book review
Classics Review: Framley Parsonage
Framley Parsonage by Anthony Trollope
My rating: 4 of 5 stars
Mark Robarts, the vicar at Framley Parsonage, has a seemingly perfect life. He has the patronage of the great Lady Lufton, and the friendship of her son, Lord Lufton. He has a darling wife, Fanny, and lovely children, and everything a man could want on a moderate income.
But Mark becomes involved with the “wrong” sort of people, gamblers, debtors, and disreputable gentlemen of society. Mark’s kindness is taken advantage of, and his generosity lands him in a difficult money situation, which will be his ruin unless his high moral standards can eventually be his salvation. Continue reading
Book Review: The Secrets of Ordinary Farm
The Secrets of Ordinary Farm by Tad Williams
My rating: 3 of 5 stars
Lucinda and Tyler are back for the summer at their mysterious Uncle’s farm. Lucinda is determined to become closer to the dragons, but with all the adventure and wild mystery going on, she barely has time to visit the dragons, until one of them reaches out to her in a surprising way.
Tyler continues his feud with the crusty Colin Needle, and both of them are snooping around the farm, spying on each other, desperate to find the secrets of the farm before the other. Continue reading
Book Review: The Road To Yesterday
The Road To Yesterday by L.M. Montgomery
My rating: 4 of 5 stars
This collection of Montgomery’s short stories is not really her best work in my opinion, but still well worth the read. All the stories are connected distantly to Gilbert and Anne Blythe, since characters in each story are vaguely acquainted with the Blythes, and their names are mentioned in passing, or they play bit parts in the story. After a while, this started to annoy me. It just distracted from the main story, by bringing in other characters from a separate story, who had no real business or impact in the main story.
A few of the short stories had some structural problems in the plots, I though, and a couple of times people in the story seemed to act out of character. But these places were very few and most of the stories are wonderful, and delightfully funny! A couple of them are melancholy and have a healthy dose of pathos mixed in too.
Picture Book Review: The Awkward Owl
The Awkward Owl by Shawnda Blake
My rating: 5 of 5 stars
Adorable children’s book with lovely pictures, about an awkward owl who doesn’t have the confidence to fly well until a little girl shows some love and believes in him! I love the cute artwork and the sweet little story about believing in yourself. It’s really funny too, because the owl goes crashing into things sometimes!
Book Review: Ship of Destiny
My rating: 2 of 5 stars
Usually I love Robin Hobb’s books, but there are so many things that annoyed me about this one. It’s entirely too long and repetitive. It could have been about 200 pages shorter. There are too many POVs flip-flopping all over the place in every chapter. I HATE it when a POV changes in the middle of a orscene! And there are about 10 or 11 different POV characters in the book. Too many! Continue reading
Book Review: The Dragons of Ordinary Farm
The Dragons of Ordinary Farm by Tad Williams
My rating: 4 of 5 stars
Tyler and Lucinda are dismayed that they have to spend the summer at the farm with their mysterious Uncle Gideon, whom they have never met. But when they arrive at Ordinary Farm, they find it full of mythical beasts and other-worldly people. The secrets go deep, and the past will threaten everyone on the farm, unless Tyler and Lucinda can navigate the mysteries of Ordinary Farm, warding off attack from the outside before it collapses from within. Continue reading
Graphic Novel Review: Broxo
My rating: 3 of 5 stars
When Zora goes searching for the lost tribe of Peryton, she only finds one young warrior left, Broxo, but he has lost most of his memory. When the walking dead attack them and a local witch gets involved, there’s no telling what legends or nightmares will be revealed in their adventures. Continue reading
Play Review: Love’s Labour’s Lost
Love’s Labor’s Lost by William Shakespeare
My rating: 4 of 5 stars
This play is all froth and silliness! King Ferdinand and three lords of his court have vowed to study for three years, fasting, barely sleeping, and not keeping company with any women, in order to devote themselves exclusively to the pursuit of knowledge. But the Princess of France throws their plans and their vows into confusion when she arrives with the ladies of her court, seeking audience with the King on some political matters. King Ferdinand immediately falls in love with the Princess, and his lords fall in love with each of the Princess’ ladies. Continue reading
Book Review: The Missionary Call
The Missionary Call: Find Your Place in God’s Plan For the World by M. David Sills
My rating: 4 of 5 stars
This book is full of practical and spiritual advice about how to know if you are called by God to become a missionary overseas. I really appreciated the way the book was organized, talking about the Biblical basis for missions, God’s heart for missions, and then branching into the history of missions since the Early Church, and exploring different branches of thought and belief that are present about missions and the missionary call today.
My favorite part was the Continue reading
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