Book Reviews

You all know I love to do book reviews...it combines two of my favorite things a) books and b) telling people what I think.  Bwahaha!

If you are a blogger, if you love to read, AND you like free things, I want to tell you about one of my favorite book review programs: Booksneeze. 

Booksneeze is owned by Tommy Nelson Publishing and runs their program differently than others (I truly love them all).  You can only request one book at a time and cannot request another until Booksneeze has received and reviewed your review  In addition to posting on your own blog, you must also post on a book purchasing site such as CBD, Amazon, or Barnes & Noble.

There are some really fantastic offerings coming out this month so it would be a great time to sign up to be a book reviewer.  Just visit the website, click on the green "sign up" button on the blue banner, fill out your information and you're all set to go!  Happy reading!

Stumbling Into Grace

Humorous yet poignant stories from Lisa's life help readers relate to spiritual truths found in the life and ministry of Christ.   

Stumbling Into Grace is the diary-devotional of one woman's honest, ongoing, bumbling journey of faith and how she finds encouragement through a deeper understanding of Christ's time on earth. Within each chapter she alternates her often humorous memoir with stirring portraits of Jesus and his own encounters as recorded in the New Testament.

Both intimately relevant and refreshingly inspirational, this book will help readers to jettison the theological misconceptions, guilt, shame, and hypocrisy they struggle with, exchanging them for a vibrant, passionate relationship with Christ that results in a more abundant, joyful life.

**I was provided a copy of this book from BookSneeze. 

In Constant Prayer by Robert Benson

When it came time to review my next book for BookSneeze I was not overly excited about In Constant Prayer by Robert Benson.  I initially was anticipatory but while I was waiting for my book to arrive I read other reviews and realized this book was about praying "the office" or "fixed hour prayer" I got a bit unsettled.  I'm not Catholic, I don't know anything about liturgy but I don't think I like it.

I've been intriguied by fixed hour prayer since I started reading Ann Voskamp and I've made feeble attempts when I've fasted.  I grew up in an Anabaptist church and am very unfamiliar with formal liturgy, although Benson assures me that every church service has its own liturgy. 

To be fair I must disclose that I shudder at rote prayers, the call-and-response prayers that I grew up with leave a vile taste in my mouth and a self-righteous annoyance washes over me when someone reads a prayer, particularly one that they themselves did not write. 

But in case you hadn't noticed by the heavy quoting I did last month (and most likely copyright-law breaking in the sheer volume of selections), this book has really made me think and changed my outlook on this topic.

Let me put it to you this way.  It has been a very long time since I have put sticky notes in a book that I read.  I have never used an entire pad of sticky notes and had to go back and rip them into tiny pieces in order to have enough markers to go throughout the entire book.

Benson advocates that you do not do anything important: a job change, vacation, house purchase, nor anything unimportant: a trip to the grocery store, dinner out, a workout without setting an appointment time, having some sembleance of order, and carrying through.  Why, then, do we approach the very most important thing of our day - approaching the Creator of the universe with our desires and needs, as haphazardly as we do?

The Jews had fixed hours of prayer, our Lord and Savior had fixed hours of prayer "As for me, I call to God, and the LORD saves me. Evening, morning and noon I cry out in distress, and he hears my voice." Psalm 55:16-17

"At some point, all of this high-minded discussion about our life of prayer has to work its way into the dailyness of our lives.  It has to be stuck in and around and up next to the meetings and the schedules and the packing and the leaving and the coming home of our lives.

At some point, we have to move from talking about prayer to saying our prayers.  If the marvelous that is possible in our lives of prayer is to have a chance to appear, it will because we have done the mundane."

So, how do you begin to say the office?  "You begin the same way you begin to do anything else that matters in your life.  Ask some questions; take some notes; do some research.  Get pracical here; make a list."

This book has opened a wide, gaping hole in my prayer life and spiritual life in general.  You would likely be aghast or chuckle at the titles of the books sliding across the library check-out counter towards me.  I'm being stretched and I'm questioning. 

***Disclosure of Material Connection: I received this book free from the publisher through the BookSneeze®.com, book review bloggers program. I was not required to write a positive review. The opinions I have expressed are my own. I am disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission’s 16 CFR, Part 255

Voices of the Faithful

A 366-day devotional with inspiring stories from the front lines of faith.

"A willingness to go is all they have in common," says Beth Moore, speaking of her friends on the front lines who are spreading the gospel around the world and with whom she collaborated to create this book. This brilliant, 366-day devotional features incredible stories of God's faithfulness in the face of uncertainty and danger, written by hundreds of missionaries worldwide.

With a foreword by International Mission Board president Jerry Rankin and an introduction by Beth, this volume also includes advice on how to hear God's voice, pray for missionaries, and understand the church's and individual's role in missions.

This book is beautiful, weighty, and will help draw your attention to the many needs around the world.  What better way to begin 2011 than to focus our prayer closet on those who put shoes on the Great Commission?

Disclosure of Material Connection: I received this book free from the publisher through the BookSneeze.com book review bloggers program. I was not required to write a positive review. The opinions I have expressed are my own. I am disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission’s 16 CFR, Part 255 : “Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising.”

If I Could Ask God Anything

If I Could Ask God Anything written by Kathryn Slattery is an excellent resource for any parent or Sunday school teacher.  With a variety of questions such as how can God be three persons at the same time and what did Jesus wear, it's a fantastic book to have on hand or even just to let your children thumb through and think about things they never thought about before.  Over 100 questions are addressed in this easy to read, easy to share book with the subtitle: Awesome Bible Answers for Curious Kids.

Disclosure of Material Connection: I received this book free from the publisher through the BookSneeze.com book review bloggers program. I was not required to write a positive review. The opinions I have expressed are my own. I am disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission’s 16 CFR, Part 255 : “Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising.”