06.28.09
Review – He Loves Me
This book is a hug from Heaven.
Wayne Jacobsen offers a chapter-by-chapter reiteration and reassurance of one unalterable, inarguable fact: God loves you. That glorious truth is unconditional. No need to ever again play “He loves me … He loves me not,” based on life’s circumstances and situations. Leave your daisies to grow naturally in your garden. Nothing you can do will make God love you less; nothing you do will make Him love more.
He just loves you.
You have been precious to Him since before the world was created. He loved you when Adam was still a lump of clay. He longed for your reciprocating affection eons prior to his first wail as an infant in Bethlehem. You were His favored child even as He carried His own cross up that hill to Calvary.
He loves you.
Just as He did with Adam and Eve, God longs to be your Friend. Your Father. He yearns for that close, personal, intimate relationship that comes only when true, untarnished love is freely given and received between two individuals. He won’t demand it. He’s chosen not to force it, because let’s face it—true love doesn’t happen via coercion. Such unnatural affection would be a weak and unsatisfactory facsimile, not good enough for the Creator of Heaven and Earth.
In simple terms and straightforward fashion, the author paints an unforgettable portrait of a Father waiting with outstretched arms for His child…His cherished friend to accept his affection—and return it, so they two can enjoy the fullness of a loving relationship. Jacobsen builds his premise largely on that relationship: what it is, how to achieve it, what it means to each participant.
Woven through the entire book is the one golden thread of simple truth: God. Loves. You. If you ever wondered about that; if you ever needed assurance that He knows you—who you are, why you are, and that you matter to Him; if you ever just wished you could feel His arms around you, read this book.
Your hug is on the way.
06.20.09
Review – So You Don’t Want to Go to Church Anymore
by Wayne Jacobsen and Dave Coleman
(Jake Colsen)
Meet Jake Colsen, Associate Pastor. He has it all. A good job with more than adequate salary, a loving wife, two children, and plenty of respect and prestige.
But then he meets John and his world turns upside down. Could this stranger be the Apostle John, still alive, still spreading the gospel?
Over the next four years, through a series of conversations with John, Jake goes on a personal odyssey that makes him rethink everything he thought he knew about God and the church as a whole. In the process, he loses everything he thought was important, but discovers a whole new life, and a whole new relationship with the Father.
The authors have produced a revolutionary look at the church world. This book has the potential to change generations of tradition, and alter the status quo of organized religion.
If you’re content with your spirituality; if attending Sunday services makes you feel like a satisfied Christian; if you don’t need a spiritual jolt – a shot to the soul, then don’t read this book. So You Don’t Want to Go to Church Anymore will change the way you think about church and the body of Christ. It will transform your life.
Take the hand of a mysterious stranger and find out who Jesus really is. Meet God, and become His friend. Turn your world upside down.
05.29.09
Review – Broken Angel
Broken Angel paints a frighteningly real picture of a fictional but all-too-possible future. An oppressive and dictatorial nation called Appalachia, formed from a broken United States, is a world where the government tolerates no secrets and affords little privacy to have them.
In this tyrannical society, Caitlyn is more special than even she knows, and her uniqueness creates grave dangers for the innocent young woman; Jordan is her adoring father who, despite his secret and shameful past, is now prepared to sacrifice everything including his life to protect his child. On their trail is a cruel and ruthless bounty hunter who’s determined to capture the girl – and take more than just her life.
Alone and seemingly abandoned by the one person she trusts, Caitlyn must accept help from strangers: a near-blind escapee from one of Appalachia’s many forced-labor factories, and a big man with a kind heart and a slow brain. Together, the little group makes its way through the treacherous Appalachian countryside, enroute to the Outside. There, Caitlyn can be freed from the mysterious thing that makes her different. But reaching and crossing that border may cost the girl everything she’s ever held dear.
Sigmund Broewer’s novel is riveting and fast-paced – there’s no time to breathe and no relief from the tension. It delivers mystery, tragedy, uncertainty … and unexpected moments of humor and joy that make all the rest of it bearable. Broken Angel will draw you in and hold you in its spell long after you’ve read the last page.
Amazing detail, gripping storyline, and unbelievable writing.
05.21.09
Review – Ruby’s Slippers
by Leanna Ellis
Dottie (Dorothy) Meyers lives on a small Kansas farm, alone but for her little dog Toto – oops … Otto. When a tornado rips through her property, it not only demolishes the home she’s lived in all her life, but knocks the middle-aged maiden out cold. She awakens three months later at Rainbow’s End, an assisted living facility in California. Near her bed are a pair of ruby slippers – a gift from the father she hasn’t seen since she was four.
