Love's Enduring Promise

Love's Enduring Promise by Janette Oke
Love Comes Softly, #2
trade paperback, 239 pages
Bethany House Publishers, 1980
ISBN-13: 9780764228490

From the Publisher

In this sequel, Clark and Marty Davis now preside over a growing family in their little prairie house. But as they reach out to those in their frontier community, they discover that love is not limited by the size of a dwelling.

My Thoughts:

OK, I have the Love Comes Softly books out of my system now. Although I would still give them to a young teen to read way before Twilight, this second book was really not as good as the first. And the dialect really bothered me this time. Oke seemed to rush through the story, perhaps to get to the next book in the series.No rating on this one.

Love Comes Softly

Love Comes Softly by Janette Oke
#1 in Love Comes Softly Series
Trade paperback, 237 pages
Bethany House Publishers, 1979
ISBN-13: 9780764228322

highly recommended

Synopsis from the publisher:

Love Comes Softly introduced the characters of Marty and Clark Davis, whose tragic circumstances brought them to a "marriage of convenience" on the frontier prairies during the mid 1800s. The story of how Clark's patient, caring love mirrored that of the heavenly Father, drawing Marty to faith and to love, has captured the hearts and imaginations of over one million readers on Book One alone!

My Thoughts:

OK, I'm just going to say it: Love Comes Softly is a sweet book - and I'm not being facetious.

After reading Twilight it was unanimously determined that I should read a book that I gave my daughter, Just Me, at about the same age the fans of Twilight should be. Love Comes Softly is an inspirational fictional love story. It's even been made into a Hallmark movie, for crying out loud, although apparently the plot was altered for the movie. I've avoided reading any Oke book for many years, but now I am declaring that I would recommend and give Love Comes Softly again, in a heart beat, to a young teen over Twilight.

Yes, it is a love story, but not a typical, breathless "Oh Clark!" kind of love story. There is some realism here. Tragedies happen and the characters overcome them. There is no sparkly anything and no unwarranted angst. No one is declaring that they are dangerous or stalking anyone. Yes, it is a Christian inspirational story, but the faith depicted shows strength of character and is what eventually helps the characters overcome difficult circumstances.

Now, Oke writes the dialogue to reflect a dialect (see quotes), which sometimes greatly annoyed me, but certainly didn't stop me from reading the book. And, while she is a competent writer, this is a very easy to read book and does not have a complex, intricate plot. You know what? I've been a snob about these books. I just might read a couple more Love Comes Softly books (gasp) - just to see what happens to Clark and Marty. That says it all right there.

Highly recommended - especially for those young teen girls

Critical Monkey Contest





Don't Be A-Hatin' Amendment

(Edited to say that I've now read book two in the series, Love's Enduring Promise, and that will be my last Love Comes Softly book.)

Quotes:

Clem is gone. The truth of it was nearly unthinkable. Less than two short years ago, strong, adventurous, boyish Clem had quickly and easily made her love him. Self-assured and confident, he had captured her heart and her hand. Fourteen months later, she was a married woman out west, beginning a new and challenging adventure with the man she loved-until yesterday.
Oh, Clem, she wept. Her whole world had fallen around her when the men came to tell her that Clem was dead. Killed outright. His horse had fallen. They'd had to destroy the horse. Did she want to come with them? pg. 13

The fact that she was way out west in the fall of the year with no way back home, no one around that she knew-and she was expecting Clem's baby besides-should have filled her with panic. But for the moment the only thing her mind could settle on and her heart grasp was the overwhelming pain of her great loss.
"Oh, Clem! Clem!" she cried aloud. "What am I gonna do without you?" She buried her face again in the quilt. pg. 14

"Ma'am."
She lifted her head and looked up. A man stood before her, cap in hand, fingering it determinedly as he cleared his throat. She vaguely recognized him as one of the shovel bearers. His height and build evidenced strength, and there was an oldness about his eyes that belied his youthful features. Her eyes looked into his face, but her lips refused to respond.
He seemed to draw courage from somewhere deep inside himself and spoke again.
"Ma'am, I know thet this be untimely-ya jest havin' buried yer husband an' all. But I'm afraid the matter can't wait none fer a proper-like time an' place."
He cleared his throat again and glanced up from the hat in his hands.
"My name be Clark Davis," he hurried on, "an' it 'pears to me thet you an' me be in need of one another."
A sharp intake of breath from Marty made him pause, then raise a hand.
"Now, hold a minute," he told her, almost a command. "It jest be a matter of common sense. Ya lost yer man an' are here alone." He cast a glance at the broken wagon wheel, then crouched down to speak directly to her.
"I reckon ya got no money to go to yer folks, iffen ya have folks to go back to. An' even if thet could be, ain't no wagon train fer the East will go through here 'til next spring. Me, now, I got me a need, too."
He stopped there and his eyes dropped. It was a minute before he raised them and looked into her face. "I have a little 'un, not much more'n a mite-an' she be needin' a mama. Now, as I see it, if we marries, you an' me"-he looked away a moment, then faced her again-"we could solve both of those problems. I would've waited, but the preacher is only here fer today an' won't be back through agin 'til next April or May, so's it has to be today." pg.19

