For some odd reason

I had never read the first two books in the Jonathan Stride series!  Which is kinda good because I was just able to enjoy them tremendously for the first time.  Immoral and Stripped.
These were simply excellent mystery/thriller/detective books, man.  Just awesome.  And Stripped has a character in it who was way before her time and I think that the way in which Freeman writes about her, Amanda, shows the beauty of this writer's character.  He dealt with gender and sexuality in such a Christ-like, decent human being way in this book.  Totally freaking awesome.  Love this series!

Back in Seminary School....

I am so surprised by the number of times I get to write that!
Anyway, back then, in another life, I read Elaine Pagels.  So I was very interested when I saw that her new book was on hoopla and then I saw that she was on Fresh Air and I listened and then I listened to the book and it was excellent.  Why Religion?:  A Personal Story is, indeed, a personal one.  She writes about her husband, Heinz, who was killed in a hiking accident shortly after the death of there son. 
We have some similarities in our spiritual journy!  I mean, not exactly, her parents were scientists and she became famous and all, but we both were Evangelical Christians and were "born again" at a Billy Graham revival!  I went to the 1993 revival in Pittsburgh.  And although I had known Christ prior to my coming forward at this event, this was impactful for me.  This is a book that will evoke a lot of feelings, I believe.  For Christians who are more of the black and white kind, it will be disturbing, I think.  But for others and for even those who do not know Christ it is a must read.  It is also a must read for those who have suffered great loss.  Yes, for sure. 

In a Short Story Collection

this year I was introduced to J.A. Jance.  For some reason I used to think that Jance was British and you know how I am about off-putting Briticisms, so I never gave her much thought.  The short story captured my interest though and so I thought I would try the first in the Joanna Brady series, Desert Heat, even though I am not big on female detectives.  This was good though.  I did enjoy it very much and I hope to read the second one and keep going if it is as good as this one was!  It's set in the real town of Bisbee, AZ. 

Accidental Read

I didn't understand that Clamour of Crows wasn't an actual play!  The description says, "morality play"  and these were real plays, but now I guess it is a way of describing things that aren't really plays!  It's a book!  And I probably wouldn't have read it if I thought it was just an adult mystery book.  I mean, I pretty much just stick to the authors I know.  And that would have been a big shame, because I really enjoyed this book!

Have You Ever

This is a really, really good song...because I like it so much, I was thinking that is why I kept thinking that Have You Ever Had a Family was the name of the book Did You Ever Have a Family.  It is not.
My sweet friend, Julie, recommended this book to me, knowing that it wasn't too long, even though it is an adult book and I am usually very picky about my adult books.
It was something.  It was unlike anything I had read before, because I don't read much literary fiction.  Okay, I NEVER read literary fiction.  But I really did like this book.
It is sorrowful and hard and painful, but not like watching an accident, rubber-necking at the gore kind of thing.  It was...like an ache.   Yes, it made my heart ache to read it.  But it wasn't overwhelmingly horrible, even though the story of all of this loss is horrible.  It was just told so well and was so mournful.  Hard, but good.  Good.