Allah's Fire by Gayle Roper and Chuck Holton

Allah's Fire is basically about modern terrorism, the mindset of the people believing Allah wants them to martyr themselves, the devastation of those caught in their attacks, and how good people fight back.  The book starts out as two separate stories, one of an American young woman who grew up in Lebanon and is back for some journalistic work, another of an Explosives Specialist team leader in the US Army who is sent with his team to Lebanon to investigate a new kind of explosive that's been used by terrorists.  The two stories eventually mingle into one, and comes to a nail-biting conclusion.

As I've said before, I love reading about the Middle East.  It fascinates me, and I enjoy learning about different sides to a story, so it's interesting to hear some of what fundamentalists believe, and it's incredible that though a lot of women live destitute lives and feel lonely and abused, a lot of them agree with what they've been taught; that women are to be completely submissive, should be allowed to be beaten or killed by their husbands if they disobey, and shouldn't have any rights.  It's very sad, but educational and opens up my worldview.

I also really like reading military operations books.  I think very highly of men and women brave enough to protect the innocent by knowingly putting themselves at risk.  And though I know there is a lot of corruption with military personnel, and between them and governments, it is interesting to read how they get things done, the levels of classification, and even how foreign governments covertly ask for help from the US (or other) Army, but will publicly deny asking them to intervene.

Anyway, this book was a really great read, and I'm anxious to find the next one in the series.

When Heaven Weeps by Ted Dekker

Alright, this is now the third Ted Dekker book I've read, and I'm sorry to say I haven't liked any of them.  I keep reading more because I have friends who tell me even if I didn't like that one, I'm sure to like this one!  This one was the best of the three, but his genre is too weird for my liking.  The books I've read all have some grand analogy that the reader is supposed to relate to something spiritual, some unseen battle or grand revelation and I just never quite get the connection he's trying to make.  There are good parts about all of the books that kind of keep me guessing and wanting to find out what's going on, but I do find a lot of the smaller plots are never fully resolved.

For example in this book, right at the beginning a woman discovers a new plant growing out of a rose bush that just died.  This plant is unfamiliar to her, and within 2 weeks it has almost taken over her garden, blossoming with huge beautiful, yet unfamiliar white flowers, with a smell that almost overpowers.  When she brings in her botanist friend, he studies it and concludes it's a new type of flower.  This subplot with the flowers is underlying throughout the book.  Near the end, the botanist tells her he has discovered something special about this plant, but she tells him to wait to tell her until later.  Then it never comes up again in the book.  Unless I completely missed some deeper meaning.  After all, the whole book is about some deeper meaning of the depth of God's love for us, and I didn't completely get that analogy either.

Now I'm going to just be nitpicky, but another thing that bugs me is name choice.  If you're writing a fiction novel, you have free reign of choosing whatever names you want for your characters.  The main character in this book, as chosen by the author, is Janjic Jovic.  Tell me, how do you pronounce that?  I know he's supposed to be from Bosnia so the name has to fit that style, but even in the book there are other Bosnians with easier names, like Mosolov.  I looked up the pronunciation of the first name, which is Yanic.  So then is the 'j' in the last name also pronounced as a 'y'?  Then it just sounds kind of funny. I just figure if you can choose any name in the world, or even make up your own, couldn't you pick something that's easier and flows better?  Even if I'm reading it in my head, I like to know how to pronounce something, and Janjic Jovic never rolled off my 'tongue,' so to speak, and it bugs me.

Something got me thinking however.  I have always really liked books by Frank Peretti.  And after contemplating some of his novels, they are no more 'weird' or less filled with analogies than Dekker's.  Their styles of writing aren't that different.  But I think Peretti's analogies must be easier to follow, because I generally get all of his (which maybe says too much about what my brain can and cannot comprehend)!  So sorry to anyone who has recommended Ted Dekker to me.  I'm a lost cause...

While Mortals Sleep by Jack Cavanaugh

Man, that Jack Cavanaugh is one talented author.  I've enjoyed every book I've read by him so far, and I've read a lot now!  This book takes place during World War II, and is about a pastor who has to decide if he will follow the new leader of Germany and abandon some of what he believes is right, or endanger his own life as well as that of his young wife and unborn child to stand up for what he believes in.

There's also some horrendous descriptions of things that went on, not including concentration camps.  This was just at the beginning of Hitler's reign of terror, and to read what was happening to Jews on the streets (since they weren't all rounded up and sent off yet), the medical experiments performed on live humans, the 'cleansing' of those deemed less than human, especially babies (handicapped or disabled in some way), and how Hitler preyed on young boys and basically brainwashed them into joining his forces and believing everything he was doing was right and good, raising up a nearly unstoppable army with the vigor and passion of youth.  Those things are hard to read and I even cried in some parts, but I like that I learn things or see with greater clarity when those stories are made personal, even through fictitious characters.

It's another great page-turner, one that I read far into the night, not wanting to stop at the end of each chapter.  There's twists and turns you'd never expect, and also some insight into why so many pastors in Germany during that time did choose to follow Hitler, especially at the beginning.  All in all, a great historical fiction.

Outlive Your Life by Max Lucado

This book is amazing!  It's all about changing the world one life at a time.  It's about showing people Jesus, but also serving those less loveable by the world's standards, saving children from death by adopting or giving money to helpful charities, visiting lonely elderly people or those in prison, and praying with intensity, even for those we may think of as unreachable.  I love Lucado's way with words, how he makes ordinary, often-repeated Bible stories come to life in a new way, and how he uses stories or word pictures to make his point stand out, and to make a big lump of emotion stick in my throat.  I love how the book is so encouraging, not guilt-inducing.  It's so positive and challenging.  Definitely two thumbs up for this one!

