S Club Mama

" Becoming Mrs. Lewis" by Patti Callahan is about C.S. Lewis and his wife, Joy Gresham. I found it to be a fascinating tale of historical fiction, weaving truth and fancy while leaving the integrity of the real people. Callahan made you feel Joy's feelings, allowing you to follow her journey from struggling in an abusive marriage to following her heart to England and eventually rebuilding her life there.  I really enjoyed the characters that Callahan portrayed. From Joy with her deep-set feelings to her ex-husband Bill with his disappointment and rage, you feel like this is a biography rather than historical fiction. Her sons are lively and real. C.S Lewis is made to be human, rather than a figure of grandeur (although Joy's perspective often gives him a larger-than-life depiction in her love for him). image via BookLook Joy, for me, was sometimes a hard character to swallow. I'm not used to fictionalize characters being so real (this was tricky because...

"This Road We Traveled" by James Kirkpatrick surprised me by being a book of historical fiction. When I picked it up and chose that I did not realize that it was based upon a real person. I really enjoy when a book surprises me-especially with history. The book follows Tabitha Brown, an older woman who refuses to be left behind in Missouri when her children decide to travel out to Oregon. And by travel I mean in wagons with a wagon train, headed west. That used to be a great dream of mine.  my stack of newly finished books And then I began to read books about traveling west and realized how very, very difficult the time traveling in a wagon was. I believe it was especially hard on women, having to do the cooking without what was then modern conveniences and doing laundry in various places and keeping children occupied that time. I personally would have no idea how to cook over a fire except to make Smores and if everybody wants to eat chocolate marshmallow graham cr...

Historical fiction is something I believe we need to be cautious of reading so that fiction does not turn itself to fact in our minds. That said, I enjoy historical fiction greatly. "The Crimson Cord" by Jill Eileen Smith gives us a look into the life of Rahab, of which there really is not much said in the Bible. I learned something new while reading this book: that people of Jewish faith traditionally believe that  Rahab married Joshua. I grew up believing that she married Salmon in the lineage of Jesus Christ, so that was news to me. This telling of Rahab's life was a look I'd never given it - how did she come into prostitution, what was her life like, how was she so easily in faith of the one true God? "The Crimson Cord" does a wonderful job weaving a tale that does not leave her in rose-colored glasses but also does give some compassion to her way of life. Smith did a great job of weaving historical fact, Biblical fact, and fiction together in a ...