On the third Thursday of each month, ladies from Sugar Grove Church (mostly, but not all) meet to discuss the book of the month for the WoW Book Worms book club. For the last 6 months or so, I have had the privilege of "leading" this group. Basically, "leading" means showing up (Coffee and conversation? Yeah, it's tough!) and picking out the books we read. Choosing the books is obviously the harder task. I try to get input from other participants and mix it up so that we have opportunities to read from different genres (sometimes that gets me in a little trouble, though). I have enjoyed reading books I wouldn't usually pick to read for myself, and it is always interesting to hear everyone's opinions and thoughts on the books we have read.
For this month's blog, I thought it might be a good idea to write a review for a book we read for the book club, partly because when someone from the club suggested it, it sounded like a brilliant idea, and partly because the deadline for this month's blog really snuck up on me. For March, we read Home Another Way by Christa Parrish. It would probably make for a more interesting blog if I chose a book that everyone did not agree on (hmmm, after hearing some early discussion about April's book, I may have next month's blog book already chosen), but everyone that made it in March really enjoyed Home Another Way, myself included.
Christa Parrish writes a captivating first novel. This book is not the "Christian cliché" you might think (well, I certainly thought) when you hear it is the story of a big city girl with a chip on her shoulder going to a little town where just about everyone seems to be a Christian. It is a heartwarming, funny, sweet story and I was drawn in right away. From the first sentence of the book, "I had twenty-three borrowed dollars in my pocket, and the deed to a house in a town I couldn't find on any map," I wondered where this book was going to take Sarah Graham.
Sarah does eventually find her way to Jonah, New York where she is going to have to stay 6 months in order to receive her inheritance from her estranged father. Lucky for Sarah, Jonah is filled with all sorts of real to life people, people who make mistakes and have pasts they're not proud of, who are there to help her find her way and fight her demons.
Besides enjoying the book, just about everyone else in the group seemed to agree on one other thing: the ending was not how we would have done it! I'm not sure if it was disappointment or surprise, but I think it is fair to say everyone is hoping this great writer pens another book so that we can find out how is Sarah is doing!
I really enjoyed Home Another Way and I hope you check it out of the SGC resource center and enjoy it too!
