Book Review: My Brother's Keeper by Rodd Gragg

My Brother's Keeper chronicles the actions of 30 Christians who risked everything to save others during the Holocaust. School teachers, men, women, business owners, doctors. The people profiled  ranged in profession, social class and income level yet they all chose to selflessly follow their heart. Some saved children, friends, co-workers or strangers. Others died trying.



The profiles are in narrative style and are easy to follow. The stories are woefully gripping. You want to keep reading, yet you almost cannot bear to continue. Gragg writes about a time period in history were it seemed many were faithless yet the faithful come to light in this book.

 This book is especially timely as it reminds those who do believe to stand up for what is right and to leave the consequences to God. It is a very convicting, emotional read. What would you do when faced with the decisions these 30 faced?

I highly recommend My Brother's Keeper and will be reading some of  Gragg's other works as well.

Book Review: Chocolate Covered Cashews

Chocolate Covered Cashews is the story of Wiley Baxter’s life and testimony. He tells about his life as a child in a large family, his divorce and second marriage. He also writes about discovering that he had fathered twin daughters with his first wife.

Chocolate Covered Cashews is a quick and easy read. He has an inspirational testimony and life story. However, the story did not do a good job of captivating my attention. People always say that writers should show, not tell and I feel, because of the nature of his story, Baxter did a fair amount more of telling than showing. To me, Chocolate Covered Cashews almost feels as if I am reading a speech that Baxter wrote to read at a church service. Also, I expected there to be a greater connection to the title.  I understand his connection to the title but I feel it was a bit misleading as there weren’t any direct scenes involving the chocolate cashews. That reflect my point of telling rather than showing, Baxter told us what happened instead of writing a scene.

*I was provided a copy of this book in return for an honest review.

Book Review: Intentional Walk by Rob Rains

Intentional Walk is a book about the Christian testimonies of different Cardinals baseball players and staff members. Each testimony reflects how the Cardinal’s acceptance of Christ as their savior transformed their lived both on and off the baseball field.

The concept of this book is highly intriguing. I loved reading about Christian people who are not only successful but well known. I love that this book is able to speak out to non-Christian baseball fans who may be curious about the blessings that they see the players experiencing.

What a disliked about this book is the fact that it is written from a third person point of view. The stories of the powerful transformation that occurred in these Cardinals lives could better capture the wonderful power of God if the stories had been told from the players’ perspective. I feel the point of view greatly limits the inspiration that could be gained from the stories. The book, as it stands now, reads almost like a collection of high school papers about Christian ballplayers.

*I received a free copy of this book from booksneeze in return for an honest review.

Book Review: Dreams so Big by Steve Peifer with Gregg Lewis

This is the story of a family who moves to Kenya as short term missionaries in order to overcome the death of their new born son. But, surprise-surprise, God has bigger things planned for this family and their one year commitment turns into a lifetime journey for service and discipleship.      

This book was a huge inspiration to me and my family. The story was not only immensely interesting but wonderfully well crafted as well. God’s hand is definitely all through this book. From the beginning whispers urging  a husband to make his wife’s dreams come true to the masterful telling and publication of their story, He is present.

I believe the title is an apt one. Dreams are one of the catalysts for the Peifers' journey. Also, the book inspired me to dream big. A key message I learned from this book is that God puts dreams into our hearts for a reason. No dream is too big or too small for him to fulfill, if He is the One who has given it to you. I plan on recommending this book to many people, as well as re-reading it several times. It is very touching and the truth of it makes it even more so.

If you enjoy this book I also recommend Kisses from Katie by Katie B. Davis.

 

PS: I was given a copy of this book in exchange for my review via the booksneeze program. This statement does not apply to Kisses from Katie.

Book Review: Unleashed: Release the Untamed Faith Within by Erwin McManus

This book relates the way Jesus lived his life to the way we out to live our lives when we profess ourselves as Christians and claim to follow Him. To sum up the book, Jesus never promised this following him would consist solely of sitting in church pews in pretty clothing. The author reiterates that the Christian path can be a hard, dangerous and surprising one- but that because we have Christ we have no need to fear it.  Rather he suggests we embrace it.

I love the author’s ideas and he writes with great passion. I believe, like the author, that we often put Christianity in a nice safe box and don’t experience life to the fullest because we don’t unleash our untamed faith.  I very much want to live as a disciple, and not merely a Christian, to go where Christ calls me, no matter what the cost.

However, I did find flaws with this book. The authors style is somewhat disconnected. It’s almost as if he published his first draft, without undergoing any editing process. He has passion, but lacks finesse (much like me in the kitchen haha). I’m not sure that I would recommend this book because there are several other good books out there with a similar perspective-like anything by Mark Batterson. However, the passion behind this book could make it a faith changer. Overall, I think I have a fairly neutral opinion of this book  (which is pretty rare).

PS: I was given a free copy of this book (via BookSneeze) in exchange for my thoughts.

Book Review: We Be Big

I've recently stumbled across the booksneeze program that gets books to bloggers in exchange for two reviews. The first book I selected to review is We Be Big: The Mostly True Story of How Two Kids from Calhoun County, Alabama, Became Rick and Bubba. I picked this book because 1. I thought my dad would enjoy reading it once I reviewed it and 2. I remembered watching their tv radio show on Turner South as a kid and I remembered that they always made me laugh.I always struggle a bit with book reviews because I don't want to give away the plot but I think that the title pretty much serves as a plot summary as well. The book alternates  from Rick to Bubba's POV chapter by chapter. I really enjoyed that aspiect of the book. I liked being able to read about the same event from two different perspectives, especially in the early sections of the book before Rick and Bill were Rick and Bubba. When I first started reading the book I thought it was a bit dry but the more I read, the less I wanted to put the book down. It's a good book and I enjoyed reading it. After the first few chapters, it kept my interest and kept me intrigued. It has its funny moments and gets better and better as the book goes on. I didn't remember the Rick and Bubba show expressing their Christian beliefs as much as they do and say they do in the book, but I was a kid when I watched the show so I may hae just forgotten that part. So it was a pleasnt suprise to realize that Rick and Bubba are Chrisitians and do their best to out on a Chrisitan, family-friendly and funny show.I think that the Christian overtones and messages in the book were wonderfully done. The book didn't hit me over the head with the author's believes but I was able to understand their thoughts and beliefs. So if you're not a Christian please don't shy away from this wonderful read. Want to buy the book? Check out the links on the top-left side of the post.