Category: Book Review

This book first came to me in a conversation, “The Shack, ” they said, “Amazing – it really made me think…”

Another said, “It is at Bethany Book Store, but it has a warning on it…”

Then I seen it in our local book store – in the top ten no less.  “What kind of book is sold in the Local Christian Book Store with a warning label, and is also on the top ten list on the fiction list in a secular section,” I wondered.

Then a friend said, “Read it if you want to – but I hated it.”

Such strong emotions… all from the same book.  What could that be about?  I had to read it.

The Shack is a Christian Fiction book that is written from a  third persons perspective on what happened to Mack.  Mack’s story is one that is sadly all too common, growing up in a home with an abusive father, who eventually drives Mack out of the home at a young age.

When Mack becomes a father, he is loving and generous and nothing like his own father.  His wife, Nan, refers to God as “Papa” which Mack struggles with as the word Papa does not hold within it the sense of security and love for him as it does for Nan.

On a camping trip, while saving one child who becomes entangled in an over turned canoe, his youngest daughter Missy is kidnapped from the campground and later confirmed to be murdered.  Mack is beside himself with grief and years later receives an invite in his mailbox to go to the shack where they had found Missy’s dress and meet God.  A confused Mack makes the trip back to the shack without his family’s knowledge and that is where the book really takes off.

This book makes you think about how you (I) perceive God.  Now let me clarify, this is a FICTION book.  It is not causing me to rethink my beliefs – however, instead it just makes me wonder how many of us have God pictured as one way, when He really can be so much more than we have ever imagined.  The pages that tell the story are turned faster and faster as you are right along side Mack as he bears his grief, his anger, and yes, even his shame, as he learns right beside God, Jesus, and the Holy Spirit about his daughter, about forgiveness.. and at the same time I find myself learning too.

Through tears I battled with a tough decision that Mack has to make at the end of the book… have a chance to see his daughter again, even be with her on a day to day basis… or return back to the world as he has always known it – to his wife and children and continue on with his life until the day comes to return again…  this is the part of the book that touched me the most.

I had to consider this question for myself… how hard to be right there – where your deepest desire is within your reach and suddenly you have to decide… it pained me to even think about it.

Through reading this book, I was… enlightened.  Intrigued.  And thoroughly impressed with the writing, the words, and even though at times it was tough – I give a lot of credit to the author for putting this on paper for all to have a chance to think beyond the walls of our own mind.

Breathe in me… deep

That I may breathe … and live

And hold me close that I might sleep

Soft held by all you give

Come kiss me wind and take my breath

Till you and I are one

And we will dance among the tombs

Until all death is gone

And no one knows that we exist

Wrapped in each others arms

Except the One that blew the breath

That hides me safe from harm

Come kiss me wind and take my breath

Till you and I are one

And we will dance among the tombs

Until all death is gone

Note from the author

I picked this book up, Footprints of a Pilgrim, at the Library Fall Sale.  I mainly picked it up because it had a beautiful cover and was .50 cents.  I thought it would look lovely in my library… but I really had no intension of reading it.  The book was about Billy Graham’s wife and I didn’t think it would be anything I would be interested in.

I brought the book home and considered offering it on Swaptree as like I said, it was a beautiful book.  I started thumbing through the pages making sure all pages were clean and no writing in the book.  As I skimmed through the book I was capturing parts of this story, ” Ruth being late for curfew, sneaking in windows, dating 52 men in college, breaking her arm ski diving and trying to hide it from Billy…”  This actually sounded interesting.

I started reading this magnificent book which is filled with stories of Ruth’s carefree spirit and at the same time showed me a side to Billy Graham that I did not know was there.  He’s funny, he’s real… and maybe if I would ever listen to a thing the man has said I would have known that – and his wife – well she was a real firecracker!  With great stories about their children, and stories written by their adult children about life with this incredible mom it was hard to put down.

I really enjoyed this book and I know I want to read more about this amazing couple.  I want to loan it out to people just so I can share the funny stories!  An A+ read and a real wake up call for me and my preconceived ideas of who someone is.

Plugging on – I am now finished with book 5 of the Chronicles of Narnia Series.   The book features the two younger children, Edmund and Lucy, and brings in  their cousin Eustace who’s home they are in when the three are brought back to Narnia through a picture hanging on a bedroom wall.  (NIce touch Mr. Lewis)

The children meet up with Caspian right away on his boat The Dawn Treader, and they all go off to seek out the 7 Lords who were Caspians father’s friends.  Eustace at this point is not a likable child, very spoiled, bratty, and on this adventure he starts journaling the trials of this awful ship and the awful people in it.

