I’ve been married 25 years, and I brought a couple of small pets into marriage that died before we’d even had children. We had a couple of temporary wild toad “pets” to facilitate a Boy Scout merit badge, a snail that I’m not even sure is still alive, and a super small flock of Coturnix quails that are egg-laying quasi-pets. No mammals. Until now.
Our kids had been asking for a dog for years, but we held off for various reasons. Earlier this year, we began the search in earnest with a short checklist of preferences about what this pup would look like. At the top of the list was price. We couldn’t pay what amounted to a mortgage payment or more for an animal. We asked around and filled out numerous adoption applications with no luck.
Then on a work appointment, my husband talked to a couple who passed on the name of the place they’d found their puppy. My husband called and learned about a couple of mixed breed pups (from an accidental litter) that sounded like what we’d been looking for.
My husband and I drove about an hour to see the two puppies available, with one in particular in mind. They called her Molly.
Well, we came home that day with Molly (now Tillie), a bag of puppy kibble, and an eagerness to share this sweet animal with our children.
We marveled at how perfect Tillie was. She checked off all of the boxes we’d been looking for and then some. She was gentle, patient, and adorable.
And we were so grateful to get her. Three of my children came to me independently to say how blessed we were to have found Tillie and how thankful they were to their dad and me for bringing her home.
See, we’d gotten discouraged after months of not finding the right dog. Or thinking we had and learning it was no longer available for adoption. But there were those couple of puppies . . . Mocha and Molly, wasn’t it?
And then we remembered.
We’d seen Molly before. She and her litter mate were the adorable tiny puppies we’d seen listed online earlier in the summer. We’d wanted to inquire, but they’d been adopted. Or so we thought.
My husband pulled up Tillie’s photo from at least six-eight weeks earlier. Yep. That was the pup. The one we ooh-ed and ahh-ed over, thinking we’d found our family dog at last. The one who’d slipped through our fingers.
I’d prayed that we’d find the dog. The one that suited our family. The one God had in mind for us. My husband had prayed about this dog at Adoration the night before we picked her up.
God didn’t give us just one chance at Tillie. He gave us two!
I’ve readily accepted that God gives us many, many chances when it comes to forgiveness and redemption, but I haven’t always recognized the chances he gives us in fulfilling the desires of our hearts.
When it comes to morality, our course of action is usually obvious. If we’ve developed our consciences and are attuned to the Holy Spirit’s promptings, we recognize the right course of action. But so many decisions, either insignificant or life-altering, aren’t matters of strict right or wrong but about discerning God’s will.
It’s those decisions that can leave us feeling like one misstep can throw our lives off course. How many of us, looking back, have wondered if we’ve chosen the right course of study, the right profession, the right job, the right relationship, the right spouse, the right opportunity, or the right risk? Especially in times of discouragement, it’s tempting to wonder if God doesn’t care about those things at all. And if we’ve made the “wrong” decision, can we ever reverse course? Are we left to stumble blindly due to one misstep? Do we forfeit happiness because we chose wrongly?
Tillie is a furry-faced reminder that God cares deeply not only about the little things in our lives, but that He will answer our prayers by whatever means He pleases – even if we’ve veered off course. Even if we miss an opportunity or make the wrong call.
Tillie’s just a dog. But when I see Tillie, I see God’s hand. I see a Father who delights in my family’s joy.
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Welcome to the August 2022 edition of An Open Book, hosted both at My Scribbler’s Heart and CatholicMom.com!
Somehow, I squeezed in a lot of reading in the past month. Maybe it was vacation. Maybe it was a string of good books. I even have a few books in progress that I’ll hold until next month. Let’s get to it!
Karen Witemeyer’s Christian historical romances are incredibly consistent in quality, but I particularly enjoyed In Honor’s Defense. It’s last in a series but can stand alone. I appreciated that the connection between a hardened, lonely cowboy/vigilante and an overlooked, citified woman was based on a connection more than skin deep. Damaris provides the compassion, tenderness, and stability that Luke has never had. He provides the affection and attention she’s never received. The story has plenty of action and a little mystery as they work to uncover who wants to take the land left to Damaris’s orphaned nephew by any means necessary.
