Addy Davidson is stuck in a most unfortunate predicament. She wants nothing of the spotlight yet she has somehow become the it girl on a new reality TV show to win a prom date with the president’s son. And she can’t help but feel something for him as she gets to know him. But there’s trouble in paradise. Because there are other girls there who want to see their competition, Addy, off the show. And there are people who want nothing more than to see Addy crash and burn.

One of my favorite things about First Date (and the reason why I would suggest this novel to most YA readers) was Addy’s growth throughout the novel. She changes as she learns that she can be herself (and her parents’ daughter, and God’s witness) and that her story is in the midst of being written by a God that loves her so. I am thankful for YA fiction that points to God and gives the reader a good idea of truth. I heartily recommend this novel to YA readers of all ages.

Thanks, Krista McGee, for writing a fantastic novel. I look forward to reading about the hilarious Kara in July. Thanks, Thomas Nelson and BookSneeze, for the review copy of First Date in exchange for an honest review.

So, all that said, I began Lynn Austin’s latest, Wonderland Creek, with high expectations.  I was not to be disappointed.

First thing, when I read the back cover to my husband, he shook his head and said, “Wow, Jess, I think that book may just be about you.”  I felt such a connection with Alice (and sadly, her crazy inability to put down books in the most inappropriate places…funeral for her, work for me ).  Second thing, I loved this story.  It was exciting.  It was funny.  It was heart-breaking.  It was shocking.  It was inspiring.  It was just plain old good fiction.

The relationship between Alice and Mack made for a fun read, and I loved Lillie’s role in the novel.  I felt like a sleuth as I read and tried to figure out the mystery of Mack’s “murder” and the treasure.  So fun.

I felt like Austin wrote Wonderland Creek just for me.  Why?  Because through a novel, I was able to learn the lesson of the joy that can be found when you put a book down and live life.  Alice is thrown into a mystery and a challenging new existence (and believe me, I would NOT do the horseback riding as she did!) and she learns how to live it, not simply avoid it by sticking her head in a book.

This was a great reminder to me, and I’m thankful for the great story, strong writing, and reminder.  Also, thanks, Bethany House, for the review copy in exchange for an honest review.  It was a joy!

Because I’ve decided to embark on a new adventure.  A reading adventure.  Before I start, I need to make some decisions.

First, where to start?  The list is divided into subsections (comedy, crime, family, love, etc.) and these subsections are organized alphabetically by last name.  I reorganized the list and put it in alphabetical order by book title.  I think I’m going to start at the bottom and read two books.  Then I’ll scoot all the way up to the top and read two.  So on and so forth.  That way I’ll have a chance to read across genre and won’t feel stifled when I’m slogging through the war section, or something like that.  But I’m going to start with East of Eden by John Steinbeck because it’s already upstairs in my book pile from the library.  Booyah.

Second, do I reread?  I read The Great Gatsby in high school and really enjoyed it.  Then I read it (again and again) when I taught it.  I don’t feel the need to reread.  I read All Quiet on the Western Front in high school.  And I hated it.  But I feel like I probably should reread it as a more mature and discerning reader.  I read Beloved in college while falling in love with my husband and reading 29 other books that quarter.  And I remember enjoying it but knowing if I had spent more time with it, I’d get so much more out of it.  Reread?  I read Little Women so many times when I was a teenager yet I still feel like I’d like to reread it as an adult.  So maybe I’ll need to take it on a case to case basis but reread most that I haven’t read within the last five years.

Third, what about life?  Or the lack of outside life that would be expected from this undertaking?  Well, I’m going to take this slowly.  I figure I’ll spread this list out over the next ten years.  Terrifyingly enough, with that in mind, I’ll be 27 when I finish…eek.  But really, if I didn’t learn anything else from my experience of cramming all but four of the necessary classes for my English Language Literature major into ONE YEAR (three quarters), I did learn that reading as fast as possible just to finish is no way to engage my brain with literature.  So slowly I embark on the 1000 novel long list.

