Tags
authors, courageous, go check this out right now, reviews, rosemary mucklestone, sherwood pictures, short stories, tales of faith, writefury
Hello!
Now, I’m here for two reasons. One is to say “Happy Fathers’ Day!” so if there are any dads reading this, GOD BLESS YOU! You’re awesome for putting up with your insane kids. (That would be me, and most everyone in my age group and younger.)
The other is to review the book my dear friend Rosemary Mucklestone (aka WriteFury) has recently released.
Here’s the blurb from Lulu:
A varied anthology of Rosemary’s writings over the course of a year. Short stories ranging from historical fiction and Bible retellings to humorous stories and descriptive pieces, with a few poems thrown in. Strengthen your faith, smile, laugh and cry as you read these bite-size, Godly stories!
And the link to buy the book (please forgive me if this doesn’t work, I have a bad track record with these things):
And now, on to the review!
“Tales of Faith” is a collection of short stories. It has something for pretty much everyone, whether it is coming-of-age stories, coming-home stories, even culture-specific stories (specifically, Jewish culture–that’s the angle that I found most fascinating, personally. There’s nothing that captures the imagination quite like a window into a culture that you have no personal experience with.) The stories are, indeed, bite-sized, and are very well tied up and tightly written. I would recommend them for any age reader–they would work especially well for very young children who are just starting to read on their own, and would also work well for reading comprehension or just reading aloud as a family.
I enjoyed reading these stories very much, and will definitely give Rosey’s other writings a read when she publishes them. My only complaint is that they weren’t longer, but you should probably ignore me, as that’s only personal preference–I read “The Dead” by James Joyce and liked it. Found it fascinating. I like long, involved stories. (Maybe “The Dead” is a bad example–my family on the mother’s side is all Irish, so who knows, maybe liking “The Dead” is genetic.) But Rosemary’s work is very well-rounded, and I enjoyed the lighter aspect of her writing (my own style tends to either poetic or dark, depending on how I’m feeling and what I’m writing.)
If you have children, I think that these would work well as devotional stories for the whole family. Perhaps the story could form the basis of a meditation for that day. And for adults and teenagers alike, I would highly recommend these as uplifting literature. If you’re having a bad day and don’t feel up to trying to follow C.S. Lewis, one of these short stories would be a marvelous pick-me-up, like hot cocoa with zero calories. Literary comfort food, basically. And if you’re in an academic mood, the basis for looking deeper.
WriteFury, my dear, I have a challenge for you. I’d like you to pick a couple of your short stories which currently do not have any sequels or companion pieces and write sequels to them, featuring the characters I’ve grown to love while reading your short story collection. I’d gladly give your work a reblog, to boost the signal, so to speak. 😉
And, because it’s Father’s Day, a bonus short recap of all the high moments of Courageous, 2011’s number one indie movie!
(Visit the movie web site here, and Sherwood Pictures’ site here.)
Nathan Hayes and David Thompson share a heart-to-heart while honing their aim:
Adam Mitchell (no relation to the eponymous character from Doctor Who)Â and Shane Fuller serve a warrant:
Adam with the daughter he lost…
…and the son he rediscovered.
God does amazing things with an idea. He turns the hearts of fathers to their children and children to their parents. He raises up courage in the weak and fearful and pushes it to blossom into integrity.
“Where are you, men of courage?”