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A Lineage of Grace

Five Stories of Unlikely Women Who Changed Eternity

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A Lineage of Grace

By: Francine Rivers
Narrated by: Winona Owen
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Summary

2009 Retailer's Choice Award winner!

In this compilation of the five books in the best-selling Lineage of Grace series by Francine Rivers, we meet the five women whom God chose - Tamar, Rahab, Ruth, Bathsheba, and Mary. Each was faced with extraordinary - even scandalous - challenges. Each took great personal risk to fulfill her calling. Each was destined to play a key role in the lineage of Jesus Christ, the savior of the World.

©2009 Francine Rivers (P)2019 Francine Rivers Christian Living Christianity Royalty
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The story of Jesus told by France River, Mary knowing that the child Jesus was the one who would delineage

A recall of the story of the life of Jesus

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Agree with lots of other reviews. The stories are great but the narration is particularly frustrating. Completely mispronouncing a character's name just makes me think the narrator didn't bother to check her material before she recorded.

Orpah NOT Oprah!

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I have never regretted reading a Francine Rivers book and she makes understanding the Biblical stories relatable and easy. However, the narrator was very disappointing. Too many words (English words, not Biblical words) were mispronounced, annoyingly so. I expect the narrator to have read the book before recording it and sought pronunciations beforehand. Eg, surreptitiously, especially, and a wealth of other words I cannot remember off hand. Plus there was a lot of repetition of sentences, which was disruptive, and some sentences that were not completed. This is probably the editing of the recording rather than the narrator.
I almost returned the book (and haven't finished reading the 4th one yet) but the storylines redeemed it. Anyone who will find the constant errors grating, would be better off purchasing a hard copy.

Francine Rivers is always worth a read

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This book gave any person such a good understanding of the bible times.
very good

Worth listening too

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These novellas very beautifully and artfully bring to life the lives of key women in the Bible. All these women are part of Jesus' lineage (hence the title) and his ancestors from the tribe of Judah, eldest son of Jacob. Lineage and inheritance was counted primarily through the firstborn in Bible times, so the line of Judah is vital in Jesus' lineage.
I love how Ms Rivers has done her research into all the customs and foods of the time and even what the people would have worn. This makes for very convincing stories. I love how she sticks to the Biblical accounts wherever possible, and fleshes out the gaps and the characters' feelings in a believable way.

I have knocked off a star because of the narrator. (I am listening to the audiobook). I am desperately trying (and failing) to find kind thoughts in my heart for Winona (the narrator) and make allowances for the fact that she is American, the writer is presumably also American, perhaps this book is even aimed at an American audience and I was in the wrong place at the wrong time. And so obviously the narrator will have a strong American accent. But I just can't help that as a Brit, it does grate terribly on my ears and I find it awfully distracting. American is surely the LEAST appropriate choice of accent for these Biblical Canaanite and Hebrew people. I'm sure that American people feel the same cringe about the British accent! So I can just about live with "draing" (drawing), "shaprrds" (shepherds) and "shrre" (sure).

In her favour, Winona reads slowly and expressively with lots of feeling, enunciating every word. BUT..... enunciating most of them incorrectly!! I have literally never heard an American pronounce words like this. When she ignores the actual spelling and pronunciation of common words that pop up multiple times on every page, I really want to scream.
Her vowels are flattened in a really chavvy way which brings to mind a gum-chewing eye-rolling teen working behind a bar: expacted, obsassed, dejacted, avryone, aprassuve (oppressive), sallatood (solitude) - even "Bathlaham" - every "e" becomes an "a" and every "i" becomes an "u". She misses off the end of "that", "what" and "but" so they become tha, wha and buh.
Every single sentence she speaks contains one or more of these pronunciations.
I feel we British readers need a translation!
Bass = best
Baddr = better
Thus = this
Daad = dead
Brath = breath
Stapt = stopped
Tucked = talked
Wapt = wept
Just = jest
The list goes on.

I really began screaming at the phone and tearing my robes when I heard her completely mangling some supposedly common words and even names of the characters!!

What is "enjimaddackly"? Ohhh you mean "enigmatically"!!!
"Eckspashly"? Err, where is the "ck" in "especially"?
"Surrup-a-titiously" ??? Seriously??? Why are you adding that "a'? I have never in my life heard surreptitiously pronounced like that!!
I thought the worst one was "Marooders" for "marauders" (AAARRGGHH) until I got to the story of Ruth. Ruth's sister in law is called Orpah. (OR-PA). Unfortunately, Winona persists in calling her "Oprah" throughout the story. This really wound me up. We are NOT on the Oprah Winfrey Show!

She also mispronounces "couldn't", "didn't", "wouldn't" etc as "cunnat" "dunnat" and "wunnat" which is very aggravating to my ears.

As if that's not enough, she has a habit of regularly placing a pause/full stop in the middle of some sentences, which makes it sound as if she hasn't read the lines through before saying them:

"We have heard how the Lord made a dry path. Through the red sea."
"March around the city once. A day for 6 days."
"Swear to me. By the Lord that you will be kind to me."

So yes, I wanted to knock off more than one star, but the stories were so good that I haven't. But these irritations popped up literally every few words, so it did terribly detract from the lovely stories.

I think I heard her voice in another of my Audiobooks - The Testaments by Margaret Atwood. Or should that be "Tastamnts"? She was playing the part of a young American girl, so it fitted. But not here. I would love to hear a British version of this audiobook, (or even American with a less intrusive accent!) so I could just relax and enjoy the lovely stories!

Wonderful stories. Extremely irritating narrator!!

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