Redeeming Love by Francine Rivers

It's true that Christian fiction as I knew it growing up was a bit on the, well, I'll just say it - cheesy side. And, really, while it's not all bad, it can feel a little hokey. Do you know what I'm saying or am I totally offending you right now? Francine Rivers has found a way to marry the truth and beauty of the love of our Heavenly Father with some real-life issues and believable characters.
Redeeming Love is based on the Biblical book of Hosea, focusing on the life of Angel, a prostitute in California during the Gold Rush. Snapshots of Angel's heartbreaking past are given throughout the book, making it obvious why her profession and subsequent bitterness and hopelessness are inseperable to her view of herself. Enter into her life Michael Hosea, a kind, honest, God-honoring farmer. Following what he believes to be God's prompting, he brings a reluctant (to put it mildly) Angel home to be his wife. What follows are a tangled web of emotions that result as Michael attempts to break through Angel's defenses and share his love and the love of the God he faithfully and joyfully serves. Angel cannot see herself or him any other way than through the lens of her past experiences, starting from her childhood, and she cannot/will not accept that she could be in any way lovable. Several times she leaves Michael to return to her former lifestyle, believing that is all she is capable of. Eventually he begins to break through her defenses but until the Father can capture her heart, she cannot fully heal and commit her heart to her husband.
I found myself angry and frustrated with Angel for her stubbornness, in tears for her pain-ravaged past and present, amazed anew at the love of God as He works always to draw even the most destitute of us to Himself.
BOTTOM LINE: A TRUE love story

Home Game by Michael Lewis

Contrary to what you may believe glancing at this blog, I have not, in fact, stopped reading. Quite the opposite. I feel like somehow this summer has afforded me time to voraciously devour some pretty stellar material (and some pretty brainless, summer-appropriate material as well). A recent read was Home Game:An Accidental Guide to Fatherhood by Michael Lewis. In this hilarious, self-deprecating memoir-of-sorts Lewis chronicles his adventures in fathering throughout the first year of each of his three children's lives. While he originally journaled the included accounts of his offspring and their foibles in order not to lose their memory amidst sleep-deprivation, he also ends up using the book to grapple with the constantly-shifting role of fathers in family and society in this day and age. If you happen to be a woman and take Lewis too seriously you may find yourself offended by his wistful longing for the days of yore when fathers affected a "detached amusement" (at best) regarding their offspring and didn't, as a generally accepted rule, jump in and do the dirty work (quoting his father: "I didn't even talk to you until you were 21!"). Through his openness regarding his moments of poor judgment, confusion, and blossoming love for his children, however, one can clearly detect a father who loves his children and feels somewhat proud at his contribution to their personhood.

Bottom line: Laugh-out-loud hilarity regarding a father's bewilderment over fathering.

The Glass Castle by Jeanette Walls

"Truth is stranger than fiction" would most aptly describe this memoir. This is one of those books I have read multiple times and each time have found impossible to put down. Jeanette Walls' recounting of her journey from childhood to adulthood amidst the chaos and adventure that characterized her family is amazing, heartbreaking, and ultimately triumphant (did I just sound like your local newspaper book reviewer with that one or what? Cheezy! But true). Jeanette's carefree and nonconformist parents, Rex and Rosemary, bring her and her siblings on a nomadic, passionate, and often harrowing existence throughout the Southwest United States. Though they struggle to eke out an existence that, to most, would be even tolerable, Jeanette's recollections show great passion, adventure, and even brilliance from her parents. Often I found myself fist-pumping and cheering (albeit, mentally rather than actually) over their good turns of fortune and narrow escapes. On the flip side, though, I also found myself aching for Jeanette and her siblings during their resourceful father's bouts of alcoholism and artistic mother's periods of focused self-pursuit. Ultimately the adventure runs out and the family find themselves in an impoverished West Virginia mining town where the fun ends and Jeanette and her brother and sisters are fending for themselves in an impossible situation out of which they do eventually fight their way.
BOTTOM LINE: Did I mention triumphant?

The House of the Scorpion by Nancy Farmer

I've been drawn lately to young adult fiction, most likely because when I take the boys to the library this section neighbors the children's, so I can keep an eye on my little tornadoes as I browse. This pick came recommended by friend and fellow-reader, Kris. It's kind of in the science fiction category which, in general, would not be my first choice of genres to kick back with. However I can say without hesitation that this read was well worth the risk I took on sci-fi. The protagonist of the story is a young boy, Matt, who is living in a no-mans-land called Opium, whose founder and leader is an elderly man who goes by the title El Patron. Matt learns he is actually a clone of this patriarch of the House of the Scorpion (El Patron's "sign"), which turns out to bring him some measure of both prestige and misery and ultimately warrants a fight for his very life. The story, as riveting as it is far-fetched, actually plays on some very relevant topics: prejudice, life, death, love, perseverance, friendship. And, victoriously, it boasts a happy ending. We all know how I love those.
BOTTOM LINE: Even if you don't feel so much in the "young" portion of the young adult category, give this book a chance. It tackles some heavy, present-day topics while giving us a hero to root for.

Not Lost Forever by Carmina Salcido

Oh my. So ridiculously behind in writing about what I've been reading. I'll just jump in here then....
I struggle with appropriate adjectives to describe how this book affected me. "Heart-wrenching" and "haunting" are at the top of the list though. This true story spans the author's life from birth to present day. She recounts the horror that marked her at the innocent age of three by a murderous father and changed, rather drastically, the course of her life. There were many times when I had to put down this book just to have a good cry. And so far this "review" is probably not compelling you to read the book is it? I will say that I finished it in about two days simply because I had to keep moving through the tragedy to get to the other side. It is truly amazing what Carmina Salcido endured, and the fact that she is the functioning young woman she is today is nothing short of a miracle.
BOTTOM LINE: If this was a work of fiction I probably wouldn't have read it through to the end. But the fact that Ms. Salcido, through no choice of her own, lived through these events led me to believe that I needed to see the book through to the end so that her voice could be heard and her story shared.

The Prodigal God by Timothy Keller

See here .

The Shack by William P. Young

It feels beyond my amateur writing ability to summarize this book and put into words what it means to me. It is a story of great loss and sorrow, yet also a story of redemption and love beyond what we truly are able to comprehend with our limited human capacities.
I had painted for me by Mr. Young a picture of the type of relationship I believe God yearns to have with us. I saw myself reflected in Mack, the main character in this book, time and time again. While I have not yet, thankfully, had to grapple with my own Great Sadness (to the degree that he has), I have seen enough of it in the lives of those I love and in the world at large that I have asked many of the same questions Mack did. Basically, why all the suffering, Lord? Why all the rotten, dirty evil that stinks up this earth? And where are You in the midst of it? How Young wrestles with the answers to these through the story is incredibly powerful, and while I recognize this is all constructed out of his imagination, essentially, it nontheless transformed my view of the God I thought I had been serving all these years and truly shaped my view of him into that of a LOVING Father.

BOTTOM LINE: I would go so far as to say life-changing. This blew the lid off the box I have so carefully constructed for God to fit in.

WARNING: The beginning 1/4 of the book is, at times, difficult to read (especially for those of you who are parents) BUT - totally worth it.