Beyond the Picket Fence

I’ve finally gotten around to posting about one of Lori Wick’s books! Yes!

Lori Wick writes Christian Romance, both historical and modern day, and I love both kinds. I found her books while searching through the library’s online catalog, looking for something that looked like I might like. I discovered the The Yellow Rose Trilogy , but started out reading the third book before I realized that it was a trilogy. The Yellow Rose Trilogy is certainly my favorite set so far; I’ve not read all the other ones in the library. I’ll review them another time. Today I’m reviewing Beyond the Picket Fence, and Other Short Stories.

Beyond the Picket Fence has eight short stories in it:
1. "Be Careful with my Heart",
2. "Christmas for Two"
3. The Haircut"
4. "Beyond the Picket Fence"
5. "An Intense Man"
6. "The Camping Trip"
7. "The Christmas Gift", and
8. "The Rancher’s Lady"

They are a varied lot of stories, all unrelated, but wonderfully sweet. The first one brings two people, who’ve lost their first spouses, together in a musical band at a summer camp. The third one is a retelling of an incident in Lori’s husband’s childhood. The fourth one, the title chapter, is the longest (I think) and an authoress moves to a small town, and falls in love. In the sixth one, a widowed coach reaches out to encourage one of the boys on him, a boy who doesn’t have a father, and finds himself reaching out to the boy’s hurting mother as well. The last chapter, “The Rancher’s Lady” is probably my favorite; a young Australian woman leaves the sheep ranch Australia and sad memories behind and goes to Northern California to work for a friend of her former boss’s.

I like Lori Wick’s books very much. They have such endearing characters in them, as well as good plots. I especially like reading the series, because I get to keep getting glimpses of the people in the previous books. I love the men in her stories; they are such nice guys! (Too bad they aren’t real, huh?) And the women are great, as well; such sweet women, but they aren’t pathetic limp people. The books are similar to Janette Oke’s books where religion is concerned; it isn’t overdone. And I like really appreciate it that Lori Wick doesn’t have anything more than kissing and hugging in her books; I like a romance, but not a bedroom scene.

I always smile when I read Lori Wick's books. I even smile when I just see them sitting waiting for me to read them. :)

Shasta blinked and said softly, “No, sir. I’m sorry, but I don’t know a thing about office work. Morgan said you needed a jackeroo.”

“A what?” It was Kyle’s turn to blink.

“Oh, uhm, a jackeroo, a ranch hand.”

Kyle nodded slowly. Outside of a brief conversation a few weeks ago, it had been years since he’d talked to Morgan Clark, and he’d completely forgotten the little differences in their speech. He had to say one thing concerning Miss Shasta McGregor –that accent of hers was real easy on the ears.

Well...

So, I really did end up reading a book instead of doing a blog post on one. I'm most of the way through with Lori Wick's White Chocolate Moments. I do so love her writing. :)

Father's Day, Little House books

I was pondering over which book to write about last night couldn’t decide which one to do… a horse story? The story I just finished? an adventure book? Then today while I was working with some photos to generate a truck themed Father’s Day card, the idea came to me.

As today is Father’s Day, I thought I should do something in honor of the occasion. I could do a book with a good father in it. Hmm… not many of those around, unless it’s in a book written by Lori Wick, Janette Oke, or a few others who write similar stuff. Then what about doing a book that my dad had read to me? But he read lots of books to my sister and me when we were little. I could do the most memorable book then…?

The most memorable book, or rather books, were the Little House books by Laura Ingalls Wilder. But practically everybody who I know has already read them repeatedly, and probably everybody else has at least heard about them if not read them once or twice…, and there about 1,400,000 results if one types in “Laura Ingalls Wilder Little House Series” in the Google Search-bar. So it would be a little redundant for me to peck out yet another review for an already well known and much reviewed book.