Movie Dude Weekend: strip lights and whiskers

Movie Dude Weekend has been on a short hiatus since I was out of town for part of February. Bad movies were watched, and comments were made, but, alas, they never made it to the blog. This weekend actually featured some good movies.

Guys and Dolls, 1955
Director: Joseph L. Mankiewicz
Cast: Marlon Brando, Jean Simmons, Frank Sinatra, Vivian Blaine









I, Robot, 2004
Director: Alex Proyas

Cast: Will Smith, Bridget Moynahan, Alan Tudyk, Bruce Greenwood

Comments:

Just Me: We will turn off the strip lights

Movie Dude: Strip lights! Where's the pole?

Just Me: Wonder Boy's closet

Wonder Boy: W-h-h-a-a-a-t?

Just Me: This is all going right over your head, isn't it?

Continuously repeated after they heard it on a National Geographic video about walruses: "Sensitive whiskers memorize each other's face."

Just Me to Movie Dude, who was wearing a T-shirt with Jimi Hendrix on it:

Each time you drool, Jimi Hendrix cries.

Orbis

Orbis by Scott MacKay
Mass Market Paperback, 408 pages
Roc, 2002
ISBN-13: 9780451458742
Science Fiction

recommended

From Booklist

Here is an intriguing alternate history, in which Christianity is a tool of the Benefactors, who have been around since the time of the Roman empire and perhaps earlier. Rome was destroyed resisting conquest by them, and they have dominated Earth more or less ever since, claiming to be heavenly angels. Now, after centuries of oppression, the truth will be known: the Benefactors are beings from the center of the galaxy, who fled a home that became uninhabitable. Designated to broadcast the truth are a heretic passing as a priest, a disillusioned church father, and a young teacher. The price of the knowledge may be higher than anyone thinks, and more is at stake than first meets the eye. Its catchy premise makes this alternate history appealing, and the contrasts between the high-tech stagnation of the Benefactors' society and the low-tech innovations of rebels against it spice a good liberation-quest adventure. Real understanding comes too late to save everyone, but soon enough to realize the promise of a brave new world. Regina Schroeder

My Thoughts:

Orbis is an alternate history science fiction novel. In it the Benefactors, aliens posing as angelic beings, have set up a world wide theocracy with them in charge. In this alternate history, the earthly enemy of the Benefactors, the Romans, left earth on spaceships two thousand years ago. I found the premise in the beginning of the novel to be quite intriguing and interesting. The novel is very much plot driven, however, and suffers slightly in the middle where it slowed down. Obviously since this is an alternate history, you have to suspend disbelief. Some of that disbelief involves the Catholic Church (which is the system the Benefactors use to control humans) and Native Americans (who are depicted as savages confined to the Restricted Zone). I'm hesitant to say Mackay is showing prejudice by these depictions. I think it was all a device, a tool, he used to highlight the alternate history. I'm not sure all of it was completely necessary, however. In the end I don't think the message was as much anti-Christian as it was aimed against blind faith in following an institution. I would have rated this novel as highly recommended until the last quarter of it. At that point I felt Mackay was coming out as a bit too strongly opposed to organized religion, even though I understand the novel is fiction. It was interesting and I will read another Mackay novel. Recommended, with reservations

Random Reading Challenge

Quotes:

He changed the subject. "I can't believe the Benefactors are made of ... what did you say again? Hydrogen?"

"A special kind of hydrogen," she said.

"And the Prussians actually caught one?"

"We went over this at the meeting, Mickey." pg. 4

Everything George sent was always a revelation. Oh, to reach back through the stagnant years of the Dark Ages, to unearth and understand all those archaeological sites the Benefactors had put off limits, to finally know what had happened. Especially to know that the Romans, that wondrous race of ancients who had been chased away and crushed two thousand years ago by the Benefactors because they had dared to put up a fight. pg. 8-9

She wanted to tell him that George was in Prussia fighting against the Benefactors, and that it was largely through his efforts as an agent of the Prussian Abwehr that the Benefactors and the soldiers of the Holy League were finally being turned out of Paris. pg. 13

June spread the photographs on the kitchen table. Amy looked on with wide eyes as June explained to her how the Romans had made it to the moon. pg. 15

And would he actually be able to fool her now that he was human? Or would she still somehow sense the difference? pg. 38

Even as the Cardinal spoke, Eric felt a sudden sharp pain in his head. He glanced behind him and saw that the Benefactors were upon him, big black spheres blotting out the light of the sun, casting disorienting shadows everywhere. He felt dizzy....Why would they pursue him like this? His head felt gripped by a vice. He was one of their most devout servants in the territory. He rolled onto his back. Tears came to his eyes, the pain was so bad. He saw the six of them circling above. One of them came down close and hummed like an angry bee. He smelled the awful odor of energy coming from it.

