"On Living Stone" by Heather Kaufman

Another breathtakingly good book from Heather Kaufman!  Are we surprised?  We are not.  Are we happy?  Ecstatically so!

On Living Stone tells the story of Salome, mother of Jesus's disciples James and John.  Like the first two books in this series, Up from Dust and Before the King, this book focuses on a real woman who appears in the Biblical record, but imagines what her life could have been like.

Salome's mother died when she was young.  Her father was a skilled stone mason, but grief drove him to become an alcoholic for a time, though an accident brought him to his senses.  Through all of that, he was a kind and loving father, however.  Salome's mother's best friend tried to help guide the preteen girl toward becoming an upright woman, but Salome's own grief often made her desperate to get away from everyone and be alone in nature with only her beloved dog as a companion.  She resents her mother's best friend at times, and struggles to find her own friends and a sense of belonging in her world.

Eventually, Salome has to grow up, whether she wants to or not.  Like the rest of us.  She marries Zebedee, a strong and gentle fisherman she has known all her life, and they have two sons, James and John.  Salome struggles with motherhood at times, especially while enduring what we would not call post-partum depression, but she is overall a fiercely loving protector for her sons.  When her sons begin to follow a new rabbi named Jesus, she has many reservations, but eventually comes to believe that Jesus is who he says he is: the Messiah.  

Like all the best Biblical fiction, On Living Stone doesn't seek to try to replace the Bible in readers' minds, but rather shows us the world in which the Biblical accounts take place so we can better understand the people, places, customs, and lifestyles in the Bible.  Heather Kaufman masterfully opens that world to readers while always pointing them to the Bible as the ultimate authority on everything to do with God and his saving grace.

(From my Instagram)

Particularly Good Bits:

We follow a rabbi whose steps extend beyond the grave (p. 10).

He wrapped long arms around me until I was completely surrounded by his sturdy embrace.  He was the steady beat of a drum, a warm cloak on a dark night, a spoken word of comfort into a lonely heart (p. 64).

"God alone knows the future.  He only asks that we walk uprightly in the present day" (p. 83).

"Salome, I may not understand what you're going through, but I don't have to understand in order to love you" (p. 121).

If This was a Movie, I Would Rate It: PG-13 for some scenes of non-gory violence, discussion of depression, and gentle mentions of a husband and wife anticipating or enjoying the marital bed.  No smut; no cussing.

"Before the King" by Heather Kaufman

Like in Heather Kaufman's previous book, Up from Dust, the main character of Before the King is a woman from the New Testament.  Joanna is only mentioned a couple of times in the Bible, so we don't know very much about her.  We know she was one of the women who discovered that Jesus's tomb was empty on the first Easter Sunday (Luke 24:10).  We know she was wealthy and helping to support Jesus's ministry, and that she was married to Chuza, "the manager of Herod's household" (Luke 8:3).  That's about it.

From those clues, Kaufman has built a fictional heroine of uncommon beauty and deep faith.  In this book, Joanna grows up the daughter of a prominent Sadducee, moving in important Judean circles.  She has a sister who suffers from seizures, and tragedy strikes them both more than once.  Eventually, Joanna enters into a marriage of convenience with Chuza, a proselyte (non-Jewish believer in the coming Messiah) who has a high position in King Herod's government.  

When Joanna meets Jesus of Nazareth, her life is transformed inside and out.  Repeatedly, she goes to listen to this new Rabbi, supporting His ministry with her own money and growing to believe He is the promised Savior.  Because her husband is an important part of Herod's government, we get to see some of the events of Holy Week up close, both before Christ's crucifixion and after His resurrection.  Which made this the perfect book to read around Easter!

Kaufman's writing continues to delight me.  Her characters are nuanced, complex, and believable.  Her meticulous research makes the place and time she writes about come to life in the most engrossing way!

Although I didn't love this book quite as much as Up from Dust, it's still going to end up one of my top new reads for the year, I'm sure.  And the only reason I didn't love it quite as much is that I didn't feel as much of a personal connection with Joanna as a did with Martha -- I promise that is a personal thing, not a reflection on this amazing book.

Particularly Good Bits:

I am an ordinary woman whom God chose to put in extraordinary places.  Any strength to be found in my story is His alone (p. 9).

"Remember this, Joanna.  What people think changes all the time.  What is true never changes" (p. 56).

If This was a Movie, I Would Rate It:  PG-16 for tasteful discussions of a woman desiring her husband.  Chuza proposes a celibate marriage to Joanna; she accepts, but later grows to love him and desires a consummated marriage.  Mentions of longing and desire are all tasteful, all within the context of a marriage, but may make younger readers confused or uncomfortable.

"The Bronze Bow" by Elizabeth George Speare

I know I read this at least once as a teen.  I remembered basically none of it.  In fact, I actually misremembered things about it -- I thought it took place during the boyhood of King David, but that's completely wrong.  It takes place during the life of Jesus Christ!  I was way off.

I did remember it being really good, and that memory was totally accurate, though.  Whew.

Daniel is an angry young Jewish man whose parents were killed by Roman soldiers when he was a boy.  Now he's part of a renegade band of rebels who ostensibly fight the Romans, but mostly just steal stuff.  He befriends a nice brother and sister from a good family, and through them, he encounters Jesus more than once, and also gets a real job, is able to start caring for his younger sister, and gradually realizes that armed rebellion against the Roman Empire is not going to fix his problems.

I almost feel like this is Ben-Hur for teens, because it has a lot of the same themes of letting go of anger and hatred, learning to forgive, and finding peace in the midst of trouble. 

Particularly Good Bits:

"Can't you see, Daniel, it is hate that is the enemy?  Not men.  Hate does not die with killing.  It only springs up a hundredfold.  The only thing stronger than hate is love" (p. 224).

