Book 21- "Fishers of Men" by Gerald N. Lund

When I was younger, I used to read the "Tennis Shoes among the Nephites" book series. It's a series of like 10 or 11 books about some kids who found a wormhole into Book of Mormon times and went back and forth a few times throughout the years, then their kids found ANOTHER wormhole into Roman times in Jerusalem... and I lost track after that. They had a Roman soldier come back to modern times with them, and the son of Jacob the king of Jacobugath (that really wicked city in the Book of Mormon) come back with them. Anyway, it was a fascinating thing to read when I was in middle school and maybe even high school.
This book reminded me of that for some reason. While nobody time travels, it is a look into the lives of people who were living during Christ's time. It is the story of 3 groups of people- Miriam the daughter of a Sadducee, David and his Zealot family, and Marcus and Sextus the Romans. They all intersect at one point or another, but they have one thing in common- they have all heard of Jesus. Miriam and her servant saw Him when He was cleansing the temple, David's family knew Peter and Andrew and heard of Him that way, and the Romans heard of Him through Miriam. Throughout the book, the Zealot family was convinced of Jesus' power, and so was Miriam, but her father forbade her from seeing Him again.
Through the book all the groups become intertwined within a military attack that was orchestrated by Mordechai (Miriam's father). She ultimately saves the Zealot's lives by betraying the Romans, but at the cost of a few of them.
There was SO much in this book that I hardly began to scratch the surface. Especially with how they intersect. The Zealot family is almost brought into captivity by Marcus the Roman, then their son Simeon is almost killed by Sextus, then Miriam and Mordechai are saved by Simeon and his friends, then Marcus begins spending time with Marcus in the city, etc. etc. While that is very interesting, the best part is reading about the miracles of Jesus as if they are really happening now. At first I thought it was a little bit sacrilegious to be talking about Jesus like that. Him engaging in small talk and discussing things other than deep doctrine, However, He was a man. He had friends and He laughed with them I'm sure. He didn't just have to spend time ministering, So once I realized that, I really enjoyed this book. It ended a little after the miracle of the five loaves and 2 fishes, so I am anxious to see what happens next.