"Oh, God, please help preserve me," he murmured.

Just when he thought he couldn't stand the pain anymore, the thing backed off and in the blink of an eye was gone, back out to the Restricted Zone with its five brethren. pg. 50-51

Primitive

Primitive by Mark Nykanen

ARC - 186 pages

published October, 2009

not recommended

Synopsis

A "neo-primitive" cult, possessing secret government documents filled with terrifying information about global warming, kidnaps a famous fashion model and holds her hostage, forcing her to act as their spokesperson. As time runs out, her estranged daughter allies with a dangerous activist group to rescue her, while battling dark agendas from the government and Big Oil.

My Thoughts:

I won an ARC of Primitive in a give away. Although it looked like it might have some promise in the beginning - after the kidnapping happened it really jumped the shark for me. I'm willing to suspend disbelief for a novel, but this really was more propaganda than plot. I can't explain the high ratings for this one. It's not worth your time. Not recommended

Legend

Legend by David L. Golemon
Event Group Series, book 2
Mass Market Paperback, 490 pages
St. Martin's Paperbacks, 2007
ISBN-13: 9780312945947

highly recommended

Synopsis

A river of no return. A treasure to die for…
The Event Group is comprised of the nation’s most brilliant men and women in the fields of science, philosophy, and the military. Led by Major Jack Collins, their job is to find the truth behind the world’s greatest unsolved myths. And this time, Collins and his crew will dare to uncover a terrifying secret—about the long-vanished tribe of the Incas—that’s buried deep within the Amazon Basin.
Some secrets go to the grave. Others become Legend
The last expedition into the depths and darkness of the Amazon claimed the lives of a female professor and her team. Now the Event Group, using cutting-edge technology exclusively designed by the U.S. military, will travel to the ends of the earth—from Brazil to the Little Bighorn to the Arlington National Cemetery—to bring new meaning to an ancient disaster…or bury the legend forever…or die trying.

My Thoughts:

The event group is a secret U. S. government organization that finds the answers behind the world's greatest myths. (Think X-Files.) There's a whole lot going on in this second Event Group novel, Legend. (The first was Event.)We have a 1534 expedition of Spaniards, a lost tribe, several weird creatures, treasure hunters, multiple conspiracies, a new expedition, and tie ins to the Vatican, Little Bighorn and the Arlington National Cemetery. It's an action/adventure novel that takes off running right at the start. There are a few problems. You have to suspend disbelief and go with the story, sometimes leaping without adequate explanation. The characters are not well developed - and there are a lot of them. Legend, though, delivers what it promises: real escapism.

Highly recommended - an especially good vacation book for action/adventure/sci-fi junkies

Quotes:

Amazonian River Basin

Summer AD 1534

The Spaniards let loose a volley of musket fire into the endless green of the jungle, not knowing if their lead shot struck anything more vital than fern or moss. opening

For three months they had endured the hellishness of the Peruvian mountains and Brazilian jungles, only to find they were alone in the most godforsaken area the expedition they had ever known. Only the good nature of his men, grateful to be away from the slave master Pizarro, had kept his small company in line. pg 6

Padilla reached down and, using both hands, gently picked up the animal and looked it over. It was breathing through its small nostrils and open mouth, but it also had what looked like the gills of a fish right where the small neck joined the head, three rows of soft skin arranged along its jawline, flaring and then closing as they, too, sought life sustaining air. pg. 14

Then among the screams of men and the dying echo of the gunshots they all heard a sound they would take with them to their graves. The roar was like a deep echo of the worst imaginable enraged demon from their nightmares. The horrid sound reverberated and sent chills down their spine. pg. 21

Madrid, Spain Present Day
The woman paced in the small, cluttered office, pausing for a brief moment to look at the old man sitting in the swivel chair behind an ancient mahogany desk. He was dressed in a chambray work shirt and wore carpenter’s overalls. The thick, horned-rimmed glasses would slide down his nose and he would absentmindedly push them back up to their proper place. He handled the old letter, a set of orders actually, carefully and with the necessary respect one had to show documents of that age. pg. 35

