Easter Stories – Miriam LeBlanc, compiler

© 2015 The Plough Publishing House, Walden, New York

With Easter just around the corner, I welcomed the chance to read a collection of inspirational stories set in, on, or around Easter for review. Thanks to the publishers at Plough for providing one. You can visit them here: http://www.plough.com/en/ebooks/e/easter-stories.

This collection of stories, with a couple of poems thrown in for good measure, is designed to be inspiring for those who follow the Christ of Easter. The selections included here are often inspirational as promised. Specifically heartfelt is the legend of Russian martyr, Vasily Osipovich Rakhov (born ca. 1861) as creatively told in “The Case of Rachoff”, making this reader want to dig a little deeper into the life of this wanderer who lived a life dedicated to Jesus and Jesus alone.

 

Included are both old and new stories. Some of the classics include selections by Leo Tolstoy (“Two Old Men”), C.S. Lewis (“The Death of the Lizard” from The Great Divorce), and Anton Chekhov (“The Student”). These tales are inspiring if not actually familiar. Newer selections, such as “The King and Death” by Ger Koopman seem to be written specifically for this collection. This latter story was an excellent one with a bit of a slowdown for an ending.

I chose to read this book as part of my morning devotions as there are only about thirty selections (reading one entry per day). This worked well for me, but I found some of the selections to be longer than my 15-20 minute devotional time would allow. Other readers may prefer to read the anthology like any other that they would pick up, selecting only one or two selections a year at Easter time.

This book is filled with stories from distant lands like Germany and Russia, that center on the miraculous nature of the Easter season, and is worth your time to read. Included are brand new wood-cutting artworks by artist Lisa Toth which expertly introduce each story. I would recommend it for anyone who wants to add a new element to their Easter celebration. (four out of five reading glasses)

—Benjamin Potter, March 27, 2015

[Disclaimer: I received this book for free for the purposes of this review.]

The Nativity Collection – Robert J. Morgan

© 2010 Nashville, Thomas Nelson

I have kept it no secret (from anyone) that I love Christmas. I especially love reading Christmas-related books. With this in mind, my Blushing Bride discovered a new collection of Christmas stories to wrap and place under the tree for me. The author is Robert J. Morgan, pastor of the Donelson Fellowship Church in Nashville. Morgan is also the writer/compiler behind such devotional connections as Then Sings My Soul and On This Day in Christian History. In this collection, he brings his love for Jesus, his communication skills, and the emotion accompanying the Nativity story to present a book filled with the Hope that pervades the Christmas season.

From the fly-leaf we learn that Morgan is in the habit of writing a new fictional story built around the Nativity to share with his congregation each Christmas Eve. Reading this selection of six of these tales will make you want to trek to Nashville next Christmas Eve just to enjoy the next installment. Each of these stories is well-crafted and brings to mind Christmases past and present. You will relate to the characters as they renew their joy in Christmas, in Christ, and in Life.

The book opens with “Ollie” which reminds us that Christmas has more to do with relationship and less to do with presents than most Americans are ready to admit; includes a Christmas honeymoon story (entitled “Nativity Seen Smiling,” but that I would have called “Felipe Navidad”); “Poet Boy” – a hat-tip to Christmas Pageants; and closes with the most poignant address of Christmas I have seen in a great while. In all, there are six stories that draw our attention to the Manger of Bethlehem.

Don’t wait until next Christmas to purchase this little book. Get it today, prepare to be blessed, and prepare yourself to renew your own joy in the season, in the Savior, and in the salvation He brings. I give Mr. Morgan five out of five reading glasses for this book, and can’t wait for new volumes of these gifts he has given year after year to his church. Now, we can all share in the gift of story.

—Benjamin Potter, December 29, 2010

Ford County – John Grisham

© 2009 New York, Doubleday

I like Grisham’s fiction. There, I’ve said it, and I stand by it. Admittedly I like some better than others. In conversations with others, I have discovered that I like the ones that others don’t like (and vice versa). But because I like Grisham fiction, it was natural that I pick up a copy of his collection of stories set in his fictional Ford County, Mississippi—which was the setting of one of his better novels (and his first) A Time to Kill. Now for the first time since his debut novel, Grisham comes home to Ford County.

As a simple explanation, quietly between the book title and the author’s name on the front cover, rests the word “Stories.” The publisher could well have put the word “Snapshots,” because that is what you will find, snapshots of Ford County and its semi-redneck residents. The stories are not really related in their content aside from the fact that they are set in Ford County (and several of them deal with lawyers—which you would come to expect from Grisham).

