My Review of "A Contrarian's Guide to Knowing God"

Larry Osborne's A Contrarian's Guide to Knowing God:  Spirituality for the Rest of Us is a must-read for those who aren't sure a relationship with God is possible for ordinary folks.  In a no-nonsense style, Osborne offers real words of hope for those who struggle.  What readers will find here is a clear spirituality with a deep connection to the real world -- that world in which we live, and the one God loves so much.

I received a free copy of this book from the publisher in exchange for my honest review here.

My Review of "How to Be a Perfect Christian"

The Babylon Bee's How to Be a Perfect Christian:  Your Comprehensive Guide to Flawless Spiritual Living brings the satirical style of The Onion into conversation with Christian culture -- and the product is hilarious.

This book is a satirical look at what passes for cultural Christianity, particularly in America.  There's plenty of humor and sarcasm to go around here, and I love the chart that gauges the reader's progress toward "spiritual perfection" at the end of each chapter.  What some readers will miss, sadly, is just how much genuine Christian faith you glimpse in these pages, even while poking fun at the sacred cows of that cultural embodiment of the faith. 

I've been a fan of The Babylon Bee's website for a long time.  This book did not disappoint.  In fact, it was a real treat!  (And the free coloring page on p. 115 is totally worth the price of the book!)

I received a free copy of this book from the publisher in exchange for my honest review here.

My Review of "Open to the Spirit"

Scot McKnight's Open to the Spirit: God in Us, God with Us, God Transforming Us explores one of the most misunderstood and underrepresented beliefs of the Christian faith these days:  The Holy Spirit.  Who is he?  What does he do?  What difference does the Spirit make in our everyday lives?  McKnight explores those questions with all the depth of a New Testament scholar while also making sure what he says "meets the road" in the lives of everyday believers like himself.

It's a must-read for Christians.

I received a free copy of this book from the publisher in exchange for my honest review here.

My Review of "L'appart"

David Lebowitz's L'appart: The Delights and Disasters of My Paris Home is a tale of the miseries and woes of buying and renovating a home in Paris.  In spite of his attempts to convince readers how much he still loves Paris -- when describing being able to run down the street for a freshly made baguette or getting to know the ruggedly handsome man at the little café close by, for example -- Lebovitz peels off the plaster to reveal a Paris beyond tourism.  Lebovitz's stories shimmer with despair, distress, and regret, but he nevertheless embraces life with all its flaws in the city he loves.

It was, overall, a depressing little book, whose only real redemptive value are the genuine French recipes scattered throughout.

I received a free copy of this book from the publisher in exchange for my honest review here.

My Review of "Shaken"

Tim Tebow's Shaken: Fighting to Stand Strong No Matter What Comes Your Way is written for young people to find a better way to live.

Using examples from his own tumultuous career, Tebow encourages readers to stay focused on their dreams, fight negativity, and stand up for what is right.  And while the resource is focused on Christian principles, the lessons concentrating on hard work, determination, and kindness hold universal appeal. Tebow additionally draws upon examples of other young people who have faced adversity -- cancer, limb amputation, and organ failure -- as cases of how even in the most desperate situations, one can refuse to fall into self-pity, anger, and depression.  Tebow's easy, plainspoken style will give young fans the feeling that he is speaking directly to them.  Biblical examples range from the steadfast endurance of Job to the selfless courage of David facing Goliath.  Other stories include references to Michael Jordan and Albert Einstein.  Tebow's candid talk of his struggles with dyslexia and anger further humanize him.

This is an excellent book for older children and young adults.

I received a free copy of this book from the publisher in exchange for my honest review.

My Review of "The Power of Meaning"

Emily Esfahani Smith's The Power of Meaning: Finding Fulfillment in a World Obsessed with Happiness is a ground-breaking book in positive psychology that argues against the importance of happiness for the good life, and in favor of finding meaningful as a fulfilling, good life.

Like many self-help books, this one uses empirical studies, abundant anecdotes and wisdom gleaned from various writers and philosophers to support the idea that four "pillars" can give life meaning:  Belonging, purpose, storytelling, and transcendence.  These pillars "are central to religious and spiritual systems, and they are the reason why they historically conferred (and continue to confer) meaning in people's lives".  Smith found these pillars emphasized in her own childhood, growing up in a Sufi community whose members did not doubt the value of their own lives.  But even without the bulwark of religion, individuals can build their own pillars.  No matter what work one does, even menial jobs, "when we reframe our tasks as opportunities to help others, our lives and our work feel more significant".

