Tag Archive | Net Galley

Tea With Elephants by Robin Jones Gunn

Oct17

Just Add Honey

Tea With Elephants by Robin Jones Gunn is the most beautiful Christian contemporary novel that will sink into your heart and soothe your soul. It is the first book in the Suitcase Sisters series and I cannot wait for more.

Tea With Elephants is a story of friendship and love as we follow two ladies who have been friends for over twenty years as they spend a week in Kenya. It is a journey of discovery – literally as there are majestic animals to see in their natural habitat. And also, figuratively as they learn about each other’s lives, their fears and their worries. There is a love between the women. “There is no gift like a friend who knows you by heart.” And there is their love for God and His for them.

We cannot always see the future but we know who holds the future in His hands. “I wanted to be at peace about the unknown.” We trusted God with our past and our present, we can trust Hin with our future. “I didn’t want to get stuck in what was behind. I wanted to look to what was ahead.”

As we wander through life, we pick up baggage. “You will be able to move forward when you’re no longer carrying all this old stuff… It’s weighed you down for too long.” We will never move forward by looking in the rear mirror. We do not need to see where we have been but we do need to look at where we are going.

Prayer is important. Prayer is as vital as breathing. “Prayers are never just prayer… [we are] creating a collection of love letters to Jesus.” We also learn that “our most valuable weapon … is prayer.” Prayers can, and do, move mountains.

When we have troubles and worries, we need to press into Jesus. “I don’t know how people go through difficulties without crying out to the Lord.” We can receive a peace that passes all understanding, a peace despite our circumstances. “Peace was coming after me.” I love that idea of peace pursuing us.

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The Telegram by Debbie Rix

Oct17

Beautiful & Heart-wrenching

The Telegram by Debbie Rix is a beautiful historical story set over three main time periods – World War I, World War II and 1959. It is a novel that will haunt the reader long after the last page is read.

The novel is about the life of Charles Carmichael, his family, friends and those that he interacts with. All the action is seen through the alternating voices of the lead character, his wife and daughter. We see how one man interacts with those he meets and how these interactions influence events.

Sometimes in life there is a defining moment on which everything else that happens, hangs on. Subsequent actions ride on a moment in time. Charles Carmichael has experienced such an event. The reader is aware that something momentous has happened but we do not know what – although I had my suspicions which proved to be correct. When we do find out what has happened, suddenly the life of Charles Carmichael makes sense. We understand why he acted the way that he did, and why he chose to lead his life as he did.

Charles Carmichael is a complex character but one that I instinctively liked. He is a gentle soul who wants to do no harm. He is a man who loves deeply but cannot always show it. I think his true nature really shines through in the scene on Christmas Eve 1943 with his daughter. He is tender hearted, fiercely protective and moved to act.

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Sisters Of The Resistance by Jina Bacarr

Sep30

Daisy Chain

Sisters Of The Resistance by Jina Bacarr is a powerful and heartbreaking historical novel. It is the sequel to Sisters At War which I recommend reading first for maximum enjoyment.

The novel opens in 1942. The action is mainly set in Paris with alternating chapters between the two sisters, Eve and Justine. They both ‘fought’ very different wars. “Not everyone fights the Boches with guns and ammo.” Both were in opposition to the Nazis – one in the resistance, the other from within the Nazis as a spy but posing as a mistress, after events took a dreadful turn in the opening of book one. For safety’s sake, secrets and silences were kept, even when it meant others thought badly of them.

The battle for France was played out not just on the battlefields but in homes and streets, the people fought back however they could, holding on to the hope that one day France would be free again.

Family is important. Family ties and their safety saw one sister denying herself in order to preserve her family. “Winning the war is what counts, not me.”

There were some truly awful atrocities committed by the Nazis against women. Jina Bacar has realistically and sensitively portrayed some very hard to read scenes of the violence and attacks against the women of Paris.

Round-ups and the treatment of the Jewish people was horrific. A sister declared “I need to know. Then someday I can tell the world what I saw.” Survival was essential to tell the world what really happened.

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The Last Bookshop In Prague by Helen Parusel

Sep30

Hold On To Hope

The Last Bookshop In Prague by Helen Parusel is a powerful, heartbreaking historical novel that I read in just one sitting. The story is fictional but grounded in fact as it surrounds the Nazi occupation of Prague from 1942 to the end of the war. The historians will recognize this as the place of Reinhard Heydrich, the butcher of Prague, and of his fate and the fate of the people of Prague. Fast forward to the end of the war, and once more, the people of Prague will go down in history.

The Nazi occupation was horrendous. Fear and cruelty abounded. Everything was designed to wear down the citizens of Prague – but they were made of stern stuff, and far from being worn down, many brave souls rose up.

The Last Bookshop In Prague is an inspiring read as we hear of the extraordinary bravery of the ordinary people who refused to be silenced.

At the heart of the community is the last bookshop in Prague. Here, although outwardly adhering to the Nazi orders to only stock German books and approved authors, inwardly it was the hub of the resistance.

We see the bravery of the young proprietress as she refuses to stand by and do nothing when Jewish children are in need. She and her family, do what they can, when they can, in order to save lives.

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