Women of Faith

I am so excited to be going to the Women of Faith Conference 2011.  I've never been and have wanted to go for quite some time.  I've heard some really good things about this.   Thank you to Book Sneeze for selecting me from my city to be able to attend this event.  I am very grateful.  God bless Book Sneeze.  They have been so generous to give away so many free books to myself and many others. 

Though I won't be able to go this year to my church's women's retreat, it will be great to go to at least one women's extended event this year.  I praise God.



They have a fantastic 2011 Lineup.  I am big fans of the authors - Andy Andrews, Steve Arterburn, Henry Cloud.  If Luci Swindoll is as good as her husband, this should be a treat.  I love the music of Natalie Grant, Mandisa, Mary Mary, Laura Story, Selah, Sandi Patty, and Sheila Walsh.  I remember watching the "Facts of Life" series growing up, so it will be great to hear Lisa speak.

God's Love Letters to You

This book was not what I expected.  I've read some of Dr. Larry Crabb's other books and liked them, but this is the one that I liked the best.  Got this as an eBook from Book Sneeze.

This book can be written for anyone from youth well into adulthood.  It is comprised of a 40-day devotional that contains a short, very powerful "letter" from God from a book of the Bible, followed by questions for reflection and ending in a succinct prayer to God.

This book is NOT long, but pretty short.  But take heed that the "letters" so convicted and impacted me that it made me really think about where I am in my relationship to God.  Those "letters" sound as if it's like God speaking right at me, and the letter is a summary of the book of the Bible it's talking about.

Originally I wasn't going to get this book because I just didn't want to get another devotional to read at this moment, but I'm so glad I listened to the Holy Spirit and got this because every single one of the devotional days were for me.

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Disclosure of Material Connection: I received this book free from the publisher through the BookSneeze®.com book review bloggers program. I was not required to write a positive review. The opinions I have expressed are my own. I am disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission’s 16 CFR, Part 255 : “Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising.”

Don't Check Your Brains At The Door

I got this as an eBook from Book Sneeze.  This is my 5th eBook from them.  Originally I wanted this book in print for my kids to use as reference, but I missed the time when it came out by 1 day and all available print copies were gone.  So, here I am with the eBook.

This book did not take me long to read and is a fairly easy read for an adult.  I did not go through the "Brain Food" exercises in each of the 42 chapters.  This book is broken down into Myths in the following areas:

• Myths About God
• Myths About Jesus
• Myths About the Bible
• Myths About the Resurrection
• Myths About Religion & Christianity
• Myths About Life & Happiness

The latter 2 sections had a lot more examples.  This book is appropo for teenagers and those entering teenage years.  I have a 7 & a 10 yr old and I will be getting this book in hard copy for them to do.  Though my kids are a little younger, as a family we regularly read & discuss the Bible.

I love how each chapter is short, an explanation of what the LIE is and the Scripture backing & argument for it.  It doesn't go very deep into the argument, but it's a starting point for study on any of the topics.  To go through 42 different LIES, have "homework" to do, it gives whomever is doing the "Brain Food" work things to think about, as well as to discuss with others to better help understand what one believes.

The topics of the myths are things kids and even adults will come across.  I think this book was well-organized and very appropriate.
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Disclosure of Material Connection: I received this book free from the publisher through the BookSneeze®.com book review bloggers program. I was not required to write a positive review. The opinions I have expressed are my own. I am disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission’s 16 CFR, Part 255 : “Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising.”

Cure For The Common Life

This is my 4th eBook from Book Sneeze and I'm totally loving these eBooks as it allows me to get the books quickly and read them.

The last book I read of Lucado's, I did not care for.  However, this book, I absolutely LOVE.  Since I got the eBook version, the copyright on this book is 2005.  The cover is different than the one displayed in this, which is what came from Book Sneeze.

I really loved the perspective with which he describes each of our unique lives, rather than seeing our lives often in the duldrums or showered with drama.  God gives us desires, talents and skills and every single person is unqiue and special.  We all have the ability to walk in the destinies that God has for each of us, which he says in "Our Sweet Spot".

In this book, Lucado focuses on each person's uniqueness and I love how each main and subsection covers this.  Amidst the billions of people, each is endowed with talents, gifts, skills that are unique, unlike anyone else's.  We each have a part in this world, and it is in a major part.

Lucado follows all his other books where it is about perspective and this book is no exception.  He strongly advocates what we are drawn to as well as our skills & talents.  He said that when we live in that "sweet spot", that's when we are most effectively utilized for God's Kingdom.  He backs up his illustrations with the Bible and expounds on what the Bible talks about.

So, not only are we to use what God gives us, all of it is to glorify God.  Everything points back to God, not in puffing ourselves up, rather showing people to Jesus.  This is to be our perspective, our eyes.

