Christy by Catherine Marshall

Sometime in the 1960's I watched the movie "A Man Called Peter." It was based on the story of Catherine and Peter Marshall, the beloved Scottish minister. It was both inspirational and a deeply touching love story. I wept buckets watching this beautiful couple and the sorrow of Dr. Marshall's early death. Years later I was working in the Cokesbury Book Store in Nashville. One of my responsibility's was books about religion, both text books and more popular books. One of our best selling authors was Catherine Marshall, who wrote very popular inspirational books. I was delighted to find Catherine Marshall again and read many of the thirty books she wrote. A number of them are still on my bookshelf, underlined and filled with notes.

For some reason I cannot comprehend I didn't read Catherine Marshall's best known book, Christy. It was a best seller when it was published fifty years ago and it later became a successful television show. In honor of the fiftieth anniversary of Christy my good friends at Litfuse Group gave me the opportunity to enjoy this beautifully told and highly engaging story.

Christy is based on Catherine Marshall's mother's experience of teaching in Appalachia in the early years of the last century. She taught the children of the fictional town of Cutter Gap, Tennessee. The impoverished Cutter Gap is very distant from Christy's comfortable life in Asheville and her faith is challenged throughout the difficulties of her experience there. There is romance, there is history and there is a well-plotted novel that will hold your interest.

I am very grateful for the opportunity to make up for what I missed fifty years ago. My great thanks to Litfuse for filling a gap in my reading and bringing Catherine Marshall and her spirit and writing back to my life. Christy would make a perfect gift for the person on your shopping list who enjoys fiction.

I'm back tomorrow with another book discussion. I hope you'll join me for a very different, but engaging modern mystery.

As ever, thanks for visiting and take good care!