Love and the Dream Come True by Tammy L. Gray is also last (I think!) in a series. I’m a third of the way through the novel focused on a character who’s had his share of time “on screen” in the first two books in the series. In both books, Cameron, an aspiring musician, has been dumped, to put it bluntly. The second instance left him bereft of the love of his life and his friends/bandmates. Now he’s reached stardom, but he’s as lonely and anxiety ridden as ever. Enter his sister’s friend, Lexie, who’s had a crush on him since they were young and has perpetuated an imaginary relationship with him for more than a decade while raising her sister’s daughter. Cameron still has a way to go to make me like him, so I’m eager to see how this turns out.
I did a little Christmas in July reading with Crystal Walton’sMerrying the Cowboy. If you like Hallmark Christmas movies, you’ll enjoy this one. It follows the format closely with the career-oriented city woman returning to the small town to help her ailing mother. While there, she can’t escape painful losses or her old boyfriend, a cowboy with some regrets where she’s concerned. The story flows smoothly and easily.
Yet another third in the series is Denise Hunter’s Harvest Moon. It didn’t hurt that this series, set in a North Carolina Appalachian Trail town ushered in my hiking/camping vacation that included some Appalachian Trail hikes. Mulberry Hollow addresses some serious grief and unresolved issues between a divorced couple left with (temporary) custody of their friends’ young daughter. From book one, the reader knows that Laurel and Gavin buried their own young son, and Denise Hunter does a great job of drawing out the tension surrounding that loss until well into this third book. Like Karen Witemeyer, I find Denise Hunter’s writing very consistent.
Mulberry Hollow immediately precedes Harvest Moon. It’s probably my favorite of the three books as it’s the most trail-oriented. Wes is hiking part of the Appalachian Trail for a fallen friend. He gets sick and ends up on the door of the local town’s health clinic where Avery, the town doctor, nurses him back to health. He can’t pay her, so he remodels a small guest property that Avery hopes will help lure another doctor to her practice to lighten her load. As you might guess, they’re attracted to one another, but Wes has promised to head north to the sister of his fallen friend, and Avery has committed herself to being single due to the possibility of a hereditary health condition. Don’t worry. It all works out.
Jocelyn by Sarah Monzon is another rom-com in the Sewing in So Cal series. I think I liked the first book, Molly, better, but this one is much like the first in tone and mood. These are relatively short, light reads that I’ve found refreshing. This one has a little of the cowboy/ranch hand thing going for it in a contemporary setting and is set apart by featuring a Black couple, which I don’t see a whole lot in Christian romance.
I did read more than romance in July, and here’s evidence. Child, Unwanted by Corinna Turner is the next in her Friends in High Places series. Daniel, the main character of the first book in the series is featured prominently in this story of a young boy, Miracle, scarred from birth by a failed abortion, who lands in foster care and then suffers a near-fatal accident. He’s got a lot to suffer. Daniel is there as a companion and so is St. Margaret of Castello. I knew very little about this recently canonized saint who suffered both physically and emotionally her entire life. As an aside, Corinna Turner is the only author I know who can confine her protagonist to a hospital bed in a single room and still make the story engrossing. (This isn’t the first time she’s done it.)
In the Shadows of Freedom by C. & C. Spellman is the first book in a dystopian series. In it, the United States is governed by what I’d call a totalitarian libertarianism, odd as that sounds. The story of a disaffected young woman, Amanda, includes supernatural elements and an exploration of freedom versus licentiousness. Amanda cultivates troublesome relationships that promote drug experimentation and draw her further from the faith of her childhood.
While on vacation, my college-age son picked up a small book about the lives of the mountain families whose homes were taken by eminent domain to establish Shenandoah National Park.Shenandoah Heritage: The Story of the People Before the Park by Carolyn Reeder and Jack Reeder features stories of families and individuals who resisted leaving their homes. Many of the residents were stereotyped as uneducated and lazy and became part of a campaign to relocate residents against their will, for their own good, of course. It was terribly unjust.
The Scourging Angel: The Black Death in the British Isles by Benedict Gummer was snagged at a library sale and has sat on our shelf for a while. My son picked it up and dug in. It includes information on the plague itself with a focus on Britain and how it was affected by the disease and related upheaval. I imagine this is more interesting reading having lived through the last couple of years.
Based on a recommendation from an An Open Book post last month, I requestedThe Beatryce Prophecy by Kate DiCamillo from the local library. My almost fifth-grade daughter has enjoyed many of Kate DiCamillo’s books, and she enjoyed reading this one at our campsite on vacation. This illustrated story set in medieval times traces the journey of Beatryce, who is nursed to health by a monk. There’s a prophecy about Beatryce, and the king is after her.
