Book Description
A gripping tale of psychological suspense perfect for the readership of Minette Walters and Ruth Rendell,
Half Broken Things is a novel that peers into the lives of three dangerously lost people…and the ominous haven they find when they find each other.
Jean is a house sitter at the end of a dreary career. Steph is nine months pregnant and on the run. And Michael is a thief. Through a mixture of deceit, good luck, and misfortune, these three damaged loners have come together at a secluded country home called Walden Manor. Now all three have found what they needed most: a new beginning, a little kindness, a little love. Living off the manor’s riches, tending its grounds and gardens, they leave the outside world far behind and build a happiness so long denied them. That is, until the first unexpected visitor arrives...igniting a chain reaction that is at once spellbinding and disastrous.
A stunning, thought-provoking crime novel of chilling moral complexity,
Half Broken Things is a gripping, haunting exploration of love and our need for it, of the damage done when we go long without it, and the deeds we might be driven to in its name.
From the Hardcover edition.
Download Description
January
Walden Manor August
This is not what it might look like. We’re quiet people. As a general rule extraordinary things do not happen to us, and we are not the type to go looking for them. But so much has happened since January, and I started it. Things began to happen, things I must have brought about somehow without quite foreseeing where they would lead. So I feel I must explain, late in the day though it is. I’m going to set out, as clearly as I can, in the order in which they occurred, the things that have happened here. And I shall find it difficult because I was brought up not to draw attention to myself and I’ve never been considered a forthcoming person, never being one to splurge out on anything, least of all great long explanations. Indeed, Mother always described me as secretive. But that was because, with her, I came to expect my reasons for things to be not so much misunderstood as overlooked or mislaid, and so early on I stopped giving them.
Father was usually quiet, too. When I think back to the sounds of the house in Oakfield Avenue where I grew up, I do not remember voices. I think we sighed or cleared our throats more often than we spoke words. I remember mainly the tick of Father’s longcase clock in the dining room we never ate in, and then after the clock had gone, a particular silence throughout the house that I thought of as a shade of grey. And much later when I was an adult, still there looking after Mother, the most regular sound was the microwave. It pinged a dozen times a day. In fact, until recently, whenever I heard a certain tone of ping, in a shop or somewhere like that, I would immediately smell boiling milk. But when I was a child there was just the clock, with silences in between.
Mother had few words herself. She often went about the house as if she were harbouring unsaid things at great personal cost, with a locked look on her mouth. That being so, I suppose Father and I felt unable to open our own mouths very much. What happens to all the things you might say or want to say, but don’t? Well, they don’t lie about in your head indefinitely, waiting to be let out. For a time they may stay there quite patiently, but then they shuffle off and fade until you can’t locate them any more, and you realise they’re not coming back. By then you’re past caring.
So I grew to think of myself as someone not in particular need of words. I did not acquire the habit of calling them up; not many at a time at least, not even to myself in my own head. Things in my head had been very quiet for a long time, before all this.
But I have been wrong about this aspect of myself, as about others. I find that there are words there after all. Now that I need them, my words have come crowding back, perhaps because I have a limited time in which to get them all down (today is the 20th, so only eleven more days). I am pleased that my hands remember the old touch-typing moves without seeming to involve me at all. The letters are hitting the paper in this old typewriter almost as if they were being shot out of my finger-ends. Which is just as well, because I’m busy enough dealing with all the clamouring words that are flinging themselves around in my head, fighting over which gets fired out first. I’m in a hurry to let them loose. I want to explain, because it is suddenly extremely urgent and important that, in the end, we are not misunderstood.
And I shall try to put down not just what, but why things have happened and why none of it could have turned out any differently. Until now I really haven’t thought about the why. Time’s the thing. I haven’t had time, not time of the right kind, to ask myself why things have gone the way they have. I’ve been too busy being happy; even now I’m happy, although t
Customer Reviews:
Excellent.......2007-10-02
I typically read crime thrillers (Preston & Child, Deaver ) - but I really enjoyed this book. It had a nice pace and it kept me guessing right to the last page. I loved the characters even though I was shocked at some of their actions. I'm looking forward to reading another one of her books. This should be an Oprah selection.
Half Broken Things.......2007-07-07
I've only just started to read and so far it's very good. I base my rating on this book being recommended to me by my sister, who is an avid reader and claims this to be one of the best.
