The Discovery

by Dan Walsh
Hennepin County Library paperback 346 pages
genre: Christian fiction, realistic and historical

This is a novel-within-a-novel starting with Michael's inheritance of his grandfather's home. Grandfather was a famous novelist who never shared much about his past or his personal history. But Michael finds an unpublished manuscript that tells all (and is also the bulk of the story).

The manuscript tells the story of Ben Campbell (alias Gerhard Kuhlmann) who has come back to the United States on a German U-boat as a spy during WWII. Only his true motivation is to ditch the Nazis and simply live his own life back in the country where he was born and raised until his parents returned to the Fatherland with their teenage son. Ben meets Claire and the love story / adventure is off and running.

I really enjoyed this and look forward to the book club discussion in a few weeks!

(Added 3/26/14) Found this note in my purse:

page 64-65 - Grandfather's thoughts as he approaches death.
page 77 - the lack of red & the Nazi flag . . . sometimes we don't notice things that are "everywhere" until we experience the absence of those things (for good or for bad)
 page 99 - moms who interfere! I love her Gary Cooper observation. Makes me want to use GoogleImages to refresh my memory.
page 143 - LOVE the priest!!! His attitude and his faith are so very wonderful. So many priests of that era were narrowminded and more like Pharisees than like Christ.
page 163 - prayer - just talking to God
page 165 - Love this part, too! God knows our hearts. We don't have to tell him, but it helps us to pour out what we are dealing with. He knows us and we cannot pretend with him.
page 169 - This was great! When the priest gave Ben the Bible with Psalms marked, I was so surprised! I thought the item he had placed in a pew was a recording device and Ben was going to be turned over to the authorities. Good for the priest!!!

Sweet Sanctuary

by Sheila Walsh & Cindy Martinusen-Coloma
Hennepin County Library paperback 302 pages
genre: Christian fiction / relationships

This one took a while to get going for me. The main character, Wren, is delightful (librarian, literary fan) but she is so conflicted about her own life that I want to yell at her (the way I'm always tempted to yell at Hamlet in his indecisiveness). It also frustrates me when the author(s) immediately make it clear that some horrible thing happened . . . but you have to wait to find out what it was. Since it so clearly impacted Wren and her entire life, it's a bit frustrating to wait for it to unfold. Paul was my favorite character. Bradley added a bit of intrigue - liked him.

Families can be maddening.

The Deepest Waters

by Dan Walsh
Hennepin County Library paperback 293 pages
genre: Christian historical fiction, romance

This book is reminiscent of Titanic, with the young lovers Laura and John torn apart when the ship goes down. On their honeymoon and traveling from the west coast to the east to meet John's family, Laura is rescued with the other women. Thinking that all the men died with the ship, Laura struggles to figure out what's next for her as she befriends Micah, a slave on the rescue ship, and a dastardly villain named Ayden Maul. Meanwhile, John and some of the other men are alive but floating on flotsam in the ocean.

We discussed this book last night. Many of us liked it although it was a fairly fluffy and predictable read. I liked Micah's faithfulness especially, and John's efforts on the high seas. The reconciliation with John's family wasn't very believable, but it was much better than last month's book!