Christian Fiction Devourers discussion

Hi all this thread is to have a nice conversational area where we can talk and ask questions of each other It’s also a really good place to ask a question that doesn’t fit in anywhere else. I’ll start us off- so any of you have any special traditions in November either with Thanksgiving ( I know that it’s different around the world so forgive me for that) Or just in general how do you intentionally express your thankfulness?

My family (parents, sis, and me) have Thanksgiving lunch around 1:00 p.m. or so, and do a movie marathon, if we don't have any other plans. This is usually the day we begin our Christmas movie watching, as we've gathered quite a large collection of that genre and each have our favorites we like to fit in each Christmas season. And we all usually have Thanksgiving off work, so we have that time available to watch movies together.

Andrea, your plans sound so perfect and cozy! I want to come down and watch Christmas movies with your family!!

I have a large family, scattered all over the country/world. We just wing it, depending on who can fly or drive in to town. We usually end up all bringing food and congregating on Thanksgiving Day at whichever house can hold all of us (or wants to hold all of us! ;)). After mid-day meal, we play board games (my favorite!) and watch college football. I have the smallest house (and least clean! lots of cat and dog fuzz!), but for some reason I end up with lots of people sleeping here, so it's always total chaos. Traditionally, the Friday after Thanksgiving we all go up to one of the family farms and play football, get the canoes out and paddle around the pond, grill hot dogs and hamburgers, take loooong hikes through the woods, and then sit around a bonfire and sing songs, tell stories and eat smores. And then on Saturday those of us who didn't fly down for the game stay home and watch the Auburn football team beat Alabama -- War Eagle! (And by Sunday night I'm usually overdosed on family fun and wishing I'd just spent a quiet holiday at the beach with my dog!!)

Christmas is sort of a rinse and repeat of Thanksgiving but usually for about 10-14 days of nonstop family "fun" (I usually need to sleep and recover for the first two weeks of January!).

Wow- I love hearing the different things on Thanksgiving . For us it's all about family and food and it's always at our house. We rotate every year the sides of the family- this year it's my side and so my folks are coming up from California as is my sister who is down in Ca and my other brother and sister live up here in WA. WE've done different things- some of my favorites are- a Thanksgiving table cloth where everyone uses a fabric marker and writes on the table cloth what they are thankful for. We've played a thankfulness game where you write don what you are thankful for, put it in a bowl and then read them aloud and you have to guess who it is. Other things are printing out on fancy paper strips of things that talk about thankfulness, some was scripture some were quotes by famous people. It was festive and fun to read them aloud. We actually were able to print them out on brown metallic paper and it was beautiful. Just a few things that we have done over the years and we love to play games after dinner. The kids usually watch a movie while all the cooking is happening. Anyway just sharing a few things we have done over the years. I love Thanksgiving!

Cheryl, What great ideas!! I LOVE those ideas and I think I'll try to incorporate one this year!! We used to do fun things like that when my mom was alive -- she had a wealth of fun, family-building, God-glorifying ideas; family meals were so much more than just food!

Jane, your family sounds like so much fun. Enjoy all your great activities! If we could celebrate with each other's families, that would be a best-of-both-worlds type of thing, as your celebration sounds like a complete blast.

Cheryl, wow! Y'all are super creative. Thanks for sharing those neat ideas. I loved reading about all of them. Enjoy!

My daughter in law always hosts thanksgiving since her home is bigger. We split up the parts of the meal, so that she doesn't have to cook it all. I am always in charge of the dressing, gravy, pumpkin pie, and pecan pie. The younger ones have no idea how to make dressing or gravy, and they think my pies are better than theirs. We always go round the table and tell one thing we are thankful for from this year before we have the blessing. Then we usually play games after Thanksgiving dinner like uno, chickenfoot , and candyland (all games our 6 year old grandson knows how to play).
The leftovers get split up between our 3 families so no one has to cook on the day after.

That sounds like a lovely holiday, Loraine!

In New Zealand there are no public holidays in November. My father's birthday is this month though so we will go and see him for that. The weather is supposed to be getting warmer this month which is good because we had a couple of cold blasts of weather in October. The paddocks are nice and green and the flowers are in full bloom so it's a nice time of year in NZ unless you suffer from spring allergies.

