A sweet, sometimes zany message-centered tale; this is the first in a promised series chronicling the squeaky-clean...
Big changes are in store for a TV news show after a religious young woman joins the team.
With sweeps week approaching, and a young punk of a boss demanding higher ratings, News Channel 7 producer Hugo Talley has no choice but to approach his diva anchor Gilda Braun about freshening up her look to bring in younger viewers. Humiliated, but reluctant to give up her post, the longtime newswoman succumbs to Botox, which does make her face smoother, but also gives her an unnerving perma-smile at odds with the serious reports she delivers. Unable to even furrow her brow, Gilda disappears, leaving Hugo to scramble for a replacement. Desperate, he turns to his new assistant, Hayden Hazard, a relentlessly cheerful and openly evangelical young lady with telegenic, wholesome good looks. One of seven home-schooled children from a family of professional clowns, Hayden is a hit with viewers, as well as with nice-guy reporter Ray Duffey, who shares Hayden’s beliefs, but is a bit more discreet about praying at work. It is Ray who finds himself the subject of one of his own news reports when a cranky interviewee attacks him on camera, to the delight of his ratings-starved manager. But something about the whole incident troubles Ray, who digs a bit deeper and discovers that his disgruntled attacker has connections to a wastewater treatment plant explosion and cover-up. The conspiracy is somehow connected to the missing, and possibly endangered, Gilda. Hayden, meanwhile, has a far-reaching effect on several of her colleagues, including the tightly wound Hugo, who realizes that all the anti-anxiety pills in the world will not fix the empty feeling in his soul. Gutteridge at times gently mocks Hayden’s spooky poise and socially awkward expressions of faith, but there is little doubt that she takes Hayden’s beliefs and values very seriously.
A sweet, sometimes zany message-centered tale; this is the first in a promised series chronicling the squeaky-clean adventures of the Hazard clan.Pub Date: Oct. 10, 2006
ISBN: 1-4000-7157-7
Page Count: 352
Publisher: WaterBrook
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 1, 2006
These letters from some important executive Down Below, to one of the junior devils here on earth, whose job is to corrupt mortals, are witty and written in a breezy style seldom found in religious literature. The author quotes Luther, who said: "The best way to drive out the devil, if he will not yield to texts of Scripture, is to jeer and flout him, for he cannot bear scorn." This the author does most successfully, for by presenting some of our modern and not-so-modern beliefs as emanating from the devil's headquarters, he succeeds in making his reader feel like an ass for ever having believed in such ideas. This kind of presentation gives the author a tremendous advantage over the reader, however, for the more timid reader may feel a sense of guilt after putting down this book. It is a clever book, and for the clever reader, rather than the too-earnest soul.
Pub Date: Jan. 1, 1942
ISBN: 0060652934
Page Count: 53
Publisher: Macmillan
Review Posted Online: Oct. 17, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 15, 1943
Hoffman (The Red Garden, 2011, etc.) births literature from tragedy: the destruction of Jerusalem's Temple, the siege of Masada and the loss of Zion.
This is a feminist tale, a story of strong, intelligent women wedded to destiny by love and sacrifice. Told in four parts, the first comes from Yael, daughter of Yosef bar Elhanan, a Sicarii Zealot assassin, rejected by her father because of her mother's death in childbirth. It is 70 CE, and the Temple is destroyed. Yael, her father, and another Sicarii assassin, Jachim ben Simon, and his family flee Jerusalem. Hoffman's research renders the ancient world real as the group treks into Judea's desert, where they encounter Essenes, search for sustenance and burn under the sun. There too Jachim and Yael begin a tragic love affair. At Masada, Yael is sent to work in the dovecote, gathering eggs and fertilizer. She meets Shirah, her daughters, and Revka, who narrates part two. Revka's husband was killed when Romans sacked their village. Later, her daughter was murdered. At Masada, caring for grandsons turned mute by tragedy, Revka worries over her scholarly son-in-law, Yoav, now consumed by vengeance. Aziza, daughter of Shirah, carries the story onward. Born out of wedlock, Aziza grew up in Moab, among the people of the blue tunic. Her passion and curse is that she was raised as a warrior by her foster father. In part four, Shirah tells of her Alexandrian youth, the cherished daughter of a consort of the high priests. Shirah is a keshaphim, a woman of amulets, spells and medicine, and a woman connected to Shechinah, the feminine aspect of God. The women are irretrievably bound to Eleazar ben Ya'ir, Masada's charismatic leader; Amram, Yael's brother; and Yoav, Aziza's companion and protector in battle. The plot is intriguingly complex, with only a single element unresolved. An enthralling tale rendered with consummate literary skill.
Pub Date: Oct. 4, 2011
ISBN: 978-1-4516-1747-4
Page Count: 512
Publisher: Scribner
Review Posted Online: April 5, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 15, 2011
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