Glaen by Fred Lybrand

Fred Lybrand uses an interesting story to promote his views of building relationships.

Glaen tells the story of Annie, a grad student who is baffled by the relationships she sees around her; her parents are separating, her best friend thinks every boyfriend is "the one" and her little sister is still in the "do you like me yes-or-no circle one" stage.

Annie takes a class with Professor Glaen. She seems to be the only student who signed up for it but she'll learn all about relationships from this quirky man.

As she begins to work on her book that attemps to unpack how relationships work, you go deeper and deeper into Lybrand's teaching.

There are no chapters in this book so it will seem like you are blitzing through the story. And once you come out the other end, you'll want to discuss it with some of your friends.

Don't assume that dating or courting is the answer to building strong loving relationships.

Has God created us to ever succeed at it?

The outcome might surprise you just as the little twist at the end of this story will.

Where is God? by Dr. John Townsend

Dr. Townsend of Boundaries fame has jumped into the fad of trying to allay the fears of Americans.

In Where Is God? we are given the basic, oft-repeated answers we hear from any Christian. The biggest difference is the inclusion of psychology in the cliched pat answers.

The 14 chapters give us insights such as:

Power, Presence, and Protest
Why Ask Why?
Freedom in the Service of Love
The God You Must Not Seek
The God Who Suffers with Me
The God Who Works Behind the Scenes
The God Who Connects You with Others
The God of Faith When There Are No Answers

among others.

Unless you've been a fan of Dr. Townsend, I don't think you should pick this book up. As I've said in other places, if you want a book that deals with the suffering question, you should read Randy Alcorn's tome If God Is Good.

Where is God? is just the a repeat of the answers that frustrate you with a little psychology mixed in for good measure.

Duplicity

Clive Owen and Julia Roberts, you'd think they would have great chemistry and they do...sorta.

Duplicity is a confusing movie about corporate spies with twists and jumps in time.

Our two stars are ex-spies. Roberts is ex CIA and Owens is EX MI6.

They decide to go into the private sector to swindle a large chunk of cash from an unsuspecting corporation.

As the movie unfolds, you aren't quite sure who to believe as neither character trusts the other.

Who will end up with the money?

Duplicity boasts a stellar supporting cast: Tom Wilkinson and Paul Giamatti play the CEOs of competing businesses and they are at each other's throats.

Wilkinson's company has a secret new product that will revolutionize the business and Giamatti wants it. Enter our spies.

Rated PG-13 for language and some sexual content.

Thin Places by Mary E. DeMuth

This memoir by Mary DeMuth is not for those easily squimish.

Thin Places takes you back to Mary's early years and to the abuse she suffered. While not graphic, her talent with words cause them to sear into your conciousness.

After reading chapter after chapter of all the bad things that happened to her and all the emotional failings she's suffered with, it's really hard not to give her a raving review for fear that she might take words that aren't so positive too personally.

However, my critiques are few:

Each chapter becomes repetitive. You read about how bad she feels about herself and then the chapter ends with how Jesus can help deliver her from those feelings.

After 20 chapters, you start feeling sorry for her before you read the next chapter because you know it won't be a happy story.

However, DeMuth's talent is her storytelling ability. The way her words flow over you transport you those exact moments of her life. It almost gets to be creepy with out realistic it seems. An almost, you-were-there feeling.

I've enjoyed her Defiance, Texas trilogy and was able to talk to her about the first book of that series.

Thin Places is for anyone looking to connect with someone else who has dealt with deep, personal pain and those wanting a touch of connection with God. (As oxymoronic that sounds)

The Devil Wears Prada

I picked up this movie for my wife; figured it'd be a nice chick-flick and don't all girls like romance and fashion

The Devil Wears Prada is about an aspiring journalist, Anne Hathaway, who gets a job as the second assistant to a ruthless fashion magazine editor, Meryl Streep.

At first, Hathaway's, Andy Sachs, thinks the fashion business is a joke and only stays on board to pay the rent until she can get a real job for a newspaper.

After days of ruthless, stinging barbs about her weight and sense of style, Sachs decides to join the team and begins wearing the latest trends.

As she gets deeper and deeper into the business, her relationships with her friends begin to suffer.

Things come to a head when Sachs is invited to Paris with her boss.

For a girly movie based on a book, this film wasn't too bad. I'm a hesitant fan of Hathaways. I'm not much of a Streep fan (does she have to cry in every movie?) but the music and the style of this film kept it interesting.

There was enough humor in it to keep me on the couch on a Valentine's Day.

The Bible as Improv: Seeing and Living the Script in New Ways by Ron Martoia

Ron Martoia has written a book that may cause a stir with some Fundamentalists. His The Bible As Improv book wants to slide away from the traditional way of reading and studying Scripture.

Martoia's experience grew from a Bible study he would conduct with his friends. Like most small groups, they would look at the verses and try to determine what they could take and apply to their lives.

Then the hard questions began to form; questions about tattoos, and what kind of clothing to wear, even questions from the New Testament.

Through these questions and his experience through college and Seminary, Martoia began to view Scripture in a new light. He began to see it as a script. Taking his cues from N.T. Wright, he sees the Bible as a story or play that is comprised of acts. We, of course, are in the act not written.

Martoia calls us to look at the big picture and not pick-and-choose which verses apply to us now and which were only applicable for them back there.

It's a fun read, and like I said, I think the fundamentalists will have problems with his "new" way.


This book was provided for review by Zondervan

Transforming Discipleship by Greg Ogden

Greg Ogden goes against the mega-church grain by promoting a discipleship plan based on one-on-one meetings instead of small groups.

He wants to see church leaders making disciples a few at a time instead of trying to churn out groups of people who have sat through a class.

First, Ogden describes what went wrong and with with The Discipleship Deficit and getting to the root causes.

Next he explains how to use the Bible as a method book in making disciples.

In part 3, he gives us church-based strategies to make disciples.

He is not shy at expressing his disdain for the current fad of Small Groups and he seems to come in conflict with a popular discipleship book called Simple Church.

Within Transforming Discipleship, Ogden explains how the Paul/Timothy model shouldn't be used in churches as that was a special case. Instead, we should employ the Paul/Barnabus model in which we grow together, taking turns.

One of the bright spots in this book came at the very beginning when Ogden explained how our pastor's are too busy doing the work that others should be doing.

Biblically, pastors should only worry about instructing and equipping the church goers; the visitations, pastoral care, etc... should be left up to those who are built up within the congregations and turned out to lead.

Angels by Dr. David Jeremiah

I wonder why Dr David Jeremiah felt the need to write this book. He mentions Billy Graham's book on this topic so why not leave well enough alone?

Angels: Who they are and how they help ... what the Bible Reveals is a very thick book for its size. The print is very small and the content is very deep so it is not a book to read before you go to bed.

Inside, you'll learn about the presense of angels, angels and God, what angels are, when they appear, how much alike we are to them, and what their purposes are.

By using biblical references along with outside sources (personal stories), Dr. Jeremiah weaves a compelling thesis for angels.

Dr. Jeremiah knows Scripture. He has a large following based on that sound teaching. But I still question why we need his version of teaching on angels when we already have a perfectly good one from Billy Graham.

Are they that different?


This book was provided for review by the WaterBrook Multnomah Publishing Group