Category Archive: Belle Book Club

Feb
22

Moon Over Edisto and Beth Webb Hart’s Compelling Question

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It’s been said that all good manners boil down to making people feel at ease. Whoever said it could have been describing Beth Webb Hart and her innate grace that marks every page of her endearing fiction. Reading a Beth Webb Hart novel feels very much like sitting across an intimate table with the flesh and blood woman who pens them. She moves us through page after page of beautiful prose and it feels quite effortless.

In Moon Over Edisto, Beth Webb asks us to consider the subject of forgiveness from all sides. Will Julie be able to finally forgive? And what will her decision mean for everyone else involved? As the observer, we get to sit in a safe place and see both the damage of harboring un-forgiveness and the potential power of being willing to forgive and move on. It’s a subject that has literally been weighing on me.

This past January I was browsing a Christian bookstore during a break in the schedule of the Pulpwood Queen’s Girlfriend Weekend in Jefferson, Texas when I found a large stone imprinted with one compelling word, forgiveness. It all but spoke out loud to me. I bought it impulsively and began toting it back to the convention center. It was heavy when I struck out. It grew increasingly so over the next two city blocks. As I tried to balance it with my purse, my to-go glass of sweet tea from lunch, and various other packages, the stone’s jagged edges began cutting into my forearms and the image of a certain person flashed through my mind. I found myself thinking of how much she must be hurting inside. I know full well that she has regrets and regardless of how much she professes otherwise, I also know she doesn’t feel forgiven.

How many of us walk with the weight of our mistakes even though God has made a way for us to lay them down? As I struggled on with my heavy stone, I felt the Lord begin to talk to me about how the guilt she carries is hampering every area of her life. Ever so gently the questions came.

“So, how hard would it be to carry this around every day?”

“Tell me, could you carry this and help anyone else?”

“How difficult are you finding it to focus on anything other than the heavy weight tearing into your skin?”

By the time I reached the convention center, I needed a restroom makeover. I’d prayed for that wounded soul and cried most of my makeup off in the process, all because of a word picture.

Jesus taught in vivid word pictures when He walked the earth and His spirit continues to use them today through the everyday things around us and through gentle authors like our own Belle Tuesday. I’m so thankful for her talent and the unique way she shares it with the rest of us. For anyone who loves a great story and values the beauty of word pictures, Beth Webb Hart will charm you with her latest story of betrayal, second chances, and the choices in between.

Hugs, Shellie

Shellie Rushing Tomlinson is an author, speaker, radio host, and Belle of All Things Southern who greatly admires the work of her fellow belles at Southern BelleView!

**WIN A COPY OF Moon Over Edisto!  One given away each day this week!

To celebrate the release of Moon Over Edisto, Beth’s publisher is giving away 5 copies of the book (one each day)! 

To ENTER: answer the question of the day: Have you ever dealt with someone who seems to find pleasure is lashing out at you?  How did you forgive and keep forgiving?  Share your thoughts.

For more info.on Beth Webb Hart’s novels click here

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Feb
17

It’s (a New) Belle Book Club Week — Moon Over Edisto!

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Happy Monday, Everyone!  Guess what?  It’s another Belle Book Club Week!  The maternity ward at BelleView is harboring more than one Book Baby in February, and so this week, we’re gathered on the porch again.  We’re talking about Belle Tuesday, Beth Webb Hart’s, latest treasure, Moon Over Edisto.

 

We’re so glad you’re here to join in!  This week, we’ll be giving away a copy of Moon Over Edisto EACH DAY, so be sure to leave your answer to the Question Of the Day in the comments, to enter!

 

Having read an early copy, I can already tell you that the winners are in for a treat, but even if you don’t win a copy this week, you shouldn’t miss Moon Over Edisto. I’m thrilled to be starting the discussion this week.

 

The best books not only entertain us and take us to incredible, interesting places, they cause us to think, to wonder, to question.  Moon Over Edisto fits the bill on both scores.  Like all of Beth’s writing, it’s filled with beautiful word-pictures and Low Country settings that draw you in until you can smell the salt air and feel the pluff mud seeping around your feet.

 

But there’s more to the story than just pretty pictures.  Beth’s book was inspired by a question. What would be the hardest thing for you to forgive another person for? What would it take to persuade you to forgive the unforgivable?

 

It’s a worthy question — one that digs down to the very meat and marrow of life.  Before I delve into it, I should probably begin by saying that I completely forgive Beth Webb Hart for keeping me up late and causing me to read like a banshee for a couple days straight, wondering what would happen as Julia returns home to beautiful Edisto Island, South Carolina. There’s no beauty there for Julia, who has made a good life for herself in New York and left her difficult family past behind. The last thing she wants to do is return home to deal with the one person she’s been running from since college. To face the unforgivable, in the form of the long-ago best friend who stole Julia’s father, tore apart Julia’s family, and birthed the half brothers and sisters Julia has never known.

 

I won’t tell you what happens in the story, so as not to spoil the journey for you if you haven’t yet read it. But I will tell you that it is an experience not to be missed. The beauty of the setting contrasts with a family story that is raw, compelling, and poignant.

 

Beneath the story, as in any good story, lies not only the larger question of forgiveness, but one that’s a bit more personal.  One that hits me where I live.  Is there something in my own life like this? Are there things I am clinging to and won’t let go of? 

