Wow. That’s a major book club, don’t you think?

It’s part of the Common Book program that more than 100 universities are starting to participate in. This reminds me of our own community’s Big Read last spring, when we all read To Kill a Mockingbird together. Can you see how a bookish person likes me gets excited about these types of programs?

So, I had Three Cups of Tea on my mind all summer, wondering what’s so great about it that an entire university would be reading it together. Sure, it was a #1 New Times Bestseller for months, but just because it’s selling millions of copies doesn’t mean I’m going to fall in love with it.

But I did. Oh … there is something rich between the covers of this book that reached the core of me. It’s changed the way I view the world. I hope you’ll get a chance to read it, if you haven’t yet. Especially if you’re a woman. Read it, and you’ll understand.

The story begins with Greg Mortenson’s failure to climb the K2 mountain in Pakistan, the second highest mountain in the world. He almost froze to death one night when the porter carrying his heavy backpacks disappeared far ahead. Greg wandered around lost for a while, and ended up in a village called Korphe.

While staying in this village a while to recover his strength, he was overwhelmed by the kindness and generosity of the people. There were children everywhere, and when he asked the elders where these kids go to school, he got some sad looks.

He discovered dozens of children huddled together in the freezing cold scribbling their math equations into the dirt with sticks. From this point on, he vowed that he would someday return to this village and build them a school.

The book is a page turner. He goes from one hard time to another — living out of his car trying to scrape together his own meager living and keep his dream alive. He writes 300 letters on a rented typewriter until some kind soul shows him how to use the “cut and paste” option on a computer, and then he sends out 280 more. At last he finds a person willing to back him up financially so he can build that first school, Dr. Jean Hoerni.

The rest of the book recounts the trials and adventures Mortenson encounters as he builds that first school in Korphe — which leads to launching a whole organization, Central Asia Institute, dedicated to promoting world peace through education. He builds not only schools, but also relationships with people in the war-torn regions of Pakistan and Afghanistan.

As you’re reading, you suddenly get the big picture that schools lead to educated minds who are less likely to be recruited by terrorists, and who are less likely to strap bombs to themselves and blow things up.

You realize books lead to peace. And so Mortenson’s mission becomes your own.

There’s now a Young Reader’s edition, which has full-color pictures and a simplified text. I think this would be a fantastic book for teachers or parents to read out loud. Students can also participate in the Pennies for Peace program.

The title of the book comes from the way in which the people in central Asia conduct business. Mortenson’s mentor, Haji Ali, teaches him:

The first time you share tea with a Balti, you are a stranger. The second time you take tea, you are an honored guest. The third time you share a cup of tea, you become family, and for our family, we are prepared to do anything, even die.

If you have a few minutes, I encourage you to watch this short interview with Greg Mortenson. You’ll be amazed. I can definitely understand why an entire campus will be reading and discussing this book together, and who knows how many new dreams will be launched from this shared experience.

(I’ve heard the story continues, with the 2009 published sequel, Stones into Schools.)

All photos are complements of Central Asia Institute.

When my youngest daughter slipped this book into our library tote, I thought, “Huh? What’s she trying to say to me?” Secretly, I couldn’t wait to read it, and it made its happy way to the top of our reading pile.

Rarely do I review a picture book, out of the hundreds we read every year. But this one was too adorable to keep to myself, and it also struck a deep chord within me.

I wondered how author Kate Feiffer would handle this topic. I think, deep down, many of us mothers worry that maybe something we’ve said or done will mess up our children’s lives. (Do you?)

The narrator begins her story by telling us how wonderful her mom is:

She makes people smile.
She makes people clean.
She gives hungry people food.
She takes people where they need to go, and then she brings them back home again …

After praising her mom a bit, she then poses the question, “If my mom is such a nice mom, why is she trying to ruin my life?”

