Supermom in Galilee
Rachel Stackhouse (with Peter C. de Vries ), 2015
Peter C. deVries (Publisher)
296 pp.
ISBN-13: 9781515121503
Summary
A unique, absorbing journey in time crafted by a bestselling novelist and molded by a New Testament scholar!
Rachel did everything right. But no matter where she was, she had the feeling she was supposed to be someplace else…
When an agnostic suburban soccer mom lies down with a migraine, the last thing she expects is to wake up in a dusty, smelly courtyard in first-century Galilee.
Befuddled, shocked, and—as a woman without family traveling alone—in fear for her very life, Rachel is grateful to be taken in by two wealthy women on a mission: the financial support of a charismatic rabbi from Nazareth. Jesus is a real up-and-comer, the women insist, with a knack for motivational speaking. You’ll love him! But Rachel has never been “a believer.” And even if she were, the swarthy, robust, and greasy-haired man to which she is introduced hardly strikes her as deity material. Then again… sometimes, she isn’t so sure.
Based on both scholarly depictions of Jesus of Nazareth and research into daily life in the first century, we see through Rachel’s account a fresh, earthy, and wholly pragmatic portrait of the historical Jesus. We see the rabbi not as the gospel writers chose to present him, but as he might have appeared to the little-known women who bankrolled his travels and to the disciples’ wives who seasoned his stew.
As Rachel experiences the resiliency and raw courage of these women, unsung and unrecorded by history, she is forced to wonder whether it is her own frenetic, perfectionist life that is truly the fairy tale.
Commentary by a New Testament scholar and pastor accompanies this novel by a bestselling author under a different pen name to provide chapter-by-chapter historical and Biblical background and reflections that help you explore your understanding of Jesus and his world. This book will engage the individual reader as well book clubs and study groups seeking a fresh perspective on a familiar topic.
Author Bios
Rachel Stackhouse
Rachel Stackhouse is a busy mother of three who under another pen name is also the author of several bestselling Kindle novels of mystery and romance. This unique story, written before the age of ebooks, collected dust in a drawer for many years while mainstream publishers considered it "too Christian" and Christian publishers rejected the concept of time travel as "hocus pocus."
Now, thanks to a more open literary market and the addition of excellent commentary by a New Testament scholar, the reader is invited to spy on one woman’s vision of the events of first-century Galilee, and to wonder what might have been…
Peter de Vries
• Birth—1963
• Where—State of Pennsylvania, USA
• Education—B.A., Pennsylvania State University, M.Div., Princeton Theological Seminary,
Ph.D., University of Pittsburgh
• Currently—lives in Mars, Pennsylvania
Born and raised in a Pennsylvania coal-mining town to Dutch immigrant parents, Peter C. de Vries has been a Presbyterian pastor for twenty-seven years, and is in his twenty-second year of service in a congregation outside of Pittsburgh. He has taught New Testament exegesis at Pittsburgh Theological Seminary, trains church leaders in Ghana, and has held several leadership positions in the Presbyterian Church at the regional level.
He is married to his best friend and has three children, two grandchildren, and a goofy little dog. (From the author .)
Visit Peter de Vries website.
Follow Peter on Facebook.
Book Reviews
Supermom in Galilee gives me a feel for the culture of first century Palestine. As I read each chapter with Peter de Vries' commentary interspersed, I found it to be evocative, reshaping stories I've known since my childhood in ways that are new and fresh.
Rick Ufford-Chase, Moderator of the 216th General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church (USA), Co-director of Stony Point Conference Center (New York)
Discussion Questions
CHAPTER FIVE
1. What people or things do you try to ignore or get rid of?
2. How do you try to avoid them?
3. When has following God been unsettling for you?
CHAPTER SIX
4. When have you been on the losing side of a division that people make? When have you been on the “winning” side? What did you do?
5. What image of Jesus do you have in your mind? How accurate, historically, do you think it is?
6. What does Jesus have in common with you? What makes him different from you?
7. Is there a challenge Jesus is presenting to you that you’d rather ignore?
CHAPTER TEN
8. Why do you think people tend to prefer the simple and clear-cut over the ambiguous and nuanced?
9. Under what circumstances are you more likely to make judgments quickly, and when are you more likely to investigate the subtleties of the situation?