Julie, it sounds quite lovely there this time of year. Enjoy!

I have some in laws that don’t live too far. My brother in law likes to smoke the turkey, so the rest of us bring sides and desserts. We just hang out and catch up. This year my parents may come. We don’t always do it on Thanksgiving Day tho. So if we end up at home, I make one dish for each person and we call it good. We watch the parade and then hubby gets to watch football. We girls may do crafts or watch a movie in another room.

Sounds lovely, Joy!

Love hearing all the traditions! In the past we have always had Thanksgiving at my house, as I have the most room, but the past 2 years I have gone to Virginia to see my Navy son and family since I had time. this year, I do not have the vacation time and I am really going to miss them, especially since my son just returned from deployment yesterday! So, I will host the dinner and then on Friday I may go to my other son's to visit them. I have a very new grandson there!

MKay Grandsons are so much fun! Enjoy every second with him. Sorry you don't get to see your son who just returned from deployment. Maybe Christmas?!!

MKay, I hope you'll be able to at least chat with your recently-returned-home son over the phone or a video chat or something on Thanksgiving. Otherwise, enjoy the rest! It sounds like a very lovely holiday is heading your way.

Asking for a friend: looking for book recommendations which is not romance but not suspense

There might be light romance in a few of these, but it isn't the main aspect. There are other things in the spotlight.


Note: The Heart Between Us has a chapter that features skinny dipping. Other than that, I loved it.
Note 2: Remembering You had one expletive (bad word); otherwise, I loved it.

I echo Sarita's request - I love mystery/suspense but don't necessarily want them all with romance

Thanks for your ideas Andrea :)

Sarita, I mostly read romance, so I'm not the best one to advise, but I'll give it a stab anyway! ;) (I haven't read all of these, but I own all of them and hope to get to them soon!)

Jan Karon - At Home in Mitford (first in series - I loved these books)
Robin Jones Gunn - Sisterchicks on the Loose (first in series)
Lisa Wingate - The Prayer Box (first in series)
Bodie Thoene - Only the River Runs Free (first in series)
Jim Kraus - The Cat That God Sent (and others)
Dan Walsh - Rescuing Finley, The Reunion: A Novel (and others)
Becky Doughty - Pemberton Manor: The Goodbye Girl: A Serial Novel - Episode 01 (first in series)
Elisabeth Grace Foley - Some Christmas Camouflage (very short, sweet Christmas story)
Kevin Alan Milne - The Paper Bag Christmas
Renee Riva - Saving Sailor: A Novel & Farley's Five & Dime (sweet, funny, coming-of-age stories, I enjoyed them even though they're probably really for younger readers)
What about classics? C.S. Lewis, Louisa May Alcott, L.M. Montgomery, etc.
What about cozy mysteries? Most are not centered around romance and aren't too scary or suspenseful.

The Prayer Box was amazing!

Glad to help, Kelli. I'm not sure about non-romance suspense/thrillers. All the Lynette Eason and Colleen Coble ones I've read have been romantic thrillers/suspense. Same with Cara Putman's new legal thriller series (though it's a great series, even with the romance). Not sure I've read any (or at least not many) without romance in them, in those particular genres.

I love Thanksgiving, but growing up in Northern Iowa and now living in Central Mississippi, the seasons are just not the same which makes it difficult for me to get in "the mood" (today it is 75 degrees out), not to mention our local radio station started playing Christmas music at 10 a.m. yesterday!! Growing up we always went to my aunt's house and had Thanksgiving dinner. Aunt Kay always made baked beans in her little silver pot with the penguins on it, Aunt Jayne always brought relishes because she didn't know how to cook, and Grandma always brought sour cream raisin pie - and an extra for us to take home. Now my husband and I are starting a new tradition since it is just us and our son, so we decided we are going to start going to Chattanooga for the holiday and let someone else do the cooking. :)

Canadian... we do our Thanksgiving in October.

