Blogging for Book Review: Here Burns my Candle

Here Burns my Candle by Liz Curtis Higgs


(From the back cover)

Lady Elizabeth Kerr is a keeper of secrets.  A Highlander by birth and a Lowlander by marriage, she honors the auld ways, even as doubts and fears stir deep within her.

Her husband, Lord Donald, has secrets of his own, well hidden from the household, yet whispered among the town gossips.

His mother, the dowager Lady Marjory, hides gold beneath her floor and guilt inside her heart.  Though her two abiding passions are maintaining her place in society and coddling her grown sons, Marjory's many regrets, buried in Greyfriars Churchyard, continue to plague her.

One by one the Kerr family secrets begin to surface, even as bonny Prince Charlie and his rebel army ride into Edinburgh in September 1745, intent on capturing the crown.

A timeless story of love and betrayal, loss and redemption, flickering against the vivid backdrop of eighteenth-century Scotland, Here Burns My Candle illuminates the dark side of human nature, even as hope, the brightest of tapers, lights the way home.


My Thoughts:

I absolutely loved this book.  Like her previous books, Higgs takes a well-know Bible story and sets it into eighteenth century Scotland giving us a rich view of life there. 

I do have to admit I was unsure about the book at first.  It started off very slowly; but once I realized that I need to regard this book more like a novel of manners - in the same sense as Pride and Prejudice - it suddenly became more interesting.  As I read, I started noticing all the wonderful little details of Scottish life woven into the story - the interesting food, the "proper" way to do things in high society, even the way bills were only paid twice a year.  Higgs did a great job of accurately portraying that world and drawing the reader into it.  For a week, I got to feel like I was a part of the Edinburgh society of 1745.

Higgs' writing style is beautiful and very poetic.  You couldn't help trying out your Scottish brogue as you read the language used by the "commonfolk" in the book.

I also found the story very interesting.  As I said before, the action isn't fast paced but the thoughts of the characters and their resulting actions are very engaging.  Knowing that the book was a retelling of the story of Ruth had both its good and bad points.  This book is about the first 8 verses of Ruth (the sequel tells the rest of the story).  When you read the first 8 verses of Ruth, you find out you don't know too much of the backstory - the time before Ruth left with Naomi.  That backstory is the part Higgs elaborates on in this book.  She uses her spiritual imagination, if you will.  On the converse side, it is a little frustrating having this knowledge because then I know what's going to happen.  That being said, I think this was a masterful retelling of the book of Ruth and I highly recommend it.

I give this book 5 out of 5 stars.

What I Learned Wednesday: Making a Blog Signature

I told you that I had a great new idea for What I Learned Wednesdays.

We are going to learn how to PIMP our blogs!

OK, maybe not really PIMP, but definitely spruce them up a bit.

I, admittedly, don't know much about HTML, but in order to freshen things up a bit around here, I'll be learning some and passing that knowledge onto you.  We'll learn a little HTML as well as learn some secrets of blog design.

Here are the topics I hope to cover over the next few weeks:

• Add/change your blog signature
• Add/change your blog header
• Make a button for your blog (great way to advertise your blog)
• Change your blog layout

If you have any topics you'd like me to cover, please let me know in the comments.  I'll be glad to research them for you.

Today we're going to start with a relatively easy topic.

How to make a Blog Signature

First of all, what is a blog signature?
If you scroll down to the end of any one of my posts, you'll see my name "Cathy" written all scrolly and pretty like this:







The best part is, it's already in my layout so I don't have to add it every time. It's added automatically at the end of my posts.

So how do you get one of those?

1. Well, you have to make a signature first.  Go to My Live Signature.  Use that website to create a signature that shows off your style.  There are lots of fonts to choose from and it you don't like any of those, you can create a signature from your actual IRL signature.
2. Click on the signature file you just created (if you register at the site, you can save multiple signatures).  Using that file, follow the website's instructions on generating HTML code.  Now you're almost done.
3. Go into your blog dashboard and click on the "Settings" button.  Find the "Formatting" tab and click on that.  Scroll down until you see "Post Template."  Copy and paste the HTML code you just created into that box.  Make sure you click that "Save" button.
4. That's it!  Your new signature should be at the bottom of everyone of your posts now.  If you decide one day to change your signature, your new signature should appear in your new posts but not in your old ones.  Your old ones should still have your old signature.

My current signature came with a blog design prize that I won a while back, so I have never created my own signature.  Today, I tried my hand at it and added it below.  What do you think?

Special LIVE Event with Author Liz Curtis Higgs

Blogging for Books, one of my favorite books for bloggers sites, is hosting a live event with author Liz Curtis Higgs. Higgs has written 7 novels and numerous Bible study books. I will be reviewing one of her new books on Thursday.

