Author; Speaker; Chocolate Lover!
October Book of the Month:
Bubbly on Your Budget by Marjorie Hillis
Check out this little gem about making do with less, first published in 1937; still appropriate for our times.
September 2011 Book of the Month
[Category: Secular Fiction]
For every mother who has been too busy. For every woman who has attempted to do it all.
Busy working mom, Sarah Nickerson, only looked away for a second. The subsequent crash after checking her cell phone shakes up her priorities, her perceptions and her life. A brain injury, known as left neglect, leaves her unable to see or process information on the left side of a book, a room or her computer. Her vision is fine, but her brain is not.
The author, who holds a PhD in neuroscience from Harvard University, surprises and delights by combining masterful knowledge with extremely readable and likable characters. Every mother can relate to Sarah on some level. Her constant feelings of being pulled in every direction and her drive to leave a mark, to be somebody, are written about with clarity and sympathy.
Left Neglected will make you rethink your priorities. It will cause you to cherish life this evening. It will help you reevaluate everything you’ve always thought is important. It will definitely make you resolve not to use your cell phone in the car.
June 2011 Book of the Month
Contest Winners for May –
Janice French
Crystal Laidacker
Congratulations! Your names were randomly drawn to receive a signed copy of Julie Lessman’s book, A Passion Denied! Please e-mail me your “snail” mail addresses so I can forward them to her. You will receive your book shortly!
Mothers & Other Liars
by Amy Bourret
[This is our book club pick for a secular summer novel.]
As a 19-year-old runaway, Ruby Leander heard an abandoned baby crying in a trash can at an Oklahoma rest stop. She made the spontaneous decision to keep and raise the baby, reasoning that anyone who would leave their baby that way didn’t deserve it.
For the next nine years, she builds a new life with baby Lark in a close-knit New Mexico community; that life is good. Right up until she reads a magazine article about parents who are still searching for their infant who disappeared in a carjacking. All the descriptors fit Ruby’s daughter.
Suddenly, everything Ruby has believed isn’t true. She is faced with an unthinkable choice about what being a true parent really means and what real love looks like.
What would you do?
Intense and thought-provoking, this will be a great beach read or a spark for your next book club discussion.
May 2011 Book of the Month
A Passion Denied
By: Julie Lessman
My favorite review of this author read, “This isn’t your mother’s inspirational fiction!” And that is true of Julie Lessman’s carefully researched and skillfully written historical series, set in the roaring twenties.
What happens when a strong-willed little girl, always having been regarded as the little sister John Brady never had, grows up and wants to be so much more than his friend?
The attraction is mutual, but John is trying to shield Elizabeth O’Connor from the darkness of his past. It will take the prayers of Elizabeth’s entire family, her fiesty determination and incredible intevention to heal the fissures of these hearts.
With magnificent description and multi-dimensional characters, Lessman places readers in the rollicking changes of the Roaring Twenties and the coming fallout of the Great Crash of 1929. It’s a family story, a coming of age tale, a spiritual workout and a sparkling romance all woven into one!
Bet you’ll stay up late reading this one!
The Power to Choose – Chapter 13/ Can We Do It for Them? – Chapter 14
So Long Insecurity – Beth Moore
Study Questions: Cindy Sigler Dagnan
1. According to Beth, the most prized possession God gave man was the _________________ to ________________. [239] Do you agree?
2. Would you have given this same choice if you had been able to foresee all the implications, as God did?
3. “Every person created in the image of God has the right to choose, but those who have received Christ’s own Spirit also possess the concentrated strength to exercise that right.” [240] All of us believe that, so why is it STILL so hard?
4. We tend to stifle our insecurities rather than haul them out in the open for God to deal with and that, says Moore, is a huge part of the problem. Then there’s the vicious cycle – we react badly to an insecurity trigger and then we feel even more insecure because we should be “so over that” by now that it escalates. What part of the cycle most relates to you?
5. We can choose to react differently even though we don’t yet feel any different. [240] That’s much like my daddy used to tell me, “Think yourself into a better way of feeling.” Have you ever experienced this phenomenon? For example, you wake up feeling sluggish and down in the dumps. You choose to go to your closet and put on your favorite outfit, use make-up and spend a bit extra time on your hair. You smile anyway. Before you know it, you actually DO feel a bit better. Share.