The same daughter is readingLittle House on the Prairie by Laura Ingalls Wilder, the second book in the beloved series. Interestingly, I heard her spouting facts she’d learned from this and the first book while we were hiking. She’s picking up on natural history and pioneer survival skills. This book involves the Ingalls family traveling by covered wagon to Kansas territory.
My youngest son pickedSplatoon Vol. 10by Sankichi Hinodeya from the library. I don’t have much to say about these books, which are comic book adaptions of the video game. You defeat enemies by spraying them with paint. The interesting thing to me about these books is that they are read from back to front as one would do in Japan.
If you’re looking for readable Bible stories for children, Catholic Bible Chronicles: 70 Bible Stories from Adam to the Apostles may fit the bill. The stories, adapted by Amy Welborn for Ascension Kids, are illustrated with a single picture and include a reference to the relevant Bible chapters. Stories are organized according to Ascension’s The Bible Timeline, which orders books according to Salvation History. It’s a large, sturdy hardback that can survive heavy use by many little hands.
An Ark Full of Animals by Renita Boyle is a colorful picture book adaption of the story of Noah’s Ark that works best as a read aloud with rhyming, alliteration, and fun, descriptive language. The book is sturdy and visually appealing, something I’ve come to recognize as a quality of books from Ascension Kids.
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My husband recently participated in a home brewing contest. While there, I did something I’d never done before – poured beer for hundreds of people. Observing the brewers, their families, and their interactions, I realized they had a lot in common with the writing community. Namely creativity, camaraderie, affability, and their support and encouragement of one another.
Throughout the day, I observed many parallels that translate easily from beer to books.
Lesson 1: Presentation may or may not be indicative of content quality.
Summer’s here, and it’s time for a road trip! If the price of gas is keeping you close to home, take a virtual trip with a fictional road trip. Here are several I recommend:
This Life by Jennifer Rodewald
If you’ve read books 1-3 in the Murphy Brothers series, you probably didn’t care much for cold, snooty Kate and Jacob. Especially once you learned that they’d betrayed Jackson Murphy. There’s a world of pain and insecurity hiding beneath that hoity-toity veneer, and Jennifer Rodewald exposes every last drop of it by letting her characters hit rock bottom and then sending them on the road, where simplicity and intimacy is forced upon them.
As the story says, the worst times can end up becoming the best times, once we’ve stripped away all the excess that has been distracting us from what’s most important: God and relationships being at the top of that list.
This Life also delves into a theme I’ve not often seen in romance – the dignity of work. God made work for man, not the other way around, and that’s ably demonstrated here.
This isn’t your typical romance – the characters are already married – but it’s an important story about redemption and second chances. And even if you’ve never declared bankruptcy and boondocked across the American West in a schoolie, you may recognize yourself in Jacob and Kate – your shame, pride, cowardice, and your resistance to complete honesty and vulnerability, even with those closest to you. Even your spouse. I know I saw a little of myself there, and I’m better for having read This Life.
Relevant Fiction Reviews: Road Trip Romance! Avoid the pain at the pump and take a fictional ride. Share on XContinue reading →
Writing is a notoriously solitary occupation, but bringing those polished words to the page or the screen is not.
Tapping furiously at your keyboard in your comfy clothes, crumbs dusting the keyboard and your favorite beverage at hand may eventually result in a first draft. Chances are if you didn’t need help and encouragement getting that far, you will if you want to push that draft over the goal line as a published product.
There are all sorts of writing communities out there. Some are as loosely associated as a shared hashtag. Others involve dues and duties. A plethora fall in between. You can find groups built around genres, locales, and various media.
For Catholic writers, a community built around faith can offer the support, encouragement, and development you’ve been seeking.
Almost ten years ago, with a couple of novels in various states of readiness for the world under my belt, I joined the Catholic Writers Guild. It is the single best thing I did to further my writing.
Welcome to the July 2022 edition of An Open Book, hosted both at My Scribbler’s Heart and CatholicMom.com!
My husband has been doing a bit more work travel again, and that means time for listening to books. Luckily, he travels alone since most of the books he listens to relate to either politics or religion. He’s been listening to Mark Levin’s American Marxism, which explains Marxist ideology and names those elements present in American culture today. I find Levin’s voice rather dull, so I was glad to know that he’s not the primary narrator for this book.