Here goes nothing.

I really enjoyed reading Hunter’s latest. I’ve read a few of her other novels in the past (the Nantucket series was part ridiculous-cheesy-Christian fiction, part really enjoyable and thought-provoking fiction) and I’ve always appreciated it. My appreciation stems from the fact that Hunter’s novels are real. They do seem slightly contrived (what Christian novel isn’t with publishing these days?  And who names these books?!) but they’re not over the top ridiculous. More importantly though, I’ve appreciated Hunter’s focus on major growth for her characters.

In An Accidental Bride, Shay struggles with something oh-so-common to most women’s lives and thought processes. Took me back to high school mentally when I read of the snickers and giggles and rude girls! But Shay’s engagement with the issue (of how she’s seen by others and their perceived judgement of her) and the way the issue continually evolved for Shay was interesting. Her relationship with her daughter and the way she handled her daughter’s insecurities as well as her own was difficult to read; however, it was encouraging to see Shay grow and to teach her daughter as she learned from her mistakes.

I was not a huge fan of Shay’s character, but I did enjoy watching her grow into her relationship with Travis.  As far as plot goes, this was nothing heavy, but it was a well-written novel with some interesting twists.

Thank you to Thomas Nelson for the review copy.  My opinions are solely my own.

This particular student (a girl) chose love as her theme.  Her illustration of love was this:

And my heart broke.  Because an eighth grade student saw a ring on someone’s finger as love.

But I get it.  I get her fantasy; I did dream of marriage as a teenager and beyond.  I idolized marriage and finding someone to share my life with in love.

Don’t get me wrong, I love my husband.  And the love we’ve shared as a married couple amazes me.  I’m so blessed by our marriage.

But as I’ve learned what it looks like to love–and be loved by–my amazing husband, I’ve realized that I will never find fulfillment in marriage.

Because my heart is not meant to find complete fulfillment there.  I remember feeling heartbroken when my (now) husband told me three years into dating (and a month before our engagement) that if he felt that God had asked him to break up with me, he would.  He said he’d be sad, but he would obey.  And I was sad for a few reasons.  First, my human pride was bruised.  Second (and more crushing) was that I wanted to be able to say the same.  Because I had found my identity in Eric’s love.

~~~~~

This evening at the Christmas Eve service, I was stuck pondering where I found love.  Where contentment comes from in my life.  Where I find my identity.

Even now, over two years into our marriage, I still find myself getting lost.

And forgetting that my identity is not found in anyone or anything besides my Lord.

For I am the daughter of the King, the Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.

And if I find my identity in anything but that, I will undoubtedly lose my way.

So, we bought windshield wipers in August.  We got home and I declared that I was going to go put them on, all by myself, because I was fully capable.  I ended up really frustrated and ready to snap the thing in two before I finally deciphered the entirely unclear drawings on the half sheet of paper.  But when it was all said and done, I had done it.  No help needed.

~~~~~

Fast forward four months.

~~~~~

I was driving yesterday from work to a school to tutor when my windshield wiper came off.  It made some funny clicking noises a few times then it just popped off and (thankfully) fell onto the window and slid onto the hood.  So I pulled over and used the overhang at Home Depot to shield me from the drizzle.  I snapped it back on and went on my way.  I even thought to myself something along the lines of, wow, I’m so independent.  I didn’t need help from anyone, even the nice gentleman at Home Depot who walked by and offered to help.

~~~~~

Fast forward an hour and a half.

~~~~~

I drove to the school in the rain.  I tutored for just over an hour.  Then I got in the car and began my drive in the drizzle and traffic back to work to teach for another two hours.  As I pulled onto the freeway, I heard the clicking noise.

Click.  So I flipped the wipers off.

And I squinted.

When I really couldn’t see anything, I gave in and turned the wipers on for a moment.

Click.  Panic.  Wipers off.

More squinting.

And it continued like that for fifteen miles back to work.

