Final Read in The Mark of the Lion Series

I never thought I would see the day where I would actually finish a series of books and actually enjoy them.  Can I just boast and say how proud I feel.  Teheheheh :)  Never would I imagine reading a series of books that would not only inspire me to live out my faith so purely and  strive to be a better Christ follower with every breath I take.  Just about a week ago, I finished the third & final book in this series,
As Sure as the Dawn by Francine Rivers.

Hands down these are some of best fiction books I have ever read in my life.  I fell in love with the characters, I felt led to really consider my faith and how it reflects in my life and with each chapter I felt drawn to the lives that each character led.  This series is a MUST READ and I highly recommend them.  Here is a description of this book taken directly from Francine Rivers' website www.francinerivers.com/books/sure-dawn

In this final installment of the Mark of the Lion series, Atretes, the Germanic warrior, returns to play a central role in the story.  He vows to move heaven and earth to find his son—the baby he thought was dead, and whose life Hadassah has saved—and take him back to Germania. Only one thing stands in his way: Rizpah, a Christian widow who has cared for the baby since his birth. Atretes has not counted on Rizpah’s fiery resistance to having “her son” taken away, nor is he prepared for the woman’s strength and beauty. From their first meeting, the two are caught in a stormy battle of wills. Marcus and Julia and, finally, Atretes, come to realize that God’s love can heal all scars and bring forth a new dawn.

My reading list

As you may have read in previous postings I have become an avid reader.  I love it!  Those that say "I don't like to read".... well my reply is simple.... You haven't found a good book!  I used to be one of those that only read because I HAD to read.  Now that I received some pretty good recommendations and did some online research I found some great reads.  A few that have been pretty fantastic!  Although I do belong to a fabulous book club I have vowed to read the following books (on my own) by the eve of the new year.  I pulled this list from www.bookclubgirl.com (great website for book clubbers).  Onto yet another reading journey... wanna join me?

1. The Help by Kathryn Stockett (Putnam Adult)

2. The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society by Mary Ann Shaffer and Annie Barrows (Dial Press)

3. Loving Frank by Nancy Horan (Ballantine Books)

4. The Book Thief by Markus Zusak (Knopf Books for Young Readers)

5. Olive Kitteridge by Elizabeth Strout  (Random House Trade Paperbacks)

6. TIE: Still Alice by Lisa Genova (Pocket Books) and Sarah's Key by Tatiana de Rosnay (St. Martin's Griffin)

7. People of the Book by Geraldine Brooks (Penguin Books)

8. Three Cups of Tea by Greg Mortenson and David Oliver Relin (Penguin Books)

9. The Shack by William P. Young (Windblown Media)

10. The Art of Racing in the Rain by Garth Stein (Harper Paperbacks)

11. A Thousand Splendid Suns by Khaled Hosseini

12.  The Friday Night Knitting Club by Kate Jacobs

13.  The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo by Steig Larrson


At present I am reading:

• Jemima J. by Jane Green
• Black by Ted Dekker
• A Reliable Wife by Robert Goolrick

True, weird & very random

If you haven't already figured out by now I am a complete and total sucker for random facts and completely useless information. Hey if I cannot figure out quantum physics or biochemistry I might as well become knowledgeable in other things.

Here's my list of random facts & useless information. Enjoy!

• Between 1942 and 1944, Academy Awards were made of plaster.
• One out of three employees who received a promotion use a coffee mug with the company logo on it.
• About a third of all Americans flush the toilet while they're still sitting on it.
• If you yelled for 8 years, 7 months and 6 days you would produce enough sound energy to heat one cup of coffee.
• Banging your head against a wall uses 150 calories an hour.
• An ostrich’s eye is bigger than its brain.
• Just twenty seconds worth of fuel remained when Apollo 11’s lunar module landed on the moon.
• If you attempted to count to stars in a galaxy at a rate of one every second it would take around 3,000 years to count them all.  (Amazing that God placed them in the sky and knows every one by name!)
• Every minute in the U.S. six people turn 17.
• Human hair and fingernails continue to grow after death.
• Termites eat wood twice as fast when listening to heavy metal music.
• Guinness Book Of Records holds the record for being the book most stolen from Public Libraries.
• Apples, not caffeine, are more efficient at waking you up in the morning.
• About 8,000 Americans are injured by musical instruments each year.
• One in twelve Americans alphabetize their spice rack.
• 95% of the creatures on earth are smaller than a chicken egg.
• 63% of pet owners sleep with their pets.
• There are twice as many billionares in the U.S. today as there were 10 years ago.
• 25% of the fish you eat are raised on fish farms.
• 1 in 4 people admit to searching in their host’s medicine cabinets. (Guilty)
• The average American dog will cost its owner $14,600 in its lifetime.
• 58% of school kids say pizza is their favorite cafeteria food. (Sad)
• 32% of singles polled think they will meet their future mate online. ( I did!)
• In 1948, 2.3% of American households had televisions. Today 99% do.
• In 1998, 58% of American adults were married and living with their spouses, an all time low.
• The top three products for coupon redemption are cold cereal, soap, and deodorant.
• One in three dog owners say they have talked to their pets on the phone.
• 46% of violence on T.V. occurs in cartoons.
• Only about 5% of people dream in color.

Faith, Redemption, Forgiveness, and Sacrifice

An Echo In The Darkness - Book #2 (The Mark of the Lion Series) - Francine Rivers


I finally finished this second book of the series and I just have to say, reading these books has literally changed my life.  I view my faith in Christ a little differently these days.  This book was AMAZING.  Nothing shy of a fictional masterpiece.  I have to give props and kudos to Francine on this one.  As you can imagine I gave this book 5 Stars.  I loved it!!  Since book #1 of this series, A Voice In The Wind, literally kept me hanging on to the very last sentence I could not wait to dig in to the second book.  My heart ached, my soul revolted as I read about each character and their lives...most importantly how the Lord was using and molding each one. 
Here's a brief summary: Through the courageous faith of the Christian slave girl Hadassah and the troubled lives of the Roman masters, An Echo in the Darkness continues this moving tale of first-century Rome. Having narrowly escaped death, Hadassah conceals her scars--and identity--with veils. But it is her God-given ability to heal others that brings her to perhaps her greatest trial. God's forgiveness and redemption triumph as this young woman, assumed to be dead, is called to risk her life for the one who would have destroyed her.

I grabbed this review on Amazon.com which says it all:
The MARK trilogy is set in the Roman Empire, shortly after the fall of Jerusalem. Using a Hebrew slave girl (Hadassah) and a German gladiator (Atretes; think the film GLADIATOR) as the main characters, three books are crafted around themes of faith, redemption, forgiveness, and sacrifice. Rivers is one of the best at writing characters and those that she creates here are absolutely convincing -- flawed and heroic on multiple layers, with developmental conflicts that relate to and parallel modern times almost seamlessly. AN ECHO IN THE DARKNESS, the middle book of the series, picks up immediately after A VOICE IN THE WIND's climax. Where A VOICE focused mainly on Hadassah and her struggle to stand for her faith, AN ECHO's main conflicts surround the Valerian family (whom Hadassah served) and their responses to the sacrificial price that Hadassah paid. The resulting journeys towards redemption play out wonderfully and, as the book progresses, become more and more moving.