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Alabaster Doves: True Stories of Women Whose Lives Were Characterized by Strength and Gentleness
From book cover:
Meet eight women, quiet heroines who lived their day-to-day lives in an extraordinary fashion. These women knew what it meant to be a godly woman - and their choices, passions, and commitments will encourage you to fulfill your destiny as the woman God created you to be.
Women featured are:
Mary Ann Bickerdyke (1817-1901) rescued wounded Civil War soldiers who had been left to die in the battlefield.
Mary McLeod Bethune (1875-1955) provided educational opportunities for black girls in the South, while tackling the Ku Klux Klan.
Vibia Perpetua (181-203) was a young mother who died a martyr's death in a North African arena so that others could know Christ.
Donaldina Cameron (1869-1968) rescued more than 3,000 children and women from slavery in San Francisco.
Mary Smith Moffat (1795-1870) built a bridge of trust with local tribes, paving the way for the gospel in South Africa.
Mary Moffat Livingstone (1820-1862) sacrificed everything so that her husband, David Livingstone, could open a road to missions in Africa.
Katherine von Bora Luther (1499-1552), after escaping from a convent, married Martin Luther and invested herself in the important role of wife and mother.
Normagene Pool Lovo (1924-1985) left her daughter an image of what it looks like to pursue God with all of your heart.
Meet eight women, quiet heroines who lived their day-to-day lives in an extraordinary fashion. These women knew what it meant to be a godly woman - and their choices, passions, and commitments will encourage you to fulfill your destiny as the woman God created you to be.
Women featured are:
Mary Ann Bickerdyke (1817-1901) rescued wounded Civil War soldiers who had been left to die in the battlefield.
Mary McLeod Bethune (1875-1955) provided educational opportunities for black girls in the South, while tackling the Ku Klux Klan.
Vibia Perpetua (181-203) was a young mother who died a martyr's death in a North African arena so that others could know Christ.
Donaldina Cameron (1869-1968) rescued more than 3,000 children and women from slavery in San Francisco.
Mary Smith Moffat (1795-1870) built a bridge of trust with local tribes, paving the way for the gospel in South Africa.
Mary Moffat Livingstone (1820-1862) sacrificed everything so that her husband, David Livingstone, could open a road to missions in Africa.
Katherine von Bora Luther (1499-1552), after escaping from a convent, married Martin Luther and invested herself in the important role of wife and mother.
Normagene Pool Lovo (1924-1985) left her daughter an image of what it looks like to pursue God with all of your heart.
166 pages, Paperback
First published March 1, 1995
23 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews
December 27, 2018
Very interesting true stories on incredibly strong women who followed the paths God led them to.
April 3, 2013
It's hard to be a Christian feminist. How do you elevate woman to a satisfying place of irreproachable significance without diminishing or destroying man from whom she comes? How do you promote freedom for women to be involved in work and ministry outside the home without resenting the duties and ministrations of being a wife and mother? Such is the dilemma that we see Linda Holland attempt to work out, with varying degrees of success, in these short biographies.
Not to mention that this book is a marketing disaster. From the subtitle "True stories of women who lives were characterized by strength and gentleness" to the "heroines who lived their day-to-day lives in extraordinary fashion," to the preface, to the acknowledgements, to the prologue, there is all sorts of emotional copy to emphasize for you JUST. How. Significant. THESE women. were.
sigh.
Is it any surprise that the writing ranges from boring, to overly personalized by the author, to questionably accurate, to forcibly sensational? All the flowery Christian-eeze becomes tiresome. One wishes for some spiritual maturity on the part of the writer or the editor or the industry.
I like what is attempted. While there is an unfortunate American bent (4 of 8 profiles), at least there are 4 stories from woman who AREN'T Americans. 2 English, 1 German and even 1 African. There are also diverse time periods represented. One woman from the first 1,000 years of the church. One around 1,500. 5 from the 19th century. 1 from the 20th century. Katherine von Bora Luther may be the best known, followed by Mary Smith Moffat, Mary Moffat Livingstone (daughter of previous), Perpetua (though there are glaring inaccuracies in this essay that make me question the others), Mary McLeod Bethune, Mary Ann Bickerdyke and Donaldina Cameron, concluding with the author's relative, Normagene Pool Lovo. I like it that these are not exactly common stories.
The factual information is a good introduction to these women, as long as you can tolerate the author's embellishment/ projection of what she was thinking, why she did it and her sensationalized feelings.
It's not that the book is BAD. It's just not that good. Perhaps we might be better served by Edith Dean's "Great Women of the Christian Faith" which is mentioned as source material for four of the biographies, or the "Notable American Women: Modern Period" by James, James & Boyer which gets 2 nods. Either way, this work comes across as sparingly researched and poorly written. One wishes the material could be written by a more able hand, without the aide of a marketing department and/or editor that needs everything to be so very moving and emotional.
Not to mention that this book is a marketing disaster. From the subtitle "True stories of women who lives were characterized by strength and gentleness" to the "heroines who lived their day-to-day lives in extraordinary fashion," to the preface, to the acknowledgements, to the prologue, there is all sorts of emotional copy to emphasize for you JUST. How. Significant. THESE women. were.
sigh.
Is it any surprise that the writing ranges from boring, to overly personalized by the author, to questionably accurate, to forcibly sensational? All the flowery Christian-eeze becomes tiresome. One wishes for some spiritual maturity on the part of the writer or the editor or the industry.
I like what is attempted. While there is an unfortunate American bent (4 of 8 profiles), at least there are 4 stories from woman who AREN'T Americans. 2 English, 1 German and even 1 African. There are also diverse time periods represented. One woman from the first 1,000 years of the church. One around 1,500. 5 from the 19th century. 1 from the 20th century. Katherine von Bora Luther may be the best known, followed by Mary Smith Moffat, Mary Moffat Livingstone (daughter of previous), Perpetua (though there are glaring inaccuracies in this essay that make me question the others), Mary McLeod Bethune, Mary Ann Bickerdyke and Donaldina Cameron, concluding with the author's relative, Normagene Pool Lovo. I like it that these are not exactly common stories.
The factual information is a good introduction to these women, as long as you can tolerate the author's embellishment/ projection of what she was thinking, why she did it and her sensationalized feelings.
It's not that the book is BAD. It's just not that good. Perhaps we might be better served by Edith Dean's "Great Women of the Christian Faith" which is mentioned as source material for four of the biographies, or the "Notable American Women: Modern Period" by James, James & Boyer which gets 2 nods. Either way, this work comes across as sparingly researched and poorly written. One wishes the material could be written by a more able hand, without the aide of a marketing department and/or editor that needs everything to be so very moving and emotional.
February 4, 2015
This book contains 8 biographical sketches, and all were interesting. The prose is very simple; the book is a quick read. I enjoyed the book, but it isn't really memorable.
Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews