First Line Friday 22.6 Featuring: The Robe by Lloyd C. Douglas

Happy Friday! For today’s First Line Friday linkup I’m featuring a book I reserved from the library thinking it was a movie, but decided to hang onto and give it a chance when I realized it is actually a book. It’s an older story, so I am curious if anyone else has read this before? I would love to hear your comments if so.

First Line Friday is a weekly linkup hosted at Reading Is My Superpower. To participate, share the first line of a book of your choice, add the link to the linkup on the host’s page, and check out what others are reading and sharing!     

The First Line:

Because she was only fifteen and busy with her growing up, Lucia’s periods of reflection were brief and infrequent; but this morning she felt weighted with responsibility.

About the Book

Title: The Robe

Author: Lloyd C. Douglas

Genre: Historical (Biblical-adjacent) Fiction

Synopsis: A Roman soldier, Marcellus, wins Christ’s robe as a gambling prize. He then sets forth on a quest to find the truth about the Nazarene’s robe-a quest that reaches to the very roots and heart of Christianity and is set against the vividly limned background of ancient Rome. Here is a timeless story of adventure, faith, and romance, a tale of spiritual longing and ultimate redemption.

Generally, I (and I think most book bloggers) use this type of post to highlight newer books or indie authors. The Robe breaks that expectation since it was published in 1942. However, it’s the novel that I am most excited about reading at the moment, so I decided to go ahead and showcase it. It appears to be a pretty long book, so it will probably sit on my “currently reading” shelf for quite a while now, at least as long as no one requests it through the library. It may take all summer but I am really looking forward to it! Also, I had not yet opened it at all until I sat down to write this post, but that opening line made me chuckle and I definitely think this is a good choice.

As of this evening it will have been a week since I walked across the stage for commencement and received my Master of Library Science degree. Honestly, things are going so well in general that at the moment, it almost feels surreal. I have yet to figure out a decent sleep schedule (my real goal for this month), but somehow everything feels so much lighter anyways.

I probably shouldn’t attribute that to graduating, though. I still have my capstone to do, and work projects to plan, and paperwork to fill out, etc. But, on top of graduating last weekend, on Sunday evening I was baptized. I could write several blog posts about this, and I may at some point, but this one isn’t the place for that rambling. For now, let me say that it was a wonderful experience and honestly, I did not anticipate just how much joy and peace I would feel for days afterward. That is the reason life feels so much lighter these days.

There is one darker spot that deserves mention. Nine years ago today, an EF-5 tornado destroyed my hometown. I visited a park this morning that was rebuilt in the following years, and it’s still emotional. It’s also nice to be able to see how the land itself has healed. Plus there were ducks, and maybe it’s just me, but watching ducks seems to always be mood-boosting. Seriously, I highly recommend watching ducks anytime you’re down. If there aren’t any ducks in your vicinity and you have IG, the hashtag ducksofinstagram is a true gem. Alpacasofinstagram is also pretty great and cute.

What are you reading at the moment? Share a line in the comments and check out Reading Is My Superpower for the FLF linkup!

Until the next chapter,

Jana