Layer after disturbing layer.......2007-06-11
A very disturbing look into a set of troubled minds. Though it's classed with mystery/crime writing, it was a bit different from most of the things I've read from the genre. The author did a good job of making me want to continue with the story despite that there was nothing at all admirable about the main characters. They really never struck me as all that sympathetic and are, in fact, rather symptomatic of those who like to blame the world for their misfortunes. And yet I found it hard to turn away from them because Joss does such an excellent job of drawing her reader into her characters' twisted minds and I never ceased to be amazed at how skilled at rationalization they all were. One things for sure, this is a novel to make you think.
Reminded me of Shirley Jackson's "We Have Always Lived In The Castle".......2007-01-21
Jackson's classic novel of isolation and murder and madness among those with few ties to reality came to mind as I read HALF BROKEN THINGS.
This is the type of book you "settle into" -- it doesn't sweep you away like much modern commerical fiction. But once you settle in, you're in for a great story with a perfect ending!
Be sure and visit Jackson's CASTLE...and Ruth Rendell's A SIGHT FOR SORE EYES if you liked this book!
Finding other peoples' happiness........2007-01-13
This is an eerily creepy book. Morag Joss has an uncanny ability to tickle the interface between the autonomic nervous system and higher cognitive functions. I couldn't decide whether I was on the side of the "loser" characters or the mainstream owners.
Book Description
"A sensitive Southern tale of weirdly imaginative children and hapless adults. Ms. Witt has staked out a territory somewhere between Harper Lee and Flannery O'Connor." -E. L. DoctorowFrom the day that Morgan Lee is born, her extraordinarily beautiful and withdrawn older brother, Ginx, is obsessed by her. As Aunt Lois recalls: "Ginx thought you belonged to him Morgan Lee. He would sit on our big couch right there in his sailor's suit and hold on to you for dear life . . . He didn't speak normal till he was five, then-bang-one day he's just talking away in complete sentences. But he wouldn't say, 'I.' He said 'we,' meaning you and him."Inhabiting their own parallel world, the two communicate through a secret language and make-believe stories; when Morgan Lee begins to explore friendships beyond their closed circle, however, Ginx becomes increasingly disturbed. In luminous prose, Martha Witt explores the intense and private world inhabited by these siblings and the inevitable and necessary pain of their separation.
Customer Reviews:
Very disappointed.......2006-07-25
I bought this book based on all the great reviews and was very disappointed. I personally don't see what all the excitement is about. The author doesn't expand on the characters enough to make you care what happens to them or why they are doing the weird things they do. The book is just unbelievable and odd.
not worth fixing.......2006-06-06
I admit it: I was taken in by a blurb. Front and center on the cover of my paperback edition of Broken as Things Are, is this misleading recommendation by E. L. Doctorow. "Ms. Witt has staked out a territory somewhere between Harper Lee and Flannery O'Conner."
Doctorow is correct only in the sense that Martha Witt's prose style is both polished and modest. But in this book she has wasted her time and mine on a tale not worth telling.
Broken as Things Are tells the story of a young girl, Morgan Lee, and her family who are being torn apart by the illness of her psychopathic brother. (Here again the cover is misleading in stating that the brother has Asperger's Syndrome. But Asperger kids are not sadistic, manipulative, or progressively disassociative.) Her brother's illness envelopes Morgan Lee in sadomasochism and incest - obvious horrors to which neither narrator nor children pay any attention.
The author provides a bizarre solution to Morgan Lee's predicament. She falls under the spell of Sweety-Boy, a Really Bad Girl who simultaneously seduces Morgan Lee from her brother and scares her straight. In the penultimate scene, Sweety-Boy accepts a transferrence of Morgan Lee's problems and runs off naked into the night. Never mind that this is cheap fantasy - it preserves the moral ambiguity that is the book's only excuse.
Broken as things are..........2005-08-29
BROKEN AS THINGS ARE by Martha Witt
August 28, 2005
Amazon Rating: 4/5 stars
Martha Witt's debut novel is the story of a young girl's relationship with her older brother who has Asperger's Syndrome, a condition related to autism in which a person has difficulties with social and communication skills, and may view the world differently than others do. Morgan Lee is one of three siblings. Ginx is the beautiful withdrawn older brother who latches onto Morgan Lee when she is born, the two becoming inseparable. Ginx develops an obsession over his younger sister, which becomes apparent when Morgan Lee tries to find her own friendships. She learns to live in Ginx's world, even acquiring the skills to communicate with him in a secret language only they understand. Though this is the only world she knows, the relationship isn't healthy, as the reader will eventually understand.