With by Skye Jethani

In this book, the author, Skye Jethani lists five ways people relate to God.  There is Life Under God, Life Over God, Life For God, Life From God and Life With God.  I will try and paraphrase the examples Jethani gives of each posture.

The Life Under God posture  is like when a business man seeks to make things right with God so that God will bless his business.

Life Over God is like a leader of a church putting prayer on a back burner and rather adopting a more contemporary approach to running a church like secular organizations, by understanding market forces and such.

Life For God is like the young student of a Christian college who is not sure anymore that she should go to medical school because she thinks she needs to ‘make something of her life’ and become a missionary.  She feels if she doesn’t do something the Christian world would think is significant, she has failed God.

Life From God is like the mother who is in despair because her teenaged son is depressed and using drugs and other destructive behavior, and she’s hurt and angry that God is not intervening.  She’s always raised her son on biblical principles, and honoured God in her home.  She feels like God is punishing her.

Any one of these postures is probably eerily familiar to all of us.  But they are all ways of controlling God for our own benefit.  We can’t control God, and trying to will only lead to a desperate cycle of trying more of the same.  The main point Jethani makes is that God just wants to be with us.  He wants us just as we are, and he wants to be in communion with us, to have a deep relationship with us.

This book really got me thinking.  I was kind of back and forth deciding if I liked it or not in the first few chapters, just because a lot of what the author says seems very controversial.  But in the end I realized I agree with him.  The other postures are ways that we seek to control God, not have a relationship with Him.  Jethani suggests we should live so that 'God would cease to be how we acquire our treasure, and he would become our treasure.' He states that even though the aspostle Paul was a great leader and missionary, and it seems as if God’s mission dominated his life, it did not define it.  If you study Paul’s letters closely you will see that ‘everything in the apostle’s life, including God’s mission, took a backseat to his paramount goal: God himself.’  The Life with God posture is different than the other four listed because 'its goal is not to use God, it's goal is God.'  

This is a very thought provoking, liberating and encouraging book.  I definitely recommend it.

Choosing to SEE by Mary Beth Chapman

I finally got around to reading this one.  I've had it on my 'to read' list for a long time, but other books always caught my attention before I could get my hands on this one.  I finally saw it sitting at my Grandma's house and was going to borrow it but she just said I could have it.

It is an amazing book!  It went way beyond my expectations!  The author is the wife of singer Steven Curtis Chapman.  For those who aren't familiar with the Chapmans' story, about four years ago their 17-year-old son accidentally hit their 5-year-old daughter with his car and killed her.  The book is Mary Beth's life story, but a large majority of the book focuses on this tragedy and the aftermath.  I love true stories and biographies, especially about Christians making it through tough times.  I loved that in this book she is totally honest about her grief, how she would get so mad at God and yell at Him, how she would break down remembering her daughter in the weirdest places, how she has this head knowledge that God is in control and there is hope because they'll get to see their daughter again in heaven, but it's so hard to believe it and live it on a daily basis.  I know the death of a family, especially a child, must be the worst kind of pain, but as I'm going through other losses in my life, it's encouraging to hear other peoples' stories, even if they're completely different situations.  It's nice to know grief is not cut and dried; everyone handles it differently.

I also liked reading about the blessings they received in the little things after their daughter's death.  Things like after returning to their house, they found a picture she had drawn of a flower with six petals (they had six kids) and only one petal was coloured in, in her favourite colour.  On the back of the paper she wrote SEE, a word they'd never seen her write before.  It spoke to them that she was the one 'petal' of the family who was safe with Jesus.  And the word SEE was like her saying "SEE?  Can you SEE?  Everything is going to be all right.  I am here with Jesus.  I am fine.  Heaven is real, the gospel is true, you just have to SEE!"  Obviously this little girl didn't know she was going to die and wasn't prophetic, but it's like God used her before she died to give the family a measure of peace afterwards.  Some people say it's a coincidence, but I like thinking of it as a miracle.  I heard a sermon a while ago about how God still does do miracles today but we often just sweep it under the rug or discount it as coincidence, when really God is always working.

Another very cool thing was that their daughter LOVED ladybugs.  When they went to pick a burial plot for her they found a ladybug there, and almost every time they've visited they find a ladybug.  One day when they were releasing balloons with notes written on them as a memorial, their other young daughter suddenly had a ladybug land on her finger, sit there for a bit and then fly away with the balloons.  How cool that God would do that!

Here is a verse she included in the book that is encouraging to me.  It is Psalm 30:5 in The Message translation: "The nights of crying your eyes out give way to days of laughter."

The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini

The Kite Runner is a fictional story about an Afghan man named Amir who immigrated to America with his dad when he was 12, leaving behind the family's beloved servant Ali and his son Hassan, who was just a year younger than Amir.  The two boys grew up playing together and had a very interesting relationship.  Even though it's a work of fiction, the book is filled with what would be normal daily activities in Afghanistan before the Taliban took over, as well as what has likely happened aplenty after they marched in.


I really enjoyed this book.  It is a very intriguing page-turner, with some very emotional parts, and many tragic and horrendous events, and even though the book is fiction you can't help but believe those kinds of injustices really happen over there.   I love reading about Afghani people just to remind myself that they are not all Taliban, not all hateful warmongers. They love their families, they want the best for them, they are kind to beggars and orphans, they feel guilt, they take pleasure in life's simple things, they have a rich culture.  I really enjoyed this look into their lives and what Afghanis think of the Taliban insurgents.  It was interesting to me that at first everyone was joyful at the arrival of the Talibs to rescue them from Russian oppression, but that joy quickly turned to hate and fear.  It just makes you take a different look on what is happening over there even now.