A Young Wife’s Tale

Faithful, by Kim Cash Tate, is a about three Christian women who are best friends. Cydney or “Cyd” has remained pure, patiently waiting for God to send her a husband. She spends her 40th birthday as her baby sister’s maid of honor. Dana discovers her husband is having an affair. Phyllis grows discouraged that her husband has not become a Christian. Unfortunately, about halfway through the book, I started having issues with the story. First, the church the women attend has a topical sermon series on intimacy. That means that families can’t worship together. Of course I believe the Bible should be preached, but children should be able to sit through sermons.

Anne Bradstreet by D.B. Kellogg is one of several biographies in the Christian Encounters series from Thomas Nelson Publishers. Anne Bradstreet came from England to Massachusetts in 1630 when she was 18. She was a devout Christian and Puritan. Although she was a busy wife and mother of eight in the New World, she found time to write poetry. A volume of her poems, The Tenth Muse Lately Sprung Up in America, was published in 1650. It was very well received, and is still celebrated today.

The teens’ powers and how they must work together to use them makes for an interesting story. The battles are good. But does every fantasy story have to have a race of odd people who talk funny? (Thinking of Jar-Jar Binks me am. And Gollum, Hobbitses. Mustn’t forget him.) The authors do a good job of making the middle schoolers talk like real thirteen year olds, which is annoying. Without giving anything away, I really liked the ending. Overall, it was an okay story, when I wasn’t frustrated by not understanding something due to never having read the first story.

I Am Hutterite by Mary-Ann Kirby is an intriguing story of Ms. Kirby’s life growing up in a Canadian Hutterite colony, and her parents difficult decision to leave their way of life, taking their seven children with them. Hutterites are somewhat similar to the Amish, with strict rules about dress and modern things such as television and radio, but they are different in that they share everything. Members do not earn money for themselves. They live together as members of the early Christian church did.

I love end of the world movies. The Day After Tomorrow for example. Jericho is one of my all time favorite television shows. Should the United States sustain a nuclear attack (and a series of EMPs) as portrayed in the TV series Jericho, I had a plan.