Though the complexities and dynamics between these family members may be hard to understood at first, they become clear by the time the reader has finished the story. It ends with a bang, but at the same time there is no real resolution. Broken as Things Are is a dark novel that follows in the tradition of classic Southern Literature, and a promising beginning to a literary career. Complete review at Bookloons. - M Lofton
"The prison of solitude".......2005-08-01
A dysfunctional family in denial, the thin line between social acceptance and the taint of poverty and a lack of personal boundaries between brother and sister, mother and son; everything factors into this disturbing coming-of-age tale, all the more painful for its immutability. For years Ginx and Morgan-Lee have lived in a world of their own making, where affection for one another is unquestioned and without boundaries, creating a place of comfort and seclusion. Ginx suffers from a form of autism, functional enough to attend high school, but still given to withdrawal and ritualistic behavior. In the summer of Morgan-Lee's fourteenth birthday, subtle shifts have already opened a shallow breech between brother and sister.
With a mother too distracted to care for Morgan-Lee, Ginx and their sister, Dana, the children create their own landscape. This is the summer of Morgan-Lee's search for identity, defined by her own needs and wants, rather than the sheltering of Ginx's fragile ego. Morgan-Lee has literally belonged to her fifteen-year old brother, their youth a patchwork of imaginary fables and shared secrets, but she is a survivor who subconsciously acknowledges that she can never provide all that her brother needs.
Morgan-Lee has long flirted with romantic attachments, but it is not until the children socialize with a very strange young woman, Sweety-Boy, and her half-brother, Jacob, new to their part of North Carolina, that their careful surface develops fissures, threatening to change their relationship irrevocably. The three children are isolated from their peers, Morgan-Lee gladly shepherding Ginx through his emotional difficulties, but when the siblings attend an intimate birthday party thrown by Sweety-Boy, the status quo is altered by the drunken exposure of naked needs blooming in the humid summer air.
In some ways, Sweety-Boy's world-weary cynicism acts as a catalyst for Morgan-Lee, a role model for accomplishing goals; on the other hand, Morgan-Lee is perplexed by the other girl's actions, mistaking her stubbornness for confidence. Prematurely worldly, Sweety-Boy is conscious of her own currency in a stingy world, while, in contrast, Morgan-Lee is still wrapped in innocence, her desire for the opposite sex deepening, but she remains incapable of reading the signs around her, grappling with unfamiliar emotions, knowing the price will be the loss of her brother and the solace they offer each other. Ginx, Morgan-Lee and Dana are thrown into unexpected betrayals. The most keenly observant of the three, Morgan-Lee recognizes the storm on the horizon, helpless to change the inevitable, "the prison of solitude that so often kept people together, no matter how unhappily, was constructed out of pure, empty yearning".
Against a southern gothic background, Morgan-Lee, her brother and sister play out their fates, all of them branded by a lack of emotional support and affection, the suggestion of forbidden intimacies and the chaotic behavior of a family desperately clinging a hope of normalcy. Many scenes are wracked with the painful awkwardness of adolescence and the yearning for love, the carefully constructed walls of their house of cards all but destroyed by Morgan-Lee's impulsive lurch into her own identity. Written in deceptively simple prose, Broken as Things Are is both disturbing and poignant, the protagonists victims of the harsh realities of life. Luan Gaines/2005.
Emotionally Powerful.......2005-07-19
Morgan-Lee is a 14-year old North Carolina girl who is a writer of love letters for fellow students, though she's never needed one herself. Morgan-Lee doesn't fit in. She is growing up in a difficult family and is having a hard time of it.
Her older brother, amazingly handsome Ginx, has a form of autism and though he can talk to others on occasion, he prefers to speak in a language of words based on sound and tone that only he and Morgan-Lee can understand. Increasing their exclusive bond are the stories that Morgan-Lee makes up for Ginx. The characters in her imaginary stories sometimes acts out the otherwise hidden sexual tension between the siblings.
