Review: God on the Streets of Gotham by Paul Asay

"I'm Batman." It's a phrase that I'm not ashamed to admit, I've uttered a time or two (each month). At two years and two months the The Little One is potty-training like a champ and I'm certain his new "big boy" Batman undies are a big part of it.

I look forward to the day that both he and his little brother (The Squeaky One) are old enough to watch Batman: The Animated Series with me. (And the movies, of course, but those would be later.)

The Twitter² Summary:
Batman has delighted and thrilled fans of all ages for more than seventy years. In God on the Streets of Gotham, Paul Asay traces the history of Batman in all his manifestations and how we may find something greater than we expect in the story of a Dark Knight protector.

The Low-down:
It was with great excitement that I opened God on the Streets of Gotham. I found myself looking forward to Asay's take on the connection of Batman and faith through the lens of culture. I was not disappointed.

Asay's take on the Caped Crusader is an interesting one. He sees parallels to the Christian faith in the mission Batman chooses, the armor he wears and the support he receives from those with whom he partners. Batman is not portrayed as a Christian by Asay or even as a symbol of the Christian faith. Instead, Asay shows that both we and Batman are facing a world darkened by the damaging effects of sin.

The book is an interesting and throughly enjoyable read. Asay's writing is insightful and quick-witted and the concepts are explored with acute understanding of the faith and cultural lenses we view them through

The Rating:
5 of 5 Stars (An awesome book that I will want to read again and again.)

The Author:
Paul Asay is the associate editor at Plugged In, a ministry that reaches more than 6 million people with movie reviews that help people understand popular cultural trends and how they intersect with spiritual issues. Paul is an award-winning journalist who covered religion at The (Colorado Springs) Gazette and whose work has been published by such outlets as The Washington Post, Christianity Today, Youth Worker Journal and Beliefnet.com. Paul has a special interest in the unexpected ways that faith and media intersect. He lives in Colorado with his wife, Wendy, and two children.

The Links:
The Intro and First Chapter

The Publisher’s Website

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: Praying With The Grain by Pablo Martinez

I've never been one to spend a vast amount of time in prayer. I put my time in, but don't often dally when it comes to speaking with the big guy. Is this sad? Yes. Yes, it is. But I've never really felt the loss. In many ways I've thought of it as similar to the "morning quiet time" that I've always been encouraged to have. I don't particularly enjoy it and I wonder if it is really all that honoring to God if I'm falling asleep while doing it.

For the quiet time, I started practicing a constant communication thing throughout the day in lieu of time spent in the morning, but I've never really gotten a handle on whether I'm comfortable with this kind of thing replacing time set aside specifically to pray.

The Twitter² Summary:
In Praying With the Grain, Dr. Pablo Martinez looks at the psychology of how our basic personality type affects our prayers. Martinez helps us to understand and develop our own spiritual path when it comes to prayer.

The Low-down:
Have you ever thought about how your personality might affect how you pray? No? Me either. Luckily, Dr. Pablo Martinez has thought enough about it for the both of us. Praying With the Grain, a repackaged edition of his well-regarded Prayer Life, walks the reader through the many ways that our personalities can hinder and help our prayers.

Let me say that though Martinez occasionally drops psych jargon here and there, he does an excellent job of explaining each term as it occurs. That said, I'm going to drop some of the same without explaining it nearly as well. Here goes.

Martinez examines our personalities through the classic Jungian model of thinking/feeling and sensing/intuiting. This allows for specific address of multiple personality types. Martinez also provides examples form history of individuals who are known or widely assumed to match these types.

What I find both interesting and helpful about Martinez's book is his advice that we accept our personality type and how it affects the way we pray instead of striving in vain after someone else's idea of how to pray. Martinez argues that because prayer should be important and vital to our relationship with God, it is important to understand ourselves in order to help make it so.

Unfortunately though, Martinez doesn't give us much help in this department. Unlike other texts of this type, Praying With the Grain doesn't give us a handy quiz to determine our type. Instead Martinez leaves it up to us to self-identify our type and apply his advice accordingly. If you can self-identify, then Praying With the Grain will help guide you through ways of praying that will likely be better for you than what you've tried before.

