I think all of the Kim Vogel Sawyer’s books I have read thus far occupy a pretty narrow time frame around the late mid-to-late 19th century. I find it really interesting and brave that she journeyed not only into the 20th century but all the way to World War II for Sweet Sanctuary. The setting and [...]

Stealing the Preacher by Karen Witemeyer started a bit slow while the initial plot warmed up and the pieces fell into place for the rest of the book to develop. It isn’t until what felt like at least 1/4 to 1/3 of the book was read that a decided antagonist emerged to add some sort [...]

I have a real problem relating to modern life despite my love of technological advances. I’m not sure why. I think it’s because I spent so many hours in my formative years with my paternal grandmother making biscuits, crafts out of pie plates and fabric scraps, singing old songs, making paste books, and dominating, yes, [...]

Z, a novel of Zelda Fitzgerald by Therese Ann Fowler, manages to feel very real and more like an autobiography than the novelization of Zelda’s life that it is. I have to address something personal here and say that I never liked F. Scott Fitzgerald. I do think I have read and liked a few [...]

As I have read more and more Christian fiction over the past four years, one thing that has begun to grate on my nerves is the large number of books that often use a sensible male character to tame or educate a headstrong, irresponsible woman. When I find an author who avoids such stereotypes and a few [...]

All the Light There Was by Nancy Kricorian offers readers a unique perspective on World War II through the eyes of Maral Pegorian. Maral is an Armenian girl growing up in Paris with two parents and an aunt who survived the Armenian Genocide and sought a new home in France. For this family life revolves around [...]

When I first started reading Christian fiction, I had a really long list of author’s I adored, but over time I have slowly removed names from that list as story lines became repetitive or the writing quality slipped. Julie Klassen is one name that has stayed on the list and had exclamation points added to it for every [...]

During the first half of The House Girl by Tara Conklin, it is easy to feel like Josephine because the reader ends up waiting…waiting for something, anything to happen to really get the story moving. This feeling is brought about for a few different reasons. Josephine is a very interesting character from the start of [...]

When I was in fourth grade, we had to write a book report every month from January to May, and each month had a theme. In January, each person in our class had to pick one of Laura Ingalls Wilder’s books to write about. I chose Little House on the Prairie and wrote my report [...]

Like Google’s Doodle for Feb. 6 focused on Mary Leakey, Tracy Chevalier’s historical novel Remarkable Creatures also focused on a female fossil hunter, Mary Anning. While there are some very basic similarities between the two women, each had truly distinctive careers with multiple groundbreaking discoveries to their name. According to a Berkeley page dedicated to [...]