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Book Recommendations from Melissa Heiland

September 11, 2023 by Karin Beery Leave a Comment

There was an issue…

If you didn’t know, I run two blogs: this writing-centered blog and a reading-centered blog at www.karinbeery.com. I’m usually very good about keeping the guest authors organized. Except for this year. I sent the wrong questions … again. I promise to be better next year. Until then, here’s Melissa Heiland!

What was your favorite picture book as a kid?
Where the Wild Things Are by Maurice Sendak

What was the first “real” book (with chapters and without pictures) you remember reading?  
Little House on the Prairie by Laura Ingalls Wilder

What was your most favorite book in high school?
To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee

What was your least favorite book in high school?
Moby Dick by Herman Melville

What was the last novel you read?
Firefly Lane by Kristin Hannah

What was the last nonfiction book you read?
Prayers for My Teen by Mark Gregston

Which book lived up to the hype (from the past 1-2 years)?
Digital Body Language by Erica Dhawan

Which book do you love that needs more hype?
Prayers for My Teen by Mark Gregston

Next novel on your TBR (up to three). 
Night Road by Kristin Hannah
True Colors by Kristin Hannah
Between Sisters by Kristin Hannah

Next nonfiction on your TBR (up to three).
The Freedom of Self-Forgetfulness by Tim Keller
His Needs, Her Needs by Willard F. Jr. Harley
Jesus in Me by Anne Graham Lotz

Tell us about your newest release/upcoming release.
Each of the forty entries include a short and meaningful devotional, a prayer prompt, and journal space for writing—or even drawing—your thoughts. As you come before God each day, you will be affirmed in his love, care, and devotion. And as you finally let go of the lies of confusion and condemnation, these truths will set you free. It’s a resource to complement professional counseling that can be turned to not once but many times to be reminded of God’s care.

Is there anything else you’d like to share?
In addition to No Shame, Melissa has authored several works, including A Mother’s Journey (written for expectant mothers), A Mother’s Comfort (written for baby’s first year), and You Are Wonderful, Psalm 139 for children. (Available in English and Spanish)


Melissa Heiland holds a BA in Education from Wake Forest University and a Master’s of Education in Curriculum and Instruction from Central Missouri State University. She’s worked in pregnancy care ministry for over 25 years and has served as a full-time missionary with the International Mission Board since 2000. She is the Founder of Beautiful Feet International, an evangelical mission organization that plants international pregnancy centers in over 20 nations.  She trains pregnancy center staff and volunteers worldwide. She received the 2014 EvanTell Matthew 4:19 award and the 2022 Heartbeat International Servant Leader award.

https://www.beautifulfeetinternational.com

Filed Under: interview Tagged With: author interview, book recommendations, reading fiction, reading nonfiction, reading recommendations, TBR, TBR Pile

Author Interview: Donna Schlachter

November 12, 2022 by Karin Beery Leave a Comment

I have a little something different for you today, folks. The originally scheduled author was unable to participate, so author Donna Schlachter graciously volunteered to fill in (thank you!). But I sent you the wrong questions and didn’t realize it until she returned them.

But that’s okay! We’re going to be flexible. We’re going to shift focus, and today’s going to be all about READING! (It’s always a great day to talk about books.) So thank you readers for rolling with Donna and me for a little something different before the holidays.

Thank you so much for helping me out! What was your favorite picture book as a child? What did you love about it?  I loved Robert Louis Stevenson’s A Child’s Garden of Verse. It was poems about birds, and trees, and plants. And playing with tin soldiers on his counterpane (bedspread).

What was your favorite chapter book? What did you love about it?  Black Beauty by Anna Sewell. It had horses, and it really brought the horse to the forefront as a character.

Where’s the most unusual place you’ve read a book? Sitting on the deck of a cruise ship. That was unusual for me, given that it was my first—and only so far—cruise.

If you could visit any fictional place, where would you go? Why?  Cabot Cove, Maine. I’d like to know why that town is the center of the universe for small-town murders.

If you could turn any of your books into a movie, which would you pick? Who would you cast as the main characters?  I’d love to see my first cozy mystery series made into a television series because I think viewers would love the notion of a forensic accountant solving mysteries. I’m really excited about this series because an audiobook producer has committed to turning it into audiobooks.

Who’s your favorite author? Why?  Agatha Christie, because she’s the queen of cozy mysteries. She created such diverse characters, figured out interesting ways to kill people, and knew how to hook the reader.

