Readers are tired of seeing these clichés — Every now and then, I get annoyed with a book. Maybe I discover the story is poorly written, bulging with overused clichés, or filled with cardboard-cut-out characters. Every reader has a list of those small things that distract them in the story, the specific clichés or tropes they wish the…

A Review of The Justice Game, a legal thriller by Randy Singer — What if you could accurately predict the outcome of a trial before it ended? Some people make a business of it. Randy Singer’s legal thriller, The Justice Game, introduced me to jury consulting firms which use shadow juries to make such predictions. The firms' clients then use these predictions to make decisions that will affect their bottom lines. But even a shadow jury’s selection…

How a military mom raises four children under eight after her husband dies suddenly and they are forced to move — Suddenly a widow In 1950 Melissa Mather and her husband Bob were living at Fort Monroe in Virginia with their four children in barely adequate housing. The oldest children were eight-year-old twin boys, one of whom would always have the mental abilities of an eighteen-month-old child. That would be Mike. Pat was his…

There is a limit to how much I can suspend my belief Confession: I love reading detective stories and police procedural novels, as long as they aren’t too focused on gore. But sometimes authors distract me when they stretch the feats of the characters beyond what I can believe. I…

Secrets can be dangerous — Father Tom unwillingly returns to the town where his wife was murdered We meet Father Tom beside the baptismal font at Saint Clare’s, his first assignment as a parish priest. He is about to baptize an infant. He was not a priest when he left town shortly after his wife Joan’s funeral 15 years before. He tells us (not the congregation) The…

A book review of ‘The Golden Cup’ by Marcia Millett — Why Choose to Live a Life-Long Lie? Imagine: You’ve been living as a nurse working in India alongside a close friend, Honor. You know civil war may be on the horizon and the civil unrest has started. Honor, her physician husband Huber, and her two young children Bruno and Emma have been planning to go back to…

One accident turned Mia and her husband into strangers instantly — TW/CW: Mental Health Disorders, Suicidal Thoughts, Abuse It Only Takes a Few Seconds To Change a Family’s Life Forever A response review of Always Yours, Bee: From Accident to Affair to the Ever-After by Mia Hayes. Page numbers for all quotes come from this book. Mia Hayes believed that spouses who love each other stay faithful to each other. After her husband’s…

Will your decisions help or hurt those around you and those who follow you in this world? — What you decide today has a ripple effect on world history I’m currently rereading The Tapestry by the late Edith Schaeffer, the wife of the late Francis Schaeffer. Together this couple decided, with God’s guidance, to leave a secure life in the United States and begin the L’Abri ministry in Switzerland. People all over the world who have sought to find…

It may still conceal treasure I haven’t found yet — Back to bookselling In July, I resumed my interrupted side hustle as an online bookseller. It has occupied both mind and body almost fulltime since then. Today my body told me to slow down and put my ambitious plans to finish reorganizing my office on hold until I feel better. …

Eleanor Roosevelt had no idea what had hit her — Most of Shirley Temple’s contemporaries saw her as an innocent child. Most of the time she was. Her mother, Gertrude, and her teacher on the set, Frances Klampt, saw to that. The public adored Shirley. Everyone wanted to meet her — even the President of the United States, Franklin D…

Why did I need to take a reading break just as I reached the most exciting part of a novel when I could have finished it in another hour? The book I was reading was building to its climax I knew that Mary and Lukasz, the two main characters in The Strongman and the Mermaid by Kathleen Shoop, were destined…

What makes me want to promote a book or abandon it before I finish it? — Some books grab my interest from the beginning and encourage me to keep reading. What’s the difference between those and the novels I struggle to finish and feel lukewarm about after reading them? Or the ones I decide aren’t worth finishing at all? …

My to-do list mocks me. I can’t put a good book down. — Where Did Those Six Hours I Had Planned to Write Go? I meant well. I hadn’t read a novel in a month. I’d been on my feet cooking for a couple of hours, preparing the victuals for the week ahead. I was tired. It was quiet in the family room since my husband was on an errand. The light in my…

I normally meet authors at Book Expo or at book signing events. I never would have expected to meet Ray Bradbury at the funeral of my adopted children’s birth grandfather. But I did. It was only after meeting him I decided to finally read The Martian Chronicles. We met at…

Books not only expand our world, but they have substance the media cannot match — If you’re not reading, you’re missing out Have you read a book lately? According to the New York Post, two years ago, 27% of adults said they had not even read part of a book in the past year. That’s over one-fourth of them. …

Only God knows for sure, but C.S. Lewis offers one viewpoint in The Chronicles of Narnia — What is the spiritual fate of those who follow a non-Christian religion? Some of the most frequent questions I hear from non-Christians are What about those who have never heard about Jesus? What about those raised in a culture where another religion is dominant? Is God going to condemn people who never had a chance to believe in Christ?

So many books, so little time to read — Do you reread fiction? I’m always conflicted about keeping fiction I’ve already read on my shelves. Unread books are stacked around me in every room of my house. In addition, I have two kindles holding many other unread books I want to find time for. …

Supportive parents, a stable childhood, and the assurance that God loves and accepts them can help protect children from cults who would prey on them Kidnapped? When I was in fifth grade, I belonged to a private band. The three parents of members who lived in our neighborhood took turns taking…

Some books are like onions — you have to peel off more layers than you expected to find the hidden treasure — I’ve been working for two weeks trying to finish writing a book review for a memoir. The main characters are always travelling and not often together. The plot appears simple at first. A man has a bad accident and suffers a brain injury that’s not immediately apparent. …