What I can do however, is write about my memories of it. My younger sister and I would get ready for bed, brush teeth, don night gowns and such, and then our dad would read to us. My mom had, and still has, a complete and beautiful set of hard-cover set of the Little House books, and my dad started with the first one and read a chapter or two each night to us until we finished the whole set. Sometimes we’d sit on my bed or my sister’s bed, but the time I remember most clearly was when we were sitting on the couch in the living-room.

That couch was perhaps the ugliest of the three couches we’ve owned. It was very blocky, and it was this neutral shade of gray checked with a darker gray, and my mom put a pretty afghan thing over it to make it more acceptable, but was still slightly uncomfortable. Anyway. We had a fabulous living-room in that house, though. It had a nice fireplace with a heater insert that my granddad made and it kept the house warm during the few times it got cold in Southern California.

I remember sitting on one side of my dad, with my sister on his other side, and we had gotten to the sixth book, The Long Winter. It was cozy in our house, so it must have been during the cooler part of the year, and the heater may have been blowing with its soothing purr. We had a Trader Joe’s grocery store not far away, and we’d gotten a tub of those animal-shaped ginger cookies. Lions and elephants, tigers, and all those, but I think they’ve been discontinued. I remember eating those cookies while my dad read to us, and we were at the chapter “Where There’s a Will”, where Pa and Laura were twisting hay into tight little sticks to burn so they wouldn’t freeze during the blizzard. That chapter had a picture, not every chapter did, and to this day, every time I see the picture of Pa and Laura twisting hay, I remember those ginger cookies and that couch and the heater in the living-room.

I really enjoyed that series. If someday I ever have a family and children, I hope that my children will get to have the stories read aloud to them.

“Bend your twist a little to loosen it,” said Pa. “Then slip the ends in between the kinks and let it twist itself back tight. That’s the way!”

Laura’s stick of hay was uneven and raggedy, not smooth and hard like Pa’s. But Pa told her that it was well done for the first one; she would do better next time.

Aunt Crete's Emancipation

I only have time for a short post today; it's been a busy, yet very good day. I'm reading Lori Wick's book Beyond the Picket Fence, a collection of short stories, and I'm enjoying it very much. I shall write about it once I've finished reading it.

For a short blog post I must select a short subject. I'm not even going to do a whole book, but a short story by Grace Livingston Hill, whose stories were introduced to me by my mom. This particular story is one that I've read, and reread, a number of times, because it is just so sweet, and so charming. The title is Aunt Crete's Emancipation.

Lucretia Ward lives with her sister and niece, Carrie and Luella. Carrie and Luella are selfish, short tempered women, but somehow Lucretia, called Crete, is still a sweet and loving person. They receive a telegram one morning from Crete and Carrie's nephew, Donald Grant who has been out West. Carrie and Luella hurry off to their beach vacation to avoid this young man, who they are sure is a bumbling, coarse backwoodsman, leaving poor Crete, with house-work and canning and sewing, to entertain the young man.

When Donald Grant comes, he is gentle and caring, a delightful nephew to dear Crete who has spent her years in toil. He is tenderly attentive to her. Donald picks up the phone one afternoon while Crete is napping, and Luella is on the other end, calling to Aunt Crete. Luella, unaware of who is on the other end, gives her lengthy diatribe, then gets mad and hangs up when she receives no reply. Donald is moved with righteous anger, and a plan crystallizes in his head.

What follows is an endearing Cinderella-type story. Donald spends some of his great fortune buying presents for his Aunt Crete, and then her takes her to the fine beach resort when Carrie and Luella are staying. By and by Carrie and Luella are furious once they find out that the fine lady who reminds them of Crete at a distance, actually IS Crete. Yet Donald swoops down and protects Crete, and ends up coaxing her to come and keep house for him while he is at university.

I love this story, and go read read it when I want something sweet that makes me smile. It has all the wonderful qualities of a long story wrapped up into one bundle that can be read in a short -but not too short- time.

His blood boiled over the tone which his invisible cousin at the other end of the wire had ordered Aunt Crete about. ...He felt strongly impelled to do something in the matter. A rebuke of some sort should be administered. How could it best be done?