Book Review: Church of the Small Things

I was up for a light-hearted Christian book of encouragement and Melanie Shankle delivered. Melanie's main message in Church of the Small Things is that God wants to work through us, but it isn't necessarily in some the grand master plan we imagine necessary. This was a similar message to her other book I read last year, called Everyday Holy. He works in the small things of life, in a meal brought to a grieving widow or new parent, in a call offering prayer when you know a friend is facing a difficult trial, or in faithfulness to follow the random moments of direction God gives. Our job is to be available in the big things and the small. We are privileged to play a role in kingdom-building even if it means planting small seeds and fulfilling minor tasks (just those words of love as I pushed my youngest out the door to catch the bus - a small gesture reaping untold fortification in his life). This was a great audio experience and a timely reminder to give it all to God.

Book Review: Unlikely Converts

Ever since I read Jordan Raynor's Called to Create, I have been receiving his newsletters. They discuss the creative process and our need to balance our call from God with our work in daily life. At the end, he always recommends a book. Anyone who knows me well will understand why this recommendation reverberated in my brain for days. I was desperate to locate and read the book.

Randy Newman studied evangelism at Trinity Evangelical Divinity School. He has written four other authoritative books on evangelism: Questioning Evangelism, Corner Conversations, Bringing the Gospel Home, and Engaging with Jewish People. This book, Unlikely Converts: Improbable Stories of Faith and What They Teach Us About Evangelism, presents his findings from countless interviews with recent converts. Newman structures his book into two separate sections. Section One covers how people come to faith in Christ: gradually, communally, variously, and supernaturally. Section Two presents ideas for how Christians should present the gospel: carefully, fearfully, kindly, and prayerfully. He supports each chapter with examples taken from his interviews. The book is accessible and fundamental. If you are interested in the conversion process or in reaching the unsaved for God's kingdom, then you will surely enjoy reading Newman's book.

Book Review: Firstlight

If anyone has a way with words, it is Sue Monk Kidd. She has woven beautiful tapestries in her famous novels, The Secret Life of Bees, and The Invention of Wings. After the suggestion to read her book, When the Heart Waits, I discovered another of her titles in our library's audio book selections. Thus, I lapped up Firstlight: The Early Inspirational Writings of Sue Monk Kidd. As always, I could relate to many passages. I returned to the library to check out the hard copy because I wanted to glean more from its pages.

If the book had been my own, I would have highlighted a passage she shared about compassion. She writes: "When compassion wakes up in us, we find ourselves more willing to become vulnerable, to take the risk of entering the pain of others. We open our lives to them in a genuine willingness to be known. We tell them our own story of suffering as a way of offering healing and hope." And later she writes: "The most gracious and courageous gift we can offer the world is our authenticity, our uniqueness, the expression of our true selves."

Even though I listened in half hour to forty-minute increments (to accompany my morning treadmill walk), I loved that the passages offered bite-sized reflections. She has so much of value to share: thoughts about letting go of our children, about navigating tricky waters when it is hard to trust God and His plan, and embracing solitude.

My only complaint is that sometimes her message presents a watered-down gospel (which is not the "good news" at all). Devoid of recognition of our sinfulness and desperate need for His atonement on our behalf, it references mystics and others who parrot feel-good concepts that skirt the edges of Christianity. It emphasizes God's love without clarifying His holiness and His just wrath for sin. It presents the idea that God is in all of us and we tap into His divine essence just by seeking Him in contemplation. Her ideas fall in line with Niebuhr's description of the liberal, social gospel, where "A God without wrath brought man without sin into a kingdom without judgment through the ministrations of a Christ without a cross." So, while there is much to glean from her words and her thoughts, I would proffer this reminder: her words are extra-Biblical. For the best guidance, go to the supreme source, His Word.

Book Review: A Boy and His Dog at the End of the World

I really enjoyed the audio experience of A Boy and His Dog at the End of the World. It was an engaging story and one I thought, until I got to the final disc, I would recommend to my youngest. I will probably still give it to him, however I might wait a year or two because the end of the story has some mature content. Apart from that and a faith-deriding tone, however, it was an outstanding tale. Since Sean is a dog-lover, I know he will relish the story of a boy desperate to retrieve his stolen dog.

Griz lives in an apocalyptic future in an isolated location with only his small family for company. He loves books, so he's read about the world of the past, crowded with cars and people and computers. But it is all foreign to him. Still, he was content in his little slice of world, until a man came and stole his dog. Without even counting the cost, he chases after the man, intent upon retrieving what belongs to him.

The voice was so well done. The pacing, although draggy in bits, was overall sound. But, best of all, the twists in the tale toward the end took me totally by surprise. Perhaps I should have expected them, but they shocked me. I would love to read this one with Sean, but I doubt he'd tolerate a read-aloud. After all, he's almost a teenager. I'll be eager to see if he appreciates it as much as I did.

