Resurrection

Resurrection in the first novel I have read by Mike Duran. I look forward to his writing more such novels. The authors website: http://mikeduran.com/
In conjunction with the CSFF Blog Tour, I received a free copy of this book from the publisher.
We read in scriptures about the sick being healed and the lame walking, and even Lazarus rising from the dead. We may wish for a friends not to have died, or even one more conversation with them. However, we might be freak out alittle as this book shows, if they sit up in their casket at the funeral especially after we laid hands on them. A great read to show God at work, and realizing the strength of our simple prayers in fighting evil. A great Christian read in the style of great science fiction. A good read. Like I stated give me more like this one.

Not only is it a good read, you get a bonus, it is simply Christian. One Christians can read and face their own lives and faith, a real plus, and a new look at what you say you believe. An maybe, an eye opener to what happens when your prayers are answered, it may just be more then you can handle. An answer may make you rethink all you know and believe.
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/161638204X
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Jeffrey Overstreet: RAVEN'S LADDER

The book, Raven's Ladder by Jeffrey Overstreet is at http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/1400074673
Check it out.
While you are at it, take a look at the author's website: http://lookingcloser.org/category/journal/
In conjunction with the CSFF Blog Tour, I received a free copy of this book from the publisher.

Raven's Ladder is the third book in The Auralia Thread. Overstreet is writing the fourth and final volume to the series, now. The first two volumes are Auralia's Colors and Cyndere's Midnight. The books tells of a dark world with no colors, and the child who knows the Keeper and the child fills the world with color. In this third book, she has grown older and colors are revealed through another child by Auralia creation. King Cal-Raven seeks a place to move his kingdom and his people after their dwellings are destroyed.

The author is aware of the flaws of this book, he refers to them himself, in the story. He asks if we have the patience to hear a story who has too much description and wanders off it course. I have to say I did not always have that much patience, I got bogged now in the lack of story and the inability of the Raven to act. Yet, it added to his point of discouragement.

The author states, "Raven's Ladder is about preserving a vision of hope through doubt, disappointment, distration and disaster." One thing this author does which all fantasy readers look for is he created a world filled with characters, and to walk in this world with the many characters is the books charm.

Sometimes you wonder if the author is making social commentary which is too thinly disquised. I found if I laid the book now, I was in no hurry to pick it up, so it never grabbed me, and made me read to the end. I struggle with getting through this book. I felt it lack a thread to hold it all together, and sometimes you don't need three modifiers for a noun.

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A new book by Lynette Eason

Too Close To Home, by Lynette Eason, published by Revell, a division of Baker Book House. Lynette Eason is the author of three romantic suspense novels, and a member of American Fiction Christian Writers and Romance Writers of America. A homeschooling mother of two, she has a master's degree in education from Converse College.

A main character, Samantha Cash is a computer nerd and the FBI's secret weapon. When missing teens begin turning up dead in a small Southern town, Samantha is assigned to help the local police chief Connor Wolfe find the killer. And he has two problems with that. There's her faith--in God and herself. And then there's the fact that she looks exactly like his late wife.

As they get close to an answer, the case becomes personal. The killer seems to be taking an interest in Connor's 16-year-old daughter, who thinks her dad is getting way too protective.

A book for you and your teen, read it together or read it first and hand it on. With the threat of predators on the internet this book is a must read for you to keep your child safe. Understanding anyone can approach your child on the net, especially if they have a computer in their room, where they spend time unmonitored. For your teen, it shows how a "friend", may be someone with an intent to harm.

I received a complimentary copy from the publisher. Too Close To Home, is Book One, of the Women of Justice series.

A Distant Melody

A Distant Melody is the first novel in a World War II-era series, Wings of Glory, by Sarah Sundin. I received a complimentary copy from the publisher.

Distant Melody introduces two young Americans, about to be separated by an ocean during World War II. Allie, the female romatic interest, is not pretty enough to please her gorgeous mother. Her father has decided she will marry a man who works for him and who he trusts to inherit his company. Her parents letting Allie know no other man will marry her because of her plain looks.

Lt. Walter Novak--fearless in the cockpit but shy with unmarried women--takes his last furlough at home in California before being shipped overseas. Walt and Allie meet at a wedding of her best friend.

Allie finds her feelings growing as she writes letters to Lt. Novak, as he serves his duty as a pilot during the war. Romantic dreams of real love enter both their life. The complications is Allie is engaged to another and her parents will not approve of anyone else.

A Distant Melody is the first book in the Wings of Glory series, which follows the three Novak brothers, B-17 bomber pilots with the US Eighth Air Force stationed in England during World
War II.

The book is slow moving. The books offers details of life during the war, and matches many stories I have heard in the past. Also there is a touch of humor throughout, such as the story behind the cow which adorns Novak plane. The book appears strong in structure, the author has mastered the craft of novel writing, no small feat. Has not added enough magic yet to spellbind you to the story.

Author: Sarah Sundin is an on-call hospital pharmacist and holds a BS in chemistry from UCLA and a doctorate in pharmacy from UC San Francisco. Her great-uncle flew with the US Eighth Air Force in England during WWII. Sarah lives in California with her husband and three children. This is her first novel.

