Blogger Review Books

Francine Bryson is a national pie champion and a former finalist on The American Baking Competition. She’s written two cookbooks, “œBlue Ribbon Baking from a Redneck Kitchen” and her recent publication, “œCountry Cooking from a Redneck Kitchen“ which is my most recent review. As my family contemplates a move a little further South in a couple of years, I thought it would be fun to dip my toe into the Southern culinary cuisine.

I spent a sold two weeks deciding which recipe I would try for this review and landed on “œThe Best Fried Chicken You’ll Ever Eat”. My husband is eager for any excuse to use his deep fryer so this had to be the one.

Read more

I read Leeana Tankersley’s first book, “œFound Art” several years ago. I found it to be a fascinating read about life and faith as Tankersley lived in the Middle East with her husband as he served in the US military. Somehow she fell off my radar screen and I missed her second book “œBreathing Room”. I’m glad I didn’t miss her third production, “œBrazen: The Courage to Find the You That’s Been Hiding“.

Tankersley has grown as a writer since “œFound Art”. She’s just as thoughtful and introspective as before but her writing has gotten even better over time. Throughout this latest work, Tankersley seeks to reclaim the word “œbrazen” and return to its original meaning of “œwithout shame”. Women have so many moments in their lives when they silence themselves, attempt to make themselves metaphorically smaller or muffle their own voice.  Bit by bit, Tankersley encourages women to reclaim who they are as a child of God.

Read more

Audible has continued producing new content with A List actors as narrators. The newest release this month is the short (96 pages in print) creepy novel by Henry James, The Turn of the Screw narrated by Emma Thompson.

This is part of the same series that Bookwi.se has reviewed previously, with Colin Firth narrating The End of the Affair, Anne Hathaway narrating The Wizard of Oz, Tim Curry narrating A Christmas Carol and Claire Danes narrating the Handmaid’s Tale. (Links are to my earlier reviews.)

The Turn of the Screw is a story that I have not read. A governess has care of two orphaned children at a country estate. She becomes convinced that an evil presence is lurking in the house stalking the children.

Read more

Takeaway: God is love is not the only important thing in theology, but it may be one of the harder parts of the Christian life to truly accept.

I have a theological bias. I believe that any description of God and the Christian life that does not include God’s love as central to his essence, not just one of his characteristics, is missing the heart of the Christian life.

Yes, the “˜God is Love’ can be and has been misused. But I would much rather move toward the potential over-adoption of God is love than the under-adoption. Going too far is balanced by prevalent themes in scripture. But under adoption of the ‘God is love’ principle fundamentally changes the nature of Christianity. It becomes performance based, rule following, and eventually a self-saving religion that rejects the concept of grace and ceases to be the orthodox Christianity of scripture.

I like to be (and need to be) continually reminded of God’s love of us as fallen, broken humans. David Benner (who I have read previously talking about spiritual direction) has expanded and re-issued a trilogy of books which starts with Surrender to Love.

Read more

Jean Perdu has devoted his life to his floating bookshop, The Literary Apothecary. Perdu has the amazing ability to diagnose his customers’ ailments and correctly prescribe a literary remedy. Although Perdu helps every shopper who frequents his business, he is unable (or unwilling) to read the one thing which will help him cope with decades of grief.

An international best-seller, The Little Paris Bookshop is the 26^th book by German writer, Nina George. George has created a unique premise in the most glorious setting with imaginative characters. Unfortunately, the story stalls halfway through and never regains its momentum. This is a shame; the story starts off very strong and the characters are quite memorable.

Read more

I am reposting 2014 review because the Kindle Edition is on sale for $2.99 (Today only).
Summary: Information is money (and/or power). But it is the people that really keep and break security.

Olen Steinhauer is probably my favorite spy novelist right now.  Steinhauer is almost always compared to John le Carre‘.  But I did not pick up my first le Carre’ novel until after I had read the first two of Steinhauer’s Tourist trilogy.

Steinhauer and le Carre’ are writing in the same subgenre of spy novels. They are detailed, more about the slow burn of uncovering details than the action (although there is action).

The Cairo Affair is broadly about Sophie Kohl, the wife of a diplomat.  Just minutes after she confesses to her husband that she has had an affair, a man walks up to them at dinner and murders her husband right in front of her.

The murder of Sophie’s husband is then at the center of what may be an attempt to overthrow the government of Libya (this is set in 2011 before the fall of Gaddafi). The question is who is behind the attempt and why was her husband murdered.  Working separately, Jibril Aziz, a CIA analyst and former field agent, is trying to figure out who has put the plan he wrote for the overthrow of Libya into action.

This is not a book that really has a central character.  The story unfolds from a variety of perspectives with a number of scenes told from multiple perspectives.  I really like this as a method, especially in a spy novel.  The heart of spy novels is always information.  And no one has all of the information.

Read more

Takeaway: While they may be flawed, our faith communities are essential.

Ever since I ran across Sarah Bessey’s writing and especially when reading her first book Jesus Feminist, I have been struck by her desire to be inclusive and draw people together through her writing. Traditionally discussion of women’s roles is an exclusionary task, but Bessey, while clearly advocating for more inclusion of women in leadership and teaching roles in the church, was careful to not alienate those that disagreed with her.

In her new book, Out of Sorts: Making Peace With an Evolving Faith, she is equally adept at drawing the reader in. Out of Sorts is a hard book to describe. It is memoir-ish. It is a book about church and Bessey’s difficulties with the church, but it is not a complaint book. It is about spiritual growth and formation, denominations, Women, maturity, community and a variety of other topics.

The overriding theme is that faith changes over time. The faith we have as children is not the same faith we have as teens, which is not the same faith we have in our 20s or 40s or later. Bessey’s parents came to faith when she was a child, but old enough to remember. She grew up in small town Western Canada, where there were few enough Christians that she was relatively unaware of the differences between Christian groups. As she ventured out into the world she came to new understandings as she became acquainted with other Christians.

Read more