I’ve finished reading a couple books in the past few days:

Shoulder the Sky by Anne Perry: Anne Perry is a talented writer of historical mystery novels. She especially has a gift for evoking a time period, for getting the details and and the feel of, say, Victorian England (her Thomas and Charlotte Pitt mysteries) or late Victorian England (the William Monk series), or in this her third series, England and the continent during World War I. The first book in this series was No Graves As Yet, and I reviewed it here. Unfortunately, I had the same problem with this second book that I mentioned in connection with the first. The book was absorbing; the description of war seemed almost like a first-hand account; the characters are intriguing. The main character, an Anglican priest, is dealing with the modern question (probably an age-old question, too): “Where is God in all this evil?” But I keep getting distracted by the plot problems. I’m reading along, and suddenly one character knows something absolutely that was only a possibility two pages ago. Or one character shows up in Gallipoli just at the exact same time as another, and they meet each other on the beach and begin to rescue wounded soldiers together–coincidentally furthering the plot. There are just too many coincidences and unproven assumptions and characters who know things that nobody told them. I think in spite of the strengths of Perry’s writing, I may just give the rest of this series a miss.
In the Presence of My Enemies by Gracia Burnham and Dean Merrill: This book is the story of Gracia and Martin Burnham, aviation missionaries with New Tribes Mission in the Philippines who were kidnapped and held for ransom by Islamic terrorists associated with Osama Bin Laden. They were held captive in the Philippine jungle for over a year and were finally rescued by the Filipino army; however, Martin was killed during the rescue. I was inspired by how real Gracia Burnham was willing to be in this book. She was depressed, angry at God, tired of being a hostage, almost ready to die at times, and yet the realtionship with God was always there. Sometimes her husband Martin was strong for her, and some times she had to be strong enough to encourage him. In the book, the two of them come across as real Christians, not super-saints, and yet they display what can only be supernatural (from the Holy Spirit) strength and resilience. I am ashamed of the petty worries that sometimes fill my mind. Gracia and Martin Burnham learned to appreciate what is really important: the love of God in Christ, family, and a job to do. Christianity Today did an interview with Gracia Burnham in May 2003.