Of particular note is Martinez's Q & A section on the most frequently asked questions about prayer. I'd actually start there and then come back to the beginning.

Martinez's heart is obvious throughout the book, that he wants prayer to be an exciting, welcoming, central part of every believer's relationship with God.

The Rating:
3 of 5 Stars (A book to check out from the library, but not to own.)

The Link:
The Publisher’s Book Page

Disclosure of Material Connection:
I received this book free from Kregel Publications. 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: 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 and Giveaway: Healing Your Church Hurt by Stephen Mansfield

I've attended half-a-dozen churches in my three decades and I've been fortunate to leave each on good terms as the circumstances of life moved me on. This is clearly not the case for everyone. Many people have been hurt by the place that they expect to be the most safe. It is to these people that Stephen Mansfield has written Healing Your Church Hurt.

The Twitter² Summary:

If you’ve been part of a church, you have probably been hurt or know someone who has. Stephen Mansfield knows how it feels, but he also knows how to dig out of that hurt. If you’re ready to choose the tough path to healing, Mansfield will walk you through it.

The Low-down:

Mansfield immediately sets the stage for how he will address the topic with a story of a little guy named Timmy. Timmy gets his arm stuck in a vending machine. Crying and bleeding, the boy begs for help, when all along, the boy was clutching onto a Snickers that kept his arm pinned inside. Once he let go of the bar, his arm was set free. Mansfield compares Timmy’s story to the experience of people hurt by the church, but who hold on to the “Snickers” of hurt and anger. While Mansfield doesn’t go so far as to say that the reason for the hurt is irrelevant, but he does stress that our healing can’t begin until we choose to let go.

He stresses that we often have unrealistic expectations of the people we find in church. We expect people to be broken and flawed in the world around us, but for some reason, we expect the people we find in church to have everything all together. With this understanding, Mansfield encourages those wounded by the church to overcome their own hurt and come through their trial with stronger faith on the other side.

Healing Your Church Hurt has previously published as ReChurch. Although it's well written and its content is solid, it just didn't connect with me. I imagine if I'd been through a church hurt, it would be much more impactful.

The Rating:

3 of 5 Stars (A book to check out from the library, but not to own)

The Links:

The Author’s Website

The Publisher’s Website

The Contest:

I’m giving away a free copy of Healing Your Church Hurt.There are two ways to enter: either comment below with your thoughts on how to overcome a church hurt and email me at perplexedpastor@gmail.com or comment below, follow me on Twitter and included this link (http://bit.ly/H7RwzY) in a tweet.

Enter by 11:59 PM Central Time, Friday, April 13 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: Steve Jobs by Walter Isaacson

I've never been much of a fan of biographies. It's not that I haven't liked them when I've read them (John F. Love's book on McDonald's is one of the first I really liked - I know, it's not really a biography, but it's close enough for my purposes). The problem with the genre is that I never seem to be able to overcome my hesitancy at the heft of the biographical tomes that tweak my occasional interest. They just seem so incredibly long. 

Instead I head to the lighter end of the personal history shelf for the quips and anecdotes of the memoir. In addition to their comparative brevity, memoirs have always stuck me as more approachable. A biography must have as its subject a person of particular interest to me to overcome my natural inclination to avoid reading one.

If you know me well or, actually, if you now me even a little bit, you might have observed that I'm a Mac guy. I like to think that I'm not one of those "glassy-eyed stare while reciting all of the features" kind of a Mac guy, but a Mac guy none-the-less. The combination of a college roommate who was very into Macs, a ministry that used them exclusively and a college job that taught me the ins and outs of many Mac-only programs set me on the Mac-specific path I walk today. Frankly, I'd have a difficult time even operating a windows machine, as I haven't used one with regularity since Windows 98.

All that to say, Walter Isaacson's biography of Steve Jobs broke through my normal reticence.

