A Face in the Shadows

By Lenora Worth

This story is a romantic murder mystery involving a divorced single mom, her mother and friends, her young son, a man who writes superhero comic books, and a mysterious woman who wears a hat and dark glasses. Can you guess who the murderer is?

I found out at the end of the book that there is a sequel (by another author) and, because of some missing information throughout the story, I gather that there was a prequel too. The sequel is Final Justice by Marta Perry.

The Tent by Gary Paulsen

Corey is tired of being poor, so he takes his son, Steven, steals a
Bible and becomes a tent preacher. They perform fake healings and make
a lot of money. Steven feels uncomfortable with it from the beginning
and eventually Corey begins to actually read the Bible and finds the
truth.

In my opinion, this is not a great book.

Some Party in Heaven

By Noel Davidson

A couple had three sons, two of which were physically and mentally handicapped and died within nine days of each other at the ages of 6 and 3 years old. After the death of the first, the father realizes that he is not ready to meet death and gets saved, and after the death of the second, the mother is restored to the Lord. They see that taking "the little lambs" was the only way God could get "the sheep" to follow him.

For This Child I Prayed

By Judy Rea Aspenson

This was the lovely and sad story of a little girl named Candice and her short life with Down's Syndrome. Her parents were, of course, devastated when they were told that there was something wrong with their beautiful baby, but found, as it seems so often happens, that she brought them more joy and love than a "normal" child probably would have.

Perelandra by C. S. Lewis

I read the first book in C.S. Lewis' space trilogy, Out of the Silent
Planet, several months ago. I had picked it up in a second-hand store
because I had read and loved the Narnia books. Whoa! It was really
different. The story is about a Mr. Ransom who was kidnapped and taken
aboard a spaceship to Mars. On the way, he learns, by overhearing his
captors talking, that they intend to offer him to the inhabitants as a
human sacrifice. Once on Mars, he learns that the inhabitants are
actually friendly; he befriends some of them and learns their language.

I had no intention of reading the rest of the books, but stumbled
across the second book, Perelandra, in the library the other day and
decided to read it. I enjoyed it much more than the first. In this
book, Mr. Ransom is (willingly) sent by angels to Venus (Perelandra)
but he doesn't know why. Upon his arrival, he discovers a garden-of-
eden-like situation. One of his former kidnappers also arrives,
becomes demon-possessed, and tries to tempt the woman to do evil.
Ransom, knowing the Biblical account of the fall on earth, does his
best to convince her what is right and realizes that this is why he
was sent.

I found some of the events were rather long, drawn-out accounts, but I
did enjoy the story.