As women, we often feel torn between our dreams or careers and our families. That’s the struggle Jennie Pickett faces in Jane Kirkpatrick’s novel, All She Left Behind. While Jennie dreams of becoming a doctor, it seems an impossible goal for her, first as a single mom with a son to raise, and then remarried […]
This Road We Traveled by Jane Kirkpatrick
Up until this last century, most histories of the world have been written by men about themselves. We know little about the lives of women centuries ago because their stories haven’t been told. One of the reasons I love Jane Kirkpatrick’s books is that she brings alive the stories of women in America’s history. Her […]
Best Books of 2015
Ah, it’s that time of year again—time to look at the books I’ve read and think about which ones I’d like to read again someday. That has become my marker of a “good book,” because there are always so many more books to read! The ones that I really like end up on my bookshelf, […]
The Memory Weaver by Jane Kirkpatrick
Since first meeting Jane Kirkpatrick at a writer’s conference in 2008, I’ve read quite a few of her books. Her newest book, The Memory Weaver, just might be her best book yet. It tells the story of Eliza Spalding Warren, the daughter of Eliza and Henry Spalding, who were missionaries to the Nez Perce and […]
A Light in the Wilderness by Jane Kirkpatrick
Between 1841 and 1869, over 200,000 men, women and children traveled west across the United States on the Oregon Trail, searching for a better life in a new land. Among those were black families, hoping to escape the slavery laws of the U.S. Jane Kirkpatric’s newest novel A Light in the Wilderness is the story […]
Mystic Sweet Communion by Jane Kirkpatrick
Jane Kirkpatrick’s novel Mystic Sweet Communion is the story of Ivy Cromartie Stranahan, a young woman living in Florida at the turn of the 1900s. Kirkpatrick explains that this story is “fiction based on fact” and she expresses her appreciation to the people who preserved the materials that Ivy left behind. Most of the characters […]
Seven Quick Takes of One Glorious Ambition by Jane Kirkpatrick (Vol. 13)
— 1 — Just for fun, I thought I’d change up my book review this week and give you seven quick takes of Jane Kirkpatrick’s newest novel, One Glorious Ambition: The Compassionate Crusade of Dorothea Dix. I’d never heard of Dorothea before picking up the book, but I’ve enjoyed other books by Jane so I […]
Ideas and Inspiration at Inscribe’s Fall Conference
This weekend, my husband and I both had conferences in Edmonton. He attended the Alberta Teacher’s Association conference for first-year teachers while Sunshine and I went to the annual Inscribe Christian Writers’ Fellowship Fall Conference. We were happy that both conferences landed on the same weekend so we only had to make one trip—and that […]
Book Review: A Gathering of Finches
I first heard Jane Kirkpatrick’s name in a conference planning meeting, when one of our members suggested her as a main speaker. Always interested in historical fiction, I immediately ran to the library to check out her books. What I have read so far has impressed me. Jane is a meticulous historian who somehow manages […]