She expresses five ways her mom is ruining her life, including such horrors as talking too loudly in public and preventing her from having dangerous fun. The narrator begins to hatch a top-secret escape plan that will bring her freedom. Except, in her imagination, the plan ends up with the police putting her mom in jail, which isn’t so great.

In the same way Laura Numeroff’s If You Give a Mouse a Cookie takes readers on a journey of one hilarious event leading to another, Feiffer’s tale becomes more and more outrageous. Next, the little girl’s dad must get involved to help get the mother out of jail, and she goes on to explain several ways her dad is also trying to ruin her life.

But if both her parents end up in jail for trying to ruin her life, who will take care of her? Who will feed her supper and read her bedtime stories?

It was a relief for me to read this book because it brought humor to the delicate situation of how today’s parents feel the need to overprotect. And since it’s told from a child’s point of view, young readers will be able to relate to the character and realize … hey, other kids have to deal with this too.

I sometimes feel jealous of women who raised families 50 years ago, when the world was a much safer place. They could kiss their children goodbye in the morning and let them walk to school, along with a friendly pack of neighborhood kids. They could let their kids explore the town by bike, like Opie in The Andy Griffith Show.

In my hometown, a little girl was murdered a few years ago when she went off by herself riding a bike, and I remember thinking, “I can’t believe it’s become too dangerous to let kids ride bikes these days!” So now all our bike riding is done as a family, with parental supervision. Like the mother in this book, I drive people places and I bring them home because I want to know where they are, who they’re with, and what they’re doing. But it can be exhausting, all the keeping up!

This is a reassuring book for moms (and dads) that what we’re doing is important work, and it’s no small thing to make a little girl feel loved and safe. Diane Goode’s illustrations capture the humor on every page, with enough detail to render multiple readings an enjoyable task. (Goode illustrated another of my all-time favorite picture books, Cynthia Rylant’s When I Was Young in the Mountains.)

After checking out Kate Feiffer’s website, it looks like she and Goode have teamed up to create another humorous picture book, But I Wanted a Baby Brother! I’ll have to add this one to my reading list.

Here’s a cute video where girls explain how their moms embarrass them. I hope it make you smile!

I’ve been browsing through some of my favorite writing books recently, as I’m trying to make the transition from writing nonfiction to fiction. I wanted to share with you one of my favorites, Bird by Bird. If you’ve never read this book, you’re in for a treat!

Below is the review I wrote for Amazon, in 2005:

I absolutely love this book. I wish I could have read it years ago when I was in college, laboring through my English major, taking myself way too seriously. It should be required reading for everyone who is fascinated with words on a page.

It’s the kind of book you keep along beside your dictionary and thesaurus, and whatever else you keep as a reference. It helps just knowing that Anne is there, between the pages, poking fun at you as you agonize over a first draft. You look at her book cover, and you know what she’s thinking, what she’d tell you if she were sitting beside your computer.

“Writing a first draft is very much like watching a Polaroid develop. You can’t — and, in fact, you’re not supposed to — know exactly what the picture is going to look like until it has finished developing,” she writes.

Before I read BIRD BY BIRD, I always had this fear of getting started with a story. Well, I guess I still do, but at least I know Lamott’s take on it. I love research, gathering information and quotes. I love talking to people about what they’re passionate about, people I interview for a story. And the books! And underlined sentences! And articles and papers and poems and scriptures and movies and spilled cups of coffee. Just one more thing, I tell myself. Then I’ll start…

After reading this book, I know it’s okay to feel that way, but the way to write is just to get something on paper. At some point in life, you have to move beyond your private journal to connect with an audience because there’s someone out there who may understand you, and you’ll never know if you don’t try.

Lamott tells her writing students on the first day of class that “good writing is about telling the truth.” She says “an author makes you notice, makes you pay attention, and this is a great gift. My gratitude for good writing is unbounded; I’m grateful for it the way I’m grateful for the ocean. Aren’t you?”

That’s all we can do as writers, is to keep trying to tell our versions of the truth, as we move around in our little worlds surrounded by the Truth.

