Wordless Wednesday - Front Porch

This post is linked at Wordless Wednesday, hosted by Life at Rossmont.

©2008-2016 Just A Second. All rights reserved. All text, photographs, artwork, and other content may not be reproduced or transmitted in any form without the written consent of the author. http://justasecondblog.blogspot.com/

Teaser Tuesday/First Chapter First Paragraph - Miriam (with a giveaway link!)

This post contains affiliate links. 

Teaser Tuesdays is a weekly bookish meme, hosted by Jenn at Books and Beat. To play along, just do the following:

• Grab your current read
• Open to a random page
• Share two "teaser" sentences from somewhere on that page
• Be careful not to include spoilers!
• Share the title and author, so that other TT participants can add the book to their TBR lists if they like your teasers! 

Leaving Egypt was more appealing now that it reeked of decaying fish and frogs, but the thought of leaving Goshen was still bittersweet. Freedom was a concept she could only imagine. What would she do all day without injured slaves to tend?

~Miriam: A Treasures of the Nile Novel by Mesu Andrews, page 176 (ARC)

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

 

First Chapter/First Paragraph/Tuesday Intros is a weekly link-up hosted by Bibliophile by the Sea. To participate, share the first paragraph (or two) of a book you're reading, or thinking about reading soon.

PROLOGUE

    I am Miriam, old but of use. I am a slave, a midwife, a healer with herbs. This is what I do, but El-Shaddai makes me who I am.
   The Hebrews call me prophetess; the Egyptians, a seer. But I am neither. I am simply a watcher of Israel and the messenger of El-Shaddai. When He speaks to me in dreams, I interpret. When He whispers a melody, I sing.
   During my eighty-six inundations, His presence has swelled within me like the Nile's waters, quenching my thirst, meeting every need. No relationship imprisons me. No task consumes me. No despair conquers me. I'm His alone, free to love others as He loves me.
   But as I dab my parents' brows, creeping dread crawls up my arms like a living thing. Last night's dreams have shaken our divine union. El-Shaddai, Your messages have always been so clear. Why not give the meaning with the dreams?
   I know they portend death. But whose? Fear coils around my heart like a serpent. . .

Miriam: A Treasures of the Nile Novel by Mesu Andrews

Here's the blurb:

At eighty-six, Miriam has devoted her entire life to loving El Shaddai and serving His people as both midwife and messenger. Yet when her brother Moses returns to Egypt from exile, he brings a disruptive message. God has a new name -- Yahweh -- and has declared a radical deliverance for the Israelites.

Miriam and her beloved family face an impossible choice: cling to familiar bondage or embrace uncharted freedom at an unimaginable cost. Even if the Hebrews survive the plagues set to turn the Nile to blood and unleash a maelstrom of frogs and locusts, can they weather the resulting fury of Pharoah?

Enter an exotic land where thousands of pagan deities are worshiped, Pharoahs rule, and the Israelites cry out to a God they only think they understand.

What do you think? Would you continue reading?

I am featuring the book Miriam by Mesu Andrews again because this week I'm part of a blog hop and giveaway to celebrate the release of the book. Join me at "Treasures of the Nile - Scavenger Hunt Blog Hop and Giveaway" to find out all about the blog hop, and to enter my giveaway of both Treasures of the Nile novels.

©2008-2016 Just A Second. All rights reserved. All text, photographs, artwork, and other content may not be reproduced or transmitted in any form without the written consent of the author. http://justasecondblog.blogspot.com/

Treasures of the Nile - Scavenger Hunt Blog Hop and Giveaway

I'm so excited to be a part of this scavenger hunt blog hop in celebration of the launch of Mesu Andrews' second book in her Treasures of the Nile series, Miriam!

I realize most of you are probably already "on the hunt", but if you just happened on this page first, you'll want to hop on over to the start of the hunt at Mesu’s blog and then you'll finish your journey at Mommynificent.com. At the bottom of this post, you can find the full list of stops for the entire hunt. Between March 15th and 20th, click on the next link, head over to the page, meet a new book-lover, and read their thoughts about Miriam. Somewhere in each post there will be a single word that is in BOLD AND ALL CAPITALS. Write it down. (The words “Home” and “Good Luck” are not secret words for anyone.)

Then, go to the next stop. That post will also have a word that’s bolded and capitalized. You will need to visit all 14 blogs as each one will have a word that you need. Once you reach the end and have found all the words, you will have found an inspirational quote from the book Miriam. There are 14 words in this quote. Enter the quote into the Rafflecopter on the last stop and you will be entered to win a Kindle Fire from Mesu Andrews! (Open to U.S. residents only) If you have any questions, get lost, or experience any technical difficulties, you may email Tina at tina{at}mommynificent{dot}com for help. Now, let's talk about this fantastic book!