6. Discuss the “I’m only human”/ “I can’t change the way I feel” argument on p. 241.
7. Frankly, as long as we live on this earth, we don’t have a choice about living by faith, because we CAN’T live by sight. What verses or spiritual disciplines can you think of that will most aid us in our journey?
8. Remember: simply DECIDING to do [or not do] something isn’t maintainable for the long term. We ARE human and it will depend on our mood or emotion. We HAVE to rely on Christ’s strength. Now. The hard part – HOW do we do that, practically speaking? I’d love to hear your ideas. [AND, we need to pray for each other.]
9. “The human ______________ on its ______ is not ____________ enough to keep its security _________________ in the shark-infested waters of our current _______________. …The Thing is, we don’t just need ___________ with our ______________________. We need ________________.” [242] Right there is the heart of the matter.
10. What Beth describes on p. 243, is actually a kind of role playing. I won’t make you do it right in the middle of Bible Study, but PLEASE, take a few moments and mentally [or aloud, if you’re alone] just practice a secure answer, a confident mindset and reaction to various situations that usually just set you off. There. Wasn’t that fun??
11. Did you notice that Beth isn’t advocating just voiding our emotions? [I don’t really think that would work for long, anyway.] She just mentions some facts:
We can be hurt without also being insecure. We can be disappointed without being insecure. And we can be shocked, unsecure and humbled ALL without being insecure. [243-44] Isn’t that neat? Which one was the most meaningful to you?
I’ll be honest here. For me it was that I can be hurt. I have some writing and speaking colleagues who have excluded me from one particular engagement. I can allow myself to be hurt, but really, it isn’t a reflection on something I have or haven’t done. It doesn’t reflect on God’s calling on my life or the talents with which He’s given me. It’s slowly getting straight in my mind – those few women can hurt my feelings, but they don’t have to make me insecure.
12. Read the affirmations on p. 244 again. Out loud, if possible. Shoot. We might just do it together when we meet! I love you, girls.
13. Did anything in particular speak to you about “emotional predators” or the very real threat of pornography in today’s world? Incidentally, I also read a rather “harmless” women’s magazine article a few months ago that also advocated pornography as a harmless tool in a marriage. What?!?!?!?!!? Apparently, it’s very addictive and without doubt it violates God rule about not allowing anyone else in the marriage bed. Yes, that’s true even if the other persons are just on TV! Ok, I’ll calm down now.
I love this: “Contrary to the claims of our sensual culture, we were not created merely for sexual gratification. We were created for _______________ and that requires another person.” AMEN. [251]
14. Most of us are likely familiar with agape love – UNCONDITIONAL and acting in the OTHER person’s best interest. It is more challenging than EVER in the situations that Beth mentions. Refusing to compete is smart. Psalm 29:11 is what Beth put right there – “The LORD gives his people strength; the LORD grants his people security.” And Romans 8:31 “If God is for us, who can be against us.” Choose one of those verses to memorize this week.
15. Have you had a similar experience to Beth and her daughter [with the birth of the first grandchild and first daughter] where you’ve thought – “Oh, man! I’m going to have to deal with some of my stuff?” I have. We all have stuff.
16. If you’re not a mother, I ADORE the way Beth put this: “The entire generation of adult women in any culture is systematically raising the next, whether they mean it or not.” [273] Let’s MEAN it! Ok. That wasn’t a question, but still. So important.
Let’s make a conscious effort to be sweet. No. I mean it. Really, really sweet in an example/teach/exhort/encourage/be positive/model good things/dispense truthful compliments and wise words as needed. To little girls. And big ones.
Make a list of 3 people [children or grown women] whom you know could use some encouragement just now and go forth and DO something about it!
1.
2.
3.
February 2011 Book of the Month
By: Beth Webb Hart
This rich Southern novel, set in one of my favorite cities (Charleston, South Carolina), holds both humor and depth as it explores disappointment with God, the certainties of family and friends and the truthfully disconcerting fact that appearances are deceiving.
Tall and single, Anne Brumley is a talented bell ringer at St. Michael’s, an old historic Charleston landmark. She believes with all her heart that God has promised her marriage, but in her late 30s, that dream is fading.
Anne’s sister, Lish Sutton is happily married and expecting her third child. Her idyllic life as both a doctor and the wife of one prompts wistfulness and envy from her sister Anne and her cousin Della. But when she is hit hard with a dark bout of post-partum depression, perfection crumbles.