The title of the book, BIRD BY BIRD, came about from an episode in her brother’s life. He’d put off starting a report on birds, which was due the next day at school. Surrounded by books, paper, pencils, and “immobilized by the hugeness of the task ahead,” her brother had sunk into despair. Then Anne’s father sat down next to him, put his arm around her brother’s shoulder and said, “Bird by bird, buddy. Just take it bird by bird.”

That’s a magnificent philosophy for anything, for life. Take it slowly, one step at a time. I think I could sit here and quote every page of this book, but if you’ll excuse me, I’m going to go start reading it through again.

(Thank you, Lauren, for telling me about it!)

Note: This book does contain profanity, which might be offensive to some readers.

I reviewed this book nearly five years ago on Amazon, and I don’t think I’ve ever posted it here. Teach Your Child to Read in 100 Easy Lessons is still in print, and I noticed it’s garnered 549 reviews, from 1996 to 2010. WOW. I’d call this book a success from both author and publisher standpoint. Many books barely stay in print 3 years, much less garner hundreds of reviews over a 14-year time period.

Educating your child never goes out of style.

I used this method to teach three of my children to read, and I was thinking about pulling it off the shelf this summer just for something fun to do with my five-year-old. I’m a lot more laid back than I was a decade ago. Now I think … what’s the rush?

Parents feel so much pressure to help their kids get an early start in reading … but kids need to be active and healthy more than anything. Let them run, jump, explore, play, dig, swim, touch, slide, kick! I see so many children with eyeglasses now — I’m wondering if all this early reading push might be straining their eyesight. I even saw a commercial recently where a mother was teaching her baby to read before it could even talk. WHY??!!

But if your child is showing signs of reading readiness, here’s a good way to go about the process. So, without further ado, here’s my Amazon review, published in September 2005:

SIMPLIFY YOUR TEACHING; SIMPLIFY YOUR LIFE

I’m using this book to teach my third child how to read, so I think it’s high time I wrote a review of it. Parents, this is the only book you need to get started on the most important skill they’ll ever learn. And YOU can be the one to teach them!

There are lots of fancy-schmancy phonics programs with bells and whistles — and games and prizes and treasure chests and eight million little stickers and tiny books to keep up with. If you like all that, and need all that, then more power to you. I can barely keep up with everything else I have going on, much less a complicated method of teaching my child to read.

Simplify your life, and just get started. For less than 20 bucks, you’ll have your child well on his or her way to reading.

OK, the title is a little misleading. It’s not EASY, by any means. Especially if you have an active four-year-old boy. Let him do his lessons standing up, lying on the floor, jumping up and down the stairs, out in the yard — he’s active, and let his gross motor skills be used while he’s learning. It takes 10 minutes of super-focusing — but in between the different parts of each lesson, let your child move around. You want him to love reading!

Also, don’t feel like you have to do the writing task of each lesson. My girls love to write, so this was fun for them. But I skipped it with my son until he was more ready to hold a pencil. Actually, we did some lessons out in the driveway, with a fat piece of chalk. He had a great time and usually ended up drawing a whole train system or town after we finished his lesson.

It works. It really does. And it’s amazing to be sitting next to your child the first time they learn to read the word, “see.” Or “mom.” (“Mom! I just read the word ‘mom!’” they’ll say.) It’s something you’ll always remember doing together.

You don’t have to be a reading teacher. You don’t need any special skills or experience. You read the script in red print. You stay on task. And you finish the lesson. Then you praise your child and tell her how smart and wonderful she is!

With each of my kids, we made a VERY SIMPLE chart that had 100 squares on it. I just used a ruler and made some lines and put numbers in them — didn’t even use the computer. It took 5 minutes. Then, after we did a lesson, I let the child put a sticker over the number. Any kind of sticker. All those hodge-podge sheets of stickers you end up with — they work great for a reading chart.