~~~~~

The wiper stayed put but God taught me more than I anticipated on my drive.  How often to I think that I’m so independent?  I’m just fine on my own, no help needed.  It is one of my pullstring sayings, I’m fine on my own.

Just as my windshield wiper clung to its post and barely survived the ride, I’ve clung to God and barely survived the ride because I haven’t been acknowledging that it was to him I was clinging.  I’ve thought I was clinging to myself and that my self-reliance was good enough.

And God just shakes his head at my stubborn dependence on my own abilities and my lack of dependence on his infinite ability.  My facade of independence loves to throw God’s ability out the window.  It’s like I’m saying no thanks to God.  I don’t need your help because I’ve got it covered.  But I’m not fine on my own.  I do need his help.

My prayer for this upcoming week is simply:

help?  yes, please.

Check it out, and if you want to buy it, you can get 30% off and free shipping by using the coupon code CHRISTMAS11 on waterbrookmultnomah.com.  Check it out!

~~~~~

And as we were getting ready this morning and I was brushing my teeth, he was putting gel in his hair singing, ”And if you want to live high, live high, and if you want to live low, live low…”

“I’ve never heard that song,” I said.

“Oh, I’m sure you have.  It’s an old Cat Stevens’ song.”

“Really?  I don’t think I’ve heard it.”

“Your mom would know it.  Rog would definitely think he knew it.”

And we both burst out laughing.

~~~~~

Because that is my dad to a tee.  I’m thankful that he is alive and well, but I had a terribly morbid thought and said, “This will be a great story as a part of his eulogy at his funeral.”  Because Eric’s words were so true and captured my dad.

He loves to sing (loud and off-key, most of the time), but he is always mixing up the words to songs and band names.  I remember being so embarrassed by him when I was a teenager.

~~~~~

Although his inability to remember the words to songs is something I expect my brothers and my husband will laugh about for years after he’s gone, his legacy is more than just that.

Because I also expect that we’ll laugh about and remember more.

We’ll laugh about his propensity for Speedo- and short short-wearing, his ability to make us laugh without a single word, and his strange love for his bright red Christmas sweater.

We’ll remember his heart for other people and his ability to move from listening to lecturing in a nanosecond.

We’ll quote his pull-string sayings to our kids and grandkids, “Never let the teacher get in the way of your learning”, “One thumb”, and “Pals forever”.

We’ll follow our dreams because of his sacrifices so we could.

We’ll cherish our relationships with our families because of his example.

I’ll seek God deeply in his word because my dad taught me what that looked like in the recent years.

But more than anything, I sincerely hope our greatest testimony to our dad would be that our lives would reflect the unconditional love and support that we received from him, that his legacy would be the way we live our lives.

Jackson and Mary Lynn Scoville live a perfect life in their perfect home in Charleston with their perfect kids.  Or so the world believes.  But things are not so perfect on the inside.  In fact, the pain and discontentment festering seems to get larger and larger by the day, while remaining unknown and unnoticed by the family members.

Until Jackson one day is changed.  His blinders are taken off and he changes.  He begins to thirst for God in a way that makes others uncomfortable, especially his wife and children.  His actions cause the family’s social status to plummet and their world seems to be imploding.

And that’s all I’ll say about the plot.  You’ll have to read it to find out what happens.  But here’s what happened to me while reading it.  I was so incredibly convicted by my own reactions.  I felt for Mary Lynn as Jackson was “losing it” and losing the social status their family had craved and worked diligently for.  And then I realized that I so often am cringing when my wonderful husband is loving and serving God in the all out, no holds barred way that he does.  And I don’t want to cringe.  I want to support.  And I want to love God deeper.  And in our lives, I think that means acting in ways different than the American Christian culture expects.  I think God is asking us to really love and serve him by loving and serving all people, and for me, this book reminded me that that is how I want to live my life.

This novel was much more than a novel to me.  Thanks, Beth Webb Hart, for the way you write fiction that changes hearts!  Thank you, Thomas Nelson, for the complimentary review copy of Sunrise on the Battery.  I so enjoyed it.