Let's Bust a Recap : A Lineage of Grace

Hi there! Summer is finally upon us (still a little weird living in a place where there are actual seasons) and I am loving it. Is it summer where you live and what are your favorite summer activities? Do you even like summer? Maybe we should get on to the recap. When I started working through Teresa Whiting's DisGraced study, I decided it would be a great time to revisit Francine Rivers' Lineage of Grace series. The first three women Teresa covers in her study are Tamar, Rahab, and Bathsheba, all of whom are in the lineage of Christ. So as I was working my way through DisGraced, I also took time to read through these five novellas by one of my favorite authors. 

This first book in the series brings the story of Tamar to life and was first published in April of 2000. You can read Tamar's story in Genesis 38. She's also mentioned in Ruth, 1 Chronicles, and, of course, in the lineage of Jesus in Matthew. Tamar's story is one of the harder ones to read about in Scripture. It's what I would call a rated R narrative, and even though culturally we're so far removed from what was acceptable in Tamar's day, it's hard to wrap your head around seducing your father-in-law and then bearing his twin sons. 

What I like about Francine Rivers' attempt to bring these women to life is that she starts each book with a note encouraging the reader to check out the actual Biblical account—with references—and she keeps the fictionalization to a minimum. Obviously, we can't know any details about these women beyond what the Bible provides, but I think Rivers does a good job of towing the line and not creating too sensational of a backstory or additional characters. In the case of Tamar, the thing that really stopped me in my tracks was the fact that they were literally dragging Tamar out to burn her alive when she sent Judah the proof that he was the father. Sometimes, when I'm reading a very familiar Bible story, I don't stop to think about how these real people were really feeling. How terrifying for Tamar, probably a very young woman in her 20s if not still a teenager at this point, to literally be staring down death and not even sure that Judah would relent once he received his things from her. My heart can't help but go out to her in her desperation. What a story. 

The second woman named in the line of Jesus is Rahab. This installment of Rivers' series was published just five months after Tamar's in September of 2000. Rahab's story can be found in Joshua 2 and 6, and she's also commended in Hebrews and James for her great faith. 

Rahab's is one of the more famous Bible stories. She was the Canaanite prostitute who hid two Israelite spies and, as a result, was saved from the destruction of Jericho when the walls collapsed. The thing that intrigued me about Rivers' picture of Rahab's life is the idea that she was looking out for the spies. I never gave it much thought as a child, but as an adult I've often wondered how the spies ended up at the home of a prostitute. I honestly don't think they were there for her *ahem* professional services, but why were they there? The idea that she was looking out for them in the hope that she could be rescued from the destruction to come seems plausible. Another interesting notion that Rivers posits is that Rahab ends up marrying one of the spies. From my reading of Scripture, we don't know the identities of the men who went into Jericho so it's something to consider. 

Now Ruth is one of only two women in Scripture who has an entire book of the Bible named after her and dedicated to her story. Francine Rivers' novella about her life was published in February of 2001. 

What came alive for me for the first time when I read Rivers' Unshaken was the connection between Rahab, Boaz, and Ruth. Rahab, the Canaanite prostitute was Boaz's mother. Of course Boaz would have an extra measure of compassion for outsiders. In fact, could the reason Boaz was an older unmarried man in Israel possibly be connected to the fact that his mother was Rahab? Perhaps Israelite fathers weren't keen to make that unsavory association. It's all very compelling to think about. The question this little novella raised for me was whether Rahab was still alive when Boaz married Ruth. I imagine that if she was, she lived in Boaz's house. Did Rahab and Ruth have a relationship with one another? Obviously, Ruth and Naomi were very close, but was Ruth able to develop an intimate relationship with her second mother-in-law? One that would offer her untold encouragement and support living as a Moabite woman among the people of Israel? I wonder. 

The fourth book in this little series is called Unspoken and it details Bathsheba's life as imagined by Francine Rivers. It was originally published about six months after Ruth's volume in August of 2001. You can read about Bathsheba in 2 Samuel 11 and 12 and 1 Kings 1 and 2. She is also mentioned in 1 Chronicles 3 and you can get even more insight into her life by reading Psalm 51, the psalm David famously wrote after committing adultery with her.