The Twitter² Summary:

Walter Isaacson’s account of the whirlwind life of Steve Jobs captures the scope of a world-changing visionary, but doesn’t miss the intimate details of his personal life. At times exciting, tragic, frustrating and moving Isaacson’s riveting account is nothing short of epic.

The Low-down:

Isaacson’s detailed biography was written with Jobs' help. Jobs went so far as to encourage (and this being Jobs, cajole and bully) others to be interviewed for the project. In spite of his clearly close connection to the project, by all accounts Jobs didn't try to control what Isaacson discovered and used during the more than 150 interviews for the book. That in itself is remarkable and eases many worries that this "authorized" biography is the result of Jobs' personal "reality distortion field" or a PR puff piece. Of all the things this book is, a puff piece is certainly not one of them.

Isaacson’s narrative captures Jobs in four seasons of life, his youth, his years of exile at NeXT and Pixar, his return to Apple and his role in the post-pc revolution. Those searching for an in-depth history of Apple will get only those glimpses and pieces that are germane to Jobs’ story. This is not the story of Apple, but that of the life of Steve Jobs.

Isaacson details Jobs’ temperamental personality and binary view of the world (“a person was either a hero or a bozo, a product was either amazing or shit”) that could frustrate and infuriate those around him. Also found is Jobs’ tendency to be hindered by the fine distinctions in life, being “stymied by things that were more complex, shaded or nuanced: getting married, buying the right sofa, committing to run a company”.

All in all, this book is a captivating narrative of a disturbed, disconcerting and driven man who significantly influenced the intersection of technology and liberal arts and who left a lasting impact on the world. Whether you are an Apple fan or not, this is a book you’ll find to be a worthwhile read.

The Links:

The Publisher's Book Page

Amazon's Book Page

The Rating:

5 Stars (An awesome book that I will want to read again and again.)

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: Mummy, I Have To Go Potty by Wilma Shine

With the Little One showing a passing interest in learning how to use the restroom on his own, I thought maybe this might be a good choice to assist our efforts to encourage him in this new endeavor. I expected an informed history of the toilet with supporting facts, some evidence to support the author's conclusions or maybe a citation here and there. That is not what I found.

The Twitter² Summary:

In author Wilma Shine’s overview of toilets around the world, she informs the reader what

they’re called, what they look like and how to find them. She also discusses

the special language used for toilets and their contents across the globe and

through the ages.

The Low-down:

Shine's book could've been a cute coffee table book. It could've been the kind of book that would go great sticking out of this magazine rack in a guest restroom with these outhouse pictures on the wall.

You see where I'm going with this?

This could've been a book like that, but it just isn't. It falls short in a couple areas.

First, it falls a bit short in content. Though the majority of the book is on target, the occasional off-topic tangents disrupt the flow. (The one on cats is particularly unnecessary). In addition, the tone of the book is almost tongue-in-cheek in the right way, but off just a bit.

No matter whether you are poor or rich, sophisticated or illiterate - no difference between races - you are bound to this relationship for a lifetime. You simply cannot avoid it.
What goes in "upstairs" must come out "downstairs."
Every meal means a walk to a facility later. Whatever delicious, tasty thing goes in on top must come out in
a smelly substance at the bottom.

Other sections of the book ramble in such a way that the author's intent is unclear.

Public facilities may be a meeting place for homosexuals or homeless people. Graffiti may offer an insight to social behaviour.
Have you ever looked at restrooms in universities? You sometimes wonder how educated people express their feelings.

I'm not sure what my response should be to this. Is this observation? Is it critique? I honestly don't know. And finally, we have the seemingly ever-present stereotypical comment about men.

And why do men always have the lid of the commode up?
When you enter a toilet and the lid is up you immediately know the former customer was a man.

The other aspect that distracts from the reader's experience is the design and layout. The picture quality varies widely from sharp and focused on one page to blurry on the next. It could have also used a book-wide color balance to bring all the pictures in line with each other to look like they are each part of a whole.

I'll probably still stick it in the restroom, but it might be behind a magazine or two.

