The Searchers by Joseph Loconte

The Searchers was an interesting read.  Purported to be about the men on the road to Emmaus after the death of their hoped-for Messiah, Jesus, I felt like it had very little to do with them.  However, as Loconte fills the book with scores of current pop culture references to relate how those men must have felt, it did do the job of being "A Quest for Faith in the Valley of Doubt."  Those references kept me interested, and it supplied some new ways of looking at very old ideas, mainly doubt in the face of great seeming tragedy.

The book was intriguing, and I was interested with how Loconte related grief felt after recent tragedies like the Japanese tsunami in 2011 to the grief those men felt as they walked away from Jerusalem over 2000 years ago.  They were different types of grief felt by people in vastly different cultures, and yet grief is a universal feeling that no human can avoid.  Jesus met with the men on the road to Emmaus amidst their grief, just as He meets with us today.

I found the book encouraging and hopeful.  The way Loconte describes events was informative and entertaining and kept me wanting to read.

I received this book free from booksneeze.com in exchange for my honest review.

Stand By Me by Neta Jackson

This book is about two women, one a young college girl practically disowned by her parents for becoming a Christian and abandoning pre-med studies to study at a Christian college. The other is a middle aged woman having trouble with her second husband and runaway adult daughter. Both women are committed to Christ, but when their lives cross, don't see eye to eye with each other. The story is about how it turns out they both need each other and tells of how God can use the most unusual or unexpected person to bring about change in our lives.

The story was pretty good, it flowed well and kept me reading. The characters were sometimes pretty annoying in their stubborn habits, and the women of the Yada Yada prayer group were cheesy (as evidenced by the name of the group!). Not really a style of book I would read again.

I received this book for free from booksneeze.com to review.

Bonhoeffer: Pastor, Martyr, Prophet, Spy by Eric Metaxas

I loved reading this book!  A very inspiring man, who truly lived what he preached, and was killed for it.  Bonhoeffer opposed the Reich Church of Germany under Hitler, which was very much against Jews and any kind of Jewish teaching (effectively saying most of the Bible was worthless to them).  He also took his faith a step further in becoming a key player in a conspiracy to assassinate Hitler and undermine the Nazis.

I was actually not excited to start it, even though I wanted to know more about this man.  I was a little intimidated by the number of pages (542!), and I sometimes get bogged down in the facts (dates and places, etc) in biographies, but this one was so intriguing to me, in part because of the way the author wrote it but also because WWII history fascinates me, and it was so interesting and uplifting to read a lot of Bonhoeffer's theological thoughts.

Love Amid the Ashes by Mesu Andrews

This book is one author's interpretation of the story of Job from the Bible. I love reading Bible stories made into fiction even though author's have to take poetic license. And that very fact makes me go back to my Bible and read the story for myself again to know what parts of the novel are fact, which is always a good practice too. 

This story follows Dinah, daughter of Jacob (brother of Esau), who has been shamed her whole life because of a mistake she made as a young woman, and the misinterpretation that came from that. She finds her way into Job's home and life and witnesses all his suffering. The author does a fairly good job of portraying Job's suffering, although the loss of all his children didn't seem to be grieved as much as I thought would be. But his unswerving faithfulness to Yahweh is an incredible example for us today to follow, no matter what hardships come our way. The story, and the way this author writes it, reminds me that God's ways are better than mine, He always knows best, and yet He is okay with us questioning Him. He is a loving and caring God. 

One thing I found a little hard to believe while reading, aside from the minimal grieving over lost children, was that Job's wife, named Sitis in this book, who was completely turned away from God and worshipped idols, seemed to transform completely into a woman entirely devoted to Him after one conversation with Dinah about God's forgiveness. And then I thought, why couldn't that happen? God can do miracles in people's hearts, and no doubt stuff like that has happened before. Why don't we expect miracles like that more often? 

This book was an interesting read and made me think about God's forgiveness and His power to heal, physically and spiritually

Invasion by Jon S. Lewis

Ok.  I think it's safe to say I'm a geek.  I guess I've always known it, as I've enjoyed such shows as Star Trek and Stargate-SG1.  But after reading this book, I must admit it in writing.