Haunted by childhood memories and a longing to meet the Daddy she barely remembers, Dottie sets out on a journey to Seattle (the Emerald City). Traveling with her are three friends: Sophia, whose mastectomy left her constantly rearranging the “stuffing” in strategic places on her body. A free thinker, she jokes that her son sometimes thinks she’s lost her brain; Tim, Dottie’s elderly uncle by marriage. He gave his whole heart to Elizabeth, who’s younger brother is Dottie’s father. When Elizabeth died, Tim thought his heart died with her; Leo, Sophia’s wild and woolly son, who lives by himself in a cabin in the woods. He looks fearsome, and he makes a lot of noise, but Dottie soon discovers that a part of Leo is nothing more than a scared little boy who mourns the absence of a father in his life, just as she does.
And then there’s Duncan Meyers, who lives in Seattle in a house that’s nothing short of a mansion. Why did he abandon his family all those years ago? And why did he leave those unusual slippers for his daughter while she lay in a coma?
Dottie’s actress sister, Abby, is busy playing the part of the wicked witch in a traveling production of The Wizard of Oz. For some reason, she desperately wants Dottie’s ruby slippers … and she’s not alone. More than one person is out to get those shoes.
The little group of friends learn a lot of important lessons about themselves and each other on their way to Seattle. Focused on guarding the shoes and mentally clinging to the past, will Dottie fail to see the promise of a brighter future? Hurt and disillusioned by her father’s abandonment, will she ever again trust another man with her heart? In search of her Daddy’s affection, will she fail to see the flawless love her heavenly Father has offered all along?
It’s a modern-day Wizard of Oz with Cinderella undertones. But this is no fairy tale or fantasy, with magical resolutions and guaranteed happy endings. It’s a deeply moving story of hurt and healing, of love and loss, of hope and redemption. Immensely entertaining, it is chock full of wit, grit, humor and heartache. Truly unforgettable, Ruby’s Slippers has the potential to be a classic.
Don’t miss this one!
05.17.09
Review – Stealing Home
It’s 1905 in a sleepy, one-horse town in Missouri, where all has remained the same for a good, long while. But everything changes with the arrival of Donald “Duke” Dennison, the Chicago Cubs’ star player, who’s hiding out in Picksville while he sobers up.
Ellie Jane Voyant is the sheriff’s eccentric daughter. She’s tucked herself away behind the train station’s ticket window and buried the crushing pain of childhood taunts and adult snobbery. Ned Clovis, the deaf feed store clerk, has loved Ellie Jane for years, but keeps his feelings to himself and simply watches her from a distance. Morris Bennett, a twelve-year-old Negro boy with a burning desire to shake the dust of Picksville off his shoes, winds in and out of the lives of Picksville residents – young and old, rich and poor, black and white.
The actions of the little town’s celebrity guest start a ripple effect that will impact every resident. Duke’s a known womanizer, boarding in Ellie Jane’s home. Ned, who greatly admires the newcomer and harbors a lifelong passion for baseball, must either step up to the plate or concede the play for the girl. On a more public level, Duke discovers Morris’ natural-born skill with a baseball, and determines to give the boy a chance at success, despite daunting barriers of racial discrimination and family dysfunction.
Duke. Ellie Jane. Ned. Morris. Four isolated hearts, four hidden passions. Just when it seems there might be a happy ending for them all, tragedy strikes hard and fast. Can love and faith bring them through?
Allison Pittman hits one out of the park with Stealing Home. Absolutely stunning imagery, characters that live and breathe, and incredible internalization. A powerful, touching tale. Though baseball plays a large part in the storyline, this book is not about that sport. It’s about sin and redemption. It’s an example of love and faith, secrets and lies, weakness and strength. It’s finding the “sweet spot” - standing alone at the batter’s plate while the crowd roars in the background, every eye is fixed on you, and a whole team of opponents is out to bring you down.
Stealing Home throws some unexpected curve balls, and keeps the bases loaded at all times. Great job!
05.04.09
Review – Daisy Chain
by Mary DeMuth
A small Texas town. A missing teenage girl. A highly dysfunctional family. A pubescent boy with a heart full of pain, a conscience pricked by guilt, and a life packed with trouble.
Where’s Daisy? When Jed Pepper’s best friend disappears, the boy blames himself – for her disappearance and for a myriad of other wrongs in his life. It’s hard to find answers when everyone he knows has a passel of dark secrets and hidden vices. In his search for truth, Jed comes to question God – His existence, His love, His power to change anything – and just about every other authority figure in his life. But two special people, who might just be angels on earth, set out to help the young man find himself.
Daisy Chain is a hauntingly beautiful soul-searcher of a novel. I find most coming-of-age books touching and tender, but Mary DeMuth brings a heart-wrenching story to amazing life in this all-too-realistic southern tale about a hurting boy who longs desperately to be a man. Children who’ve seen too much sorrow. Abuse and dysfunction in families …and in the church. A small town reeling from a shocking act of violence that takes one of its own and leaves a gaping wound of questions and suspicions.
First in the Defiance Texas Trilogy, Daisy Chain is an undeniable masterpiece. Full of grit and grace, hurting and happiness, love and longing. Packed with all-too-human faults and failures that bring to shining light those breathtaking touches of glory the author tucks away here and there for the reader to find, treasure, and never, ever forget.
Beautifully done!
