Leota's Garden by Francine Rivers - 425 Pages

Book Discussion title at McClay Branch

This book is Christian fiction at its best. We had 22 women at this discussion which rivals the numbers at our Christmas discussion (AND we had NO FOOD!!) And there were 4 no shows due to other obligations and illness that day!

Rivers has published more than 20 novels with Christian themes - all bestsellers. Her Christian novels have been awarded or nominated for numerous awards including the RITA Award, the Christy Award, the ECPA Gold Medallion, and the Holt Medallion in Honor of Outstanding Literary Talent. In 1997, after winning her third RITA award for Inspirational Fiction, Francine was inducted into the Romance Writers’ of America Hall of Fame. In 2007, the feature-length film version of her novel The Last Sin Eater was released in theaters by Fox Faith. In March 2010, Francine officially became a New York Times bestselling author, when Her Mother’s Hope debuted at #12 on the hardcover fiction bestsellers lists. The sequel, Her Daughter’s Dream, debuted at #12 on the same list just 6 months later, in September, 2010. Francine’s novels have been translated into over twenty different languages and she enjoys best-seller status in many foreign countries including Germany, The Netherlands, and South Africa.

All of the above to show you that this woman knows how to write in the very best sense of the word. Yes, she writes from a Christian perspective but she does not preach...she shares life as a Christian with all the bumps the human family experiences but with a hope and a joy in spite of loss,heartache, seemingly unanswered prayer and her main characters do that with a Christian graciousness that is a marvelous pattern for life.
Leota is the wife of a German man who serves in the US Army during WWII when Germans and Japanese both were feared and unwanted in the USA.. Bernard's family lives in the states and Leota is the main bread winner because Papa Reinhardt cannot find employment even though he is an engineer by profession. Mama Reinhardt detests Leota because she thinks that Leota is working to pawn Leota's two children off on her and simply have a "rip roaring" good time herself. Papa Reinhardt tells his wife nothing of the financial stress he is under with his inability to find employment. Leota finds solace in her garden. When Bernard returns his mind has been affected by the concentration camps he has helped to free in Germany and Leota's children grow up feeling that Leota was never there for them...which idea was confirmed to them by their German grandmother.
The crux of this story lies with the relationship between Nora and her Mother, Leota. Nora is soo controlling that her own daughter, Annie leaves home and decides to look up her grandma because she wants to know why Leota would have deserted her own children. Who Annie finds is an elderly woman who prays for her children daily and shares her heart with Annie over events that happened years ago over which she had very little control. Annie becomes the instrument used to bring the heart of her mother Nora back to the heart of Leota.
Within these pages we find bad relationships, misunderstanding, woman's lib, euthanesia...a myriad of discussable topics...but also a book rich with the panaroma of life as it can be lived if we turn our hearts into making "lemonade out of lemons..."
Discussion questions available from author's website at: http://francinerivers.com/books/101/discussion-guide
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