Amy Boucher Pye

Category: Book Reviews

  • Review: Austen-Inspired Fiction

    I just finished Katherine Reay’s latest engaging novel, and before I add my review, I thought I’d better post my thoughts on her first book, which was published originally in Woman Alive.

    529FF670-E4E0-465F-A6FD-69F7FE055D41When I finished this novel, I sighed in satisfaction and thought about turning back to the beginning, reading in the light of the plot twist at the end. Before doing so, I posted in our Woman Alive Facebook group about my delight with this book, but what happened next left me feeling ambivalent. In fact, I felt similar to that first time I visited New York City, when I bought a watch from a man outside the Statue of Liberty who had watches hanging all along the inside of his coat. (Of course it only worked for a day; how gullible was I as a naive young woman from the Midwest!) For one of the regular Facebook members, Angie Pollard, said:

    I love Dear Mr Knightley – though didn’t think I would when I started reading it… I presume you’ve read the classic Daddy Long Legs by Jean Webster, which it parallels and is one of my ‘go-to’ books. Time for a re-read of both!

    No, I hadn’t heard of Daddy Long Legs; this was news to me. From being so pleased with the fresh and original plot twist in Dear Mr. Knightley, now I felt like I had bought a knock-off Gucci watch that would die an early death. (And I’m sorry if you’ve read Daddy Long Legs so now you know the plot of Dear Mr. Knightley.) I’ve been mulling over my reaction, wondering why a new novel based on an older version troubles me. Maybe it has something to do with how the protagonist, Sam, hid behind characters from literature (mainly those of Jane Austen and Charlotte Bronte), spouting off their words when she felt trapped or scared. She – who as a child had experienced an abusive, broken family and grew up in the foster-care system – hadn’t found her voice and so employed the voices of others. Was the author of this novel doing the same by lifting the plot from a classic?

    I remain undecided. That issue aside, Dear Mr. Knightley delighted me. I loved Sam’s references to Lizzie Bennet and others, and I was moved by her journey to love as she learned to trust and shed her fears of exposure and rejection. She also finds her calling and her voice as a journalist, moving from one whose features were wooden and unpublishable to a passionate teller of hidden stories of children at risk. The novel even has a touch of romance.

    What do you think? Knock-off or inspired update?

    A Tale of Two Sisters

    19167656More Austen-inspired fiction from Katherine Reay. I don’t know if the bones of this novel emerged from another classic, such as with Dear Mr Knightley; I somehow hope not. But either way, I was captivated by this story of two sisters. Their mother died of cancer a decade or so previously, splitting the sisters and their father, with Lizzy moving to New York City and Jane staying on the West Coast. Lizzy poured herself into her chef career while Jane – ten years older – took the marriage/family/work balancing act route. But when Jane is diagnosed with breast cancer, Elizabeth loses her cooking genius. She realizes she needs to go back to Seattle and Portland and reconnect with her sister – and all that she ran from.

    Strong, evocative writing; I especially enjoyed delving into the sisters’ relationship – how can two different people with so much history become friends? How can they come to understand the other enough to forgive – and in the process, find out more of who they are and who they have been created to be? The novel addresses bigger questions of what are we living for; what fuels our passion; how can we love and live with those closest to us without scratching their eyes out on the one hand or distancing ourselves emotionally on the other.

    I figured out how the novel would end, but that didn’t put me off enjoying it. One to read with a cuppa.

    Dear Mr. Knightley, Katherine Reay (Thomas Nelson, ISBN 978-1401689681) and Lizzy & Jane: A Novel, Katherine Reay (Thomas Nelson, 978-1401689735)

  • Review: One Thousand Gifts

    I reviewed One Thousand Gifts at the end of 2011 in the Woman Alive Book Club that I run. But with it being US Thanksgiving tomorrow, it seems an appropriate time to post my review here. Enjoy – and be thankful.

    null.jpg_11684Ann Voskamp seemed to have it all – a loving husband, six strapping children to raise and educate, a farm in which to live the rural dream. But her discontent ran deep: “I look in the mirror, and if I’m fearlessly blunt – what I have, who I am, where I am, how I am, what I’ve got – this simply isn’t enough.” However, she started stepping into a nourishing new way of living through a simple dare emailed to her by a friend: “Can you name a thousand things you love?” And this list-making mother/writer/homeschooler started a new list: “1. Morning shadows across the old floors; 2. Jam piled high on the toast; 3. Cry of blue jay from high in the spruce.” Her life has never been the same.

