Whistlestop Wednesday Book Review: "Rooms" by Jim Rubart

What would you do?

What if a house you inherited is more than it seems? What if doors appear out of nowhere and lead to rooms filled with mystery? What if your life changed daily in unimagined ways? For Seattle software tycoon, Micah Taylor, these questions are not academic. An uncle he's never met leaves him a house in Canon Beach on the Oregon Coast. Micah determines to sell the home, especially since it's located in a place that holds powerful memories for him. But after a visit, and after meeting Sarah Sabin in a local ice cream shop, he can't quite let go.

Micah walks a fine line between darkness and light, pain and healing, death and life. He faces a choice between two worlds, but first he must fight a battle with spiritual consequences.

Enter the strange and wonderful world of Jim Rubart's "Rooms." I highly recommend this life-changing book for adult and young adult readers.

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Whistlestop Wednesday: I Run to the Hills

A cloaked figure climbs the Mount of the Lord. The pilgrim draws near, glances at me as I read along the wayside, and presses on. I gasp and turn my head, for this pilgrim has my face. In a flash of clarity, I realize the pilgrim is me. And so it goes. I find myself - and you - everywhere within the pages of I Run to the Hills. Filled with intimate glimpses of reality that cut to the heart of a matter, illustrated in poetic imagery, and couched in allegory, I Run to the Hills is a modern-day Pilgrim's Promise. It's complex truths clothe themselves in simplicity and knock at the door of the reader's heart.

It would be difficult to read I Run to the Hills in a single sitting, something like eating too much chocolate. This book should be studied, little by little, over time, for it highlights lessons learned by its author over a ten-year stretch of living. Read it, and then reread it to glean again.

I recommend this book for teenagers and adult readers who enjoy devotionals, poetry and allegory.

"The Noticer" by Andy Andrews (Thomas Nelson Publishers)

A homeless young man weeps in despair as he hides in a crude shelter beneath a pier. A couple, disappointed in marriage, faces the prospect of divorce. A landscaper too busy to take his wife's phone calls still makes time to fleece his customers. A businessman on the brink of bankruptcy makes the decision to end his life.

What do these people, the residents of Orange Beach, Alabama, have in common with one another? Each of their lives changes for the better after an encounter with Jones, an elderly fellow wearing jeans and sandals and carrying an aged suitcase. Jones, a self-described "Noticer," does just that. He points out the obvious to those unable to see it for themselves.

Andy, the homeless young man, attains success. He no longer has to sleep under a pier. In gratitude, he looks for Jones. No one seems to know where the old man lives. Andy learns that Jones goes by other names. He wants answers but doesn't begin to find them until one day a battered suitcase turns up without its owner.

"The Noticer" engaged me from start to finish with its charming storyline and memorable characters. A true sign of great writing is when a character "lives" off the page. Jones lives for me.

I have a few quibbles, but not enough to prevent me from recommending this book. Jones seemed given to violating people's personal space, barging in on Andy in the opening scene, getting into a truck uninvited, showing up on a boat without the owner's permission. His intrusions always ended up as more than welcome, but I found his methods a little unsettling. That was probably the author's intent, but no reader likes to feel manipulated.

Also, some of Jones' advice came across as cliched since it draws from popular Christian wisdom. And yet, cliches often exist because of their truth. The beauty of "The Noticer" could arguably lie in its ability to repackage and deliver conventional wisdom afresh.

*Janalyn Voigt is an Amazon Associate and benefits when books are purchased on Amazon through links from Book Readers Central.