With a mother who is too self-absorbed to contribute much help to Morgan Lee's growing up, she relies on her aunt Lois whose career in beauty and cosmetic make-overs underlines her overwhelming concern with how everything in life looks. Morgan Lee's younger sister Dana, is painfully aware that her family is different and disassociates herself from them by living with Aunt Lois. Morgan-Lee's father is an educator and only wants quiet in the family.
Into this heated setting enters an uninhibited young woman named, Sweety-Boy. Armed with a glib-tongue and a brash manner, Sweety-Boy sells jams door-to-door, barging her way into the homes and lives of the community. Morgan-Lee, along with her sister and brother are soon pulled into Sweety-Boys orbit, which proves to be the catalyst for Morgan-Lee's coming of age, the burgeoning of her sexuality and the violent rift that opens and becomes public between the siblings.
As told by Morgan-Lee, this story is deceptively quiet on the surface. The readers feel the tension growing, but until the end, we aren't told the reasons for those stresses. Many scenes open slowly and finish with powerful emotions or they unravel to transform into almost unbearable situations. The birthday party and Morgan-Lee's first day as a jam saleswoman both end with staggering unexpected twists.
BROKEN AS THINGS ARE is writer Martha Witt's first novel and I'm thankful I read it. I'm already longing to read her next work.
Book Description
Christians have a promise from God: "Behold, I make all things new!" (Revelation 21:5). Chapman and Smith explore this bold proclamation of God's committment to redeem and restore all things through His Son, Jesus Christ.
Customer Reviews:
A simple title for an extraordinary book.......2005-12-21
Have you ever read a book that made it impossible for you to sit still? Restoring Broken Things is that kind of book. The ideas, illustrations, and insights from these authors seemed to leap through the pages to jolt me with renewed spiritual energy and hope. It will be every reader's desire to see the words of this book fulfilled in their own lives.
Jesus promised to make all things new, and these pages provide a vision of that new world. Yet, this book is not only about the future, but takes a look at how God is already at work in our lives. And if that isn't exciting enough, the authors then show how each one of us can actively enter into this redemptive process. According to them, every Christian has been given an important role. This book provides realistic ways of practicing the social conditions that we will someday enjoy for all eternity.
The writing style is straight from the heart and has a delightful lyrical quality. Each man contributed a very visual description of the reality of Jesus at work right here, right now. Through the use of some personal and powerful anecdotes, the hearts and minds of readers will be forever touched by the great grace of God. The pages lead ever onward and upward, as the focus enlarges from the lives of the authors to the lives of everyone in the world. There will be a renewed desire to see God working across the globe, with the exciting possibility of becoming a participant in that grand scheme. -- Joyce Handzo, Christian Book Previews.com
A thought-provoking book about working with God to restore the brokennes in our lives.......2005-12-02
This book's subtitle aptly describes its content: "What Happens When We Catch a Vision of the New World Jesus is Creating." Steven Curtis Chapman (known for his song writing, his singing, and increasingly for his humanitarian vision) and Scotty Smith, pastor of a megachurch in Franklin, Tennessee --- a star-lit suburb of Nashville --- have teamed up to present a thought-provoking look at the purpose and mission of individual Christians and the corporate church. Unlike some "collaborations," Chapman and Smith maintain separate voices throughout the book, each providing both theological content and personal stories.
RESTORING BROKEN THINGS has its anecdotal, inspirational moments. Chapman, for example, spends most of a chapter, "Restoring Broken Relationships," recounting the story of Steve Saint's now-close relationship with the Ecuadorian tribesman who murdered his father, Nate, in 1956. And Smith, sometimes quoting from journal entries, walks us through the painful journey of a ten-day "marriage retreat" (though, he says, "it felt more like we'd been on the set of ER"), in which he discovered and faced his own inner brokenness.
But overall this is not a lightweight book. With diagrams and theological analysis and teaching, it delves into the redemptive story that has two bookends: the first two chapters of Genesis and the last two chapters of Revelation, in which Jesus says, "Behold, I am making all things new!" Smith says, "Jesus has the lead role in God's Story. But He's not the only character.
"He's making us characters too. We are carriers of God's Story...