    Through the act of naming things for which she is thankful, Ann started to see God’s handiwork where before it was hidden. As she says, “This writing it down – it is sort of like … unwrapping love.” Where as previously she felt anxious, weary and tired, now she was feeling joy: “I can hardly believe how it [makes me happy], that running stream of consciousness, river I drink from and I’m quenched in, a surging stream of grace and it’s wild how it sweeps me away.” A new habit is born through the glimpses of graces throughout the day. A new habit that shapes her soul, reorienting it back to God. Moving from clenched hands to open, cupped hands, ready to receive.

    Many friends had recommended Ann’s book before I got a copy. The day it arrived I read the first chapter through a veil of tears, being moved by her account of the death of her toddler sister when she herself was just four. But other books got in the way and several months passed before I read it on holiday in Ireland. The amazing rugged beauty of my surroundings provided a stunning backdrop for the beauty of Ann’s prose. Her writing calls forward striking images from the earthy setting of farm life. Spiritual truths are grounded in the stuff of life – making them all the more compelling.

    As an editor I couldn’t help notice the times she flouts some of the rules of grammar – and gets away with it. Such as with adverbs: “…feel my pulse quicken fierce” or “…the sun rolls across wheat warm.” Her unusual usage made me slow down and ponder her word pictures.

    One to read and reread slowly, for the spiritual truths she unpacks are deep and potent – namely, that to live fully in God’s kingdom, we must give thanks. And so on holiday I too started a list of thanks: “1. Sound of waves lapping on the lakeshore; 2. Fluffy clouds kissing the tops of mountains; 3. Irish soda bread…”

    One Thousand Gifts: A Dare to Live Fully Right Where You Are, Ann Voskamp (Zondervan, ISBN978-0310321910, £10.99)

  • Review – Journey Into God’s Heart

    My version of Throwback Thursday is the very first book I featured in the Woman Alive book club, in July 2006! Back then I even wrote out discussion questions for each book – a labor of love. 

    Jennifer Rees Larcombe is a beloved figure in the Christian world. The daughter of well-known evangelists, she came to fame in the 1980s when she was dramatically healed following eight years confined to a wheelchair. She has told her story previously in several volumes, but this book brings the pieces together over her sixty years and is a deeper exploration of her journey into God’s heart.

    isbn9780340861578-detailJennifer’s life has not been easy, but it has been rich and glorifying to God. In just her early years, for example, she struggled with dyslexia, self-image problems and an eating disorder. After bearing her six children she had her years in a wheelchair and then the dramatic healing. And in her later years she has experienced tragedy and betrayal. But through it all she has never given up on God, nor lost her sense of humour. She may have cried out to him in gut-wrenching pain and endured periods of silence, but he has been her lifeline. In witnessing this real and gritty relationship, my faith was built up.

    Her book has so many topics to discuss – forgiveness, healing, the charismatic movement, intimacy with God, the power of prayer, being versus doing, spiritual warfare, self-hatred and self-acceptance, living in God’s presence and so on.

    Discussion Questions

    Here are some questions to get you thinking, responding and engaging:

