031 - Starving Jesus
This book wasn’t anything spectacular, but was still a decent read. If you enjoy biographies or need to jump start your Christian life then check this book out. It might be right up your alley.
030 - Already Gone
I would recommend this book to anyone who teaches Sunday school or volunteers with young people at a church. The most incredible statistic that was uncovered through this research is that students who attend Sunday school are more likely to leave church than those who just attend the main service each week. Perhaps the research in this book should inspire the church to revaluate their programs. The research is great, but the answer Ham proposes doesn’t seem like it will solve the problem.
029 - Sounder
William H. Armstrong wrote this book several years ago and it has been an American classic for a while now. The book would probably be good for any child getting into chapter books, but caution must be taken considering how real the story is. All in all this book was an interesting read, with a great plot, and tense emotions through the whole book.
028 - Saving God's Green Earth
The book offers lots of insights and ideas for making your life more green. It offers encouragement and internet resources for those seeking accountability and community through the book’s website. Robinson has written an excellent book that should convince every Christian to step up and start taking care of nature. If you’re not sure if a Christian can be an environmentalist or if you’re a closet environmentalist then this book is for you.
027 - Red Rabbit
The only issue I take with Clancy is that in his writing often it takes me a while to really grasp the story. This book starts off extremely slow, and takes a while to build the many characters. Clancy introduces so many characters so fast, I found myself re-reading pages to figure out exactly who he’s talking about. However, to my understanding this task gets easier since many of Clancy’s books return to the same group of characters.
Red Rabbit was a great story and had a strong plot. The twist was somewhat predictable though and offered little extra to the story. Also, I wonder if perhaps Clancy spent a little too much time on the details rather than on the story itself. I found that this book was very easy to put down and self-discipline is the only way I finished it. I would classify the last 100 pages as a “page-turner” but wading through the first 500 might not be worth it.
026 - The Lovely Bones
The killer was weaved in and out of the story but never caught, leaving him free to continue killing. At one point, the book seemed to imply he was interested in the dead girls’ sister but that thread in the plot dropped off immediately after it was introduced. I felt the father was admirable in his pursuit of the killer. Although, it was sad that he didn’t have a belief in God and heaven so that he could find peace with his daughter’s death.
The dead girl’s mother has an affair with the police lieutenant and then moves to California but the book didn’t seem to make a clear reason for this. In the beginning, it seemed to be due to reasons that had nothing to do with the girls’ death but later it hints that her reasons were due to the death or the reaction of the father to the death. It was very unclear. At the end, the dead girl’s ghost comes back and while in her friend’s body was able to have sex with the boyfriend she had at the time of her death. Apparently, neither she nor the boyfriend were able to move on with their “lives” until this happened. It is hard to imagine that a 14 year old boy could not move on to another love in the course of 8 or 9 years in which this story took place. And earlier in the story, her sister has extramarital sex at the age of 14 but grows up to live happily ever after with this boyfriend. This romanticizes extramarital sex and gives unrealistic notions to any young reader. The author uses sex to solve everyone’s problems or maybe she intended for it to just cure everyone’s loneliness. From a Christian view, the author’s use of sex was shallow and definitely not the answers to seek during the times of losing a loved one(s).
This book was at one time a “#1 bestseller” and is described as “succeeds, miraculously, in building a tale filled with hope, humor, suspense, even joy.” I don’t see that. Overall, I was disappointed with the weak plot, disappointing ending, and lack of Christian values.
Submitted by - K. Wynn
025 - Ralph S. Mouse
The book is a simple but quite entertaining. The simple plot looks something like this: Boy meets mouse. Boy takes mouse to school. School kids think mouse is cool. Mouse wants to go home. Boy returns mouse. All in all a simple plot, but a great story. This book is well written and engages the mind of any youngster who may be reading it. I would recommend this book to any young person looking for a good book who is reading chapter books. This is one of the better chapter books I’ve read by a great author.
024 - Follow Me to Freedom
023 - Prince of Tides
And it is a story of a sister and two brothers who bond together against these odds. Their struggles in life are stifling at times but they always have each other to carry them through. Although, their untold stories inhibits them from healing. The sister suffers from schizophrenia with her childhood revisiting her in the form of demons and hallucinations. The brother takes from life what is good and precious to him, only to be cheated of it by his mother’s pursuit of elitism. The brother (“The Prince of Tides”) loses his life in the struggle, breaking the bond that kept the three siblings strong. At this point, the remaining brother and sister begin losing their battle with life. It takes the telling of the family story by the remaining brother to allow the family to heal, where it was not possible before. The brother telling the story has felt that his past is behind him and has no impact on his current adult life. As he tells the story to save his sister, he learns it has influenced his life and the wrongs it has made in his life, thereby saving him, as well as his sister.
I felt this book was an incredible tale of tragedy and its effects on three bonded siblings. They dealt with their tragedy in different ways although none of their ways could save them. One sibling fought out and lost his life, the next gave up hers. The last sibling who had chosen to ignore it all was forced to face the issues in order to save his sister and his self.
Sometimes Christians mistakenly think that to “forgive and forget” means to put aside any ills without future consideration or assessment of its impact on our lives. To “dwell” on something means you are unwilling to forgive and thereby disobeying God. But this kind of thinking often inhibits healing. I believe God wants us to explore our true feelings, not ignore them. By working through past issues, we can move on to the future. Working through our misgivings gives us the power to truly forgive. And forgiving is not forgetting. To forget would not allow us to move forward from our problems. It would also not allow us to see the awesome things God can bring out of our tragedies. If there had been a “Prince of Tides 2”, I believe it would have been a wonderful story of the growth and freedom the brother and sister gained and the new life God gave them.
