Christine's Book Corner

Summary from Goodreads A unique set of quirky short stories, told in a humorous style somewhere between Reader's Digest funny one-liners and Christopher Moore's laugh-out-loud novels. My Review: Run far as you can from the crazy world in The Fiction of Marlon,  a collection of short stories from Marlon Pearson. I've read many books that contained short stories before and have never enjoyed what I read.  I was hoping it would be different reading this book from Marlon Pearson, but unfortunately, it was the same as other books that were full of short stories. I was expecting funny stories as the summary stated and yet, I didn't find one of them to be funny.  In fact, most were confusing and hard to follow along.  I ended up skimming through a majority of them, feeling like it was a chore to get through them.  There are times when you read short stories in a book and they seemed to be tied in with one another.  I didn't get that feeling with Pearson's s

Summary from Goodreads It took Lauren and her husband ten years to achieve their dream—reaching primitive tribes in remote regions of Nepal. But while Sam treks into the Himalayas for weeks at a time, finding passion and purpose in his work among the needy, Lauren and Ryan stay behind, their daily reality more taxing than inspiring. For them, what started as a calling begins to feel like the family’s undoing.  At the peak of her isolation and disillusion, a friend from Lauren’s past enters her life again. But as her communication with Aidan intensifies, so does the tension of coping with the present while reengaging with the past. It’s thirteen-year-old Ryan who most keenly bears the brunt of her distraction. Intimate and bold , Of Stillness and Storm  weaves profound dilemmas into a tale of troubled love and honorable intentions gone awry. My Review: Everyone wants their dreams to come true.  What happened when they do and the person you share your life with is forced to fo

Summary from Goodreads From the New York Times bestselling author of A Dog Named Christmas comes this heartwarming Christmas story about the power of family and the strength and love that comes from our pets.  In this installment of the poignant stories of the McCray family and their lovable canines in rural Kansas, matriarch Mary Ann McCray is determined to shake up Christmas by accepting the role as Crossing Trail's first woman Santa Claus. Mary Ann, always a bit of a rebel, is looking to offer a more progressive voice in the staunchly conservative town at Christmastime and has a few ideas up her red velvet sleeves.   My Review: This was the first book I've read about the McCray family, but hearing about A Dog Named Christmas and seeing that this book was about another dog, I had to read it.  As a dog parent myself, any book that involves dogs.  Most of the time I'm not disappointed in the story and this is one of those times, except for a few things I would'

Summary from Goodreads Is there a past too awful for even God to forgive? The Dinah Harris mystery series continues.... Angus Whitehall's past never really died....it just stubbornly waited for vengeance. A killer has settled into his small rural community, and no one suspects that the local pastor knows much more than he can say. Crippled by the devastating choices of his youth, Angus watches as those he led astray are methodically punished by someone from their violent, racist past. Unable to forgive himself, now the secrets he has kept are slowly poisoning the family whom he dearly loves. As the devastating consequences of his silence are revealed, former FBI agent Dinah Harris must step outside of the lonely isolation that cocoons her, before she can trap a killer and find peace with herself in the depths of God's mercy.   My Review: This was the first time I read a Dinah Harris mystery novel and I didn't know what to expect when picking it up.  The opening que