I think of all the books in the Lineage of Grace, Rivers takes the most license with Bathsheba's story. She starts with Bathsheba as an eight year old girl with a massive crush on the young giant-killer David. I don't think it's too big of a stretch to imagine that young Bathsheba idolized David—he was the biggest celebrity of his time—but to posit that her obsession with him continued even to the day of her wedding and beyond is maybe a bit much to believe. While I don't agree with the line of thinking that David raped Bathsheba, I also don't agree with Rivers that Bathsheba knew that David was watching her bathe and brazenly displayed herself to him. 

When I first read this novella as a young adult, I was intrigued by the idea that because of Bathsheba's situation, her friends and family may have shunned her, never speaking her name again. This thought becomes even more fascinating when you actually read the lineage of Jesus and see her referred to only as the wife of Uriah. 

Reading it this time around, I was more interested in Bathsheba's familial relations—her father being one of David's mighty men along with her husband Uriah, and her grandfather being one of David's trusted advisors. I even did a little fact-checking on this in Scripture and it all seems to track. I never made the connection that Ahithophel was Bathsheba's grandfather, and it's intriguing to think about how his granddaughter's relationship with David may have been a factor in his betrayal of David. 

Anyway, Bathsheba's story is pretty wild and I think Francine Rivers definitely gives her reader plenty to think about with the way she presents it. 

Ahhh, Mary. Sweet virgin mother of Jesus. Certainly the most famous woman in Scripture and arguably the most famous woman to ever live. This last novella in the series was published in October of 2001 meaning all five books in the series were published in the span of a year and a half. It's hard to pick out just a few passages about Mary to refer you to her story in the Bible when her life was so intimately intertwined with the life of Jesus, but some key references include Luke 1-2, Matthew 1-2, John 2, Mark 6, Matthew 12, John 19, and Acts 1. 

I think of the five novellas in the Lineage of Grace, I read Mary's with the most caution. As I mentioned at the beginning of this post, Francine Rivers herself is quick to point the reader back to the Biblical accounts of these women's lives and it's a reminder that bears repeating. But having said that, I think Unafraid may offer the reader the most to think about and discuss. While we can't possibly know for sure if Rivers is right in her depiction of Mary's understanding of Jesus' purpose or her impatience in wanting him to assert himself as the promised Messiah, everything she writes in this little novella is extremely plausible, and Mary's thoughts and attitudes are natural human responses to the situation she found herself in. There's so little we know of Jesus' growing-up years on earth, and Rivers does a fantastic job of sparking the reader's imagination in thinking about what those years may have been like. I especially liked her depiction of Joseph's relationship to the Christ-child and how she imagined Jesus with his brothers and sisters. I hope we get to know more about Jesus' earthly life when we get to Heaven. It's something I wonder about often. 

All in all, I would recommend the Lineage of Grace series with the exhortation to read them as companions to the original Biblical accounts, keeping in mind that these are just ideas of what it may have been like for these women. I'm a fan of anything that makes me think more deeply about Scripture and I love when something can make Scripture come alive for me. I think this series by Francine Rivers does a great job of both. But ultimately, it's the Word of God that will never pass away and I can't emphasize enough how important it is to keep His Word central when we're consuming Bible-based media and entertainment. 

Is there a particular story from the Bible you wish you could have witnessed? Or a person from the Bible you wish you could have lunch with and pick his or her brain? 

Let's Bust a Recap : Lie Until It's True

Jessie Weaver's sophomore novel is out! I knew after reading Live Your Best Lie last year that I'd definitely read anything else Jessie had to offer so I went ahead and preordered Lie Until It's True and then read it immediately after it showed up at my door last month. 

Lie Until It's True zooms in on one of the secondary characters from Weaver's debut novel Live Your Best Lie, but this young adult murder mystery is not a sequel. In this one, we learn that the last three years of sixteen year old Amanda Pruitt's life have been consumed with a murder trial and she is more than ready to move on from it. She ends up spending the summer with her aunt who works at a historic (haunted?) hotel in Colorado. Her childhood best friend's mother has been accused of murder in what seems like an open-and-shut case, but Amanda is hoping to spark a deeper investigation into what happened using her popular true crime TikTok account. But when someone else turns up dead, Amanda finds herself a prime suspect and right in the middle of another horrible murder investigation. 