 

There’s nothing of the magnitude Julia faces in the story, to be sure. But I probe the question a little, whittle it down to size. What things do I bring up over and over again when conversations turn to gripes about the actions of other people?  What experiences do I recount to display my wounds, to gather a nod of the head, a sympathetic “I hear you.” or “I would’ve done the same thing.” or the coveted, “You’re in the right.  You should be mad.  I don’t blame you a bit.”

 

It’s not the most comfortable thing to think about. Because if there are things (and when I think about it I know there are) that I returned to time and time again, doesn’t that mean I have not released them into the ocean of forgiveness and let them float away? Doesn’t that mean that a part of me is still swimming in the same little tidepool, trapped in stagnant water?

 

And that, beyond just entertainment and beautiful writing, is the more lasting value of Beth’s newest offering. There is value in all stories that take us down the most difficult paths in life.  When we live it through the mind and heart of a character, we realize that it is possible, not only for fictional people, but for all of us. And when it feels so good in fiction, perhaps we think, It’s my time, now.  It’s time to let go.

 

Maybe the things that wait for Julia, if only she can let go of the wrong that’s been done –  A new life, renewed relationships, mercy, grace, and love — wait for all of us.  They are all the best things in this imperfect, human world. The things God wants most for us.

 

In the end, for me, this is a test of a great story.  It leaves me wiser and better off than it found me.

 

Moon over Edisto is, truly, a great story.

Lisa

**WIN A COPY OF Moon Over Edisto!  One given away each day this week!  

To celebrate the release of Moon Over Edisto, Beth’s publisher is giving away 5 copies of the book (one each day)! 

To ENTER: answer the question of the day: What about you?  Have you ever learned a life-changing lesson from a book?  Leave a comment and share!

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Feb
12

The Sisterhood of the Book by Beth Webb Hart

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You know that moment in the week when you just pull up to your favorite bakery and decide to treat yourself to a thick slice of cheesecake?  Or that half hour you find to take a walk along the water’s edge and admire the birds and the sailboats and the sun’s glint on the water as the wind gently lifts your hair?

Well, that’s what it is like when you give yourself the gift of curling up with a Lisa Wingate novel.  It’s like a warm cup of tea and a crackling fire or a stroll along the beach or an afternoon catch up with an old and beloved friend in a charming little coffee shop.  It’s a gift to yourself, and let’s face it, every now and then a treat can really lift your spirits, shift your perspective and shed fresh light on your own story.

Lisa’s newest, Firefly Island, is truly a treat.  It pulls you in from the first paragraph which begins with a hilariously awkward/adorable love-at-first-sight scene, and it keeps you eagerly hanging on to every sweet mishap and sharp turn from the new couple’s sudden and headfirst leap into marriage, to Mallory (the protagonist’s) introduction to parenthood to the uprooting of all that they know as they travel across the country to a new job in a very rural lake community in Texas where there are more than a few mysteries – and some potential danger – on the land where they have come to work and to live.  You’re hooked already, aren’t you?

Add to this a blog, an important community cause, sister ties, Charleston references, an overbearing Mama, some wonderfully quirky girlfriends and a book club which keeps sisters together in spite of the miles between them, and you’ve got a treasure of a story.

I’m a believer in the power of a good book club to build and strengthen relationships because I’ve experienced it.  Six years ago, a new friend from my daughter’s new school invited me to join a small book club she and two other ladies were starting.  Each of the three could only invite one friend, and we’d read a book a month during the school year (but not over December for the obvious reasons) and meet in someone’s home for dinner and to discuss the story each month.  Whoever hosts, picks the book.

I can’t tell you what a joy our meetings have been and how we’ve grown from hardly knowing one another to helping one another through life’s ups and downs.  (There’s an endocrinologist, a psychiatrist, two attorneys, and a real estate developer in the group… so between them I’ve got every issue I’ll ever need help with covered!)

C.S. Lewis said we read to know we’re not alone, and I believe we read to feel more alive.  Reading offers all of the human emotions (love, fear, jealousy and joy) without any of the physical risks.  Sharing stories somehow provides a safe place to reveal who we are, to reveal our own personal journeys, as we discuss the story we’ve shared together.  There’s something magical about it.  It’s like breaking bread together.  We are suddenly revealed and bound to one another, as our minds, bodies and souls are nourished.  It’s beautiful.  No wonder it was the mode in which Christ chose to teach and transform hearts.

Treat yourself to Firefly Island this winter, friends.  Or better yet, enjoy it with your own Sisterhood of the Book.  Mallory’s story is every woman’s story.  By connecting with her, I assure you, you will connect with one another.

**WIN A COPY OF FIREFLY ISLAND AND BE INDUCTED INTO THE PRECIOUS PEARL CLUB, TOO! (to learn more about Precious Pearl Club, click here)** 

To celebrate the release of Firefly Island, Lisa’s publisher is giving away 5 copies of Firefly Island (one each day) and Lisa is inducting a new Precious Pearl Club member each day!(adorable groundhog not included)** 

To ENTER: answer the question of the day: Like Mallory, has your life ever taken a sharp turn and you wound up somewhere you’d never imagine you would live?  Leave a comment and share your Sisterhood Of the Book with us!

For more info. on Beth Webb Hart’s new novel, Moon Over Edisto, click here

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