Category: Books

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Fiction

Book Review: Salvaged – Stefne Miller

salvagedI was given Salvaged as a gift from a family member because they knew I would read it and provide a review. I devoured the book, but because of how crazy things were at that point I did not post a review right after I read it. I’m remedying that situation right now. This book deserves better than that.. In an age where young minds are learning what true love is from books like the Twilight Saga, it is nice to see a wholesome love story like Salvaged.

In Salvaged, Miller deals with a lot of weighty issues like loss, fear, romance, and what faith looks like when you are truly at the bottom. At the beginning of the book we meet Attie after she has lost her best friend and her mom in a car crash and goes to live with the family of the best friend she lost. The story details her journey back to wholeness and the bumps and bruises along the way. I love Miller’s writing style, she writes in a way that is very easy to read and lends itself to you getting through the book rather quickly. I would definitely recommend this book to anyone who would be drawn to the Twilight Saga. It is also a good read for guys like me who are fathers of little girls because it gives you a window into their world in a way that you may not get in other places.

I currently have Miller’s two other books Rise (the sequel to Salvaged) and Collision in my stack to read/review so look for them in the future.

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Non-Fiction

Book Review: The Coming Revolution – Dr. Richard G. Lee

Given the current political climate in our country, especially at the begining of an election year, I thought it would be prudent to start sharpening my political focus, so I picked up The Coming Revolution: Signs from America’s Past that Signal Our Nation’s Future as my next book to review and make my readers aware of.

Lee has a very Republican/Conservative/anti-Obama viewpoint, so to many of my liberal friends he will be very hard to swallow. However, my conservative/Tea Party friends will find a lot of common ground with him.

One of the things I greatly appreciated about this book was how much historical perspective on our country was given. As we move

into the election season, I think this is a must read for conservatives who are not happy with the way our country is heading because I think he gives a lot of advice from history as to how to get where we need to be. One thing he makes extremely clear is that the founding fathers assumed the country woukd be run by men and women of faith, they knew that a republic/democracy would not survive if there were not men and women of faith to run it…human nature is just too selfish. Overall, I would definitely recommend The Coming Revolution to anyone who is not

happy with the current political environment or anyone who wants to read about how the faith of the nation’s founders affected how they structured our country.

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Books Fiction Fun Reviews

Book Review: Heart of Ice – A Triple Threat Novel by Liz Wiehl & April Henry

_225_350_Book.555.coverIn this book the Triple Threat club of Allison, Nic, & Cassidy are on the case of a very cunning killer with absolutely no moral conviction whatsoever.

Crime dramas like Law & Order, Law & Order: Special Victims Unit, NCIS, & CSI are some of my favorite types of TV shows so when it came time to pick another book to review Heart of Ice

was very appealing. I liked the idea of three friends who were in 3 different fields related to crime solving all working together to help solve a crime, Allison is a Federal Prosecutor, Nic is an FBI agent, & Cassidy is a crime reporter for a local TV station. I thought the authors did an excellent job laying out who the characters were and what their motivations were. The story wove together really nicely as well. I hope I can go back and read the two previous novels by these two authors because they were a great pair on this novel.

I also took a new approach for this book in that it is the first book I have ever read completely digitally. I read the book entirely on my phone using the Amazon Kindle app. I am happy to say that I really liked it, for my ongoing book reviews for Thomas Nelson, I will continue to download them to my phone (or if I get a tablet in the future, my tablet).

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Non-Fiction

Book Review: The Christian Zombie Killers Handbook – Slaying the Living Dead Within – Jeff Kinley

christian zombie killers handbookWhen I decided to read The Christian Zombie Killers Handbook by Jeff Kinley I didn’t know what I was getting into. The author takes an interesting path on how he wrote the book. This book is both fiction and non-fiction.

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The author first writes a chapter that tells a story of the life after the zombie apocalypse has begun, then follows it up with a chapter explaining how the chapter before relates to our Christian walk. While reading the book, I felt like it was too disjointed but after reflecting on the experience I realize that the author has a great talent tying together a story that he has made up with the ultimate story into a cohesive unit.  I actually finished this book quite a while ago, but have spent a lot of time trying to figure out what review to write. After considering, I have to say that the author has written a pretty good book. Like I said, it seemed disjointed at the time, but after reflecting, I realized how good of a book it really was. If you are into zombie fiction at all or how it can relate to your Christian walk, you should definitely pick up this book.

Categories
Non-Fiction

Book Review – Christian Encounters – J.R.R. Tolkien by Mark Horne

jrrtolkienBeing a lover of the Lord of the Rings trilogy, when given the opportunity to read a biography of J.R.R. Tolkien, I was excited. The man gave direction to the entire genre of fantasy fiction, I wanted to know what made him tick.

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In this book, Mark Horne does a

great job of explaining how the events of his life affected how and what he wrote about. It has always amazed me how men and women could have the creativity to come up with the worlds that they create through fiction. In his thorough and well researched book, Mark Horne does a great job opening up the world of J.R.R. Tolkien to the reader. One of my favorite parts of the Tolkien story was his relationship with fellow author C.S. Lewis who says that J.R.R. Tolkien was instrumental in his coming to faith. If you are a lover of Tolkien’s work or the fantasy genre in general, you should definitely read this book.