"We are called into a story that enfolds our own stories in a grander narrative --- a story that is going somewhere, a story that is taking us with it." As we understand our brokenness and Christ's work of grace, we become increasingly available to God as agents of change, agents of restoration.
Chapman and Smith have a view of history and Scripture that is more classic and simple than a fundamentalist dispensationalism. Their diagrams illustrate our being in an "already and not yet" age, bridging the time before Christ to the "new heaven and new earth" described in Revelation.
Some of the book's more interesting material challenges a contemporary understanding of the meaning of worship as being that which happens in church, before the sermon. Chapman and Smith have a broader view --- that worship includes and leads to service. (The "device" used to present his material --- Smith in dialogue with and lecturing a seminary class, centering on Jesus' John 4 discussion about those who worship "in spirit and in truth" --- feels a little forced but does help to engage a lay reader.)
A "Conclusion" section that is not billed as a last chapter starts with a heart-wrenching report from Sri Lanka, after the 2004 tsunami. It then turns to what is admitted to be a Smith sermon, reflecting on such horrific devastation in light of various passages in 2 Corinthians, in which the apostle Paul repeatedly uses a "so that" construction. X happened so that Y might be accomplished. "By doing this, Paul modeled the important difference between asking the self-centered question, 'Why me, Lord?' versus asking the God-centered question, 'What now, Lord?'"
How can we work with God to restore the brokenness in our lives, in our homes, in our churches, in our culture? That is the book's question. And it is full of thought-provoking answers.
--- Reviewed by Evelyn Bence
Book Description
How to Survive Dating can help you avoid the headache — and heartache — of dating. The book offers sage advice from hundreds of singles who have dated and lived to tell their true and often revealing stories.
Customer Reviews:
I didn't like the advice.......2006-02-25
I thought the author kept on using the same old people over and over. I also some of the people were bitter and ungly, but you just don't know how they look.
Great sampling of perspectives on this imprecise process.......2005-09-14
I enjoyed the different perspectives of other people on their philosophy and expectations for dating. Reading through the comments makes you realize that a one-size-fits-all approach does not work in dating. You can expect your behavior to have a great result with one person and less spectacular results with another. It isn't anything personal, and that is what makes things interesting.
However, this might disappoint some looking for a formulaic approach to dating. Instead, your goal when reading this book should be to recognize different viewpoints while evaluating your own opinions on dating and relationships.
Diverse opinions makes this an interesting and fun read.......2005-03-11
This book has honest advice (and funny stories!) from men and women who are in the dating game. I love how the juicy stuff is written by 'anonymous'! This book is better than dating books that stick to one theory on how to meet (and how to keep!) someone interesting. It covers a range of suggestions from a diverse group.
Great book.......2005-02-25
This is an amusing and useful read. The perspectives you'll get in this book are what you'll run into in the real world. If you're on the market, you'll want to know what you're in for, and what you're up against. If you're not, you'll laugh at what you're missing, and maybe envy it a little. Amusing, unbelievable and sometimes even informative.
You saved my dating life!.......2004-12-19
I don't know what I would have done without all the tips and funny pieces of advice in this book. It puts dating in humorous perspective. Reading about other people's experiences encouraged me to perservere.
Book Description
Favorite Heartsong author Andrea Boeshaar takes us into the world of a woman who comes face to face with broken relationships of the past. Returning to her hometown, Chicago, Allie Littenberg learns her actions had worse repercussions than she realized. Especially for Jack Callahan, the handsome Chicago cop she loved, but left. She finds Jack is now a bitter shell of a man, his tenderness erased by years of anguish. Can God use Allie to not only mend the hurts in her own family, but also bring peace to Jack, his son, and estranged wife? Allie is compelled to find out.
Customer Reviews:
Loved this Book!.......2007-06-08
This book is great. I really enjoyed reading it. I did not want to put it down. I tracked down the other two books in the series. They are all wonderful. At the end of the book I wished it wasnt over. I love Allie and Jack. I highly recommend this book and the other two in the series.
Excellent!.......2005-05-20
Several years out of a disastrous marriage and with her son soon marrying, Allie Littenberg prepares to begin her life anew. While preparing for a move, she discovers an old photograph of Jack Callahan, Chicago cop and past love interest. The picture stirs a multitude of memories, some good, but many painful to recall. Coming to a sudden decision, Allie decides to revisit the places of her youth and, hopefully, rectify some of her past mistakes.
