Linda Stoll: Becoming Mrs. Lewis * Book Club & Giveaway #4

I can't believe this is our last Becoming Mrs. Lewis: The Improbable Love Story of Joy Davidman and C.S. Lewis Book Club session.

* sigh *

You're telling me that you've really appreciated the dialogue following the posts, that you've heard the heart of your sister readers, that you've been nudged to go a little deeper in discerning how you feel about challenging issues you might not have considered before.

And some of you never wanted the book to end ... as Pam Ecrement so eloquently put it, 'I have finished the book, but as I did so I slowed each paragraph and sentence savoring it as one would the deliciousness of the very finest chocolate as it melts in your mouth. I didn't want to stop tasting it.'

It's not too late to backtrack and jump in on the topics at hand ... you can grab your Kindle edition right now. Every person who leaves a comment {limit 2 per post!} on any of the four Book Club posts will be eligible for a $25 Amazon gift card. {U.S. only ... and please be sure your comment links to your contact info.}

The winner will be announced this weekend!

So, here we go ... another lovely video chat with author Patti Callahan and a few quotes to prime the conversational pump ...

watch video on YouTube

'The Truth: I was beloved of God.

Finally I could stop trying to force someone or something else to fill that role.

The pain of shattered illusion swept through me like glass blown through a room after a bomb.

All had been turned around.'

{Joy, chapter 44, page 324}

*

'Hadn't God known all along? Hadn't he seen the cancer growing, eating away at my insides? Could he not have intervened in human form? Sent a doctor to diagnosis it long before it ate me alive?

How could my body have gone on destroying me while I mustered my courage and resolve to rebuild a new life? My body worked against me as I tried hard, so bloody hard, to start over? Couldn't one doctor of the dozens I'd seen notice that cancer ravaged my body? That it coursed through my flesh?

I wanted to cry, "Thy will be done." It would be the best thing if I could, but instead, alone in that hospital room, I wept long, hot tears of despair and begged God for a miracle.'

{Joy, chapter 51, page 363}

"It is not hopeless," he said with surety. "It is uncertain, and this is the cross God always give us in life, uncertainty. But it is not hopeless."

{Jack, chapter 52, page 368}

'But just because we love God and are committed to him doesn't mean we are exempt from the pain and loss in this world. We can't ask to be the exceptions.'

{Joy, chapter 54, page 378}

*

The author pens a number of pointed discussion questions at the end of the book. A sampling ...

Did you know much about Joy Davidman before you read this novel? Did you come with preconceived notions of who she was? How did those change during the novel? What was the most surprising part of this story for you?