Monday, January 18, 2021

Fairfield Amish Romance: 15 Story Amish Romance by Diane Burkholder, Elanor Miller, Susan Vail and Isabell Weaver

 Grab your copy by clicking on the image

2016  

These are very gentle, heart-warming romances.  They also give some insight into the Amish way of life.  For many readers the stories will be too simplistic. For some they will come as escapism and reassurance. There is also a suggestion that life is predestined by an omniscient God though the way the stories unfold suggest rather a God  who had ideas for us but who leaves us to choose  whether  or not to go along with his suggestions.    

There are a lot of grammatical and punctuation errors in the text but not so many that they detract from the progression of the stories.  Neither does some loose writing or that fact that in one story two characters’ names are confused. The stories retain their value anyway as they show us an alternative way of life.  

The chapters within each story are short and the stories themselves are not too long.

This comes as a Kindle book only. The Amish may have a simple way of life but they are quite enterprising. A newsletter and other books are offered at the end of the book.  

Thursday, January 14, 2021

The Silver Chair


 

2009, first published 1953

Jill and Eustace attend an experimental school where they are bullied and are not learning a lot.  They escape through an open door in a wall and find themselves in Narnia.  Aslan, the Christ-like talking lion,  meets them and gives them their mission:  they are to find the lost Prince Rilian.

Eustace has been to Narnia before and is shocked that the king he had known as a young man has become old.  Our world and Narnia exist on different time scales.

They are lulled into a false sense of security when they visit the castle of the gentle giants – and just manage to escape before they are eaten for dinner.

They must have their wits about them and remember the four signs which Jill almost forgets at one point as she has stopped reciting them to herself each evening.  

Do they have free will or is everything predestined? Aslan has to prompt them so is he really orchestrating everything?   

They succeed and when they get back to their own world there is a delightful joke for any adult reading the book: the head teacher is dismissed and joins the inspectorate but she is not very good at that and has to go into politics.

The language is a little old-fashioned but that reflects the time it was written. The Prince can seem pompous at times. The book is It is quite long for this reader – 272 pages though it uses a large font. There are a few line drawings – artist’s impressions of some of the characters.    

The Others by Sarah Merrett

2024    Reuben lives with his grandmother.   He has to wear special glasses because he has something wrong with his eyes. He and his...