10. How does Jesus’ refusal to treat us according to a set of standards affect our penchant to assert our own version of right and wrong?
CHAPTER FIFTEEN
11. What are some features of your personality that you are sometimes ashamed of or wish you could eliminate? How could they be an asset for you?
12. When have you acted or spoken with good intentions, only to discover later that you only made matters worse?
CHAPTER SIXTEEN
13. When have you suffered at the hands of those who claimed to be doing Christ’s work? How did the experience affect you?
14. Under what circumstances are you likely to forget your own failings and condemn others instead?
15. Are there times when you have ignored or failed to pick up the role that God has given you to continue his work of grace?
16. Who is in your life now that you can touch? How will you do it?
(Questions courtesy of the author.)
Lake House
Kate Morton, 2015
Atria Books
512 pp.
ISBN-13: 9781451649321
Summary
An intricately plotted, spellbinding new novel of heartstopping suspense and uncovered secrets.
Living on her family’s idyllic lakeside estate in Cornwall, England, Alice Edevane is a bright, inquisitive, innocent, and precociously talented sixteen-year-old who loves to write stories. But the mysteries she pens are no match for the one her family is about to endure…
One midsummer’s eve, after a beautiful party drawing hundreds of guests to the estate has ended, the Edevanes discover that their youngest child, eleven-month-old Theo, has vanished without a trace. What follows is a tragedy that tears the family apart in ways they never imagined.
Decades later, Alice is living in London, having enjoyed a long successful career as an author. Theo’s case has never been solved, though Alice still harbors a suspicion as to the culprit. Miles away, Sadie Sparrow, a young detective in the London police force, is staying at her grandfather’s house in Cornwall.
While out walking one day, she stumbles upon the old estate—now crumbling and covered with vines, clearly abandoned long ago. Her curiosity is sparked, setting off a series of events that will bring her and Alice together and reveal shocking truths about a past long gone...yet more present than ever.
A lush, atmospheric tale of intertwined destinies, this latest novel from a masterful storyteller is an enthralling, thoroughly satisfying read. (Fromthe publisher.)
Author Bio
• Birth—1976
• Where—Berri, South Australia
• Education—B.A., and M.A., University of Queensland
• Awards—(see below)
• Currently—lives in Australia
Kate Morton is the eldest of three sisters. Her family moved several times before settling on Tamborine Mountain where she attended a small country school. She enjoyed reading books from an early age, her favourites being those by Enid Blyton.
She completed a Licentiate in Speech and in Drama from Trinity College London and then a summer Shakespeare course at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art in London. Later she earned first-class honours for her English Literature degree at the University of Queensland, during which time she wrote two full-length manuscripts (which are unpublished) before writing the story that would become the 2006 novel The House at Riverton.
Following this she obtained a scholarship and completed a Master's degree focussing on tragedy in Victorian literature. She is currently enrolled in a Ph.D. program researching contemporary novels that marry elements of gothic and mystery fiction.
Kate Morton is married to Davin, a jazz musician and composer, and they have two sons.
Works & recognition
Works and recognition
Morton's novels have been published in 38 countries and have sold three million copies.
♦ The House at Riverton was a Sunday Times #1 bestseller in the UK in 2007 and a New York Times bestseller in 2008. It won General Fiction Book of the Year at the 2007 Australian Book Industry Awards, and was nominated for Most Popular Book at the British Book Awards in 2008.
♦ Her second book, The Forgotten Garden, was a #1 bestseller in Australia and a Sunday Times #1 bestseller in the UK in 2008.
♦ In 2010, Morton's third novel, The Distant Hours, was released, followed by her fourth, The Secret Keeper, in 2012. He rmost recent novel, Lake House, came out in 2015. (Adapted from Wikipedia. Retrieved 9/23/2015.)
Visit the author's website.
Book Reviews
(Starred review.) Bestselling storyteller Morton excels in this mystery set against the gothic backdrop of 1930s England.... Morton’s plotting is impeccable, and her finely wrought characters, brought together in the end by Sparrow’s investigation, are as surprised as readers will be by the astonishing conclusion.
Publishers Weekly
As the various skeins intersect, the story becomes unwieldy;...when such selective nondisclosure is carried to extremes, frustrated readers may be tempted to practice their skimming. An atmospheric but overlong history of family secrets and their tormented gatekeepers.