I think the best Christian message that comes out of the book is when Eustace while on shore wanders off to a dragons liar.  He falls asleep here, only to wake up and find that he has turned into a dragon, pretty much turning his ugliness of the inside to the outside.  He now realizes what a pain he has been and how good everyone has been to him.  After days of being a dragon, he meets up with Aslan who tells him he much shed his skin to be clean, and through the Dragon’s (Eustace) scratching, the scales began to fall off, however he discovers he is unable to do it without Aslan’s help (Romans 3:20; Galatians 2:16; Philippians 3:8,9)…

Once clean, Eustace works at being a better person, not always succesfully, but the changes are clear.          ( 2 Corinthians 5:17; Colossians 3:8-10)

I see in this book (which I found became a better and better read as I went along) there are several references to a “Holy Spirit” guiding through dangers, from a great darkness to light on the boat, to times when Lucy is reading from a spell book and is tempted to try other spells than what she was sent to do.  (At those times she sees Aslan’s face).

The ending of this book is by far the most powerful scene of the book, and in fact, of any of the books so far, when Aslan returns to the group as a Lamb who feeds them the best meal of their lives.  (Revelation 19:19?)  (John 1:29,36; 1 Peter 1:19).

To have a conversation with C.S. Lewis would have been amazing!  I would love to know more about how these books came together for him, how he came up with the idea to break it into several books, and did he plan where it would end – or did he just know it was complete when he got there.  Maybe as I continue to dive into his works I will find the answers to some of these questions…

**This movie is due out in early 2010:  check here

This book was recommended to me years ago by my friend Sam who wanted to loan me her copy.  I assured her that if it was anywhere near as good as she said it was, I would want my own copy and then ordered it off CBC.  The book then proceeded to spend the next two years (yes, two years) on my book shelf – unread.

Then my friend Sandi  was raving about a book she had just completed.  “It is amazing”, she told me, “I couldn’t put it down, it’s called Safely Home…”

“By Randy Alcorn?” I added.

“Oh, you’ve read it,” she said disappointingly.  I assured her I hadn’t, but had the book waiting for its day to shine.  It became my next read.

Safely home is a fiction book, but it is not fantasy.  This book is about persecution in China and reading this enlightened me with more information  on this area than I had ever known before.  I was saddened to hear what happens to those who call themselves Christians in China and learned that in many ways, I take my faith and my right to it, for granted.

I could hardly put this book down and turned page after page on illegal home churches meeting at night, and people arrested and beaten – even killed – for their admitting that they are a Christ Follower.  I took note after note on the Chinese symbols spelling out the gospel in their meaning – right there in their language!  (Page 169)

I received so much from reading this book, right to the last tearful moments that wrecked me.  This is by far the best book I have read in some time.  If you have not read this I highly recommend you grab a copy and dive right in.

And the King will tell them, “I assure you, when you did it to one of the least of these my brothers and sisters, you were doing it to me!”  ~ Matthew 25:40

Finally I have completed book 4 of The Chronicles of Narnia. This was another great book to read after having seen the movie. I like to read and see the comparisons between the two, and again am impressed at how closely the movie follows the book.

In this book I find C.S. Lewis’s message to speak more clearly than in the previous three… like he is getting to the point. There is of course the part where Lucy is the only one that believes she sees Aslan while the others are left in disbelief. There is also the point where Aslan calls her and she asks her brothers and sisters to follow – knowing that if they do not, she must anyway. This whole part of the book is wonderful and I imagine if this is being read to a young child how much of this they take away with them.

Good read, and now I am in unknown territory with 3 books left to read in the series and having never read them – I have no idea what direction they will take.

This is my favorite kind of book – and if you follow my book blog you would know what that means… loaned to me by a friend who thought I would enjoy it.  I love that.

In this case it was my friend Key who had purchased this book and sent it my way to read through.  I am so glad she shared this with me.

Nancy Beach is an incredible author and an amazing advocate for women in leadership roles.  Her book gives you insight of her 30 years in ministry, with God given leadership gifts that are not always accepted in the church when they are from a woman.