Arriving back in Chicago, Allie is dismayed to find that Jack Callahan, the once robust Christian and the man who had led her to the Lord, has forgotten his faith. Even though her first meeting with Jack turns out to be less than she could have hoped, other old friends are happier to see her and Allie manages to remake several old acquaintances.
Also in Chicago on business, Allie's new assignment consumes much of her time, allowing time away from the disappointments of her homecoming. On the job, Allie meets a dying cancer patient, who is bitter and angry not only at her current circumstances, but with her own shattered past. Allie connects with the woman and pours herself into trying to help her find God.
Broken Things is the immersing story of broken relationships, the search for forgiveness, and the healing power of Christ. CraigHart.net highly recommends Andrea Boeshaar's Broken Things. Excellent!
Craig Hart - CraigHart.net/ChristianLit Magazine
Forgiveness isn't always easy..........2004-10-31
The first book of a wonderful series. We meet a woman with a past full of hurt and causing hurts. How can she make up for all she has done? Especially to the man she still loves?
Jack wants nothing to do with the woman from his past who inflicted deep wounds in his heart. Nor with the God he thought loved him. But surrounded by a son in the ministry and the woman he led to the Lord, how can he keep his stand? And his heart?
Excellent book.
Masterfully written.......2004-09-28
Andrea Boeshaar writes stories that truly grip the reader's heart. In Book One of her Faded Photographs Series, entitled Broken Things, Boeshaar tackles real life problems in the lives of her fictional characters. She does not sugar-coat painful topics such as divorce, pre-marital sex and its tragic consequences, childlessness, shattered dreams, abysmal self-esteem, verbal and physical abuse, and terminal illness.
This kind of story would be a real soap opera except for one vital ingredient: God. Through each heartbreaking situation, the author demonstrates God's love, care, and guidance for those who will only listen for His voice. But not every heartache is solved -- nor solved easily, and not everyone lives happily ever after. As in life, Boeshaar shows the hard consequences of wrong choices.
A masterfully written story. Readers will come away feeling as if God has spoken directly to them.
A great read!.......2004-06-25
I had never read an Andrea Boeshaar book prior to this one and I have to say that she has brought me back to contemporary Christian novels. This book is well written, with a few exceptions(a lot of sauntering & smirking), and I was enticed to continue reading the other two books available in this series. This book will challenge your walk with Christ as the characters struggle with their lives past, present, and future.
Book Description
From the days when proto-humans lashed animal jawbones to sticks and whacked wildebeest-poop slapshots in Olduvai Arena to today's super-high-tech computer-assisted extravaganzas, one by-product of the hockey game has gone unnoticed and untapped. Until now . . . In 50 Things to Make with a Broken Hockey Stick, Peter Manchester transforms the agony of a fractured stick into the thrill of creation. Instructions and explicit cartoons show woodworkers of all abilities how to fashion items for outdoors, items for indoors, and items without any purpose at all. No basement artiste will ever throw away a broken hockey stick again. The finished projects will delight friends and win the respect of detractors, even those in the maker's own household. Using broken hockey sticks as tomato stakes is elementary compared with crafting a Walking Stick or a Piñata Stick. But Manchester goes far beyond making a stick out of a stick; his inventions encompass the full potential of this free and almost infinite resource. Even in this age of miracle materials, ordinary recreational hockey sticks are a tough, flexible composite of resin and wood, and the broken pieces are just too good to throw away. Truly practical designs include a modern Travois, a springy, long-range Catapult, and a Toilet Paper Holder for the well-appointed fishing camp. Science fair projects leap from the pages of 50 Things to Make with a Broken Hockey Stick: a Wind Vane, a combination Sun Dial and Snow Depth Gauge, and a Geodesic Dome that requires plenty of duct tape. Accessories for the home include a Curtain Rod for the bedroom of a hockey-crazed kid and a Lamp that really works. Fathers and children can bond as they manufacture gifts and sporting goods: a Pot Rack, a Wind Sail, an Ice Croquet Set, and a Bathroom Occupancy Designator. The book's pièce de résistance is the Mock Moose, a trophy made from a skate and at least four stick blades.
