Archaeologist turned college professor Dr. Jack Hawthorne has been recruited by an incredibly wealthy man to search for the bones of Elisha – recorded in scripture to bring the dead back to life by simply touching them. Though skeptical, Jack takes on the assignment and soon jets to international destinations on the hunt for the bones. He soon discovers the dangers that accompany his quest, as his life and the lives those that he cares for are placed in danger.
Debut novelist Don Hoesel’s Elisha’s Bones reads like an installment in a well-established adventure series. The characters seem dropped right into the middle of…life. There is believable back-story and character connections that simply exist without a great deal of expository narrative (always nice.) Jack is a realistic explorer, a bit of a bumbler with plenty of imperfections; he’s a guy who should be easy for most men to relate to. Plunged into danger he finds himself making many mistakes and poor judgment calls – very believable.
I found the ending somewhat surprising, and the faith elements weren’t woven into the plot in a particularly personal, deep way. Still if you are looking for a clean adventure read, this is a fun choice; men should particularly enjoy it. There isn’t a strong romantic focus; while there is a love interest present, it’s more background than a focus of much tension. Fans of Indiana Jones, Matt Bronleewe’s work, and even The Da Vinci Code will enjoy following Jack around the world as he hunts for clues inside tombs, on the internet, in churches, and even in works of art.
Are you teaching some little ones to read? If so, I found a free resource you might be interested in!
From the creator of Teach Your Child to Read in 100 Easy Lessons, Funnix is a downloadable phonics program (Win and Mac) that includes printable worksheets and readers in addition to the phonics exercises. It is free for January here!
I haven’t used it myself, but I’m working on downloading a copy to look at!
If you have been reading this blog for a very long time, you might recall a post I wrote about a site called Shop Wiki. Now, it seems that “wiki” is a fairly popular term, so what does it mean when tied together with shopping? Shop Wiki is a search-engine based website where you can search for almost anything and find easy to categorize/sort by search results from 30,000 stores! Many other shopping directories have paid listings, and this results in a much smaller number of online stores to choose from (more like 1,000), so if you want to try this type of shopping, check out Shop Wiki.
Shop Wiki (UK version) has an extensive assortment if health and beauty products to choose from. There are several major categories (and associated shopping guides) that can help narrow down your search results such as men’s grooming (yes, they do!), and fragrances (we aren’t personally big fans of synthetic aromas in our house, some of us have sensitivities.)
I think this is a neat concept, and I’ll have to remember to use the US version of Shop Wiki for future online purchases!
This Wednesday my baby will be one month old! Where does the time go? And…I’m still pregnant in my facebook profile picture! (I’ve been neglecting facebook terribly – sorry friends!) That baby lala land time warp has snuck up on me and I’m completely surprised by her one month birthday!
So dear friends and family, I’m sorry you’ve heard so little from me…it’s because I’m utterly lost in love!
This is a Mama Buzz tour. I received payment from My Coupons for this tour.
January is here, a fresh semester of school is upon us! Whether we are digging into a new semester of homeschooling, or sending our children off for another round of college courses, January has a way of turning parents thoughts to education.
For those that fall into the latter category, you might be looking for ways to help your child save on their post-secondary educations (they aren’t cheap after all!) Book rentals are a more economical way to get access to the educational resources required for high school than purchasing them outright. Did you know that you can even find coupon codes for the already more affordable option of book rentals? My Coupons gathers together book rental coupon codes to help you save even more!
They have codes for popular book rental websites like Books a Million, Book Renter, Campus Book Rentals, and more. You can sign up to receive coupons by email, submit your own money saving coupons to share with the My Coupons community, and more. My Coupons also isn’t limited to book rentals, you can search their website for all kinds of great online savings.
Well, our little newborn will be one month old next Wednesday! Our extended break from school (from Nov. 26th to Jan. 6th) that we spent waiting for our baby to arrive and having life with a newborn, is now drawing to a close. The past few days we’ve been easing back into school (my oldest (7) was starting to become very anxious without it).
Everything has been going well, and I’ve pulled out the Sonlight Core K we never quite finished and are starting to read through it again instead of doing random read-alouds. SL picks great books, I had ALL my children enthralled by The Boxcar Children this afternoon. I’ve read it twice before, but my oldest wanted to hear it again (she’s read half of it independently as well), so I put in 4 chapters today and my four-year-old was begging for more. It is fun now that she’s old enough to get into the read-alouds. Even my two-year-old drew close to the rocking chair, SO fun!
I’m also changing a couple of things, I’m trying Rod & Staff’s Building Christian English 2 because my oldest has been asking for grammar. I’m putting All About Spelling on hold after we finished level 1. I’m going to wait until we’re done with our phonics (A Beka’s A Handbook for Reading and leveled readers) before we go back to spelling. I also have copywork on hold at the moment because the grammar includes copying. We’ll see how that goes though .