Library Journal
Discussion Questions
1. The structure of this novel lies in recreating different time periods in Cornwall and London—in the early 1930s and in 2003. Do you feel that the author was successful in moving the reader between the historical and more contemporary times?
2. Thinking about the stories and histories in The Lake House, what themes were most interesting to you?
3. The Lake House is the English translation of Loeanneth, the house’s Cornish name. Have you read other novels in which a house features within the text as vital and alive, almost as if it is another character in its own right?
4. The main female characters, Sadie, Alice, and Eleanor are all strong women with flaws. Is this the way you saw them? Did their imperfections allow you to identify or sympathize with one more than another? If so, why do you think that was?
5. Sadie Sparrow’s job as a detective and Alice’s bestselling crime-writing career has allowed an interesting incursion of the crime genre into The Lake House’s gothic mystery genre. Were you aware of this in your reading?
6. Both World War I and II have tragic and far-reaching effects on the characters and narrative of The Lake House. Discuss.
7. Mysteries, twists, family secrets, carefully placed red herrings, and unexpected revelations are now compelling traditions in Kate Morton’s novels. What parts of the novel were key to your enjoyment of the story?
8. The author poses the often complex question of what moral obligation each character has to another within their particular stories. Were decisions made within the novel with which you disagreed? Or could you see yourself making similar decisions?
9. After Sadie stumbles upon Loeanneth, she’s drawn to it, returning daily and "no matter which way she headed out on her morning run, she always ended up in the overgrown garden." (p. 135) What is it about Loeanneth that intrigues Sadie? Why do you think she dives head first into solving the mysteries of the estate?
10. What did you think of Eleanor when you first encountered her? Did your feelings about her change? In what ways and why?
11. Many reviewers have praised Kate Morton’s writing, particularly the way she reveals family secrets. What family secrets were revealed in The Lake House? Did you find any particularly shocking? Which ones and why?
(Questions issued by the publisher.)
We Never Asked for Wings
Vanessa Diffenbaugh, 2015
Random House
320 pp.
ISBN-13: 9780553392319
Summary
From the beloved New York Times bestselling author of The Language of Flowers comes her much-anticipated new novel about young love, hard choices, and hope against all odds.
For fourteen years, Letty Espinosa has worked three jobs around San Francisco to make ends meet while her mother raised her children—Alex, fifteen, and Luna, just six—in their tiny apartment on a forgotten spit of wetlands near the bay.
But now Letty’s parents are returning to Mexico, and Letty must step up and become a mother for the first time in her life.
Navigating this new terrain is challenging for Letty, especially as Luna desperately misses her grandparents and Alex, who is falling in love with a classmate, is unwilling to give his mother a chance. Letty comes up with a plan to help the family escape the dangerous neighborhood and heartbreaking injustice that have marked their lives, but one wrong move could jeopardize everything she’s worked for and her family’s fragile hopes for the future.
Vanessa Diffenbaugh blends gorgeous prose with compelling themes of motherhood, undocumented immigration, and the American Dream in a powerful and prescient story about family. (From the publisher.)
Author Bio
• Birth—January 20, 1978
• Rasied—Chico, California, USA
• Education—B.A., Stanford University
• Currently—lives in Monterey, California.
Vanessa Diffenbaugh is the author of two novels: her bestselling debut, The Language of Flowers (2011), and the more recent We Never Asked for Wings (2015).
Vanessa was born in San Francisco and raised in Chico, California. After graduating from Stanford University, she worked in the non-profit sector, teaching art and technology to youth in low-income communities.
Following the success of The Language of Flowers, Vanessa co-founded Camellia Network, a non-profit whose mission is to connect every youth aging out of foster care to the critical resources, opportunities, and support they need to thrive in adulthood.
She currently lives in Monterey, California, with her husband and four children. (From the publisher.)
Visit the author's website.
Book Reviews
Deftly blends family conflict with reassurance: Wings is like Parenthood with class and immigration issues added for gravitas.
People
[A] gripping, heartfelt exploration of a mother’s love, resilience and redemption.
Family Circle
Diffenbaugh is a storyteller of the highest order: her simple but poetic prose makes even this most classically American story sing with a special kind of vulnerable beauty.