First of all, if you're going to read Jessie's books, I'd say read them in order. As I mentioned, Lie Until It's True isn't a sequel but it does take place after the events in Live Your Best Lie and if you read it first, you will be able to eliminate a suspect from her first book. 

Secondly, I'd say I liked Jessie's debut better than Lie Until It's True, but this new release is highly readable and the murder mystery aspect kept me guessing again. I liked the romance element in this one, the ghost story component was fun, and the entire novel had a very summer camp vibe that I liked a lot. I thought wrapping the book up with an Ask Me Anything section was a clever way to tie up some lingering questions given the way social media features in the book. But my main complaint from Live Your Best Lie—the rude language and casual misuse of God's name—seemed even more pervasive in Lie Until It's True, and I got tired of it quickly. 

All things considered though, I'm still a fan and definitely looking forward to what Jessie puts out next. While I, once again, might hesitate to hand this book to actual teenagers without caveat-ing, I would conditionally recommend it. And because of the contrasting haunted hotel/summer camp themes, Lie Until It's True is a good read year-round for all you mood readers out there. 

Who's your favorite murder mystery author?

Let's Bust a Recap : Roald Dahl

Well, I've gotten a couple more Dahls under my belt so it's time for a recap, but unfortunately, these are the first two of Roald's books that have fallen slightly flat for me. I read both of these aloud with my nephew, and they were funny but they're just not on the same level with the rest of his work. (At least his work that I've read so far.)

In Dahl's 1970 Fantastic Mr Fox, our titular character—Mr Fox—spends his days cleverly stealing from three loathsome farmers—Boggis, Bunce, and Bean—to feed his wife and four children. Eventually, the farmers get fed up with this and determine to kill Mr Fox, but he still manages to outsmart them by burrowing his way to their goods and continuing to steal from them to help his own family and all the other underground creatures to survive. The book ends with the three farmers sitting outside Mr Fox's hole still, waiting for him to surface so they can blow him to smithereens. 

In Dahl's 1990 Esio Trot—the last book to be published in his lifetime—our lonely protagonist Mr Hoppy comes up with a devious plot to win the heart and hand of his downstairs neighbor Mrs Silver, a widow he's been smitten with for years but has been too shy to ever do more than speak to her from his upstairs balcony. Mrs Silver's entire life centers around her small pet tortoise Alfie but she's concerned that he's not growing so Mr Hoppy convinces her to speak to Alfie in tortoise language three times a day to help him grow faster. (Tortoise language is just regular English backwards; hence "Esio Trot" is an anadrome of "tortoise".) She, of course, gives this a try but what Mr Hoppy actually does is steal Alfie and replace him with a slightly larger tortoise...which he continues to do until "Alfie" can no longer fit through the door of his little tortoise house and Mrs Silver realizes the "magic words" worked and is so delighted with Mr Hoppy that they get married. 

I mean, I think we can all agree that we're not out here reading Roald Dahl to learn any great moral lessons but can you see how these two might be a bit problematic? They're both silly and clever and certainly not meant to be taken seriously, but is it okay to steal from people if they're fat and ugly and stupid? Sure, it's in a fox's nature to hunt, but in Fantastic Mr Fox we've anthropomorphised him so it begs the question. And is it ever okay to trick a woman into marrying you by means of stealing her beloved pet? A living animal, I might add? Granted, Dahl assures us that the real Alfie ends up living happily ever after with a little girl called Roberta Squibb, but does Mr Hoppy ever come clean with Mrs Silver? And can a relationship based on deception possibly turn out all right? These books can provide a great jumping off point for some important conversations but for sheer entertainment value's sake? They miss the mark. 

So no, these wouldn't be the first Roald Dahl books I'd recommend, but if you're ready to have a low-pressure philosophical conversation with your child after a few laughs, these might be just the ticket. 