Missy, those higher temps are nearly an every year occurrence here in Texas, so I've learned that the weather doesn't always play a part in my being in the mood for holidays. Some years are tougher for that than others, though. A penguin pot? That sounds so adorable! Enjoy your non-cooking holiday!

Karen, that's very interesting. Do you have any fun traditions around your October Thanksgiving?

Karen wrote: "Canadian... we do our Thanksgiving in October."

I'm a first generation American. Growing up my Canadian parents celebrated both holidays! We loved getting Thanksgiving twice.

Thank you for all the suggestions. Will recommend these books to her.

Jane wrote: "Sarita, I mostly read romance, so I'm not the best one to advise, but I'll give it a stab anyway! ;) (I haven't read all of these, but I own all of them and hope to get to them soon!)

[author:Jan ..."

Thanks Jane - cozy mysteries could work. She doesn't mind mystery, she just don not like scary suspense. Light romance will work, I think she is trying too avoid any heavy romance right now.

Andrea wrote: "MKay, I hope you'll be able to at least chat with your recently-returned-home son over the phone or a video chat or something on Thanksgiving. Otherwise, enjoy the rest! It sounds like a very lovel..."
Thanks! I probably won't see him until May, but thankful for video chats!

Loraine wrote: "MKay Grandsons are so much fun! Enjoy every second with him. Sorry you don't get to see your son who just returned from deployment. Maybe Christmas?!!"

Yes they are. We have 8 grands with only 2 girls in the bunch. Hoping that my son will get a few weeks off in May and be able to visit home as he hasn't been here in 4 years. He will be relocating at that time so they will have to give him longer time off. At least he will be in my time zone then, but far north...

Same time zone is a good thing! Makes phone/video calls a lot easier to maneuver, I would think. Not the same as in-person hugs, but hopefully still good for a mama's heart.

Have you guys seen the new paperwhite? It is waterproof! How cool is that. Seriously makes me want to get it, but I don't think it is in the budget... I wish they made a Kindle Fire that was waterproof....that would be perfect! Link for those who haven't seen it yet: https://amzn.to/2Oxkhu4 (aff link)

Did Amazon stop making the Fire version of Kindle for $49.99? I'm not seeing it on the site. Strange...

I'm not sure. I still have a kindle fire from 2015 (I think). Works great, but if it was waterproof I could use it at the beach/pool. 😊

Mine still works fine too. I was simply curious. And I see what you mean about the beach/pool. Yes, bring on the waterproof Kindle Fire! (Maybe next year?)

Andrea wrote: "Mine still works fine too. I was simply curious. And I see what you mean about the beach/pool. Yes, bring on the waterproof Kindle Fire! (Maybe next year?)"

Just saw that they do still sell the $49 dollar one. I think it was just on a different page (under the fires). Why do they make it so hard to find? lol https://amzn.to/2Dx2YbG

Thank you!

Andrea wrote: "Thank you!"

No problem. I just have time to look today. :)

*had

I just got an email from Carrie Turansky telling me that I just won their Great War Giveaway!!!! Six books:

Loraine wrote: "I just got an email from Carrie Turansky telling me that I just won their Great War Giveaway!!!! Six books..."

Congratulations, Loraine! Happy reading!

Congrats, Lorraine! Enjoy!

Congratulations Lorraine! What fun

You all probably know this but each month Family Fiction puts out an online magazine - great way to stay up on new books

Loraine, that's awesome! Congratulations and happy reading! Have you read the previous two books in both Roseanna White's and Carrie Turansky's series? They're pretty important to read in order to get the full picture of the family journeys.

Loraine, that's great. They look interesting, I look forward to reading what you think of them.

Congratulations! Big time! You will love those books!
I just won a box of books from Carri Fancett Pagels but I don’t know what they are til they get here! It’s from her Overcoming With God blog. She does a box of books almost every month. Check it out and comment to win!

Congratulations Paula! Always exciting to win books.

Andrea thanks for the heads up and I will make sure to read the two previous books first. I will hold these books til the new year since I am in a Christmas reading frenzy and have 11 Christmas books on my shelf and many on my Kindle to read.

Glad to help!

congratulations Lorraine; since you aren't cooking later in the week for thanksgiving; we know what you're doing.