Recap Book Chat

Our Bonus Bite for this week continues from House Rules by Jacob Hudgins with Rule #3: We tell the truth. Let’s embrace the simplicity of telling the truth. “We serve a God who tells the truth (John 17:17) and cannot lie (Titus 1:2). Satan is the father of lies (John 8:44).” We really only have two choices. Christian homes need to be places where the truth is told. This takes much work and intenti...

Greetings book friends! Join Kate and Sheila as they dive into The Persian Pickle Club. What a timely tale stitched up by Sandra Dallas that takes us back to the dirty thirties to the town of Harveyville, Kansas! There’s a plethora of personalities around the quilting frame but one thing that stands out like a beacon is how these ladies show up for each other in times of need! “There wasn’t a quil...

Please join Kate and Sheila as they recap rule #2-All people deserve respect— in Jacob Hudgins book, House Rules. Respect may be a bit challenging to define but it is easy to see the lack of it. Where is respect taught first?... You guessed it–The home! We are made in God’s Image and God values all people, yes ALL people, the good, the bad, and the disparaging. It is not about us or them, it is ab...

Cathy Gohlke’s book, Ladies of the Lake, has astute readers asking a plethora of questions from the get go. Why is Rosaline Murray no longer Adelaide? Why won’t she go to her daughter’s graduation? Why did she want to disguise her voice? What is Dot’s secret? What is Rolsaline’s veil for? Join Kate and Sheila as they join Addie on her tumultuous journey. “Dear God and Father of us all, we come to...

Greetings dear friends! We are embarking on a new impactful Book Bite journey. Join Kate and Sheila as they start 10 Guidelines for Christian Homes in House Rules! The book connects with the timely quote by Fredrick Douglass, “It is easier to build strong children than to repair broken men.” Jacob Hudgins delivers a clear and concise plan to help readers build homes where families thrive. “Homes a...

Ruta Sepetys' finely crafted WWII novel, Salt to the Sea, is a gem. It was inspired by the real-life tragedy of the sinking of the Wilhelm Gustloff which claimed over 9,000 lives making it the greatest maritime disaster in history. The story is told in four voices, each from a different homeland, Readers will meet: Emilia, a 15 year old blond Polish girl with unbelievable perseverance and resilien...

Kate and Sheila wrap up Rebecca DeYoung’s Glittering Vices in this episode. It has been an enlightening trek. As Horace said, “To flee vice is the beginning of virtue.” The Rest of the Journey wraps up our study on the seven deadly sins and their remedies. Pride is the root and the trunk of the vice tree and vainglory, envy, acedia, avarice, wrath, gluttony, and lust are the main branches. The wor...

Have you ever heard the last two lines of this poem? “Water water everywhere And all the boards did shrink, Water water everywhere Nor any drop to drink” Join Kate and Sheila as they discuss Samuel Coleridge’s Four Types of Readers: Sand-glasses / Hourglasses- like sand that runs in and out and leaves not a ‘vestige’ behind, in other words, these readers retain nothing. They are simply passing tim...

Please join Kate and Sheila as they discuss the last vice in Glittering Vices by Rebecca DeYoung. She defines lust as a disordered desire for sexual pleasure. Lust begins as a sin of weakness not malice. This habitual attachment to pleasure erodes our relationship with God. DeYoung puts it this way, “Lust is a problem with the heart above your belt before it is a problem with the heat below it. Fu...

Let’s meet the brothers: Dmitri- the eldest, impulsive, strong, uneducated, driven by desires Ivan- the middle, the intellectual, preoccupied, gloomy atheist Alyosha- the youngest, kind, thoughtful, brave, spiritually minded Smerdyakov-illegitimate, ungrateful, sneaky, devious (creeper alert) Please join Kate and Sheila discussion about the age-old struggle of good versus evil by looking at the gi...

Ouch! Ouch! Ouch! This vice really hit home. Gluttony, like all the vices, begins with something created for good but sin creeps in and our desires run amok. Gregory the Great from the Middle Ages summed gluttony up in five categories: Too daintily (nothing is ever quite right) Too sumptuously (lavishly) Too hastily (gobble and go) Too greedily (ravenously-think Augustus Gloop) Too much (tastes li...

“No great wisdom can be reached without sacrifice.” What a powerful quote in The Magician’s Nephew by C.S. Lewis! The prequel to the enduring and ever-popular The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe. Readers discover how Narnia came to be in this timely tale when two children from London, Digory and Polly, stumble upon Digory’s Uncle Andrew; he tricks them into putting on rings that transport them t...

