Wednesday, March 7, 2012
Book Review: The Voice
I really enjoyed reading this book for review. Because it is a bible, it took a while to read, but also it is such a delight to read, complete like that. During my review process, my father died and I had to fly to his home to make arrangements for his memorial service etc, so I spent a lot of time in airplanes and even more time in airports. I enjoyed reading The Voice in all my waiting places. Sometimes I even read it aloud to my companions. It is put together beautifully, truly a work of art. It is a translation, so the interpretation is accurate. My husband is a pastor, a pastor trained to translate the bible himself from the original languages, and even he had no qualms with the accuracy of what I shared with him from this book. This is one book review book I would have loved to have in paper format so that I could bring it with me to church for formal readings. This is a book I will probably be purchasing in paper for exactly that reason and for gifts. I received a digital copy of this book free from the publisher in exchange for a fair and honest review.
Sunday, January 29, 2012
Book Review
The Encounter
By Steve Arterburn
This novel is just the right length that I could read it even though I didn’t feel I had a lot of time available. I downloaded it last night around midnight, stayed up a few hours reading it and then finished it this morning before getting up to get ready for church. It was a beautiful story, where desperate people did desperate things…YEARS AGO, so I didn’t have to actually witness it happen, I only watched while the primary characters tried to deal with the fall out years later. I liked this book because people were good to each other, even though they had bad moments, the bad moments weren’t described in a way that scared me, they just happened and then went on to make amends. The ending was especially satisfying…and at the very very end the author explains the importance of dealing with issues in our lives that embitter our lives. In the story our hero had to go back to deal with something that had happened to him when he was four. Changed the course of his life. Yet, once he understood where the person who had wounded him was coming from, what HER life details had been at the time, he understood her motives and was able to forgive her. It was a beautiful beautiful story. I received a free digital copy of this novel in exchange for an honest review.
By Steve Arterburn
This novel is just the right length that I could read it even though I didn’t feel I had a lot of time available. I downloaded it last night around midnight, stayed up a few hours reading it and then finished it this morning before getting up to get ready for church. It was a beautiful story, where desperate people did desperate things…YEARS AGO, so I didn’t have to actually witness it happen, I only watched while the primary characters tried to deal with the fall out years later. I liked this book because people were good to each other, even though they had bad moments, the bad moments weren’t described in a way that scared me, they just happened and then went on to make amends. The ending was especially satisfying…and at the very very end the author explains the importance of dealing with issues in our lives that embitter our lives. In the story our hero had to go back to deal with something that had happened to him when he was four. Changed the course of his life. Yet, once he understood where the person who had wounded him was coming from, what HER life details had been at the time, he understood her motives and was able to forgive her. It was a beautiful beautiful story. I received a free digital copy of this novel in exchange for an honest review.
Saturday, January 28, 2012
Book Review
The Ride of a Lifetime
By Kitty McGregor
This work of fiction was an interesting tale. It was rather awkwardly written and could have used more of a critical eye in editing before publication, but those things aside, the story is a well thought out one. I appreciate how the author did not leave the tough scenes to our imagination, like many authors would be tempted to in situations like this. There are things that humans have not experienced, and I have noticed that if an author is afraid to imagine it or unable to find words to explain it or describe it, then the author will skip a scene that he or she had been working up to. Kitty McGregor is not an author like that. She works up to a frightening climax and then faithfully follows through in describing and explaining it in a way that is full of imagination and that I can only assume, accurately summarizes the way she sees and understands things to be. I believe that if she were to put this novel that reads a bit like a rough draft into the hands of a skilled editor and follow that editor’s advice, she would have a very good novel on her hands that would sell well in Christian bookstores everywhere. She is a brave author. I received a free e-copy of this novel in exchange for an honest review.
By Kitty McGregor
This work of fiction was an interesting tale. It was rather awkwardly written and could have used more of a critical eye in editing before publication, but those things aside, the story is a well thought out one. I appreciate how the author did not leave the tough scenes to our imagination, like many authors would be tempted to in situations like this. There are things that humans have not experienced, and I have noticed that if an author is afraid to imagine it or unable to find words to explain it or describe it, then the author will skip a scene that he or she had been working up to. Kitty McGregor is not an author like that. She works up to a frightening climax and then faithfully follows through in describing and explaining it in a way that is full of imagination and that I can only assume, accurately summarizes the way she sees and understands things to be. I believe that if she were to put this novel that reads a bit like a rough draft into the hands of a skilled editor and follow that editor’s advice, she would have a very good novel on her hands that would sell well in Christian bookstores everywhere. She is a brave author. I received a free e-copy of this novel in exchange for an honest review.
Wednesday, January 25, 2012
Book Review:
Healing Is a Choice
10 Decisions that will transform your life and 10 lies that can prevent you from making them.
By Steve Arterburn
This is a very good book that took me a long time to finish. The question is, “Do you WANT to be healed?” Because, believe it or not, some people do not really want to be healed. The illness or injury is doing something for them, and they like what it does for them.
