Saturday, October 17

Scripture and a Snapshot - Harvest


He [Jesus] told them, "The harvest is plentiful, but the workers are few. Ask the Lord of the harvest, therefore, to send workers into his harvest field."

~Luke 10:2~




Thank you for joining Scripture & A Snapshot. Leave a link to your own post sharing a Scripture and a Snapshot. Take time to visit some of the other links and bless each other with comments.

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I also link up at Sunday Scripture Blessings, hosted by Peabea's Photos 'n Scribbles; and at Selah, hosted by A Spirit of Simplicity.


 ©2008-2020 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/ 

 We are a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for us to earn fees by linking to Amazon.com and affiliated sites.

Wednesday, October 14

Wordless Wednesday - Kentuck Knob

This post contains affiliate links - using affiliate links from Just A Second helps supply books and coffee. 












This post will be linked at Wordless Wednesday, hosted by Life on Chickadee Laneand at Pictorial Tuesday, hosted by Peabea Scribbles.


 

©2008-2020 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/ 

We are a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for us to earn fees by linking to Amazon.com and affiliated sites.



Tuesday, October 13

Recent Reads - The Viscount and the Vicar's Daughter

This post contains affiliate links - using affiliate links from Just A Second helps supply books and coffee. 


The Viscount and the Vicar's Daughter: A Victorian Romance by Mimi Matthews - Tristan Sinclair, Viscount St Ashton, is well-known as a rake and womanizer, but he's also one of the England's most eligible bachelors. He attends a house party with hosts notorious for the heavy drinking and debauchery but he himself has grown weary of the lifestyle. But upon arrival, he encounters a young woman in distress, and is uncharacteristically chivalrous and kind, surprising even himself.

Valentine March is a vicar's daughter, with no family connections, engaged as a companion to one of the ladies attending the house party. Her employer is unkind and her employer's daughter is downright hateful. Tristan happens upon her when she is weeping over this cruel treatment, and an uneasy friendship begins. But Tristan is shocked to realize he may be experiencing love at first sight, and disturbed by his father's reaction upon meeting Valentine.

Tristan follows Valentine into the conservatory, and their brief moment of unexpected passion sets off quite a chain of events. Tristan vows to marry Valentine, but his father sends him to his inherited estate without an allowance and insists that he leave Valentine alone while she is reunited with her mother's family. Can Valentine trust Tristan to keep his promise to marry her?

This book was such a pleasant surprise for me - well-written and sweetly romantic - and I must admit that I would not have given it a look except that an author I enjoy recommended it on social media. The odd thing is that I don't remember now which author it was! In any case, I thoroughly enjoyed the story which was a quick read, and greatly appreciated that it was clean too.

This is a book recommended by a source I trust for the Modern Mrs. Darcy 2020 Reading Challenge.


©2008-2020 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/ 

 We are a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for us to earn fees by linking to Amazon.com and affiliated sites.


Monday, October 12

What I'm Reading - October 12, 2020

This post contains affiliate links - using affiliate links from Just A Second helps supply books and coffee. 

It's Monday! What Are You Reading?

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! Although the Book Date link-up happens weekly, I don't manage to post that often. I aim to post and link about once a month, although I sometimes link up my monthly summary as well. 

I finished reading . . . 

Ever Faithful by Karen Barnett - Park Ranger's daughter Elsie and Civilian Conservation Corps member Nate Weber meet in Yellowstone park during the 1930s. Nate faces the challenge of learning to read, and Elsie has to overcome her fears from a devastating fire years earlier - because it seems the fires at Yellowstone that season may have been deliberately set. (Read my full review HERE)



Summer of Dreams by Elizabeth Camden - West Point cadet Clyde Brixton develops a friendship with Evelyn White and her cousin Romulus, and his loyalty to them may wind up costing him his own graduation from the academy. (Read my full review HERE)



The Red Ribbon by Pepper Basham - Ava Burcham and Jeremiah Sutphin are in danger when they get a little too close to an Appalachian feud and illegal moonshine activities.  (Read my full review HERE)



The Viscount and the Vicar's Daughter: A Victorian Romance by Mimi Matthews - Tristan Sinclair, Viscount St Ashton, has a well-earned reputation as a rake, but he finds himself unaccountably drawn to Valentine March and is determined to reform himself and protect her. (Read my full review HERE)



I'm currently reading . . .

Frankenstein by Mary Shelley - this classic Gothic novel is what we're currently studying in the Lit class I teach, so I'll be working on reading it throughout the month.



A Stroke of Malice by Anna Lee Huber - Kiera and Gage are attending a Twelfth Night house party when a body is discovered and of course they are asked to investigate.

   


Next on the stack... 

The Last Book in the Universe by Rodman Philbrick
Silas Marner by George Eliot 
When Silence Sings by Sarah Loudin Thomas
A Pretty Deceit by Anna Lee Huber

   

      



What I'm Highlighting . . . My friends that read Just A Second are invited to join me at Homeschool Coffee Break for the Twenty-Six Lists link-up. It's every other week and the list prompts are for everyone, not just homeschoolers. This week's list will be The States and Provinces You've Visited.



On my blogs recently . . . 

Besides the reviews, here on Just A Second you'll find:

Scripture and a Snapshot posts


And on my homeschool blog, Homeschool Coffee Break:



What are you reading?

©2008-2020 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/ 

 We are a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for us to earn fees by linking to Amazon.com and affiliated sites.

