what 'The Parable of the Mustard Seed' was and what I discovered was that like many things the meaning of this parable is open to the readers interpretation but loosely speaking...

So, the picture painted in the Parable of the Mustard Seed by Jesus is of the humble beginnings of the church experiencing an explosive rate of growth. It grows large and becomes a source of food, rest, and shelter, for both believers and false professing individuals that seek to consume or take advantage of its benefits while residing or mixing among what was produced by the seed.

Making my one and only real concern after reading this and then seeing the word...'cult', that maybe things would go sideways and become 'overly' preachy to reinforce the whole 'cult' issue thankfully, I realized fairly early in that I could kick this concern to the curb as it quickly became evident that it was a non-issue.

At which point I have to admit I still wasn't really sure what I was getting into, but Lisa Henry was the author and I was sure whatever I was getting into was going to be good, and it was good...so much more than good.

My struggle really hasn't been so much about what to say as how to say it, but the time for procrastination is over and now it's simply time to jump in...

While this is a story with love in it...it's also about man's inhumanity to man and all in the name of religion, it's about the strength of the human spirit and it's ability to overcome the darkest of times with out losing the ability to love and trust again.

"The Parable of the Mustard Seed" is the story of the events that brought Australian-Samoan police officer John Faimu and Caleb Fletcher into each others lives. What happened wasn't pretty and if you're like me you might want to have some tissues on hand.

In this story the author takes us back to the beginning...back to the day that John first saw Caleb, when he took place in the police raid that freed Caleb from the cult that nearly killed him and as the story progresses we are shown events of the past at the beginning of each chapter bringing us into the present and giving a solid understanding of not just the relationship between John and Caleb but of who they are as individuals and of who Caleb is and what has shaped him into the person that he has become. 

From the very beginning I liked John. His character was intrinsically good and although Caleb always feels like his priority at the heart of everything John does is his love, concern and respect not just for Caleb, but for everyone that he cares about. 

While my feelings about Caleb weren't as clear at the beginning what he had endured became clear fairly early in the story and my heart broke for him...no child should go through what Caleb did but it's through the retelling of Caleb's past that I came to embrace what a truly amazing person he became. What Caleb endured wasn't just physical abuse there was emotional and psychological torment as well and he was betrayed by his mother...there is no forgiveness for what she did to him. 

There were also a lot of wonderful characters in this story John's family from his mother right down to his sister's Mary and Jessie, his brother David, his partner on the police force Liz and Caleb's father Darren just to mention a few.

While 'The Parable of the Mustard Seed' isn't as dark as some of Ms Henry's other works such as 'While All the World Sleeps' it's also a far cry from the fun that is 'Adulting 101' but like both of these books, it is an excellent story worth reading. 

If you're looking for a story with a lot of hot, steamy sex. then you'll probably be disappointed, but if you also like stories where the relationship between the MCs has a slow burn with a very palpable sense of how much the MCs cherish each other contained within it's pages...then I truly believe you need to check this one out.

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An ARC of 'The Parable of the Mustard Seed' was graciously provided by the author in exchange for an honest review.

Santiago is an Andalusian shepherd boy who's on his way to see a girl he once met and fell a little in love with. Before he gets there, however, some stuff happens that I can only vaguely recall. Something about a fortune teller, who tells him that a dream he had about the pyramids in Egypt will lead him to a great treasure. A mysterious man who turns out to be something more convinces Santiago to abandon his ordinary and comfortable life as a shepherd and begin his quest - the pursuit of his Personal Legend.

I'm making a conscious effort to get through more books in my collection that I figure I'll probably be okay with either selling or donating when I'm done. This seemed like a good candidate - I picked up a copy ages ago at a conference, and while it seemed vaguely interesting, it wasn't the sort of thing I'd normally read. When I saw that my library owned the audiobook version via Overdrive, I figured that'd be the perfect way to get through it. I'd listen to it, use my paper copy to help me with any name spellings or other details in my review, and then offload it.

Audiobook was probably the best way to go. Jeremy Irons' voice was wonderful to listen to and made the four hours of listening time almost bearable.