As for my journey through Dahl's work, I'm now over halfway through my lovely box set of his books and have six left to go. What should come next?

Let's Bust a Recap : Graced

Okay, I've mentioned several Bible studies over the years on this blog, but I don't typically review them here because to be completely 💯 with you: I rarely complete a study from cover to cover. The number one reason for this is because in the past, I have participated in group studies, and if I miss even one video session, or if I skip some of the homework because I'm getting behind, then I don't consider the study complete. 

But last year, a dear friend of mine published her first Bible study so, of course, I ordered it immediately.

And then it sat in my book cart for over eight months. I could give you a lot of excuses for this like how crazy 2023 was for us, or the holidays, or sickness, et cetera et cetera. But the truth is that this study is geared toward the sexually broken woman, and that's just not me. I am eternally grateful that God has put men in my life who have always protected me, cherished me, and treated me with dignity. So as I got the updates from Teresa about the study and joined her launch team, I wasn't really sure how DisGraced would land for me personally. And I put it off. But finally in March, I was telling my BFF Christina that I was ready to start it and she agreed to go through it with me. And it took me just under seven weeks to complete. 

In DisGraced, Teresa invites women to dive deep into the Bible and discover the heart of God toward six broken women in Scripture. Their stories still resonate with us today and can offer hope and healing for us all, but particularly for the woman who thinks she is beyond the grace of God or that healing will never be possible. 

Watching the introductory video before really diving in to the study, I immediately felt welcomed and encouraged that there was space in this study for me. It was emotional listening to Teresa tell a bit about her personal story. She is truly a wonderful and engaging speaker, and you can feel the compassion she has for women as you listen to her. 

As for the study itself: I felt like I did two distinct Bible studies. The first three weeks focusing on three Old Testament women—Tamar, Rahab, and Bathsheba—were one study; and the three remaining weeks focusing on three New Testament women—the woman at the well, the woman caught in adultery, and the sinful woman—felt like a separate study. I can't exactly pinpoint why there was a disconnect for me, but it was definitely there. In the first half, Teresa's questions challenged my thinking and gave me a lot to work through, but I had a hard time connecting with it and ultimately there were some things I disagreed with (for example, calling Tamar's actions righteous or that David raped Bathsheba). But the second half of DisGraced was some of the most meaningful Bible study I have ever experienced. I have read the Bible several times in the course of my life so I was very familiar with all six of these women, but the study on the three New Testament women impacted me so strongly. They prompted some of the most beautiful times of personal prayer, praise, and communion with my loving Savior I have ever had. Throughout the whole of DisGraced, I loved working through one of the Psalms each week, and I appreciated the weekly challenge to write down one key takeaway I wanted to remember. 

All things considered, this is a study I would absolutely recommend. Even the tougher weeks I encountered or the things I didn't agree with didn't negatively impact Teresa's applications which were biblically solid. Her teaching sessions are excellent, and one of the biggest practical things I appreciated about DisGraced is that you can access the videos online any time. (Can we please make that standard fare for all Bible studies??) This study is for any woman no matter where she is spiritually. There is a clear gospel presentation and a warm invitation to come to Jesus, but there is also grace and encouragement for the seasoned follower of Christ. I'm glad I finally did it and I'm thankful for the ways God used this study in my personal relationship with Him. I'm looking forward to Teresa's next one!

Get DisGraced here.

Learn more about how to connect with Teresa here. 

Twelve Years

 Happy Anniversary, my sweetheart!

A dozen cupcakes couldn't be sweeter than a dozen years of being your Mrs.

Let's Bust a Recap : While Mrs. Coverlet Was Away

Well after a six-week hiatus due to unforeseen technical difficulties (read: the old laptop finally bit the dust and we had to spring for a new one), I'm back and ready to catch you up on some books I've finished recently starting with this tattered favorite that I read aloud with my nieces and nephews during April. 

When our girls got here on April 16th, we ran through the shelves and pulled several options down that we were interested in reading. Then we took it to a vote and to my delight, While Mrs. Coverlet Was Away was the unanimous winner. This old copy was one of my mother's childhood books and I read it when I was probably 8 or 9 years old. I remember loving it, so I was ready for a fun read aloud with all my favorite kiddos, and it definitely delivered. 

