Stuck in the Middle

Over the summer, I read a christian chick lit book entitled Stuck in the Middle: A Sister-to-Sister Novel by Virginia Smith. Stuck between gorgeous and pregnant older sister Allie and successful younger sister Tori, middle sister Joan is single, living at home with her mother and grandmother, and working an uneventful job as a rent-to-own furniture store manager. But life starts to get exciting when a young doctor moves in next door. She begins a friendship with the promising doctor, eventually going to church with him, and questions her own views on the Christian walk. Of course, there is a romantic happy ending that won't disappoint. This was a delightful book by an author I was unfamiliar with previously.

K

The Baby Chronicles

Continuing my Christian fiction kick, I read The Baby Chronicles by Judy Baer. While Dolly Parton and Peculiar Treasures has depth, this was all fluff. Fluff that I ended up enjoying enough to finish the book.

Baer is the author of The Whitney Chronicles, the kick-off title in Harlequin's Steeple Hill Cafe imprint, designed to be their answer for Christian chick lit. The Baby Chronicles is Whitney's continuing story. After having met and married Mr. Right in the first book, this novel details Whitney's pregnancy. Two other women close to her are also having babies: a flighty coworker gets pregnant with triplets and her best friend begins the adoption process. Lots of baby humor ensues. This was somewhat fun to read after having so recently being pregnant, but that's about it.

K

Peculiar Treasures

After reading How Dolly Parton Saved My Life, I decided to seek out other newer Christian fiction books. I picked up Peculiar Treasures by Robin Jones Gunn. This is the first in her new series about Katie Weldon, one of the characters who has popped up frequently in her Sierra Jensen and Christy Miller series. (I read only a few of each of those series; my local library never had the complete sets.)

I became a fan of Gunn's when Carol, the cataloger at my first library, asked my mom and I to read a new book that was labeled Christian fiction but had a somewhat steamy cover. Both of us really enjoyed reading that book, Secrets, and subsequently read every book we could by that imprint, Palisades. (Gunn wrote several for Palisades, connecting all of them by giving secondary characters the opportunity to star in their own books.) Palisades has since gone away, much to my regret.

Anyway, back to Peculiar Treasures. This book was everything I remember about strong Christian fiction. The book begins with Katie attending Christy and Todd's wedding (something Christy Miller fans have been waiting for for a very long time). She then starts back for another year at college, undecided about her major and future plans, both relationship- and career-wise. The emotional angst of the novel centers around her relationship with Rick, her kind of almost boyfriend. By the end of the book, Rick and Katie have taken a positive step forward in their relationship and Katie has firmly decided on a major. The next in the series, On a Whim, was due out in October.

K

How Dolly Parton Saved My Life: A Novel of the Jelly Jar Sisterhood

From the new fiction shelves, I selected How Dolly Parton Saved My Life: A Novel of the Jelly Jar Sisterhood by Charlotte Connors. This inspirational fiction novel follows four women as they start the Jelly Jar Catering Company in Atlanta. Each character is followed, their Christian beliefs briefly examined, as they build lasting friendships with each other, in addition to a successful company. I wanted to read more about the events they catered, but it was a basically entertaining novel overall.

K

Working Families

A few days ago (it feels like weeks ago with the midweek holiday) I finished reading Working Families. I really enjoyed it. It took me at least two weeks go get through it since it is nonfiction and I find nonfiction reading to be slower for me. This is the kind of book I want to read a million times because one read-through is not enough to absorb all the information. This is the kind of book I want to have on my home shelves so I can refer to it again and again through the years. If only this book was fiction and took place in England, it would be my dream novel.

The author Joy Jordan-Lake, talks about how important it is for each spouse to find their calling in life, the thing that lights them up from the inside which also happens to glorify God. She also stresses seasons (similar to my thinking of "phases" regarding Addie's behavior) and how you and your spouse have to adjust what works for your family in different seasons. I love how the author unabashedly talks about how much she loves her profession and her various jobs and how important they are to her, and even though she has kids, she doesn't want to give them up. Finally! So she and her husband have found creative ways of balancing their three-career marriage--her job, his job and parenting three kids. It's an awesome book that comes with discussion questions--this would be the perfect book for a small home group--I wish there were enough young couples in our church who had/wanted kids so we could do this there.

K