New Movies | '2 Hearts' & 'When Last We Spoke'

Two wonderful new family-friendly films will be released this month, 2 Hearts, and, When Last We Spoke.

---

Fair warning, 2 Hearts, starring Jacob Elordi, Adan Canto, Tiera Skovbye, and Radha Mitchell, which opens in theaters on October 16th, will require at least one full box of tissues!

Two separate love stories, in two separate decades, seem completely unrelated, until they aren't. When the connection is made, it us under unexpected, emotional, and powerful circumstances. 

Like all good stories, faith, hope, and charity are woven together in a tapestry of love that will leave you in that happy/sad reflective state, compelling  you to reach out to your loved ones, and remembering to treat each new day as a miraculous gift.

WATCH THE '2 Hearts' TRAILER 

---

When We Last Spoke - Now streaming on Amazon Prime Video.

Sisters, Juliet and Evangeline, are dropped off with their grandparents, Walt and Ruby Cranbourne (Corbin Bernsen and Melissa Gilbert) when single parenting gets to be too much for their mother. 

Life becomes something none of them were expecting nor prepared for, but they do their best using love and laughter to navigate the tricky circumstances they find themselves in.

Love, faith, and forgiveness are the supportive branches to this family tree loaded with lovable nuts. 

WATCH THE ‘When Last We Spoke’ TRAILER

Stream It!

Laughing Through the Ugly Cry | July Book Club

To live, means to experience all things life brings to us. The gifts, the grief, the loves and losses. Making sense of it all, staying focused on the good, while accepting the bad… is a continuous balancing act and it’s no wonder that we get a little lost sometimes.

My July book club pick, Laughing Through The Ugly Cry and finding unstoppable JOY, by Dawn Barton, is a book that can help you find your way back to happy moments if you’ve been wandering in a forest of sadness.

Dawn and I have a lot in common (besides our fabulous hair!) Like me, Dawn is no stranger to strife and sorrow, and yet, she willfully, purposely, chooses joy. Her bright and colorful book reflects the very essence of Dawn and in it she lets you in on how you too can get through the unimaginable and find yourself in a place of peace and happiness.

Laughing Through The Ugly Cry, is full of Dawn’s honest and sometimes raw stories. It tell us how she was able to change her narrative to that of gratitude and find her way back to a God whom she’d loved her entire life, but had not worked on her relationship with in a purposeful way before; it’s a primer on how to choose Joy.

Bright and beautifully bound with a pink satin page marker, the book also includes some great conversation starters - which is why it makes a perfect book club pick! Get a copy for yourself, and give it as a gift!

Listen to a snippet of the audio version, HERE

and, Order a copy from Amazon, HERE

 

Her Mother’s Hope & Her Daughter’s Dream | May Book Club

For the month of May, I have a special treat for my book club readers, a hefty pair of books, well-researched and rich in history and content, tracing four generations of women; Her Mother’s Hope & Her Daughter’s Dream, by Francine Rivers.

Born in Switzerland at the turn of the century, matriarch Marta Schneider Waltert is strong, capable, and fiercely independent (perhaps to her detriment at times). Her story begins at the hearthside of her family of origin with a kind, but sickly and subservient mother, a handsome older brother, and a beautiful but incapable younger sister. The lion’s share of work—as well as the scorn and abuse of her domineering and drunken father—often falls to middle child, plain Marta.

You’ll want to come along on the journey that takes Marta first to Germany, then France, and on to London before an ocean voyage deposits her as a lone female emigrant on Canada’s shores just before the first World War. And as she, her husband, and three small children, travel to the farming epicenter of California’s Central Valley, where this band of outsiders build their forever lives. Her struggles help to shape her into a wise and resilient woman, but no one would describe her as a tender mother, least of all her own middle child, Hildemara (Hildie).

Her Mother’s Hope, the first of the two books, ends with Marta, older and widowed, recognizing that she has been unduly harsh on Hildie, which she’s justified because she believed a terrible fate might have befallen her frail daughter if tough love weren’t employed early and often.

Her Daughter’s Dream picks up where the first story leaves off. . . Hildie is married with two children of her own and unwittingly repeating some of the same parenting patterns that left her wondering if she was ever loved by her mother. Her daughter, Carolyn, suffers abuse by a neighbor when she’s a young girl, and fear and shame cause her to keep the dark secret. We feel the years pass, and the rifts between generations widen.