I let each child pick a reward they wanted to receive when they finished all 100 of the lessons. That gave them great incentive to get through the whole book.

For extra practice, I recommend the Bob books, which you can see listed on this site. Kids love these books — they’re adorable. Scholastic makes a good set of beginner readers as well. But you don’t need anything else besides this one book — the little Bob readers can just help reinforce.

As a busy parent, this is one of the most enjoyable things you’ll ever do with your child. But don’t feel like you have to rush — do a few lessons, and if you need to take a break, then do. I highly recommend Raymond and Dorothy Moore’s BETTER LATE THAN EARLY if you’re the type to freak out that your three-year-old can’t write his ABC’s. Too many parents push their children and ruin their eyesight at a young age.

Have fun watching the light go on!

If you enjoy keeping up with current book news, I’ve compiled a short list of good sites that offer reviews.

Please feel free to add your site or blog to the comments if you frequently review Christian books or other types of inspirational media.

All of the following sites are ones I highly recommend:

Active Christian Media
Books for Moms
CBA Marketplace
Christian Book Previews
Christian Children’s Book Review
Christian Fiction Blog Alliance
Christian Women Online
Faithful Reader
Kidsread
The Midwest Book Review
Novel Journey
Novel Reviews
Publishers Weekly
The Parrot’s Perch
The Writing Life
Title Trakk

I wish you all a safe and happy summer, filled with joy — and great books! Let’s get back in touch in the fall.

Blessings,
Heather

I found a great chart on this website that shows public domain copyright law. In the U.S., anything published before 1923 is considered public domain. As bloggers, we need to be aware of copyright law and not publish anything that we need permission to publish.

For example, I’ve noticed some bloggers publishing whole poems or devotionals written by other people after 1923. We can’t be doing this — even if we link to it.

We can quote a few lines, if we’re doing it for review purposes, but we can’t just snag someone’s great poem and post it on our site without permission. The author should be compensated (paid) if the work is under copyright — and anything written after 1978 is under copyright automatically.

As writers, this is a risk we take when posting online — anyone can steal your work as well. If you’d like to write a book someday, be careful what you post online. Some publishers don’t want to buy work that’s already been seen online, even if you only have a small blog readership. What if your work has already been cut and pasted on a bunch of other sites? This could lead to legal problems down the road for your publisher — if someone else claims your work as their own.

Book contracts are getting so complicated these days — and many publishers now want to buy electronic rights to your work. Yet how can you offer them electronic rights if your work has already been published online?

I’ve learned a lot of this from more experienced writers in my writing group — and some of them have had to play the meanie when they’ve found other sites cut and pasting their work without permission.

Just be careful. If you’ve got a great story, think about how you’d feel seeing that story show up on another site under someone else’s name. It might be better to save it and send it to a print publication first … where you’ll always have proof that it belongs to you. (For help with writing markets, check out Sally Stuart’s Christian Writers’ Market Guide).

This chart, When U.S. Works Pass Into the Public Domain, was prepared by Lolly Gasaway of the University of North Carolina. If you’re a serious writer, it’s definitely worth your time to educate yourself on copyright law.

If anyone knows a link to a site about Canadian copyright law or other countries, I’d love to learn more about this.

Julie Caraboni’s debut novel, Chocolate Beach, is the perfect companion if you’re in the mood to relax and enjoy the spring weather.

Here’s what the back cover says:

Bri Stone has it all: the man of her dreams and their surf-ridin’ teenage son, a chocolate-loving best pal, an adorable beach bungalow, and a kicky job as a Southern California tour bus host.

She also has a few things she didn’t ask for: a know-it-all friend, a snobby mother-in-law, and a Fabio-meets-Dilbert boss. All three of them seem eager to share their strong opinions and suspicions about Bri’s relationship with her husband, Douglas.

When Bri’s rose-colored glasses crack after she finds evidence that Douglas has grown tired of her carefree ways, she resolves to win him back. Can Bri reinvent herself — and recapture his heart?

