Delightful Descriptions

Well, I haven’t had one of these posts for a while, but I finished reading Chris Fabry’s latest release, The Promise of Jesse Woods, yesterday, and found myself chuckling over some of the descriptions and the pithy observations made by the characters.  Make sure to watch for my review in the next couple of days!

Anyway, if you have ever been involved in choirs or singing – participating or merely observing – or even if you just have a love of music, you will most likely find this description tickles you as much as it tickled me.  The context is that the book’s protagonist (the 14 year old son of a pastor) has just moved to Dogwood, West Virginia, with his parents.  Here is his observation on the song-leader and the singing at his father’s new church:

Gerald’s arm rose and fell the same way to any song he led, no matter the time signature.  He had a nasal twang when he spoke and sang, like a younger Grandpa Jones, but his pitch wasn’t bad and he seemed to enjoy song-leading.  His job was to get everybody started at the same place and everybody stopped when the song was over, but whatever happened in the middle was up to God and the congregation.

And that’s just one of many quotable quotes from this novel!

The Promise of Jesse Woods releases today, 1 July 2016.  My thanks go to Tyndale Publishers for my review copy.

The summer of 1972 was the most pivotal of Matt Plumley’s childhood. While his beloved Pirates battle for back-to-back World Series titles, Matt’s family moves from Pittsburgh to Dogwood, West Virginia, where his father steps into the pulpit of a church under the thumb of town leader Basil Blackwood. A fish out of water, Matt is relieved to forge a fast bond with two unlikely friends: Dickie Darrel Lee Hancock, a mixed-race boy, and Jesse Woods, a tough-as-nails girl with a sister on her hip and no dad in sight.

As the trio traipses the hills and hollers, Matt begins to fall for Jesse, and their promises to each other draw him deeper into her terrifying reality. One night, the wrath of the Blackwoods and the secrets of Jesse’s family collide, and Matt joins Jesse in a rescue that saves one life and ends another . . . and severs the bond of their friendship.

Years later, Matt is pulled back to Dogwood and to memories of that momentous summer by news of Jesse’s upcoming wedding. He could never shake the feeling that there was more to the story of that fateful night, and he’s determined to learn the truth behind the only promise Jesse Woods ever broke. 

Find it at Amazon.com or Amazon.com.au