While I doubt that everyone will be convinced, this is not a book to be overlooked.  In the process of struggling throughout it, there are epiphanies for what a "good life" can mean in every reader's life.

I received a free copy of this book from the publisher in exchange for my honest review.

My Review of "To Light a Fire on the Earth"

Robert Barron's To Light a Fire on the Earth: Proclaiming the Gospel in a Secular Age offers one of the sanest, most sage voices of Catholic teaching a chance to demonstrate, yet again, that reason and faith properly belong together.  That truth, beauty and goodness are noble pursuits.  And that both of those things properly inform the evangelical mission of the Church in our postmodern, skeptical age.

I've been a "fan" of Bishop Barron for a long time.  His ministry in YouTube videos alone staggeringly reflects on the faith once received and in dialogue with the wider culture (he quotes Bob Dylan -- a lot!).  This book looks at both Barron's life and his philosophy behind "proclaiming the Gospel in a secular age".  It is the result of twenty hours of interviews conducted by John L. Allen, Jr., who is an acclaimed Catholic author and journalist.  I was really looking forward this book -- and it lived up to my expectations!

What you'll find in these pages is a picture of what a life of friendship with Jesus really looks like.  And it can't help but transform your own friendships with others and with Jesus.

I received a free copy of this book from the publisher in exchange for my honest review.

My Review of "How to Find Love in a Bookshop"

Veronica Henry's How to Find Love in a Bookshop:  A Novel is a fun-filled read about a young woman takes over her father's bookshop and discovers its importance to its small-town clientele.

Emilia Nightingale is called back to her childhood home in the English Cotswolds when her father, Julius, is on his deathbed.  Emilia makes a final promise to her father that she will look after the bookshop that has been his life's work and, following his death, sets about trying to fill his role at Nightingale Books.  Through an outpouring of affection from the town's residents, Emilia realizes that Julius was a beloved fixture of the community, and she has big shoes to fill.  She also sees how integral the bookshop has been in facilitating relationships throughout the town.  As she refamiliarizes herself with the village of Peasebrook and its people, six different love stories begin to unfold, all of which are somehow connected to the bookstore.  Unfortunately, Emilia quickly learns that her father was more of a bookworm than a businessman.  The store has amassed tremendous debt over the years, and Julius' habit of selling books at deep discounts has not helped.  Complicating matters further, a local real estate developer is pressuring Emilia to sell him the shop.

Henry is able to create one obstacle after another for Nightingale and her bookshop.  At the same time, this is a beautiful novel that explores all the ways in which love takes forms.

I received a free copy of this game from Blogging for Books in exchange for my honest review here.

My Review of "The Creeps"

Fran Krause's The Creeps: A Deep Dark Fears Collection collects a number of Krause's own reader's fears.  Each is given eerie, undead life by the author's illustrations.  The result is a little uneven, but ultimately enjoyable.

With more than 90 fears, readers are bound to find a few that speak to/for them.  Fear #7 names one for the McCarter household, for sure.

I was slightly surprised the near ubiquitous presence of ghosts, and the near sheer absence of zombies.

But The Creeps is certainly a fun-filled book for this time of year.  Just be sure you don't read it when you're anxious.

I received a free copy of this game from Blogging for Books in exchange for my honest review here.

My Review of "Taking Aim"

Eva Shockey's Taking Aim: Daring to Be Different, Happier, and Healthier in the Great Outdoors is a memoir that takes readers through Eva Skockey's adventures, sharing a unique glimpse of what it is like to be a women in a traditionally male-dominated world.

Growing up with a father such as Jim Shockey, you would think that hunting would be as natural as breathing.  This was not necessarily the case with Eva.  She began her life's journey with high hopes of becoming a professional dancer, following in her mother's footsteps.  During one of their family trips to the Tatshenshini River area in British Columbia, Eva age seven, shot her first rifle during a family shooting competition.  With help and guidance from her father, the first shot rang out followed by the dink of the can she was aiming for.  As impressive and exciting as this was for her and her family, dance remained her passion.  Eva enjoyed staying at camp alongside her mother, appreciating the natural beauty and serenity of the great outdoors.  As she got older, she also seemed to develop the same craving her father has for being outside, breathing fresh air and taking in all of Mother Nature's beauty, as well as adding hunting to the mix.

