Gravel Road Musings

The Crooked Path of Growing Toward Faith Apparently, the subtitle has changed since the book I received. Mine was an uncorrected proof and the subtitle says "The Crooked Little Grace-Filled Path of Growing Up".  I think both apply. This is Andrea's memoir from her year spent at Oxford getting her Master's degree and writing her thesis. There is basically nothing about her studies, but lots about her journey, in making friends, and finding her place in Oxford and also in life. England isn't necessarily known as a Christian country despite the old churches that still remain there. This caused Andrea to doubt what she grew up believing and wondering if it wasn't better to just go through life without faith as her non-Christian friends seemed so okay and content not believing in God. But in the end, she realizes that her faith is her foundation. There are a few things I want to quote and comment on. When one of her friends asked her what her pillars were, ...

5-Minute Inspirational Stories by Stan and Jan Berenstain with Mike Berenstain I may have mentioned my love of the Berenstain Bears a time or so on here when I've done reviews of their books. Their Living Lights Series is a Christian-based series that teaches godly principles. This book is a collection of 12 stories including: The Berenstain Bears God Loves You! (in spite of who you are or what you do) The Berenstain Bears Say Their Prayers (God hears our prayers and answers but not always how we think.) The Berenstain Bears Love Their Neighbors (A bear version of the Good Samaritan) And so on. I do love the good principles that are taught throughout the book through forgiveness, not gossiping, etc. My only complaint is one little filler/swear word. I consider it a swear word yet, but in our day, I think it is so common that people don't even think of it as a swear word. I'm not saying that it makes it right or wrong, it's just a word I don't want my dau...

Apart from the Crowd This was a fluffy book, by this I mean that there wasn't a lot of depth or insight I gained from reading the book, but it was fun, fluffy read that required no thought. It's the story of a wallflower in New York society. By wallflower I mean someone who wasn't really accepted into society and so spent their time at events, up against the wall or hiding in corners observing the goings on of the elite class. Permilia was an outspoken girl with a heart for others, despite being raised in privilege. She tried to be frugal while still maintaining the fashion style her stepmother required of her. She did this by finding out of the way dressmakers who were working to put bread on their table, but who had very nice fashion sense. This is probably the takeaway from the book, to care about people less fortunate than we are and to not allow our wealth to make us look down on others less fortunate. And of course, there is one of the wealthiest men in the ...

Heart of the Frontier Book One This was a Christian Historical fiction book where, of course, the main two characters fall in love with each other, so I'm not going to go into that too much. You know how it works, the feelings, the misunderstandings, the corrections, etc. But I do like Tracie's writing and I think she does a good job at what she does. What I really liked about this book was the historical event that Tracie sought to portray as accurately as possible. That even was the Whitman Mission in Oregon Country and the Indian's attack and subsequent massacre of Dr. Marcus Whitman and his wife Narcissa and the men that were staying there. And then how they held the woman and children hostage, raped the women, and how they were ransomed by Peter Ogden. Of course, Tracie took liberties with her characters, but she tried to stick with the main facts and the stories that surrounded it. I did a tiny bit of research on it as well and found it to be quite accurate and ...

Illustrated by Barbara Chotiner A Faith that God Built book This is the second Faith that God Built book that I have and I really, really like them. For any of you that know the book "The House that Jack Built" it is the same idea. There is an initial sentence and every line is added to it, so that by the end of the book, you have the whole story on the final pages, but it is fun to read it and to hear it build on each other. It does rhyme as well adding to the charm of reading it. While there's not a specific age attached to the book, it's just called juvenile nonfiction, my two year old loves these books. Since I just got this one, I don't know how she will like this one, but the other book we have, (she calls it the "Ark book"), we read a couple times a week at least. So I'm thinking this one will also be well-liked. This book is about Paul and Silas being in jail and singing praises to the prisoners who were "crusty and cold with n...

