A Word for Wednesday

"...when pain is to be borne, 

a little courage helps more than much knowledge, 

a little human sympathy more than much courage, 

and the least tincture of the love of God more than all."

~from The Problem of Pain by C.S. Lewis~

Birthday Love

Happy Birthday, my man! You make my dreams come true!

And Happy Birthday to our Najati! We love you forever.

If you've been following this blog for any length of time, you know that my husband and I are passionate about the Compassion program and releasing children from poverty in Jesus' name. Our girl Najati turns 16 today. Just a few weeks ago, we learned that Najati is no longer in the Compassion program and as a result of that, we are no longer able to communicate with her. We're not sure of all the details about why she has stopped coming to the center, but we know we will always love her and continue to pray for her. Please pray for her and her family. 

These are Cody's new birthday buddies! Ahishakiye turns 4 today and Andredson turns 6! We're looking forward to building a relationship with them and loving on them for years to come. If you're interested in sponsoring a child through Compassion, please don't hesitate to contact me. 

Let's Bust a Recap : The Art of Racing in the Rain

Ugh. Y'all. This has been kindof a rough year for my reading life. With the exception of the Sisterchicks book I read by Robin Jones Gunn (who never lets me down, thank goodness!), everything I've read has been slow and/or had depressing elements, and some of it was just plain bad (looking at you Harlow Giles Unger). This isn't to say I haven't read some great books this year—I have—but overall I'm about ready to throw in the towel on my 2019 list and re-read the entire Christy Miller series.

And speaking of the great books I've read this year: The Art of Racing in the Rain wasn't one of them. After seeing this trailer for the upcoming film adaptation, reading nothing but positive reviews on the internet, and learning that the novel had held a steady spot on the New York Times Bestseller list for 156 weeks, I ordered the book and took it with me on our little weekend getaway to North Carolina last week thinking I'd fly through it, probably cry a lot, and be even more pumped to see the movie. 

Moral of the story: bad books sell and you can't trust the opinions of strangers on the internet. 

The Art of Racing in the Rain by Garth Stein was published in 2008. In this novel, Enzo the dog who believes he will be reincarnated as a human in his next life tells us the story of his master Denny Swift, an aspiring Formula One driver, husband to Eve, and father to Zoë. We learn at the beginning of the book that Denny has already lost his wife Eve to brain cancer, and as Enzo looks back on their life together and recounts their struggles after Eve is diagnosed, we see that Denny's life goes from bad to worse to freaking miserable. 

The tone of the book was crass overall. The story was littered with profanity and certain adult situations that I have no idea how they will make palatable for a PG movie from Disney. And while I understand that Enzo the dog is looking forward to being reincarnated as a human being, his voice in this book was too human. While there were moments of brilliance throughout the book, I wasn't convinced that a dog was telling me his story. 

I understand that not every book is for every person. There are people out there who don't care about profanity or rude humor, and there are obviously a LOT of people who loved this book. I'm just not one of them. This book didn't work for me, and I personally wouldn't recommend it. I still may end up seeing the movie, and this may possibly be the first time I watch a movie and declare its superiority over the book that inspired it. But I won't be revisiting the novel.

Have you read this book? Did you enjoy it? What popular books have you wanted to like but just couldn't get into?

Let's Bust a Recap : Rebecca

"Last night I dreamt I went to Manderley again..."

Can you even talk about Rebecca without quoting Daphne du Maurier's iconic opening line? I think not. 

Rebecca, originally published in 1938, started popping up all over my radar when I began looking at book lists on the internet. You know the ones. With titles like "BBC's Top 100 Books You Need to Read Before You Die" or "100 Great Novels by Dead Authors", you have to check them out and see if you're at least well read enough to recognize most of the titles that have won their elusive claim to greatness.

So one day last summer while I was browsing The Book Shelter, this old copy of Rebecca (from the library of the Polk Correctional Institution, by the way) caught my eye and the little librarian inside my brain informed me that the BBC is laughing at me for never having read this novel. Why I suddenly cared what the BBC thinks of my reading choices, I can't say, but Rebecca promptly came home with me (along with at least five other books) and took up residence on my shelf. I didn't think much more about it until that agonizing time of year came along where I try to narrow down the never-ending LIFE LIST OF BOOKS I WANT TO READ BEFORE I DIE to a mere 20 or 30 to focus on in 2019. 

By this point, I had joined Instagram—Heaven help us—and I realized that the BBC wasn't the only one castigating me for ignoring du Maurier all my life. While this fact did move Rebecca up a few slots on THE LIST, she still didn't make the cut for my 2019 Book List. She did, however, find her way into my little mystery jar, and has been the one (and quite possibly only) lucky draw so far this year. So in May, I found myself sneaking into the dark world of Manderley and the de Winters. 

And I couldn't get into it.