    • What were your favourite parts of the book? Which episodes stand out most in your memory? How did you relate to Jennifer as you were reading? What have you taken away from her life story?
    • Early in her life, Jennifer made several vows. Positively, she vowed to know God intimately and journey deep into his heart (p. 10), but negatively, she vowed never to get angry (p. 33) and always to be ‘very very good’ (p. 47). How did these vows shape her life? How and when did she become conscious of them? What did she do to break the negative vows?
    • The journey into God’s heart for Jennifer has been filled not only with moments of joy and peace but also with times of pain, hurt and loneliness. In fact, she says in the first chapter (p. 12) that if she had known how hard the journey would be, she’s not sure she would have dared to make the vow. But she realizes that when our hearts are open by grief and loss we are most able to receive God’s love. Have you found this to be true? When have you felt closest to God?
    • Jen’s journey has also involved a lot of forgiveness – from Miss Mitchell to her parents to Tony. Some of her most painful memories were buried but were still affecting her daily life. Were you surprised that Jen needed to ask Miss Mitchell for forgiveness? And what do you think about her ‘stages of forgiveness’ (see pp. 58ff)? Does it make you think of old grudges you’re bearing or people you need to forgive?
    • After Jen’s amazing healing she faced many changes (see p. 204). Which ones were unexpected? Which ones were good, but hard? What losses did she face in becoming able-bodied?
    • A recurring theme in Jennifer’s book is the battle between her ‘Mary’ and ‘Martha’ sides – keeping a balance between being and doing (see for example pp. 116, 177 and 228). Discuss how she has coped with this tension over the years, and when and why one side dominated over the other. Is this a struggle you share?
    • At key turning points in Jennifer’s life she has sensed that the Lord has set before her some kind of choice (see pp. 140, 185 and 244). In each instance how did she react? What does the offering of these choices say about the character of God?
    • In chapter 10 Jennifer describes the heartbreaking collapse of her thirty-year marriage. Instead of making conjectures about what happened, recount how the Lord has become her husband and how her intimacy with him has deepened.

    jen_largeMy View

    I loved this book, and was deeply moved at so many points while reading it. Jen was brave to chronicle the hard bits in her life story as well as the glorious ones, for so often we can relate more closely to the times in the valleys than the mountaintop experiences. As with the other readers, I too struggled with the breakup of her marriage and wished it could have turned out differently. To be honest, I was angry on her behalf. But it was wonderful to see how God has used this painful experience in her life, drawing her closer to his heart.

    So good is this book that I’ll keep my underlined copy and in a few years read it again – not something I can say for all of the books I come across in my publishing work. Jen, we send our love and say thank you for your honesty!

    Journey Into God’s Heart by Jennifer Rees Larcombe (Hodder & Stoughton, ISBN 0340861576)

  • Review – A Place of Healing by Joni Eareckson Tada

    765320_w185When Joni was seventeen, she became paralyzed after a diving accident. The story of her accident and recovery became a bestselling book and film in the eighties, and she has been a disability advocate for decades. She has also written over thirty-five books, the latest of which concerns healing.

    Why does God heal? Why not? Will he heal if we have enough faith? This latter question is one that has been put to Joni by well-intentioned but misguided people, who have told her that she simply needs more faith to be healed. Her response is gracious but unwavering: “God reserves the right to heal or not … as He sees fit” (p. 41).

    Healing is something that Joni desperately longs for – although the healing that she has sought in recent years is freedom from chronic pain, and not so much a miraculous return to able-bodied movement. The pain can be unrelenting; for example, it can take over two hours each morning to get her stiffened body ready for the day. Here is one who writes with authority; healing is not an academic subject to her.

    She always points us back to God and his deep love for us. We don’t understand why he heals some and doesn’t heal others, but it’s up to him. I agree with her that God allowed and permitted her accident, but I struggle to affirm that “it was all planned long ago, and God brought it about in His perfect faithfulness” (p. 197). God allowed the accident, but is she here saying that he caused it (because he planned it)? On this side of heaven I don’t think any of us will decipher the mystery between what God allows and what he wills, so here I am content to take a slightly different position than Joni.

    Having endured forty years in a wheelchair, and now chronic pain and breast cancer, Joni is a trustworthy guide into the hard questions about healing. As she says, “Sharing about suffering is like giving a blood transfusion … infusing powerful, life-transforming truths into the spiritual veins of another.” Joni does this through her hard-fought words, penned during a battle with pain and weariness that not many of us will have to suffer. Through it all, she points to God’s sufficient love and grace, showing how God can redeem our pain. “But the beauty of being stripped down to the basics, sandblasted until we reach a place where we feel empty and helpless, is that God can fill us up with Himself. When pride and pettiness have been removed, God can fill us with ‘Christ in you, the hope of glory’” (p. 87).