I enjoyed this book — it was fun to imagine what life would be like living by the beach, as the author does, in Ventura, California. You can read my review of it here. (It’s published by Bethany House.)

If you’d like to enter a drawing to win a free copy, here’s the million-dollar question:

What’s your favorite kind of chocolate?

I’m so curious — do any of you have particular types that are extra special or hard to find? I’ve been craving the dark chocolate Hershey bars with almonds lately. I know — they’re full of sugar and calories — but I figure the darker the chocolate, the more antioxidants (at least it sounds good!), and almonds have protein, right?

How about you?

If you leave a comment, I’ll draw a winner on Friday, March 30 and send the book out to you in time for you to enjoy it in April!

Let’s talk chocolate!

In the spring of 2005, I started reviewing books for Amazon. It was a little scary — hee hee. Even scarier was the fact that people could vote whether or not my review was helpful. But I discovered I liked reviewing books. Who knew this would become such a passion?

I spent some time at Amazon last week importing my CWO Book Buzz reviews, and I read through some of my old ones. Have I ever mentioned Allen Say’s book, Grandfather’s Journey, here? I don’t think I have.

If you’ve never read anything by Allen Say, you’re in for a treat. Oh, I love his books! Your library probably has dozens in the picture book section — they’re the ones with gold medals on the front.

I distinctly remember the moment I finished this book for the first time. I got up from the couch and went and grabbed my journal and started writing a poem about Japan, having trouble focusing on the page through my tears. It was an awakening for me — and after that, I started entering (and losing) writing contests, as well as submitting (and having rejected) my writing.

In a desperate moment, I wrote Mr. Say a bona-fide fan letter through his publisher, Houghton Mifflin, and he wrote me back! I told him I felt like I wanted to write about Japan but didn’t know how. He said to just write-write-write. Fiction, non-fiction, poems, whatever. I’m still trying to figure out what I’m supposed to do — so for now, I blog.

Here’s my review of Grandfather’s Journey (copied from Amazon):

I was curious about GRANDFATHER’S JOURNEY because our local library had several copies on the shelf, and I always enjoy discovering what makes a book an award winner. Mr. Say’s book won the 1994 Caldecott Medal, the same year Lois Lowry received the Newbery for her book, THE GIVER.

It’s an understatement to say this is one of the most beautiful children’s books ever written. Mr. Say gently describes his grandfather’s youthful journey from Japan to America. On his three-week steamship voyage, he is astonished by the vastness of the Pacific Ocean. After embarking, he explores by train the western landscapes of enormous rock formations and endless farm fields.

During his travels, he meets people of different color, certainly a new sight for him. Say writes, “The more he traveled, the more he longed to see new places…” Eventually, his grandfather settles along the coast of California after briefly returning to Japan to marry his childhood sweetheart.

The couple have a daughter, whom we later learn is Say’s mother, the subject of another stunning picture book, TEA WITH MILK. In time, the grandfather begins to miss Japan, and he decides to return to his homeland, along with his wife and grown daughter.

Say’s watercolor artistry is fantastic, as his skilled brush gracefully ages each character in the book. As a parent, I imagined my own children growing up, and realized how brief is the time we call childhood. The story continues, with the grandfather’s heart truly in two places, America and Japan.

Anyone who has ever traveled abroad can relate to this experience. As I read his book, I wept, because I too have lived in Japan, and part of my heart will always remain overseas. Since this initial reading, I’ve bought several of Say’s picture books, and they have become family favorites.

The greatest literature reaches beyond its pages and connects to the hearts of its readers. Through his timeless words and portraits, Allen Say has clearly accomplished this task.

Do you love watching movies? I rarely get out to the theater to see a new release, but I love renting DVDs and enjoying some microwave popcorn and a good movie by the fire at home.

