More information on "The Secret"

Beverly Lewis' website now has a synopsis of her new book, The Secret (due out in March):

In the seemingly ordinary Amish home of Grace Byler, secrets abound. Why does her mother weep in the night? Why does her father refuse to admit something is dreadfully wrong? Then, in one startling moment, everything Grace assumed she knew is shattered. Her mother's disappearance leaves Grace reeling and unable to keep her betrothal promise to her long-time beau. Left to pick up the pieces of her life, Grace questions all she has been taught about love, family, and commitment.

Heather Nelson is an English grad student, stunned by a doctor's diagnosis. Surely fate would not allow her father to lose his only daughter after the death of his wife a few years before. In denial and telling no one she is terminally ill, Heather travels to Lancaster County--the last place she and her mother had visited together. Will Heather find healing for body and spirit?

As the lives of four wounded souls begin to weave together like an Amish patchwork quilt, they each discover missing pieces of their life puzzles--and glimpse the merciful and loving hand of God.

The new series is entitled Seasons of Grace.

October Reading in Pictures

The Secret

A new book by Beverly Lewis entitled The Secret is coming out in April of 2009. I have seen two different names for the series Seasons of Grace (on the cover) and Just Plain Grace (from a website). There is no description about the book yet so the content is a mystery.

September Reading in Picture(s)

I only read one book in the month of September-Oh the shame! At least it was a long book.

August Reading in Pictures

Oh Tragedy!

Each year in school, we study a play written by Shakespeare. The first play I remember studying Much Ado About Nothing. We didn't study it in depth hardly at all, mostly using it to make grammar corrections as a warm-up. My freshman year of high school, we studied Romeo and Juliet. This was my first experience actually analyzing a play and I found it to be quite challenging. We acted it out as well as did numerous other activities with it, including writing in iambic pentameter. Sophomore year, we read Julius Caesar, which I found exceedingly boring at the time. During Junior year of high school, my class studied Macbeth. I found acting certain scenes out to be the most fun. That year, I had an excellent teacher who taught us a lot more about how to analyze Shakespeare. Next year, my Senior year in high school we will be reading Hamlet. All the plays we read in high school fall under the category of tragedy. For some reason, the administrators (or whoever makes these decisions) feel that we don't get enough tragedy in our everyday lives.

My friend and her family come down to visit in the summer often and go to see a play at the local Oregon Shakespeare Festival (OSF). As long as I've lived here (every summer since 2001), I've only seen three plays, all Shakespearean. The first play I went to was King Lear with my dad and step-mom. I was young and didn't understand much of the dialogue. A few years ago, I went with my friend and her family to Twelfth Night on the 70th anniversary of OSF's opening. I enjoyed the comedy much better than King Lear and understood much more of it. That evening, we saw former governor Kitzhaber. This year, my friend came down again and we saw Othello. I enjoyed it very much, though it was a tragedy. The acting, as always, was superb. Once, I became used to the dialogue, I understood much of what was said.

This last performance and brought my play count up to seven (soon to be eight): Two Comedies and five (soon six) tragedies. I must be destined to read tragedies...

July Reading in Pictures