    One to read and re-read, and to recommend to those dealing with suffering and pain.

    A Place of Healing: Wrestling with the Mysteries of Suffering, Pain, and God’s Sovereignty b;y Joni Eareckson Tada (David C Cook, ISBN978-1434702067)

     

  • Review – sensitive memoir on mothering

    In my years of running the Woman Alive book club, I’ve shied away from books on mothers, knowing that it can be a painful subject. But (writing to women here) whether or not we are mothers, we are all daughters (and yes, I know that too can be wrought with pain); not least, we’re daughters of the King. And this Father loves us mind-blowingly and unendingly.

    Motherhood CoverSo this spring in the book club I highlighted a sensitively written memoir that doesn’t fit the usual book on mothering – those “how to be the perfect mother in five easy steps” kind of books. Rather this story traces the author’s healing from the negative vows she made as a young woman when members of her fundamentalist church told her that the only reason for being a woman was to procreate. To be a mother. She, bereft of a mother, vowed never to become one.

    But she married and slowly, slowly, the love of her man and her God softened her heart and opened her up to life. Three children later, she shares the journey from her childhood home in South Africa to their posting in Ukraine and finally to the Midwest and East Coast of America, where they landed as a family.

    Lisa-Jo weaves her memories of growing up in the stark beauty of South Africa with the experiences of raising feisty boys and then a girl who helped her reconcile her feelings about being a daughter, and a mother. She writes as a citizen of the world; this is not an insular or American-centred book. So much of it is thought-provoking and moving. For instance, I loved learning about her prayer project with her mother-in-law about how to parent a child with a strong temper. She writes of her mother-in-law: “She reminded me that children are born of the Spirit as much as their parents’ DNA, and perhaps that’s where we should focus” (p.124).

    Does mothering make you want to celebrate? Leave you with unresolved feelings? Whatever your reaction, we can ask the Lord to set us in a place of life and fruitfulness while praying for those mothers close to us, whether by geography or heartstrings.

  • Interview with Anne Graham Lotz – Wounded by the Church

    God gives me strength and stamina every day. Over the recent months, my husband has had two bouts of pneumonia by aspiration; it’s exactly what my daddy has had. Danny is out of the hospital now, but has home healthcare and a team of friends to help. I don’t feel rested or refreshed, but I’m in good health. And God gives me droplets of blessings; words from his Word.

    Anne Graham Lotz High ResThis has made me think of Moses asking to see God’s glory (in Exodus 33). God puts him in the crest of the rock and has his hand on him. And then God removes his hand. So in a very hard place, Moses feels abandoned. And then God passes by, but Moses only sees the backside of it.

    God has put me in a hard place, and at times I don’t feel his presence at all, but I can look back on yesterday, or last week, or the hospitalization – the two months Danny was in hospital and rehabilitation – and I can see how God has brought us the right doctors and nurses, and how he’s taught me so much. Like Moses I see God’s character and his faithfulness; his goodness and strength. Faith doesn’t go on feelings; faith is rooted in the word of God.

    I didn’t intend to write Wounded by God’s People so personally. When I finished The Magnificent Obsession, which is my book on Abraham, the story of Hagar stayed with me. And so I went back and did a Bible study on it, and felt impressed that God wanted me to write on Hagar. I ended up taking four years to write it, going deeper and deeper in my understanding not only of being wounded but being a wounder.

    While I was writing, I was deeply wounded. I waited for about two months to do an act of kindness, because I was so stunned by the wounding. But God clearly popped something very precious into my mind that I could do for her. About a month later I received a perfunctory note on her business letterhead, in which she barely thanked me. But I knew that my act had set me free – I can still be surprised at what she did, but the pain is gone and I live in my forgiveness.