Still, it’s hard to know what’s good out there — and that’s why I love the list of movies in the back of Sharon Hinck’s newest mom-lit novel, Renovating Becky Miller.

I enjoyed reading the first book in this series, The Secret Life of Becky Miller, because Becky is so much like me — a mom struggling to find balance in her busy life as a wife, mother, and friend. All the while, she’s seeking to find out if she’s supposed to be doing Big Things for God.

Sharon’s second novel is even more adorable — full of laugh-out loud scenes, and each chapter begins with Becky slipping into a daydream where she’s starring in one of the movies she and her husband rent on date nights. There are 33 movies listed in the back, and I’ve only seen about half of them — so I’m looking forward to renting some more!

Today, I’m thrilled to host Sharon Hinck on her round-the-world Blog Tour — especially since today is the official launch party of Renovating Becky Miller in Sharon’s hometown, Minnesota.

Welcome to Mom 2 Mom Connection, Sharon!

Thank you for writing a book that highlights the importance of being a normal, permission-slip-signing MOM.

THANKS, Heather! I wanted to highlight the true ADVENTURE it is to be a wife and mom. We really are heroic characters (or in my case, sometimes just a character!).

I loved reading about all the movies in this book!

I kept my local movie store in business this past year while I was writing it. I got to watch a ton of movies and call it “research”. Ha!

In your new novel, Renovating Becky Miller, our heroine finds herself dealing with an enormous amount of stress in her life. What all does Becky have going on in this book?

She faces external pressures (her mother-in-law’s health crisis and need for care, her job stresses, her son’s behavior problems, her friend’s illness), internal pressures (feeling overwhelmed and inadequate, comparing herself to others and coming up short, confused about choices), and some fall-out from decisions she’s made that might not have been well-thought out (like thinking it would be easy to fix an run-down house).

In my life, I often find that problems come from a variety of directions and I wanted to explore a woman sorting that all out. Which are tasks God wants me to take up and persevere under? Which are self-imposed burdens that aren’t mine to bear? Which tensions have been caused by my own mistakes?

Like me, Becky wrestles with those complicated questions — and tries to keep her sense of humor along the way.

Does Becky have a place where she can unwind from all the stress? What role do her friends play?

Throughout the story, she finds grace and clarity through her prayer life, her Bible reading, and her worship life. However, it’s easiest for her to apply those blessings wrapped in the arms of her friends.

They badger her, they confront her, they cry with her, they love her. Her small group Bible study friends provide the kind of community that I think God is describing when He talks about building up a household of faith.

At one point in the book, Becky has a choice to make — will she continue to pour more hours into her career, or say no? I was amazed at her choice. Do you think women today have a hard time saying no?

In our desire to make a difference, to feel valuable, and to please others, to fix the problems we see around us singlehandedly, we often rev up into a high gear of activities. We see our friends doing the same — and some strange competitive urge stirs and we perpetuate that Supermom syndrome.

My adult son read this novel (I know…if that’s not an act of love, I don’t what is!) and said his favorite subplot was the way that Becky’s choice set an example for her very driven co-worker — and enabled Teresa to open her life to something new.

Yes, I loved that part as well. It made me see how the decisions we make have ripple effects on others — in good or bad ways. And in this case, Becky’s choice reminded her coworker of what the most important things in life really are.

The funny parts of the book center around Becky and her husband’s decision to renovate an old farmhouse. Can you tell us more about that?

My husband and I are optimistic do-it-your-selfers. We’ve done major remodels to three different homes over the years. Each time we forget that things will take three times longer and cost three times as much as we anticipate.

Our first little house gradually revealed secrets of Stephen King proportions – from the fleas infesting every square inch, to the rotting wall behind the tub surround, to the urine-soaked wood floors, to the chicken bones in the clothes dryer. (We never did figure that one out. Who puts chickens in a clothes dryer?) So I had plenty of vivid memories to draw from in the whole wild stress of renovation.