Taking Aim then explores what it means for women to enter that world of hunting, and in the process of discovering how our happiness is connected with learning who we are and what our lives are meant to become.

I received a free copy of this game from Blogging for Books in exchange for my honest review here.

My Review of "Evicted"

Matthew Desmond's Evicted:  Poverty and Profit in the American City is an amazing book, a narrative with a great degree of research, that highlights the hell in which scores of American poor live in our urban environments.  Desmond is a sociologist with a flair for crafting gripping narratives that demonstrate the statistics that undergird his research.  That's what makes Evicted a real page-turner.

Near the end of his book, Desmond tentatively introduces the concept of "exploitation", "a word that has been scrubbed out of the poverty debate".  But it properly belongs as part of that debate, and Evicted is just the kind of book that will replace it.  Poverty is one of the most lucrative businesses in our country, and Evicted exposes those businesses for what they are -- morally bankrupt.

I received a free copy of this game from Blogging for Books in exchange for my honest review here.

My Review of "How to Set a Table"

How to Set a Table is a marvelous entertaining guide for those who love to host friends and family.  It begins with an overview of all the different types of pieces needed for entertaining, and continues with a variety of different table placements (my favorite is the picnic blanket). 

I received a free copy of this game from Blogging for Books in exchange for my honest review here.

My Review of "Rewordable"

Rewordable is one of those intriguing things you see on your potential board game lists and, if you're a nerd like me, you can't resist.

At its heart, Rewordable is a card game for 2-8 people -- and the one with the biggest vocabulary wins!

Players take turns making words, using at least one card from their hand.  You can add to constructed words, steal from other players, or take from the common deck.  That's what makes this game a sheer joy for families and a must-have as we start approaching the holiday and winter season -- particularly as school get back into the swing.

I received a free copy of this game from Blogging for Books in exchange for my honest review here.

My Review of "Convicted"

Jameel McGee and Andrew Collins' Convicted: A Crooked Cop, an Innocent Man, and an Unlikely Journey of Forgiveness and Friendship tells the amazing story of the unlikely pair of men are working side-by-side at Cafe Mosaic in Benton Harbor:  One was unjustly sent to prison and the other is the former officer who sent him there.

Convicted tells the story of former Benton Harbor police officer Andrew Collins, now the manager at Cafe Mosaic, is the mentor for Jameel McGee of Benton Harbor, who spent four years in federal prison because of Mr. Collins' lies.  This story, though, is a unique one -- because it tells the difference Jesus makes in real relationships between those who would otherwise be enemies.

McGee was released from prison just days after Collins finally pleaded guilty to his own offenses in corruption.  With the patience of a good pastor, Collins finds forgiveness and ultimately restoration with McGee.

This is not a book to be missed!

I received a free copy of this book as part of the Blogging for Books program in exchange for my honest review here.

My Review of "Leading Lady"

Stephen Galloway's Leading Lady:  Sherry Lansing and the Making of a Hollywood Groundbreaker is a fascinating look at Sherry Lansing, whose appointment as head of 20th Century Fox in 1980 made her the first female president of a major Hollywood studio.  He follows Lansing from her Chicago childhood, explaining how her father's death and mother's resourcefulness influenced her strengths and insecurities.  A gawky teenager, she gained from moviegoing a desire to "reinvent herself" and as a young woman moved to California to follow her acting dreams.  Although this first career didn't last long, she found a mentor in producer Ray Wagner, who hired her as a script reader, a move that transformed her life.

Galloway captures the personal drive that allowed Lansing to forge a path through sexist Hollywood and shepherd films such as Kramer vs. Kramer, Forrest Gump, and Saving Private Ryan past creative obstacles to eventual success.  He also shows how she personally left her mark on many films, such as by helping to craft Fatal Attraction's revised, crowd-pleasing finale.

As the book draws to a close, Galloway describes how Lansing realized she wanted more out of life, and by 2005 left Hollywood behind to start a cancer research foundation.  Galloway has created a colorful page-turner chronicling Lansing's legacy as both a filmmaker and a philanthropist.

