My Review of "Paris Street Style"

Coloring books are all the rage for adults.  And this sleek, chic coloring book is yet another of the treasures of that trend.  This is a fabulous coloring book that brings together the durability of a hardback, the appearance of style with its own in-laid black book mark, and double-sided pages that are thick enough so as not to allow bleeding-through when one actually takes to coloring.

The graphics are feminine to get any woman who's resisted the coloring craze to this point, to give into the temptation.

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 "Raising the Perfectly Imperfect Child"

Some time ago, I read Nick Vujicic's Love Without Limits: A Remarkable Story of True Love Conquering All.  It's an amazing book in its own right, and part of Nick's account there is the love of his parents and its strength in his life.

I was over-joyed, then, to discover his dad's account of that love in Raising the Perfectly Imperfect Child:  Facing Challenges with Strength, Courage and Hope.  It's another amazing book that develops a deeply faithful and joyfully hopeful account of parenting for those whose children present "challenges" (such as our culture would call them).  The clear message of the book?  Become an advocate for your child, because it's in that advocacy that love is revived and thrives.

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 "God Dreams"

Will Mancini's God Dreams: 12 Vision Templates for Finding and Focusing Your Church's Future is both a roadmap and a toolbox, but even more:  It rejects that one size fits all approach that's so common in church growth studies.  God Dreams is not even a many sizes fit most approach, but rather a "find your size and fit it" approach that is surprisingly refreshing.

With all of the tools, resources, charts, graphs, templates, etc, that Mancini has provided to flesh out all of the ideas with your leadership team, pastors will actually feel like you're stealing.  I know the usual model -- say some stuff in the book, but sell your $5,000 coaching program on every page.  Mancini, though, rejects that approach.  Instead, in the best coaching for church leadership that I've read in a long, long time, Mancini offers particular ways forward for churches who long to find and focus on the dream God has for their particular community.

I can't praise God Dreams too highly.  If you read no other church leadership book for 2016, make Mancini's God Dreams that book.

I received a free copy of this book from B&H Publishing in exchange for my honest review here.

My Review of "Rain"

Cynthia Barnett's Rain:  A Natural and Cultural History is a real treat!  It's a book that kept me reading precisely because this was a book about something I'd never read elsewhere, something so simply as everyday life:  Rain.

Rain is a masterwork of creative nonfiction, an epic built entirely around the humble, parachute-shaped raindrop.  You read that right.  Raindrops fall from the sky fat end up, tapered end pointing toward the ground.  Never heard that one before?  Me either.  Like I said, this book is amazing precisely because of the things it continually brings to your attention in new and exciting ways.

Barnett fills her history of rain with such rarely seen, rarely mentioned observations.  Over and over, she focuses on the uncommon details of natural phenomena and historical events most of us never think twice about because we think we already know them.  According to Barnett, a lack of rain has helped bring down civilizations from Mesopotamia to the Americas.  Fourteenth-century witch hunts in Europe were fueled by the continuous rains and freak storms of the Little Ice Age.  An English amateur meteorologist came up with the cloud classification system that gave us the term "cloud nine".

Those sorts of details are the kinds that makes this book a real treasure -- the new ideas fall like a refreshing rain.

 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 "Law of the Jungle"

Paul Barrett's Law of the Jungle: The $19 Billion Legal Battle  over Oil in the Rain Forest and the Lawyer Who'd Stop at Nothing to Win explores the long-running class action lawsuit against Chevron in Ecuador in a narrative that reads like a John Grisham novel.

Law of the Jungle is the real-life story of plaintiffs' lawyer Stephen Donziger and what the book's cover describes as his "obsessive crusade -- waged at any cost" against Chevron allegedly on behalf of the inhabitants of Ecuador's Amazon rain forest.  It's also the story of how Chevron turned the tables on Donziger's corrupt scheme, filing a civil racketeering lawsuit that accused the plaintiffs' lawyer of trying to extort money from the company through massive fraud.

An, of course, Chevron won that racketeering case, when U.S. District Court Judge Lewis Kaplan ruled that Donziger had obtained a $19 billion judgment against the oil company in Ecuador by promising the ruling Ecuadorian judge a $500,000 bribe. 

This is the book for legal buffs and folks who enjoy a good rollicking time through legal maneuvering.

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 "Hot Bread Kitchen Cookbook"

The Hot Bread Kitchen Cookbook is an amazing resource that has recipes for newcomers as well as seasoned chefs. While the emphasis is, indeed, on bread baking, The Hot Bread Kitchen Cookbook is a wonderful collection of recipes that accomplish exactly what the subtitle claims:  "Artisanal Baking from around the World".  The Hot Bread Kitchen, of course, employs and empowers women immigrants from around the world -- so one would expect that their cookbook would be such a wonderful resource.

It begins with a short, but surprisingly thorough, section on bread baking, which unlocks the mysteries of artisanal bakery breads. Then you're off on a trip around the world and its varied cultural breads through recipes such as m'smen, soft lavash, nan-e-barbari, tortillas, onion bialys, and stollen. When you're exhausted from that world-journey, classic bread recipes such as challah, rye, Parker House rolls, and monkey bread just waiting for a relaxing day at home with some bread to snack on.

But let me be honest here:  "Filled Doughs from Around the World" is the section that makes this book worth the purchase.

This is a cookbook that belongs on the shelf of every bread lover -- and would make the perfect Christmas gift.

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 "Cheap Chic"

Cheap Chic is a classic 70s fashion bible.  Other fashion lovers online sing its praises on the amazing tips and tricks they learn from this book on creating your own style.  Most of the women in my life are deep believers in developing their own fashion, so Cheap Chic is a great gift idea.  There are some great tips and advice on creating personal style and not being a trend follower but setter.

Cheap Chic offers wonderful tips on where to shop, where to look and how to be frugal and pick timeless pieces.  It's a must for any lady that loves the world of fashion.

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