Movie/book review by Glenda Faye Mathes Brian Banks; Rated PG-13 Production companies: ShivHans Pictures, Gidden Media; Distributors: Bleecker Street, Sony Pictures Worldwide Acquisitions, Stage 6 Films; Director: Tom Shadyac; Writer: Doug Atchison What Set Me Free: A True Story of Wrongful Conviction, a Dream Deferred, and a Man Redeemed by Brian Banks with Mark Dagostina; … Continue reading Who Really Set Brian Banks Free
Heartbreak and Hope: On Schizophrenia
Book review by Glenda Faye Mathes Broken Pieces and the God Who Mends Them: Schizophrenia through a Mother’s Eyes by Simonetta Carr; published by P&R Publishing, Phillipsburg, New Jersey, 256 pages; © 2019 In Broken Pieces and the God Who Mends Them, Simonetta Carr transparently shares the heartbreak and confusion of losing a son to schizophrenia, … Continue reading Heartbreak and Hope: On Schizophrenia
Mercy to Generations
Book review by Glenda Faye Mathes Legacy of Mercy by Lynn Austin Bethany; paperback; 400 pages; © 2018 Because I grew to love the main characters in Lynn Austin’s Waves of Mercy (Bethany, 2016), I was thrilled to read more about the lives of Anna and Geesje in her sequel, Legacy of Mercy. My hopes were … Continue reading Mercy to Generations
A dangerous book
Choosing the Good Portion: Women of the Orthodox Presbyterian Church; edited by Patricia E. Clawson & Diane L. Olinger; published by The Committee for the Historian of the Orthodox Presbyterian Church; cloth, 470 pages; © 2016 This is a dangerous book. Like Proverbs 31, it can make women feel inferior if they begin to … Continue reading A dangerous book
Imprisoned for her faith
Marie Durand by Simonetta Carr; Christian Biographies for Young Readers; Reformation Heritage Books; cloth; 64 pages; © 2015 Wrongful incarceration is a hot topic of current interest, but few people realize how many Christians have been imprisoned (often without even the pretense of a trial) for their faith. Arrested as a young woman, Marie Durand remained in prison … Continue reading Imprisoned for her faith
Somebody who is already famous: A conversation with Janie B. Cheaney
Many Christian Renewal readers may be familiar with Janie B. Cheaney as a regular columnist for WORLD magazine. But you may not know about her multiple writing successes. She and another writer launched the RedeemedReader.com website to focus on children’s literature. She has written creative writing workbooks called the Wordsmith series. She has several published … Continue reading Somebody who is already famous: A conversation with Janie B. Cheaney
Lit! An elliptical book review
You say you're not a reader? Readers are made, not born. Like anything else, we learn to do it through practice. You read a lot or you want to read more, but you feel like you need direction? Look to the light of Lit! by Tony Reinke. The title is a clever play on words that intentionally … Continue reading Lit! An elliptical book review
Glorying in God’s Grace – book review
The Glory of Grace: The Story of the Canons of Dort by William Boekestein; illustrated by Evan Hughes © 2012 by William Boekestein, Reformation Heritage Books: Grand Rapids, MI, 30 pp. Readers of the third volume in the Boekestein/Hughes trilogy of children’s books will find themselves glorying in God’s grace. The collaborative … Continue reading Glorying in God’s Grace – book review
Simonetta Carr’s beautiful biographies
Simonetta Carr writes beautiful “Christian Biographies for Young Readers” that are a visual and literary delight while teaching biblical truth. Her subjects in this series, published by Reformation Heritage Books, include John Calvin, Augustine, John Owen, Athanasius, and Lady Jane Grey (see review below). She has also written a semi-fictional biography, Weight of a Flame, … Continue reading Simonetta Carr’s beautiful biographies
The Thirty-Nine Steps by John Buchan
Confident and capable heroes sprint through John Buchan's action-packed novels. If you've never read any of Buchan's work, this first of his novels about Richard Hannay is a great starting gate. In the introduction to The Thirty-Nine Steps, Robin W. Winks writes that the book is "often said to have established the basic formula for the … Continue reading The Thirty-Nine Steps by John Buchan
Glenda Faye Mathes 