Kill Alex Cross

James Patterson is a New York Times bestselling author.  I can see why.  This was my first experience with one of his novels.  Kill Alex Cross has the things that make a good political thriller.  It opens up with kidnapping, then leads into a terror plot.  Along the way we get to see the family drama of the main character, Alex Cross.  There are two separate story lines that are not interrelated but that does not hurt the plot line as a whole.  This book was easy to read but deep enough to be interesting.  Just what I like in a good read.  The copy I read was a loaner from a friend who reads pretty much all of James Patterson.  I will be reading more of his work.  I enjoyed seeing how the character of Alex was all cop but his human foibles were evident too.  That made him a likable person.  The drama is set in Washington D.C. which is a prime location for a political  thriller and just added to the excitement.  I enjoyed this book and I give Kill Alex Cross five stars!  If you have not read it, you should.  I highly recommend!

Keys to Successful Living by Derek Prince

If I could re-name this book I would call it, Getting Back to Basics.  Derek Prince has shown us how to study the Word deeply, and yet simply.  In this age of getting more and better, he takes us to the Scripture in a way that encourages the reader to simply take it the way it is written. The keys he speaks of are taken from the book of Hebrews.  For example, Key number 3, "Let Us Hold Fast Our Confession",  is taken from Hebrews 4:14 which says, "Since then we have a great High Priest which has passed through the heavens, Jesus the Son of God, let us hold fast our confession.  Stand by your confession and do not be distracted by the many choices in the world.  Or, Key number 1, "Let Us Fear,"  from Hebrews 4:1, Therefore, let us fear lest, while a promise remains, any one of you should seem to have come short of it.  The author relates it this way, "This is the attitude of reverent respect for God and His requirements.  Let me be clear: This is not slavish fear-God has not given us a spirit of slavish fear.  Instead, this is an attitude of reverence and respect for God, the opposite of self-confidence and presumptuousness..."
This is a well written book, with good information.  It is simple and timely in this age of choices and distractions we find ourselves in;  even within the church.  We have "boatloads" of books that interpret the Word for us, tell us what it means, tell us how to live it out every day, tell us how to apply it, tell us how to get motivated and "on fire for the Lord,"  tell us what the writer meant when he said such and such a verse, help us with context, describe the culture in the world when a certain book of the Bible was written, who it was written for.  Honestly, need I go on?  Everything we need is already there.  It is not rocket science, our Heavenly Father made sure of that.  God has preserved his Word through the generations so that even today, we may read it and understand.  We sometimes over-analyze in our zeal to obtain the most accurate meaning from a verse, from God's Word as a whole.  I recommend you get this book, clear your mind and just read it.  It is a much needed and refreshing read.  I give Keys To Successful Living five stars!

I was given a copy of this book from the publisher, Chosen, free of charge, in return for my honest review.  These words are my opinion.

The Story Keeper by Lisa Wingate

Jen Gibbs is a successful editor at Vida House publishing in New York.  She has just taken this job and is looking forward to continued success.  A manuscript mysteriously appears on her desk that she tries not to read, but cannot keep herself from looking at it.  It is twenty years old and she is certain that it comes from the “slush mountain”, a huge pile of unsolicited manuscripts that are destined never to be published.  As she begins to read, she becomes aware that it is from the Appalachian Mountains that she was raised in and called home until she went to college.  As she is drawn into the story, only eight chapters are in the manila envelope with no author’s name, she feels compelled to find the author and read the rest of the book and possibly get it published.  She makes a convincing plea to her boss, the intrepid George Vida.  Off she goes to the mountains, perilously close to her hometown where her family still lives.  She is in pursuit of just a few minutes of time with the man whom she believes to be the author of the novel.  The ensuing happenings that take place during her stay are the meat of the story.  The Story Keeper is filled with the connection between her past and the history of the characters in the manuscript.  Jen is pulled into the story of Sarra, a mixed-race Melungeon girl and Rand Champlain, the preacher who takes her safety to heart, which is also the heart of the story.  It was difficult for me to get into this book at the start.  It is an interweaving of the old manuscript and Jen’s modern day story.  The Blue Ridge dialect was difficult for me to read and understand.  I felt myself losing interest since I was not getting the full meaning from the parts with the dialect in them.  The hook came for me several chapters in when the story became personal for Jen.  As I read on, the dialect became easier and the writing more compelling so that, by the end of the book I was thoroughly involved and ended the story with a lump in my throat.  An excellent story, well told was my reward for staying with it.  Lisa Wingate has also given us a profound glimpse into the lives of the Appalachian people.  I give The Story Keeper four stars!

I received a complimentary copy of this book from the publisher Tyndale, in exchange for my honest review.  These words are my opinion.

The Secret Life of Bees

Novels set in the south in times past are one of my favorite types of novels to read.  The Secret Life of Bees is just that.  Lily Owens is a motherless child.  She has foggy memories of the late afternoon her mother was killed.  Who she is and what her life is about is shaped by viewing that tragic end to her mother's life.  She is left with a father who is steeped in bitterness and cannot let go of the past.  Lily's story takes place in South Carolina in 1964.  Racial tension abounds with integration having been recently legislated, but not accepted in Sylvan, North Carolina; as in most of the South.  Lily's father has a black female employee whom he has handed over Lily's daily care to.  She insults the most racist man in Sylvan and is thrown in jail.  Lily decides that she and Rosaleen must escape.  She plots Rosaleen's escape from the hospital after being beaten by the man she insulted.  They run to Tiburon, S.C.  There is where Lily finds her mother's history and is taken in by an eccentric family of female beekeepers.  She lives and works with them and they employ Rosaleen as well.  Sue Monk Kidd is the author of this tale and she spins it well.  It seems just like the type of thing that could have happened and she writes is with a grace and beauty that make this book a good read.  The author does a good job of describing the interaction between characters as well as their surroundings.  Describing Lily's thought she writes "Sunset is the saddest light there is.  We rode a long time in the glow of it, everything silent except for the crickets and the frogs who were revving up for twilight.  I stared through the windshield as the burned lights took over the sky."   I can imagine being in that scene.  This book is a good escape but still has an absorbing story line.  If you haven't read it, pick it up and do so.  I recently took this on vacation to read and it was an excellent choice.  Five stars for The Secret Life of Bees.  FYI, this has been made into a movie also, so you can read and then watch, or vice versa, whichever you like.