I received a free copy of this book as part of the Blogging for Books program in exchange for my honest review here.

My Review of "How We Love"

Milan & Kay Yerkovich's How We Love:  Discover Your Love Style, Enhance Your Marriage (expanded edition) is a fascinating book that every married couple should read.  Here, these two veteran marriage counselors help place our marriage within the larger context of each person's life -- family of origin, habits and contemporary behavior are all interconnected in ways that readers may not appreciate before How We Love.

The authors take the psychological tools of attachment theory to construct how our lives with early families can create "intimacy imprints" -- an underlying blueprint that shapes your behavior, beliefs, and expectations of all relationships, especially your marriage.  How We Love outlines four of those imprint "styles" and goes to out explore how each of those styles interact with others in particular marriages to create the drama of our marriages.

This is an amazing little book that offers a lot of hope for marriages that may have gotten stuck.

I received a free copy of this book as part of the Blogging for Books program in exchange for my honest review here.

My Review of "The Midnight Queen"

Sylvia Izzo Hunter's The Midnight Queen:  A Noctus Magicae Novel blends magic, intrigue and romance to create a fun fantasy, which is set in an alternate Regency England.

Graham "Gray" Marshall has been drained of his magic and blamed for the death of a fellow student at the College of Merlin in Oxford.  He can't really refuse when his teacher, Prof. Appius Callender, drags him off to his distant country house for the summer break -- even though he thinks Callender is part of a conspiracy to murder Lord Halifax, the Master of Merlin College.

Gray is befriended by Callender's middle daughter, Sophie, and the two set to work uncovering the truth about the conspiracy.  Along the way, they discover that Sophie's father has lied to her about her own magical abilities, and find the hidden truth about Sophie's own family history.

Although the novel begins as Gray's story, Sophie quickly takes over the spotlight.  Their romance, the twisty intrigue, and Hunter's colorful alt-Regency setting, complete with drawing rooms, balls, and barouches, will charm fans of romantic fantasy.

The Midnight Queen is a fun page-turner for the summer.

I received a free copy of this book as part of the Blogging for Books program in exchange for my honest review here.

My Review of "Sinners in the Hands of a Loving God"

Brian Zahnd's Sinners in the Hands of a Loving God: The Scandalous Truth of the Very Good News is, in a word, breathtaking!

Zahnd is working toward a radical (getting-to-the-root) Christ-centered biblical hermeneutic.  I was soaking up every word of this beautifully written, entirely accessible, utterly practical theology book that combines rich faith with practical living.

This really is a book of "Very Good News" and it points toward a sea-change that's happening among Christian evangelical preachers these days.  I won't give away too much, but by the time you get to the second chapter ("Closing the Book on Vengeance"), be prepared to read slowly.  I've dog-eared my copy at page 30 (once you read it, you'll find out why).

But Chapter 7 is my favorite.  Honestly, if all you did was buy this book and read that chapter, you'd have your money's worth.  I have honestly never read anything that so clearly and simply explained the right way to approach Revelation before.  It's amazing.  Really, amazing.

I'm excited there are books like this in the world.  I plan to get a couple of copies just to share around with friends.

I received a free copy of this book as part of the Blogging for Books program in exchange for my honest review here.

My Review of "He Calls You Beautiful"

Dee Brestin's He Calls You Beautiful: Hearing the Voice of Jesus in the Song of Songs offers a rich Bible study resource for women -- focusing on the poetry of the Song of Songs as a love poem of Jesus for every woman's heart.

Rather than considering the Song of Songs as being only about marriage or only an allegory about Christ and the soul, Brestin shows that both are true -- in that the Song uses a picture of earthly marriage as a metaphor for the intimacy Jesus longs to have with every woman's heart.

I received a free copy of this book as part of the Blogging for Books program in exchange for my honest review here.

My Review of "Finally Focused"

James Greenblatt's Finally Focused is a great resource for parents and educators who struggle to adapt ADHD students into a gracious and productive childhood.  Greenblatt offers a number of non-pharmacological solutions, and in that way Finally Focused will be extremely useful for parents who are searching for help.

I received a free copy of this book as part of the Blogging for Books program in exchange for my honest review here.