Available March 2010 at your favorite bookseller from Revell, a division of Baker Publishing Group

Dreams That Won't Let Go

Dreams That Won’t Let Go by Stacy Hawkins Adams (an Essence bestselling author)the final book in her popular Jubilant Soul series: Dreams That Won’t Let Go is Book three. The story features the Burns family, made popular in the previous books in the Jubilant Soul series, and introduces brother Reuben who moves home after years of separation. The Burns family experience heartaches, face life-changing choices and learn how far faith can carry them through it all.

In Dreams That Won’t Let Go, everything seems to be going along perfectly for Indigo Burns: Her wedding preparations to the man of her dreams are under way and her career as a photographer is a success. Even her family seems to be doing better than ever—all except her brother Reuben who no one has seen in years. But that's about to change, because Reuben has decided to move back home to Jubilant, bringing with him all his unspoken secrets and upsetting all of Indigo’s best-laid plans.

As the family struggles to deal with the pain of the past and find healing, Dreams That Won’t Let Go illustrates that despite what has happened in our lives, there is always a second chance where love conquers all.

Stacy Hawkins Adams is a writer for the Richmond Times-Dispatch and the author of several novels, including the Essence bestseller The Someday List and Worth a Thousand Words. All of Stacy's novels have been bestsellers in Black Expressions Book Club.

Received a complimentary copy of this book from the publisher.

A strong reason to read this book is to read strong female characters and careers to match. One hesistation, I have about the book is about marrying a spouse who is struggling with their faith and where the story talks about not being unequally yoked. I suggest further thought and study until you understand the deeper issues involved. It will give you a place to study and see this in a fuller context then the novel allows you to do. One point that encourages my own faith is realizing the Lord has other people out there working on the same problems when we are thinking we have to fix these ourselves. A gentle reminder God sees and knows far more and has been working on what we think is hopeless for along time, and holds the solution in His hand, if we will open our hearts and see.

This is a story of grandparents raising grandchildren. The parents died in an auto accident when children were young. The love masked by the hurt of loss and hidden from one another until an unhealthy silence causes nightmares. The book shows how to be honest about the pain of a promise not kept.

AMISH PEACE

"Amish Peace" by Suzanne Woods Fisher
Available October 2009 at your favorite bookseller from Revell, a division of Baker Publishing Group.

The book, "Amish Peace" is organized around five central themes in Amish life, simplicity, time, community, forgiveness and the sovereignty of God. It tells real-life stories, including Amish proverbs and facts about the culture.

Fisher, whose grandfather was raised as an Anabaptist in Lancaster County, Pennsylvania, faces her own heritage and the value of the simple life. The author offers the perspective of a simpler way to look at life in the midst of our overstressed lives.

When in the midst of our hectic lives, we cry for a simpler life with less stress. We fail to know how to reach for simplicity. The author offers a glimpse into the lives of Plain People who have been living simply for generations. Allowing us to confront these values and live apply them into our own lives. We begin to answer the question of how to take these truths back into our busy and often over-complicated lives. Lessons of living with what we have and finding it is enough and not striving for more then our needs, not allowing unnecessary wants to destroy our peace.

"Amish Peace" reveals peace as holding the hand of our children and seeing the wonder in them at their discovery of nature: a curled leaf, the color of a robin's egg. Allwing a task itself to be as important as the end product, and finding joy in the doing of the ordinary that sustains life. Joy in being in the midst of famly and an uncluttered life and does not takes us away from each other.

The Plain Peole make no distinction between the sacred and the ordinary, it is all important. The book show us these people up close and personal in good times, and in times of deep sorrow. Well worth the read.

Intimate Conversations

“Intimate Conversations” by Alicia Britt Chole
Chole book was selected as MOPS (Mothers of Preschoolers)theme devotional for 2009.
Revell

Many good devotional to choose from if you browse Christian literature. This is one more for women. Great books you want to read over and over, and I wouldn't put this one in that category. It is great in the sense that it resonants with women in the midst of struggles of raising a young family.

Chloe, the author, is an middle-aged women who adopted young children, and is writing in the midst of daily demands. She offers young mothers a testimony of mature love of God and children. She touches on struggles women face, and gives you encouragement to deal with challenges, grief, and her words bring you close to God.

Her devotional is geared to those who journal, or those who would like to start journaling with suggestions of exercises at the end of each chapter. The book does not offer a great deal of depth, but better it gets you started in your own conversation with God. Guiding you to talk with him, and deepen a relationship in the midst of an everyday world of balancing a hectic life with young children at your feet.

Read with pleasure and a shared intimacy with the author as you see windows into her life, and open windows into your own. She addresses hidden years, and the joy in watching your own children in their everyday life and find them treasures of immeasurable value from God. He is leading, and she is listening.

Offworld, Robin Parrish

Offworld by Robin Parrish, 2009, Bethany House Publishers
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0764206060


A must read. The book catches you from the first page, a rare find. If you are a science fiction/fantasy reader you will not only want this book, but anything written by Robin Parrish. Start with coming home to a deserted planted with Offworld by Parrish and become a fan from now on.
http://www.robinparrish.com/
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