Review: Plugged-In Parenting by Bob Waliszewski

As a child, I never understood why my parents cared so much about what music I listened to or the shows I was allowed to watch. Now that I’m a parent myself, I get it.

For me, Bob Waliszewski’s Plugged-In Parenting has particular resonance as my wife and I are in the process of creating a playlist of all the music on our computer that is “safe” for our kids’ ears. The boys are less than 3 years old, but we’ve already started to see the impact of media on them. As we’ve been putting it together, we talk about whether just music with cursing or graphic sexuality is out or if we should exclude any music that has lyrical content that we don’t agree with. What’s horrifying about it to me is how much of our music doesn’t make our cut.

The Twitter² Summary:

Bob Waliszewski’s Plugged-In Parenting asks parents if they are plugged-in to what your kids are reading, watching, listening to, viewing online, or playing these days? Or are they plugged-in all the time while you are tuned out? Waliszewski hopes it is the former.

The Low-down:

Bob Waliszewski is the director of Plugged In Online, a site that covers current media with reviews and other tools for parents. His book, Plugged In Parenting, attempts to help parents chart a course of media discernment. What I most appreciate about Waliszewski’s book is that it doesn’t present media as inherently evil. Sadly, this is rare in current discussions of media by many Christians.

Waliszewski divides Plugged In Parenting into three sections: 1-Deciding Where you Stand as a Parent, 2-Making Rules without Making Enemies, and 3-Keeping the Peace and Passing it On. The overarching principles that Waliszewski focuses on are easily applicable for parents to use in guiding their day-to-day decisions. This will allow Plugged In Parenting to hold up longer than other media guides that focus on specific examples. It also creates space for parents with a wide range of sensitivities to embrace the principles in the book.

Plugged In Parenting is a worthwhile read for parents of kids at any age. It can help you develop media discernment for yourself and encourage that development in your children.

The Rating:

4 of 5 Stars (An interesting book that kept me turning the pages.)

The Links:

The Author’s Website

The Publisher’s Website

Disclosure of Material Connection:

I received this book free from Focus on the Family. 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 FTC's “Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising.”

Review: Going Deep by Gordon MacDonald

Since the day I came across the genre in college, I've been a sucker for fiction that gets across a nonfiction concept. Whether it's called narrative nonfiction, creative nonfiction or literary nonfiction, any time an author puts concept to paper and creates a factually accurate and convincing narrative, I'm in. It wasn't until years later that I would recognize that I'd encountered the genre far earlier in life in the parables of Jesus. (What can I say? I'm a bit slow on the uptake sometimes.)

The Twitter² Summary:
In Going Deep, Gordon MacDonald asks what kind of people a ministry should cultivate in order to thrive. He answer is narrated through the experiences of the fictional New England congregation he introduced in Who Stole My Church?

The Low-down:
MacDonald’s latest book relates the quest of a fictionalized Pastor Gordon MacDonald to find a way to develop regular people into people of great maturity and spiritual awareness. The first half of the book narrates the question of how to cultivate deep people, while the second half allows us to observe the process of attempting it. MacDonald chooses a few people from the congregation and over the course of two years, takes them through a program dubbed "CDP” or “Cultivating Deep People."

MacDonald makes great observations about the life of a church and details conversations between characters that both provide insight and move the narrative smoothly along. Though the narrative format might not connect with those looking for bullet points or chapter headings, it allows MacDonald to examine the process in greater detail. We see how MacDonald deals with grumblings and failures. Though the story slows while describing the process of the small groups progress, overall I found Going Deep to be an interesting and readable insight into developing disciples.

The Links:
The Publisher's Book Page

Amazon's Book Page

The Rating:
4 Stars (An interesting book that kept me turning the pages)

Disclosure of Material Connection:

I received this book free from Thomas Nelson Publishers as part of their 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 FTC's “Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising.”

Review: Raised Right by Alisa Harris

I was raised in the country. Not the coastal country of large houses, servants and sailing. I was raised in the truck-driving, hunting and fishing, surrounded by fields and forest that John (sometimes Cougar) Mellencamp sings about kind of country. I was raised in a warm, loving, caring home by parents who loved their family, their friends and their God. That love rubbed off on their kids. I was raised just a short drive from the town where my father was raised and where my grandfather served as mayor for 12 years.