The story is about a 16-year-old boy, Colt, whose parents are killed in a car accident, and when that begins to look suspicious, he is pulled against his will into a world that most people on planet Earth know nothing about.  It's filled with 'bridges' from our planet to other, often more dangerous worlds, and there is an agency on Earth called CHAOS who secretly fights to keep the bridges closed and take care of any ill-intentioned aliens that might sneak through a rift.

Of course none of the book is believable, in that its all about monsters and highly sophisticated scientific advancements and technology gleaned from other planets.  But it's still an enjoyable read for those who enjoy sci-fi.  I'm going to say it's target audience is teenage boys, as the main character is a teenage boy and his two 'side kicks' throughout the book are also teenagers.  Though the publisher of the book is Thomas Nelson, the story is not overtly Christian; the only inclusions are a reference to a Bible study, mention of a church service where the story of King David sending Uriah to his death in battle is briefly touched on, and Colt's romantic interest inviting him to sing a duet with him at the next service.  But the impression is that Colt's grandfather deems church attendance as very valuable, as does said romantic interest.  And even with all the alien fights and sci-fi stuff, it's not gruesome or offensive.

** I received this book free from booksneeze.com to review.**

The Help by Kathryn Stockett

I've been waiting for a long time to read this book!  It was so popular at my library that I was about 12th on the reservation list, they changed the check-out time to two weeks instead of three, and I couldn't renew if I wanted to.  So I was hoping it was as good as all that.  And it sure was!

The story is set in Mississippi in the 1960's, and follows the lives of black women working as household servants and child care.  The attitudes of most whites in that time and place are still that of blacks being inferior, but one young white woman hatches a plan to expose the horrendous, but also often heart-warming, treatment of the 'help.'  She has to very secretly meet with house maids, gain their trust, and compile their stories, all while faced with unreasonable deadlines and an editor from New York who has shown only mild interest in the idea.  Throughout the book, the treatment of these women range from tragic and outrageous, to kind and generous, and sometimes they fight back in their own subtle and funny way.

This was an enjoyable book to read, even though it had its low points as far as the hardships the author writes about.  I definitely recommend it!

The Christian Zombie Killers Handbook by Jeff Kinley

I must say I'm a little embarrassed, based on the title/cover, to have people know I read this book.  I'm not a zombie kinda girl.  But the title is precisely what prompted me to want to read it.  From the second I saw it on the list of books at booksneeze.com, I knew I wanted it.  The title was compelling, and based on the subtitle, "Slaying the Living Dead Within," I figured it was a non fiction Christian self-help type book with a catchy title to get people like me hooked into buying (or otherwise acquiring).

The book was not a whole lot like what I was expecting, but it was very intriguing!  It is half fiction and half non fiction, which is weird to read together, but the author makes it work.  For every 'episode' of the zombie story (which is pretty gory and grotesque at times), there's a corresponding chapter on how our sin nature is like a zombie, how when we succumb to it we are like the living dead because we die inside.   Humans do wicked things, and that capacity to do wrong is born into each of us.   Paraphrasing from the book: 'It affects everyone; male and female; old and young; civilized and barbarian; religious and pagan; ancient and postmodern...  Our default mode is self and anti-God.'

Kinley pulls some amazing analogies, describing how horridly wretched we are from birth, explaining in detail how the fall of Adam is the beginning of our downfall.  When Adam and Eve sinned they died inside.  It was like a virus entered them (just like a virus passed from person to person makes people become zombies; at least in Kinley's created story).  "This sin virus is 100 percent lethal and 'heir'-born, passed from parent to child in an unbroken chain of humanity.  Currently 6 billion carriers worldwide."

Most of the book is actually quite negative, as Kinley writes again and again how we are dirty and not worthy of God's salvation, but it is somehow written in a way that doesn't feel overly depressing, but as to make you really want to change and strive to be free in Christ from your 'inner zombie.'

I felt the book was written with teens in mind, though it definitely applies to my life as well.  It is culturally relevant, with references to Facebook and even Justin Beiber, and of course the zombie genre is currently fairly popular.  And the way he explains our downfalls and how we can redeem ourselves, not through our own works, but only through a real relationship with Jesus and by accepting the salvation He's bought for us, just totally clicked with me and I imagine would with many people.

I enjoyed this book, even though this was not the kind of book I anticipated.  It is well done and interesting.

**I received this book free from booksneeze to review.