Add A Song of Joy by Lauraine Snelling to Your Reading List

...from the publisher...
In Minnesota in 1911, Nilda Carlson is torn between society life in the city of Blackduck and spending time with her family back home on the farm. Her employer, Mrs. Schoenleber, gives her more and more responsibility and experience, including recommending new opportunities for her philanthropy. Still new to America herself, Nilda focuses on the area's immigrant

community, but she'll have to fight to get her ideas accepted by the locals and donors alike.

...my thoughts...
  A Song of Joy by Lauraine Snelling is a delightful story.  Nilda Carlson, an immigrant from Norway, has for some months, worked as personal assistant to the wealthy Mrs. Schoenleber.  She is grateful for all that she has learned and accomplished since being mentored by her generous employer.  She has mastered English is learning the ropes in a large family corporation and fits in whether it is in the boardroom or on the family's farm.  She is remarkably bright and it is her wish to give back so others who are new to the country can have some of the opportunities she has had.  When she shares her ideas to her philanthropic boss, she is met with surprising enthusiasm that eventually leads to a whole community's involvement to help the newcomers. 

I liked this book not just for the good story, but because it reminds me of how many of my ancestors came to America.  Someone came first, checked out the opportunity and sent tickets home for others to follow either one by one or in a group.  Some traveled by steerage and once they got to Minnesota, they settled together and worked hard.  My father's family spoke mostly German at home.  He went to school until the eighth grade, like Nilda's nephews did in A Song of Joy.  I admire how hard these immigrants worked the land or in other industries to support their families while building a new life in our country.  Their resilience, similar to the Carlson family, is what settled the midwest, and eventually, the western states.  I wasn't aware this was the fourth book in the Under the Northern Skies series but A Song of Joy can be read as a standalone.  I recommend this book as the story is engaging with good old fashioned characters!

Journey to Blessings North Dakota in From This Day Forward

From This Day Forward (Song of Blessing Book #4) by Lauraine Snelling is yet another fine tuned story of the wonderful people who settled in the fictional town of Blessings North  Dakota at the turn of the twentieth century.  This story is centered on Deborah MacCallister and Toby Valders.  Friends since their days at school, they have both come far as adults. She is now head nurse at the Blessing hospital and he is one of the leaders in the fast paced construction of the numerous buildings planned for a community that is bursting at the seams.  Deborah has long had feelings for Toby, who seems oblivious to anything beyond their long standing friendship.  She has always been there and he takes it for granted that she will remain his friend.  As she yearns for more, he is merely going through the motions of his life as his career catapults him from bed each day to work and back to bed again.  If it weren't for friends like Deborah and her mother keeping food in his icebox and doing his laundry he would have gone hungry and unkempt.

The hospital is also feeling the pinch of a growing community with shortages of doctors and nurses keeping the staff on hectic rotations.  Deborah is offered special training in Chicago that will give her many of the administrative skills that would ease the burden of the doctor and nurses who could better serve their patients using their medical skills.

The story has all the flavor of an old-fashioned town full of folk attending box suppers and raffling off quilts to support the community. At one such supper a handsome young teacher vies for Deborah's box supper,  outbidding Toby with an outrageous bid of $10.00.  Anton Gendarme out-maneuvered Toby with his charm and thick wallet.  Can he also steal Deborah's heart?

These events cause Toby to look at his life and to examine what he wants it to look like.  As Deborah travels to Chicago she leaves a bit of her heart in Blessing.  When she returns home after completing her training her heart is open to change. The change comes from a surprising source and makes her heart whole.

A trip to Blessing, home many Norwegian immigrants reminds me of how it must have been in the small German communities in Minnesota where my relatives settled in the same era. How it must have been a rich potpourri of culture melding together to build churches, schools and little towns where my farming family came to live and pray.  What a wonderful country we have and how fortunate to have authors such as Lauraine Snelling to keep these stories alive in her writing.  While our ancestors have come from all over the world I am sure their stories are similar. I recommend this book and the rest of the series for a look at the extraordinary ordinary days of those who came before us.

Reviewing: Streams of Mercy

Streams of Mercy is book three in the Song Of  Blessing Series by Lauraine Snelling.   Blessing North Dakota in 1905 is a small town of families who emigrated to America during the great migration period. It is reminiscent of my own ancestors who settled in nearby Minnesota, but I digress. Blessing is a hub of many nationalities that continued to make our country great.  The Bjorklund family, central to the story came from Norway in 1880.

Our story centers on the Anji Bjorklund Moen and Thomas Devlin. Anji, originally from Blessing, moved to Norway to live with her husband until his untimely death. Longing to come home to her very large family in Blessing, she makes a life for  her children living with her sister Rebecca and her family. Thomas is an Anglican priest without a parish who meets Anji while both teach at the school.  They are beginning to realize what they feel for each other as a devastating tragedy hits the town.  The town pulls together  in small town style to overcome a threat to all the families in Blessing. Putting their feelings aside until the crisis is over, they must choose to be with each other or go their separate ways.

As with any good Christian Fiction, Streams of Mercy is filled with wisdom found in scripture and a heart full of prayer.  I wish I had read the first two volumes of this series as I felt as though I missed something.  The book is full of a lot of characters who seemed to me had their story told in previous volumes.  It is helpful that there is a Bjorklund family tree at the beginning of the book to help me keep track.  The story is wonderful and the people are so resilient, a testament to the courage it took to come across the ocean and settle into this wonderful country.