All of us are injured or ill in one way or another, each one of us requires healing. There are many ways a person can need healing: Physical healing, mental healing, emotional healing, spiritual healing. This book skillfully outlines ten lies we might be believing that could stand in the way of the healing we want to take place in our lives. This book also outlines ten choices each of us needs to make if we are to have a hope at being healed. This book includes a workbook to help us work through what is standing in the way of healing in our lives.
This book took me a long time to read because of the workbook. I wanted to not just read this book, but experience it. I am glad that I did this, because I feel like I have learned something very important for my life because of this book. I received this book for free in exchange for an honest review.
10 Decisions that will transform your life and 10 lies that can prevent you from making them.
By Steve Arterburn
This is a very good book that took me a long time to finish. The question is, “Do you WANT to be healed?” Because, believe it or not, some people do not really want to be healed. The illness or injury is doing something for them, and they like what it does for them.
All of us are injured or ill in one way or another, each one of us requires healing. There are many ways a person can need healing: Physical healing, mental healing, emotional healing, spiritual healing. This book skillfully outlines ten lies we might be believing that could stand in the way of the healing we want to take place in our lives. This book also outlines ten choices each of us needs to make if we are to have a hope at being healed. This book includes a workbook to help us work through what is standing in the way of healing in our lives.
This book took me a long time to read because of the workbook. I wanted to not just read this book, but experience it. I am glad that I did this, because I feel like I have learned something very important for my life because of this book. I received this book for free in exchange for an honest review.
Saturday, October 22, 2011
Book Review: The Book of Man: Readings on the Path to Manhood.
Edited by William J. Bennett
Very American, very male.
This book could be very valuable for a home-schooled, adolescent, American boy. It is very thick: 546 pages of high quality paper in a well bound, 2 pound book. The pages are bound in that jagged style that tempts ones fingers to turn five pages instead of one page, because the fingertips cannot determine by feel where the next page is. I found myself always double checking what page I was on, because I kept turning too many pages. (Truly, this book feels larger than my bible does.)
The stories are good ones, inspiring, encouraging, good work ethic et cetera. Many of them I have read somewhere before, some of them were new to me, and I must admit, it is nice to have them all together in one large volume. The target audience, I believe is, as I mentioned, young men on the cusp of adulthood who have time to read the important writings and stories of the past. Homeschooled boys will have this opportunity more readily than public schooled boys, because Mother will be choosing their reading material.
While I have no quarrel with the content, per se, nor any discomfort with William Bennett, (In fact I already own and enjoy a copy of his book , “The Book of Virtues”), as a woman and a Canadian I do find the strong national and male gender focus of this book a little irksome. Perhaps I shouldn’t have chosen this particular book to review, but how was I supposed to know it was geared to young American men?
Of course it is important for young men to be reminded of honorable American role models, as Mr. Bennett himself points out on page (xix), “Men, American men in particular, are increasingly dependent on the government dole rather than the fruits of their own labor.” … “There are probably more idle men now than at any time since the Great Depression, and this time the problem is mostly structural, not cyclical. These men will find it hard to attract spouses. Many will pick up habits that have a corrosive cultural influence on those around them.” While this might be true, (might not be, too…), I find it hard to imagine that the troubled men who Mr. Bennett might consider to be lazy, would be motivated to pick up this heavy book and find a story that challenges them.
The book is well written, well edited and obviously presented with the best of intentions, yet I find it to be discouraging and unhelpful. In my experience, men “on the dole” have a lot more issues in their lives making them feel hopeless about their futures than a generous supply of inspiring stories can possibly hope to answer.
I do not agree that these men ought to know better, or that reading good stories like these could teach them what they need to know to live a “better” life. I believe that they more likely have endured an injury to their souls that makes them incapable of hope for their own futures. What these fellows need is friendly encouragement from the men and women who they come into contact with. Perhaps a hand up, a job offer, someone with good intentions like those of William J. Bennett coming INTO their lives willing to get messy in order to help them figure out how to live a fulfilling life.
My low rating is an objection to the ridiculous tone of the entire tome: that education can help a man make a decent living when there are no jobs.
I received a free copy of this book from Thomas Nelson Publishers in exchange for the promise to read the entire book and give an honest review of it.
Very American, very male.
This book could be very valuable for a home-schooled, adolescent, American boy. It is very thick: 546 pages of high quality paper in a well bound, 2 pound book. The pages are bound in that jagged style that tempts ones fingers to turn five pages instead of one page, because the fingertips cannot determine by feel where the next page is. I found myself always double checking what page I was on, because I kept turning too many pages. (Truly, this book feels larger than my bible does.)
The stories are good ones, inspiring, encouraging, good work ethic et cetera. Many of them I have read somewhere before, some of them were new to me, and I must admit, it is nice to have them all together in one large volume. The target audience, I believe is, as I mentioned, young men on the cusp of adulthood who have time to read the important writings and stories of the past. Homeschooled boys will have this opportunity more readily than public schooled boys, because Mother will be choosing their reading material.
