Book Reviews
Reviews of Christian books that have positively impacted our lives.
Friday, 14 August 2009 14:41 | and posted in Book Reviews
Rob Bell’s new book is the most beautiful book I own. I have found myself picking it up repeatedly just to leaf through its pages and experience that new book smell, to feel the quality of the paper on my fingertips and to marvel at the gorgeous design and photos. It has a hardback cover, each page has fuschia pink coloured edging that perfectly complements the black cover and it's larger than A4 in size so it’s not going to be able to fit on any of my existing book cases, yet that doesn't matter, because it's so beautiful.
Tuesday, 28 July 2009 15:58 | and posted in Book Reviews
Quite simply, I want everyone I know to read this book. Give me an opportunity and I will wax lyrical about how amazing and insightful The Shack is. It'll make you laugh, it will definitely make you cry, but more than that, it will bring to you a fresh revelation of God and his awesome love for you.
The story follows Mackenzie Allen Philips, whose youngest daughter, Missy, was abducted during a family vacation years before. Her body was never found, but evidence conclusively showed that she was brutally murdered in an abandoned shack deep in the Oregon wilderness. Four years on from this terrible event, Mack receives a suspicious note, apparently from God, inviting him back to the shack for a weekend.
Friday, 09 January 2009 00:00 | and posted in Book Reviews
It's easy when you know who your friends and enemies are. You're nice to your friends and try to stay away from your enemies - dead simple. It's only when things start to go wrong that you begin to struggle with how to treat people who hurt you. "Eye for an eye" is easier, and you can stick to the way you've always viewed the world.
But when Abena and her family get sucked into a spiral of revenge and danger, she has to question her whole way of life. Otherwise, events threaten to leave someone dead...
Thursday, 08 January 2009 00:00 | and posted in Book Reviews
Its rubbish Being the vicars daughter. Everyone expects you to act a certain way, dress in certain clothes and never do anything wrong, especially your mum. But what happens when you couldnt care less what the old biddies at church think? What happens when parties, boyfriends and even fame come knocking at your door? You ignore what your mum, dad and God say and you go for it, thats what. But when Emma abandons all that she has grown up with, things start to go wrong and it seems like no one can help her...
Wednesday, 16 July 2008 00:00 | and posted in Book Reviews
This book will comfort the disturbed, disturb the comfortable, and invite believers to change the world with Christ's radical love. So says the back cover. I'm here to warn you that the back cover tells the truth. You do not want to read this book on any account if you want to remain the same. The gospel on display within the pages of this book is contagious, it's dangerous, even rebellious; it is not comfortable, easy or safe.
Shane Claiborne has earned a reputation for being a radical Christian, a rebel and a revolutionary. However, the simplest way to describe his book is to ask this question: are you sure he's not just living a normal, ordinary Christian life?
Tuesday, 16 October 2007 00:00 | and posted in Book Reviews
God and sex go together. You can't separate the two, says Rob Bell, because this physical world is intimately linked to deeper spiritual realities. And so, in order to make sense of sexuality, at some point you have to talk about God.
To be really unfair to Rob, you could label Sex God a book about relationships. It is, but it's not either. It covers the boy-girl angle without ever being about that. "This" (sex, marriage, dating, relationships) is always about "that" (God).
Many relationship books get stuck in advising what relationships should be or look like and consequently do not always end up very inspiring. In Sex God, it's like Bell bypasses all of that chat and takes us on a totally different route altogether.
Friday, 12 October 2007 00:00 | and posted in Book Reviews
We live under stress and pressure in so many ways. Wouldn't you like to learn how to break free from so many of the fears, worries and distractions that prevent you living life to the full?
"Well - yes!" is the answer to the rhetorical question above.
Anthony Delaney starts his first chapter - I Don't Have to Be Afraid of Commitments - by stating that he doesn't like "to do" lists. It's something which I immediately related to; I still have a "to do" list from years ago, and nothing on it has ever been done. However - and this is the good bit - he's not writing a "to do" list, he's writing a list of things which you never, ever have to do again. It's brilliant. But - and this is what is so interesting - the list of things which I don't ever have to do again are just as hard to not do as it is to do that as-of-yet uncompleted list of things to tidy my room.