The Rating:

2 of 5 Stars (A book I had to force myself to finish)

The Link: 

The Publisher's Book Page

Disclosure of Material Connection:
I received this book free from Dorrance Publishing Company. 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: Supreme Courtship by Christopher Buckley

My very first job was washing the plate glass windows of my uncle's law firm on the small-town main street of my hometown. I loved coming in twice a month and just being around the smell of old books and leather that exuded from the conference room made me a happy camper.  I now understand that the practice of law is more than just a cool office, leather-bound books and unisex bathrooms. (At least that's what my friends in the field tell me - I've heard it both ways.)

In Supreme Courtship, author Christopher Buckley looks at the world of law from the other side of the bench as he melds the highest court in the land with, arguably, the lowest.

The Twitter² Summary: 
When his first two selections are rebuffed, President Donald Vanderdamp spites Judiciary Chairman Dexter Mitchell by nominating reality-TV judge “Pepper” Cartwright. When her popularity creates a quick confirmation, Mitchell resigns his Senate seat to star as president on a TV show that proves so popular that he runs for real.

The Low-Down: 
Buckley’s blend of the U. S. Supreme Court with a fictional TV courtroom show is usually smooth, but this makes the occasional hiccups all the more glaring. The most obvious of these is the recurring theme of the rodeo slang Pepper speaks and the stretch that at least one character understands it that shouldn’t. Another is Buckley’s use of footnotes that distract from his narrative with unnecessary jokes.

I do appreciate that in a novel about the forces and practice of politics, Buckley doesn't identify his characters by party. This allows the reader to apply their own filter to Buckley’s spot-on satire of Washington politics. It remains to be seen whether Supreme Courtship’s story will remain pertinent as a commentary of the ever-shifting world of politics or become a relic of the specific time of this political season.

The Rating: 
3 of 5 stars (Great for a one-time read, I’d check it out from your local library.)

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.”

Review: The Radleys by Matt Haig

Supernatural creatures trying to blend in with “normal humans” is a fairly popular plot device in fiction these days. What makes it fresh in Matt Haig's "The Radleys" is that half the family doesn't know they're keeping a low profile. Actually, they aren't even aware of their supernatural nature.

Though parents Peter and Helen know what they are, they've deliberately kept their children in the dark. Claire and Rowan have always been weak and prone to sickness, due to their inadvertent avoidance of the very thing they don't know they need. An attack on Claire by a drunk, overly amorous classmate sets in motion her and Rowan's discovery of both their true nature and their parents' deception. Haig interweaves this discovery with bits and pieces of back-story that sheds light on their parents' desire to abstain in the first place.

What are they abstaining from? Blood, of course. Similar to that other family of twinkly, Pacific Northwest abstainers, the Radleys act just like their "unblood" neighbors on sleepy Orchard Lane – except when they don't. And when they don't, their violence is spectacular and horrific.

The narrative picks up speed when Peter turns to his alluring, but wantonly cruel, brother Will for help. With Will's presence come new secrets and complications that force Peter and Helen to face the consequences of their long-standing deception.

The Radleys is a philosophical novel about honesty and the perils of identity crisis set against an acute moral conflict. Haig develops each character carefully and brings the narrative to a satisfying, but somewhat sudden, conclusion.

If you have more than a passing interest in the supernatural, but are overwhelmed by the avalanche of current supernatural fiction, pick up The Radleys. It's a well-written novel that won't make you feel empty after you're done reading.

Review: The Sacred Journey by Charles Foster

The summer before my senior year of high school, I decided I wanted to go out for a varsity sport. Though there were many reasons, they all boiled down to this: I wanted to connect more with my father. You see growing up I knew my dad was a real manly kind of man. He went loved hunting and fishing, fixed things around the house and worked on cars because he liked it. I wasn’t a huge fan of fishing (I found it kind of boring, but at least you could read). I didn’t care for hunting (same as fishing, but without the book) and I really, really wasn’t interested in rebuilding cars (Dad would have to wait for my youngest sister to find a kindred spirit there). It’s not that I ever thought my dad was disappointed in me. I knew he wasn’t. It was just that there weren’t a lot of interests we had in common and I wanted more of a connection with him.

