Every once in a while it still happens: I discover a ‘new’ old book that absolutely delights me. The Avion My Uncle Flew, a 1947 Newbery Honor book, was the latest. Charming, complex, beautifully written, exciting, uplifting, and funny, it tells the story of Johnny Littlehorn, an injured American boy who unwillingly spends the summer […]
Reviews: Fiction
Review: Where We Belong by Lynn Austin
Rebecca and Flora Hawes, sisters in the late 1800’s, are always in search of adventure, especially Rebecca who, filled with an insatiable longing for more than school and high society, drags Flora along. As teens they sneak away from school, their Paris hotel, and the safe parts of their own city, filled with youthful heedlessness […]
Review: Katharina, Katharina by Christine Farenhorst
Katharina Schutz, curious, talkative, and impulsive, notices everything around her: Frau Bauer, the neighbor across the street whose babies all died; the light in the studio where she learns to weave; cousin Ursula’s bitterness; the different priests; and the ever-present need to be good enough to earn favor for those who have died. And in […]
Review: Luther by Those Who Knew Him by E. R. Charles
This devotional and encouraging book presents Luther and his ideas through the eyes of various members of a family that knew him. From Fritz, a monk who travelled to Rome with him, and Else, who struggled with not being religious enough because she was not a nun, to Eva, a nun who rejoiced to share […]
Review: Trunk of Scrolls by Darlene Bocek
While there are many novels about Reformation times, and many church history biographies throughout the ages, we have come across very little fiction about early church history and even less about the creeds. However, Darlene Bocek’s novel Trunk of Scrolls covers the time after 526 AD, after the council of Chalcedon and during the continuing […]