Audible.com

I have found that I really enjoy listening to books on CD or audiobooks on my ipod. It allows me to "read" in the car, or while I'm doing chores around the house. I am not a person who can read before bed, because I just don't get sleepy enough. It keeps me awake. But, I can drift off while listening to my ipod.

Last week, I was dealing with headaches that made it difficult - if not impossible - to read, watch TV, or do much of anything around the house. (My sweet husband did a great job taking care of our son when I couldn't.) What I could do was lie in the dark with an ice pack on my head & listen to my ipod (on a very low volume!). I had joined audible.com on a trial basis the week before, and used my monthly credit for an unabridged copy of "An Echo in the Darkness". It was great to have that as a distraction during that time.

Audible.com is $7.49/month for the 3 months of the trial, and then $14.95/month after that. That includes one free credit/month, which is basically one free audiobook/month. After that, you get a 30% discount on any other audiobooks you purchase. I'm still trying to decide if this is going to be worth the cost. But it certainly is convenient.

Sojourner

52 Books in 52 Weeks - Book 11 - "As Sure as the Dawn" By Francine Rivers

In the "Mark of the Lion" series, Francine Rivers introduces all of her main story lines in the first novel, "A Voice in the Wind". Then, she splits them in the next two books. "An Echo in the Darkness" wraps up the tales of the Valerians and Hadassah. "As Sure as the Dawn", the conclusion of the series, follows Atretes on a journey from Ephesus back to his native Germania. He seeks to return to his tribe, the Chatti people and brings with him his baby Caleb, and Caleb's wet nurse/adoptive mother Rizpah. (You'll have to read the book to understand that relationship :-) ) Also traveling with him is Theophilus, the retired Roman centurion whose heart is set on bringing the gospel to the Chatti people. When Atretes finally locates his native people, he finds that things have changed more than he expected in the eleven years that he has been gone. They face resistance, difficult relationships, and unexpected danger.

I stayed up way too late finishing this book last night, but I just couldn't put it down.

Sojourner

52 Books in 52 Weeks - Book 10 - "An Echo in the Darkness" By Francine Rivers

In this sequel to "A Voice in the Wind", a mysterious veiled woman appears in the city of Ephesus, with the reputation of being able to do miraculous healings. Julia Valerian continues down a path of destructive life choices that will ultimately leave her desolate and lonely. And Marcus Valerian leaves the comforts of Rome, taking a journey that he hopes will lead him to answers about Hadassah's God. He is driven by anger and restlessness. Will he find what he is seeking?

This book concludes the stories of these characters. It is a spell-binding, faith affirming novel.

Sojourner.

52 Books in 52 Weeks - Book 9 - "A Voice in the Wind" By Francine Rivers

There was a time in my life (in the early 1990s), when I decided I was done reading Christian fiction. It all seemed shallow and formulaic - not much more than a sanitized version of cheap secular romance novels. All the women were beautiful, all the men were good-looking (and all the children were above average...), and they all had happy endings. So, for almost a decade I stuck to non-fiction reading, with an occasional foray into secular fiction.

It was Francine Rivers' "Mark of the Lion" series that brought me back to Christian fiction in 2002. (Although these books were published in the mid 90s). I was gripped by these stories and found myself unable to put the books down. When I picked up "A Voice in the Wind', to re-read it after 8 years, I did not expect to be absorbed this time, since I already know the outcome of the major plot lines. However, once again, I was pulled into the lives of these compelling characters, and finished the 500-page book (with a relatively small font) in just a few days. I did not want to stop reading, and, fortunately for me, I have 2 more books to read before the story is over. :-)

"A Voice in the Wind" opens in 70 AD during Titus' siege of Jerusalem. The story focuses first on a young girl named Hadassah, whose father is the son of the widow whom Christ raised from the dead in Luke 7. Her father and mother have raised Hadassah and her siblings to believe in Jesus of Nazarath as the promised Messiah. The family becomes trapped in Jerusalem during the siege, and all are killed except for Hadassah. She is captured and taken to Rome, where she is sold to a wealthy family and becomes the household slave of their teenage daughter. The book follows the lives of this Roman family, as they seek happiness and fulfillment by pursuing all that Rome has to offer them. Hadassah hides her Christian faith from them, in order to avoid being sent to the arena to face the lions. But, she comes to love this family and begins to see their desperate need to know the One True God.

The other story line in this book is that of Atretes, the proud young chief of a Germanic tribe who is captured by Roman legionnaires. He is brought to Rome and trained to fight in the arena as a gladiator. He also seeks fulfillment in all that becoming a famous and adored gladiator has to offer, yet he hates Rome and openly despises the Emperor.

I will warn you that this book ends with a cliffhanger that will leave you reaching for its sequel "An Echo in the Darkness". It is about the same length as "A Voice in the Wind", and I am reading it this week.

After my re-introduction to quality Christian fiction by Francine Rivers, I have since discovered Brock and Bodie Theone, Angela Hunt, and Michael Phillips. Rivers has written a number of other very good novels, but I don't think anything I've read since comes close to "The Mark of the Lion Series".

Sojourner

52 Books in 52 Weeks - Book 8 - "The Last Battle" by C.S. Lewis

Since audiobooks and books on CD are acceptable formats for this challenge, I checked 3 unabridged CD books out of the library last week - the last 3 of the Chronicles of Narnia. It was a busy week. But it was still easy to finish all 3 of these books. I listened to the CDs in the car and while I did chores around the house. Then I picked up the books to continue reading where the CDs had left off in the evenings.

