have to do.

Next we went to Robson Square. Even though the hour was early, there were already lines of people waiting to get into attractions like the Vancouver Art Gallery.

No one was skating on the outdoor rink yet but some folks were getting their thrills on a zip line (for which, again, the lineups were amazing - given how slowly they were pushing people through!).

Next using our bus passes and feet (mostly feet), we checked out David Lam Park in Yaletown. Here everything of interest was behind Olympic barricades with people going through air-port-type security to get in (long lines again, and getting longer by the minute). When we asked, a security guard told us inside the walls were sponsor pavilions and other attractions. We consoled ourselves that we didn't want to be held captive by advertisers anyway, did we?

By now lunchtime was approaching, so we walked back up to Granville and found the restaurant where our son had suggested we meet. Having got our bearings, and still too early to meet him, we wandered Granville to the pedestrian-only area of the street.

The crowds were thicker than ever but it was a good atmosphere with street performers, lots of public art to ogle, and a multitude of enthusiastic Canadians, joined by even the stores in Olympic and Canada-wear of every description.

 The Templeton, where we had lunch, is a fifties style diner known for its great food and friendly service. We enjoyed the personal juke box (right in our booth), the old fashioned greasy-spoon decor and the food (a Med Quesadilla for me and for the boys breakfast - available till 3:00). When but the Olympics would fellow-diners come in wrapped in their national flags?

After lunch it was on to Granville Island (via a walk across the Granville Bridge - magnificent!).

The Island has been transformed into a French quarter with various pavilions and entertainment possibilities. Atlantic Canada has a pavilion there and I'm sure there were more. Again, lineups were the order of the day. Suffice it to say, we didn't go into any of them but instead, elbowed our way through the Public Market, listened to a few buskers, then bought gelatos, found chairs on the patio, and enjoyed more music with a French flair in the company of hundreds of other Olympic revelers.

We headed home around 4:00 p.m. and were glad we did when we saw, on the news, the crowds that plugged the Skytrain and buses later. All in all, it was a beautiful day, fun to be out and joining in the Olympic celebration.

To really take advantage of all the free stuff Vancouver is offering during the Olympics, though, you'd probably want to go out several times, pick a different area to explore in depth each day, then get there early and join the lineup before it got ridiculously (I'm talking hours) long.

old equipment

Cultivator in retirement

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Thursday Challenge

Next Week: SKY (Clouds, Bad Weather, Lightening, Northern Lights, Sunsets, Stars,...)

book review: The Silent Governess by Julie Klassen

Title: The Silent Governess
Author: Julie Klassen
Publisher: Bethany House, January 2010, paperback, 448 pages
ISBN-10: 0764207075
ISBN-13: 978-0764207075

“For years I could not recall the day without a smoldering coal of remorse burning within me. I tried to bury the memory deep in the dark places of my mind, but now and again something would evoke it – a public house placard, a column of figures, a finely dressed gentleman – and I would wince as the memory appeared and then scuttled away, like a silverfish under the door…” p. 7

The voice is Olivia Keene, remembering a childhood incident with her alcoholic father in the prologue of Julie Klassen’s historical The Silent Governess. The actual story (told in third person) begins 12 years later, in 1815, when the now-adult Olivia comes home from work to find that same father in a drunken rage with his hands around her mother’s throat. Olivia hits him on the back of the head with a fire iron; he falls over unconscious and, fearful that she’s killed him, she flees toward a village where her mother has friends.

Before she arrives, however, she wanders onto Brightwell Manor, overhears a confidential conversation, is arrested for trespassing, and held captive to ensure that her knowledge goes no further. There she is eventually installed as a governess, wins the hearts of the household, uses her math prowess to straighten out the manor’s books and her wits to bring to light family scandals. (A plot twist in this book that was also in Klassen’s book Lady of Milkweed Manor is a baby secretly taken from a poor mother at birth and given to a set of wealthy parents to raise. Klassen likes that, I guess.) Of course, all the while our beautiful heroine is winning the heart of the somber heir-apparent, Edward.

Olivia is a complex, smart, though vulnerable heroine. Edward has his faults, though we readily forgive them. The father characters, Simon Keene and Oliver Brightwell, have good and bad qualities, which our leading man and lady struggle to come to terms with. Family members like Judith and Felix add interest with their selfish, sly and sometimes less than honorable actions.

I enjoyed the setting with its authentic-feeling paraphernalia of bonnets, gowns, reticules, horse-drawn carriages, and abigails. The social realities, with its upstairs/downstairs divisions, the need for women to gain station in life with suitable marriages, and the inability to pass on an inheritance except to a birth heir are all characteristic of the time. Klassen manages to use these elements to further her plot as well.

Klassen’s writing is brisk, though dignified in that she uses more formal language than what we’d find in contemporary fiction. A nice touch is the quote heading each chapter. These bits from 19th century writings fill us in on social customs and the common perceptions of the role that the governess should play in an English family.

Besides the theme of attaining and preserving one’s place in society, Klassen also addresses subjects relevant to modern readers. The way the Olivia’s childhood memory casts its shadow over her life brings to mind how such early incidents can affect the course of a life. The preoccupation with status and birthright and how they form self-image and define the characters’ identities directs our attention to the question, what things do we use to define ourselves? The theme of faith also runs through the story – a thread Klassen weaves subtly. What I enjoyed most about the book was its exposé of the governess life in 19th century England.

Finally, Klassen brings us to an ending with many surprises. (Some of the ending plot twists had me shaking my head, though, like when minor characters end up being responsible for some of the main action of the story.) An epilogue ties everything together in a neat package of domestic bliss.

The Silent Governess is an interesting and satisfying sojourn in 19th century England. Fans of the Janes (Austen and Eyre) won’t want to miss it. The paperback edition includes discussion questions, making this a good choice for book clubs and reading groups.

(Sample the "Prologue")

Available now at your favorite bookseller from Bethany House, a division of Baker Publishing Group.

(I received this book free from a publicist for the purpose of writing a review. The opinions I have expressed are my own. I was not required to write a positive review.)

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 In several places I saw this book recommended to lovers of "Regency" novels. Not sure exactly what that meant, I sleuthed around online and found "The Regency vs. the Regency Historical: A Regency Expert Explains the Difference." In it Mary Jo Putney explains the difference between the two. By her definition, The Silent Governess would fit within the definition of a Regency Novel because of its date (falls between the dates 1800-1830), its preoccupations with society over passion, its rendering of a broad 'slice of life' from the era, and its carefully crafted language.