P. M. Gilmer

I started the year reading this first book from Russell and though science fiction is not my usual genre, I did enjoy this one. We Ever Wanted Emily Giffin (2018) Set in Nashville and told with three different viewpoints (with different narrators), a girl’s picture is taken at a high school party and spread over the internet. I used this book in a Bible study and though it was listed on my goodreads as the least favorite of my books for 2020 (meaning not many people listed it on goodreads), I found this to be a good study tool with intelligent questions. I’ve been a baseball fan since I was a kid, and I found this biography interesting both in telling about the life of Fisk and the history of baseball during the 70’s and 80’s.

Under a clear sky with stars so bright, the night air took on a chill, causing the sheep to huddle together and the shepherds to wrap their cloaks around themselves and most stayed near one of the fires kept burning throughout the night. A trip to Bethlehem in the middle of the night seemed like madness to the old shepherd, but this whole night had been unlike any he had ever encountered in his eighty some years. They crept as close as they dared, wondering at the babe whose birth had been declared to them by a heavenly being and even sung were told to come here,” the old shepherd broke to continue and unsure of how to explain the phenomenon they had witnessed. We must go and tell everyone what we have seen and heard,” Asa amused at the old shepherd’s change of heart, at the Christ child and a farewell to the young couple, whom they all knew would face times of trouble and sorrow as they raised this baby in this sin-struck world, they set out to walk the streets of Bethlehem as morning broke and people began to stir.

: We believe in one Lord Jesus Christ, the only begotten Son of God, begotten of the Father before all the world. Light of light, very God of very God, begotten, not made; who for us men and for our salvation came down from heaven and was incarnate by the Holy Spirit of the Virgin Mary and was made man. But only here in Isaiah is a quality raised to the power of three “as if to say that the divine holiness is so far beyond anything the human mind can grasp that a ‘super-superlative’ has to be invented to express it and, furthermore, that this transcendent holiness is the total truth about God.” This vision is explained, John 12:41, that Isaiah now saw Christ’s glory, and spake of Him, which is a full proof that our Saviour is God.”

” Charles Frazier is best known for his first novel, Cold Mountain, the story of a Confederate soldier making his way home after the war. That story was based on stories from Frazier’s great-great-great grandfather as well as local stories and legends. One more author I will mention–Ron Rash, a poet, short-story writer, and novelist who was born in South Carolina and teaches at Western Carolina University. The Cove takes place near the town of Mars Hill in the Appalachian mountains of North Carolina during the time of the Great War (or WWI).