The Vietnam War exacts its toll on this family as they lose a son to the conflict and Carolyn to her inner demons. Returning home from the stupors of Haight-Ashbury and months of homelessness, her parents are first relieved, then pained anew when Carolyn realizes she’s pregnant. Her baby, May Flower Dawn, is a salvation, but Hildie and Carolyn are locked in a battle for the little girl’s affections from the beginning, each misunderstanding the other just as Hildemara and Marta had.

One might wonder if history is indeed doomed to repeat itself despite everyone’s best effort, until Dawn herself is poised to become a mother. Bringing her child into the world isn’t her only mission; she’s determined to open up the old wounds in her family so that this time they may heal properly.

Through it all, the years, the experiences, the hopes and hardships, it is faith to which these women tether their stars, and it is He who guides them to truth and understanding.

From the publisher: This is a story about the foundational and often-challenging relationships between mothers, daughters, and grandchildren, and the best gifts we hope to leave behind. It is a story that will resonate across generations of readers who will likely recognize a piece of themselves in one of the four women. Marta’s legacy is one of faith and love passed down by a woman who heard from her own mother about God’s good plans for her future. Her story—and one that also becomes her daughter’s, granddaughter’s, and great-granddaughter’s—is a legacy of resilience: of moving past physical and emotional abuse, of overcoming loss and achieving prosperity, and of surviving in the face of war and cultural upheaval. It is an encouragement to mothers and daughters to never give up on the effort to love each other. It is also about the tenacious love of family and the hope that God can be trusted with our lives in every generation.

Many of us have a little more time on our hands than usual these days, and I wasn’t exaggerating when I said these are hefty books. They are not a light or simple read, but hearty in prose and not lacking in meaningful details and descriptions so exquisite, it’s easy to close your eyes for a moment and be transported to the Swiss Alps, the Royal Kew Gardens, the boughs of an almond tree in full bloom . . .

Take a long and lovely journey without ever leaving your home in Her Mother’s Hope and Her Daughter’s Dream; perfect Mother’s Day gifts as well!

Order Both Today!

Her Mother’s Hope Her Daughter’s Dream

Unshakable Hope | August Book Club

Last October, my world, my life, was shaken to the core.

My son, Zachariah, chose to leave this earth, and all who knew and loved him behind. I  still do not know why he took this drastic action; a permanent solution to a temporary problem. I'll spend the rest of my life asking why, and musing over thousands of 'what if' scenarios.

My faith was shaken too. But here I could not dwell because the only thing that kept a thread of my sanity intact was the knowlege that Zack was in the arms of Our Savior. Pastor and New York Times bestselling author Max Lucado knows this is a fact and in his latest book, Unshakable Hope: Building Our Lives on the Promises of God, he offers encouraging guidance for overcoming sadness and despair, renewing a sense of purpose, and triumphantly facing the fears of the future.

"We’ve never been more educated and entertained. We have technological tools our parents could only dream of, and we are saturated with information, amusement, and recreation. Yet more than ever, we are starving for hope. School shootings are all too familiar. Depression is on the rise. And more people than ever are orchestrating their own deaths. In America alone, the suicide rate has increased 24 percent in fewer than twenty years. If a disease saw such a spike, it would be deemed an epidemic. 

People are dying from a lack of hope."

Have you had an experience or experiences that have left you shaken? Possibly your future, your faith, your family, or finances? After forty years of counseling and ministry, Max Lucado has learned that nothing lifts the desperate, weary heart like the promises of God. In a world full of despair, depression, anxiety, and instability, we do not need more opinions or hunches; we need the definitive declarations of our mighty and loving God. 

Unshakable Hope examines twelve of God’s promises that Max has turned to over the years to encourage himself and others. Each chapter explores one significant promise and reveals how it will equip you to:

o    Overcome challenging circumstances
o    Live through sadness and renew hope
o    Experience lasting security
o    Make wise decisions

Join Max as he takes a closer look at Scripture’s unbreakable promises and shows you how to build your life not on the circumstances you encounter, but on the promises of God, with an unshakable hope. For every problem in life, God has given you a promise.

Buy Unshakable Hope at:
Thomas Nelson Booksellers
Amazon

Follow Max Lucado at his website: MaxLucado.com and on,
Facebook.com, Instagram, & Twitter @MaxLucado