Other things are to be in community with God's people.  Community helps lifts us up when we're down, but we can do likewise for others.  It also inspires.  He also devotes a subsection to humility and when we are so full of ourselves, we can't be full of God.  Thus, in order to be filled of God, we must deflate.

The final section talks about our daily lives.  This section is broken in 5 subsections:  Jobs, Focusing on Purpose and not getting knotted up in all the minute things that keep us busy; Common Deeds (small gestures) do make a big difference to God; Allow our kids to grow as God sees them and not as we see them; Serve others.

This book also includes a Sweet Spot Discovery Guide.  It's about 40 pages.  I just skimmed through this section, but will be doing it.  I'm really excited about this book and think this is one of the best books I've read of Lucado's!!!
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Disclosure of Material Connection: I received this book free from the publisher through the BookSneeze®.com book review bloggers program. I was not required to write a positive review. The opinions I have expressed are my own. I am disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission’s 16 CFR, Part 255 : “Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising.”

A Place Called Blessing

This is now my third eBook from Book Sneeze.  This book didn't turn out to be anything like I thought it would.  My original intent when I started the book around 2 am was just to read a couple chapters.  By 3:15 am, I was on Chapter 13 and physically my body was saying that I needed to sleep.

Anyway, I couldn't stop.  Finished all 19 chapters at about 4:10 am Friday morning with tears in my eyes.  I'm not much of a fiction reader, but this is a very touching and endearing book.

It's a story about a young boy, Justin (aka Josh) in the story that got a raw deal early in life.  He lost both his parents, ended up in foster homes.  His 2 older brothers, Sam & Matt, got eventually adopted, but Josh never did.  He ends up as an adult and homeless at times.  Through a series of events, he finds himself with no education other than a high school degree, working in a town doing the grunt of construction - cleanup work.

He meets a young man named, Mike, who befriends him.  Mike's mom, Anna, has a room for rent (a converted garage).  Through the course of the next year plus to follow, friendships are forged and trust is built.  Josh has a really hard time trusting because of all that he's gone through.  He begins to fall in love with Mike's cousin, Lori, but upon Lori confessing a secret, Josh feels betrayed that she lied to him and breaks up with her.

Mike's cancer that had been in remission came back and with a furious vengeance.  Mike was in his late 20s nearly finished with his engineering degree, but shortly after receiving his diploma, he dies.

I don't want to give away the ending of the story, but I think this book is well-worth the read.    At the end of the book, there are questions from each chapter that make you think about "stuff" that happens in people's lives and it's a good book I think for young people to read, as well as adults.

How do we rise up above our circumstances?  Forgive?  Love?  Trust?  Despite a whole lot of crappy and really bad things happening?  It's all about Jesus.  Yes, I was moved to tears quite a few times in the book.


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Disclosure of Material Connection: I received this book free from the publisher through the BookSneeze®.com book review bloggers program. I was not required to write a positive review. The opinions I have expressed are my own. I am disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission’s 16 CFR, Part 255 : “Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising.”

eBooks

Originally I resisted getting the eBooks as I thought it would minimize my enjoyment of reading, meaning since I did not have an eBook Reader, I would be forced to sit at my computer and read. However, I have a 22" monitor and it makes reading fairly easy. My chair is comfy and I get to have good posture while reading these books.


Another thing that caused me to be against eBooks for review is that I love using a highlighter on my books and I cannot do that with these versions. However, I can still take notes and write down what page I want to markup, so if I'm so inclined, then I can actually purchase the book when the price drops.

The eBook versions are helping me to have less clutter in my home and it makes getting the books much easier and quicker from just a few clicks in a couple minutes or less to the near usually 2-3 weeks it takes me to get a hardcopy. I still love the feel of a good book. And, maybe later this year or next year when my budget allows me, maybe I'll be able to get an eBook reader so I can take along these eBooks to read elsewhere.

I'm finding at least with the first 2 eBooks I got, that I'm able to read the books much faster.  Let's see if it happens to subsequent eBooks. 

The Little Red Book Of Wisdom

This is not a very long book and again an easy read as it is so short.   Each chapter is short, just a few pages at most.  He has many succinct stories.

The book is comprised of 2 main sections - one for the professional life and one for the personal life.  Each of those main sections is broken down into small chapters.

The points are all kept short, but putting all those things into practice will be a big challenge.

I started reading the Personal Life section first.  One of the things that I really liked was disciplining yourself as well as abstaining from things that even are potentially harmful.  Alcohol is one of those things.  His argument wasn't even that it's wrong, rather just the statistical evidence of how much harm it's done in more lives than good is enough proof.