About the Book

Title: Miriam

Author: Mesu Andrews

Series: Treasures of the Nile, Book 2

Publication Date: March 15, 2016

Publisher: WaterBrook Press

Print Length: 384 pages

Summary from the publisher: At eighty-six, Miriam had devoted her entire life to loving El Shaddai and serving His people as both midwife and messenger. Yet when her brother Moses returns to Egypt from exile, he brings a disruptive message. God has a new name – Yahweh – and has declared a radical deliverance for the Israelites.

Miriam and her beloved family face an impossible choice: cling to familiar bondage or embrace uncharted freedom at an unimaginable cost. Even if the Hebrews survive the plagues set to turn the Nile to blood and unleash a maelstrom of frogs and locusts, can they weather the resulting fury of the Pharaoh? Enter an exotic land where a cruel Pharaoh reigns, pagan priests wield black arts, and the Israelites cry out to a God they only think they know.

My Thoughts about Miriam by Mesu Andrews

I was so excited to read a novel with Miriam as the lead character, because she is not mentioned often in the Bible, and is rather an enigmatic figure. We know her as the older sister of Moses, and associate her with watching over her baby brother as his basket floated in the Nile. But she's also mentioned as a prophetess helping to lead the Hebrews out of Egypt during the Exodus. This novel picks up her story right about the time Moses returns to Egypt from Midian with God's instructions to lead his people. So it's an unusual novel because its heroine is in her late eighties!

Miriam's role in her Hebrew village and in her extended family is the viewpoint from which the story of the plagues and the Exodus is told. We meet her parents, her brothers Moses and Aaron, and Aaron's sons, and many well-researched details are woven into their characters and story. Aaron's third son Eleazar plays a large role in the story, as he is sort of a foster son to his never married aunt (or Doda) Miriam. Miriam has held the honor of being the prophetess of El-Shaddai to the Hebrews, but when Moses comes home with a bold calling from God and a new name they are to know him by, Miriam often feels that El-Shaddai has abandoned her. She struggles to find her new role and to learn to hear from Yahweh in a new way. Meanwhile Eleazar and his new wife are also wrestling with whether they should fully trust a God that they can't understand. As they see the power of Yahweh in the plagues, and the promises coming true, they come to believe that NO other god but Yahweh can break the powerful grip of Egypt and lead them to true freedom.

I was drawn into this wonderful retelling of the story of the Exodus right from the first page, and sympathized with Miriam as she yearned for a freedom she could hardly imagine, and to find her place to belong and be useful as everything she had known for her whole life was changing.

About The Author

Mesu Andrews is the award-winning author of Love Amid the Ashes, Love's Sacred Song, Love in a Broken Vessel, In the Shadow of Jezebel, as well as two books in her Treasures of the Nile series: The Pharoah's Daughter and Miriam. Winner of the 2012 ECPA Christian Book Award for New Author, she has devoted herself to passionate and intense study of Scripture, bringing the biblical world vividly alive for her readers. She lives in Washington.

Mesu's Website * Facebook * Twitter * Goodreads

Stops on the Scavenger Hunt

1. Mesu Andrews
2. A Holland Reads
3. Mother of Three
4. Just A Second
5. Grace and Glory
6. Angela Arndt - Joy on the Back Roads
7. God's Peculiar Treasure Rae
8. What If
9. Carole Towriss
10. Kate Hodges, Storyteller
11. Backing Books
12. Creative Madness Mama  (This blog isn't working right now. The secret word for this one is WHO. Sorry for any inconvenience.)
13. Climbing to the High Calling
14. Mommynificent

Win Both Treasure of the Nile Books

WaterBrook Press has given me permission to give away one copy of each of Mesu's Treasures of the Nile novels to one lucky winner so to enter to win your own copies of both The Pharoah's Daughter and Miriam. Enter in the Rafflecopter giveaway below! (Open to U.S. residents only) Good luck!

a Rafflecopter giveaway

©2008-2016 Just A Second. All rights reserved. All text, photographs, artwork, and other content may not be reproduced or transmitted in any form without the written consent of the author. http://justasecondblog.blogspot.com/

What I'm Reading - March 14, 2016

This post contains affiliate links. 

This weekly reading list meme is hosted at Book Date. Join in to see what others are reading and maybe get some ideas of what to read next! I'm also going to be linking up with Tales of a Pee Dee Mama for D.E.A.R. Monday (Drop Everything And Read).

I recently finished reading...

David and Bathsheba by Roberta Kells Dorr - I finished this right at the end of last week, so the review didn't get posted until this week. (Read my full review HERE.)



