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Sallie Schaaf Borrink

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You are here: Home / Archives for The Library / Book Lists

Book Lists

Cozy Christmas Books by Grace Livingston Hill

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December 13, 2022 | Sallie Borrink
7 Comments
View Full Post with Embedded ContentCozy Christmas Books by Grace Livingston Hill

If you are ready for some cozy Christmas reading, here are seven books by Grace Livingston Hill that might meet your need. These are vintage books written by a prolific Christian author who sought to point people to Christ in everything she did.

These stories either take place entirely at Christmas or the Christmas season is a prominent part of the story. As I was preparing this list, I found it interesting that almost all of Grace’s Christmas-themed stories were written either during or just after The Great Depression. Many of her stories focus on choosing to trust God in the midst of a difficult situation and that is certainly true of this little group.

The books are presented in alphabetical order, but four of these are among my very favorites of all her books (April Gold, The Christmas Bride, The Prodigal Girl, and The Substitute Guest).

April Gold (1936)

A mother, son, and daughter must make drastic changes when tragedy strikes. This book takes place over several months with a prominent Christmas section that includes baking, singing, gift-giving, and decorating. April Gold is a cozy story about making difficult decisions, overcoming adversity, being a light in darkness, and pulling together as a family.

Astra (1941)

Astra ends up meeting a need that leads to meeting more needs. There’s lots of Christmas in Astra including buying roses for neighbors, dressing for the holidays, and making a homemade nativity scene for children.

Brentwood (1937)

Brentwood is one of a few books in which Grace wrote about adoption, albeit in an usual way in this case. There is lots of Christmas shopping, reconciliation, church, gifts, and a turkey dinner.

The Christmas Bride (1934)

An unexpected rescue turns a man’s life upside down – or is it right side up in this case? This book has a Vermont farmhouse, snow, coming to faith in Christ, and elderly grandparents who are put through the refining process. And, of course, a high probability of a Christmas wedding since this is The Christmas Bride.

Partners (1940)

When a baby is abandoned in the snow, things start happening for a young woman and young man who work to save it. Partners has a cozy apartment, Christmas decorating, baby things, and Christmas dinner. And finding love.

The Prodigal Girl (1929)

The more things change, the more they stay the same. A father discovers how badly his children are being led astray at their godless public schools (!) and makes some radical decisions. The Prodigal Girl is primarily a Christmastime story that features Vermont, snow storms, a New England farmhouse, winter sports, home education, good cooking, and repentance.

The Substitute Guest (1936)

This story starts on Christmas Eve morning and goes through the beginning of the new year. A lost stranger needs help on an important errand and ends up at just the right place. A blizzard, Christmas decorating, making good food, growing faith, and finding love when you least expect it feature largely in The Substitute Guest.

There you go! Seven wholesome stories about faith and Christmas to enjoy this month (and again in July when you are ready for some Christmas in the summer!).

Category: Book Lists, Holidays & TraditionsTag: Families Celebrating Christmas, Grace Livingston Hill7 Comments

Grace Livingston Hill, Beloved and Prolific Christian Author

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December 13, 2022 | Sallie Borrink
6 Comments
View Full Post with Embedded ContentGrace Livingston Hill, Beloved and Prolific Christian Author

Grace Livingston Hill was a prolific author of books that ranged from romance novels to historical fiction. With more than 100 titles and over 100 million copies of her books sold during the past 13 decades, Grace is a well-known writer in Christian publishing circles. She is known for crafting novels with strong characters and a definite emphasis on good versus evil as well as living out the Christian faith.

Grace’s Early Years and Family

Grace Livingston was born on April 16, 1865, in Wellsville, New York. Very ill at birth, she barely survived and her parents thus gave her the name of Grace to reflect their gratitude that God had spared her life.

Her father, Reverend Charles Livingston, was a Presbyterian pastor. Her mother, Marcia Macdonald Livingston, was supportive of her husband’s work and enjoyed being a mother. Marcia was also an excellent storyteller and with her sister, Isabella Macdonald Alden, wrote extensively. It was, in fact, her Aunt Belle who put Grace on the path to becoming an author. She gave Grace a bound copy of a story she had dictated to Aunt Belle, The Esselstynes, on her twelfth birthday.

Grace’s first published book was A Chautauqua Idyll. Published in 1887, Grace wrote the book in an effort to earn enough money to take the family to the Chautauqua Lake program in New York when her father’s health had forced them to move to Florida. It was the beginning of a long and productive writing career. 

Grace’s Personal Life Like One of Her Books

Grace’s personal life was sometimes tumultuous and almost a story in and of itself. She was actively involved in the establishment of Rollins College in Florida and worked closely with students in the early years. Grace married Frank Hill, a Presbyterian minister, in 1892. Theirs was a happy marriage that included the addition of two daughters, Margaret and Ruth. Tragically, the marriage was cut short by the untimely death of Frank in 1899 due to appendicitis. In addition to this loss, Grace’s father died less than a year later.

