Novels That Stir Emotions

I love to watch movies, either on television, on DVD, or at the theater. I especially like anything based on actual events. But, more than watching a movie, I love to read. Some books and their characters linger on in m y heart and mind after I’ve read the last page.

 

I’ve read two books recently that had that emotional tug on me. One I’ve finished, “Beneath a Southern Sky,” by Deborah Raney. This book addressed an issue I haven’t seen before – a young woman and her husband are missionaries and she gets word that her husband has been killed in a remote village upriver. She returns to her family in America, after discovering she’s pregnant. She eventually meets a widower, falls in love and they marry, only to find out 3 years later her first husband is alive. Now what does a young woman do who’s married to two men, has a daughter by the first husband, and is pregnant by the second?

 

I cried at the end of that book and highly recommend it -- reading it, that is, and you'll probably cry also.

 

I’m currently reading “One Tuesday Morning” by Karen Kingsbury, a story of two men, Jake and Eric, and their families. Both men are inside one of the World Trade Center towers on 9/11 when it collapses.

 

I’m not even halfway through this book and have already cried. In fact, I was so moved I had trouble falling asleep last night. It’s the scene where Jake, a NYC firefighter, is with his crew on the 61^st floor, and they realize they’re not going to make it out. Over the chaotic noise and devastation, he leads everyone in the sinner’s prayer. Then he’s falling, falling, falling as the building collapses.

 

I know from the back cover blurb that only one of the two men, Jake or Eric, make it out alive. Of course, Jake is the more likable character so I’m hoping it’s him, although both have unfinished business with their families.

 

I want to write novels that stirs people and causes them to reflect on life and themselves. Mostly I want to show God’s love for a humanity who’s lost and hurting, that in our crazy, mixed up world, He still reigns!