The archbishop regarded the letter once again and then held it out to Zachary. The mere mention of the lost expedition of Captain Padilla, a story handed down by word of mouth from Spaniard to Spaniard and which was fraught with tales of gold and mystery, the legendary El Dorado, was almost enough for him to stop talking immediately.
"You are to be congratulated at the very least for your persistence in digging up such a rare find as a Vatican document as important as this." pg. 37

Helen looked at the skeletal remains of the hand. They had been carefully packed in a soft foam cutout. The four fingers were long, at least seventeen inches from palm to tip. The thumb was half that length, and the bone was thick and very powerful looking. Three of the digits had very lethal-looking clawed tips. The other claws were obviously absent due to its extreme age. Patches of petrified flesh were visible.
"I’m afraid it barely qualifies as a fossil, Your Grace. We have estimated its age at only seven hundred years, give or take a decade, placing it in the time frame of the Padilla expedition." pg. 40

The Devil Wears Prada

The Devil Wears Prada by Lauren Weisberger

Mass market paperback, 432 pages

Anchor Books, 2003

ISBN-13: 9780307275554

recommended

From the Publisher:

A delightfully dishy novel about the all-time most impossible boss in the history of impossible bosses.

Andrea Sachs, a small-town girl fresh out of college, lands the job “a million girls would die for.” Hired as the assistant to Miranda Priestly, the high-profile, fabulously successful editor of Runway magazine, Andrea finds herself in an office that shouts Prada! Armani! Versace! at every turn, a world populated by impossibly thin, heart-wrenchingly stylish women and beautiful men clad in fine-ribbed turtlenecks and tight leather pants that show off their lifelong dedication to the gym. With breathtaking ease, Miranda can turn each and every one of these hip sophisticates into a scared, whimpering child.

THE DEVIL WEARS PRADA gives a rich and hilarious new meaning to complaints about “The Boss from Hell.” Narrated in Andrea’s smart, refreshingly disarming voice, it traces a deep, dark, devilish view of life at the top only hinted at in gossip columns and over Cosmopolitans at the trendiest cocktail parties.... Andrea is sorely tested each and every day—and often late into the night with orders barked over the phone. She puts up with it all by keeping her eyes on the prize: a recommendation from Miranda that will get Andrea a top job at any magazine of her choosing. As things escalate from the merely unacceptable to the downrightoutrageous, however, Andrea begins to realize that the job a million girls would die for may just kill her. And even if she survives, she has to decide whether or not the job is worth the price of her soul.

My Thoughts:

The Devil Wears Prada was my airplane book and it fit that role perfectly. You'd be correct if you said that the writing isn't the best and the flow of the story is choppy, but none of that mattered for an airplane book. It was entertaining - easy to read, easy to set aside. If I had misplaced it on my trip, I wouldn't feel a need to replace it. It was mindless entertainment, a diversion. I can't believe I'm saying this, but the movie adaptation was perhaps better than the book or at least perfectly adequate. It certainly got the point of the novel across quickly and you could watch Anne Hathaway and Meryl Streep. recommended

Quotes:

The light hadn't even officially turned green at the intersection of 17th and Broadway before an army of overconfident yellow cabs roared past the tiny deathtrap I was attempting to navigate around the city streets. Clutch, gas, shift (neutral to first? Or first to second?), release clutch, I repeated over and over in my head, the mantra offering little comfort and even less direction amid the screeching midday traffic. opening

And as if the very essence of life itself didn't suck enough at that particular moment, the caller ID confirmed my worst fear: it was Her. Miranda Priestly. My boss.
"Ahn-dre-ah! Ahn-dre-ah! Can you hear me, Ahn-dre-ah?" she trilled the moment I snapped my Motorola open—no small feat considering both of my (bare) feet and hands were already contending with various obligations. pg. 2-3

"And-re-ah," she called from her starkly furnished, deliberately cold office. "Where are the car and the puppy?"
I leaped out of my seat and ran as fast as was possible on plush carpeting while wearing five-inch heels and stood before her desk. "I left the car with the garage attendant and Madelaine with your doorman, Miranda," I said, proud to have completed both tasks without killing the car, the dog, or myself.
"And why would you do something like that?" she snarled, looking up from her copy of Women's Wear Daily for the first time since I'd walked in. "I specifically requested that you bring both of them to the office, since the girls will be here momentarily and we need to leave."
"Oh, well, actually, I thought you said that you wanted them to—"
"Enough. The details of your incompetence interest me very little. Go get the car and the puppy and bring them here. I'm expecting we'll be all ready to leave in fifteen minutes. Understood?" pg. 8