Wedding at Bella Beach by Kate Wentworth – Bella Beach #7
This is the final full-length book in the Bella Beach series and covers the wedding of Emma Sinclair, who was the main character of the first book. There is a novella about Emma’s daughter Alexis coming out this December called Christmas Wedding at Bella Beach.
This was a fast, feel-good read. It’s probably good that the series is ending because the author spent quite a bit of time making sure we remembered what had happened with each of the characters in the previous books. It did still have some new developments and, of course, there were all the fun things leading up to the wedding.
In small-town Washington, an eclectic group of misfits–spearheaded by young librarian Sloane and curmudgeonly reader Arthur–forms a unique book club that leads to unexpected bonds.
I had enjoyed Gilmore’s more recent book, The Library of Borrowed Hearts, so I decided to go back and read this one. It was a fun read, and I liked the characters and how their relationships develop over the course of the book.
I did have trouble following some of the characters’ feelings and motivations, but I can’t say whether that is because of the writing or because of the way my autistic brain works. The story got easier to follow during the later chapters.
The Evolution of Adam: What the Bible Does and Doesn’t Say About Human Origins by Peter Enns
Summary
Can Christianity and evolution coexist? Traditional Christian teaching presents Jesus as reversing the effects of the fall of Adam. But an evolutionary view of human origins doesn’t allow for a literal Adam, making evolution seemingly incompatible with what Genesis and the apostle Paul say about him.
For Christians who both accept evolution and want to take the Bible seriously, this can present a faith-shaking tension. Popular Old Testament scholar Peter Enns offers a way forward by explaining how this tension is caused not by the discoveries of science but by false expectations about the biblical texts.
My Thoughts
I really appreciated this book. The reading I have done so far on Christianity and evolution focused on the various beliefs about the origins of life as well as the stories of a worldwide flood, and I hadn’t really thought about the implications of this as it relates to the existence of Adam.
Enns spends time discussing the appearance of Adam in the Old Testament as well as the mentions made of Adam by Paul in the New Testament. He explains a lot about the cultural and theological environments of both times and how those environments affected the way the Scriptures were written, as well as how the time we live in affects the way we interpret it.
As he states in Chapter 6: Paul as an Ancient Interpreter of the Old Testament:
The authors of Scripture did not speak at a safe distance from their culture but wrote as people living in a particular time and place in human history….The Old Testament already does in principle what Paul is doing here: reworking the past to speak to the present….It is the very act of altering the past to address present circumstances that ensures Scripture’s continuation as the active and abiding Word of God, not a relic of a bygone era.
The Evolution of Adam gave me a lot to think about, and I am glad I got the chance to read it. I would recommend it to anyone with an interest in the topic.
Willa Bennett’s husband Ben passed away three years ago while he was up at their beach house to do some work on it. She has not really been living her life since, including not being very present for her teenage son, Jamie. Now she is heading to the beach house to get it ready to sell, hoping it will help her to move on. Once she arrives, she is surprised to encounter her husband’s ghost.
When it turns out there is a lot of work to do before she can sell, she summons her son Jamie, her best friend Kristin, and Kristin’s daughter Kelsey to come for the summer. Even with their company, she continues to see Ben and is even able to talk with him, reminiscing about their life together and how she is dealing with being on her own.
I enjoyed this book so much. The writing was engaging and emotional, with well-developed, relatable characters. The touch of the supernatural was handled very well–I loved the interactions between Willa and Ben. For me, it was a satisfying story about moving through grief and finding healing.
Leah is fresh out of a job and an engagement, so she moves back to her Cape Cod hometown. Once there, she impulsively decides to rent and renovate a historic home so that she can open a bookshop. A cast of characters forms around her, some of whom we get to know quite well as there are chapters told from their point of view.
There’s Lucy, a teenager whose older sister has been severely injured in a car accident; Eudora, a widow who has become afraid to leave her home; and Luke, a local woodworker who knew Leah in high school.