    If you don’t deal with your sin, then you cover it up; you keep blaming; you build a wall. And that’s something I’ve seen since I’ve written Wounded: very few people have the courage to look at themselves and see when it’s their fault. We’re so self-deceived and have such a positive image of ourselves! Some might pray for the Lord to show them their spiritual blindspots, but they do so with one eye squeezed shut while rationalizing their actions.

    I want to learn from people backpedalling and defending themselves, for I want to be wide open and honest before the Lord, so that when I’ve hurt someone I can see it and know it and do my best to set it right.

    If you told me during my year of exile, when I wasn’t attending church, that I had to go back to church, I would have bucked. I wasn’t ready. But when the time was right, my husband and I went back, and it’s been a blessing. There’s a time we need to get out and catch our breath and get a good perspective, but when God sends us back, then we say, “Yes Sir.” Maybe not to the same congregation, but we can be obstinate in our exile if we ignore God’s prompts.

    Pastors and people on staff at church have been devastated by those in their congregations. It’s not just people in the pew. I don’t know what in the world we’re thinking when we treat each other like this – it’s heart-breaking to hear the stories. But I know God can use it. And I know what he’s taught me in the story of Hagar. We can get free of the bitterness, and from being bogged down in the mire of resentment and anger and all those imaginary conversations.

    Wounded UK Cover High ResOne of my friends read Wounded after she caught her husband having an affair. They were working things through in counselling when she asked me whether she had to offer the woman forgiveness. I said no, there are boundaries. You can forgive him – and living with a man who betrayed her, her days are filled with acts of kindness – but not to approach the woman, for she hadn’t acknowledged her wickedness and was still trying to seduce the husband.

    Jesus offers us forgiveness of every and any sin, but we have to confess our sins, saying the same thing about them that he does – we have to be brutally honest. Then we’re forgiven of all that sin and unrighteousness. But there’s only so much he can do when we’re rationalizing and defending. You’re not going to have an intimate relationship with a holy God as long as you’re excusing your sin. The same thing is true with another person.

    Women speaking and praying in church? I make an application from John 20, John and Peter at the empty tomb. You can hear their sandals running out of the garden when Mary Magdalene comes along. She’s weeping and the angel says that Jesus isn’t here, and then she sees a gardener who calls her by name. And it’s Jesus. But Jesus was there all along; he withheld himself from Simon and John, revealing himself first to Mary and then the other women. He instructs Mary to tell the disciples what she’s seen and heard. He wants the women to share their testimony, their encounter with the risen Christ, giving his disciples the instructions to meet him in Galilee. His disciples are a group of men behind locked doors in Jerusalem. Mary goes right back to tell them, but they think she’s a hysterical woman. So they postpone God’s blessing in their lives.

    Jesus makes a poignant lesson that the church seems to have missed – that women can be disciples; that he reveals himself to them in fresh and significant ways; that he himself commissions them to share not only their testimony but also his word. But we have to be careful to let God give us a ministry and not try to make one for ourselves because we want the position or prestige.

    Books I love? Joel Rosenberg’s novels. He’s a converted Jew who writes biblical prophecy in novel form and then it comes true! One of his latest is The Damascus Countdown. He teaches us about the Shiites and Sunnis and the Muslim culture. Another is Tom Doyle, Dreams and Visions. Every chapter tells a different story of a Muslim to whom Jesus just shows up. It seems to be the untold story of tremendous revival in the Middle East. Another is The Forgotten Blessing by a Jewish rabbi who is now a believer, Aaron Fruh, about the blessing that fathers give their children and wives. I know people who put it into practice and what a difference it makes in the home. And I love Davis Bunn’s novels. One of the best was Lion of Babylon. I wrote him to thank him for it, and he wrote back and said, “Anne, did you see it was dedicated to you?” I said no! I had seen an early manuscript, so I bought a copy and there it was! I was very moved by that.

    My interview with the well-known Bible teacher appeared first in Woman Alive in April. With thanks to my friends there for permission to include on my blog.

  • Review – memoirs that chronicle the passions of life

    A good book transports us to another land. Although I love fiction, I’m increasingly moved by the power of narrative nonfiction, especially biography. Through the eyes of another, we experience lands far away, without ever leaving our homes. In so doing, we learn about political and social events that may have passed us by. For instance, Chai Ling’s Heart for Freedom opened to me China around the time of Tiananmen Square.

