Category: Reviews

Categories
Books Fun Non-Fiction Reviews

Book Review: Start by Jon Acuff

Aviary Photo_130149637485349437

A few weeks ago Michael Hyatt held a random drawing on his blog for 50 copies of Jon Acuff‘s book Start – Punch Fear in the Face | Escape Average | Do Work that Matters. I was fortunate enough to be picked as a winner. This book is awesome! I would definitely recommend it to anyone, especially anyone who wants to be awesome.

Jon starts off by talking about the 5 stages that every awesome life goes through in their life, the five stages traditionally are:

20’s Learning, we consume everything.

30’s Editing, narrowing down what we have learned and focusing on a couple key things.

40’s Mastering, we become experts at those couple things.

50’s Harvesting, we are blessed to reap what we have sown (good or bad).

60’s Guiding, we become educators of the upcoming generation.

Next, he talks about how with the advent of the internet the timeline above is null and void, anyone can reach any of those stages at any point in their life. Anyone can reach awesome…the key is you have to start and that is the hang up for most people, they never start on the road to awesome, so they stay mediocre for their entire life. I don’t want to spoil anymore of the book so I will leave it at that and let you read the rest for yourself, which you should because this is an excellent book. Head on over to Amazon and pick it up here, you won’t regret reading this book.

Categories
Fun Movies Reviews

Movie Review – Iron Man 3

First things first, I love comic book movies. So before you read my review, realize that. The other thing to realize about my movie reviews is that I am a pretty easy critic, if you can make me forget what is going on and keep me entertained for a few hours and tell a cohesive story I am probably going to like your movie. I usually know enough about a movie before I go see it that I typically don’t go to a movie unless I am pretty sure I am going to like it (especially comic book movies).

Iron Man 3 follows Tony Stark (Robert Downey Jr.) shortly after the events of The Avengers. We find Tony haunted by what he has experienced, unable to sleep, and nervously creating Iron Man mark after mark. When we last saw him in The Avengers the suit was at Mark 8, by the time we catch up with Tony here he is already on Mark 42. Tony’s relationship has also become strained with Pepper Potter (Gweneth Paltrow) who is struggling to understand what is going on with Tony. Add to the mix 2 figures from Tony’s past and you have a recipe for conflict.

This Iron Man features more of Tony than previous movies, which I think was a smart move because the Iron Man movies set the tone for the rest of the Marvel Cinematic Universe so if Iron Man sets the tone of going bigger by blowing more stuff up then the rest of the movies get pigeonholed into that mold. In this movie they do a really good job focusing on what drives people to do what they do. Is it fear? Is it love? Is it loyalty to a friend? Is it the desire for power? One interesting thing that drew my attention was how someone can make a ridiculously bad decision, a terrible decision, because they love someone so much and want a better life for them.

Don’t get me wrong, there is plenty of action for all the action fans out there. One of my favorite action scenes (I’m not spoiling anything because this is in the trailers) is the final battle where all the suits are involved in fighting the Extremis soldiers.

I would be remiss if I didn’t mention the twist, don’t worry, I’m not going to spoil it. A lot of the fanboys were really disappointed with the twist and with the information that they were given I can understand that. However, after seeing the movie and the motivation behind the different characters, the twist really does make sense. Because the key method of operation for one particular character was to operate in anonymity and that is why things were set up the way they were.

One review that I read said that Iron Man 3 was better than The Avengers, but I would have to disagree. I was one of the many people who said that The Avengers was a 5 star out of 5. I think Iron Man 3 is a great movie, just not a 5 star movie. Overall, I would give Iron Man 3 3.5 stars out of 5.

Categories
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.

Categories
Reviews

Book Review: Behemoth by Jonathan C. Leicht

behemothI wouldn’t say that I am necessarily a believer in young earth theory, there are certain aspects that make sense to me. As you obviously know, I am a believer and definitely a creationist so when I saw this book available I thought it might be a really good read. Before I get into the rest of the review, I want to point out that the author makes it very clear in what he is writing what his beliefs are and he definitely attacks the scientific community and their narrow minded views in this book so be warned if you are prone to get offended by this, this is not the book for you. That being said, I thought this was an extremely well written book

and would recommend it to any fiction fan. The author has definitely done his research and presents a very compelling story about the search for the lost Behemoth. The story follows two characters and their search

for what they believe are real live dinosaurs that are living in Africa and have remained hidden for centuries, one is Jim Thompson who runs the Masai Mara Game preserve in Kenya who starts his investigation when several of his elephants are gored to death. The second is Professor Stephen Gregory who after making known that he believes dinosaurs could still exist is relieved of his research position and given the opportunity to prove his theories are true.

As I said, I thought the book was a good read, even if it was a bit preachy at times. If you are looking for a little brain fodder on the creation/evolution debate you should definitely pick up Behemoth.

Categories
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.

Categories
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).

Categories
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.

canadian pharmacy generic levitra

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.

dissertation writing services uk

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.

Categories
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.