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Books Fun Functions Non-Fiction Reviews

Book Review: The Art of Deception – Kevin Mitnik

41a1QKf5hbL._SL160_You know a book about hacking and methods to protect your company from social engineering attacks written by a guy who is such a great hacker that part of his sentence is that he is never allowed to surf the internet by himself (he has someone else check his email for him) is going to be a great read on how Hackers (or social engineers as they are called in the book – he explains why) infiltrate your company to steal your sensitive information. The typical business owner would do everything they could to beef up the security infrastructure within their business, often deploying the most state of the art (at the time) gadgets that money can buy, then they would rest on their laurels because they knew they were secure…As Mitnik goes on to explain, no, no they are definitely not secure, they have neglected the weakest point in any security infrastructure…the people.

In a very engaging read, The Art of Deception explains the very real threat from social engineers and how to best combat it as someone responsible for protecting your companies assets. I would recommend this very well written book for any person in any company…seriously…Mitnik explains how everyone in your organization is part of the security infrastructure and how they need to be properly educated on the security protocols (that should be, but in most places aren’t) in place at any company. I really can’t say it enough, if you employed at any company with trade secrets (or really any company for that matter) you need to read The Art of Deception by Kevin Mitnik. No really, go, I don’t want to see you around here till you have read it (just kidding, but really if you can’t afford it, go check it out from the library)…

Categories
Non-Fiction

Book Review: Doing Virtuous Business – Theodore Malloch

_225_350_Book.361.coverGeneral Reaction: Great book on how businesses should be run.

Star rating: 3.5 out of 5

General Plot Synopsis: In this book, Malloch investigates the Spiritual Capital built by companies and how that capital helps them become and stay great enterprises.

Extended Reaction: When picking out this book, I was greatly intrigued by the fact that the book had been featured on PBS (my son has become hooked onto the PBS show Word World in recent months). I thought this was a great book. When you have books like Jim Collins’ Good to Great and Built to Last that take a look at the organizational structure it is highly enlightening to see the spiritual aspect to what makes companies great and where others fall short. If you are looking for a book that focuses on how Christian businesses work, this is not the book for you. The author’s main aim was to define the term Spiritual Capital (and that Spiritual Capital doesn’t mean that it is primarily Spiritual Capital, he looks at companies that range the spectrum of religious belief) and show how it affects the success and impact of the businesses that employ it.

Categories
Non-Fiction

Book Review: Max on Life – Max Lucado

_225_350_Book.340.coverGut Reaction: Not quite the book that I was expecting, but a good book overall.

Rating: 3 out of 5

General Plot Synopsis: The trick about giving a general plot synopsis for a book like this is that the book really doesn’t have a plot. This book is similar to Now, That’s a Good Question by R. C. Sproul. This is basically a question and answer book where Max Lucado takes letters and other questions that he has received over the years and puts his answers in book form.

Extended Reaction: Before grabbing this book, I probably should have done a little research. If I had, I probably would have had a better gut reaction to this book. I was expecting typical Max Lucado style like He Still Moves Stones or He Chose the Nails. I was pleasantly surprised though at how much I enjoyed the book. While I don’t agree with Max theologically on every issue, it was an interesting look into Max’s mind where you could really see his heart for the people he has been leading for so many years. If you are a pastor or someone who regularly gets questions about what the Bible says about different everyday life issues, this would be a good book to add to your library.

Categories
Fiction

Book Review: The Final Summit – Andy Andrews

_140_245_Book.305.coverDavid Ponder is at it again…actually, he gets dragged into it again. David Ponder is now 74 years old when Gabriel decides to visit him and pull him and all previous Travellers to save the world…literally…humanity is on a crash course with destruction and the Travellers must figure out how to save it…

We first met David Ponder in The Traveller’s Gift where he first learned the 7 decisions that determine personal success. I loved that book and with The Final Summit Andy Andrews has done it again. What I like the most about Andy’s books is that he teaches major life lessons using stories that intrigue you and pull you in. When you sit down to read an Andy Andrews book you don’t want to get up, you find yourself rifling through the pages as fast as you can.

The Final Summit does not disappoint in this regard. Writing a review for a book like this is hard because it is such a good book that you really just want your reader to go buy the book…and experience it for themselves without being tainted by your own opinion. So, I will say it again…go buy the book…

Other (highly recommended) Books I have read by Andy Andrews:

Categories
Non-Fiction

Book Review: Seeds of Turmoil – Bryant Wright

_240_360_Book.244.coverOne thing I love about being a BookSneeze.com blogger for Thomas Nelson Publishers is that through this program, I am able to read books that I may or may not normally read.

That was how I came across this book. A theme I am noticing is that actions have consequences, in a previous review, I reviewed The Butterfly Effect by Andy Andrews. Where The Butterfly Effect takes a look at the positive consequences of a person’s actions, Seeds of Turmoil takes a look at the negative and far reaching consequences of one man’s (Abraham) actions. He goes in depth into how the turmoil that we currently see in the Middle East is the result of decisions made 4,000 years ago. He talks about how because of those decisions, turmoil in the Middle East is inevitable.

Overall, I liked this book and was very impressed by the depth by which Bryant Wright digs into the history of the region and the turmoil that is inevitable. However, it did seem like the book got a little repetitive and could have ended a little earlier than it did. With all this in mind, I would definitely recommend this book to any serious scholar of the Bible (this is the version I use for my study) who wants to understand a little bit more the implications of the Biblical HIstorical Narrative on today’s events.