So, I asked around among friends on the different teams trying to find a sport that I had a chance of lettering in with only one season. My friend Adam convinced me with this advice: “Running cross country is easy. Step one: start running … that’s it. There is no step two.” (Advice I would later hear eerily echoed by NPH’s Barney on How I Met Your Mother). I joined the team, I earned my varsity letter, got the jacket, connected a bit more with my dad and learned that I hate running. I’d rather walk.

For this reason, I was more than a little excited about Charles Foster’s entry in the Ancient Practices Series, The Sacred Journey.  I envisioned a solitary soul purposefully walking across deserts and scaling mountains.

It didn’t take long before I realized I had it all wrong.

Foster’s book is less about walking and more about moving. Moving from a place of normalcy in the name of God, in search of a place that feels sacred where we can experience God more intimately, precisely and poignantly. I very much enjoyed Foster’s interweaving of his own experiences with the history of the importance of sacred journeys within the Christian tradition.

I’m not as big a fan of one of his repeated claims throughout his book, that God has a preference for the pilgrim and disdain for those who settle. Though Foster points to Jesus’ status as a camping wanderer, I just don’t buy that God hates the city. God can work just as decidedly in transforming people in the city as He can on the road.

In spite of my main issue with it, I recommend you pick up The Sacred Journey. It will challenge you in a way that I imagine you haven't been challenged before.  It'll be good for you.

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.”

Outlive Your Life by Max Lucado

Max Lucado’s books have always life-changing for me. He has a way of writing that illuminate Biblical passages and concepts in practical ways that really impact people. I was very interested when I heard his new book looked at how all of us can address social justice issues in a real and personal way.

I really like the book. Lucado masterfully weaves stories of the early Christian church with other stories and illustrations to show how the Bible relates to many issues in today’s world. The chapters are concise and to-the-point.  Each chapter leads the reader through a new topic, such as breaking out of comfort zones and looking at their world with a fresh perspective. Lucado doesn’t offer easy fixes, but shows how even small efforts can make big differences.

I really appreciate the reflection questions in the back of the book. They would be really useful for small groups going through the books together. The accompanying action plans provide practical ways to apply each chapter’s main theme to everyday life.

I would highly recommend Outlive Your Life to anyone interested in making a difference in the world by the best with what you have to make a difference in the lives of others.

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.”

One Hand, Two Hands by Max Lucado

Children find hands very interesting. One of the first things that fascinate children is discovering their hands. As their parents use hands to caress, cuddle, squeeze, tickle and play, children become captivated with their parents’ hands. Our son can play with my fingers for hours, giggling and moving them around.  It is no surprise, then that Max Lucado’s newest children’s book focuses on our hands and the wonderful things we can do with them.

Lucado presents the message of how we can use our hands to help others in a simple way for children to understand. Illustrator, Gaby Hansen, using a subdued, almost pastel palette, makes the illustrations creative and fun – especially as she gives imaginative life to the little girl’s stuffed animals.

Lucado’s note to parents at the book’s beginning shares his heart for helping kids understand the difference between helping hands and hurting hands. His focus on the positive side seems a wise choice.

My favorite part of the book is the closing section that lists ways for hands to be helping, kind and loving. Though I would recommend this book to anyone with a small child at home, having the narrative focus on just a little girl instead of a boy and a girl limits the interest of little boys in the book.

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.”

Angelology by Danielle Trussoni

Angels and demons are commonly thought to be the two sides of the ethereal coin forever battling each other at the direction of higher powers. In her debut novel, “Angelology,” however, Danielle Trussoni introduces us to a third strain of the otherworldly, the hybrid Nephilim. Formed from the union of angels and humans, the Nephilim first appear in Genesis 6: “The sons of God saw the beautiful women and took any they wanted as their wives … [and] whenever The sons of God had intercourse with women, they gave birth to children who became the heroes and famous warriors of ancient times.” The Nephilim survived the Flood by sneaking onto Noah’s ark and set about infiltrating every level of human power.

