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A Reunion in Time by Russell F. Moran My rating: 2 of 5 stars I was still reveling in Where the Wind Knows when I started this book. Ah, time travel! And then I remembered, when it is done well, it's great. And when it's not, it's just annoying. This was annoying. It started well. Surprising. The protagonist is attacked by a man in a black robe. As per his FBI training, he respond quickly. Definitively. It turns out the attacker in a robe is a priest. And the protagonist has moved from the present time to the past, just a few days before 911. He is in his high school, in his high school body. In the present, he is 37 years old, and in 2001, he is 17. He narrates with sarcasm, authority, curiosity. With profanity. The priests don't seem to mind. And at least one believes him--or at least seems to. His parents believe him. And here the story breaks down. It moves quickly and neatly and mostly people believe him. The protagonist is joine...

What the Wind Knows by Amy Harmon My rating: 5 of 5 stars I'm not really sure why, but I do love a good time travel novel. Maybe it's because I'm always wondering what it might be like to live in a different time, a different place. (How much of who I am is based on me and how much is based on the time I grew up in?) This book draw me in quickly. Anne Gallagher is a novelist whose Irish grandfather raised her, taught her Gaelic, told her the stories her learned in childhood, influenced her more than anyone else. He instructed her to take his ashes and spread them in Ireland after he died. She rents a boat and finds herself in 1921, spending time with her grandfather, who was orphaned in the Rising, a rebellion against the English. She looks like her great grandmother, and everyone assumes she is his mother. And she is falling in love with her great-grandfather's best friend. Harmon tells the story through the eyes of her protagonist, ...

Time After Time by Lisa Grunwald My rating: 4 of 5 stars I started this book when I got to Baltimore. A little here. A little there. After a bit, I couldn't put it down. A railroad engineer going to work at Grand Central Station in New York runs into an enigmatic woman one morning. She is endearing. She seems confused. She seems like she is from another time. And he can't quite forget her. A year later, exactly a year later, he sees her again. This time he has breakfast with her. He learns her address and her name. And then he loses her. A little research reveals she died in a terminal accident several years before. What has he just encountered? And so begins the story of Joe and Nora. And World War 2. Of loves and losses and hopes and disappointments. Of moving forward when staying put seems safer. This isn't just their love story. It's a story of America. And pursuing adventure. I did not buy this book on sale, bu it was definitely ...

On The Eve of War: Three American Sisters Share Their Travels Through Europe July to August 1939 by Arthur Johnson My rating: 1 of 5 stars I have never given a book a single star, but that's it for this one. To be fair, this is a published journal of a woman who is not a writer, who visits Europe with her sisters the summer before World War II begins, and writes a journal of what she sees. She has great observations with lots of details, but nothing happens. Nothing. And so readers have all these details but they have no purpose. They don't DO anything. I kept reading to see if there was something that mattered, but nothing mattered. And that's the detail. Disappointing. I'm sure this is very cool for family. I hope I didn't pay anything for this book. View all my reviews

How to Stop Time by Matt Haig My rating: 4 of 5 stars Next year I turn 60 years old. (Gasp!) I used to think that was so old, but now I'm not sure so sure. I have several friends who were born the same year as I was and even more who were born a few years before and a few years after. We grew up listening to the same music. We know the words and sing along. We remember the same events in history. We had similar experiences. I love having friends whose experiences are different, but there is something deeply satisfying about playing cards late into the evening, singing, reminiscing on old television shows or our memories of Disneyland. We share similar ailments too and if I complain about weight gain or menopause or the inability to see in dim light, my friends will understand. And that's the thing. We are aging. No one lives forever, and at some point, a few of us will be left. Our memories will seem irrelevant or ancient history, depending o...

Today I woke up, and the first thing I thought about was the book I was reading. It totally consumed me. I started thinking about what I needed to do first, before I resumed reading. At least, I thought, I needed to go to the gym, eat breakfast, and then do some Scripture reading and some writing. I prayed before getting up, and then I started my day. I went to the gym. I made breakfast. And then I started reading the book. If I could just finish the book, my mind would be free to concentrate on other things. Two hours later, the book was done. I needed to get ready for work. Willard asserts, "what simply occupies our mind very largely governs what we do. It sets the emotional tone out of which our actions flow, and it projects the possible courses of action available to us" (324). And so I was thinking about What the Wind Knows   and whether Anne would stay in the past or return to the present. What happened to Thomas? How did Eoin decide to go to the United Stat...

Sigh. It has been a long time since I have written in this blog. The trip to Baltimore. Endless walking and exploring for a few days, followed by endless study and networking, followed by collapse and immediate return to doing, doing, doing. Thursday we leave for Palm Springs, and I keep saying, I need routine. I need rest. I need quiet. And I do. I am trying to figure out how to include that into my days, along with exercise, work, writing, people I love, people I want to meet. How do I live life, meet responsibilities, and take care of myself? My mind has been occupied by all the things, and when it is occupied by all the things, I don't get very much done, so that's counterproductive. I think my friend Lisa W. would say that I need to take a Sabbath, need to schedule days off. And I do. Her husband, who is my pastor, talked about living through the highs and lows of life. He cited something some research from somewhere about how life is rarely static, that somethi...