Cousin Della is a writer who pays the bills teaching literature to Jr. High students. She is struggling with her purpose and a restless envy as she lives in a broken down home with her aspiring artist husband and her only child when what she wants is a house full. Maybe her marriage is a mistake. When her former fiancé [a financially stable psychiatrist] comes back to town, everything comes to a head.
Meanwhile, minister and widower, Roy Summerall, is called to pastor at St. Michaels, along with his sweet and precocious daughter Rose, who is longing for a mother. He questions such a calling, wondering if his country preferences might offend Charleston sensibilities.
Of course, God directs our paths, and what constitutes a happy ending is often very different than what we think.
January 2011 Book of the Month
Healing Waters – by: Nancy Rue Healing Waters dives more deeply into the continuing the story of Christian psychologist, Sullivan Crisp, who is facing his own demons: discovering why his wife, who suffered from post-partum depression, drove off a bridge with their infant daughter. He is uncertain whether or not he still has anything left to give – after all, he didn’t see his own tragedy coming. Enter two sisters: one a svelte, charismatic Christian speaker with a dynamic public ministry; the other a beautiful but extremely overweight nurse, struggling with her insecurity and her wobbly marriage. One plane crash. One fiery explosion and the dynamics between the two of them are forever changed. Add in a cast of superb peripheral characters and one little girl who has been neglected for all six of her years and you have one book that is nearly impossible to put down. What do we believe about tragedy? What do we believe about ourselves and God’s role in such times? Can we survive even if we question everything we’ve ever known? Bask in a story that dares to broach such topics and still offers a measure of healing for ourselves, even as we root for the sisters and see ourselves mirrored there.
September Book of the Month
Hold Up the Sky
By: Patricia Sprinkle
“Women hold up half the sky,” or so goes an old African proverb. And one summer, in the tiny town of Solace, Georgia, four very different women discover the hard truth of that saying:
Mamie Fountain, a retired African-American saint, who truly believes that all happenings in our lives are part of God’s tapestry. Margaret Baxter, an enviable woman with a perfect home and marriage, until she discovers her husband is a cheater. Billie Waits, the “black sheep” little sister, a single mom with a handicapped daughter. Emerita Gomez, an illegal immigrant, desperately seeking a better way of life.
They discover what most of us know – that a drought in our circumstances often leads us through a rough drought of our souls.
A tough and tender family drama full of secrets and surprises, honest humor and grappling with the rough patches of life, make this book worth reading despite some dubious places in the theological arena.
Post a short explanation of how a special woman in your life helped you hold up your corner of the sky during a rough time, for your CHANCE TO WIN a copy of the new book, Hold Up the Sky!!!!
July Book of the Month
Hurricanes in Paradise
By: Denise Hildreth
A 5-star resort on Paradise Island, Bahamas. A beautiful director with a haunted past. Add a beauty queen with secrets of her own, a colorful bedazzled senior citizen recovering from the loss of her husband and a snarky, reclusive writer and you have an explosive mix. And, there’s a hurricane headed right for them.
The descriptions of the hotel and the island are phenomenally real and the characters are written with depth and resonance. However, having recently emerged from personal hurricanes of her own, what Hildreth brings us is much more than a summer beach read. She offers a sometimes quirky, often identifiable peek into personal pain. Most importantly, she weaves the hope that is only available from the God of all comfort throughout a believable, powerful story.
Sign-up for Cindy Sigler Dagnan’s monthly newsletter and enter our contest to win one of 3 copies of this new release in top-notch Southern fiction!
Special thanks to Denise Hildreth and Tyndale Publishers for donating copies.
June Book of the Month
Sometimes a Light Surprises by Jamie Langston Turner
This surprising book from one of my favorite authors also happens to be my book club’s selection this month. Rich with literary allusions, quotations and quirky characters, it satisfies without any of the typical endings. There’s an unsolved mystery, a bad guy, a nosy secretary and family fabric galore. Kelly Kovatch is a young girl working her first “real world” job after graduating from a home school classroom. Her first boss and her mother have a history that she knows nothing about. Tragedy haunts both families, but they have vastly different ways of coping. Do the little things we do really, truly impact our world? Is it possible for us to make a difference one gesture, one prayer, one reaching-out at a time? I think you’ll find that sometimes a light surprises.
Cindy Sigler Dagnan
Hot Chocolate For Couples
Hot Chocolate For Couples
Now Available