Every time I sat down to read, I would struggle to get through a chapter. I'd find myself snoozing or wondering when we would ever get to the point. Admittedly, I started this novel at the worst possible time. I was wanting something fast-paced and summery to bust me out of my reading slump, not a dark, atmospheric, autumnal read best suited to be partaken of under a cozy blanket with a steaming cup of tea at hand. What's wrong with me? I wondered. Will they kick me out of #bookstagram for not loving Rebecca? Can I even tell anyone that I DON'T LIKE IT?!

Don't burn me at the stake yet. This story has a happy ending.

Rebecca by Daphne du Maurier is told by a naïve young woman relating her struggle to live up to the mysterious Rebecca de Winter after becoming the second Mrs. Maxim de Winter. As her older, affluent husband takes her back to his famous estate, she finds herself lost in all the dark secrets swirling around Manderley and fighting her own imagination as she assumes that everyone, including her husband, are comparing her to Rebecca.  

For 250 pages, I was frustrated with our young narrator. Daphne du Maurier said that Rebecca is an exploration of the relationship between a man who is powerful with a woman who is not. And I think she did an excellent job with that. I wanted nothing to do with Maxim de Winter, and I felt many times that I'd like to club young Mrs. de Winter over the head and tell her to grow a spine. 

But then came the turn.

And I couldn't put the book down. Literally. I got to Chapter 19 and did nothing else until I finished it. I ignored dishes and laundry and food. I stayed up past midnight rereading certain parts of the beginning. I immediately added Jamaica Inn to my amazon wishlist (handily linked here in case you should ever get the urge to send me a book or seven). 

I get it.

The hype is real.

You really should read this book before you die.

"We would not talk of Manderley, I would not tell my dream. For Manderley was ours no longer. Manderley was no more."

What other books by Daphne du Maurier should I add to my wishlist?

Let's Bust a Recap : The Last Founding Father

What? The blog lives? Yes, yes, I'm still reading over here. I've just been putting off this recap forever because this is the worst presidential biography I've read to date. Harlow Giles Unger makes Lynne Cheney look like a cool, unbiased historian. And considering that I described her book on Madison as "a gushing, teen girl's fan letter to her adored celebrity crush" that should really tell you something. I mean, when you make the claim that Adams, Jefferson, and Madison were "mere caretaker presidents" in the opening pages of your biography, do you really expect anybody to take you seriously?? I all but put confidence in anything Unger had to say. ("All but" was his favorite little catch phrase and you could find those two annoying words put together on almost every page of the book.)

But I digress. I'll try to share some pertinent details and keep this short. Otherwise we'll end up with an overlong ranty post about who should be allowed to write biographies interjected with bitter diatribes about money-grabbing publishers who put this nonsense out into the world. 

The Last Founding Father: James Monroe and A Nation's Call to Greatness by Harlow Giles Unger was published in 2009 by Da Capo Press. As far as a biography goes, it was emotional, overly dramatic, and poorly written. 

Monroe himself would be an interesting character to read about, and he deserves to have a well written, up-to-date biography written of his life, but unfortunately, as far as I can tell, the two best options to read a full account of his life are this one or Harry Ammon's stale 1971 offering. So here we are. 

Monroe was involved in every aspect of Revolutionary America, serving as soldier, congressman, senator, minister to France and Britain, governor of Virginia, secretary of state, and secretary of war before finally becoming America's fifth president. A pretty impressive resumé in and of itself. He was instrumental in the acquisition of the Louisiana Purchase, and his Monroe Doctrine is an enduring proclamation that still has relevant political implications today. Personally, he was hot tempered and a bit vain which made him unlikeable for me as a human being. He and Kitty seemed to have a good marriage and their younger daughter Maria was the first president's child to be married in the White House. 

However, as I have already stated, this particular biography of Monroe is laughably biased. He had not one bad thing to say about Monroe and spent all his energy defending the objectively less than stellar bits of Monroe's life. After asserting that Adams, Jefferson, and Madison were "caretaker presidents" until Monroe could step up and save the day, he later contradicts his own words by arguing for Monroe's sole authorship of the Monroe Doctrine (some historians have posited that John Quincy Adams actually authored it) by stating that "such assertions show little insight into the presidency itself and the type of man who aspires to and assumes that office; indeed, they denigrate the character, the intellect, the intensity, and the sense of power that drive American presidents." All this after trying to convince the reader that Madison was a completely impotent puppet of Monroe's for Madison's entire presidency. 

If you're looking for a good biography of Monroe, this certainly isn't it. However, it may be your best bet. I would love it if Noah Feldman or Joseph J. Ellis would undertake to write a biography on our nation's fifth president. Until then, I suggest reading this biography with a very big grain of salt. 

I am actually facing (with great trepidation) another of Unger's biographies on John Quincy Adams. It is on my list for this year (and I already own it), but I am considering switching it out for James Traub's 2016 biography of the sixth president of the United States. What do you think? Should I ditch Unger and go with Traub or stick with what I've got?

