This is one of my signed copies from the BEA. I finished this book a few days ago, and have kept putting off reviewing it for you, because I so wish it was different. Beslan was the site, in September of 2006, of the horrible school seige and then massacre on the first day of school. Hundred of people were killed, most of them children, and those who survived will bear the physical and psychological scars forever. Just typing that, I am horrified that this event ever happened, and I wanted to learn more from this book.

The book means well, it really does. It contains the first-hand experiences of an American woman, the author, who travelled to Beslan after the event happened, hoping to help bring hope and a message of love to the families of Beslan. It also has many first-hand accounts from children and adults who lived through the seige, and family members of those who were killed. But it is all very matter-of-fact, and repetitious.

I wanted to learn in this book. But it takes for granted too much – that we know where Beslan is, that we are familiar with Ossetian religious and political history, that we are intimately familiar with the Chechen crisis, know what or who Ingush is or was – and that is too much to assume. I ended up Googling too many things, and that takes you out of the book, literally and mentally.

I even would have been satisfied if Mrs. Milburn Lansford recounted her own strong thoughts or feelings, some emotion – anything. But it tries so hard, I think, to be impartial, and that is a failing in this case. It comes across as dispassionate.

I thought maybe when i got to the chapter about the trial of the one captured terrorist we would at last get something substantial, but it was just a litany of this or that part of Russian society or government failing, or more to the pint, blaming some other faction for the failures and taking no responsibility,

I am outraged at the events that happened – whosoever’s fault it was. I want a reason why – some history of the Chechen conflict which apparently drove these men and women to commit such an act. I want outrage at the shirking of responsibility! I want to feel the anger that much exist. But the book just fails to deliver. If I read between the lines, and do my own research, I can find stuff out. But I expected more from the book than a litany of sadness and broken lives with no resolution or hope.

I wanted to like the book, or be informed or touched or motivated by it, but I didn’t and wasn’t. There are many photographs, but they are clumped together in one section – I know it’s cheaper to print that way, but feel they would have been more powerful near the text that refers to them. Sorry, Mrs. Millburn Lansford, I know you meant well.

If the subject interests you, you’d be better served by googling for info yourself, sadly. I’m not heartless, honest! It is odd how little we hear about the Chechnyan conflict here in the West, given how connected most of the world is. But I guess the Russian media still has a powerful hold on what leaves its borders.

If it weren’t for the subtitle “In The Grip of Avalanches” this title would be a good description of me – I love snow, always have, even enjoy shoveling it, and am working on whole page on just snow on my website.


But anyway, this book is fascinating, and with the recent avalanche deaths in the news, timely. Jill Fredston grew up outside New York City, so didn’t see as much snow as a kid as, say, Alaskan kids did, but was always fascinated by it, and studied it throughout school. She became an avalanche expert, both advising people when there is danger, assisting in rescues and recoveries, and analyzing data after an event.


The whole book is laced with stories – both tragedies and triumphs, that bring the very human element to the story, and keep it from being dry or scholarly. The way she can describe the types of snow, the importance of temperature and humidity, how snow changes and evolves once it is on the ground, how to tell the difference between a lovely skiable slope and a brutally dangerous one make a fascinating book.


Her husband is also an avalanche expert, and she describes all she learns from him, the journey of their relationship changing from that of mentor and student to a marriage. Having someone else who understands the frailty of human life, and the hazards of the mountains seems important to maintaining a grip on sanity amidst the chaos and danger.


I got this at the BEA in 2005, and unlike most books, never gave it away after reading it. I live in Massachusetts. It snows here. And while I live nowhere near any avalanche zone – stuff gets plowed here, and the hills are just hills in Newton, snow in all its varieties interests me.


Every skier, snowmobiler and winter sports should be required to read this book. And even those who curse that white stuff while shoveling out after yet another storm might enjoy it, too.


And you will learn what neighborhoods NEVER to move into, too. How anyone could build a life and a home at the bottom of an avalanche zone seems insane to me, but before reading this book, I might never, in summer, have considered how the breathtakingly beautiful mountains and green slopes behind me might be heartache waiting to happen.

A lovely story, set in the early part of the last century, Coldwater Revival is the story of Emma Grace Fallin, a young woman from a large Irish family in rural Texas. A sympathetic main character, and colorful characters lighten the heavy story of a family’s tragedy and how the family copes – or doesn’t – with the aftermath, and how it affects their faith. At times it is a little obvious in evangelizing the reader, but it isn’t too distracting overall. A sweet little romance, with a stubborn, willful young woman at the center, and it stays G-rated in content as well.



It is published by Cook Communications Ministries, so makes no bones about being Christian in tone, but it isn’t very “preachy,” so don’t let that keep you away from a nice story.