Morning by Morning by Jennifer Rodewald is the penultimate book in the extensive Murphy Brothers series. This is the second book devoted to Connor, whose first book ended well but with his wife in precarious health. This book revisits Connor and his son, still grieving the loss of Sadie, but pairs them with divorced mom Jade, trying to make a new start apart from her borderline abusive husband. Both Connor and Jade have good reasons to avoid letting the other into their life, yet it seems God has other plans for their healing. This author never fears digging into all the hard emotions her characters experience, and it pays off here.
The cover of this book makes me eager to take a trek on the Appalachian Trail! Riverbend Gap by Denise Hunter starts with Katie’s car hanging over a cliff, which is where she meets and makes an instant connection with the local deputy, Cooper. Turns out, Cooper is brother to her new boyfriend. Uh-oh. Cooper and Katie want to do the right thing. They try to do the right thing. But there’s an imprudent slip, and it has big ramifications.
Turn to Me by Becky Wade is the final book in her novels about the Miracle Five, a loose association of friends who miraculously survived an earthquake while on a mission trip in middle school. Luke, fresh out of prison, is the bad boy of the bunch, bound by a promise to a fellow inmate to keep an eye on his daughter. Finley is Luke’s polar opposite, a sunny hippie-chick running a dog shelter. Luke’s painfully honest thoughts about Finley’s lifestyle are humorous as he little by little lets down his guard enough to admit his feelings for Finley. The writing style put me off this book a bit, and I didn’t enjoy it as much as I’d hoped.
I was in the mood for something light and easy, and Sarah Monzon’sMolly fit the bill. After being fired from a Montessori school for her bluntness with the children, Molly accepts a nanny position for one of those students. Ben, widowed dad to said student, needs help in caring for his adorable daughter due to the heavy demands of being a medical resident. This story rolls along easily between two likeable characters. You know how it’ll end, but the way there is so enjoyable.
I can’t remember the last time I dragged my Kindle all over the house, using every spare second to read a book, butThe Great Date Experiment by Ashley Mays had me tapping through the pages at a rapid pace. This YA rom-com is fun and funny. Egan did something stupid and hurt his best friend Callie in their freshman year of high school. But a couple of years have passed, he’s sorry, and he’s devised a way to resume their friendship. He’ll take Callie on a series of dates that he’ll record and post online to beat his brother in contest of who can get 1,000 views first. Of course, more than friendship is rekindled between Egan and Callie, but this whole online thing is a problem. Viewers are mean, and it looks like Egan cares more about amassing viewers than he does about Callie. There’s a lovely message in there. This quickly became one of my favorite Christian YA books.
Loving Gabriel by T.M. Gaouette was a re-read of sorts for me. I’d read an early version of the book that differed slightly from the final product. This novel ends the Faith & Kung Fu series and focuses on the romance between former pop starlet Tanner Rose and pious Kung Fu teacher Gabriel. This is great for helping teens think about relationships and marriage. There’s also an element of suspense in this book that raises the stakes for the young couple.
I read Miracle at the Mission by Joseph Lewis in advance of its blog tour, which I participated in. Joe and Pete, high school friends, head to California where they’ll meet up with Pete’s Marine brother Luke and attend a ceremony at the Catholic missions. The president of the United States will be there too. And some Russian bad guys and their unwitting accomplices are up to no good. The author includes a lot of California natural and religious history with a lot of good information about St. Junipero Serra. It’s a nice mix of adventure, suspense, friendship, and faith.
Guest description by my college son, whom I’ve now decided shall write all of my book blurbs:
A thousand years before the rise of Emperor Palpatine, Dessel stands on the precipice of unlimited power. But as he becomes Bane of the Sith, will he be strong enough to learn from the long-forgotten teachings of the ancient Sith and claim the title of Dark Lord of the Sith, or will his abusive past and the Brotherhood of Darkness rise up to swallow him? Only one thing is certain, the future of the Jedi and Sith rests in Banes hands.
This is the essence of the Darth Bane Trilogy (Star Wars) by Drew Karpyshyn, of which my son readRule of Twoand Dynasty of Evil in June. He described some interesting moral dilemmas in these books, such as a clingy crustacean that strengthens and protects the Sith but also poisons its host if removed. And the Sith path to succession, which involves the apprentice defeating his master.
