End of the Spear

This is the latest book I read. It is the first book that some friends and coworkers are reading for the book club that I am starting. Last February I saw the movie. The book has a different feel than the movie. It starts out in the 1990's and goes back and forth from about ten years ago to the time when Saint was a boy. The book focuses a lot more on the more recent past than the movie ever did, and I would say the book and the movie are not extremely similar. If you have already watched the movie, I think that you might still enjoy the book. If you read the book first, you will understand the movie much better.

A Song I Knew by Heart

I had not heard of Bret Lott until I saw this book mentioned at the end of another novel I read. The book has characters named Naomi and Ruth (with husbands Eli and Mahlon) to remind us of the story from the book of Ruth in the Bible. It had a slow beginning...I was on page 50 or so and decided that I would read to page 100 before choosing whether I would finish it. I don't know if I would recommend this book to others, as it had a lot of description and a lot of introspection by the main character. The main character, Naomi, is struggling with forgiveness...not having to forgive another person as much as having to forgive herself. She also cannot fathom the forgiveness given to her by another person. The end of the book (the last 50 pages of 300) were the best. One of my favorite lines in the book was "To live was to receive love, and to give it away."
Another focus of the book was the importance of extended family. Sometimes family can really fill a need that you have to belong somewhere, and family can come through, though imperfectly, in difficult times.
I don't know if I will read other books by Bret Lott, but this could be a good book for a book discussion group if they wanted to talk about things like family, grief, and forgiveness.

a resolution

well, I am not always good at sticking with something, but I figured that a resolution is better than not trying. Last year I read 68 books. So this year, in addition to reading library books, I am trying to read through the Bible. If I can find time to read that many books, I can hopefully read through the Bible. I started thinking about it because the leadership at my church decided to purchase a bunch of one year Bibles and encourage the congregation to get one and read through the Bible. I didn't get a one year Bible cause I figure I don't need another one...I have a handful...so I just started in Genesis and am reading some each day. And the things that they did back then are not much different than today. Abraham tried to create a family by sleeping with his wife's servant. Jacob tricked his father to get a blessing (with the help of his mother). Jacob was then tricked by Laban because Laban wanted Leah to be married because she was the older daughter. Then all the trouble with Jacob's children is almost too much to figure out. Doesn't sound much diffferent than all the stuff that happens today. Yet God chose to use these people to be remembered in His Word. I guess I can hope that somehow reading it is going to help me it understand God better.

Ever After

I just finished reading Ever After by Karen Kingsbury. It makes you think a lot about why we have troops in Iraq and other countries. It also made me realize how much having troops in Iraq affects so many lives. I stayed up late to finish this book that made me cry. So if you don't have anything else to do and want to read something that makes you cry, go pick up a copy of Ever After and start reading.