022 - Blue Like Jazz
Don is not prudent with holding any of his flaws and failures from his readers. Never before have I read a book by an author, where afterward I feel like I have just made a new friend. He is so intimate in sharing his life. This is extraordinary on its own, because one of his flaws he so willingly shares is his fear of intimacy. His words are brilliantly written and his life is a proof of God’s changing power.
021 - On Church Leadership
This book in particular was really good. It was based on the idea of helping people look at the Scriptures to see how God would want to church to set up their leadership. Driscoll gives the reasons his church (Mars Hill in Seattle) uses these guidelines. He offers his interpretation of difficult topics like women-pastors, elders, and more. The only problem with this book is that I’m not sure how many churches that are established would be willing to totally restructure their entire model of leadership because an 80 page book told them to. Worth your time, but the price seems pretty high for a book you can read in an hour.
020 - Knowing God
019 - Don't Waste Your Life
All in all this book was great. Very interesting and a quick read. However, if you have read his book Desiring God then this one will seem to repeat some of that information. Don’t Waste Your Life has plenty of great information and since Desiring God is sort of Piper’s masterpiece there is no wonder why some of it’s ideas ended up in this book. Still, worth your time and would be a great gift.
018 - The Teeth of the Tiger
For the most part, The Teeth of the Tiger was a great read. As stated earlier since it was written for men, and I am a man, I thoroughly enjoyed it. My only problem came near the end of the novel. As I approached the last 50 pages I began to wonder how the book was going to end. And then it did. It was interesting up to the end, but nothing to make the book memorable. No great obstacle to overcome. Just an ending.
017 - Eragon Series
Eragon, a simple farm boy begins his journey outside the walls of his hometown when a dragon egg hatches for him. He becomes a chosen dragon rider and the one true hope against the evil of a tyrant king. His social circle takes a dramatic change from blacksmiths, shop keepers, and farm animals to dwarves, elves, urgals, and magicians.
The amount of war and death in the story makes your stomach turn and provokes your mind to examine and question the reasons behind war. Though not condemning war, this series unmasks real life issues attatched to the souls of warriors. For a youthful, fantasy series it tackles many real life issues. I am amazed at how a youth like Paolini can have so much insight into life experiences. Eragon. Eldest. Brisinger. And now we await the fourth and final book of this amazing adventure.
016 - Religion Saves and Nine Other Misconceptions
015 - Running in Circles
014 - The Shaping of Things to Come
013 - A Million Miles in a Thousand Years
012 - Forgotten God
011 - Tortured For Christ
010 - Velvet Elvis
009 - Vintage Jesus
008 - Corporate Canaries
The book is very unique look at leadership and management skills. Sutton takes a few pages to tell the reader a story from his grandfather’s life as a coal miner. He then draws conclusions for managers based on the life lessons his grandfather learned. The only drawback I can see is that I bought this book assuming that it would include something transferable to church leadership. However, most of the practical steps were designed for managers and higher-ups in companies, not necessarily the church. I would recommend this book to anyone seeking advice in the area of business or management.
007 - The Testament
Additionally, I did not expect so many spiritual aspects in a John Grisham novel. I felt like I was reading a Christian novel, except it was really good. He tackles the issue of greed and pierces the hearts of his American readers.
Grisham does a great job of painting a picture of what the love of money can do to a person. His characters are highly developed and their financially destructive behaviors are portrayed brilliantly. Your stomach turns sick as you encounter the wastefulness of the rich in opposition to the hunger and disease of the poor. These irresponsible spenders are contrasted against the selfless Christian missionary. Worldviews and morals clash in this adventurous journey toward the eternal.
006 -The DaVinci Code
Intriguing! Dan Brown is a very captivating writer. The plot is thick, deep, and dripping with mystery. I was glued to every page. The level of intelligence and creativity that he possesses in his writing is obvious and what makes the story worth reading.
Yet the book is also loaded with false history. Dan creates his own facts based on real historical events to fit the plot of his fictional story. The problem with this is that the average reader does not know what to take as real historical fact and created fact. Even in fictional stories, you expect plot points based on facts to be true. That is what makes a story realistic and even more exciting to read. Yet the way Dan creates his own facts makes the story more closely comparable to a science fiction novel than any other type of novel. The facts were created to sound realistic but anyone educated in world history or church history would find these things to be false. Yet his created facts are what makes the story exciting! And exciting it is!
He is a fascinating author, and I do recommend this book. But I also recommend that it be coupled with a church history book or other historical records. Indulge in the fantastic twists and turns of this fantasy novel but do not let the conspiracy theories get the best of your educated brain.
005 - Crazy Love
004 - A Hole in the World
HOLE IN THE WORLD
003 - The Open Gate
002 - Irresistible Revolution
Yet, I invite you to read this book with open minds and hearts, considering the character and call of Christ. His words are both sweet and piercing. And they come from a man who has every right to say them. His life experiences are mind blowing and prove to be the shapings of his personality and convictions.
What captivates me the most is his genuine love for EVERYONE. He takes that simple statement so much deeper than I can describe. I highly recommend this book to anyone. If you are someone who is looking to start reading Shane’s stuff, I think this would be a good one to start with because it gives so much life background.
001 - Mission in the Old Testament
Unless Israel's role in the Old Testament is an intriguing thing to you, you may not want to pick up this little volume. Yet, if the Old Testament is interesting to you and you have a spare afternoon you could quickly make your way through this book.