The premise of this 1958 children's book by Mary Nash centers around three siblings who are suddenly left home alone when their housekeeper is called away for a family emergency while their widowed father is on a business trip to New Zealand. Thirteen year old Malcolm and practical middle-child Molly decide they can manage their six year old brother Theobold (affectionately called "Toad") by themselves, and because Mrs. Coverlet had to leave in such a rush, no other adult knows that the children are home alone. So for the whole summer the siblings are left to their own devices and do quite a fine job of it, even starting a summer business selling a concoction of the Toad's to make some money to send their father to help his business of opening a tin mine along. 

Mix it all together and you're in for a laugh-out-loud good time. My nieces and nephews loved it as much as I did when I was their age, and we all had fun trying to guess what the Toad put in his purple concoction to make it taste so good. I especially enjoyed reading about Malcolm's complicated conscience and how he got around it and talking to my nieces and nephews about whether they thought they could take care of themselves for a whole summer without grownups. The consensus was a resounding "no". 

All in all, While Mrs. Coverlet Was Away is a book I'd recommend to just about anyone. It's silly without being completely ridiculous, and I particularly love this beat up old copy because it was my mom's and she wrote in it when she was little:

I mean, come on! Consider this a call to action to have your children sign their favorite books and then tuck them away for posterity's sake. What a treasure!

Let's Bust a Recap : The Beekeeper of Aleppo

And so begins my personal campaign to get everyone to forget about The Kite Runner and read Christy Lefteri's The Beekeeper of Aleppo instead. 

(But first, can you spot the actual bees in my little picture over there? We have two of these lovely trees in our yard and they have been positively buzzing this past week.)

Now, back to The Beekeeper of Aleppo. Christy Lefteri's 2019 novel was born of her experience volunteering in Athens at a refugee center over two summers in 2016 and 2017. Born to parents who fled Cyprus after the Turkish invasion in 1974, Lefteri grew up in England knowing something of the devastation wrought by war and death and displacement which was what prompted her to help in Athens and, eventually, to bring The Beekeeper of Aleppo to life. 

In The Beekeeper of Aleppo, we meet Nuri Ibrahim and his wife Afra who have just made it to the UK after fleeing from Syria and are going through the process of applying for asylum. The Syrian civil war has wreaked its havoc in their lives, taking their young son from them, and they have traveled for months trying to make it to the UK to be reunited with Nuri's cousin and business partner Mustafa who has started to rebuild his family's life in England and has even started beekeeping again with the native black bees. In each chapter of the book, Lefteri uses one word to connect their present situation in the UK to the recent past in which we follow them on their journey to get out of Syria and make it all the way to England. With a deft hand, Lefteri paints a haunting picture of the ravages constantly going on throughout the Middle East but with a sensitivity and ultimate hopefulness that kept me turning the pages. The refugee crisis in Europe has been such a huge issue for so much of my adult life that it's overwhelming to even think about it, especially being somewhat removed from it over here in the US. But as TIME magazine insightfully points out in its praise for The Beekeeper of Aleppo, "Lefteri shows that in order to stretch compassion to millions of people, it helps to begin with one." 

To be honest, I was a bit apprehensive when I drew this title out of my TBR jar. I wasn't sure I was ready to be confronted with the reality of the still ongoing Syrian civil war. I wasn't sure how graphic The Beekeeper of Aleppo would be, and I was concerned this novel might throw me into some rough waters emotionally. But Lefteri handled her subject matter with such a gentle and compassionate voice, I found myself drawn into the lives of Nuri and Afra Ibrahim and rooting for their healing. I appreciated how Lefteri hinted at the horrific things they lived through rather than exhaustively detailing them, giving me as a reader the space to process the trauma without inflicting it on me. I also loved the notes and photos from the author included in my edition of this novel showing the time she spent volunteering in the refugee camps in Athens. Really, just a beautifully and exceptionally well written work. I would highly recommend The Beekeeper of Aleppo to anyone. 

Is there a book on your shelf you're hesitant to open because you know you'll be confronted with something difficult?