    0849947561So I offer you a review of two real-life accounts that will enlarge your borders. One that moved me profoundly is Where the Wind Leads, a gripping narrative of a Chinese family living in Vietnam who were forced to leave their business and their home to escape communist oppression. They commissioned an old boat and sought refuge with nearly 300 others, but neighboring countries squawked under the weight of so-called compassion fatigue. The refugees ended up imprisoned on a beach in Malaysia, forced to march from one part of the beach to another, until they were deposited into derelict fishing boats, taken to the middle of the ocean, and left to die.

    The author is Vinh Chung, one of the family’s sons, who recounts the many miracles that eventually brought the family to safety and a new home in Arkansas. He’s a sensitive narrator who explains Asian customs and traditions while detailing his family’s coming to faith in the Creator God, as revealed through Jesus. Through his story he shows the value of family, community, elders, education, perseverance, hope and faith. He also reveals the ugly side of discrimination and racism. One to read, ponder and pass to friends and family.

    9780745956039The other book is Greg Valerio’s Making Trouble, how he fought out of poverty and meaninglessness while creating the first line of fairly traded jewellery in the UK. His story of exposing corruption reveals the dark side of capitalism, when profits are prized more than people or the environment. It’s a David-and-Goliath story of one who couldn’t close his mouth against the wrongs he witnessed – not only the oppression of the workers, but the rape of the land. His model of creating a pure line of jewellery – with completely traceable gold and diamonds – shows how one man with perseverance and vision can effect change.

    The book recounts an important movement for social change, but the narrative slowly lost my attention through the discussions of the unions, trade shows and politics.

    Are you reading memoir? If so, which one, and why?

    Where the Wind Leads: A Refugee Family’s Miraculous Story of Loss, Rescue, and Redemption, Vinh Chung (Thomas Nelson, ISBN 978-0849947561)

    Making Trouble: Fighting for Fair Trade Jewellery, Greg Valerio (Lion, ISBN 978-0745956033)

     

  • Review – two novels of two clergy spouses

    As we head into summer, are you thinking about reading more novels? Here are two that I found satisfying. Both have protagonists who find their identity through staying within what they discerned were God’s boundary lines for their lives (see Psalm 16). Interestingly, both include women married to clergymen, though I hadn’t anticipated that…

    9781782640707I was grabbed by The Vicar’s Wife, which of course is hardly surprising as like the title of the book I’m a VW; like the protagonist I moved from the States to the UK for my English husband; like her I’ve experienced the sense of loss, homelessness, culture shock… and the ways God can use those challenges to shape and mold me. Some of the scenes I felt I had lived, such as feeling like an outsider at the school gate, or the way adjusting to a new culture can seemingly sap all of one’s energy. But you don’t have to be a foreigner or a VW to enjoy this gentle story of two women separated by several decades and how they came to terms with the dramatic changes in their lives. It’s an enjoyable read, and I only wished the role of God and faith hadn’t been quite so buried.

    All for a SongAll for a Song is mainly set in the Roaring Twenties, as remembered in the present day by an octogenarian trapped in her body after a stroke renders her speechless and mostly immobile. Dorothy Lynn Dunbar’s life as a young woman was set out for her – following her father’s untimely death, she would marry the young preacher who came to take his place. She loved Brent Logan, but she also yearned to see the world – and make her music. When she has the opportunity to sing for the groundbreaking evangelist Aimee Semple McPherson, she surprises everyone in her small rural town by following her dream. It’s a moving coming-of-age story, exploring how Dorothy Lynn finds her place in the world, and how she ultimately finds contentment and joy.

    What are you reading? 