Stay tuned for my next review on the newest release from Lisa Wingate, The Story Keeper.  See you soon!
Jeri~

With Every Breath

With Every Breath will leave you breathless!  That is no exaggeration.  From the cover, this book looks like a mild romance-not that the cover isn’t beautiful.  It is.  However, it belies the intrigue, mystery and passion that are between the pages of this book.  Simply put, I loved it!  Kate Livingston is a government worker in Washington D.C. and she is hoping that she can someday do work that fits her intelligence and talent.  Never able to attend college, she helps out at her parent’s boarding house when not working her day job at a government census bureau.  She accepts a job working for her old high school rival whom she had hoped to never see again.  He has become a doctor and she cannot turn down the opportunity to do important work helping him find a cure for tuberculosis.  Need I say more?!  I will leave you to watch this story unfold.  A word to the wise; set aside a few uninterrupted days to read this.  Seriously!  I finished it in three days and that was because I could only put it down to sleep-and barely that!  Ms. Camden writes with a style that makes reading an easy enjoyable journey while at the same time having the ability to write complications to the plot that are a natural outcome of the characters’ personalities and quirks.  The story fits the characters that she draws-she knows her story, fits her characters to that story and transports the reader to that time and place.  This was my first time to read a novel by this author but it will not be my last.   Well done, Ms. Camden!  I give With Every Breath five stars!

I received a complimentary copy of this book from the publisher, Bethany House, in exchange for my honest review.  These words are my opinion.

Hawaii by James Michener

Yes, this is an oldie but goodie.  More accurately Hawaii is a contemporary classic.  Published in 1959 it was a New York Times #1 Bestseller.  It is grand in scope and sweeping in historic detail.  Beginning with the very formation of the islands by volcanic activity, said to be millions of years ago and ending with Election Day 1954, Mr. Michener writes of the people and the land as is if he lived through all of it. This is the mark of an expert storyteller.  Michener is also one that can fill your eyes with an immense amount of detail and still keep you turning the pages.  He tells us of the lengthy trip of the first inhabitants of Hawaii, the natives from Bora Bora who left their home looking for a new place to settle where they would not be under the wrath of the gods.  His description of the strict New England missionary who brought Christianity to Hawaii aptly describes the starched collar mentality of the New England Congregationalism, learned at Yale in the early 1820’s.  The author takes us through all of the life happenings, grief and joy of the native Hawaiians as they lived it.  He allows us to feel the struggle against the church teachings brought by Abner Hale, the struggle to keep their culture, some of which was inhumanely barbaric in its quest to appease the gods.  His descriptions of the discovery of the rich volcanic soil which allowed many varieties of plants and fruits to grow which could not be grown anywhere else are beautiful.  This novel is abounding with life and all that goes with it.  If I were to tell you all the good reading contained between the pages of this book, I would be writing way longer than you want to read this blog.  I will instead, tell you that it is more than worth picking up and getting involved in.  It can be checked out at your local library, or picked up at a discount bookstore.  You can probably even run across a copy of this book when you are out and about on a garage sale day.  I took it off my bookshelf where I have had it for several years and been trying to read for a long time.  On a scale of my usual one to five stars, I give Hawaii six stars!

Thanks so much for being here.  Come back next week for my review of Elizabeth Camden’s newest offering With Every Breath.  It will have you holding your breath with anticipation of the outcome.

The Trail

The Trail is about finding God’s will for you and the trail you “hike” to get to that place.  Ed Underwood has written a small, short gem with good scripture references to go along with this journey.  Though written as a novel, it presents principles that are part of the method he is teaching in the story.  He takes us with Sam, an old “mountain man firefighter” turned pastor and Matt and Brenda, a couple who is facing a big decision and each using a different thought process to arrive at that decision.  Close friends send them on a trip with Sam into the High Sierras where he teaches them eight scriptural principals that keep them centered on God and focused on finding His will.  I liked this book.  I did find it sometimes difficult to keep up with the details of the hike itself and the directions that Sam was giving to Matt and Brenda, which were integral to the process.  It was not a really easy read but it was worth sticking with it for the end.  The added issue of the old man working through one of his personal relationship problems at the same time he was teaching Matt and Brenda, was a distraction I could have done without.  It did add an element of humanity to the character of Sam, lest we think he has it all wrapped up in a pretty package!  As I read this I was thinking I would need to go back and find each principle and write it down with the scripture reference.  But, when I got to the end of the book, the list of principles and scripture references was recapped there, making it an easy reference.  This book also includes a discussion guide which lends itself to small groups or Bible study groups.  The outdoor theme is a refreshing change.  This is a book that you can keep on your shelf and refer back to from time to time when you feel challenged to discern God’s guidance in a situation you may face.  It would also be a good gift book for a graduate or young married couple.  I give The Trail four stars!

I received a complementary review copy of The Trail from the publisher, Tyndale, in exchange for my honest review.  These words are my opinion.