Bustle
This poignant story will stay in readers’ hearts long after the last page.... Diffenbaugh weaves in the plight of undocumented immigrants to her tale of first- and second-generation Americans struggling to make their way in America. Moving without being maudlin, this story avoids the stereotypes in its stark portrayal of mothers who just want the best for their children.
RT Book Reviews
Satisfying storytelling.... Diffenbaugh delivers a heartwarming journey that mixes redemption and optimistic insight [and] confirms her gift for creating shrewd, sympathetic charmers.
Kirkus Reviews
Discussion Questions
1. Maria Elena raised Alex and Luna almost as if she were their mother, even calling them “my babies," and yet she makes the incredibly difficult decision to return to Mexico and leave them alone with Letty. How do you think she justified that to herself? Do you agree with her decision? Why or why not?
2. The novel alternates between Letty’s perspective and Alex’s. Which did you find more interesting? Why?
3. From drinking heavily and working multiple jobs to leaving her children alone in the middle of the night, it’s no secret that Letty is struggling as a mother. Were you able to sympathize with her in spite of her flaws? How does Letty evolve as a mother as the book goes on?
4. Do you think Letty’s decision to hide her pregnancy from Wes was justified? Why or why not? What about the way she conceals Wes’s identity from Alex?
5. By dating Letty, Rick takes on a greater responsibility. What does that say about his personality? Do you find him to be a relatable character?
6. When Alex shows Yesenia Enrique’s feathers, he discovers a note that reads: “For my Alex, Make wings.” From Enrique’s feather art to Alex’s migratory project, there is a lot of flight-themed imagery and references throughout the book. How do you think it relates to the challenges the characters face?
7. Given the flight motif, why do you think the author chose the title We Never Asked for Wings?
8. Even though Letty slowly works to pull her life together, at different points in the novel she comes across as beaten down, and she often struggles with fear and self-confidence. At the same time, Alex is unwilling to accept that he (or Yesenia) deserves anything but the best education, no matter the risk involved. What do you think explains that difference in their outlooks?
9. "Yesenia was not a U.S. citizen. All her life she'd been here illegally, and she hadn't even known it. Alex didn't know what to say." Yesenia and Carmen reflect the reality of millions of people living in America without documentation today. How do their experiences in the novel shed light on broader social issues? Did you learn anything from the challenges they face?
10. Were you surprised by the way things worked out in the end? If you could change one thing about the novel, what would it be?
(Questions from the author's website.)
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The Sparrow Sisters
Ellen Herrick, 2015
HarperCollins
384 pp.
ISBN-13: 9780062386342
Summary
An enchanting love story about a place where magic whispers just beneath the surface and almost anything is possible, if you aren’t afraid to listen.
The Sparrow Sisters are as tightly woven into the seaside New England town of Granite Point as the wild sweet peas that climb the stone walls along the harbor. Sorrel, Nettie and Patience are as colorful as the beach plums on the dunes and as mysterious as the fog that rolls into town at dusk.
Patience is the town healer and when a new doctor settles into Granite Point he brings with him a mystery so compelling that Patience is drawn to love him, even as she struggles to mend him.
But when Patience Sparrow’s herbs and tinctures are believed to be implicated in a local tragedy, Granite Point is consumed by a long-buried fear—and its three hundred year old history resurfaces as a modern day witch-hunt threatens. The plants and flowers, fruit trees and high hedges begin to wither and die, and the entire town begins to fail; fishermen return to the harbor empty-handed, and blight descends on the old elms that line the lanes.
It seems as if Patience and her town are lost until the women of Granite Point band together to save the Sparrow. As they gather, drawing strength from each other, will they be able to turn the tide and return life to Granite Point?
The Sparrow Sisters is a beautiful, haunting, and thoroughly mesmerizing novel that will capture your imagination. (From the publishers.)
Author Bio
Ellen Herrick was a publishing executive in New York until she moved to London for a brief stint; she returned nearly twenty years later with three grown children (her own, it must be said). She now divides her time between Cambridge, Massachusetts and a small Cape Cod town very much like Granite Point. (From the publisher.)
Book Reviews
At this point, there are no mainstream press reviews online for The Sparrow Sisters. Head to Amazon to find helpful customer reviews.
Discussion Questions
1. What do you think is the meaning of the first line in The Sparrow Sisters: "All stories are true, some of them actually happened." Do you think, for instance, that it is a reference to the story that is about to be told?