Customer Reviews:
If hernia proned: stay away.......2002-10-13
I didn't stop laughing. Manchester has captured the true spirit of the great land of the north with this incredibly funny, belly bursting and gut wrenching account of the one implement that truly unites all Canadians into one people. Though it also has significance and great meaning and laughter to share with those folks down below the 49 th, you'll be yucking it up long after boxing day.
Product Description
Dr. De Haan writes compassionately to broken Christians and shows how their suffering can usher in a treasure of maturity and wholeness. He applies the healing principles of Gods Word to encourage those who have been scarred by loss of employment, health, or by the death of a loved one.
Customer Reviews:
Broken Things: Why We Suffer.......2007-01-10
This is a must read for anyone but if you have been injured and suffering with the disability or you are ill, read this book! Recommend it to someone you know is going through a difficult time. Very uplifting!
Average customer rating:
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A Heart Breaking is not a quiet thing... (The Divorce Diaries, Book One)
Karen Leslie
Manufacturer: Instant Publisher
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
 Journal Writing
| Self-Help
| Health, Mind & Body
| Subjects
| Books
Love & Loss
| Relationships
| Health, Mind & Body
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Love Poems
| Poetry
| Literature & Fiction
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Poetry
| Writing
| Reference
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ASIN: 1598723200
Release Date: 2006-01-01 |
Book Description
This unique "diary" is the beginning of one woman's journey through the sadness and heartbreak of betrayal and infidelity...from the first painful moments of discovery...through the shock and despair of the truth...Anyone who has ever loved and lost will find themselves somewhere on these pages...and every step of the way is shared...with you...in Book One of "The Divorce Diaries" series...
Average customer rating:
- POWERFUL & COMPELLING -- PROMISES KEPT...
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A Broken Thing
Marlin Barton
Manufacturer: Frederic C. Beil Publisher
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
Interpersonal Relations
| Relationships
| Health, Mind & Body
| Subjects
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Contemporary
| General
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General
| Short Stories
| Literature & Fiction
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Domestic Life
| Women's Fiction
| Literature & Fiction
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Similar Items:
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Equal Affections
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The Dry Well
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Dancing by the River
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Here on Earth (Oprah's Book Club)
ASIN: 1929490208 |
Customer Reviews:
POWERFUL & COMPELLING -- PROMISES KEPT..........2003-08-21
...those promises to which the quality of Marlin Barton's previously-published short fiction (see his short story collection THE DRY WELL) alluded. All of them have been kept, and beautifully, in this, his first novel. A BROKEN THING is the story - stories, actually - of an extended family, the joys and sorrows, pleasures and pains the various members enjoy, endure and inflict upon each other and themselves. What makes it so compelling - and I dare you to turn away from it once you begin - is that, as others have noted elsewhere, one of these people (or ALL of them) could be us. There is an 'everyman' quality to each of the characters so vividly drawn here - and yet at the same time they are each resoundingly individual, painfully and delightfully human. These could be the people next door or down the hall - or across the dinner table.
Barton's vision and experiences of growing up and living in the American South resonate clearly, long after the book is read and put away. The life passages down which these characters walk, the dreams they dare to dream (and ache to let go), the ties that bind them and wedge them apart, the loves that make and break them, are made as real by the author's prose as anyone you can reach out and touch. None of them are perfect souls - they never come across as the false inventions of a writer attempting to please everyone - but there are things about each and every one of them that are admirable, even if they have to wrong others and themselves on the road to finding their way.
As the story progresses, not only are we treated to the exhilarating experience of getting to know these amazing people - we are privileged to see them get to know, to understand, each other, to learn to live with and appreciate their differences, and to come to know themselves as well. All of this 'education' is the stuff of life, of growing older - and, hopefully, wiser - and rarely have I seen it presented in such an intelligent and moving manner. This is the mark of a writer who not only excels at his craft (his use of multiple points-of-view is very skillful, and suits the novel perfectly), but one who cares for the people he grew up with, indeed for all those with whom he shares the world. He respects them - and his characters - for what they are, for what they have to offer each other, for their place in the scheme of things.
Writing like this is a treat - I can't recommend this novel (or his short story collection) highly enough, and I can't wait to read more.
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Broken things;: The ministry of suffering
M. R DeHaan
Manufacturer: Zondervan Pub. House
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Unknown Binding
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ASIN: B0007EG4HC |
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