Join Kate and Sheila as they dive into the vice of wrath from Glittering Vices by Rebecca DeYoung. There are two schools of thought on this vice. Aquinas believed it was a natural expression of a human emotion and it could be righteous if it targeted injustice. Anger as a holy emotion has justice as its object and love as its root as Jesus overturning the money changers tables. Anger turns wrathfu...

Welcome back, Recapsters! In this episode of the Recap Book Chat, we delve into the rich tapestry of Fyodor Dostoevsky's masterpiece, "The Brothers Karamazov." Settle in with your favorite cup of tea as we embark on a journey through the complex dynamics of faith, doubt, and familial bonds. First, let's meet the titular characters: Dmitri, Ivan, and Alyosha Karamazov, three brothers who couldn't b...

Greetings Recapsters! For this episode, we discuss Gretchin Rubin’s book, The Four Tendencies, where she discusses how people respond to inner (stop nagging) and outer (traffic laws) expectations. She also wrote Better than Before to help us discover why some people can form habits more easily than others. How do we change? Habits are the invisible architecture of our lives. 40% of our daily behav...

Glittering Vice # 4 — Avarice What do Ebenezer Scrooge, King Ahab, Lot, and King Midas all have in common? They all give us a clear picture of the vice of avarice. They put themselves first. Did Scrooge even see Tiny Tim? Did Ahab understand why Naboth said ‘no deal’? Why didn’t Lot insist that Abram have first choice on the land? Why didn’t Midas appreciate what he had? What causes this unquencha...

Letters From Rifka by Karen Hesse is told entirely in letter format, so here we go: Dear Reader, The year is 1919 in the month of September when Rifka (age 12) and her family make their escape from Russia. Sadly, the trip to America was eventful. In Poland, Rifka and her family got typhus except for her ornery brother Saul. After the family recovered their journey continued. Rifka befriends a Russ...

Glittering Vice #3 Acedia (uh·see·dee·uh) What is acedia? Maybe we should first say what it is not. Acedia is often called sloth. The problem with this term is it helps to camouflage the real vice. Sloth paints a picture of one who has an aversion to work, like Tom Sawyer taking it easy while his friends whitewash the fence. Actually, the lazy person and the busy person can both suffer from hearts...

Join Titus, Kate, & Sheila as they discuss The Wingfeather Saga, book 1, On the Edge of the Dark Sea of Darkness. They meet Janner, a 12 year old questioner, Tink, a brave 11 year old with a fear of heights, and Leeli, their younger sister who has a twisted leg and a dog named Nugget. The kids live with their mom, Nia, and their grandfather, Podo, an ex-pirate with a pegleg. The Igiby family l...

Glittering Vice #2 Envy What is envy? Rebecca DeYoung explains this vice so well. “Jealousy is envy’s close cousin. Both are personal and related to love. The jealous “have” something or someone they love but might lose. The envious, by contrast, are the “have-nots”--they do not have the good their rival does, and they do not have self-love either.” Let’s look at two athletes and contrast the diff...

In Saving My Assassin readers meet Virginia Prodan in Communist Romania in 1961. This powerful memoir begins with this quote, “I should be dead. Buried in an unmarked grave in Romania. Obviously, I am not. God had other plans.” Virginia was a real-life Cinderella, she was forced to do all the work while her siblings played. Her mother threatened to put her up for adoption, dyed her red hair black...

Are you looking for a novella to introduce your children to WWII? Twenty and Ten by Claire Huchet Bishop fits the bill. Twenty French kids are living at a Catholic school during the German occupation of France. They agree to hide 10 Jewish orphans. This book was inspired by a true story. The kids are told by Sister Gabrielle that if they say yes they cannot tell about the Jewish children no matter...

Bonus Book Bite - Greetings! As Kate and I are reading through Rebecca DeYoung’s Glittering Vices, we pondered doing short podcasts on each of the seven deadly sins and their positive counterparts. Please join us as we break this valuable information into bite size pieces. What is a vice? Vices are corruptive and destructive habits while virtues help us to live and act well, to be solutions instea...

Can readers follow families in 1939, 1994, and 2015 as each one seeks to survive unbelievable circumstances in uncertain times? Alan Gratz gives us the chance in Refugee. We meet Josef and his family as they escape their homeland, Germany, and board the MS St. Louis heading for Cuba. Next, Isabel and her family board a small homemade boat built by their neighbors to travel to America. Their passag...

The Tattooist of Auschwitz, the debut novel for the gifted author, Heather Morris, was written while building a three year relationship with Lale Sokolov. Readers are taken back to April of 1942. Lale took his married brother’s place to protect his family. The harrowing journey taken by this kind, caring and compassionate man is one of tragedy, hope, and perseverance. Lale and the others were herd...