Time for April's reading list reviews.
My fiction book this month was Her Mother's Hope by Francine Rivers and my nonfiction book was Love Life for Every Married Couple by Ed Wheat.
In this book based loosely on the lives of her mother and grandmother, Rivers follows the life of Marta and her daughter Hildemara. Marta starts her life out with an abusive father in a small town in Switzerland at the turn of the 20th century. He believes that her life is worth nothing more than being a servant in someone else's household. Marta lives to prove him wrong. Her aspirations take her to England and then on to Canada where she meets and marries Niclas. After moving to California and starting their family, the story shifts from Marta's life to that of her oldest daughter, Hildemara.
Marta has always pushed Hildemara, trying to get her to achieve the things that Marta never had the chance to. What Marta sees as pushing and guiding, Hildemara feels as nonacceptance. Can she ever live up to her mother's expectations? Will Marta and Hildemara be at odds forever?
Francine Rivers describes this book as a saga in her introduction. That is a very accurate description. While the book was OK, it was incredibly long. Rivers could have easily made this into two books - one about Marta and one about Hildemara. There were parts that kind of dragged on and I found myself wanting to skip ahead.
I also thought the end was kind of underwhelming. It just kind of ended abruptly. I know there is a sequel but I was a little disappointed, after reading 500 pages, that there wasn't a better ending.
My vote - Francine Rivers has so many other good books, read some of them instead.
Physician Ed Wheat teaches about love, real love, Bible-based love in this book. He explains the five different forms of love and how we can love our spouse using each of these forms of love. Are you trying to save your marriage alone? He addresses that in here too. Dr. Wheat answers honest questions about love in marriage and how you can have the love life in your marriage that you have always dreamed about.
This was an incredible book. I loved reading about the different types of love. I have heard about them in the past but had forgotten a lot of it. I also really liked the practical advice Dr. Wheat gives about how to put each type of love into practice. My only complaint was that I was reading a really old version of the book (I bought it used). It was published in 1980, when I was 2 year old. He talks about cassette tape players and supercomputers that fill up a room, which kind of made me laugh when I was reading. The book has since been revised and updated and republished in 1997. It would probably be a good idea to buy the newer version of the book (unless of course, you want a good laugh at the old technology).
My vote - essential reading for any married folks.
Coming up in May: On Every Side by Karen Kingsbury and The Power of a Praying Parent by Stormie OMartian
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I loved the Francine River's book. It did start out slow, but I really got into it and had to buy the sequel immediately to find out what happens. There are 2 more generations in the 2nd book.
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