While I have no quarrel with the content, per se, nor any discomfort with William Bennett, (In fact I already own and enjoy a copy of his book , “The Book of Virtues”), as a woman and a Canadian I do find the strong national and male gender focus of this book a little irksome. Perhaps I shouldn’t have chosen this particular book to review, but how was I supposed to know it was geared to young American men?
Of course it is important for young men to be reminded of honorable American role models, as Mr. Bennett himself points out on page (xix), “Men, American men in particular, are increasingly dependent on the government dole rather than the fruits of their own labor.” … “There are probably more idle men now than at any time since the Great Depression, and this time the problem is mostly structural, not cyclical. These men will find it hard to attract spouses. Many will pick up habits that have a corrosive cultural influence on those around them.” While this might be true, (might not be, too…), I find it hard to imagine that the troubled men who Mr. Bennett might consider to be lazy, would be motivated to pick up this heavy book and find a story that challenges them.
The book is well written, well edited and obviously presented with the best of intentions, yet I find it to be discouraging and unhelpful. In my experience, men “on the dole” have a lot more issues in their lives making them feel hopeless about their futures than a generous supply of inspiring stories can possibly hope to answer.
I do not agree that these men ought to know better, or that reading good stories like these could teach them what they need to know to live a “better” life. I believe that they more likely have endured an injury to their souls that makes them incapable of hope for their own futures. What these fellows need is friendly encouragement from the men and women who they come into contact with. Perhaps a hand up, a job offer, someone with good intentions like those of William J. Bennett coming INTO their lives willing to get messy in order to help them figure out how to live a fulfilling life.
My low rating is an objection to the ridiculous tone of the entire tome: that education can help a man make a decent living when there are no jobs.
I received a free copy of this book from Thomas Nelson Publishers in exchange for the promise to read the entire book and give an honest review of it.
Thursday, September 29, 2011
Ascent From Darkness - Book Review
By Michael Leehan
This book was amazing. It is a recollection of the true story of the life of Michael Leehan. As a young adult, feeling abandoned by God and people, he turned to Satan for power and fulfillment. As his dedication to Satan intensified, he was given assignments to infiltrate the Christian church, take advantage of weak areas and weak people and distract them from experiencing true freedom in Christ. This is the part that really freaked me out, is how vulnerable certain people within the church are to people who mean them harm but seem harmless. I was particularly interested in Michael’s description of those weak spots within the church. It is good to know where our defenses are down so that we can also focus on ministering to those particular weak spots. For example, the new member of a church who finally makes an official commitment is often the loneliest and most neglected member of the church, because there is usually no support system in place for them yet, but those who have led them to the church figure they are safe now and they leave them alone. That is the place where the vulnerable are. It is an intriguing book, a fascinating tale. Stories about the evil side of Christianity are rare, this book is a treasure. I received a free copy of this book from the publisher in exchange for an honest review. I honestly loved it.
This book was amazing. It is a recollection of the true story of the life of Michael Leehan. As a young adult, feeling abandoned by God and people, he turned to Satan for power and fulfillment. As his dedication to Satan intensified, he was given assignments to infiltrate the Christian church, take advantage of weak areas and weak people and distract them from experiencing true freedom in Christ. This is the part that really freaked me out, is how vulnerable certain people within the church are to people who mean them harm but seem harmless. I was particularly interested in Michael’s description of those weak spots within the church. It is good to know where our defenses are down so that we can also focus on ministering to those particular weak spots. For example, the new member of a church who finally makes an official commitment is often the loneliest and most neglected member of the church, because there is usually no support system in place for them yet, but those who have led them to the church figure they are safe now and they leave them alone. That is the place where the vulnerable are. It is an intriguing book, a fascinating tale. Stories about the evil side of Christianity are rare, this book is a treasure. I received a free copy of this book from the publisher in exchange for an honest review. I honestly loved it.
Wednesday, September 7, 2011
The Bone House
By Stephen Lawhead
This is a well written story. It is book two of a series and if you want to read this book, I strongly suggest that you first read book one, which is called The Skin Map. The reason is, there is just so much that is carefully introduced to the reader in book one that the success of book two depends upon the reader knowing these things. The success of the artful presentation of the storyline in book two depends on you knowing the history of the characters and what went on between them in the past. Stephen Lawhead is an author I was unaware of until I read from this series and I am impressed with both his tone and his style. I appreciate that though this is a story ultimately about time travel, or at least dimensional travel, he manages to not try to do what has already been done in other stories or movies. This book was given to me Thomas Nelson publishers in exchange for an honest review.
By Stephen Lawhead
This is a well written story. It is book two of a series and if you want to read this book, I strongly suggest that you first read book one, which is called The Skin Map. The reason is, there is just so much that is carefully introduced to the reader in book one that the success of book two depends upon the reader knowing these things. The success of the artful presentation of the storyline in book two depends on you knowing the history of the characters and what went on between them in the past. Stephen Lawhead is an author I was unaware of until I read from this series and I am impressed with both his tone and his style. I appreciate that though this is a story ultimately about time travel, or at least dimensional travel, he manages to not try to do what has already been done in other stories or movies. This book was given to me Thomas Nelson publishers in exchange for an honest review.
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