Book Review - A Flickering Light & Aurora

This week’s books are reviewed by wife Kelly.

Publisher’s Description for “A Flickering Light”
Returning to her Midwest roots, award-winning author Jane Kirkpatrick draws a page from her grandmother’s photo album to capture the interplay between shadow and light, temptation and faith that marks a woman’s pursuit of her dreams.

She took exquisite photographs,
but her heart was the true image exposed.

Fifteen-year-old Jessie Ann Gaebele loves nothing more than capturing a gorgeous Minnesota landscape when the sunlight casts its most mesmerizing shadows. So when F.J. Bauer hires her in 1907 to assist in his studio and darkroom, her dreams for a career in photography appear to find root in reality.

With the infamous hazards of the explosive powder used for lighting and the toxic darkroom chemicals, photography is considered a man’s profession. Yet Jessie shows remarkable talent in both the artistry and business of running a studio. She proves less skillful, however, at managing her growing attraction to the very married Mr. Bauer.

This luminous coming-of-age tale deftly exposes the intricate shadows that play across every dream worth pursuing—and the irresistible light that beckons the dreamer on.

Publisher’s Description for “Aurora”
Wrap yourself in a fantastic journey, a remarkable commitment, and a spare and splendid story. Master storyteller Jane Kirkpatrick extols the beautiful treasures, unknown to a wider public, rediscovered in the Old Aurora Colony of Oregon’s lush Willamette Valley. The people and legacy of Aurora, a utopian community founded in the mid-1800s, will stir your imagination, hopes, and dreams; and remind you that every life matters—that our lives are the stories other people read first.

~Featuring~
Unique and treasured quilt pattern variations
More than 100 photographs, many never-before published, from 1850 to today
Cherished stories from Aurora descendants
Rich images of fine crafts from the Aurora Colony and private collections
An introduction by renowned American artist John Houser

Aurora is about the difference every ordinary life can make—and a beautiful celebration of a time and place in which people expressed their most cherished beliefs through the work of their imagination and hands.

Author Bio
Jane Kirkpatrick is a best-selling, award-winning author whose previous historical novels include All Together in One Place and Christy Award finalist A Tendering in the Storm. An international keynote speaker, she has earned regional and national recognition for her stories based on the lives of actual people, including the prestigious Wrangler Award from the Western Heritage Hall of Fame. Jane is a Wisconsin native who since 1974 has lived in Eastern Oregon, where she and her husband, Jerry, ranch 160 rugged acres.


Kelly’s Reviews
A Flickering Light:
I really enjoyed this story. It was fun to read and the real photographs used to help tell the story are fascinating. The author does a great job drawing you into the story using both personal narrative and third person narrative. This allows to really get inside the main character’s head and know her thoughts and feelings better. I did not want to put it down. It turned out differently then I expected and was still very enjoyable. I am looking forward to the next book based on early female photographers.

Aurora:
I did not get a chance to read all of it yet, but have enjoyed what I have read so far. This book was full of wonderful pictures. I really liked looking through each page at the pictures of beautiful quilts and other amazing things from the past.

You can find out more about “A Flickering Light” and “Aurora” at Random House.

The Monkey Trap

Tonight I am finishing up my three part “How to Lose Your Faith” series. I’m dealing with the monkey trap, or perhaps better understood as hanging onto the world when all it means is death. I’m starting with the classic story (or legend) that you can trap a monkey by placing an object that it desires in a jar with an opening only big enough for its hand to slide in. Once the monkey grasps the object, it can’t fit its fist back out the jar’s opening. I’ve searched and it doesn’t appear to be a true story which I will make clear tonight, but it really does illustrate the way people view this world. They talk about wanting heaven, but they’re holding so tight to their possessions and relationships that when Christ does return they’ll be left behind.

I have a mental picture of a person holding onto the ground with Christ pulling their feet in mid air trying to get them to let go. Won’t happen that way, but this is the picture I have of people that loudly say they love Christ but really love their things instead. You can hold onto one thing in this life and what you hold onto will determine your future. We must hold onto Christ. He is the only way to the Father.

On Facebook? The original post resides at www.focusedjourney.com.

Software Review - EasyCrop

I am a software junkie. I love testing and trying out new software. Yet, I find myself regularly falling back on certain applications that do one thing and do it well. Thanks to Tim Verpoorten for that phrase. EasyCrop is an application whose main purpose is to crop and resize a photo. I just realized today that an update that was released a while ago added the ability to perform screen captures too. The main functionality though still revolves around the cropping.

The process is simple. Drag a photo onto the left panel. Choose a predetermined crop size or just use free cropping. Once you have selected your crop, the right panel show you what your crop looks like. The program allows you to view it fit to the window or its actual size. I prefer actual size because it allows me to see at a glance how big the photo actually is. With a simple slider, I can then begin resizing the photo to a smaller size. This is great for adding an image to a webpage. Instead of uploading a large image, I can upload a small image that loads much faster. Then, when you have the crop and size where you want them, you just drag the image in the right panel to where you want it. You don’t have to save it somewhere and then come back to it in another program. I drag images from Easy Crop straight to my blog editor. Quick, easy, done.

The image below is what the program looks like. I used EasyCrop to resize the picture of EasyCrop. There’s a paradox in there somewhere but that’s for another day. I have some pretty powerful image editors that can handle cropping, but nothing works as quite as simple as this little piece of software. If you’re on a mac, you can check it out at www.yellowmug.com.