The Power of Myth by Joseph Campbell is a series of interviews with Bill Moyer regarding themes and symbols that cross time, cultures, and religions. Campbell heavily influenced Star Wars creator George Lucas, among others, which is what drew my son to this book, which he purchased for a couple of quarters at our parish’s flea market.
My almost-high school daughter requested A Kind of Paradise by Amy Rebecca Tan from our library based on the An Open Book recommendation by Barb Szyszkiewicz and is glad she did! Jamie made a big mistake and must spend her summer vacation volunteering at the library. My daughter loved the themes of forgiving yourself and turning the page as well as the many literary references—especially to Jane Eyre.
A New Auntie’s Fear by Angela Lano is a very simply illustrated book for young children that could help initiate conversations about physical disabilities, especially cerebral palsy. It’s clearly written and can help build empathy in children by showing the fears and challenges of those who look and behave differently than they do.
My three youngest kids are either re-reading favorites or books their siblings read that have already been shared in An Open Book, so they have little to report this month. There are, however, some children’s books I had the opportunity to review.
What I love most about the Ascension Press bookPray and Think Imaginative Rosary Book by Candace Camling is how it teaches children how to mediate on the mysteries of the Rosary. Any number of books explain how to use rosary beads, recite prayers, or even focus on related images—including this one, but not how to meditate. Using a simple illustration for each mystery, it helps children focus on a specific part of the image (i.e., a dove, lilies, the Blessed Mother) and think about each, its connotations, and its symbolism with questions to prompt deeper thought. I found it helpful even as an adult.
The Gospels for Young Catholics from Pflaum Publishing is another book I may snatch from my kids’ bookshelf. After some introductory information, the book presents each of the Gospels using the Good News translation. While not my preferred study translation for adults, it seems easy to read for children. What I especially love about this book is its presentation. Yes, it’s colorful, organized, and well-illustrated. But it’s eminently useful. It presents the familiar Gospel stories referenced by page and chapter and verse but also a summary, reflection, and prayer. It even tells you when you’ll hear the Gospel at Mass. It also lays out several easy plans for reading the Gospels according to liturgical season or as part of a 40-day plan. Did I mention I’m going to steal this book from my children? It also includes a Gospel timeline, maps, and information about prayers, sacraments, the Mass, and lectio divina.
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Being that I, uh, only recently completed my summer 2021 reading list, I’m keeping this list short. Find below: the book, the blurb, and why I want to read it.
Blurb:Gone with the Wind, novel by Margaret Mitchell, published in 1936. It won a Pulitzer Prize in 1937. Gone with the Wind is a sweeping romantic story about the American Civil War from the point of view of the Confederacy. In particular it is the story of Scarlett O’Hara, a headstrong Southern belle who survives the hardships of the war and afterward manages to establish a successful business by capitalizing on the struggle to rebuild the South. Throughout the book she is motivated by her unfulfilled love for Ashley Wilkes, an honorable man who is happily married. After a series of marriages and failed relationships with other men, notably the dashing Rhett Butler, she has a change of heart and determines to win Rhett back.
Why I want to [re-]read it: This classic is probably, next to The Outsiders, the book I’ve re-read most. And guess what? I picked it up because of the The Outsiders. It’s long been a favorite, but I haven’t re-read it in a very long time, and I’m curious what impression it will make at this point in my life.
After recovering from their daring exploits in the exciting first book, The Ghosts of Westthorpe Academy, high school best friends Joe Pryce and Pete Figueroa return for another thrilling, action-adventure in Miracle at the Mission.
When one of them wins a St. Junipero Serra essay writing contest and is rewarded with a summer trip to California, they both embark on an adventure they will never forget. While visiting one of the historic Spanish missions founded by Father Serra, the boys meet a holy but mysterious old Franciscan monk who warns them of the dangers they would soon encounter.
It isn’t long before the boys are drawn into a series of events filled with suspense, intrigue, a high-speed car chase along the precipitous Pacific Coast Highway, and the schemes of foreign operatives seeking to bring harm to the President of the United States.
Caught up in the pursuit of the bad guys, the boys discover they have become suspects in the investigation by the FBI. Desperate to prove their innocence, they must rely on the guidance and wisdom of the old padre, who just happens to bear a strange resemblance to St. Junipero Serra himself.
With the world teetering on the brink of an international crisis, the story reaches its climax at another mission––Mission San Carlos Borromeo in Carmel––where the boys and a large gathering of people witness an incredible miracle that changes their lives forever.
