What I'm Reading - May 8, 2017

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 finished reading . . . 

The Secret Bridge by Amy Le Feuvre - I finished this last week and posted my full review on Homeschool Coffee Break, then shared a slightly abbreviated version. (Read my review HERE.)
 

All the Blue of Heaven by Virginia Carmichael - Once I got rolling with this Kindle novel I found it hard to put down. (Read my full review HERE.)

I'm currently reading . . .

The Chapel Car Bride by Judith Miller - Didn't take long to be drawn into this novel about a young woman traveling with her preacher father to minister in a remote mining town.




All in Good Time (The Gilded Legacy) by Maureen Lang - this novel took second place to the Miller novel during the week, but I'm still working on it.




Love's Rescue by Christine Johnson - Once again, I was in need of something on my Kindle. I chose this story based in the Florida Keys. Have just read the opener so far, but I think it will be good.

 


Next on the stack... 

Alice and the Assassin: An Alice Roosevelt Mystery by R.J. Koreto - not sure I'm going to be able to get to this before the library wants it back. Rats. Guess it will have to go back on the list and I'll try again.

Sanditon by Jane Austen
Lady Susan by Jane Austen

   

On my blogs last week . . .

Here on Just A Second:

Scripture and a Snapshot - He Provides
Recent Reads - All the Blue of Heaven
Recent Reads - The Secret Bridge
Wordless Wednesday - Canada 150 Tulips
Teaser Tuesday/First Chapter First Paragraph - The Chapel Car Bride

And on my homeschool blog, Homeschool Coffee Break:

Homeschool Highlights - The Merry Month of May
Owl on a Pacific Northwest Totem Pole - Blogging Through the Alphabet
And Then There Was One - How Homeschooling Changes as Students Graduate
Virtual Refrigerator - Chinese Horse
The Secret Bridge (A Homeschool Coffee Break Book Review)
Draw the World with ArtAchieve (A Homeschool Coffee Break Review)

What are you reading?

©2008-2017 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 - He Provides

Praise the LORD.

How good it is to sing praises to our God,

how pleasant and fitting to praise him!

The LORD builds up Jerusalem;

he gathers the exiles of Israel.

He heals the brokenhearted and binds up their wounds.

He determines the number of the stars

and calls them each by name.

Great is our Lord and mighty in power;

his understanding has no limit.

The LORD sustains the humble

but casts the wicked to the ground.

Sing to the LORD with grateful praise;

make music to our God on the harp.

He covers the sky with clouds;

he supplies the earth with rain

and makes grass grow on the hills.

He provides food for the cattle

and for the young ravens when they call.

~Psalm 147:1-9~

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

Glimpses is hosted by Embracing Every Day, a lifestyle blog by Barbie Swihart.

Sunday Scripture Blessings is hosted by Peabea Scribble Pad.

©2008-2017 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 - All the Blue of Heaven

This post contains affiliate links. 

All the Blue of Heaven by Virginia Carmichael - Allie Hathaway fulfilled her dream of being a successful painter when she left everything in her Chicago life behind and moved to San Francisco. When her brother and his wife both died, Allie became guardian to her young niece Janey, and they continued their happy life, with Allie enjoying great success in her studio. Then the San Francisco earthquake and fire destroyed everything -- their home and possessions, and Allie's paintings and studio. It also left Allie scarred physically and emotionally. So she made the difficult decision to return to her mother in Chicago to finish her recovery and find a way to continue to care for Janey.

Back in Chicago, Allie's first love, Thomas Bradford has worked hard to build a successful veterinary business, and he's become one of the city's most sought-after bachelors. After the misunderstandings that divided Allie and Thomas so many years ago, their reunion is awkward, and they both struggle with their feelings. They still love each other, but Allie fears that Thomas is only feeling sorry for her; and Thomas doesn't want Allie to feel pressured into marriage with him or anyone else. Because of course Allie's society mother is busy trying to make a suitable match for her -- and suitable doesn't necessarily mean Allie will love or even like the man chosen for her. Even worse, the 'suitable' gentlemen Allie's mother is considering are very unlikely to want Janey as part of the deal.

