Things We Once Held Dear

by Ann Tatlock

Book Overview

In 1886, thirty-one year old Katharine Bushnell gives up her medical practice to work with women living on Chicago's Hell's Half Acre and in the brutal lumber camps of Wisconsin. Her love for God and... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0764200046
• ISBN13: 9780764200045
• Release Date: January 2006
• Publisher: Bethany House Publishers
• Length: 399 Pages
• Weight: 0.86 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.0" x 6.1" x 8.3"

Customer Reviews

The Writer's Writer and the Reader's Delight

Ann Tatlock can't get any better, or at least I don't see how! Looking for characters that invite you to walk in their skin? Need a setting that surrounds you? Tatlock laces the pages with secrets waiting to be uncovered. Will life go on for Neil Sadler and Mary Beeken? Don't plan on putting this one down. Things We Once Held Dear--a reader's delight from the writer's writer.

True gem of a book!

Things We Held Dear by Ann Tatlock is a rare gem of a Christian novel. Neil Sadler returns home to Mason, Ohio after the sudden death of his wife Caroline feeling like he has unfinished business in the town he abandoned almost thirty years ago. He returns to find Mary, the once love of his life, in trouble. Can he rescue her this time instead of abandoning her the way he did so long ago? This book is so full of the little details about life in a small rural town, it's obvious that Tatlock loves and respects the people there. There are no stereotypes here, just people with their flaws and strengths. One of the things that I loved best about this book is that that Christian characters didn't walk around proselytizing the way Christians often do in books. People, at least the ones I know, don't really talk that way. Tatlock's strongest Christian character Uncle Bernie uses St Francis' motto about the faith "Preach the Gospel at all times, if necessary, use words." When Neil does find faith, it happens naturally and doesn't completely change the character, it just gives him more depth. The renovations on the house are a nice metaphor for the changes going on within Neil and the Sadler family itself. Oh, and I did I mention that with all this great detail, plot, and characters, Tatlock also manages to get in a murder mystery? And she handles it deftly. Kudos to Tatlock on a beautiful piece of fiction!

A must read!

THINGS WE ONCE HELD DEAR by Ann Tatlock March 6, 2006 Rating: 5 Stars Ann Tatlock's THINGS WE ONCE HELD DEAR will be on my list of to books for 2006. While on some levels it works as a Christian-themed story, it works on many other levels, and for someone like me that is anything but Christian, this was a novel that held my attention and captivated me. It's a poignant story about a man who returns home after having been away for many years, to face the demons that sent him away in the first place. But he's also running away (again) from yet another tragedy, that of the death of his wife Caroline. Neil Sadler is that man that left home when a terrible tragedy struck his family. This tragedy is at the heart of the book, and it is slowly revealed through flashbacks and reminiscences by Neil and other family members. It's a complex story, because not only did it impact Neil in a great way, but also it changed the course of his life. If this incident had not happened, would he have remained in his own town and married the girl that he was in love with all those years ago? This is a book about nostalgia, about family tragedies, and about forgiveness. On another level it could be about faith in family and in a higher power. But the bottom line is, it's a great novel that will appeal to a wide range of readers. I highly recommend THINGS WE ONCE HELD DEAR.

Engaging, enticing, and refreshing

Neil Sadler, a grieving and worn-weary New Yorker, returns to his small hometown in Mason, Ohio, to do some remodeling of a family-owned estate. What Neil hadn't banked on was that his still-broken heart would be called upon to face down a two-decade old murder mystery that threatened to reopen wounds and would take emotional courage of the fiercest kind. Neil's intent was to travel back to simply help out a cousin...or was it? After arriving and taking a look-see at the old place dubbed "The Gothic Horror," Neil realizes how powerful memories can be --- and how mightily they force their presence into every corner of the present. Reminiscing about one's childhood and teen years is almost always a mixed bag affair, composed of bittersweet pain and perhaps select measured delights; sadly, in Neil's case, this principle holds true. Yet, while simultaneously inspecting various rooms in the Horror and reflecting back, Neil is curiously amused upon finding what he first supposes is a dead body in the upstairs bedroom. Only it isn't a corpse, it's his ancient Uncle Bernie whose faint rising and falling chest clues Neil in that he isn't yet deceased. Opening his eyes, Bernie glibly states that he is "in position" to meet his Maker. Only months after the unexpected death of his wife Caroline, Neil believes his heart is mending. What he hasn't considered is how an interloper in the guise of an old friend who very well could have been Mrs. Sadler might slip into Neil's heart once more. Still, Mary Beeken is now a married woman with two children. True enough, Mary's husband isn't behaving like he wants much from Mary these days. But circumstances being what they are, Mary tries to be generous and understanding. Though distant and troubled, Mary's policeman spouse presents a moral obstacle for both Mary and Neil. Two lonely troubled hearts with a penchant for remembering what might have been stirs the waters as they continue to be thrown together. It was murder --- specifically, the murder of Mary's mother --- that preempted Neil's departure to New York and Mary's perhaps too-sudden decision to marry another man after Neil left. With fresh evidence from old enemies and counsel from wise friends, Mary and Neil search out the truth to put the past to rest once and for all. Tenuously they press ahead, each guarded and wounded. Still, between the two of them, Mary and Neil do unearth enough facts to puzzle together the truth. When they do, both are somehow freed up to continue their lives more fully whole than ever before. Ann Tatlock's work is consistently an engaging and enticing read. Her dialogue is fresh and inviting, and her characters are disarmingly genuine as they struggle to contend with emotions and difficulties so common to the human heart. What is especially difficult to achieve --- though Tatlock seems to do so effortlessly --- is to allow her characters the room for mistakes, for error, and yet they maintain their integrity in a way that is bel

terrific inspirational

Almost three decades ago, Neil Sadler left Mason, Ohio following a suspicious looking death in which the locals including his beloved friend Mary Beeken hold him culpable though the law did not. He vowed never to return home and successfully forged a new life. Twenty-seven years later, Neil mourns the sudden loss of his wife with an obsession to go home to learn what really happened that drove him away though he doubts the welcome reception even after all this time that has past. Mary has also come home to Mason looking for solace. Her life is not a happy one as her husband, a battle fatigue syndrome cop, takes out his frustrations and anger on her. Neil is shocked that he still desires Mary with the tragedy hanging over their heads and some more recent baggage to keep them apart. Already doubting God and feeling sorry for himself, he begins to wonder if he is the modern day Job as he knows he can never have his Mary even if she loves and believes in him. This is a terrific inspirational that uses a tragic mystery and more recent traumas to paint a tale of a Doubting Thomas whose only shred of belief is that God is testing or simply punishing him if he exists. As Neil and Mary reconnect they look back at what happened to break them apart. Hooked grateful fans will wonder whether Neil will find salvation with the Lord, what did occur years ago, and what will happen between Mary and him. Ann Tatlock inspires her audience with her deft touch. Harriet Klausner