The Boundless Bookshelf

  About the Book: ✦ Title: Love's Enduring Promise ✦ Author: Janette Oke ✦ Genre: Christian historical fiction ✦ Series: Book #2 in the Love Comes Softly series {see review for book #1 here! } ✦ Recommend for: ages 14+ My Personal Rating 3.5/4 ⭐️ 📖 Synopsis Tragedy brought them together, but love bound them into a family. Clark and Marty Davis, the pioneer couple thrown together after the death of their first spouses, now preside over a growing number of youngsters in their prairie home. Together they face the joys and trials of life on a homesteader's farm. Will they be able to find a suitable teacher for the long-awaited new school? Is the "very learned" Eastern preacher going to be able to communicate with the simple people of the West? And how do Clark and Marty guide their lovely daughter, now grown to womanhood, in her choice of a partner? 💭 My thoughts Having read this second book just a couple years ago, I remembered it a bit more than the first one. Howev...

  About the Book: ✦ Title: Chasing Jupiter ✦ Author: Rachel Coker ✦ Genre: Christian fiction set in the 1960s (with lighter romance) ✦ Series: No, seems to be a standalone novel ✦ Recommend for: ages 14+ My Personal Rating 4.5 ⭐️ 📖 Synopsis Scarlett Blaine's life in 1960s Georgia isn't always easy, especially given her parents' financial struggles and the fights surrounding her sister Juli's hippie lifestyle. Then there's her brother, Cliff. While Scarlett loves him more than anything, there's no denying his unique behavior leaves Cliff misunderstood and left out. So when he wishes for a rocket to Jupiter, Scarlett agrees to make it happen, no matter how crazy the idea might be. Raising the rocket money means baking pies, and the farmer's son, Frank, agrees to provide the peaches if Scarlett will help him talk to Juli. The problem is, Scarlett really enjoys her time with Frank, and finds herself wondering if, someday, they could be more than friends. Just a...

1. Find a book for each of your initials. My initials are C.M.C; for C, I would say "A C hance to Die" by Elisabeth Elliot, which is an excellent, moving biography of missionary Amy Carmichael. This book made a huge impact on me when I first read it years ago, and every time I've reread it, I love it just as much. And then for M, I chose "The M ysterious Affair at Styles" by Agatha Christie, my first Agatha Christie mystery and one of my top ones for sure. Finally, for my other C, there are many options, but I could say " C ity of Serpents" by Christina Baehr {see review  here! ), a fairly recent fantasy read that I got very sucked into and really enjoyed!  2.  Count your age along your bookshelf: what book is it? Counting from a random shelf on my bookcase, I landed on...Little Women! This just happens to be my number 1 favorite fiction book of all time.  I cannot accurately portray through words how much I adore this book or what it means to me, but ...

  About the Book: ✦ Title: The Nature of Small Birds ✦ Author: Susie Finkbeiner ✦ Genre: Triple timeline fiction w/ light faith threads (1975, 1988, 2013-2014) ✦ Series: Currently a standalone novel ✦ Recommend for: Ages 16/17+ {not for those very sensitive to war and adoption} My Personal Rating 3.5 ⭐️ 📖 Synopsis In 1975, three thousand children were airlifted out of Saigon to be adopted into Western homes. When Mindy, one of those children, announces her plans to return to Vietnam to find her birth mother, her loving adopted family is suddenly thrown back to the events surrounding her unconventional arrival in their lives. Though her father supports Mindy's desire to meet her family of origin, he struggles privately with an unsettling fear that he'll lose the daughter he's poured his heart into. Mindy's mother undergoes the emotional rollercoaster inherent in the adoption of a child from a war-torn country, discovering the joy hidden amid the difficulties. And Mind...

About the Book: ✦ Title: All Manner of Things ✦ Author: Susie Finkbeiner ✦ Genre: Historical Fiction (with light faith threads) ✦ Series: Currently a standalone novel ✦ Recommend for: Ages 16/17+ My Personal Rating 4 ⭐️ 📖 Synopsis When Annie Jacobson's brother Mike enlists as a medic in the Army in 1967, he hands her a piece of paper with the address of their long-estranged father. If anything should happen to him in Vietnam, Mike says, Annie must let their father know.  In Mike's absence, their father returns to face tragedy at home, adding an extra measure of complication to an already tense time. As they work toward healing and pray fervently for Mike's safety overseas, letter by letter the Jacobsons must find a way to pull together as a family, regardless of past hurts. In the tumult of this time, Annie and her family grapple with the tension of holding both hope and grief in the same hand, even as they learn to turn to the One who binds the wounds of the brokenhearted...