Chicken bones in the dryer? Now there’s a new one! From the title, it seems like Becky gets a little renovation work done on herself as well. What kind of “home improvements” take place in Becky’s heart?

In spite of Becky’s desire to be “Ms. Fix-it”, she learns that healing people’s wounds is a God-sized job and takes more than spackle and paint. Becky begins to learn to love and serve where she’s placed, but leave the “fixing” up to God …. well, at least some of the time.

We all need some friends we can be honest with — who can encourage us during the hard times.

Thanks so much for stopping in, Sharon! I hope your launch party goes well today.

Thanks SO much for inviting me. Yes — today a local Christian bookstore is launching the book with a party, including a guessing game (where folks will hear a snippet of Becky’s opening daydreams and try to guess which movie inspired them) and lots of Becky Miller gifts.

Here’s a picture of the Renovating Becky Miller paintbucket I created — full of the little “Becky Miller tool kits” that folks are getting at the party.

I wish I could be there — looks like a fun place for movie fans!

Sharon Hinck is a wife and mother of four children who generously provide her with material for her books. She has served as the artistic director of a Christian performing arts group, a church youth worker, and a professional choreographer. You can visit her website to learn more about her books, including her forthcoming Sword of Lyric series from NavPress.

Our family seemed to drag through January — trying to recover from the stress of the holidays — then sliding into nearly a month of being off-and-on sick.

I’ve been almost confined to my home, wiping noses and checking thermometers — instead of relaxing with friends at church. I’ve missed my beloved women’s Bible study so much.

A friend who has also been home week after week with three sick preschoolers confided to me recently, “I hate to say this, but it’s almost like being in jail. I just can’t get out of the house!”

Yet I’m reminded by this encouraging post, It Gets Easier, that one day it will get easier! Maybe in a few years, I’ll be TEACHING a women’s Bible study — instead of straggling in worn out and late, if at all. But for now, this seems to be my writing season.

I’ve also been busy reading books lately — and you can see what I’ve had on my nightstand in this month’s CWO Book Buzz. It’s truly amazing how God ministers to me through each book I read — whether it’s fiction or non-fiction, I’m having a ball!

I learned to read fast in college. I was an English major, and I filled up my schedule with as many literature and writing classes as possible. But still, my daily routine now is nothing like in those days of being single — I have to snatch my reading in snippets here and there. I’ll confess that I’ve cut WAY down on my blog reading — and I’ve had to adjust to the feeling that I’m missing out on the “news.”

In this month’s column, I reviewed seven books — chosen from over two dozen that were sent to me. I also receive emails nearly every day from people requesting that I review their books — and I hate having to tell people “no,” but I really don’t want to waste their postage and time if I don’t think the book would be inspirational for CWO readers.

I’m already hard at work on next month’s column. Behind the scenes, I’m working on setting up an interview with a fantastic woman — I just finished reading her book, and I’m dying to ask her some questions. How fun that I get to do this and share it with so many people!

This month’s issue focuses on love, appropriately, and Darlene has a great interview with Robin Lee Hatcher, author of over 50 books.

I enjoyed reading Robin’s Christmas novel last year — I happened to leave a comment in Gina’s Novel Journey blog, which entered me in a contest to win, A Carol for Christmas. The book arrived, signed by the author, a day before my December deadline, so I flew through it. I love Robin’s writing — she’s a joy! And you can enter this month’s book draw to win one of Robin’s novels, Ribbon of Years or Firstborn.

In Darlene’s Letter from the Editor, she writes:

With all this talk about love, I couldn’t help but focus on Jesus Christ — after all, both His life and death were a gift of love. A love that brought Him to the cross so that His Father’s will would be complete. A love that, even though He was God, drew Him to lower himself to the form of a man. A love that powered this “man” to live a life without sin so that He would be the spotless sacrifice for the One True God. A love that although He prayed asking that the cup of suffering be taken from Him, led to His death. An incomparable love.

Yes, I agree. An incomparable love.