Though they never instructed us on how we should vote, we were clearly a Republican family (despite the fact that Gramps ran as a democrat every time). I knew what box I was expected to check once I was old enough to vote. It wasn’t until after my first four years of college (yes, I said first four years), that I even got to know a Democrat well enough to listen (actually listen) to the reasons why they believe as they do (Well, at least someone that I KNEW was a democrat.) As I continued in college these conversations occurred more and more often and I began to see the world differently.

I like the way that Ruth Arnell put it,

But then I … met people and lived through situations that forced apart my faith life and my political life, all the while speckling my black-and-white understanding of the world with flecks of moderate gray. Again and again I faced people I loved in situations that caused them pain, and there I was with a political map that didn’t feature the roads they were walking, let alone viable exits or much needed rest points to serve their needs along the way. [behnnie]

The Twitter² Summary:
Alisa Harris spent her home-schooled formative years picketing abortion clinics and volunteering for Republican campaigns. After spending time with people she respected who didn't share her beliefs she realized that faith and politics could interact in a different way.

The Low-down:
Harris describes an upbringing that is familiar to some and frightening to others. From being carted along by her parents to anti-abortion protests to rallying for conservative candidates, she grew up feeling that conservative republican politics and political figures were pretty much on the same level as scripture and prophets.

It took her graduating college and actually spending time with people who believed different than her before she found that they weren't all that bad, maybe that they might actually be good people (sounds familiar to me, minus the graduating part). Harris deftly relates her changing understanding of the relationship between faith and politics.

Harris points out that though today's Christians might say the Bible endorses capitalism; Christians two hundred years ago said it endorsed the divine right of kings. Her conclusion is that both missed the point, which is that the Bible is neither an eighteenth- nor a twenty-first-century policy textbook.

Ultimately, Raised Right was constructed well and not the bitter/angry rant I feared it might be.

The Rating:
4 of 5 Stars (An interesting book that kept me turning the pages)

The Links:
Download the first chapter free here.

Disclosure of Material Connection:
I received this book free from WaterBrook Multnomah's Blogging for Books 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 FTC's “Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising.”

Review and Giveaway: Night of the Living Dead Christian by Matt Mikalatos

When I was young, I loved a good monster story. I watched the movies, read the books and even stayed up late to sneak in creeptacular viewings of Michael Jackson’s Thriller video on Friday Night Videos (ah, growing up in rural America with no cable). Somewhere along the (long) road through college, however, I began to find monster stories less interesting and more disturbing. I can now no longer make it through movies like Se7en or Scream, that I repeatedly watched and enjoyed those first few years of college.

But throughout my love/hate relationship with monster stories, the one type of monster whose story has never really interested me the zombie. I don’t know what it is about zombies, but they’ve never really done it for me, so it might not come as too much of a shocker that a book with the phrase “Living Dead” in the title wouldn’t be at the top of my reading list. But surprisingly, it was. From the moment I first heard about Night of the Living Dead Christian, I found myself excited to get my hands on copy. And I wasn’t disappointed.

The Twitter² Summary:

In author Matt Mikalatos’ second (not-quite-true) story, he takes us on a journey of overcoming the monstrous inclinations within us all. The comedic tale of Mikalatos and his neighbors features zombies, vampires, mad scientists and a next-door werewolf named Luther.

The Low-down:

Mikalatos crafts a clever narrative wherein believers of all stripes are portrayed as monsters straight of the cheesy B-movies of the past. What’s great about Night of the Living Dead Christian is that Mikalatos doesn’t sit on the sidelines lobbing cynical bombs of monster labels at his pet peeves in the church world. Rather, he inserts (and accuses) himself as a character in the narrative.

Although Mikalatos narrates the story, his werewolf neighbor, Luther, is truly the main character as the central plot of the book follows his struggle to tame the beast. Mikalatos even occasionally turns over narration duties to allow Luther to wax theological on the nature of sin, rescue, and redemption.