2. The Sparrow Sisters is set in a New England seaside village, Granite Point. Why are we often attracted to stories about small-town life?
3. Living a simple life in a small town is seductive. Yet, Granite Point becomes very complicated as it turns on Patience Sparrow. Is that particular to small towns?
4. The three sisters in this novel each play a role in their family and at the Nursery. Discuss each role and how they complement each other and sometimes conflict with each other.
5. How does the author create the tension that exists between Patience and Henry? How does she create it differently between Sorrel and Charlotte, Simon and Sorrel, Nettie and Ben?
6. The Sparrow Sisters has an old-fashioned feel. In fact, in the early pages it could almost be set many, many years in the past. Do you think this timeless effect makes it easier for the reader to believe the magical realism aspects?
7. There are a handful of vivid characters that inform The Sparrow Sisters even though they are dead. How does the author make those characters real and relevant to the sisters and to the reader?
8. The author paints both a realistic picture of Granite Point and its residents and a fairy-tale one. What elements and senses and words does she use to make her word pictures so vivid? Which of the senses she employs is most appealing to you?
9. Why do you think Henry Carlyle and Patience Sparrow are attracted to each other when they so clearly have very different views on healing?
10. Do you believe that Eliza Howard and Clarissa Sparrow were really witches? Do you believe that Patience Sparrow is a witch?
11. Do you think Rob Short will stay in Granite Point?
12. Do you feel hopeful for Sorrel?
13. Do you believe in magic?
(Questions issued by the publisher.)
Juventud
Vanessa Blakeslee, 2015
Curbside Splendor Publishing
344 pp.
ISBN-13: 9781940430584
Summary
Growing up as the only daughter of a wealthy landowner in Santiago de Cali, Colombia, teenaged Mercedes Martinez knows a world of maids, armed guards, and private drivers.
When she falls in love with Manuel, a fiery young activist with a passion for his faith and his country, she begins to understand the suffering of the desplazados who share her land. A startling discovery about her father forces Mercedes to doubt everything she thought she knew about her life, and she and Manuel make plans to run away together.
But before they can, tragedy strikes in a single violent night. Mercedes flees Colombia for the United States and a life she never could have imagined. Fifteen years later, she returns to Colombia seeking the truth, but discovers that only more questions await.
In the bristling, beautiful prose that won Vanessa Blakeslee an IPPY Gold Medal for her short story collection Train Shots, Juventud explores the idealism of youth, the complexities of a ravaged country, and the stories we tell ourselves in order to survive. (From the publisher.)
Author Bio
• Birth—August 6, 1979
• Raised—Northeastern Pennsylvania, USA
• Education—B.A., Rollins College; M.A., University of Central Florida; M.F.A., Vermont College
of Fine Arts
• Awards—IPPY Gold Metal; Bosque Fiction Prize
• Currently—lives in Maitland, Florida
Vanessa Blakeslee's debut short story collection, Train Shots, is the winner of the 2014 IPPY Gold Medal in Short Fiction and long-listed for the 2014 Frank O'Connor International Short Story Award.
Vanessa's writing has appeared in tte Southern Review, Green Mountains Review, Paris Review Daily, Toronto Globe and Mail, Kenyon Review Online, and Bustle among many others.
Winner of the inaugural Bosque Fiction Prize, she has also been awarded grants and residencies from Yaddo, the Virginia Center for the Creative Arts, The Banff Centre, Ledig House, the Ragdale Foundation, and in 2013 received the Individual Artist Fellowship in Literature from the Florida Division of Cultural Affairs.
Born and raised in northeastern Pennsylvania, she is a longtime resident of Maitland, Florida. (From the author.)
Visit the author's website
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Book Reviews
A harrowing, international coming-of-age story, Juventud is unforgettable, erotic, and suspenseful. I was willing to follow the protagonist Mercedes anywhere, into the Cali nightclubs, to her shooting lessons, into bed with her lovers, and to the dangerous activist meetings and rallies that mark a point-of-no-return in her adolescence. This novel is part political thriller, part love story. It kept me up at night and that's the highest praise.
