Wednesday, March 30, 2016

(Un)Qualified by Steven Furtick

Right off the bat, let me share my biggest gripe about this book:

It's promoted as delving into the story of Jacob to explain how God uses broken people to do big things. This book is broken into three parts. The "delving into the story of Jacob" part comes in the last third.

I'm just saying, it'd be better not to promote the book as something that only one-third of the entire book touches.

With that out of the way, this book is good. Not quite as good as Furtick's earlier book, Greater but it's good nonetheless.

Inside, Furtick covers an area that has been a big draw for me recently - remembering who you are in light of what God says you are. It is very similar to Ted Dekker's latest push in focusing on the words of God upon one's life.

Part One deals with what you believe about yourself. Taking God's description of His Name to Moses; I AM, Furtick poses the question, "what is your third word?" When you introduce yourself what is your third word? I am _________. We fill in so many unflattering things like useless, stressed, tired, etc...

He also explores a new/ancient idea of the commandment to "not take the Lord's name in vain". Maybe it doesn't mean to say "God" when we're angry or frustration as much as it means living our lives in a way that does not reveal God in any possible way.

I really liked that part of the book.

Part Two deals with true opposites of what we believe about ourselves. Instead of believing we're afraid, believe we love.

I think I sped read this portion of the book.

Part Three finally takes on Jacob and his namesake and how that reveals his character.

I enjoyed reading this book. I think Furtick does a good job with storytelling and easily getting his point across.

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

Monday, March 21, 2016

NKJV Apply the Word Study Bible

A nice hardback study Bible in the New King James version text.


It's not one of those massive faux leather study Bibles, it's about the size of a typical hardback book.

You won't find the massive amounts of notes at the bottom of each page. Instead there are notes in the introduction to each book and throughout the book you'll find note text boxes that provide study insight.

The Text Study boxes have an orange title box and tinted orange. The person study boxes are teal.

Throughout are small full-color maps of the areas mentioned in different passages.

The words of Jesus are in red.

There aren't many places for note taking on the page if that's something you like to do.

At the back of the Bible is a decent sized concordance. Nothing like the vastness that the NIV study Bibles have.

You'll also find the eight full-color maps you typically find in Bibles (map of Jerusalem, Paul's missionary trips, etc...)

This is a nice version to have. But as far as using it for study, I'd say it's not chock-full of information you might want to have all in one place.

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

Monday, March 14, 2016

Ask The Question by Stephen Mansfield

Mansfield believes we should demand religious clarity from our Presidential candidates.


First off, at the back of this book are three speeches typed out. Given by Presidents Kennedy, Reagan and Obama, they all deal with faith. Those three speeches alone were enough to make me happy with this book.

Inside, Mansfield covers the whole spectrum of history from Jefferson to Obama and how they interacted with the political landscape and explaining, or not, their faith.

While not pushing for any one religion, Mansfield thinks it's in our best interest to know what's going on inside our candidates because of the fact that their faith or lack thereof strongly influences their decision-making and leadership skills.

I think this is a great book for anyone interested in politics at any level of excitement. It spells out the importance of knowing more than simply their policy agendas but to know as much as we can about the person. And Mansfield goes out of his way to explain that it's the people's responsibility to get that information and not the role of government.

He uses other candidates as examples - both positive and negative - in how not to explain faith and how it can be so tricky. He talks about Gov. Romney's failure to tie his religion to the movement in America, he talks about Secretary Clinton's failure to connect on a spiritual level even though she talks quite a bit about her faith and church.

This is a great book. It was provided for review, at no cost, by BakerBooks.

Crazy Little Thing Called Marriage by Dr Greg and Erin Smalley

A Focus on the Family book. What more needs to be said?


Well let's try.

Inside you'll read about twelve secrets (or tips) for lifelong romance. These are called relationship-renewing secrets.

Each chapter covers one of the secrets. And let's be honest, they aren't so much secrets as they are guidelines or advice on seeking God first, strive for peace, patience, serving, and sex. They are followed by a quick Bible verse and then anecdotes and words of wisdom from the Smalleys.

Inside you can find a link to a free assessment (who wouldn't love to test their marriage?)

They cover pretty much everything in this book. It's surprising how much can be hit with just twelve areas but they do a good job at it. I would recommend reading this with your spouse.

Not so much reading it yourself and then demanding your spouse read it. But if that's all you can get at the time, maybe that's all you can get.

This is a good book. (Sad reality that we need it)

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

Manmade by Chris Salgardo

An expensive book with brief grooming tips for guys.


The pages are full color and very thick.

Inside you'll find three parts:
Back to the Basics which covers how to get started and outlining everything a guy should own and how to use it, and then some basic questions.
Real Men in their Real Worlds covers the "what it takes", the "how tos", and the practical advice and rules for taking care of yourself.
Part three is a quick reference guide for your hair, face, eyes, hands, feet and smell.

This basically feels like a men's magazine in hardback book form. Lots of full color pages in between advice and tips for being a guy who's interested in maintaining a "look".

Not something you'd read everyday.

This book was provided for review, at no cost, by Pam Krauss Books.

Thursday, March 10, 2016

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.

The Calling by Rachelle Dekker

Book two of the Seers series.


This book was difficult for me to get out of first gear.

It had been a while since I read the first book, The Choosing, so it took a while for me to familiarize myself with the characters. In addition, there seemed to be a shift of perspective as well as some time that had progressed since the ending of book one.

All this to repeat, I had trouble getting through the first few chapters.

As the daughter of a New York Times Bestselling author, Rachelle is continuing her exploration of themes her father set up in his own "identity-finding/remembering" series.

Instead of focusing on the girl from The Choosing, we get inside the character of Remko and his arch enemy, President Damien Gold.

Anytime you have a villain named Damien, you have the potential goldmine!

The sects are still there from the first book. Rescue operations are afoot and danger lurks with every attempt. Remko has to deal with some serious "dark times" and that is the major arc and thrust of this book.

It's a good stand alone story even though it's part of a series. And this might be part of why I had an initial difficult time.

Fans of the Dekkers will enjoy this book. Fans of most Young Adult novels will get a kick out of this one as well. (I'm looking at you Hunger Games thrillers)

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