The stories are fairly short and swift to read. One encounter follows three family members as they drive to death row to be with the youngest member of the family in his last hours before execution. (I much preferred this treatment to Grisham’s earlier, much longer work The Chamber.) Of particular interest are the opening story “Blood Drive,” the last story “Funny Boy,” and the next to the last “Quiet Haven.”

“Blood Drive” chronicles the adventures of three young men who are loosely commissioned by the community of Box Hill to drive to Memphis to provide blood for one of their own who is reported to be on his deathbed after a work-related accident. “Funny Boy” watches the gay son of a prominent Clanton family who comes home to die of AIDS only to be rebuffed by everyone but the elderly black woman who is willing to care for him. Small town politics, prejudices, and power plays are revealed in vivid color. Even so, I particularly enjoyed “Quiet Haven,” the tale of a traveling nursing home worker who embeds himself into the lives of the elderly residents long enough to find personal gain as well as revenge on the abusive system. This story bears the unique honor of being told from the voice of the conniving narrator.

The three highlighted stories are worth the price of the book, and the others won’t disappoint. The seven stories in the covers of Ford County will entertain you, keep you guessing, and occasionally make you laugh. It is well worth your time at 4 ½ out of 5 reading glasses.

—Benjamin Potter, January 7, 2010

O. Henry a la Carte – O Henry

©1973 Hallmark Cards, Inc., Kansas City, MO

Sometimes finding the right holiday reading occurs at the annual book fair. In June I picked up this little gift book from days gone by at the local hospital fund-raiser. The $3.00 price clip on the dust jacket made this an excellent buy for the holidays in 1973. The seventy-five cents I paid at the fair seemed a good exchange.

As an O Henry fan, I was happy to get a great little collection of his writing at a pocket-change price. Specifically, I was interested in having a simple copy of his famous Christmas story “The Gift of the Magi” (which is the only selection mentioned in the sub-title of this little volume). The collection, selected by Jan Miller Gilmore, includes both short stories and poems by the author.

The poetry leaves a bit to be desired, being much the same as the simplistic verse I was writing in high school. I was mildly entertained by the selection “Nothing to Say” which presents a politician who has nothing to say on the matter and proceeds to discourse ad nauseam on the topic of which he has nothing to say.

Among the short fiction included in the book are (of course) “The Gift of the Magi” which causes me to ask each time I read it, how can one have “sixty cents of it in pennies” when the total amount is $1.87 cents? Also you will find the age-old favorite “The Ransom of Red Chief” which is always good for a laugh and a sigh.

New to me, but well worth the reading were the stories “The Last Leaf” and “Hearts and Hands”. I was not quite so impressed (save with the exercise of superb language) with “Springtime a la Carte”. Another selection that is awkward for the collection is the little two-page snippet entitled appropriately enough “A Strange Story” which provides a good foundation on which to build a story by Edgar A. Poe.

For holiday fare, this is an excellent little volume because it is filled with easily read, wonderfully written stories that touch the depths of the English language while remembering the hearts of the reader. One thing that the editor did well was to anchor the book (begin and end) with two of the more powerful stories (“The Gift of the Magi” and “Hearts and Hands”) included.

As a reader, I’d give the book three stars; as a gift-book, it could easily reach the coveted five-star rating. So, I’ll split the difference for purposes of rating and give O. Henry a la Carte four out of five reading glasses.

—Benjamin Potter, December 17, 2008

"The Sunshine of My Wife" -- Bill Crider

For a bit of variety today, I'll review a short story. As you can already tell, I'm a big fan of Bill Crider's writing (probably the biggest, with the exception of Bill himself). What you may not know is that, as well as being a great genre novelist, Bill is quite the accomplished short story writer as well. He's even won awards!

Bill recently participated in a writing challenge of sorts. The call was sent out for short stories that could be posted to a blog, that must be about a blog. Bill went the whole nine yards and created a story that was a blog. It's hard to describe the story without destroying the story. One thing that can be said is that you can read the story from earliest entry to latest, or in reverse (latest to earliest) and the effect is superb either way. If you're a fan of mystery stories, as I am, you will want to click here to see what I'm talking about. If you just like a good story, but don't have lots of reading time available, check the story out. It's a great puzzle story. And like any good literature, it lets you fill in all the blanks. But don't forget to read the "comments" as you read, you don't want to miss one trick in this treat.

See Bill's invitation to read the story here.

--Benjamin Potter, March 2007