I feel so invigorated! There’s nothing like a new ‘semester’ to make a homeschooling mom feel like she’s getting a fresh, new start!
There are few larger families that can afford to spend willy-nilly on clothing for their families. In order to exercise wise management of the financial resources that God has blessed us with, we are always on the lookout for in-store sales, online discounts, used clothing etc.
Though we’ve never personally utilized any Boden USA coupons, it’s easy to see that Boden USA coupon codes could easily be used to outfit an entire family. This family-oriented clothing retailer has garments for men, women, and children – the whole crew, so if you prefer shopping online you could save on shipping by getting everything in one place.
There are some great site-wide discounts on everything for this kind of whole-family shopping, with a percentage off everything AND free shipping at this Boden coupon website. Again, I can’t speak personally as to the quality (or necessarily the suitability – every family needs to decide upon their own personal standards of modesty) of the clothing available through Boden USA, but I thought I’d throw this out there for fans of this brand, or folks who are just looking for clothing deals! If you or your family have experience with this brand feel free to chime in with your experiences!
Mohamed and Matthew are twin brothers, separated at birth. Growing up with no knowledge of the other, one was raised as a Christian in America, the other as a militant Muslim in Egypt. Both are now pursuing college degrees, both love soccer, and when they come together suddenly, both realize that they love the same girl.
This fictional exploration of the differences between Islam and Christianity devotes more page time to life as a radical-Muslim. With the target audience consisting primarily of Christians this is understandable, it is the Muslim lifestyle and beliefs that are less familiar to most readers than that of followers of Jesus.
In addition to the suspense created by Mohamed’s involvement with jihadists, there is also a certain element of mystery surrounding the past of the twins and how they are linked together. There is also a very low-key romantic triangle, but there isn’t a lot of chemistry or emotional draw-in for the reader to be found here.
The character development was somewhat mediocre with Mohamed being the best fleshed out of the characters. Matthew was actually surprisingly shallow, he seemed a perpetual adolescent and the intelligence necessary to pursuing a medical career seemed to be lacking (at least it wasn’t expressed in any way in this novel.)
I really wanted to enjoy Mohamed’s Moon, but it proved to be only a so-so read. It was interesting enough to keep me reading but the pace was slower than expected. The exploration of Islam draws from actual quotes from the Quran that helps to lend accuracy to Clemons’ work, but reading a good autobiography from an ex-terrorist is a much meatier way to explore life from a jihadist’s point of view.
Sara is desperate to visit the park, but her parents are SO busy! Vacuuming, working on their laptops, washing dishes – they claim that they just don’t have time, not enough tie, need to catch some time. So that is just what Sara sets out to do. Armed with a large empty jar, Sara keeps her eyes peeled; watching for time, waiting to catch some time. Every time she thinks she spots time, it eludes her grasp, until…
Oh, what family can fail to relate to this playful story? Little ones always need more time, and parents are all too often wrapped up in the busyness of daily life, chores, and work. With Catching Time Gilmore has successfully written a story that speaks to both children and parents on two parallel levels, the world of creative play intersecting with the more logical realm of adults.
Reading this picture book to my children was almost enough to give this mom a guilt attack! My children really enjoyed the storyline that they could sympathize with and the whimsical, imaginative twists in the story as Sara hunts for time.
Kate Davis has a bit of a problem. She’s lost her husband, lost her short-term memory, and is hearing the voice of her dead beloved speaking to her. Before I go further I should clarify that Talking to the Dead isn’t a supernatural-suspense storyline despite the fact that Kate is hearing from the dead, instead it falls into the contemporary women’s fiction genre, with the story leaning towards psychological and emotional healing than it does any encounters with the spiritual world (apart from God of course.)
Mired in grief, Kate finds herself camped out on her living room floor, rarely eating, and even more rarely bathing. Supported by friends, family, and eventually group therapy and a psychiatrist, Kate slowly begins to recover her memories and in the process realizes that the man she has been so longing for was…well….a jerk.
It was a pleasure to read Bonnie Grove’s work. In a story that could easily be emotionally suffocating, she manages to inject enough levity and humor (without sacrificing plausibility) to see readers through to the end. It’s also rather thrilling to find that Grove is a fellow Canadian (no wonder the references to Wee Book Inn and Pigeon Lake!)
This debut novel is pitch-perfect and authentically captures the intense attachment of marriage, the grief following loss, and the bonds of community and grace of God that help move Grove’s characters towards healing.
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Archaeologist turned college professor Dr. Jack Hawthorne has been recruited by an incredibly wealthy man to search for the bones of Elisha – recorded in scripture to bring the dead back to life by simply touching them. Though skeptical, Jack takes on the assignment and soon jets to international destinations on the hunt for the bones. He soon discovers the dangers that accompany his quest, as his life and the lives those that he cares for are placed in danger.
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