What I'm Reading - October 31, 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 also link up with Tales of a Pee Dee Mama for D.E.A.R. Monday (Drop Everything And Read).

I finished reading . . .

Slender Reeds: Jochebed's Hope by Texie Susan Gregory - Good novel about the mother of Moses, a woman who raised one of the greatest Biblical leaders. (Read my full review HERE.)





I'm currently reading . . .

Shadow of the Storm (Out From Egypt)by Connilyn Cossette - although this novel is also set in the time of the Exodus, it focuses on a young woman's journey of faith in the months after the Hebrews leave Egypt.




Swept Away (Trouble in Texas) (Volume 1) by Mary Connealy - a young man tries to get his family ranch back from the local bad guy, and of course there's an unlikely romance in the mix.

The Tea Planter's Wife: A Novel by Dinah Jefferies - just got started on this one, in which a young British bride arrives in Ceylon in the 1920s.

Next on the stack... 

The Reckoning (Legacy of the King's Pirates) (Volume 5) by MaryLu Tyndall
She Walks in Power (Protectors of the Spear Book 1) by MaryLu Tyndall

   

On my blogs last week . . .

Here on Just A Second:

Scripture and a Snapshot - Great Is Your Faithfulness
Bookshelf Review - October 2016
Recent Reads - Slender Reeds: Jochebed's Hope
Wordless Wednesday - National Aquarium
Teaser Tuesday/First Chapter First Paragraph - Shadow of the Storm


And on my homeschool blog, Homeschool Coffee Break:

Homeschool Highlights - Personalities
Virtual Refrigerator - Papel Picado for Dia de los Muertos
Name Meaning Gifts from CrossTimber
52 Lists #42 - Sick Days
From the High School Lesson Book - National Aquarium PhotoJournal


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 - Great is Your Faithfulness

I remember my affliction and my wandering,

the bitterness and the gall.

I well remember them,

and my soul is downcast within me.

Yet this I call to mind

and therefore I have hope:

Because of the LORD's great love we are not consumed,

for his compassions never fail.

They are new every morning;

great is your faithfulness.

I say to myself, "The LORD is my portion;

therefore I will wait for him."

The LORD is good to those whose hope is in him,

to the one who seeks him;

it is good to wait quietly

for the salvation of the LORD.

~Lamentations 3:19-26~

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

Glimpses is hosted by Embracing Every Day, a lifestyle blog 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/

Bookshelf Review - October 2016

This post contains affiliate links.

October's Books Completed and Reviewed

A Tapestry of Secrets by Sarah Loudin Thomas - This beautiful family saga continues with Ella caring for her grandmother Perla, who has suffered a stroke. Perla wants to share about her past but words are difficult; and Ella is trying to sort out her feelings when two good men seem to vie for her attention. (Read my full review HERE.)

Ella was a little overwhelmed by the depth of what she was feeling, but what Seth said made sense. She'd come home, at least in part, to get away from a life that hadn't turned out the way she'd hoped.

   


Caught in the Middle by Regina Jennings - A romantic comedy with a big emotional tug at the heartstrings. Nicholas and Anne form an unlikely team when Anne is unexpectedly given the care of a young child. (Read my full review HERE.)

"That's the problem, though," Molly said. "I don't think she's ever been in polite society. She went from the backwoods to being imprisoned, and then she was ostracized as a woman who had killed her husband. It'll take more than a new outfit to civilize her. But tell me about this baby she has . . ."

The Pharaoh's Daughter: A Treasures of the Nile Novel by Mesu Andrews - a compelling novel about the Egyptian princess, Anippe, that adopted Moses, and how it changed her view of the Hebrew slaves. (Read my full review HERE.)

A single tear crept over Anippe's bottom lash. "You may think Hebrews live only because they cannot die, but Jochebed lives for the people who love her - and you almost took her away from them. You will apologize, Ankhe, or you will join the overseer in the copper mines."

The Captive Heart by Michelle Griep - Colonial backwoodsman Samuel wants his little daughter brought up properly, and as a former governess, Eleanor can do that. But can they both learn to trust again and find love in their arranged marriage? (Read my full review HERE.)

Her words rushed, faster, crazier, forced out by rising guilt and shame. "I do not belong here. I may never belong. You and Grace would be better off without me."

