Tag Archives: Books

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Book Review – A Deadly Business by Lis Wiehl

A Deadly Business by Lis WiehlLegal thrillers are one of my favorite genres of fiction. I love such authors as John Grisham and Randy Singer. Last summer, I was introduced to a new author in this genre, Lis Wiehl. But Wiehl takes a different spin, at least in the two books I’ve read so far.

Wiehl has introduced Mia Quinn, a prosecuting attorney who struggles with several major life issues. She balances her legal career as a prosecutor, with a second job teaching at a night school, grieves over her dead husband, and tries to raise her children on her own. Trying to do all of this under her own power is difficult to say the least, but she refuses to allow God a foothold into her life… At least not yet.

In this second novel featuring Mia Quinn, A Deadly Business, Wiehl weaves a thick plot that includes Quinn struggling with ethical considerations in one of her cases, seeking the truth behind her husband’s death, and how compassion plays out in her own personal life.

Just like A Matter Of Trust, the first Mia Quinn novel, A Deadly Business brings the reader right in to the middle of the action, as well as into the minds of the characters. As you read, you can almost feel the weight of the struggles that Quinn faces, and you begin to empathize with her as she seeks to do what is right in spite of pressures from work and home.

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Book Review – Strange Glory by Charles Marsh

Strange GlorySeveral years ago, I read Eric Metaxas’ biography of Dietrich Bonhoeffer. I absolutely loved that book. It introduced me to the details of the life of one of my favorite authors and theologians.

So when Charles Marsh’s biography, Strange Glory: A Life Of Dietrich Bonhoeffer, was released, I was excited to read it, to see what else I could add to my knowledge of Bonhoeffer’s life and times.

Right off the bat, I noticed that Metaxas and Marsh examined Bonhoeffer’s life differently. Where Metaxas looked at the events and circumstances of his life, Marsh dug into the theological and philosophical aspects of Bonhoeffer’s thinking. There were several interesting insights that I gathered from this different perspective.

But that’s the only positive I took from this biography. The more I read it, the more I sensed that Marsh wrote, imposing his twenty-first century views and thoughts on a life and time from nearly a hundred years ago. Marsh is unable to see Bonhoeffer in light of his own era and culture, and he interprets Bonhoeffer’s life in light of current American culture, particularly in light of Bonhoeffer’s sexuality.

Though Marsh never come out and explicitly states that Bonhoeffer experienced same sex attraction, he implies heavily that Dietrich Bonhoeffer was romantically in love with his friend, Eberhard Bethge.

This idea is absolutely ridiculous.

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Book Review – Critical Condition by Richard Mabry

Critical Condition Most of what I read is material that I find useful for my life, from my work in ministry to fatherhood, and every topic in between. Every once in a while, though, I like to grab a good fiction novel and enjoy some lighter reading for a change.

Last week, I picked up a new novel by Richard Mabry, called Critical Condition. I managed to digest the entire book in just a couple of evenings, and enjoyed it.

I’ve read several other books by Mabry in the past, and thoroughly enjoyed each one of them. This one just didn’t seem to be as good as the rest that I’ve read.

The premise of the story is based around Dr. Shannon Frasier. During a dinner party, a man is shot in her front yard, and dies in her arms. Add to that Dr. Frasier’s younger sister moving in after a fight with her boyfriend, and with drug trouble a possibility, Dr. Frasier is suddenly overwhelmed.

That’s when the questions and threats start coming. And they are coming from both the police and a mysterious caller. Dr. Frasier’s life becomes a nightmare, and just staying alive seems an impossibility.

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Book Review – 1 Enoch: The Hermeneia Translation

1 Enoch: A Hermeneia TranslationI’ve long had a fascination with the early chapters of Genesis, and the early earth history that they contain. Almost everything I’ve ever read centered around these chapters is centered upon the text themselves.

However, early Judaism has several traditions concerning those early centuries that are not found in the book of Genesis. Although these documents date much later than early Genesis, they point back to those times and contain some very interesting information. One such document is 1 Enoch.

This document plays an important role in early Judaism, and several scrolls containing this document were discovered at Qumran. Most of the document is dated to the last three or four centuries before Christ. Because of the distance from the time of Genesis, and the life of Enoch, their authorship is suspect enough to deny them entrance into the canon of the Old Testament.

However, the traditions and stories that they contain shed a lot of light on ancient Jewish thought on Genesis and the lives that formed the first few centuries of human history after creation.

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Book Review – The Israeli Solution by Caroline B. Glick

Affiliate Link: The Israeli SolutionI’m not one to read books that are politically based examinations on current events. That’s not my thing. But recently, I’ve been reading a lot concerning the nation of Israel. From Israel’s role in prophecy to even a Messianic Jewish examination of Christ, Israel has been frequently on my reading list as of late.

The Israeli Solution, however, is different.

This book takes a deeper look at the nation of Israel and the Middle Eastern conflict, in which Israel plays a prominent role.