That said, I hated this book. Hated it. Had it actually been a fantasy adventure about a boy on a quest for treasure, I might have liked it a bit more, but in reality this was more a self-help book in story form.

Its basic message was this: if you listen to your heart, follow your dreams, and go after your goals with everything you've got, there's nothing you can't accomplish. The entire universe will assist you. The only thing that can stop you is fear of failure.

It's a cruel message. It says "If you're not managing to succeed at this thing you're trying so hard to accomplish, it means that the problem is you. You're somehow still not doing enough, not trying enough, not wanting it enough." It's such an insidious lie, and it made me angry that Coelho had chosen to build an entire world around it.

Santiago really could accomplish anything he wanted to, just by putting his whole heart and soul into his quest. Any other boy might have starved to death after selling all his sheep to go after a treasure he'd seen in a dream, but not Santiago. Every experience he had and every person he met was just another lesson or sign that would lead him to his ultimate goal, his Personal Legend. Thieves left him penniless and theoretically hungry, but he was never truly in danger of starving as long as he kept his goal in sight. At one point he was beaten, but the pain might as well have been a light bruising for all the attention Santiago paid it. Everything always came back to his stupid Personal Legend, the only thing that seemed to leave any sort of lasting impact on him, except maybe Fatima. But more on Fatima later.

In the real world, a person can put everything they have into their goal, pursue their dreams with all their heart and soul, do everything right...and still not succeed. This is not an indicator that they didn't work hard enough or want their dream badly enough, as The Alchemist would suggest. Maybe they didn't have a rich friend or family member who could give them an interest-free loan. Maybe they got sick and suddenly had their health and medical bills to worry about. Maybe they had a family to support and didn't want to be complete jerks towards their loved ones (families didn't seem to factor into this whole Personal Legend thing at all - basically, if they really loved you and supported you, they'd take care of themselves until you accomplished your Personal Legend).

Which brings me back to Fatima, the young woman of the desert Santiago fell in love with (no relation to the young woman he was initially kind of in love with but utterly forgot later on). Her Personal Legend, if I remember correctly, was Santiago. All she had to do was wait in the desert for him. That's it. Why did Santiago's Personal Legend involve a multi-year quest that he had to actively participate in, while Fatima's just required her to exist and be pretty and unmarried? And then, when Santiago left to pursue his Personal Legend, she had to sit and patiently wait for him to come back, however long that might take. They had only spoken a few times and definitely weren't married, so she was basically just waiting for a near-stranger. It was Coelho's version of a soulmate romance. Man, I wish I'd been reading an actual soulmate romance novel rather than this book.

All in all, I don't recommend this, not even with Jeremy Irons' wonderful narration.

(Original review posted on A Library Girl's Familiar Diversions.)

'Parable of the Talents' is a very different book than 'Sower', but I felt it was just a good. The first novel was made up of selected early journals of Lauren Olamina, who "discovered" Earthseed and led her group of survivors to safe land owned by her lover Bankole after her home and family were destroyed.

Joining Olamina's voice is commentary from her daughter some years after Olamina's death. There are shorter fragments from the journals of Bankole and passages from Olamina's brother's book 'Warrior' as well.

I loved the tension that the voices of Olamina and her daughter added to the narrative. Olamina's journals pick up ten years or so after the end of 'Sower' with Acorn almost thriving. Over a hundred people form a part of the settlement and they've established good relationships with their neighbors and have started to sell excess goods they produce. Olamina's daughter, named Larkin by her mother, expresses bitter resentment towards her mother and references a tragedy. 

America is still struggling, but the worst of the chaos appears to be over. Unfortunately a reactionary government is rising to power in what's left of the United States. A preacher is running for President, deplores the loss of American character and values in the recent chaos years and promises to "make America great again". 

The issues I had with Lauren Olamina's flat voice persisted, but in many other ways this novel is superior to 'Sower'. The book is about tragedy and grave injustice. I couldn't stop reading it until I knew what happened.

Earthseed

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