A later second marriage to a man fifteen years her junior was a disaster and ended in a permanent separation since Grace did not believe divorce was an option for a Christian. The addition of Lutz to her full name on some books reflects those years of her marriage. (While she usually wrote as Grace Livingston Hill, she also used the pen name Marcia Macdonald at times.)

Grace’s writing had been an interesting part of her life up to the point when her husband and father died, primarily as a way to earn extra money and use her gifts. But with their deaths, Grace was now responsible for supporting not only herself but also her two daughters and mother. This spurred her on to write widely and prolifically for newspapers, Sunday School materials, newsletters, and the consumer book market. She frequently wrote two or three books a year in addition to running a household, teaching her daughters, being actively involved in the life of her church, and writing for many other publishing outlets.

Grace’s Changing Writing Style

Grace’s writing style evolved over the many decades she wrote so reading only one or two books won’t provide a full understanding of how she told her stories. Her books were usually set in the time in which they were written, so reading them now is like reading historical fiction. Her early books from the late 1800s and early 1900s include details fitting the time such as horses and carriages and traveling by train. Her stories progress through World War 1, the Roaring Twenties, the Great Depression, and into the World War 2 years.

At times she wrote of the West, cowboys, and the desert. Other stories featured wealthy families in the east losing everything. Some stories featured young women who suddenly found themselves completely alone in life. Families were a prominent storyline including families who came to or returned to Christ during difficult circumstances. Many of her heroines were young Christian women or worldly young women who recognized their need of a Savior during the course of the story. Each story brought something different.

Women who enjoy reading about vintage homemaking will especially enjoy many of Grace’s stories as that is a frequent theme and she delighted in providing details in these areas. 

Grace’s Lasting Contribution to Christian Fiction

Grace’s contribution to the arena of Christian fiction and the romance genre was significant. Even 80 to 120 years after her books were first published, they are still widely read and collected. In many ways, she opened to door to the Christian romance genre to come. 

Grace Livingston Hill’s emphasis on timeless faith and the battle of good versus evil still draws women who appreciate a wholesome story that glorifies Christ and usually ends on a happy note.

List of Grace Livingston Hill Books & Publication Date

The list below features her books along with the publication date. It does not includes small booklets, short stories, and other pieces published in magazines, Sunday School papers, etc. Click any title to see more on Amazon. 


http://www.ladybluestocking.com/GLH/GLH%20index.html​_Amazon.com Widgets

According To The Pattern1903
All Through The Night1945
Amorelle1934
The Angel of His Presence1902
April Gold1936
Ariel Custer1925
Astra1941
Aunt Crete’s Emancipation1911
Beauty For Ashes1935
Because of Stephen1904
Beggarman 1932
The Beloved Stranger1933
The Best Birthday, A Christmas Entertainment for Children1938
The Best Man1914
The Big Blue Soldier1923
Blue Ruin1928
Brentwood1937
Bright Arrows1946
By Way of the Silverthorns1941
The Challengers1932
The Chance of a Lifetime1931
A Chautauqua Idyll1987
The Christmas Bride1934
The City of Fire1922
Cloudy Jewel1920
Coming Through the Rye1926
Crimson Mountain1942
Crimson Roses1928
A Daily Rate1900
Daphne Deane1937
Dawn of the Morning1911
Duskin1929
The Enchanted Barn1918
The Esselstynes1877
Exit Betty1920
The Finding of Jasper Holt1916
Found Treasure1928
The Girl from Montana1908
The Girl of the Woods1942
A Girl to Come Home To1945
The Gold Shoe1930
Happiness Hill1932
Head of the House1940
Homing1938
The Honor Girl1927
In The Way1897
In Tune with Wedding Bells1941
Job’s Niece1927
Katharine’s Yesterday and Other Stories1895
Kerry1931
Ladybird1930
A Little Servant1890
Lo, Michael1913
Lone Point: A Summer Outing1897
The Man of the Desert1914
Marcia Schuyler1908
Marigold1938
Maris1938
Mary Arden1948
Matched Pearls1933
Miranda1915
Miss Lavinia’s Call1949
More Than Conqueror1944
Mystery Flowers1936
The Mystery of Mary1912
A New Name1926
Not Under the Law1925
The Obsession of Victoria Gracen1915
Out of the Storm1929
Pansies for Thoughts1888
The Parkerstown Delegate: A Christian Endeavor Story1892
Partners1940
The Patch of Blue 1932
Patricia1939
Phoebe Deane1909
The Prodigal Girl1929
Rainbow Cottage1934
The Ransom1933
Re-Creations1924
The Red Signal1919
Rose Galbraith1940
The Search1919
The Seventh Hour 1939
Silver Wings1931
The Sound of the Trumpet1943
Spice Box1943
The Story of a Whim1903
The Strange Proposal1935
Stranger Within the Gates1939
The Street of the City1942
The Substitute Guest1936
Sunrise1937
Through These Fires1943
Time of the Singing of Birds1944
Tomorrow About This Time1923
The Tryst1921
An Unwilling Guest1902
A Voice in the Wilderness1916
The War Romance of the Salvation Army1919
Where Two Ways Met1946
The White Flower1927
The White Lady1930
White Orchids1935
The Witness1917

Category: Book Lists, The LibraryTag: Grace Livingston Hill6 Comments

Books For Rethinking Children, Learning, and Education

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January 12, 2022 | Sallie Borrink
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View Full Post with Embedded ContentBooks For Rethinking Children, Learning, and Education

Imagine putting a couple of dozen people in a room and charging with them with the task of devising the best kind of educational setting and experience for children. We would assemble the best parents, teachers, pediatricians, psychologists, and other people who truly love and understand kids. Then we would charge them with imagining how to give children the best learning and growth opportunities from birth to adulthood.