Most importantly, Allie needs to wrestle with her doubts and her anger with God after everything the earthquake and fire have taken from her. She needs to learn to trust God before she can accept that Thomas still loves her.

Overall, I really enjoyed this story although the negative characteristics of Allie's mother and some of the other characters seemed exaggerated to the point of not being realistic. A young lady who is vying for Thomas' attention is very jealous of Allie and is extremely spiteful when she doesn't get her way. She is an overdone stereotype of an empty-headed and mean-spirited spoiled rich girl, and towards the end of the story she takes out her anger at Allie in an extreme way that doesn't even make sense. That part of the story seemed contrived and poorly done, but other than that over-the-top character, the rest of the story-telling was quite well done. One minor point that I found irritating was the repeated use of the word "reigns" where "reins" was clearly correct. This wouldn't be so glaring except for the fact that it happened repeatedly in a story where a main character is a veterinarian that deals mainly with horses. 

©2008-2017 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 - The Secret Bridge

This post contains affiliate links. 

I received this novel for review through the Homeschool Review Crew. The following is an excerpt of my full review, which appeared on my Homeschool Coffee Break blog. Read it here: The Secret Bridge (A Homeschool Coffee Break Book Review).

The Secret Bridge by Amy LeFeuvre was originally published in 1899, and is an intriguing story of a young woman in a predicament that seems quite foreign to us in today's world, and her determination to live honestly and in peace with all her neighbors despite the secrets she has been asked to keep.

Bridget Channing returns to England after her father's death, thinking she has a home with an uncle she has never met. But she finds that the uncle has recently passed away as well, and hadn't left anything for her in his will. Since she's lived her entire life with her father in India, her own education is unconventional and without any family or friends to turn to, she has no way to support herself and her funds will soon run out. Fortunately, Godfrey Bullingham, a young gentleman on the ship, had tried to befriend her and took an interest in her circumstances, and he seeks her out again in London to find out how she is managing. His concern and affection leads him to offer marriage to her and to convince her that he can care for her.

Bridget does agree to marry Godfrey and after a private ceremony with only one witness, he takes her to his family home and settles her into the farmhouse. The family lives at the main estate, but they are away when the newlyweds arrive. Godfrey is in the Navy, and must return to sea, and to Bridget's surprise, he requests her promise that she won't reveal anything about their relationship and marriage to his family until he returns home. When the Bullingham family returns, Bridget soon has a new friend in her sister-in-law, Audrey, but she has also become acquainted with another local family, the Fitzroys, and discovers that the Bullinghams and Fitzroys have been hostile to each other for generations.

Later Bridget has more secrets she's asked to keep when she discovers more about her own mother, who died while Bridget was an infant. The undercurrent to the entire story is Bridget's determination to know God better and love him more. As she learns more about God from the Scripture she studies, she learns to trust him with the complicated relationships in her life, and to pursue peace and truth. The story telling is charming, and although not action-packed as we tend to expect nowadays, I found myself eagerly turning pages to discover how Bridget would satisfy her need to be truthful without breaking promises or betraying trust. 

From The Secret Bridge (A Homeschool Coffee Break Book Review) on Homeschool Coffee Break.

©2008-2017 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 - Canada 150 Tulips

This post contains affiliate links. 

These are the Canada 150 tulips we planted in the fall. They are the official tulip for Canada's sesquicentennial celebration this spring.

This post is linked at Wordless Wednesday, hosted by Life at Rossmont; and at Pictorial Tuesday, hosted by Peabea's Scribble Pad.

©2008-2017 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 - The Chapel Car Bride

This post contains affiliate links. 

Teaser Tuesdays is a weekly bookish meme, hosted by Ambrosia at The Purple Booker. 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! 

After all, she wasn't from these parts where men didn't wait long before speaking their piece and staking their claim on a gal. Luke couldn't be certain, but he figured things were different in big cities. Men likely courted for months and months before stating their affections to a woman.