See the live event below at 2 PM EST on April 5.

Wonderworks

Join me today for a special event at 2 PM EST. Visit my blog and see a LIVE talk by author Liz Curtis Higgs.  You can ask questions and get her responses about her new book series (wahoo, I'll be reviewing one of them on Thursday).
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As I mentioned before, last week was Spring Break and, as a last minute change, we decided to go to Pigeon Forge to Wonderworks for the day.

We had never been there before and really weren't sure what to expect.  But who wouldn't want to go here:

From their website, we learned that Wonderworks is:

Pigeon Forge's #1 indoor interactive attraction. An amusement park for the mind, featuring over 100 interactive exhibits to spark the imagination. Fun for the whole family to experience.

And it was.  It was kind of like a children's museum on steriods.  There were plenty of things to touch and play with (and, thankfully, plenty of Purex dispensers as well).  David loved the touch-screen computers with multiple choice questions.  He didn't really read the questions.  He just liked pushing the answer buttons until he got it right.

Wonderworks had some unique things, like a Quake Cafe.  It was a little table that you sit at in a little room.  Then the room starts shaking as if it were in a 5.3 Richter scale earthquake.  It was kind of unique to experience that while also knowing you are perfectly safe.  Next to it was the Hurricane Zone, where you were exposed to hurricane force winds.

There was a HUGE ropes course suspended 15 feet up in the air...and that was just the bottom of it.  It was 3 levels high!  We waited an hour to get on that and both children freaked out.  David refused to leave the base to do any of the obstacles.  Tim had to turn around with him and go down until I got done.  Julie was a little braver and went along the first 2 obstacles with no problem.  Then she freaked and kept repeating "get me down from here - NOW!"  I helped her get around to the exit and got her down.  I was impressed with her though.  Even though she fell once (yes, we were very secure with a harness attached above us, so we couldn't really fall), she kept her wits about her and put her feet back on the course and finished.  When we were done Tim went up by himself and went all over the course.  Glad someone got our wait's worth out of it.

After that, we stuck to tamer things.  Like letting our kids lay on a bed of nails.

By far, our family's favorite part of Wonderworks was the laser tag game at the end.  Three out of four of us did horrible and had embarrassing scores (well, probably it was only embarrassing for the one of us that was over 30), but it was SO MUCH FUN!!!  It wasn't a scary course.  It was pretty open and there were lots of chances to shoot our laser guns.  We could have done that several more times and the kids would have been happy.

I'll leave you with some fun photo ops.

I didn't receive any compensation or free tickets from Wonderworks, although that would have been nice.  I just wanted to tell you about our fun day.
 

The best part of the Trip

This past week was Spring Break for my kids and we got to spend a day in Pigeon Forge at Wonderworks.  I'll tell you all about that tomorrow.

But today, let me tell you MY favorite part of the trip (besides laser tag).

See all this food (there were also two more drinks that didn't make it into this picture).

Guess how much it cost?

ZERO!!!

Not sure why the receipt says "Kids cone." But the important part is the bottom line - FREE!!

Thank you Chick-fil-a calendar!!!! 

Friday Funny

I just had to share this as a Friday Funny. This video was on the Swagbucks blog last week and I made the mistake of showing it to my kids. They think it's the funniest thing ever and insist on watching it over and over. Prepare to laugh and be a little grossed out.

Book Review: Rest in Peace

Rest in Peace by Frances Devine


Victoria Storm, who owns a boarding house for senior citizens, is once again thrown into a murder investigation when she discovers the body of Clyde Foster, the local pet store owner, in a pool of blood in his store.  While searching down clues that seem to involve a World War II jewelry theft, Victoria's life is threatened and one of her seniors, Miss Aggie goes missing.  Will they find the murderer in time?  Will the 60 year old hidden jewelry finally appear?

Rest in Peace is part of the Hometown Mysteries collection and is the third book featuring Miss Aggie from the Misadventure of Miss Aggie Mystery series.

My Thoughts:

This was a quick read, but I felt it was just an OK book.  There were a lot of characters in the book and at times it was hard to keep them all straight.  Even though the book seems to tout itself as a murder mystery, it seemed more like the murder was a side plot.  Most of the mystery elements in the book involved Miss Aggie's disappearance and the mystery surrounding emeralds stolen from the Jews in World War II. To me the final solution to the murder was very anti-climactic.

I enjoyed reading this book; however, it's not one that I will gush over to my friends.  I just feel like the story could have been developed a little more.  I was also a little disappointed that this book pretty much told you everything that happened in the first two Miss Aggie books.  I would have liked to read those two books, but I feel like I'd be wasting my money now because I know who did it and why.

I give this book 4 stars out of 5.

Thanks to netGalley for providing me the Kindle version of this book to read.