We may not know exactly what they would come up with, but we do know one thing beyond a shadow of a doubt.

It wouldn’t look anything like what we call school and learning today. (And it wouldn’t require that millions of kids be drugged in order to make it through the day.)

So what if everything you’ve been taught to believe about education is wrong? What if what you believe is good for kids regarding learning is actually just the opposite of what they really need?

Would you want to know if you’re wrong?

If you’ve accepted the standard American expectation of putting your kids in preschool, sending them off to kindergarten, and then pushing them through to twelfth grade complete with high stakes testing and endless hours of homework… Well, you’ve been sold a bill of goods. This isn’t what kids need.

So are you willing to make a complete paradigm shift? If you are, here are books for you to consider. Read them at your own peril. If you start reading them, you’ll never look at your children or schools or the idea of education the same way again.


The inclusion of a book is not an endorsement of everything written by that author or the content of the entire book.


For the Children’s Sake: Foundations of Education for Home and School

Many people cite For the Children’s Sake: Foundations of Education for Home and School as one of the books that changed their life in terms of thinking about what it means for children to learn and the implications of that understanding.

Drawing on wisdom from Charlotte Mason, it will change the way you think about your child, how your child learns, and how your child should spend her time.

&


Dumbing Us Down: The Hidden Curriculum of Compulsory Schooling

How many adults truly loved their educational experience? And how many felt it was an ineffective waste of time, especially now on the other side of childhood and well into adulthood as parents themselves?

John Taylor Gatto explains why traditional education turns children into basically cogs in a machine in Dumbing Us Down: The Hidden Curriculum of Compulsory Schooling.

&


How Children Learn

How Children Learn by John Holt is a classic look at the realities of just that – how children learn.

Children are naturally wired to learn. They don’t know how not to learn. So how do we ruin the innate drive that Holt describes is as natural as breathing? And what should we do about it?

&


Balanced and Barefoot

Angela Hanscom is an Occupational Therapist and she lays out clearly how the life kids live today is completely the opposite of what they need in order to be healthy physically, emotionally, and cognitively.

Balanced and Barefoot: How Unrestricted Outdoor Play Makes for Strong, Confident, and Capable Children will make you rethink how you allow your child to spend his/her time, especially if it involves little outdoor time and little time utilizing every part of his body in an active way.

&


Educating the WholeHearted Child

If you want to truly disciple your child in a joyful and meaningful way, this is the book to read.

Not every part will be applicable to every family, but Educating the WholeHearted Child will provide a complete paradigm shift if your idea of discipling your children is a rigid, rule-based one. There is so much more than that available to Christian families as this book shows time and again.

&


Free to Learn

I love this line from the Amazon description of Free to Learn: Why Unleashing the Instinct to Play Will Make Our Children Happier, More Self-Reliant, and Better Students for Life: “A brave, counterintuitive proposal for freeing our children from the shackles of the curiosity-killing institution we call school, Free to Learn suggests that it’s time to stop asking what’s wrong with our children, and start asking what’s wrong with the system.”

YES! YES! YES!

&


Last Child in the Woods

Last Child in the Woods: Saving Our Children From Nature-Deficit Disorder is about just that. Kids spend most of their time indoors. Even when they go outdoors, they are barely able to venture past the yard.

Children as missing out on so much in nature as well as the growth and knowledge that comes with it.

&


Free Range Kids

Of all the topics in these books, this is the one I struggle with the most. Not because I necessarily think it is wrong as much as I struggle with the idea of kids roaming freely today given the current state of our culture.

Free-Range Kids, How to Raise Safe, Self-Reliant Children (Without Going Nuts with Worry) may push you a bit out of your comfort zone as you think about how much our children need to learn how to be self-reliant even in this day that tempts us to fret with real and imaginary dangers.

&

&


Curious Unschoolers: Stories of an Unschooling Family

Find the idea of unschooling fascinating, but think it’s completely unrealistic? This might be the book for you.

Curious Unschoolers: Stories of an Unschooling Family will show the possibilities available as you see how unschooling has worked for one family.

Are there any books you would add to this list? If so, let me know in the comments!

Category: Book Lists, Gracious Christian Parenting, Home Education2 Comments
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I’m Sallie, Christian wife, mother, and homeschooler. Welcome to my cozy corner of the world. Our little family lives a quiet simple life of home education, self-employment, and laughter. I share what I've learned to help others navigate this world with truth and beauty. Please start here. ♥ 

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