Empty Nest: What's Next?: Parenting Adult Children Without Losing Your Mind by Michele Howe - And I just finished reading this one and haven't yet posted my review, so you'll see it here again next week with that link!




I'm currently reading...

A Beauty So Rare (A Belmont Mansion Novel) by Tamera Alexander



Queen of Sheba by Roberta Kells Dorr - very interesting, so far!



Wuthering Heights by Emily Bronte - A couple chapters in and it's better than the last time I tried to read it, but true enjoyment hasn't hit me yet. I'm still waiting!




The Coffee Trader: A Novel by David Liss - still working on this one a little bit at a time.




 Next on the stack...

The Prophetess: Deborah's Story (Daughters of the Promised Land) by Jill Eileen Smith
Mosaic: Pieces of My Life So Far by Amy Grant
Boundaries with Teens: When to Say Yes, How to Say No by Dr. John Townsend


        




On my blogs last week . . .

Here on Just A Second:

Scripture and a Snapshot - Be A Servant
Recent Reads - David and Bathsheba
Wordless Wednesday - Spring Snow
Teaser Tuesdays/First Chapter First Paragraph - Queen of Sheba
Join the Scavenger Hunt Blog Hop!


And on my homeschool blog, Homeschool Coffee Break:

Homeschool Weekly - Making Progress Edition
From the High School Lesson Book - Analytical Grammar
Virtual Refrigerator - Polish Paper-cutting
Join the Scavenger Hunt!
Science and Stuff


What are you reading?

©2008-2016 Just A Second. All rights reserved. All text, photographs, artwork, and other content may not be reproduced or transmitted in any form without the written consent of the author. http://justasecondblog.blogspot.com/

Scripture and a Snapshot - Be A Servant

The greatest among you will be your servant; for those who exalt themselves will be humbled, and those who humble themselves will be exalted.

~Matthew 23:11-12~

Scripture & a Snapshot is hosted by A Glimpse of Our Life.

Weekend Whispers is hosted by Barbie Swihart.

©2008-2016 Just A Second. All rights reserved. All text, photographs, artwork, and other content may not be reproduced or transmitted in any form without the written consent of the author. http://justasecondblog.blogspot.com/

Recent Reads - David and Bathsheba

This post contains affiliate links. 

David and Bathsheba by Roberta Kells Dorr - There's much to speculate on in the Biblical story of David and Bathsheba. We're told of David's sinful actions in bringing Bathsheba to his palace, committing adultery, and then eventually murdering her husband in an attempt to cover the whole thing up. Then we're also told that after the death of their baby, he comforted her. And later on, it is their son that God chooses as David's successor to the throne. Is it truly a love story, or not so much? Roberta Kells Dorr does treat it as a love story, and does it quite convincingly.

In this novelized version of the story, Bathsheba is a very lonely young wife to a cold-hearted Uriah, and lives under the thumb of Uriah's pagan mother. She has begun to idolize the charismatic King David after seeing him from her window, so when he eventually sees her bathing and summons her, she goes eagerly, even though she has no idea what the reason is. What follows is basically a one-night courtship, and here the story differs from most of the other fictionalized versions I've read, because David gives Bathsheba the choice to stay with him or return to Uriah's house without having crossed that line. And she chooses to stay. The story continues to unfold according to Scripture, with the stunning revelation of Nathan the prophet and the death of the baby, and David's grief over his sin and eventual repentance and restoration. Dorr gives Bathsheba lots of personality, and she must also repent and receive forgiveness for her own sin. The love and connection between David and Bathsheba is tested in many ways, including the palace intrigues (the other wives, the bad blood between David's other sons, and the plots against him) and their own guilt and pride.

It did take me several chapters of reading before I was drawn into the story, perhaps because it opens when Bathsheba is still a little girl and Saul is in the last days of his kingship. Those chapters, and parts of the later story, focus on Bathsheba's grandfather, Ahithophel and he is a puzzling and not very likeable man. Dorr's telling does imagine a background that proposes a plausible explanation for his motives, and later foreshadows some of great-grandson Solomon's struggles. Despite the slow start for me, I did get into the book as it unfolded and loved it.

©2008-2016 Just A Second. All rights reserved. All text, photographs, artwork, and other content may not be reproduced or transmitted in any form without the written consent of the author. http://justasecondblog.blogspot.com/

Wordless Wednesday - Spring Snow

The little bit of snow we got on Friday morning. Very pretty while we had it, which was only a short time, thankfully!

This post is linked at Wordless Wednesday, hosted by Life at Rossmont.

©2008-2016 Just A Second. All rights reserved. All text, photographs, artwork, and other content may not be reproduced or transmitted in any form without the written consent of the author. http://justasecondblog.blogspot.com/