The Wishing Jar

If you have not read Penelope's works I suggest you start, she is a wonderful writer, she really create awesome characters and you feel like you know them all, I have read everything she has written as novels, and they are great books, You'll enjoy it, I did.

Penelope J. Stokes is a great storyteller and this book is very entertaining, just a great read. I gladly recommend it.

This is the story of Edith, Abby, and Neal Grace - three generations of Quinn women who all occupy the family's ancestral home. Edith, the grandmother is a widow who has recently suffered a stroke. Abby, her daughter and mother to Neal Grace, is a widow still mourning the loss of her husband. Neal Grace, Abby's daughter and Edith's granddaughter, has lost both her father and her grandfather. She also feels that she has lost her grandmother to the stroke that paralyses her left side and slurs her speech.Edith is very depressed as she sees that Abby and Neal Grace don't relate to her in the same way. Neal Grace can hardly bring herself to even look at her grandmother - what she sees is just a shell of the Granny Q she always loved. Abby sees her mother as feeble and pays little attention to anything she has to say. Abby races off to her work as a journalist, continually worrying over whether mother will burn the house down or have some sort of accident while she is home alone. Neal Grace begins skipping school to see a boyfriend who is emotionally and sometimes physically abusive. Believing that her whole world has come crashing down around her ears with the death of her father and her grandmother's stroke, she clings to him like a life raft. Edith, left to mourn all her losses, wishes that the stroke had taken her life. So begins the story of loving and longing ... of three people occupying the same house, yet emotionally light years away from each other. The wishing jar itself is not central to the plot. It's a jar passed down through generations of Quinn women. It symbolizes for them the ability to change as well as a symbol of prayers answered. This inspirational story will grab at your heartstrings as the three generations of women begin to grow and change. They begin to find in each other the strength to go on, to move past their losses, to love and laugh again. I highly recommend this book - reading it will enrich your life.

I have read everything Penelope J. Stokes has written (I think), and have always thought that she's one of the best writers of Christian fiction published today. The Wishing Jar was no exception. This is an exceptional novel that could please mainstream market readers as well as Christian readers. Well-crafted story with unforgettable characters, plus the potential to mine every emotion common to us all. This is the kind of novel that should be winning one award after another, but strangely enough, as far as I know, Stokes' books aren't that well-known, which makes me wonder just who decides what's "award material." I'm an avid reader and have been for years, and I often find that the most well-written books with the highest degree of "quality" are seldom the ones on the best-seller lists or the ones that collect the big awards. Go figure. When it comes to women's fiction for Christian readers--or for readers who just want good, realistic fiction that isn't sleazy, Stokes is one of the leaders, in my opinion.Every book just makes you hungry for more.

What a beautiful piece of writing ... fine craftsmanship! I am impressed by how much Ms. Stokes writing is changing and refining! I don't think she has a single word in excess. Not just economy of words ... fine precision to boot! This book has a rhythm that comes only with confident, skillful writing ... it just gently guides the reader along. The writing is so smooth! And it is incredibly complete in the details.Wonderfully refreshing to have spiritual revelation as a muted tone woven through out ... not blaring from a bully pulpit. Well done!!! Highly recommended to all!