I enjoyed this book very much. The characters are likable and the bookstore is a charming setting. I would definitely recommend this when you are looking for a lighthearted, feel-good read.
This week I only finished 2 books. I try to read 1 nonfiction book every month, and this week I read my nonfiction selection for July. Even though I do want to read nonfiction, I still have a mental block that makes me resist picking it up and diving in, so having the objective goal of 1 per month helps me stay accountable.
⭐⭐⭐⭐
Becoming the Pastor’s Wife: How Marriage Replaced Ordination as a Woman’s Path to Ministry by Beth Allison Barr
This book gives an account of how we have seen women in ministry treated in the Bible to medieval times to the present. The present/recent history deals mainly with the SBC, a conservative denomination in the US.
I have to admit I skimmed some of it, but I did find it very interesting how women have been moved out of leadership roles into often unpaid, non-leader ministry, especially in terms of the role of the pastor’s wife.
If you are looking for a good discussion of women in ministry, this is a good choice. For more general info on how women are treated in conservative circles, check out her earlier book The Making of Biblical Womanhood, which I highly recommend.
⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
Flirting Lessons by Jasmine Guillory
I loved this one! The characters were so well done and the relationships (both friendly and romantic) were so realistic. I really enjoyed her writing style, and I appreciated that even when there were miscommunications, they weren’t cringe-inducing but instead opportunities for growth and honesty.
Three books per week seems to be my sweet spot. Since I have started posting weekly updates, all but one has had three books on it.
Here’s what I finished this week:
⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
Happiness for Beginners by Katherine Center
I loved this book! The story centers on Helen, who signs up for a wilderness survival course in an attempt to take back her life after a divorce. Although there is a romantic plotline, this book is much more than that, and I felt challenged and inspired by her adventure and the things she learned about life through the experience and the people she met along the way. Highly recommend and now I’m going to watch the movie!
⭐⭐⭐⭐
How to Find Love in a Bookshop by Veronica Henry
This is a charming novel about a woman who tries to keep her dad’s bookshop running after his death. The story goes back and forth between the present day with Emilia and the cast of characters living nearby and the past where we learn how she came to be.
I have to admit there were almost too many characters in this one for me; I kept getting Mia and Emilia mixed up. That could be because I was switching between this physical book and another book on my Kindle app, so I wasn’t giving it my full attention. Also, I have read so many books about bookshops lately that they are starting to blur together. Those things are on me, though, so I would definitely recommend reading this one.
⭐⭐⭐
More Days at the Morisaki Bookshop by Satoshi Yagisawa
This was a nice follow up to the first book. I liked hearing what was happening with the characters I had grown fond of and even found myself liking the main character’s aunt Momoko better in this one.
What is your favorite book that you have read recently?
I finished 3 books this week. It could have been 4, but I kept jumping between 2 different books, so they are both half-finished.
⭐⭐⭐⭐
Incense and Sensibility by Sonali Dev – The Rajes #3
I really enjoyed this one. I felt it had more similarities to Austen than the previous book in the series did, and I loved getting into Yash’s story. I am looking forward to book 4.
⭐⭐⭐⭐
The Lost for Words Bookshop by Stephanie Butland – Lost for Words #1
I actually read the second book in the series before I was aware this one existed, but I don’t think I lost too much by reading them out of order. This book centers on Loveday, who is in the second book but not the main focus. She has had a lot of sadness in her life and the book shows how she struggles to overcome it, flipping back and forth between the past and the present. It has some heavy themes, especially of domestic violence.
⭐⭐⭐💫
Winter in Paradise by Elin Hilderbrand – Paradise #1
Hilderbrand’s books are usually a quick read for me, and this was no exception – I read it in one sitting the other afternoon. I enjoyed this story of a woman whose husband dies but turns out to have had many secrets. It was a fun story, and I am looking forward to reading the rest of the trilogy.
In So Many Words 