So this is not the post I mentioned yesterday, but it was that came to me while having my devotions this morning. I have been slowly working my way through a Bible Study called "An Unexplainable Life" taken from Acts 1-12. Slowly is a key word here. It's a ten week study that I started at the beginning of the year and I am now nearing the end of week two. There's been some lack of self-discipline involved as well, but let's not get into that now. This morning I was reading about the early church again. Do you know what they did E.V.E.R.Y D.A.Y? They worshipped God together, they ate together, they praised God together, they enjoyed the favor of the people together. And they did this all with joy and gladness. What has happened? Or should I say, what would happen if today's church would try that? What if everything we did was done with joy and gladness? What if, when we got together with other Christians we spend our time praising God instead of goss...

Finding God's Best in the Most Unlikely Places God, Adoption, Down Syndrome, Love are a few of the themes that carry through in this book. Many things come to mind when you hear these words and rather than confuse a book review and a blog post, I may actually do a blog post in the next little while addressing some of those thoughts. So stay tuned for that. This is the story of Josh and Heather Avis and their journey through adoption. Not just normal adoption, but the adoption of two special needs children with heart defects who needed open heart surgery. Their middle child, Truly, did not have special needs as far as Down Syndrome, but she was a wide open, energetic, wild and free child, so she kept them very busy as well. It's the story of saying yes to God and having your lives forever changed. I really liked the emphasis on saying yes to God and being willing to do what He calls you to do. Another thing I appreciated was the open honesty that Heather expressed in t...

This is book two in the series Chesapeake Valor I'm really not sure what to say about this book. Let me start with the good stuff. It is very well-written. This is the second book I've read and Dani is a very gift author in her writing style. The story captures a group of friends who often investigate crimes together and are very good at what they do. To fully understand this book, you do need to have read book one. For me, I struggled a bit because it has been awhile since I read book one. There is an element of trust that happens in this book. Avery has a very bad past and is struggling to fully believe that God loves her in spite of it, that her giving her life over to Christ truly does make her a new person and her past doesn't need to drag her down. Parker, her boyfriend, does a very good job of assuring her of that as well as still loving her despite her past and allowing her to tell her story at her own pace. All that being said, I found the storyline rather ...

This is the second book that I have read by Eva Marie Everson. It was pretty good, but not as good as the first one I read, Five Brides. But that is just my opinion. This is a very well-written story that took place during World War II. A very smitten 16-year-old Alice Ann sends off her "one true love", one of her brother's best friends,  to war after telling him she loves him, etc. etc. He wasn't necessarily of the same persuasion. As stories like these go, her brother's other best friend, comes back wounded from the war and she spends time reading to him. Anyway, I'm not going to spoil the story, but she discovers who her true love is. In my mind, there was a lot of conflict between which man she really loved, when I thought it should be pretty obvious, but maybe I need to remember that she was only 19-years-old and I can only imagine how indecisive I would be at that time, especially when she thought the first man was dead, but then shows up alive lat...

A book for Moms who Spend Saturdays at the Soccer Field instead of the Spa This is a fun little gift book, coffee table book if you're looking for that gift for a mom you know, a good friend, a baby shower gift, etc. etc. It's a fun easy read that I read all in one day. It was a little different than I expected and I wasn't sure what a male author would have to say that was pertinent to a Mom, but I thought Harry did a good job. There are seven chapters covering pregnancy, baby, toddler, schoolkids, working mom, teens, and adult kids. There are just little phrases in the chapters, some of them feel very applicable now already, some are humorous, some are real life, some are goals I would like to attain to. I'll give you a few examples: "You Know You're a Pregnant Mom when.... You buy a book of one hundred thousand  baby names--and then name your baby after your grandmother......You stare in the mirror and decide that the whole "pregnancy glow...

This is the second book in the series "If I Run" and it ends just as cliff-hanging as book one did. I haven't read many books by Terri Blackstock, but I might need to change that. Mystery, intrigue isn't generally my style and actually, quite honestly varying first-person books are not my style at all either, but in this series Terri has done such a good job of weaving everything together that I had a hard time laying the book down. I will have to admit to postponing supper preparations last evening so that I could finish the book. It's quite a bit thicker than the book "If I Run" was and continues directly from the end of that book into this one. It's been quite a while since I read the first book in the series, but I was able to grab a hold and keep up with the action. Casey Cox has been mislabeled the killer of her best friend, but she was framed to keep the true killers, the cops who were involved in money laundering, from being found out. No...