While many of the scenes Nancy talks about, I have not personally experienced (trying to be accepted in a male dominant group, people leaving a church due to the role she fills and the fact that she is a woman filling that role) I have experienced some of what she speaks of in leading missions.

I loved the book, its openness, its humor and how she tells it like it is.  Her gifts have taken her far and I would love to hear her speak sometime in the future.

This is an excellent read for any woman who is gifted to lead.  Highly recommended.  Check out her next speaking event here!

Thank you Key for the loan!   This was a fabulous read.  10+

I didn’t think you could take such an incredible read As The Summerhouse and then years later come close to topping it… but I think Jude Deveroux just about did.  If you look at my previous blog on The Summerhouse you can read about my love for that book and why.  Now years later Jude comes up with a follow up book that knocked it out of the park again…

Return to Summerhouse is one of those books I was almost afraid to crack open.  After my raving through the years about The Summerhouse, and the shock of finding Jude suddenly out with a sequal 5 years later….(I can’t believe she didn’t call  and tell me!) I was almost afraid the second might tarnish the first if you know what I mean.  Sometimes good things are meant to just be left alone.

Yet Jude must have felt called to continue with this story line and I can’t help but believe that there must be many more out there like me that loved the first one to make her want to go on.  I also have to believe for a writer to write this well, she has to love the topic and the characters she develops as well.

A few days ago after rereading The Summerhouse, I followed up with this one.  I was not dissapointed.  Jude (if I may call her Jude…) used a completely different set of people this time, just left the area and Maddam Zoya the same.  As much as I had hoped that she bring back my favorites from Summerhouse (Leslie, Madison, and Ellie) I am now glad that she didn’t.  These new women were amazing too, and the fact that this time they go back into the 18th century, made me long to create an “orangery” and find a way to get my hands on the original balm out of biblical times…. (you’ll have to read the book to know what I am talking about!)

HIGHLY HIGHLY HIGHLY recommended.  Let this book take you away!  I can not wait to review it for book club and I have a fun idea to go with our review….    A 10.

All readers have a few favorites that they tuck aside to pull out and dust off every few years and read again just for that thrill they got from the first time they opened this treasure.

This is one of those books for me.

Knowing that, you are going to have to imagine what happened when I was recently on The Mother Ship (Barnes and Noble) online looking up book suggestions for our August read for book club and I found a book titled Return To Summerhouse by Jude Deveroux.

I paused and reread the title.  Could this be a reissue of the book that came out in 2003?  Then I read the lines under the title…. “a follow up to Jude Deveroux’s best selling book The Summerhouse….”

I think I screamed in excitement from my home office.

I’m pretty sure I scared Al.

A sequel!  To one of my top reads of all time?  This was like a dream come true!  Haven’t we all had those books where you wish the author would have went further with the characters?  Or you wish that a second book would come out continuing on how the previous book ended?

Of course, I am not writing here about Return to Summerhouse.  This entry is about The Summerhouse which I knew I had to pull off the shelf and read before I read the follow up.

I love this book.  I think I love it mostly because of the strong women characters and of your the chance to go back to a point in our lives where we wonder if we chose right… and get to choose again.  Wow.  But – the review we had on this book in 2003 only adds to my love for the book as this I still believe was one of our best ever book discussions.  This was probably the first book we had read as a group that really made us open up to choices we would change.

Rereading this book for probably the 4th time… I am again in awe of this incredible writing and the unique turn this book takes unlike any I have ever read.  This book is a full 10 rating from me.

Now… to read the follow up…

It took me a bit to get into this third book of the Chronicles of Narnia.  The characters are different than the ones we have grown to love in this series and it is not until about the middle of the book that you catch a glimpse of Queen Lucy, Susan, and King Edmund.

Once I picked up the flow, the book was good and I found myself looking for C.S. Lewis’ story within the story.  I especially liked the part where Shasta is traveling alone on a stubborn horse (not a Narnia horse of course – just a plain old horse…).  Shasta is alone, lost, and it is dark.  He is afraid and feeling a bit sorry for himself and is softly crying when he sences a presence walking next to them.   It takes him a while to be brave enough to call and when he does his voice is a small, “who’s there?”

It is of course, Aslan.  A great conversation takes place here between Aslan and Shasta and I love the way Lewis has presented that even in the darkest night, in our darkest fears – He is with us.  We are not alone.

Still plotting through the series, I am excited to get into the 4th book which is Prince Caspian, the movie that recently came out.  Great reads – highly recommended.