Personal Reading
Sierra Jensen Collection, Volumes 1-4
A Kiss at Sunset Beach
by Robin Jones Gunn
This series of teen/young adult books follows the life of Sierra Jensen through her last two years of high school and the beginning of college. A Kiss At Sunset Beach catches up with her several years later. The Sierra Jensen character was introduced at the end of the Christy Miller (High School Years) series which I reviewed in January 2023. These novels focus on Sierra's story, with bits of Christy & Todd's story woven in through their friendship with Sierra. Chronologically, these books should be read between Christy Miller (High School) and Christy & Todd: The College Years. I think the Katie Weldon series comes after that, and then perhaps A Kiss at Sunset Beach.
I admire the author's use of descriptive language to create vivid imagery (i.e. two bushy eyebrows looked like caterpillars in a head-on collision). I enjoy the way the author describes the camaraderie and relationships among the characters. I almost feel like I'm a part of the group/family. I love the realistic way she paints each character. There are some really good quotes and bits of wisdom. But... I get kind of fed up with how the girls are always thinking they need a boyfriend, playing jealous little dating games, and bemoaning their lack of social life or the fact that they are 16 and have never been kissed or even asked out on a date. Sierra's father and older brother seem more involved in giving her wise counsel about her relationships than Christy Miller's parents were, cautioning her to not only watch out for her physical purity, but also her emotional purity. But then in the next breath, her dad tells her it's ok to date around in high school and have fun, just don't get too serious about evaluating anybody as a potential marriage partner yet. From my experience and observation, this is not wise advice. In my opinion, it is much better to wait until a person is ready to consider marriage before getting involved in anything more than "buddy" relationships with the opposite sex. Feeding emotional crushes and feeding physical desires with handholding, hugging, and "light" kissing with someone you're not serious about or you're not sure is serious with you (serious = engaged or married) is playing with fire -- you can't help but get burned.
The author gives better advice in her book Praying for Your Future Husband, but her characters in these books don't model it very well. In my opinion.
Departures
by Robin Jones Gunn & Wendy Nentwig
This book contains one novella about Christy Miller as she travels to Wisconsin with her family for her grandparents' 50th wedding anniversary the summer after her high school graduation, and another novella about Sierra Jensen traveling to Montana with friends during the summer when she is 15 (before she meets Christy the next January). Same comments apply to this as to the other books about these characters.
Cottage by the Sea
by Robin Jones Gunn
This story is about Sierra Jensen's mother-in-law as she begins a new wedding planning business but then must leave to take care of her father after he suffers a severe stroke. She learns much as she cares for him and seeks to make peace with him, her stepmother, and her brother.
Love Comes Softly
Love's Enduring Promise
Love's Long Journey
by Janette Oke
These are the first three books of the Love Comes Softly book series, the story of a young widow and widower joining in a marriage of convenience, but finding true love in God and each other. They are set somewhere in the Canadian prairies and sometime in the pioneer/homesteading days, but no specific place or time are mentioned. These books are much more clear about the gospel of Jesus and walking out the Christian faith through the hard times of life. The characters are realistic and honorable. Satisfying stories.
When Calls the Heart
When Comes the Spring
When Breaks the Dawn
by Janette Oke
These are the first 3 books in the "Canadian West" series, about a young woman from Toronto who goes west to teach, meets and marries a Mountie, and learns to live in the primitive North and love the people there. Again, these books present the gospel and Christian living clearly and naturally in the course of conversations, the characters are realistic and honorable, and the stories are satisfying. I enjoyed the narrator of the audiobooks.
Read the Bible For Life
by George Guthrie
A collection of conversations with various pastors, teachers, and authors about how to read the different parts of the Bible (historical narrative, law, poetry, prophets, gospels, letters, etc.) with the goal of applying, living out, and being changed by God's word. Very good.
Reader's Guide to the Bible: Chronological Reading Plan
by George Guthrie
A good book to follow Reader's Guide to the Bible. As the subtitle indicates, this is a chronological reading plan with daily passages to read, along with brief comments and questions to guide your thinking. Also very good.
The Faith of a Collie
by Albert Payson Terhune
Like Dog of the High Sierras, this book has almost nothing to do with the dog. Similarly, it's about the search for a lost treasure and about a man and woman overcoming misunderstandings to fall in love. There are words and attitudes portrayed that would (and should) be offensive today (regarding blacks and Indians especially). There's also a long description of a fight between two men (again, just like Dog of the High Sierras). I likely won't ever read it again and wouldn't recommend it to anybody.
Young Adult Previews
Mooses with Bazookas (and other stories children should never read)
by S. D. Smith
By the author of The Green Ember, this is a short, silly book not meant to be taken at all seriously. You almost have to try to write this bad. You can tell the author had fun with this.
Newbery Medal Books
The One and Only Ivan
by Katherine Applegate
When Ivan, a gorilla who has lived for years in a down-and-out circus-themed mall, meets Ruby, a baby elephant that has been added to the mall, he decides that he must find her a better life. I forced myself through the first 100 pages of this book before giving it up as too anthropomorphic for me.
Genre: Animal fiction. 2013 Newbery Medal Winner
The Trumpeter of Krakow
by Eric Kelly
It is late July in 1461 when young Joseph Charnetski and his family arrive in the great city of Krakow, with its glorious church towers and lively marketplace. The Charnetskis have come to Krakow to seek refuge with their relatives. What they find is more danger and adventure than a simple farm boy like Joseph could ever have imagined. First, a menacing stranger tries to take their pumpkin at sword point. Then a beautiful girl and her black-robed uncle befriend Joseph. Soon he and his family are caught up in the plots of alchemists, hypnotists, and a dark messenger of evil. The 1929 Newbery Medal winner, this book's style of language and description may be a bit challenging for modern readers to get into, but not excessively so. It was somewhat interesting until it got to the part of about hypnotizing and beliefs in magic. Then I decided I had better things to do with my time. Abandoned.
Genre: Legend/Historical fiction. 1929 Newbery Medal Winner.