Slender Reeds: Jochebed's Hope by Texie Susan Gregory - yes, another novel of the Hebrews in Egypt! This one is about Moses' birth mother, Jochebed. (Read my full review HERE.)

If she stepped into the churning waters of grief, into the current of despair, she would drown, and her babies would be lost. These three children, two in her arms and one in her womb, were all that remained of her Amram. Whatever it took, they must live.

During October I started reading:

Swept Away (Trouble in Texas) (Volume 1) by Mary Connealy - I started this romantic comedy set in the old west near the beginning of the month, then had to set it aside until just this past week.

Luke hadn't felt this safe for a long time. Years. Before the war, and that was a long time ago. And now he was starting another war. He had no business feeling relaxed. Especially when loyal friends might end up dead because they were backing him.

Shadow of the Storm (Out From Egypt)by Connilyn Cossette - the second in this series, and yet another novel set in ancient Egypt and based on the Biblical account of the Exodus.

Would I ever have Reva's courage? Would I ever be able to deliver truth, no matter the cost, with such unflinching, brutal honesty? And would Ayal even want to marry someone whose body could never bear him a child?

Coming Up in November!

The Tea Planter's Wife: A Novel by Dinah Jefferies

The Reckoning (Legacy of the King's Pirates) (Volume 5) by MaryLu Tyndall

She Walks in Power (Protectors of the Spear Book 1) by MaryLu Tyndall


  

  

This post will be linked at 5 Minutes For Books - What's On Your Nightstand? October 25th
and at The Book Date - Month In Review - October 2016.

©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 - Slender Reeds: Jochebed's Hope

This post contains affiliate links. 

Slender Reeds: Jochebed's Hope by Texie Susan Gregory - The Biblical story of the Exodus of the Hebrew people from Egypt is a popular theme for novels, and for whatever reason, I've been reading several of them recently. This one is a little different because it focuses on the mother of Moses, a woman that we know little about, but who mothered one of the greatest leaders of Israel. The story begins with Jochebed as a young teenager coming of age, and imagines details about her character and family; and the circumstances that led her to place her baby boy in a basket in the Nile.

Jochebed is being raised by her widowed mother; they are slaves in Egypt, but her mother continually shares the stories of their people's history and reminds Jochebed that God is faithful and will keep his promises. The phrase "while it is still dark, God is at work" is a repeated theme. Jochebed struggles with her own doubts about God, but rarely speaks of them. She and her cousin Lili become great friends with a half-Egyptian girl, Shiphrah, rescued from the river, and the three are very close until jealousy and mistrust starts to pry them apart. Jochebed and Shiphrah are the two main characters in the book, along with the Pharaoh Ramses, and his fears and suspicion that eventually lead to his orders to kill Hebrew baby boys. Jochebed discovers that she is pregnant with a third child about the same time that Amram is among the Hebrew men sent away to slave on Pharaoh's latest building project, and the Egyptian guards pay their first visit to the village to murder baby boys. Grief leads to even more suspicion against the midwife Shiphrah, and Jochebed spends her entire pregnancy and the early weeks after her son is born wrestling with her faith and her fears. Eventually she comes to the decision to trust her baby to God by putting him in a basket in the Nile.

Overall I enjoyed this imagining of who Jochebed was and how her character was developed. She and Shiphrah were interesting characters in this story, although very different from what I would have pictured. I was disappointed that Amram is little more than a name in the story, and his relationship with Jochebed is barely hinted at. In fact, he is absent through the majority of the story, even before he is sent away. It's in his absence that Jochebed matures and learns to trust and obey God even though she doesn't understand him or see how he is working.

From the publisher:

Trapped beneath 400 years of Egypt's injustices, the Hebrew people await deliverance from generations of Egyptian slavery. But while it is still dark, God is at work. Young Jochebed is unaware the Master Weaver is preparing her to mother three formidable leaders: Miriam, Aaron, and Moses. Shiphrah, the half-Egyptian midwife tasked to kill Hebrew male newborns, remembers childhood stories of a merciful God and cannot resist His call on her life.

Two women, each following the dangerous path God has set before them - this is their story.

Visit Barbour Publishing for more info on where to buy.

I received a complimentary copy of this book from Barbour Publishing in exchange for my honest review.

©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/