Centuries later, the Nephilim live among humanity and are on the search for a cure to a mysterious illness endured by many of their greatest. Against this backdrop, secret correspondence between a former mother superior and Abigail Rockefeller bring together Trussoni’s heroes a young nun named Evangeline and Verlaine, an art historian. Together they begin to unravel the ages-old mystery of angelologists, a secret society dedicated to the eradication of all Nephilim.

While Trussoni’s narrative weaves biblical, historical and mythological threads into an entertaining and engaging whole a few moments bring the reader out of the world she has so carefully crafted. A flashback designed to illustrate the brutality of the Nephilim is a small moment of unnecessarily graphic gore that is out of place in the novel as a whole. Another flashback provides a clue to Evangeline’s ancestry so obvious that when it is revealed with a dramatic flourish 200 pages no one is surprised.

Though it’s impossible not to group this in with the recent spate of Dan Brown-inspired thrillers that redefine something “we thought we knew,” Trussoni’s novel is better than most. It’s a good read for those with more than a passing interest in biblical spirituality or history, but goes too far afield from established belief for strict adherents.

A Guy's Guide to Life by Jason Boyett

Jason Boyett is the author of several books in the guide/handbook genre.  It’s no wonder that he is the man behind A Guy's Guide to Life: How to Become a Man in 224 Pages or Less. Divided into three sections the book addresses cultural myths about manhood, sexuality and spiritual development.

Though Boyett relies on the Q & A troupe more than I care for, his writing is solid and easy to follow.  Despite its subtitle, it’s not a book of quick fixes. Instead it addresses the critical issue of becoming a man. Along the way, Boyett finds time to handle issues as varied as shaving, how to tie a necktie, dating, purity, exercise, peer pressure and faith.

A quick, but helpful read, I recommend it to teens and fathers of teens looking for a book to guide them along the tumultuous path from boy to man.

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.”

What's In a Word? by Webb Garrison

While studying Spanish in college, I became interested in the little idiomatic phrases (actually insults) that don’t really translate into English. Even after years of classes, they’re really all I can remember.  If I get lost sometime in a Spanish-speaking country, all I could do is just insult the people trying to help me. It would be a disaster.

That’s why when I heard about the book. What’s in a Word?, I was pretty excited.  Unfortunately it didn’t take long for my excitement to deflate.


What’s in a Word? is a collection of short entries explaining the origins of words or phrases you hear in everyday speech. If you share my fascination with the origin of those odd phrases, this book might be for you more than it was for me.

It isn’t so much that the book isn’t well written. I found the individual stories for each entry to be sly, witty, and occasionally rather clever.  It’s just that many of the “fascinating stories” are kind of mundane (In the Groove), obscure (Best Bib and Tucker) or out-of-date (Floppies). An updated version of the first chapter in a revised edition would go a long way to making the book a better read. For now, though, it’s short entries means it’s the kind of book you’ll want to keep in the bathroom for quick reads.


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: The Voice New Testament

The Voice New Testament is a new personal devotional Bible brought to us from Thomas Nelson Publishers.  It is the latest installment in the Voice Project, which the preface describes as “a Scripture project to rediscover the story of the Bible.”  I was excited to get the chance to check out this full-testament version as I had come across the previously released single volumes of Luke and Acts.

I found this Bible to be a pleasantly readable and beautifully written translation.  The use of scholars and creatives on the same team seems to be more than just a nod to the recent postmodern ascendance in ministry, but an honest attempt to bridge the gap from original language to English.

Among the most enjoyable aspects of the reading experience for me is the screenplay structure that identifies speakers and helps set the stage for reading.  Take this example from Luke 18:

Jesus: What do you want Me to do for you?

Blind Man: Lord, let me receive my sight.

Jesus: Receive your sight; your faith has made you well

Nice isn’t it? 

Though I wouldn’t recommend it for serious study, the Voice is a solid choice for everyday and devotional reading.

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.”