Last night I opened my phone’s Facebook app and saw two new posts filling the screen. The first came from an old camp friend, whose wedding I attended 25 years ago, sharing the grievous news that their college-aged son had been killed in a car accident earlier that day. The shock of reading that hit me physically. No one expects to read that, at any time. My short response to him echoed my thoughts of “Oh God, no,” just to... Read more
For fun, I joined the Goodreads Reading Challenge, in which members state their goal for how many books they want to read during the year. I knew my list would include 24 fiction from one source and about 15 from my reviewing jobs at Publishers Weekly and Bible Study Magazine. That’s a pretty decent head start, so I ambitiously typed in 100 as my reading goal. My “have read” list shows that I read 80% fiction to 20% non-fiction, with the... Read more
All summer, I itched to get my hands on Rutledge’s latest offering, Advent: The Once and Future Coming of Jesus Christ. As a former Catholic, I grew up practicing the liturgical church calendar. The rhythms of church seasons were formational in my early spiritual life. When I transitioned to a Bible church and eventually to the Baptist tradition, those rhythms ceased. I didn’t miss them, but I still paid closer attention to Lent and Advent than did my lifelong evangelical... Read more
I teased out the cover reveal a few weeks ago, and now the book itself is available. For $2.99, download your copy of Starstruck, the latest romance from Carla Laureano. It looks to be the first in a series of clean contemporary romances called Discovered by Love. What’s it about? The back cover copy reads in part: Novelist Christine Lind has achieved her lifelong dream—a string of best-selling books and a cable-TV adaptation about to go into production. But on... Read more
When your fictional hero comes to life on the big screen, it’s easy to get starstruck … Unless the leading man happens to be your ex. Dropping November 1! Sounds like a fun story coming our way. I will probably wish it were a full-length novel instead of a novella, but Laureano knows how to pull readers into her stories immediately. Also, I see Big Ben and Parliament in the background, so bonus for a British setting! Take a look... Read more
If you’ve lived past middle school, chances are high that you’ve lost a friend a time or two. The relationship dies for any number of reasons: neglect, betrayal, distance, growing apart . . . But even friendships that were never really good for us hurt to lose. My friend Mary DeMuth, author of dozens of books both fiction and non-fiction, releases a new work to help us all deal with those unhealthy friendships. Have you ever considered that there could... Read more
It’s fall, and I’ve started a new job and am teaching a weekly Bible study. The kids are well into the crazy school/sports/church activity rollercoaster. We have labrador puppies almost ready to leave their mama (our pet). Life has the potential to take off and drive away, out of control. So when my friend Jennifer Lee told me about her new book, the timing couldn’t have been better. And since I’m a little busy these days, she agreed to help... Read more
This summer has been a lesson on waiting. Lots of work happened amid the waiting, so it’s not as if we sat around drumming our fingertips on the desk. Cocoa and I—yes, my anticipation comrade was my chocolate labrador—spent weeks struggling to perfect significant projects and works of art. Hers are much prettier, cuter, soft, cuddly, and more adorable than anything I’ve produced since my last child. The best part about raising lab puppies isn’t the puppy breath or soft... Read more
I’ve been a bit AWOL from this blog since early June, and mostly I blame that on kids home for the summer. Add a litter of puppies, a child’s knee surgery, and a book project, and—well, I’m sure you’ll forgive me. I’ll share about those puppies at a later date, but let me tell you a bit about that book project. About 17 years ago, Sue Edwards and I teamed up to write a how-to book on women’s ministry. Source... Read more
A trio of children’s books arrived in bookstores this week, carrying a message that can be neither overstated nor overvalued. Caryn Rivadeneira and Beaming Books launched Raise Generous Kids, a website featuring Caryn’s three new books: Mine! A Counting Book about Sharing teaches babies and toddlers to count things that belong to them, and then share with others. The author co-ops that favorite word of toddlers, “mine,” and makes it a teaching tool about math and manners. Obviously meant for... Read more
Kelley Mathews
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