Sticky Faith: Everyday Ideas to Build Lasting Faith in Your Kids by Kara Powell and Chap Clark

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Bookwi.se Note: Vikki Huisman wrote this review for her church blog but agreed to let Bookwi.se repost it here. 

You shouldn’t wait to get this book.

Seriously.

Youth experts, Chapman and Powell completed a 6-year research project, “œThe College Transition Project”. Based on their research, they concluded that between 40-50% of youth group kids stick with their faith in college. If you have two children, the odds are only one of them will stick with their faith after college.

Sticky Faith contains a lot of research and data at the beginning of the book and I must be honest, the statistics are unnerving. I was ready to toss the book aside and never finish it because it seemed so depressing. But I’m glad I didn’t.

Powell and Clark tell us that there is no magic formula or quick fix to guarantee that your kids will have a faith that lasts. This book is not a 10 step program to turn your child into Billy Graham by Monday. Just as there are many different types of people, there are many avenues you can choose to pursue in your home to point your child in the right direction.

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The Dip: When to Quit (And When to Stick) by Seth Godin

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The Dip: A Little Book That Teaches You When to Quit (and When to Stick)“The difference between a mediocre club player and a regional champion isn’t inborn talent. It’s the ability to push through in the moments when it is easier to quit.”

Those words so struck me that I stopped and copied them down while I was listening to this short (free) audiobook.  Seth Godin likes provocative phrases.  And after listening to the whole book, I know that what Godin means is that it is inborn talent and the ability to push through in hard times.  But that is not what he was actually saying here.

The story of Rudy isn’t that he worked really hard and his hard work paid off and he became a great football legend. He worked really hard and after years, and a lot of points where most people said he should quit, he got a chance, not because of his performance, but because of his heart and other people’s willingness to step aside to help him out.

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Little Fuzzy by Henry Beam Piper

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Little FuzzySummary: Classic Science Fiction look at what it means to be sentient.

Several weeks ago I had never heard of H Beam Piper or his book Little Fuzzy.  Instead I was looking for books by John Scalzi.  Scalzi is a contemporary Science Fiction author and over the past several months I have read two of his books (both narrated by Will Wheaton).

I picked up Fuzzy Nation, which happens to be a retelling of H Beam Piper’s classic Little Fuzzy.

The audiobook of Fuzzy Nation included both the new and the original.  I have already reviewed the new, so this is the review of the original.

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Ebook Price Fixing Settlement Results In Some Lower Prices

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The Department of Justice sued HarperCollins, Hachette, Apple, Macmillian and Penguin over price fixing.  Essentially, Apple proposed that the publishers should be able to set the retail pricing of their ebooks instead of the retailer.  When the iPad came out, five of the six major publishers in the US worked together to require all ebook sellers sell … Read more

Four Steps Back for the New Paperwhite Kindle

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For the most part the new kindle announcement is good news.  The new Kindle Paperwhite has a much better screen and continues to focus on reading as its main purpose.

But there are four six areas where I think the new Kindle Paperwhite took a step back.

Amazon Paperwhite Light
Image from Amazon.com

1) Storage Capacity – The new Paperwhite (the eink Kindle) has half the storage of the Kindle with Keyboard or the Kindle Touch.  I think that 2 GB is enough for storing the current books you are reading, but not for an entire library.  And many people want to store their entire library on a kindle.  Amazon estimates that the new Paperwhites will store 1100 books. I currently have over 3000 books in my kindle library.  On the other hand I try to keep the books on my kindle down to about 40-50.  So it is not a huge deal for me.  Also the kindle software does not like full storage.  So if you kindle is slow, try taking off books that you are not currently reading.

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Art and the Bible by Francis Schaeffer

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Art and the Bible (Ivp Classics)Summary: Art is fundamental to the way that we express the truth of Christianity.

I am late to the Francis Schaeffer party. This book is more than 30 years old. And it is only the second book by Schaeffer I have read.

But I think it is as readable (and important) today as it was when it was written. I was talking with my wife a couple days before I started reading this about the differences that technology has made to the arts. We were talking about how tools made it so that anyone could edit movies or take pictures.

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Whispersync for Voice

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The most exciting new feature for me from today’s new Kindle announcement is Whispersync for Voice.  This is a feature that seems natural for Amazon.  It allows you to listen to an audiobook, and then pick up your kindle and read, and then return to the audiobook again.  As someone that listens to a lot of audiobooks and loves kindles this is a perfect idea.

And Amazon is well positioned to make it happen.  Amazon is the largest ebook seller.  Audible.com (owned by Amazon) is the largest digital distributor of audiobooks.  This just makes sense for Amazon to try. Here is the Amazon commercial about it.

The flagship product for this will be the new Kindle Fires.  With the Kindle Fire you can alternate back and forth between professionally narrated Audiobook and the kindle ebook on the same device.  And for those that are interested, you can actually have the ebook be highlighted as you listen to the narration.  This might be good for younger readers that are trying to read a book that is a bit too hard for them on their own.

Update: The Kindle 3 (or Kindle with Keyboard) just got a firmware upgrade that makes it the only eink Kindle that will allow you to listen to the audiobook and read the kindle book on the same device.

However, you do not have to buy a new kindle fire to make this work.  All you need is any Kindle device (eink, any kindle app, computer or kindle fire) to read the ebook, and listen to the audiobook on an iPhone, android phone or any Kindle Fire.

You can try it out now if you like.  There are just over 13000 books that are currently read to work with Whispersync for Voice.

Amazon has a couple dozen public domain books where you can try it out for free.  I picked up The Three Musketeers.  I checked the book out from the library earlier this year and did not finish it before I had to return it.

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New Kindles

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Summary:

New Kindle Paperwhite
from CNet

New E-Ink Kindle (Paperwhite) with higher resolution screen (212 ppi).  A whiter screen, new fonts and a lighted touch screen.  The battery (with light) on will last 8 weeks at a charge.  Paperwhite 3G (free worldwide) version will be $179 and the Paperwhite wifi only will be $119. They new kindles can be ordered today and will ship on Oct 1.

The current Kindle 4 will be now $69 (ad supported).  The new lighted kindles do not seem to be ad supported.

Kindle Fire HD – 7 inch version for $199 (ships Sept 14), 8.9 inch version $299 (ships Nov 20)

Kindle Fire HD 4GLTE – $499

Slightly updated Kindle Fire – $159

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The Girl Who Played With Fire by Stieg Larsson

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The Girl Who Played with Fire (Millennium Trilogy, Book 2)Summary: A couple of murders and it seems that Lisbeth may have committed them. 

After reading it, I think that the trilogy has been mis-marketed.  The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo has received all the attention. But in reality it is just a prequel for The Girl Who Played With Fire/The Girl Who Kicked A Hornet’s Nest.  The last two books in this trilogy are really just one book split into two parts.

The Girl Who Played With Fire starts about a year after the Girl With the Dragon Tattoo finishes.  Lisbeth is back as the main character (where she should be) and she has changed.

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