Love's Abiding Joy

Love's Abiding Joy, the fourth movie in the Love Comes Softly series, will be on Channel 7 tomorrow (May 7th) from 12pm to 2pm for any Australian readers who might want to watch it. Sorry this is such late notice! I meant to do a blog post about this ages ago, but then I forgot all about it. :-( I'll be watching it! I've only seen the first three movies in the series so far. . . 

Recent Reading

Young Girl Reading, by Fragonard

Jack and Jill, by Louisa May Alcott

I found this to be a light, enjoyable read. There is really no plot to speak of - the book just ambles along at a very leisurely pace. Not a page-turner, by any means! On the contrary, I had to make myself finish it.

If you've read other L.M. Alcott books, then you'll know what you're in for. Nearly every chapter has a moral to it; teenage boys and girls seem to behave like 8-year-olds rather than adolescents (at least that's how it can seem to the modern reader!), and there's just a hint of romance towards the end of the book - not a lot, though.

I enjoyed it for the picture it gave of life in 19th century rural New England, and for the characters. However, I would still have to rank it alongside Eight Cousins and Little Men as one of Alcott's worst books. It's still pretty darn good though, LOL!

*** 3 out of 5 stars

When Calls the Heart, by Janette Oke

I've been wanting to read this one for a looonnng time, and was delighted when my dear parents gave it to me for Christmas! (It was ordered online from the UK, and unfortunately didn't arrive in time for Christmas, but that didn't matter!)

I though this was a lovely book - I enjoyed it not so much for the romance, but rather for the fascinating glimpse it gave of a specific era in Canadian history. Set in the Canadian west, this is nonetheless a little bit different than Oke's usual prairie romance fare!

The basic storyline will sound very familiar to you - young, pretty girl from the East travels west and works as a teacher in a tiny school  in the middle of nowhere. But there's more to it than that! Much more! Read it for yourself and see. ;-)

**** 4 1/2 out 5 stars

Memories of a Country Childhood, by Judith Wallace

This was an absolutely enchanting book. It was lent to me by a friend, who thought I might like it. I am so glad she did! Otherwise I might never have discovered it.

The basic premise of the book is summed up in the title. Judith Wallace grew up on a sheep and cattle station near Glen Innes, in New England, New South Wales. (That's New England in Australia, very different to the American one!)

I'm really struggling for words right now - it's hard to find the right words to get across the haunting, sad, but magical atmosphere contained within the pages of this book.

It describes in detail farm life in the early 20th century, from the perspective of a well-off station master's child. The station - called Ilparran - functions like a small village, with the numerous station-hands and servants working together as a community. Judith and her sisters pretty much run wild on the land, doing whatever they like. Then World War II strikes, and one by one, all the servants leave Ilparran. The family have to do everything for themselves, including running the farm and looking after the huge house, modeled after an English manor.

Let me just say that I highly, highly, recommend this book. I think it's out of print now - and readers outside of Australia may find it very difficult to get a copy, but if any of you here in Aus. can track down a copy, you will be well rewarded. 

***** 5 out of 5 stars

Current Mood:   Awake

A Bride for Donnigan

Flower-seller in London, by Jules Bastien-Lepage. The girl in this painting reminded me a little of Kathleen, the heroine of this book; only Kathleen sold bread, not flowers, on the streets of London. Picture from ArtMagick.com

A good friend [ ; ) thanks 'Koala'! ] recently lent me a heap of Janette Oke books. The first one of these books to catch my eye was A Bride for Donnigan. I had heard about this book - indeed I had almost bought it, but I thought No, I'll wait until I read it before I buy it. . . and as we have seen, I recently got the chance to read it, and 'read it' I did!

A Bride for Donnigan tells the story of seventeen-year-old Kathleen O'Malley. Both of her parents are dead, and she lives under the roof of her widowed stepmother. When she discovers that her stepmother intends to remarry, keeping Kathleen as only a servant, Kathleen makes a decision to respond to a certain advertisement she had seen in the street:

"Ladies! The Opportunity of a Lifetime in the New American Frontier! Well-Secured Ranchers, Farmers, and Businessmen Desire Wedded Partners to Share Their Life and Prosperity. INQUIRE WITHIN."

It's a fascinating read, especially in light of the historical context. What may seem crazy to us today - farmers and ranchers living in the remote far west of America "ordering" mail order brides from Europe! -- actually made perfect sense to the people involved in this type of match-making. It also looks at the reasons that could drive the said mail-order brides to endure a lengthy voyage across the Atlantic, to arrive in an unfamiliar land, all for the sake of marrying men they knew practically nothing about. . .

Unlike most of Janette Oke's other books, which deal solely with life on the American prairie, A Bride for Donnigan offers glimpses of what life was like for women living on the other side of the pond, in industrialised Britain. 

It is perhaps one of Oke's most dynamic novels, but it is not without its flaws. . . In particular, the first half of the book is considerably better than the second half. As with some of Oke's other books, A Bride for Donnigan begins with a lot of momentum, but loses pace about halfway through the book.

Nonetheless, it is an entertaining and enjoyable read, definitely worth picking up sometime if you're after some pleasant light reading.