Share five books from your TBR (to be read) pile. The Ghost and Mrs. McClure by Alice Kimberly; No Bones About It by Donna Huston Murray; Canine Crimes II edited by Cynthia Manson; Destiny’s Road by Larry Niven; and The Doorstep Girls by Valerie Wood. And these are 5 of about 100 books. I swore to myself I wouldn’t buy another book this year until I worked my way through all of my TBR pile, And now it’s November. (Sigh) Looks like another year of not buying books. Right. Like that worked this year. 😉

Thank you so much for sticking with me today. I’d love to offer a free copy of A Mommy By Christmas to one lucky person. Leave a comment, and we’ll draw for one prize, an e-book copy of the book. Please remember to cleverly disguise your email address so the bots don’t find you. For example: donna AT livebytheword DOT com


A community care center, a calico cat, and Christmas—can a single middle-aged woman bring a town together in time to celebrate the King’s birthday? Can a widowed father find a reason to join in? And can the pair see God at work in their lives?


A hybrid author, Donna writes squeaky clean historical and contemporary suspense. She has been published more than 50 times in books; is a member of several writers groups; facilitates a critique group; teaches writing classes; ghostwrites; edits; and judges in writing contests. She loves history and research, traveling extensively for both, and is an avid oil painter.

www.DonnaSchlachter.com
www.HiStoryThruTheAges.wordpress.com
www.AllBettsAreOff.wordpress.com
www.Facebook.com/DonnaschlachterAuthor
www.Twitter.com/DonnaSchlachter
http://amzn.to/2ci5Xqq
https://www.bookbub.com/authors/donna-schlachter
https://www.goodreads.com/search?utf8=%E2%9C%93&query=donna+schlachter

Filed Under: interview Tagged With: author interview, fiction, reading, reading fiction, TBR, to-be-read

Why Read? by Sandra Glahn

May 3, 2022 by Karin Beery Leave a Comment

I teach a seminary course in Theology and Literature, and I asked my students on the last day of class to tell me why people should read. I got my main points from them:

Read for information. Want to learn about women at the time of the earliest Christians? You can find books about that. Want to learn how submarines work? Your library has resources. Reading can expand our knowledge. In the days of Martin Luther, when a man was ordained, he marked the occasion by gifting the local monastery with a book—because books were so rare. Fast forward five hundred years—we can download scores of classics for free, find inexpensive paperbacks, and shop in stores full of used books. We can get PDFs of academic articles from all over the world, and we can have the latest Nobel winner delivered to our door. Reading is the doorway through which we enter all these worlds of ideas.

Read for empathy. Reading is the closest we’ll get to omniscience. Through reading, we can get inside the mind of another and see the world from his or her perspective. According to Harvard Business Review, “We may be assuming that reading for knowledge is the best reason to pick up a book.” But research “suggests that reading fiction may provide far more important benefits than nonfiction… Reading literary fiction helps people develop empathy, theory of mind, and critical thinking.” And empathy can change us. For all its weaknesses, the book Uncle Tom’s Cabin, published in two volumes in 1852, allowed nineteenth-century literate Americans to see the world through the eyes of enslaved persons. Consequently, Stowe’s work “helped lay the groundwork for the [American] Civil War.”[1] Bryan Stevenson’s Just Mercy is helping later generations to feel the effects of an unjust prison system and advocate for change.

Read for exposure to people and places. Earth is currently comprised of 196 countries. One of my friends has a goal to read a book set in each one of them. Why? So she can better understand the world. She won’t get to travel to all 196 countries, but she can enter far-off places through her imagination. I will probably never visit totalitarian North Korea, but the Pulitzer winner The Orphan Master’s Son allowed me to experience life under its cruel dictatorship without having to suffer its abuses.

Read for companionship.  When my husband and I experienced a decade of infertility and pregnancy loss, I often felt alone in my grief as my church experienced a baby boom. Reading books by others who had gone through the same trauma helped me feel less alone. As I read, I thought, “You too?

Read as a spiritual discipline. In his book Under the Unpredictable Plant, the late pastor Eugene Peterson lists reading as one of the spiritual disciplines. When he was a young pastor lacking role models, he holed himself up in his office for several hours a week and read great novels. One such work was The Brothers Karamazov. Dostoevsky’s book shows grace embodied in the lives of several characters. Les Miserable’s “candlestick” scene provides another such picture of what grace can look like lived out in human interaction. 

The Count of Monte Cristo showed me why revenge never satisfies. Madeline L’Engle’s A Wrinkle in Time convinced me that “perfect love casts out fear” long before I realized she was quoting 1 John. Mako Fujimura in his book Culture Care helped me see the need for “slow art,” described by David Brooks of the New York Times as “a small rebellion against the quickening of time.”

 Why do you read? How have books changed you?


Dr. Sandra Glahn is professor of Media Arts and Worship at Dallas Theological Seminary and author of numerous books, including Latte with Luke (AMG). You can find her at aspire2.com, or follow her on Twitter: @sandraglahn

[1] Kaufman, Will (2006). The Civil War in American Culture. Edinburgh University Press.

Filed Under: best practices Tagged With: author interview, reading, reading fiction, reading nonfiction, reading tips

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