Just in time for the Christmas shopping season, publishers are sending their latest offerings out for the earnest consideration of the book-consuming public. Book buyers will no doubt snatch them up and offer them as loving gifts. For the record, I can't think of a gift more appropriate in our day of iPods and Twitter than a good book.

Barkdull's latest offering is a sweet — if utterly predictable — tale of the shepherd who journeys to Jerusalem to pray for his dying wife. She carries in her womb a child who has stopped moving, and she is bleeding and suffering to a point where the husband despairs for her life.

Taking with him a prized animal as a sacrifice, he begins a journey that will prove to be both surprising and rewarding for the young man.

Read the full story on MormonTimes.com.