Captured on the High Seas by Marianne Hering & Nancy Sanders

Go back in time to the time of British warships versus American privateers.

Your child will get a thrill reading about joining forces in the Revolutionary War.

Sea battles filled with cannons and not to mention getting captured. It's all safe and exciting from the safety of your kid's bed.

If you enjoy The Adventures of Odyssey, then you'll read this book and others in the series over and over. The illustrations and spread out so that it doesn't get too boring for the child who wants some visual help. But this is by no means a pictures book.

This book is part of a series, in fact it's book 14, so you might want to catch up with the other 13 before reading this one, but you don't really have to.

This book was fun to read with my son.

This book was provided for review, at no cost, by Focus on the Family.

NIV New Spirit-Filled Life Bible

This is the new New International Version. You know, that translation they failed to inform us about? The one with subtle changes? It's not a big deal but I thought you would like to know about the newness.

I enjoy reading different translations of The Bible. This version has very nice inserts throughout the pages for short devotions and insights.

These quips provided by Jack Hayford can be the springboard for your own insight and understand. Please don't read the sidebars and equate them with Scripture. They should be used as guides for living, you guessed it, Spirit-filled.

So how do you balance dogma and Spirit living? Read this copy and learn.
Inside you will find 41 themes to help you living Kingdom values, over 550 terms defined using the original language, and practical application charts. (you'll understand when you see them)

Like other hardcover Bibles, this is a nice copy to have for your own study. However I would recommend using other versions/translations as this is on the lighter side of "study" material with notes and whatnot.


This Bible was provided for review, at no cost, by Thomas Nelson Publishing.

HRC by Jonathan Allen & Amie Parnes

This is basically a puff piece on Secretary Clinton. It covers her defeat in 2008 and her subsequent rise.

The information stays positive as the sources are mainly Clinton allies. While this isn't a bad book, I was missing some of the full story reporting found in other political books. I was pleased that this wasn't a smear book that people on the political edges crave.

They did touch on Clinton's list of political "friends" and those who abandoned them for President Obama. That is a bit of information that we should watch as the next presidential election cycle comes around.

It is interesting to note just all Clinton has accomplished as Secretary of State. ( political opponents would claim inactivity). This lady is quite the hard worker. She logged in so many flight hours to so many countries. But what did she do?

From reading this book, one might conclude that Clinton used the Secretary's position to bolster her resume for her next election.

There wasn't much reported on Benghazi, or much of anything else that might paint a negative mark on her career - thus I call this book a puff piece.

It is a quick, fun read for the mild political junkie. Conservative Republicans will loathe this book.

This book was provided for review, at no cost, by  Crown Publishing.

The City by Dean Koontz

This is the most boring book written by Dean Koontz.

A few reviewers have said it's slow in the beginning and to wait for the pay-off but this entire book is just too awful. For me, the pay-off never came.

It is so bad I was wondering through the entire read if this was actually ghost-written.

Some have said Koontz keeps reinventing himself as if this were in the vein of, say, The Husband or Relentless. Not in a long shot.

It reads nothing like a Koontz novel and I felt like it was a complete waste of time. It gives you the full-life story of a boy named Jonah and his relationship with "The City" (or is it a woman?)

It used to be that Koontz could keep me riveted to the pages without having to resort to Dan Brown-ian style ending to chapters; i.e. "And then the horrific happened..."

Do yourself a favor - skip this book -  if you're a Dean Koontz fan, reread Sole Survivor or The Taking.


This book was provided for review, at no cost, by Bantam Publishing.