Talk About Books

In The Stars are Fire , Anita Shreve's sets her novel in Maine during the real-life disaster of 1947 when a severe drought caused a series of massive fires that burned out of control for 10 days. In Acadia National Park. 10,000 acres went up in flames, along with most of the mansions on Bar Harbor’s Millionaires’ Row. Fishermen and the Coast Guard rescued thousands from the shoreline. Firefighters and evacuees were trapped behind a burning wall that cut through Kennebunkport. Sixteen people were killed, thousands left homeless. In this story, when the fire arrives, Grace Holland and her neighbors head to the water’s edge. Twenty-four years old, a mother of two young children and pregnant with a third — Grace holds her children in the frigid sea overnight as the flames send smoke and burning debris onto the beach. In the midst of crisis, she finds a strength she didn’t know she had, but her losses are devastating, and she faces a precarious future.  When the fir...

Many people will remember Eric Liddell as the Olympic gold medalist from the film Chariots of Fire. Liddell refused to run on Sunday because of his strict observance of the Christian sabbath, so he could not compete in his signature event, the 100 meters , at the 1924 Olympics in Paris. He was the greatest sprinter in the world at the time, and his choice not to run confounded the British Olympic committee, his fellow athletes and most of the world press. Liddell ran, and lived, for the glory of God. After winning gold, he dedicated himself to missionary work. He traveled to China to work in a local school and as a missionary. When Liddell could see war coming, he sent his wife and children home while he remained, compelled to follow his conscience. Eventually, Liddell was interred along with thousands of Westerners. Here he did what he was born to do. He became the moral center of an unbearable world.