Saturday, October 10

Scripture and a Snapshot - Rivers of Living Water



Open for me the gates of the righteous;
I will enter and give thanks to the LORD.
This is the gate of the LORD
through which the righteous may enter.
I will give you thanks, for you answered me;
you have become my salvation.

The stone the builders rejected
has become the cornerstone;
the LORD has done this,
and it is marvelous in our eyes.
The LORD has done it this very day;
let us rejoice today and be glad.

~Psalm 118:19-24~

On the last day of the feast, the great day, Jesus stood up and cried out, "If anyone thirsts, let him come to me and drink. Whoever believes in me, as the Scripture has said, 'Out of his heart will flow rivers of living water.'"

~John 7:37-38~






Thank you for joining Scripture & A Snapshot. Leave a link to your own post sharing a Scripture and a Snapshot. Take time to visit some of the other links and bless each other with comments.

You are invited to the Inlinkz link party!

Click here to enter

I also link up at Sunday Scripture Blessings, hosted by Peabea's Photos 'n Scribbles; and at Selah, hosted by A Spirit of Simplicity.


©2008-2020 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/ 

 We are a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for us to earn fees by linking to Amazon.com and affiliated sites.

Friday, October 9

Connect Five Friday - Canadian Authors

This post contains affiliate links - using affiliate links from Just A Second helps supply books and coffee. 


The Friday Five Link Up is a List Link Up hosted by The Book Date. It can be five connections of any kind. Books can have been read last year or any year. Books can be used more than once. They may not have been read yet. . . It can be as simple or as complicated as you like. Maybe it's not a list of actual books, but things connected to books - e.g. favourite book shops, recipes etc. It might even be five movies related to books or five poems or five poets or five bookish moments, five thoughts about reading - be creative! The link-up will be open each Friday and will close on Thursday. Use the hashtag #connect5books

Monday is Thanksgiving in Canada. Being Canadian, we plan to celebrate! And so here are books by five Canadian authors:

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The Blue Castle by L.M. Montgomery - Anne of Green Gables is the story we first associate with Montgomery, but this one is absolutely delightful as well. This story opens on the day prior to Valancy Stirling's twenty-ninth birthday, and the opening paragraph says that if it hadn't rained that day her life would been entirely different. You see, Valancy has lived a monotonous, dreary life up until then. Always overshadowed by others and completely controlled by her overbearing extended family, who care nothing for her feelings or interests or dreams. Valancy has accepted that she will remain unloved and unmarried and that she'll have to live out the rest of her days the same way. But because of the rain, a family picnic is canceled, and Valancy decides to go secretly to consult a doctor about the chest pains she's been having. It is a delightful story, full of fascinating characters, humour, small town drama, and some interesting plot twists. It's easy to sympathize with the lonely and downtrodden Valancy, and feel indignant at the little injustices she's subjected to; and it's entertaining to see her thrive and develop as she follows her own course in life.

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Janette Oke is one of my favorite Canadian authors. When Calls the Heart was probably my favorite of her many novels, partly because it takes place in Alberta, where I grew up. The story is about a young woman, Elizabeth Thatcher, who gives up a safe life in the city to be a teacher in a little frontier town. Of course she winds up loving her new home and eventually marries Wynn, the handsome Mountie. The series continues their story and that of their children. Years later, Oke teamed up with her daughter, Laurel Oke Logan, to write the next generation of these romances. In Where Courage Calls Beth Thatcher is about to leave her beautiful Toronto home to become a schoolteacher in the little mining town of Coal Valley, Alberta, following in the footsteps of her relative and namesake, Elizabeth. The conditions in Coal Valley shock her at first - there is no school building, and there are very few of the amenities she is accustomed to. The children have had very little education, and most of them lost their fathers in a recent mining accident. The widows have little and are largely at the mercy of the mining company, but have banded together to provide their children with an education. Beth comes to love the people and think of the town as her home. She also finds that her affections are somewhat torn between Edward, the young man who is a family friend and has come west as an RCMP officer, and Jack, the Mountie who often visits Coal Valley in the course of his duties. When her year contract is up, she will have to make some difficult decisions about whether she wants to return, and which man will win her heart.

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Murther and Walking Spirits by Robertson Davies - In the first sentence of this unusual book, the principle character and narrator is murdered. Connor Gilmartin has walked into his bedroom to find his wife and a colleague nicknamed the Sniffer together, and the Sniffer strikes Gil and kills him. What follows is partly farce and partly tragedy and Gil realizes that he is dead and wonders whether he is actually a ghost and what the afterlife will be like even as he is able to observe the actions of his wife and the Sniffer in the days that follow. Gil introduces these characters to the reader and tells a bit about his own background and the events that led up to his death. He and the Sniffer work for the newspaper, and it happens that the Sniffer is a film critic who must attend a film festival. Gil finds that he, as ghost or spirit, is attending the festival as well, but the films he sees are somehow meant only for him.

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Still Life by Louise Penny - I read this a number of years ago and don't remember it clearly, but it takes place near Montreal. Chief Inspector Armand Gamache and his team investigate a death that seems at first to be the result of a tragic hunting accident. 

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The Handmaid's Tale by Margaret Atwood - Although I've not read this novel, or anything by Atwood, I could hardly focus on Canadian authors without mentioning her work. This novel is set in a a monotheocracy of a future time, and is told from the point of view of Offred, one of the handmaids in this new social order.

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©2008-2020 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/ 

 We are a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for us to earn fees by linking to Amazon.com and affiliated sites.