Author: Pearl Ada Pridham

An artist who designs quilts for display leaves behind her studio in town, along with her lawyer boyfriend who has become too high-pressured and scary, to return home to the farm and care for her grandmother.

She has always dreamt of living back on the family farm and practising her craft. However, in her dream she imagined being married to a farmer. Now she finds herself the primary caregiver for her aging grandmother who has a series of strokes.

Her aunt comes to help, but there is a bitter secret between the aunt and the grandmother. It turns out that the aunt was born out of wedlock. At this point in her life she finally wants to find out who her real father was, and embarks on a search.

Also the little old heritage church that the family attends is in danger of being demolished. Can it be saved? Who will help, and who is to be trusted?

I chose to read this book because, like the book I’m writing, it deals with family, a child born out of wedlock, and the protagonist going through her own soul-searching to sort out what is really important to her.

A gripping historical fiction novel, revealing the history of Afghanistan from 1975, before the Shah was overthrown until 2002. The protagonist starts out as a young boy in Kabul, Afghanistan in 1975. His father, a wealthy and generous entrepreneur, is able to bless many others. They live in a lovely home with a garden large enough to also contain a small shack which houses their servant and his son, who are Pashtuns and Sunni Muslims. The Pashtun people are typically servants to the Hazara, Shi’a Muslims, considered a lower class, and openly discriminated against. In this case, however, there is a close personal tie between these two fathers and sons. It is not until near the end of the almost 400 page novel that the true nature of their relationship is revealed.

Kite running was an annual competition in Kabul in which young boys made and flew kites held by glazed strings. Competitors would cut down others’ kites with these glazed strings over the course of several hours until finally only one was left flying. Kite runners would run after that kite and whoever retrieved it where it came down would take it home and mount it on their wall. Sounds like an innocent game but it reveals the evil natures of some and the extreme faithfulness of the servant/friend of the protagonist.

Through this competition and other, increasingly more adult and horrific events over the years, the author skillfully brings out themes of human relationships and connections and human nature, including jealousy, power struggles, kindness, deep regret, redemption, and relationships with God. The changing political powers in Afghanistan cause living conditions for all to progressively worsen as evil and fear grips the country.

Ending up in America, the protagonist and his father are reduced to poverty, but by persistent hard work together they make their way. Life is not easy and America is not heaven. There is poverty of spirit until truth, regret, and life-threatening cleansing redemption occur.

So many striking personal histories have come out of World War II! This one, though fictional, is based on the young life of the author’s mother, and includes a few photos and a short account of her real story at the end of the novel.

The author grew up in Bucharest, Romania, where most of the story is based. The story begins in 1941 when the protagonist is not quite 4 years old. Jews are being rounded up and sent to death camps. Her parents make a run for it, but decide that in order for all three of them not to be caught and killed they will have to leave her somewhere with the hopes that kind people will take her in.

This does happen, and the author takes us through the ensuing growing-up years of the child’s life, happy and sad and scary, and the changing times Bucharest goes through politically and culturally.

The reader gains insight into the realities of things that went on and ways that the war affected individuals. Throughout the story hope is prevalent and the author spares us from the most horrific depths of what humanity sank to in this war, yet alluding to some of the possible outcomes had her characters not been spared the fate of many.

Prayer, faith, and acts of compassion and bravery by individuals from several factions are what worked together to save this young girl time and again.

An old-fashioned take-out restaurant situated across the road from Beacon Hill Park, we must go here for a milkshake whenever we visit Victoria!  The food and shakes are home-made style, with the tastiest of flavours!

Order your food at one window and pick it up at the other window and take it to a table on the patio.  Enjoy the sun, sheltered from cool breezes by a plexiglass wall.  If your dog is with you just sit at one of the tables on the other side of the plexiglass.  For drizzly days there is an awning that comes out over a heater above.

The menu includes such traditional Canadian staples as fish and chips, hot dogs, corn dogs, and all varieties of burgers.  I am told they have the best hamburgers in town!