Book Reviews

I love to read! I love to read a whole bunch of books at one time. A perfect Saturday morning would include staying in bed and reading a chapter or two or three of each. I thought I would add an occasional book review. I don't know about you, but I find myself walking the aisles of the book store, not knowing quite where to start. There is nothing worse than investing hours or days into a book that is not any good. That's why I always like to know what others are reading, their opinions and to get ideas. So here's what I am reading. You can view the book jackets along the bottom right of the site. I will rotate in new books as I read them.

Currently, I am reading God's Generals by Roberts Liardon as a book for my weekly Bethel School. I love biographies and this is a compilation of short biographies of these amazing men and women of God. I love reading about their radical encounters, mostly simple upbringing and the testimonies of how they found God, or more like God found them. I want to write biographies, so I liked reading the quick and easy to read, interesting, detailed chapters each featuring a different "General". The author also points on the mistakes these men and women made, often ego driven, humanness, that often caused tragic downfalls. We all want to learn from others' mistakes and I am sure these "Generals" would want us to continue to carry the torch. Some of their encounters are so incredibly amazing. They will blow your mind.

I am also reading The Richest Man Who Ever Lived. It was written by Steven K. Scott, a mega millionaire who is writing about how to become successful. It is subtitled King Solomon's Secrets to Success, Wealth and Happiness. I have to admit that I would never have chosen to read this book. Steve Hale, Senior Leader at Bethel Atlanta added it to our school reading list. Steve is a very successful financial planner, so I trust him. The concept of the book is brilliant. I do believe that if we were to deeply study, meditate and act upon the teachings in Proverbs, we could avoid a lot of pitfalls. I like the practicality of the book. Scott asks you to write down your dreams and goals and visions and map out your vision. I think this is very important, for us to write it all down and map it out and set goals and write down the steps to the goals. However, I am also the girl who doesn't balance her checkbook and hates simple monthly bill payment and is a big daydreamer. The planning, mapping, details of stuff drives me nuts. But I did it! And I am glad I did. It was a national bestseller, so it has something going for it. But I imagine you could google the guy and find his website and get a good enough understanding on what teachings of Proverbs he specifically outlines. It is basically being honest, speaking kind words, forgiving and all that we already know that seems to elementary, but can be so hard to do.

I am also reading A.W. Tozer's, The Pursuit of God and he is awesome. It is a short read, a small 100 page book. Reading his stuff makes me want to read everything he's ever written. I find myself highlighting sentences that totally change the way I think and I want to paste them all over the place. He is kind of like C.S. Lewis, not just because he uses his initials, but because his writings are deep and full of great revelation. I can actually comprehend him much more easily than I can Lewis who, for me, can be a little over my head. He writes, "My appeal is addressed to those who have been previously taught in secret by the wisdom of God; I speak to thirsty hearts whose longings have been wakened by the touch of God within them, and such as they need to reasoned proof. Their restless hearts furnish all the proof they need". Tozer clearly had a deep, intimate relationship with God and shares his relationship in this book because he wants you and I to get there too.