~The Chapel Car Bride by Judith Miller, page 77

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

 

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.

EARLY SPRING, 1913

Hope Irvine clutched a handful of leaflets and picked her way toward the rear of the swaying train. Pushing open the heavy door, she grasped the waist-high railing of the train's rear platform with her free hand. Her lips curved in a bright smile as she leaned forward to toss flyers from the Herald of Hope, the chapel car entrusted to her father's ministry.

But where were the children who usually ran after the chapel car when they pulled into a town? Had she miscalculated the time of their arrival? Were the children still in school? Rather than the little girls with pigtails flying in the breeze and young boys waving their caps, the only folks watching the train were a few surly-looking men lolling about outside a tavern near the railroad tracks.

When several of the men hooted and shouted catcalls in her direction, Hope startled, loosened her grip, and toppled backward, landing on her backside with skirts splayed out. Too late, she clapped her right hand to her head. Her ribbon-bedecked hat that was a perfect match for her red claret suit sailed from the back of the train like a kite on a windy day. Quickly swiping her skirt back into place, she clung to the rear railing and pulled to a sitting position. A rush of anger assailed her as she watched one of the scalawags crush the fashionable hat onto his head, then jump in the air and click his booted heels together. She narrowed her eyes and scowled.

Here's the blurb:

After a sheltered life in Pittsburgh, Hope Irvine is ready for a new adventure. When her father takes a position as a preacher in a railroad car converted into a traveling church, she's thrilled at the chance to accompany him. While accommodations in their new chapel car home are tight, Hope couldn't be happier putting her musical skills to good use and ministering to the people of West Virginia alongside her father. But when their chapel car arrives in Finch, West Virginia, they find a coal mining community that has hit hard times and is suspicious of outsiders.

Luke Hughes works for the coal mine when he can, but the struggling company doesn't always offer steady work. When Reverend Irvine and Hope arrive in town, Luke is intrigued by what the reverend can teach him -- and by the lovely and kind Hope.

When Hope's desire to bring supplies and Sunday school classes to neighboring counties leads to her traveling with a flirtatious young mine manager, Luke is hard-pressed to suppress his jealousy. But when he begins to suspect the manager's motives are less than charitable, can he prove it without hurting Hope, or worse, putting her in danger?

What do you think? Would you continue reading?

©2008-2017 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 - May 1, 2017

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 finished reading . . . 

The Secret Bridge by Amy Le Feuvre - I read this charming novel for the Homeschool Review Crew so I'll share my review here after I've posted my full review on Homeschool Coffee Break this week.

 

I'm currently reading . . .

All in Good Time (The Gilded Legacy) by Maureen Lang - A novel about a young woman trying to start a ministry among poor young women in Denver, and the banker with a dark secret who loaned her the money to purchase the house that will be her ministry home.




All the Blue of Heaven by Virginia Carmichael - Allie lost everything in the earthquake and fire of San Francisco - except her little orphaned niece. So they return to Chicago, and Allie tries to hide her physical and emotional scars so she can continue caring for little Janey, but her mother has other plans.

The Chapel Car Bride by Judith Miller - I just got started on this novel about a young woman traveling with her preacher father on the railroad's chapel car in the early 1900s.




Next on the stack... 

Alice and the Assassin: An Alice Roosevelt Mystery by R.J. Koreto

Sanditon by Jane Austen
Lady Susan by Jane Austen

  
  


On my blogs last week . . .

Here on Just A Second:

Bookshelf Review - April 2017
Scripture and a Snapshot - Morning
Book Blogger Hop - April 29, 2017
Wordless Wednesday - Westminster Peep Show
Teaser Tuesday/First Chapter First Paragraph - All In Good Time

And on my homeschool blog, Homeschool Coffee Break:

Homeschool Highlights - Busy Spring Days
A Drive Thru the Gospels (A Homeschool Coffee Break Review)
Virtual Refrigerator - Hawaiian Frog
What's New At SchoolhouseTeachers.com

What are you reading?

©2008-2017 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/