L.T. Frog

L.T. Frog encapsulates the experience of a Jesus-follower through the subjective but universally relatable experiences of the author. Each devotion has a theme, often based on a keen observation or real-life experience, that convicts but does not condemn believers, motivating them into action -- action based on gratitude and servitude to the God who is deserving of it all. This book is excellent for those who want a daily devotional that will inspire on good days and encourage on low days, without weighing the reader down under the Christian-ese jargon common in "religious" books. This book is anything but religious -- it is heartfelt, honest, and full of life.

The Memory Keeper's Daughter

The Memory Keeper's Daughter is the type of book that reminds you: Some books are good reads, and some books are literature. This is both.

The prose can be described in one word: lovely. Plot, thankfully, does not take a backseat to character development and vice versa. The story moves through time, but the themes are timeless -- love, passion, family, heartbreak, secrecy, pain, redemption. Somehow, the author finds a way to make each character as relatable, and as guilty, as the next. This is a story sure to jerk the tears and make you wish there were more books like it.

Now, if only Lifetime would stop buying the rights to the good books and destroying them with Saturday night TV movies . . . .

Sundays at Tiffany's

Wow, it's been a while, hasn't it? I've read about six books since last posting, but I haven't had time to write them up, so I'll just skip to the book I finished this morning: "Sundays at Tiffany's" by James Patterson and Gabrielle Charbonnet. This is one of those books I didn't hear much about but read the back-cover copy when browsing Target's severely understocked book section. The paperback cover caught my eye: it was that unmistakable shade of Tiffany blue. Purty. (Amazon's link makes it look green, though.)

As I mentioned some time ago, I don't often read (much less, buy, but I did) girlie books, but this one (based on its description) didn't seem to try to hide the fact it was girlie by having some quasi-independent heroine who is witty and charming and loves to shop and works for a major ad/PR agency. Instead, it has an intriguing premise--little girl has imaginary friend, he leaves her on her ninth birthday because that's the "rule," she runs in to him 23 years later and they fall in love. Simple and cute, right? Well, it was. And like most of James Patterson's girlie books, it was a short, simple, fun read.

However. (You knew it was coming, right?) Patterson and Charbonnet leave about three major loose ends to the story, which are three loose ends too many. I'll just delve into one for now. Michael's existence and mortality are touched on often, but they are never fully explained. It just felt messy. I wish the authors had realized what a great idea they had and then fully developed it. They don't even explain how and when some people can see imaginary friends--instead, we only know that, well, sometimes people can see imaginary friends and sometimes they can't. This is just one example of the flawed fantasy within the book.

There is also too much pop culture infused in this book for my taste. A dude who loves Corrine Bailey Rae, seriously? A little bit of name dropping goes a long way for me, and there was quite a lot in this book.

All in all, I'd give the book three out of five girlie-book stars. The idea was and is fabulous. I almost hope someone else would come along, rip off the idea, and make a longer book (perhaps a series?) with the same premise. It'll be like Twilight in reverse--Stephenie Meyer had the fresh, new vamp idea, made it great, then other authors tried to jetski along in her wake and failed miserably (not necessarily in sales but in execution). Maybe someone can save Patterson and Charbonnet. Any takers?

The Shack

The beauty of "The Shack" is that it gives humans a glimpse of the love God, or "Papa," truly has for us, his creation. As a Christian, I often struggle with viewing God as not only the ultimate judge, but also as the ultimate father. Instead of viewing him as such, I tend to approach him as a punisher or a being who deserves the utmost respect (when, of course, he does) -- that is, I just tend to forget he loves me so deeply I cannot completely comprehend it. I, in turn, rarely return that love to the depths that I should. "The Shack" gives me a better understanding of what God's love for everyone -- those who follow him and those who don't -- must be like. 

That said, I do believe "The Shack" purports to answer questions it never actually does and probably cannot be answered, one of which being: Why does God let bad things happen to his people? The conversations between God and the main character, Mitch, tip-toe around this conundrum and the plot (what little of it there is) progresses as if the question gets answered, but it doesn't. As a reader, I find this to be incomplete and frustrating -- if it cannot be answered, why base an entire novel on the question?

I also draw issue with the personification of God's wisdom as a smokin' hot woman named Sophia (which, surely not so incidentally, means "wisdom"). When Mitch asks Papa if she is a fourth person of what he believed to be a trinity, God assures him that she's not. I took this to be some of the theology a lot of Evangelicals called into question when the book was first released. Though I completely understand "The Shack" is a work of fiction, I feel that great care must be taken when fictionalizing the ultimate reality, and too many liberties should probably not be taken outside of what God reveals to us directly through the Bible. 

I know a lot of people who hold this book very dear and others who completely hate it. I am neither. I understood the subject matter, but honestly found it to be boring at times. I generally finish a book of this size (248 pages) in a day or two, but it took me almost two weeks to finish because I didn't want to read more than a few pages a day.

I think this book might be best for a Christian who needs reassurance that God is loving or for Christians who are hurting. I wouldn't dissuade non-Christians to read it because much of the message is positive and biblical. I would, however, remind those readers that not everything in the book can be backed up by the Word. Be ready to answer questions with Scripture that those readers might have about the book's content or otherwise. 

Check out my guest blog at ORACLENERD

Chet Justice and I met up on Linkedin recently, and he invited me to guest blog for him. It was so fun! Check out ORACLENERD, Chet's site, my guest blog, and all his prior and upcoming posts!

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Motivating Kids to Read

Some children naturally love to read and don't need much coaxing to do so. Others might need an incentive, and nothing motivates quite like the good old-fashioned green stuff: money.

Motivate your students and children to read during the summer through TD Bank's annual Summer Reading Program! Kids who read 10 books over the break will get $10 deposited into their young savers account. It's a great opportunity to promote literacy and the enjoyment of reading, while slipping in a few life lessons about being good stewards of money. There's no time like the present to educate our young ones about the economy, and what better way to do it than through reading?

Check out the TD Bank website for more information about this exciting program. Try to get the word out to your students' parents before the school year ends!

I Told an Untruth

I did. I told an untruth. I said my next post would be about "Life of Pi" but it's not. I had to give it up for awhile, which is something I rarely, rarely do. I hate to not finish what I start. Hence "for awhile." I promise to pick it up again when I have time for something a little heavier. It's not that it's not well written. It's just not all that interesting. Yet.

Anywho, I am currently reading "Kiss" by Ted Dekker and Erin Healy -- not the first book he's co-authored and probably not the last. This is much better than "House," which he co-wrote with Frank Peretti a few years back. It maintains Dekker's love for psychological thrills while abandoning cheap ones, which are abundant in "House." Dekker has been around for awhile, yet much of his writing has the greenery of a newbie. Not so in "Kiss."

He (and Healy) devise a heroine who comes from a family that is all but ordinary. Though she deals with complex issues with her father, dating back to the premature death of her mother, she doesn't carry as much baggage as one might think, which is refreshing. Her problems affect everything in her life, but they don't consume her life. At the same time, the authors avoid making her lifeless and two-dimensional. 

Dekker is traditionally a Christian fiction author. Many of his books are slap-you-upside-the-face straight biblical analogies, but "Kiss" isn't. Christian themes run throughout but aren't the main focus. This book is all around a good read with plenty of twists and turns for readers who don't have my curse of foresight, and I highly recommend it for someone who wants to break into reading this genre without being preached to.

Kudos to Dekker for stretching himself while staying true to who he is. I hope he writes for a long time to come. His audience will get to watch him evolve.