This month’s selections are the inspiring stories of saints! Saintly Rhymes for Modern Times is a rhyming book for children whose inclusion here as fiction is a stretch, but I love this book so much, I couldn’t resist! (And Saint Clare and Her Cat is more of a picture book.) Susan Peek is over-represented below, and yet I’ve not even included all of her books. So, if you’re looking for more saint stories for children and teens, visit Susan’s website.
I’m linking up with Seven Quick Takes at This Ain’t the Lyceum for some thoughts about Christmas caroling.
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The darkness descends early this time of year, and I confess to dreading leaving the house at any time after 5:00 p.m. But, caroling is traditionally a nighttime thing, so I braved the darkness twice in three days for two caroling events, one hosted by my daughters’ 4H Club and another by my son’s Cub Scout Pack. We visised an assisted living center and a nursing home.
I’ve reached the point in the run-up to Christmas (otherwise known as Advent) in which my mind turns to baking. Memories of baking with my mother while sharing a couple of glasses of wine. Lists of teacher, bus drivers, and friends to whom we’ll give cookies. Parties for which we’re expected to bring treats.
I’ve got a bazillion recipes and a handful of favorites, but I’m looking for a well-loved Christmas treat that will stand the test of time.
A blinding flash … then darkness. Bria Ford and her three closest friends are stranded on a country highway in the middle of a November night. No phones. No cars. No lights. Helpless and hundreds of miles from home, Bria and her friends put their lives in the hands of the handsome Jonah Page and his flinty sister, East, strangers who somehow know the secrets of Bria’s past. Secrets that not even she knows, but that offer them all the hope of survival.
The Light is Book One in this fast-paced, character-driven, Christian series that will leave you wondering who would I become if the world fell away?
It’s that time of year when I start ramping up my Christmas reads, looking for both books for my children to enjoy and myself. Here are nine new recommendations, but please check the links below for others. After all, good Christmas books don’t expire, they can be enjoyed year after year!
I love a good first line. The first line from your new release, Our Lady of the Roses, really sets the tone with this first sentence: “He looks like a gnocchi.” Five words, but the reader already has a sense of the tone and a cultural connection. Can you tell me more about the role of humor in the book and the Italian influence?
I love throwing opposites together because it makes a story ripe for laughs. Janetta and Bob, the main characters in Our Lady of the Roses, are 180 degrees apart in temperament, looks, desires, and beliefs. I’m not Italian; I’m mostly Irish with a smattering of German, English, and Welsh, and I was once selling my novels at a craft show, and I got to talking with the older woman selling jewelry next to me. We started talking about travels, and she told me she was Italian and had just came back from Italy. I told her I’d been to Italy and loved it. I then shared that I’d just come back from Ireland. She laughed and said, “You know I was a bit of an Italian snob, thinking that no place is as nice as Italy, but I went to Ireland last year, and I had to shut my mouth. I loved Ireland.” Like her, Janetta is a bit of an Italian snob, thinking no one has more style, elegance, and culture than the Italians, and she dismisses Bob for being a “gnocchi” a big, white, doughy blob. As the story progresses and Janetta tries to make Bob over, we come to learn that she is the one who needs a makeover because she’s all style and very little substance.
November 3-9, 2019, is National Vocation Awareness Week. The dozen books below thoughtfully consider vocations (marriage, consecrated life, priesthood, and single life) through characters who consider, discern, or actively live their vocation. They range from a picture book and a chapter book to stories for teens and adults.
