Thank you all for making August a “Lovely” month in the library. We had good response to people coming and checking out books.  Keep it up.

This month I would like to review a book from the shelf.  “Finding Anna” by Christine Schaub.  You may have read it as it is not new.  It came out in 2005 but the story goes back to 1873.  It is a book of fiction written around an actual history and the family of Horatio G. Spafford from Chicago.

This wealthy family is suddenly in the midst of the great Chicago fire that destroys much of the city and leaves people homeless and destitute. They managed to keep their home and open it to shelter people needing help.  They begin over with a business and find joy in helping people rebuild.

They know Dr. D.L. Moody and are involved in his ministry to a degree.  The people they meet need the Lord.  Need faith.  Need hope.  But the toll is taken on the family and especially the mother.  She is ready to run away.  Her husband comes to her rescue with the idea of a trip to England and France.  She is packed and ready to go with her children and nanny when her husband has to take care of important business and cannot come with them but will meet them there later.  The rest of the story is so intriguing that you will have to read it yourself to find out how lives are changed in the twinkling of an eye and life takes a different path.  You will find out just how and why the hymn we sing so often is written.  Find out what “peace” can mean to one particular man.  “When peace like a river attendeth my soul. …….It is well, it is well, with my soul.”

An interesting note from this book tells me there is a word for loss of wife or husband. They are widows and widowers. The word for a child who loses his parents is an orphan.  But there is no word to describe the loss of a child.  It is so agonizing there is no word to describe it. It was perdition.