And, one of the things he talked about that I did partially last year was read 5 chapters of Psalm a day with 1 chapter of Proverbs a day and repeat this until each book is finished each month, thus, I would do this 12 times a year.  This just reinforced that there is great benefit in doing this.

The stories are very poignant.  My intent was really to break up the reading to do half the book the first night and read the other half during the next day, but the chapters were so short and I kept saying just one more chapter and next thing you know, I've completed the whole book.

I think the chapter that surprised me most was Chapter 5 - Work Less, Think More.  This chapter really intrigued me to do more investigation.

The letter writing chapter sounds good and something I used to do well.  Maybe I ought to bring this back to practice again?

Though there are many areas for me to improve on from what I learned in this book, I also found there were a number of things that I have learned well and am living wisely in.  This is a good reference book.

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Disclosure of Material Connection: I received this book free from the publisher through the BookSneeze®.com book review bloggers program. I was not required to write a positive review. The opinions I have expressed are my own. I am disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission’s 16 CFR, Part 255 : “Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising.”

Billy Graham in Quotes

I absolutely LOVED this book.  This was the first time I did an eBook through Book Sneeze and thoroughly enjoyed this, even if I had to sit at my laptop the whole time as I don't have one of those mobile ebook readers.

I felt inspired, convicted, moved to action at reading these books on the plethora of topics that are a part of our lives.  Billy Graham says it like it is and these were quotes compiled for over 70 yrs.  Wow!

The NOTES section is comprised of 35 pages of where each of the quotes come from.  This is like the best of the best of his writings and probably the things I would've highlighted had I read all those books.

With the eBook version, when I wanted to see where a particular quote came from, I just clicked on the number reference and it took me straight to the NOTES section.  Very cool.

This book has 332 pages of quotes that is broken down into 107 topics.  I'm not going to list all the topics or even some, but this book is well worth the read.  Got this book late Wednesday evening and read the first 30 topics quite easily in a matter of a little over an hour.  The rest of the book took me almost another 3 hrs to finish the next day.

The topic that probably impressed on me the most was on THE BIBLE.  As my children & I are reading aloud the whole Bible this year, those quotes really are so true.  Love it!

I feel stronger reading this and more solid now.  God bless the Graham family!
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Disclosure of Material Connection: I received this book free from the publisher through the BookSneeze®.com book review bloggers program. I was not required to write a positive review. The opinions I have expressed are my own. I am disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission’s 16 CFR, Part 255 : “Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising.”

Put Your Dream To The Test

This is an amazing book that must've taken John so long to write.  He is so right on the money with things and this book took me a long time to read not because the words were hard, but it is a book that calls me to action right where I am at.

As I've "Put my dream to the test", I'm finding the areas where I need work.  Those 10 questions are quite riveting and John goes really in depth into them.  There are quizzes, questions, stories, acronyms, task lists, etc. to help you determine if it's a fantasy you are having or if it's something that what you are dreaming of can really be put into reality.

This book is less than 300 pages, but it has so much.  It contains a Dream Map.  It does what a map supposed to do - Guide You.  I really like that.  Also, he has a reference section of all the resources & materials he used. 

Though he does talk about God, I would've liked a little more about God specifically spelled out and corresponding Scriptures.  Though I have a good knowledge of the Bible and can figure out where certain things came from, other people who do not will not be able to tell if it's suggestions Maxwell is giving is really Biblical perspective & guidelines.

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Disclosure of Material Connection: I received this book free from the publisher through the BookSneeze®.com book review bloggers program. I was not required to write a positive review. The opinions I have expressed are my own. I am disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission’s 16 CFR, Part 255 : “Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising.”

The Truth of the Matter

I really liked this book. Even though I didn't read the first 2 books, there was probably enough said in The Truth of the Matter that allowed me to eventually understand a good part of the story. However, I won't really know unless I read the other 2 books before.

Charlie West had to go through a lot of tough stuff. His faith was really challenged, as well as standing for what's right. Would he serve his country in this secret, covert way and risk dying with maybe the truth never being told and help stop terrorism or would he just ignore what was happening and keep going with life?

There will come a time when Christians will have to take stands that may cost their lives in the U.S. and this book asks some of those questions for me. Will I and others have the guts to stand for Jesus?

I do believe there are movements well underway to bring down the U.S. So, there are probably elements of this book that are quite true. There is a bunch of Divine Intervention in Charlie West being able to escape from the Homelanders a number of times. I'm looking forward hopefully to reading Book 4 sometime in the future, to see the conclusion.

Can we live boldly & confidently in Jesus here on this earth? Charlie West is.

This book is best for teenagers & up.

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Disclosure of Material Connection: I received this book free from the publisher through the BookSneeze®.com book review bloggers program. I was not required to write a positive review. The opinions I have expressed are my own. I am disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission’s 16 CFR, Part 255 : “Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising.”