Book Review: My Name is Mahtob

As soon as I saw the author's name on the cover of this book, I knew I had to read this continuation of the story from the movie Not Without My Daughter. My mother recommended the movie to me many years ago, and it is one of our favorites. Sally Field does an outstanding job of portraying Betty Mahmoody's strength and resilience in the face of forced detainment in Iran. The opportunity to hear from the child who endured the trial with her was too good to ignore. Besides, who wouldn't be lured in by that beautiful, innocent face?

When Mahtob Mahmoody was almost five years old, her Iranian father and American mother took her to Iran for a two-week vacation to see her paternal relatives. Mahtob's father had always been gentle and loving, even doting. Although he was educated in the United States as a doctor, Moody decided to remain in Iran and intended to keep his wife and daughter there with him. He claims the movie misrepresented him to garner viewers. Yet, the story Mahtob tells in this book is consistent with the movie. Mahtob says she never read her mother's book because she didn't have to ... she lived through it alongside her mother.

In this book, the reader enters the mind of a growing child whose fears of abduction continue to plague her long after the actual detainment in Iran. Despite the traumatizing nature of her life story, Mahtob is resilient and focuses on hope. I was not aware of her grounding in the faith. The movie shows the mother and daughter huddled in the bathroom praying for deliverance, but many petition His hand when held to the flame. Mahtob's personal faith helped her forgive her father for robbing her freedom and sense of security. It kept her strong during his continuing campaign to reunite them.

When others argue that she, of all people, should recognize how harmful religion can be, Mahtob responds with genuine faith in the unmerited grace of God through belief in Jesus Christ. She argues that every individual can make a difference in this world (as her mother did in petitioning for better laws to prevent international child abduction). Mahtob's elementary school teachers encouraged her to hide God's Word in her heart because it was the one thing nobody could ever take from her. What a great lesson! As the back cover proclaims, "My Name is Mahtob portrays the resilience of a wounded soul healed by faith in the goodness of God."

Book Review: Ellie and the Harpmaker

I'm a sucker for books that sing a love song to music. Phaedra Patrick, author of The Curious Charms of Arthur Pepper and Rise & Shine Benedict Stone, provides this enticing endorsement: "A beautiful love song of a story, wonderfully told with a warm heart and much hope. Hazel Prior's writing is a lyrical delight." Ellie and the Harpmaker is an outstanding debut novel. It provides a sweet story and the even sweeter lure of dazzling music.

When Ellie Jacobs stumbles upon the Harp Barn in the middle of the countryside, it is like finding a hidden cache of diamonds. Inside, she meets owner Dan Hollis, and attempts to explain the serendipity of her find, since playing the harp is on her bucket list. Dan is not merely a harp maker, he is an impulsive eccentric. She cannot believe her good fortune when he gives her one of his stunning creations and encourages her to come to the barn whenever she wants to practice the instrument. The wrinkle in the plan comes in the form of her discouraging and jealous husband. But what he doesn't know can't hurt him, right?

This was a quick and easy read. The only thing that would have made it better is if I could have listened in audio form and heard a Celtic harp introduction to each chapter (hopefully they incorporated music into the audio version). Still, my brain imagined on its own. While I've never added "play a harp" to my bucket list, I loved watching Ellie chase her dream.

Book Review: The Keeper of Lost Things

The Keeper of Lost Things by Ruth Hogan was my October book club selection. I enjoyed meeting a whole host of new-to-me words. What fun I had looking them up. Many of the words were understandable without the dictionary (used in context), but I love when a book teaches me something new. Have you ever used any of these words: salmagundi, etiolated, trilby, titian, gimcrack, termagant, feculent, mufti, portcullis, pellucid, or tombola? Even my spellcheck doesn't recognize a few. I doubt I'll ever use them, but at least I might remember their definitions.

I loved the premise of this book. After an author loses a memento just before his wife dies, he fixates on a growing collection of lost items, cataloging and keeping them in his locked study. I was a bit confused. The book indicated that Anthony Peardew wrote short stories from the items he found. Thus, when an introduced item had an italicized story, I assumed it was a short story he conjured. The stories instead offered the true origins of each item.

This reminded me of a woman in my old writer's group who made up stories for her grandchildren using props. She would set a small knick-knack in front of her and weave an imaginative tale to go with each. Plus, it brought to mind several things I have lost over the years. I wonder who may have salvaged them.

I loved the enticing opening paragraph. The sentences swept me in quickly by describing an individual travelling on a train. Oh, yeah - he's travelling inside a biscuit tin. Say what? Are they remains? How did they get in a biscuit tin? Why were they abandoned on a train? Anthony's first find in the book is alluring.

While the premise was intriguing, and the vocabulary expanding, the story itself was disappointing. I tired of it before it ended. It took forever to figure out how the second story-line (Eunice and her publisher) would intersect with the first story-line (Anthony and his assistant). I appreciated the author's excellent skill in bringing the story full circle, but I'd say I yawned through the final third of the book. Perhaps it was when the supernatural elements intensified. Maybe that wasn't my thing as it grew silly. Plus, I thought I would relate to it more because a few characters struggled with dementia, but even that wasn't sufficient to keep me rapt. I guess the book wasn't a wasted effort, but it wasn't a "keeper" either.