    The Vicar’s Wife, Katharine Swartz (Lion, ISBN 978-1782640707)

    All for a Song, Allison Pittman (Tyndale, ISBN 978-1414366807)

  • Review – memoir of life in Afghanistan

    408143_1_ftcI came across this gripping memoir through a review in the Woman Alive Book Club, and was grateful for the recommendation. In the Land of the Blue Burqas tells the stories of an American woman who spent five years in Afghanistan, working for an NGO with the goal of helping Afghan women. She recounts her experiences in a winsome manner; when reading I felt like she was sharing the stories over a cup of tea – even though she used a pseudonym to protect herself and her friends. I could sense her love and respect for the Afghan people she met.

    What struck me most was the hidden world of Afghanistan, namely the world of women. They live behind walls, closed in. In public they walk silently, not making eye contact with men. Nor would any man enter another family’s aouli (family compound) unannounced. If he visited, he would be served in an outer courtyard by a young girl or boy; the woman would have been given time to hide inside. But women move freely from one aouli to another, joining in with the lives of their women neighbours and forming a deep sense of community. The author experienced this strong friendship as she sipped their tea and ate the nuts and treats offered.

    Kate McCord found out that for women, the worst day of their life was when they married. Brides would be young – twelve or thirteen – and the marriages arranged. As one woman said, “My husband is a good man; he only hit me a little at first when we married.” But men said their best day was when they marred their first wife (many have more than one). The author learned more about women in Afghanistan than many men knew.

    I also appreciated how strongly she held to her Christian beliefs, sharing them graciously without forcing them on anyone. She learned the local language and sought to find out about Islam. When issues of faith came up, which was nearly every encounter, she sought a creative way of putting things, often by telling a Bible story that would lead to an unexpected ending. It would blow away the hearer’s preconceptions – if they allowed.

    When the security in her town disintegrated, she was forced to leave. She left her home, fruit trees, dog and the friends she had grown to love. But the stories of these beautiful people she will have as a gift forever.

    Jump into the rickshaw and enter this fascinating world.

    In the Land of the Blue Burqas, Kate McCord (Moody, ISBN 978-0802408143)

  • Review of a quirky memoir

    A year or so ago I read nearly twenty books for a feature article in the Christian publishing trade magazine. That’s a lot of reading, even for a self-confessed bibliophile such as me. In the midst of all those words, the ones that stood out to me were those in Dallas and the Spitfire, the story of an unlikely friendship. Why? Because the author’s unique voice came through so clearly. His writing style is easy and engaging, and his footnotes are a fun place where he lets rip with wisecracks and asides. More importantly, the content is encouraging and thought provoking. For me the only negative was the shameless copying of the typeface/artwork of the similar hit book of a few years ago, Same Kind of Different as Me (although I tried to read that book and didn’t get very far, whereas I lapped up this one).

    dallasSFThe main author here is Ted Kluck, a freelance writer in his mid-thirties who lives in Michigan in the States and inhabits a Christian Reformed subculture. He meets Dallas, a young guy in his early twenties who has experienced more of life than many have who are twice his age. But not all of what he’s lived through has brought life. His father introduced him to drinking at the tender age of eight, and he lost his virginity at ten. He became a hardened drug addict, living a precarious life on the edge, fuelled by the desire and need to fund his habit. His actions led him to jail, and then eventually into a Bible-based rehab program. It was here when he first met Dallas.

    Their friendship is that of father to son, mentor to mentoree, friend to friend. Men seem to communicate best shoulder to shoulder, so their shared project of restoring an old European car gives them the excuse to hang out and do life together. Ted helps Dallas in his first year as a Christian as he navigates the strange waters of a fundamentalist Bible college, survives heartbreak over a romantic relationship, and manages to stay clean and off of drugs. Dallas in turn helps Ted, a neophyte when it comes to car restoration, to bring life to the old British Spitfire. And more than just car repair, he brings joy, hope, and the reminder through his changed life that our God is really able to do more than we could ask or imagine.

    A great read. My eyes admittedly glazed over at all the car descriptions and a few of Ted’s sideabout ramblings, but overall the story of the two’s friendship made for compelling and even compulsive reading.

    Dallas and the Spitfire: An Old Car, An Ex-Con and an Unlikely Friendship, Ted Kluck and Dallas Jahncke (Bethany, ISBN 978-0764209611)