A story at times both sad and funny enough to elicit audible laughter, Night of the Living Dead Christian forces the reader to examine his or her own monstrous inclinations.

The Author’s Own Words:

watch on tyndale.com

The Rating:

4 of 5 Stars (An interesting book that kept me turning the pages)

The Links:

The Author’s Website

The Publisher’s Website

The Contest:

I’m giving away a free copy of Night of the Living Dead Christian – comment by 11:59 PM Central Time, Friday December 23 for your chance to win! (Winner will be chosen from all entries by The Little One grabbing your name out of a hat or fishbowl or other suitable item.)

Disclosure of Material Connection:
I received this book free from Tyndale House Publishers. 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 FTC's “Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising.”

Review: The 21-Day Dad’s Challenge by Carey Casey (editor)

I’m still relatively new to the whole father game. The Little One just crossed the 18-month threshold and I’ve only just come to appreciate that I’m not yet the kind of father I want him to have. I realize that I need to intentionally strive to become the father I want to be.

These thoughts were swimming in the back of my mind as I sat down with The 21-Day Dad’s Challenge. What I wasn’t thinking about was who wrote it. Discovering that Carey Casey was both the editor and a contributing writer was a joy. (It was also a delight to see that his son Marcellus authored a chapter as well.)

I was excited about this discovery for a couple of reasons. First, I worked with Carey, his wife and their daughters over the course of two summers in the National Camp Office of the Fellowship of Christian Athletes. As an avid book-lover, it’s hard not to be excited when you pick up a title by someone you know. The second reason is that during my time with FCA, I had the privilege of watching Carey interact with his children during happy and stressful times and his example has long been one I have looked forward to implementing as a father myself.

As far as the book itself, I really enjoyed reading it. Each chapter is a succinct bit of wisdom, transmitted father to father. Each author’s unique perspective and experience as a father underscores the wisdom of their words. Chapters end with a specific challenge to enact and space to detail a plan for how to achieve it.

In a nod to the “always connected” reality of today’s world, QR codes are scattered throughout the book that connect to online content designed to help encourage fathers on their journey. As a father who does not have a smart-phone (mine’s kind of bright, but wouldn’t be close to the top of the class), I appreciate that all of the extra content can be accessed through the web addresses right next to the QR codes.

The 21-Day Dad’s Challenge will push you to become the father you wish you were in a positive, uplifting way. I highly recommend it to all fathers with children of any age.

The Rating: 
 4 of 5 stars (An interesting book that kept me turning the pages.)


Disclosure of Material Connection: 
I received this book free from Tyndale House Publishers. 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 FTC's “Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising.”

Review: America: The Last Best Hope, Volume III by William Bennett

Looking back on my years as an undergrad, I often regret not taking more history courses. Actually, not more history courses, any history courses. I took U.S. History I and U.S. History II for college credit my senior year of high school. This was great for me in high school as it allowed me to receive college credit for taking classes in my favorite subject, but the drawback was that I had finished all of my college history requirements before even setting foot on campus.

These days I indulge my love of history with titles like William Bennett’s America: The Last Best Hope, Volume III. I haven’t the pleasure of reading his first two volumes, but I devoured this one in two evenings.

Bennett doesn’t make secret his political leanings or specific thoughts on the makers of history (he footnotes them and his own connections throughout), but he presents a very balanced treatment of the events of American History from 1998 to 2008. Bennett has an easy writing style and doesn’t make an attempt to defend his opinion on the events of history, but simply presents them from his point of view. As someone who worked with many of the “movers and shakers” of this period, Bennett enjoys the unique position of being able to provide not just the facts but also how they drove the decisions of those involved.

Though it heavily focused on the political side of history, I found the occasional forays into the nonpolitical history to be the most enjoyable sections of the book. I’d have liked to see the book balance more between the world of politics and other items of historical note, instead of focusing so much on the politics of these decades.

Overall, I would recommend this book to anyone with even a passing interest in history, though those of us who indulge a deeper interest will certainly get more out of it.

The Rating: 
 4 of 5 stars (An interesting book that kept me turning the pages.)


Disclosure of Material Connection:
I received this book free from Thomas Nelson Publishers as part of their 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 FTC's “Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising.”