The author, Caroline B. Glick, takes a deep look at what may be the solution for peace in the Middle East. The major source of conflict seems to revolve around the relationship between Israel and the Palestinians.

Most of the solutions offered over the past couple of decades involve a two state plan, establishing an official state for Palestine. The track record for this shows that it really won’t work. It hasn’t, and it shows no signs of working in the near future.

This is mostly due to the fact that Palestine is committed to the destruction of Israel, along with much of the Muslim world.

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Book Review – The Return Of The Kosher Pig by Rabbi Itzhak Shapira

The Return Of The Kosher PigYou’ve heard the phrase, “Never judge a book by its cover.” But that is exactly what we do. We see a cover that we find intriguing, and we pick it up. In this case, it wasn’t so much the cover as it was the title, The Return Of The Kosher Pig.

While I’m not sure what I expected to find, this book surprised me. What I discovered was a Jew, a rabbi, who has diligently searched the Hebrew Scriptures, the additional commentaries by centuries of Jewish scholars,and even the New Testament, and concluded that he found the Messiah. And he is Yeshua (Jesus).

First of all, allow me to briefly explain the title. The pig represents everything that is unclean to a Jew. It is unkosher. It is threatening to the Jewish mindset. In the eyes of orthodox Judaism, those who have accepted Jesus as the Messiah, both Christians and Messianic Jews, represent the ultimate uncleanness. The fact that God would take the form of a man is found to be ridiculous and scandalous. Since Jesus claimed that very identity, Judaism has labeled him as the unkosher pig, deviating from the truth of the Scriptures.

I have to admit, following all of this was very difficult for me. And I’d only made it as far as the introduction! It became very clear to me, very quickly, that Jewish though and Western thought are radically different. Western thought tends to be linear in fashion, straight and precise, based on a Greek and Latin foundation. Jewish thought, however tends more to be circular, or organic, in nature, and Hebrew reasoning is as different from Western thought as day and night. That’s a foreign way of thinking for me, and I had to take this very slow in order to understand many of the concepts that are presented in The Return Of The Kosher Pig. And I’m sure I missed much more than I captured, simply because this is so unfamiliar to me.

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Book Review – How High Will You Climb? By John C. Maxwell

How High Will You Climb?I’ve always been a fan of John Maxwell’s leadership books. Some of the earliest books I read to develop my leadership skills for ministry were Maxwell’s books Developing The Leader Within You and Developing The Leaders Around You. Right along with those two was a book by Maxwell that had a significant impact on my life. It was called The Winning Attitude. It was given to me shortly after I began serving in ministry, and sparked my appetite for books in the leadership genre.

Maxwell’s newest book, How High Will You Climb? is an abridgment of The Winning Attitude. And it was extremely helpful to read it again. While a lot of the book was updated and revised to make it applicable in an increasingly changing culture, the core premises of the original book remain: Your success or failure is determined by your attitude. Cultivating the right attitude is key to seeing yourself grow in almost every area of life.

Maxwell compares the idea of developing the right attitude to flying an airplane. A plane must also keep the right attitude in order to stay aloft. To much change in almost any direction will present a dangerous predicament for the pilot. The same is true for your personal attitude. In order to maintain evenness and stability in your life, no matter if that is personal or professional, family or work, you must maintain the the proper attitude. Getting things out of alignment in this are will create a serious imbalance in every area of life.

What I love best about this book, and the original version, is that it harkens back to Maxwell’s days as a pastor in a church, before he became the head of an organization focused on leadership development. What that means is that this book has much more of a ministry focus to it than a lot of Maxwell’s more recent books. That’s not necessarily a bad thing, since his focus is developing leadership skills in both the ministry and in the marketplace. But with a heavier emphasis on biblical themes and personalities, this book is more appropriate to my current position than many of the others. I found that very appealing.

Since the book is a revision of an earlier book, many people may have an issue with that as they read How High Will You Climb? I did not. I frequently reread meaningful books and articles, and find as much to help me in the second or third reading as in the first. However, if you prefer not to read things again, be forewarned.

I enjoyed How High Will You Climb? as much as I enjoyed The Winning Attitude. Reading it again after so many years brought new things to my attention, and served to refresh my mind on other key points in developing my attitude. I highly recommend that you pick up a copy of this book and read it for yourself. Your attitude will benefit from it, as will your family, your job and almost every other area of your life.

Have you read any other books by John Maxwell? Which ones are your favorites? You can leave your thoughts in the comments section below.

If you are interested in reading How High Will You Climb?, by John C. Maxwell, you can purchase it at Amazon.com in print or for Kindle. Or you can purchase the original book, The Winning Attitude.

Disclosure of Material Connection:
I received this book free from Harper Collins Christian Publishing as part of their BookLook Bloggers review program. I was not required to write a positive review. The opinions I have expressed are my own. Also, some of the links in the post above are “affiliate links”. This means if you click on the link and purchase the item, I will receive an affiliate commission. Regardless, I only recommend products or services I use personally and believe will add value to my readers. I am disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission’s 16 CFR, Part 255: “Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising.“