Let's Bust a Recap : Sisterchicks on the Loose!

When I decided to do the Modern Mrs Darcy 2019 Reading Challenge this year, "a book in the backlist of a favorite author" was the only category I didn't even have to think twice about filling. My two favorite living authors are Robin Jones Gunn and Francine Rivers and since I'm all caught up on Rivers' backlist, I knew I'd be filling this slot with one of the six Sisterchicks books I hadn't read yet. My sweet friend Amy completed my Sisterchicks collection for my birthday last year so I decided to go back to the beginning and read the very first book in the series. These are standalone books, but there are eight in total. 

It was also a no-brainer to take this book along with me on our vacation to Hawaii. Not only are several of Robin Jones Gunn's books set in Hawaii (not this one though), she lives on Maui. And all of Gunn's books are light and fun so this got thrown in my carryon quicker than you can bat your eye. I was definitely grateful to have it with me after finishing up the much heavier and darker Orphan Train (which I recapped last week). 

Sisterchicks on the Loose! was published in 2003 and follows the adventures of besties Sharon and Penny as they travel from the U.S. West Coast to the land of Penny's relatives: Finland. Between the chocolate and saunas and Penny's adventurous spirit, they get up to a lot of zany shenanigans for these two 40-something God-Lovers. 

What makes the Sisterchicks books so fun is that Robin creates these sweet novels from her own personal travel experiences with her real life Sisterchick friends. These books always keep me giggling while encouraging me closer to God with every turn of the page; not in a phony, cliché way but a real, life-giving natural way. I love them.

Sisterchicks in Sombreros is still probably my favorite of the series so far, but Sisterchicks on the Loose! has definitely furnished the most laughs. As always, no hesitation in recommending Robin Jones Gunn to all my girlfriends out there. Now that I've read the first three in the Sisterchicks series, I'll probably just keep going in order so Sisterchicks Down Under is up next. I can't wait to see what kind of mischief we'll get up to there.

Who are your favorite authors? What books do you turn to when you need a breather? Also, how many times did I type "sisterchicks" for this post? Because it felt excessive.

Let's Bust a Recap : Orphan Train

Happy Thursday, and wow! is May really over already? I mean, I know we still have tomorrow, but didn't we just ring in 2019 like, 2 seconds ago? Now we're almost halfway through the year?? At the pace I'm going, I've started to feel like I may have bit off more than I can chew with my book list this year, and the #bookstagram people are not helping. Did y'all know there are people who read like, 50 books a month? I mean, how? But let's skip my completely unnecessary anxiety over meeting my totally self-imposed reading goals and just get straight to the recap. 

The second book I read on our Hawaiian vacation (which I promise I will get around to blogging about someday) was Orphan Train by Christina Baker Kline. This book was published not so long ago (considering that a lot of the books I read and post about are much older) at the beginning of 2013, and I picked it up at The Book Shelter in December because my friend Karsch recommended it to me. Consequently, I chose this book to fill the "book recommended by someone with great taste" category for the 2019 Modern Mrs Darcy Reading Challenge which is the second category I've been able to tick off so far this year (the first being "three books by the same author"—thank you, Harry Potter series). 

Orphan Train moves back and forth between contemporary Maine and Depression-era Minnesota, linking 17-year-old foster kid Molly Ayer to 91-year-old Irish immigrant Vivian Daly as Molly helps Vivian clean out her attic for a community service project designed to keep Molly out of juvie. As Molly learns about Vivian's past, she discovers just how much they have in common. 

The historical aspects of this novel were fascinating as Kline highlighted the little known phenomenon of the orphan trains that were operational in the U.S. from 1854 to 1929, relocating approximately 200,000 orphaned, abandoned, abused, or homeless children from overcrowded cities along the east coast to more rural areas in the American Midwest. 

I was also intrigued by the way Kline wove together the unlikely topics of foster care, Native American culture, immigration, and the progress of technology and how it has affected our world. She connected people, places, events, and worldviews that I would never have expected to read about all in one novel, but she did it well. Everything was well-researched, interesting, believable, and highly readable. 

However, there were some pretty big negative elements in this novel for me. The first being regular profanity. While it's not unrealistic for 17 year olds to have the vocabulary of sailors on leave, I personally don't like seeing four letter words popping up all over the pages of the novel I'm reading. Secondly, there was one somewhat graphic scene of a 10 year old girl being molested that made me feel physically ill. By the time I had gotten to that point in the book, I was wondering why on earth my friend ever recommended this book to me. It seemed vulgar and depressing and like there was no light at the end of a very dark story.

BUT the ending was worth the read. The way Kline concluded this heartbreaking narrative had me in tears—the happy kind. If you can get over some foul language and foul situations, I would recommend Orphan Train. 

So tell me, what are some hard novels that were worth the payout for you?