Oh, and BTW -- since I first wrote the above I've wasted 10 minutes fooling around with the webcam on my laptop, taking snapshots of myself and just being wacky. . . I look so WEIRD in some of them! I'd post some of here were it not for (a) I think my parents would prefer that I don't post pics of myself online for safety reasons and (b) you'd all think I was bonkers because of the crazy faces I'm pulling -- seriously, I was laughing my head off at the silly faces I was making.

God bless you all! Now I must go to bed. . . I'm a bit tired, I woke up at 5:30 this morning for some reason. . .

Current Mood:    Weird

Love's Long Journey

If you're a fan of the Little House on the Prairie books or tv series, or if you enjoy reading Janette Oke's novels, you'll probably like the Love Comes Softly movies. [Loosely] based on the Love Comes Softly series of books by Oke, they follow the story of the Clark family in 19th century pioneer America.

Love's Long Journey, the third movie in the series, tells of the adventure newlyweds Missie and Willie LaHaye undertook when they left their families and the place of their upbringing to pursue a new life in the West. 

The plot may sound familiar and predictable, but it's quite a sweet story, and is suitable for the whole family to enjoy. There are a couple of scary scenes with some violence, but other than that I can't remember anything objectionable.

Love's Long Journey will be telecast across Australia on Channel Seven at 12 noon on Monday 3 of November.

The next movie in the series, Love's Abiding Joy, will air two days later, on Wednesday 5 Nov.

For those of you who don't live in Australia, you can watch Love's Long Journey on Youtube, or better yet, buy the dvd!

A Gown of Spanish Lace

After writing last night's post I had a shower and when straight to bed to finish reading my book. . .

I have to say I was a little disappointed when I discovered that the book I had bought was not the original version of the novel - it was an abridged edition. But it was still very good. Unlike in a lot of books "specially adapted for young readers" from the original the romance was very believable, and even though I haven't read the original, I think it has probably preserved the heart of Oke's book very well.

I suppose I should give you some sort of summary of the plot. . .

The story is built around sixteen-year-old Ariana Benson. The daughter of a preacher, Ariana works as a schoolteacher in the American Mid-West, circa 1870. This may not sound like a very promising start - how many scores of historical romance novels have been written about young schoolmarms slogging it out in the Little House on the Prairie-era Wild West. But trust me, this is a historical novel with a difference.

Another school day finishes for Ariana. She packs up her things, getting ready to leave the deserted schoolhouse. Two rough-looking men appear in the doorway. They have come to kidnap her. But why would they want to kidnap her? She's just a poor preacher's daughter; there's no way her father could afford to pay any ransom. Unfortunately, the two men are not so obliging as to answer her questions.

They take her away, through a terrible snowstorm, to their camp - a huddle of ramshackle buildings hidden in an isolated valley. (I was getting a bit of deja-vu as I read this book - finally I figured out that this valley and its inhabitants reminded me very much of the dreaded Doones of Lorna Doone fame.)

Ariana is kept prisoner in a filthy cabin. Terrified and all alone, only her faith, her relationship with God sustains her. She spends much of her time praying and reading her Bible. Will "Boss" Russell, the leader of this little gang, assigns his son Laramie to guard Ariana's cabin, making sure she doesn't escape. Laramie gets a shock when he discovers that the mysterious prisoner is a girl! He had had no idea who the captive was, but he had assumed that it was a man. . .

Will Russell is every bit as conniving and evil as an Ensor or Counsellor Doone, but Laramie is certainly no Carver Doone. He had never felt right about the way his outlaw 'family' lived, about the lifestyle he had been brought up into; but it was the only way he had ever known. He found himself being drawn to Ariana and this faith that she had in her God. She was the total opposite of everything and everyone he had ever known before.

Well, I won't say any more - I don't like it when movie trailers or the blurbs on the back of books give away too much, so I won't spoil everything for you; but summing things up, A Gown of Spanish Lace is a very good book - possibly one Janette Oke's best. There's a lot more action and adventure in this than there is in many of her other books. If you've read any of Oke's other books, you'll know what to expect. If you haven't, this would be a good place to start - it really is one of Oke's greatest books.

You can buy the version I bought, Janette Oke Classics for Girls from ChristianBook.com for $4.99, or you can buy the original version for $8.99.

New books!

My books from ChristianBook.com arrived today!! I suppose the proper thing to do would be to read the books first and then write what I thought about them, but I was just so excited about it that I had to write about them now. . .

I ordered Stacy McDonald's book Raising Maidens of Virtue. I've read a lot about this book, and I was thrilled to finally have it in my hands. I've had a quick browse through it, and it looks like an excellent book.

I also ordered an L. M. Montgomery book - The Blue Castle. It's meant to be one of her best books, and as someone who has read and loved many  Montgomery books, I know that I'll love it.
And another book from another favourite author of mine.  I've nearly finished A Gown of Spanish Lace already - actually I've had a very difficult time dragging myself away from it to  write this post!

And Mary Mary's self-titled album. I've listened to it already - and it's fabulous! Try listening to the first four songs of this album without smiling and singing along. . . I dare you! It's wonderful, catchy, contemporary gospel/r&b.

Now, back to my book. . .