Baby Steps Challenge

I'm a few weeks late getting this post up. This challenge ended at the end of December.
This was my first reading challenge & I really enjoyed it.
My books were
1. Ben Hur by Lew Wallace (wrote about it here)
2. Christy by Catherine Marshall
3. A Man Called Peter by Catherine Marshall

I really enjoyed all three books. Ben Hur was hard to get started & keep on it in the beginning, but turned into a beloved book. I will read it again.
Christy & A Man Called Peter I had read before & both of them are beloved books to me.
It was funny, that in the middle of this challenge I also read The Last Sin Eater by Francine Rivers. I read it between Christy & A Man Called Peter, & all three books had the common thread of Scotland. In The Last Sin Eater, the ancestors were from Whales & Scotland. It took place in the same (or near) mountains as Christy, only about 30 years earlier. In Christy, their ancestors were from Scotland & there was some Scotish history in it along with a character that was very Scotish. And Peter Marshall was an immigrant from Scotland who became a very beloved preacher here in America. I have wondered if Catherine Marshall patterened Dr.Neil McNeil in Christy after her own husband Peter.
I enjoyed this challenge & hope to enter more.

Beg, Borrow, or Steal

I have joined the newest reading challenge over at The Nattie Challenge.
I picked the book Prince Caspian by C.S.Lewis. We love the Chronicles of Narnia.
I started reading them to dd when she was 6 or 7 & she read them again on her own a few years later.
We enjoyed the movie that was made of The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe so much, & we are really looking forward to the movie release of Prince Caspian this year!
I know this book is an easy & quick read, but it fits this challange since dd loaned me her copy of Prince Caspian so I could re-read it before the movie comes out. And since it is a quick read, I have already finished.
I enjoyed reading it again so much. I smiled & grinned through so much of this book. And I giggled out loud quite a few times. I had to explain to ds why I was laughing, so I read out loud to him the part where Bulgy Bear is telling Peter that he wants to be one of the marshals during the duel between High King Peter & Miraz. The dwarf Trumpkin is having a fit not wanting the bear to be one of the guards. He tells Peter, "He's a good creature, but he'll shame us all. He'll go to sleep & he will suck his paws. In front of the enemy too." LOL
But this being a 'marshal for the list' was always the right of bears in old Narnia, so he was allowed to do so. And he sucked his paws. LOL I laughed. I think I may have even held the book close to me as I giggled, & gave it a little hug. This is just the book I needed to read after the ruckus that went on in our lives last week.
Our son just turned 5, & is just not quite ready to sit & listen to a chapter book being read to him. But he will be soon, & I cannot wait to start reading The Chronicles of Narnia to him!

BEN HUR BY LEW WALLACE

I finally finished this 1st book for the Baby Steps Challenge (over at the Nattie Challange) onWednesday evening. I am so glad that I stuck with it! It was very good. I really enjoyed the story. There were a few places that I got kind of bogged down in, but I think that was mostly in the beginning. Maybe to me it was a slow start. I also had a few things ‘going against me’. My book was 432 pages of very small print. So it seemed like my progress was slower than molasses going uphill on a cold day. I had 4 or 5 different times where family members were hospitalized. We just generally had super busy times, so that there were even a few weeks in a row that I wasn’t able to read even a chapter. Even though one evening I picked up my copy of Christy & got started on it, I never did give up on Ben Hur. I am so thankful I put Christy down & kept at this one going. I really did enjoy it. I rolled my eyes at the King James English being spoken by 1st century Jews & Romans…..but I got over it. lol I even cried a few times. The first time I cried was when the story finds Judah Ben-Hur’s beloved mother & sister. And I WEPT when Amrah, the family servant, saw them for the first time. It brings chills to my arms now to even think on it! And I was so angry at Judah’s love interest….I wanted to reach thru the pages & give him a V-8 smack on the forhead! I cried when two lepers called out for Jesus as He passed them on the road leading into Jerusalem. They called out to Him, "O Master, Master! Thou seest our need: thou canst make us clean. Have mercy upon us-mercy!"
"Believest thou I am able to do this?" He asked.
"Thou art He of whom the prophets spake- thou art the Messiah!" she replied.
"Woman," He said, "great is thy faith; be it unto thee even as thou wilt."
I mean I WEPT!
And I cried as Jesus was nailed to the cross.
And I even cried when Belthasar, one of the wise men from the beginning of the story, knelt at the foot of the cross.
There was one more thing about this book that I’ll remember: the author actually speaks to you, he calls you Reader. Lol For example: "O Reader, you may remember from the previous chapter that…." The first time or two it did get on my nerves a bit. But it didn’t take long to endear me to it. By late in the book, I would smile when he’d do that.
I will probably go back and read this again in a few years.
I gave it 4 stars over at goodreads.com, only because there were a few slow parts for me. But, this is a classic, & I’ve given lesser literature 5 stars, so I think I may be going over and changing that.
It’s a great bookthat took me weeks & weeks to read it. But it sure was worth it!
If I ever do get over to the Lew Wallace Study Museum, I’ll be sure to take some pictures.