Several years ago, my Sunday School class studied Randy Alcorn's book "Heaven". In that book, Alcorn puts forth the rather radical idea (it was radical to me, anyway) that the afterlife - our life on the New Earth that will be created at the end of Time, will be like life is on Earth now. Except that all that is bad, painful, and evil will be gone, and all that is good will be exponentially better than it is now. Life on this Earth will seem like a dream - a shadow of our true eternal life on the New Earth. We will have physical homes & live in physical cities, or maybe in the country. We will have jobs - jobs that we love that exactly fit our skills and temperament. Industry, development, and advancement will continue as they do now, only as they would without the impediments resulting from the fall. Time spent with our Lord and our family and friends will include games, entertainment, relaxation, and travel. Of course, a lot of this is speculation and conjecture, but I found his contention that our physical glorified bodies will be best suited to a physical life on a physical Earth very compelling. Also, his theory that the rewards promised to us in Scripture have been unjustifiably spiritualized (also put forth in his books "The Treasure Principal" and "Money, Possessions and Eternity") has a lot of merit. But this is not a review of "Heaven".

I had not read the "Last Battle" in a number of years. I was surprised as I re-read (or re-listened to it!) to see that C.S. Lewis' idea of Heaven is very, very similar to Randy Alcorn's! "The Last Battle" is the story of the end of Narnia. In this book, all the children from the previous stories are re-united at the end of time (for the Narnian world). They see Narnia destroyed and are saddened. But, then they realize that the pleasant, beautiful, sunny land they are in is actually the New Narnia. Pristine, perfect, and better than the Old Narnia, but with the same landmarks, and the same cities. They even see, from high on top of Aslan's Mountain, other lands, and recognize England.

"Why!" exclaimed Peter. "It's England. And that's the house itself - Professor

Kirke's old home in the country where all our adventures began!"

"I thought that house had been destroyed," said Edmund.

"So it was," said the Faun (Tumnus). "But you are now looking at the England

within England, the real England just as this is the real Narnia. And in that

inner England no good thing is destroyed."

Oh, the longing this picture of the New Earth creates! I do not believe that all that Alcorn suggests in his book "Heaven" is true, but I hope - oh, how I hope, that most of it is. But for now, we continue to live in the Shadowlands.

Sojurner

52 Books in 52 Weeks - Book 7 - The Magician's Nephew

This story is perhaps my favorite of all the Chronicles of Narnia. It tells the story of the creation of Narnia's world, and ties together many links from the previous books. My favorite scene is the creation scene - with Aslan singing and the creation leaping into existence. His song varies, with a different tone, quality and cadence for each category of creation - the grass, the trees, the animals.

There is also an obvious parallel to the Biblical story of the garden of Eden, the entrance of evil into the world, and the temptation of man. But, in this story, the temptation is resisted. For now, anyway. We already know that the choices of the Sons of Adam will later result in the need for a blood sacrifice.

Sojourner

52 Books in 52 Weeks - Book 6: The Horse and His Boy

This story takes place during the reign of the High King Peter, King Edmund, and Queens Susan and Lucy in Narnia. It follows the adventures of a boy named Shasta, and a talking Narnian horse named Bree. Shasta lives in the land of Calormen, south of Narnia, with a man that he believes is his father. One night, his father is visited by a traveling Tarkaan & Shasta overhears them discussing a transaction - the sale of Shasta to this Tarkaan. Shasta also learns that his "father" found him as an infant, in a boat that washed ashore. Shasta retreats to the stable, wondering what will become of him, and encounters the Tarkaan's horse, Bree. Bree stuns Shasta by talking to him and then, together they devise a plan for the two of them to escape together to Narnia. Shasta has always felt a pull toward the North and a longing to know what lay in the lands north of the grassy slope beyond which he has never been allowed to travel. Shasta and Bree escape that night, start off on an adventure that will eventually result in them delivering Narnia from invasion.

Sojourner

52 Books in 52 Weeks - Book 5: The Silver Chair

At the end of "Voyage of the Dawn Treader" we learn that Edmund & Lucy are not going to return to Narnia, because they are getting too old. At the beginning of the Silver Chair, we find Eustace Scrubb and Jill Pole looking to escape from bullies at their English school. Eustace tells Jill about the magical land of Narnia & encourages her to stand next to him, hold out their hands, and chant "Aslan, Aslan, Aslan. Please let us two go into...". But they are interrupted by their pursuers, and run through a door that leads them onto a sunny hill that turns out to be Aslan's mountain. The hill leads to the top of very high cliff. They struggle with each other at the top of the cliff, and Eustace falls off. Jill then encounters Aslan (who has used his breath to blow Eustace to Narnia). Aslan tells Jill that he called her and Eustace into Narnia, and he has a task for them to fulfill. Jill is very confused by this: "... nobody called me and Scrubb, you know. It was we who asked to come here." "You would not have called to me unless I had been calling to you", said the Lion.

Aslan tells Jill that their task is to find the lost prince of Narnia (the only son of the now aged King Caspian) who was stolen many years ago. Aslan tells Jill that, although no one in Narnia knows this, the Prince is still alive and Jill and Eustace are to find him and return him to Narnia. The Lion gives Jill 4 signs by which he says he will guide them in their quest. Jill must memorize these signs and repeat them to herself every night and every morning. Then, Aslan blows Jill to Narnia on his breath.

This story follows them on their quest. A central theme of the story is the difficulty they have keeping their mission first in their mind, and remembering the signs when they face adversity. This story has always struck me as being a little "Pilgrim's Progress-ish".

(Hmm - Pilgrim's Progress. It's been awhile since I've read that one...)

Sojourner