Patricia Henley, National Book Award finalist, author of Hummingbird House and In the River Sweet
Riveting, readable, and refreshingly rendered with the news of the world, Vanessa Blakeslee’s remarkable debut novel takes us inside Colombia through the eyes of Mercedes, a privileged half-Colombian girl who leaves what once was the safety of Papi’s hacienda to embark on a life conflicted by both disappointments and splendid achievements. [...] As Mercedes searches for sanctuary in the world, her story echoes the conflicts of our 21st Century’s transnational, uneasy global culture. Juventud is an important novel for our times about the end of innocence.
Xu Xi, author of Habit of a Foreign Sky
Local indie press Curbside Splendor continues to distinguish itself as a literary trendsetter with Blakeslee’s debut novel, Juventud. This is an ambitious, wide-ranging story about a privileged young Colombian woman. Class, family ties, and the blinding optimism of youth: Blakeslee isn’t shying away from some of the big, timeless issues.
Christine Sneed - Newcity Lit
Juventud makes an excellent pairing with Netflix's series "Narcos," which begins a few decades earlier and traces the rise of the Medellín Cartel. While the series—shot in Colombia—focuses on those who drove and helped maintain the violence there, Blakeslee's novel traces its eventual effects on one young woman's life. Together (and with the caveat that both take some poetic license), they're a crash course in the history of a place I didn't know at all.
Margot Harrison - The First 50 Pages
There’s plenty of moral ambiguity in Juventud (Youth) as well, but Vanessa Blakeslee’s focus is on the experiences of her narrator, Mercedes Martínez, rather than in exposing and criticizing policy. From the opening pages, rich in detail and suspense, her novel is vivid and full of life…. If Juventud does have an agenda it must be this: As Colombia seeks peace–as in any other conflict zone on this earth–Blakeslee’s novel makes us ask how a person forgives and moves on when the truth remains veiled, when you can’t even be sure who or what is to blame and therefore who you must choose or refuse to forgive.”
Diane Lefer - LA Progressive
Discussion Questions
1. What did you learn about the various forces at play in Colombia—the drug cartels, the landowners, the Catholic Church, the social justice advocates, the government, and the paramilitary?
2. Both Catholicism and Judaism encourage forgiveness among adherents. What lessons does Juventud teach readers about how and when to forgive others about perceived wrongs?
3. Throughout her life, Mercedes believes that she has convincing evidence of her father’s role in the murder of her lover, Manuel. She struggles with whether to confront and/or forgive her father. Should Mercedes forgive Diego even though he has not confessed to or acknowledged a role in Manuel’s murder? Does someone who has wronged another need to “earn” forgiveness or repent in order for the aggrieved person to forgive them?
4. Before leaving for boarding school in the U.S., Mercedes is tempted to ask her father about Manuel’s murder. (Chapter 13, page 221) She eventually confronts her father much later, as an adult, when she works at the State Department. What stopped Mercedes from confronting her father when she first left Colombia as a teen? How might an earlier confrontation have changed things between them?
5. In Miami, Mercedes is reunited with her mother, who lives in Jerusalem (Chapter 15, pages 232-236). Mercedes expects intimacy and affection from her mother. However, Paula seems distant. Why did Paula seem to struggle with her feelings about reuniting with her teenaged daughter?
6. As a young woman, Mercedes and the young, idealistic, social justice advocates with whom she associates see the world in absolutes, right and wrong, as black and white, not shades of gray—hence the story’s title, Juventud (“youth” in Spanish). How does this outlook compare to generational differences in thought and action in violence-prone areas outside of Colombia, such as Israel or Iran? Or conflicts within the U.S.?
7. After Mercedes learns the truth, what do you think she will do to “make things right” with her father? In hindsight, does Mercedes feel that she needs to ask Diego to forgive her for her suspicions of his wrongdoing?
8. At the end of the novel, how does Mercedes feel about blaming her father for Manuel’s murder for so many years? Is it regret? Remorse? What’s the difference? How does her background and upbringing inform her earlier suspicions? How much of her suspicious can she attribute to youthful naiveté or gullibility?
9. When Mercedes learns the truth about Manuel’s murder, she reflects that if he hadn’t died, she would have had an entirely different life (Chapter 20, page 331). Did this passage prompt you to recall any similar cross roads in your life and imagine a different outcome for your current life? How much of our lives, especially in young adulthood, is subject to personal decisions, and how much is dictated by external forces beyond our control?
(Questions courtesy of the author.)