June 2024 Books

Personal Reading

I spent most of the month reading a series of series about a Norwegian family who immigrated to North Dakota in the late 1800s and started a town they named "Blessing."  There are a total of 22 books following this family.  I read and reviewed the first 7 in May 2024.

As I said in that review, it's kind of like Little House on the Prairie for adults.

Things I liked about this series:

1. I really enjoyed getting to know this family in depth.  All the books revolve around one woman, Ingeborg Bjorklund, but the story isn't told just from her perspective; each book or sub-series also includes the perspective of others in her immediate and extended family and the community that grows up around the homestead she began.  The author made me feel like I was part of this close-knit community.
2. I enjoyed the descriptions of the routines and rhythms of their days and seasons.
3. The characters are realistic and relatable.  They face the same struggles we all face at times: the struggle to believe God, to trust Him, and to wait on His timing, whether through traumatic times of disaster and death or through just waiting for his direction and provision.
4. Though the description of the spiritual lives of the characters was a bit lacking in the first few books, it got richer as the series progressed.  It seemed that every main character had a struggle at one point with their faith in God, but each eventually came around.  There is a strong emphasis on learning, memorizing, praying, and doing what the Bible teaches.  The main character learns to combat despair and depression by singing praises and psalms to God.  They learn to handle divisive issues in the community through prayer and following Scriptural commands and principles.
5. The romance elements are clean.

Things I didn't like so much about this series:

1. At times, some of the characters seem to "hear God speak" to them -- apart from the Scriptures.  Not quite in the same way Charismatics claim today, perhaps, but still not quite Scriptural.
2. The gospel is not presented very clearly.  There seems to be the idea that all people are equally God's children, no matter what their faith persuasion is. Everyone who dies is "in heaven now."  There's not a clear call to repentance and faith in Jesus.
3. Although some of the relationships between the young people are founded on friendships first before romance, they seem to rely on feelings and sensations to confirm that they are really in love enough to marry (spine tingles, blushes, warm feelings, etc.)  And several of the relationships seem very unrealistic: a man convinced he's in love with a woman with whom he hasn't really even talked much and doesn't really know very well -- all because his heart races when he sees her.
4. The blurbs on the backs of the books are sometimes misleading (mentioning a situation that doesn't come up until one of the last chapters or even the epilogue) and sometimes contain spoilers.
5. There are some ideas or phraseology that seems to be a bit anachronistic.
6. There also seem to be some inconsistencies in the timeline of the story.
7. It needs a glossary and pronunciation guide for the Norwegian names and words.
8. It also needs a list of characters and their relationships.

Overall, I enjoyed these books, but probably not enough to invest the money to buy them for myself.  My library had all of them in print and most in audiobook format as well.  I mostly read the print copies, but listened to a bit of one or two audiobooks to catch the pronunciation and accents.

Return to Red River Book 1: A Dream to Follow

Return to Red River Book 2: Believing the Dream

Return to Red River Book 3: More than a Dream

This trilogy focuses on Ingeborg's oldest son as he goes to college to pursue his dream of becoming a writer.

Daughters of Blessing Book 1: A Promise for Ellie

Daughters of Blessing Book 2: Sophie's Dilemma

Daughters of Blessing Book 3: A Touch of Grace

Daughters of Blessing Book 4: Rebecca's Reward

Each story in this four-book series focuses on a different young woman in the community as she seeks for God's will and for a husband.

Home to Blessing Book 1: A Measure of Mercy

Home to Blessing Book 2: No Distance Too Far

Home to Blessing Book 3: A Heart for Home

This trilogy focuses on Ingeborg's daughter, Astrid, as she completes her training to become a doctor and wrestles with where God is calling her to serve.

Song of Blessing Book 1: To Everything a Season

Song of Blessing Book 2: A Harvest of Hope

Song of Blessing Book 3: Streams of Mercy

Song of Blessing Book 4: From This Day Forward

While continuing to follow Ingeborg's life, this series also focuses on some of the other young people as they come into adulthood and seek their lifelong mates.  I think my favorite book in the whole series was From This Day Forward.

A Blessing to Cherish

This book concludes the entire saga of Ingeborg and her family.  There was a large gap in time between the end of the last book and this one, and some timeline inconsistencies that were a little jarring.

Wolf

by Albert Payson Terhune

A collection of short stories about "Wolf", a purebred collie (and son of the famous "Lad") who had absolutely no value as a show dog, but became beloved by the Master and Mistress despite his life-long tendency to get into trouble.  It is interesting to read these books some 30-40 years after I first read them and see how my perspective has changed.  The culture of dog ownership now is sooooo very different from what it was 100 years ago when this book was written.

Young Adult Fiction

Wolf Soldier (Lightraider Academy Book 1)

Bear Knight (Lightraider Academy Book 2)

by James R. Hannibal

These are the first two books in a trilogy of young adult fantasy novels which are sort of allegorical to the story of Christianity and the church.  They were inspired by a 1980s "role-playing game" called "Dragon Raid," now re-invented as "Lightraider Academy." You can read more about the books and game at https://lightraiders.com/.  You can also listen to an interview with the author at Read Clean YA with CJ podcast.

I have mixed feelings about this series.  The premise is interesting, the characters are engaging, and the plot is intriguing.  However, I found getting "into" and understanding how this fantasy world works kind of difficult.  A second reading of books like this always yields more insights than a first reading, but I still expect to have a basic understanding of the fantasy world after a first reading.  I was still confused with this one.  Not enough to abandon it.  I could still follow the plot ok, but I still felt I was missing something.  Or lots of somethings.  By way of contrast, after a first reading of The Green Ember series or The Wingfeather Saga or The Wilderking Trilogy, I understood how things worked, who the villains and heroes were, and how the characters found themselves in such a desperate struggle.  But not so much with this one.  Another difficulty I had, especially with the second book, is that the action switches around among several different characters and settings.  By the time it returned, I'd forgotten what had last happened with those characters.  A third issue is that there are a lot of scary, ghoulish, evil characters and gruesome battles.  I would hesitate to recommend these to my kids, as they seem darker to me than some of the other fantasy books we've read.

Newbery Medal Books

Gay-Neck: The Story of a Pigeon

by Dhan Mukerji

The story of the training of a carrier pigeon and its service during the First World War, revealing the bird's courageous and spirited adventures over the housetops of an Indian village, in the Himalayan Mountains, and on the French battlefield. 1928 winner of the Newbery Medal.

This book did not engage my interest, especially the Hindu beliefs and rituals. I abandoned it after a few chapters.

M. C. Higgins the Great

by Virginia Hamilton

I read this description of it: "REALISTIC FICTION - As a slag heap, the result of strip mining, creeps closer to his house in the Ohio hills, fifteen-year-old M. C. is torn between trying to get his family away and fighting for the home they love."  I didn't get very far into before I abandoned it.  It did not grab my attention, I had trouble figuring out what was going on, the boy talked about stalking a girl so he could kiss her, and the dad beats the boy with a belt (not for trying to kiss the girl).  Other reviewers commented that this is the kind of book teachers make kids read and they hate it because they don't get it.  A lot of processing thoughts and emotions, not much action. 1975 winner of the Newbery Medal.

Biography

The Bedford Boys

by Alex Kershaw

I started listening to the audiobook after reading a review in World Magazine.  It was interesting at first until it got into quoted profanity and descriptions of the "boys" nightlife, immorality, and promiscuity. Abandoned.