A most unusual read

I recently repainted this faded garden gnome. I hadn't realized at the time these fairytale mushrooms were probably Amanita muscaria. Before reading a book about Jeremy Downs' near-death experience, I couldn’t have told you anything about Amanita muscaria mushrooms. And yet my outdoor garden gnome sat among them all this time. They were featured in…

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A review of Tamara Leigh’s “Lady At Arms: Book One”

I have long enjoyed reading Tamara Leigh’s contemporary romances, but I had not read her historical ones – and she’s written quite a few now. I wanted to go back to her beginnings and read her first works of historical fiction. I learned those were the “Bride” novels (no longer in print) rewritten as the…

Must-read novel for fall

If this novel ever finds its way onto the screen, Kristina McMorris' "The Ways We Hide" would have these descriptors: “strong female lead, WWII drama, suspense, based on true events and mature audiences.” McMorris wrote her novel from the perspective of Fenna Vos, a Dutch-American woman living during World War II, a time known as…

Defending the faith in the manner of Jesus Christ

Dallas Willard, taken fromChristianity Today article I first learned about the works of American philosopher Dallas Willard reading John Eldredge's book on resilience that I reviewed here. Dallas experienced a painful childhood. His mother died when he was 2, and his father remarried a woman who exiled him from the home. (I still haven’t learned…

Talking with God

As a young mother, Suzanne “Suzie” Eller struggled to find the words to pray, despite prayer lists or formulas. She wanted to hear from Jesus. She wanted to have intimate talks with Him like she would a dear friend. When she didn’t know how to pray in difficult seasons of her life, Suzie found the…

The Highwayman kept riding…

“A Cross-Country Trip through Regency England Brings Intrigue, Rogues, and High Adventure.” Michelle Griep’s “The Noble Guardian” had me so engrossed in this tale I had a hard time shutting my light off at night to go to sleep. The Regency romace reads like a stand-alone novel, but I later learned it's part of “The…

Living a bold and blessed life

Beauty, fashion and lifestyle guru Dominique Sachse is one of my favorite personalities on YouTube. She started her channel in 2014 with her tagline, “Be Bold and Be Blessed.” At last count, she has 1.74 million subscribers. I subscribed after seeing a video on how to style a bob. I later learned this poised and…

A review of Anne Graham Lotz’s book about the work of the Holy Spirit

A power outage this weekend allowed me to finish the 2019 book "Jesus in Me" by Anne Graham Lotz. Anne is the daughter of Billy Graham and a gifted Bible teacher. In this book, she gave a biblical overview of the Holy Spirit along with His role within the trinity, God the Father; God the…

Secret letters and secret rooms: A Review of Ladd’s “The Letter from Briarton Park”

Imagine you are a 19th century woman who thought you knew all you needed to know about your past. You were about to leave to find work elsewhere. The school where you lived since a child would close soon. But then, as she lay dying, the headmistress told you she's held onto a letter for…

On regaining spiritual resiliency

I just finished Christian author and counselor John Eldredge's “Resilient: Restoring your weary soul in these turbulent times,” the perfect read after all we've been facing. He used the recent pandemic and prophecies about the end of the age to share with readers a way to access the source of our resiliency and strength found…