Farther Than I Meant To Go, Longer Than I Meant To Stay

Further Than I meant to Go, Longer Than I Meant to Stay.

Tiffany L. Warren

**** ( 4/5)

“Sin will always take you further than you meant to go and keep you longer than you meant to stay”.

I read this book praying that I had not made this choice so this book was VERY relevant to me. Anyway.

The book is about our protagonist, Charmayne, and overweigh, insecure, Christian woman who gets caught up with the wrong man. The book alternates between the past and the present as we get caught up on the story that has led Charmayne to loose everything she once had- her self respect, financially security her job and her pride. Charmayne is an active member of her church, a dutiful daughter and sister and a successful bank manager. Successful by most peoples standards, Charmayne feels anything but because she is

a. over thirty

b. single and

c. overweight- three common problems for hordes of women, of all faiths, backgrounds, races etc. . She then gets caught up in something that feels too good to be true and instead of following her heart and God’s guidance; she decides to keep going leading to disastourous results. Forced to pick up the pieces and put her life back together with the help of family friends and the Lord, this book not only questions us but teaches us Christian’s valuable lessons about thinking that you are in control.

Charmayne prayed every step of the way, however she did not listen and/or act upon the answers she received which is a problem that had faces all Christians and some point or another. Sometimes is not the answer we want or we thinking we can fix it, max it work or whatever instead of doing instructed. Charmayne’s tale is a tale of disobedience and what happens when we do not follow out what we KNOW is right.

But the good news for Charmayne is that God forgives and Charmayne learns that and HOW to forgive, ( another lesson us Christians sometimes forgets) and in the end finds that everything she was looking for – she already had- right under her nose.

The best part of the book for me was learning the Story of Rizpah (2 Samuel 21), whom Ms. Warren uses to parallel the story and the lesson. I loved learning a new story, espicially one I had never heard and I loved how Ms. Warren incorporated it into the story.

Of course there are some other themes within the book- Family relationships, marriage, armor bearers ( which pastor preached on this past Sunday) that merge together to create and wonderful read that is not too preachy, but gets the lesson across loud and clear.

Read for Book Club # 2 – May 2007-

( orginally read June 2006)

Let Sleeping Dogs Lie

Let Sleeping Dogs Lie

Patricia Haley

*** ( 3.5/5)

In Ms. Haley’s sophomore novel she follows the story of a family with deep, dark secrets and what happens when those secrets come to the surface.

I enjoyed the story, however there were way too many characters and POV and not enough development on any of them. Also the ending of the story was tied up to quickly and nice, although sometimes I have to say – life does end just that way. The book was jumbled and I found myself having to put the book down a few times to stop from getting a headache from all the characters and plot points).

The book is Christian fiction but does not come off as overly preachy, but does adhere some aspects of the devout Christian faith.

This book is a the July Selection for Book Club # 2.

The Sisterhood of Blackberry Corner

The Sisterhood of Blackberry Corner.
Andrea Smith

The Sisterhood of Blackberry corner begins when the main characters husband finds a dead baby in the creek near their home. This starts ___ to wondering what would make a person do such a thing- abandon or kill their baby and more importantly is there something that could be done to prevent it. This leads her to decide that she will be that prevention. The last hope a woman has. The book weaves between “the present” (the 80’s) and the past- when the Sisterhood of Blackberry Corner starts saving the children and now (or rather the late 80’s) when one of those babies comes back looking for their past.

The weaving between the past and the present made this story a bit hard to read in the beginning, which was slow, but one into it- the reader can appreciate the telling of the story. Ms. Smith tells a wonderful, heartbreaking story about the difference between getting what you want and wanting what you get.

Read for Book Club # 1- May Selection