If This was a Movie, I Would Rate It: PG-13 for violence, including descriptions of crucifixion.

This was my 36th book read for my fourth Classics Club list.

"Up from Dust: Martha's Story" by Heather Kaufman

I know we are only a couple weeks into the year.  But I suspect this is going to be my #1 favorite new read for 2024.

I already love Kaufman's contemporary fiction, The Story People and Loving Isaac.  When I learned she was writing some historical fiction set in Biblical times, I got very excited because, as you know, historical fiction is one of my favorite things to read.  And, when I found out her book would be focused on Martha from the Bible, sister to Mary and Lazarus, well... I started to count down the days until there would be advance copies available from the publisher, in hopes I could sign up to get one.  And I did!  So, this book releases TODAY, but I have already finished reading it, hugging it, crying over it, rejoicing over it.  Get yourself a copy so you can do the same!

So, I have a bit of a personal connection to Martha from the Bible, which goes way back to college.  I attended Bethany Lutheran College, and their motto is One Thing Needful, which comes from the Biblical account of Jesus visiting siblings Mary, Martha, and Lazarus at their home, and Martha being super stressed out by trying to get a meal on the table while Mary sits by Jesus and listens to him teach.  Martha asks Jesus why he won't tell her sister to help out, and Jesus says that Mary has chosen the most important, most needed thing, which is learning from him.  And, of course, the point of all that isn't that we should never serve others, or that meals are unimportant, but that we should not try to dissuade others from listening to and learning about Jesus.  Nor should we let day-to-day stresses keep us away from Jesus.

And y'all, I have heard soooooo many sermons and homilies on this Bible story.  I think they hit it in chapel once a month.  I attended chapel every day for four years.  I heard that story a LOT.  Which is good, because it's one I needed to hear a lot -- I very often get bogged down in day-to-day stresses and chores and being busy busy busy busy busy.  I need to make sure that does not get between me and learning about and from my Savior.  

Since I have such a personal connection to that account in the Bible, I have been hesitant about reading any fiction about those particular people.  Because a lot of people do NOT get the correct lesson from that account, and that always bugs me.  Too many people see it as a condemnation of acts of service, or as a way of saying "doing things" is lesser than "learning things."  It gets abused a LOT, folks.  Watch out for that.

Anyway.  I KNEW that Heather Kaufman was going to avoid those theological pitfalls.  I KNEW she was going to handle these real, historical people with respect and honor and kindness.  All of them.  And I was totally right.  She did!

(From my Instagram)

Kaufman gives us a fictional Martha who is bowed almost double under the weight of guilt and sorrow and worry and fear.  The whole first half of the book is about a young Martha, in her mid-teens, trying to raise her younger sister because they have lost their mother.  Young Martha falls in love, but her life is very difficult -- her father is remote and sometimes emotionally abusive, her little sister Mary is wild and wayward, and her brother Lazarus is trying to grow to manhood before he's really ready.  Martha's young life is basically one huge mess, and yet, falling in love grounds her in a calm she has never known.

Which totally doesn't last.  This is not an easy book to read, emotionally.  It did bring tears to my eyes, more than once.  But you know how some people are like, "This book destroyed me!  You should read it!"  Well, this book did not destroy me.  It built me up.  That is the best kind of fiction.  (You should read it!)

The second half of the book is about Martha as an adult.  Her life is still chaos.  She's closed herself off from those around her, she's focused on working and doing and getting things done as much as possible, and she's... pretty much a picture of a lot of people I see every day.  Just focus on tasks so you don't have to think or feel.

Then Jesus Christ steps into this closed-up, broken, heartbroken mess that is Martha's life.  Into the wayward, searching, desperate mess that is Mary's life.  Into the confused, earnest, hopeful mess that is Lazarus's life.  And, as they come to believe that, yes, this Jesus is the Messiah that they and all Jewish people have been waiting for since a few days after the world began... their lives are transformed.  They are not fixed.  But when they stop trusting themselves for solutions, when they center their hearts on God and trust him to care for their every need, and when they stop trying to "be enough" in and of themselves, their lives truly are transformed.

I especially loved the depiction of a difficult and combative sisterly relationship being healed.  I know some sisters who have not been friends for many years, and this gives me hope that they can also one day discover that they do love each other.

This book weaves fictional lives for Martha, Mary, and Lazarus, incorporating the real events that the Bible tells us about them.  It's a masterful piece of fiction with so much truth and hope inside, that I know it's a book I will reread many times in years to come.

Particularly Good Bits:

"Worry is like a ravenous beast, child.  The more you feed him, the more he wants and the harder he'll go after it.  Take it from an old woman who knows... do not give your worry one more scrap of food" (p. 99).

I would choose to turn my eyes from what I lacked and look instead to what Yahweh in His wisdom had chosen to give me.  I would not waste this day weeping (p. 172).

"When bitterness chokes the life out of a man, he comes to love his hurt more than Adonai.  And when knowledge becomes its own reward, a man comes to love his mind more than Adonai" (p. 219).

I opened my eyes and stared at the Christ.  I didn't understand this path.  In truth, I did not want this path.  But it was the path that Yahweh had given me, and perhaps that was enough (p. 271).

"Some need no excuse for their hatred other than self-interest" (p. 280).

If This was a Movie, I Would Rate It: PG-10 for non-detailed references to menarche, kissing, and childbirth.  A woman dies in childbirth, which could be distressing to younger readers.  No bad language, smut, or gore, but some violence occurs off-page and we see the results.

This has been my second book read from my TBR shelves for the 2024 Mount TBR Reading Challenge and my first for the #CozyWinterChristianFictionChallenge.

Full disclosure: I received an advance copy of Up from Dust from the publisher.  I read the whole book, and my thoughts and opinions expressed here are my true ones.