Wednesday, August 31, 2011

Spiritual Warfare for Women by Leighann McCoy



Spiritual Warfare for Women is new from Bethany House and is written by Leighann McCoy. Leighann is a speaker and writer. She is the prayer and women's minister at a large Southern Baptist church where her husband serves as pastor, and she has written a number of devotionals and Bible studies for women. She lives with her family in Franklin, TN.


That being said, I'd not heard of her until I picked up this little 229 page book. My own pastor husband is doing a series on spiritual warfare right now and I thought it might be interesting to get a woman's take on the subject.


This book is divided into several sections. The first section being about God's love. As I read this section I wasn't sure I was going to like the rest of the book. This section is pretty basic Sunday-school type stuff. Stuff I've known and have practiced for decades. For a new believer it's probably something that they'd be happy to hear again.


The rest of the book blew me away. Really good stuff in there. Leighann teaches the reader who their enemy is. Where he came from and how to defeat him. She made several interesting points that I'd never thought of before, one being on what deception really is and how the enemy uses it to keep us from being who God wants us to be.


If you're looking for a book that will teach you how to be a strong fighter in the Lord's kingdom then I highly recommend that you get a copy of this one. Excellent.


This book was provided for review by Bethany House Publishers in exchange for my honest opinion.

Saturday, August 20, 2011

Pattern of Wounds by J Mark Bertrand

Pattern of Wounds by J Mark Bertrand is new from Bethany House Publishers and is the second in his Roland March series. This is more of a detective novel than a murder mystery. Reading this book was like watching a story unfold on a televised detective show. The dialogue was expertly written and I could hear the cop-talk while I read it. I would also say that this book is geared more for the male reader than the female reader. My husband really enjoyed the first in this series and is looking forward to this one too.


About the book:

It's Christmas in Houston, and homicide detective Roland March is on the hunt for a killer. A young woman's brutal stabbing in an affluent neighborhood bears all the hallmarks of a serial murder. The only problem is that March sent the murderer to prison ten years ago. Is it a copycat--or did March convict the wrong man?

Alienated from his colleagues, and with a growing rift in his marriage, March receives a series of taunting messages from the killer. The bodies pile up, the pressure builds, and the violence reaches too close to home. Up against an unfathomable evil, March struggles against the clock to understand the hidden message in the pattern of wounds.

This book was provided for review by Bethany House Publishers.

Thanks, Mark, for this CLEAN READ.

Monday, August 8, 2011

Courageous by Randy Alcorn

Courageous, by Randy Alcorn, is based on the screenplay by Alex Kendrick & Stephen Kendrick, the same two who brought us the Christian film, Fireproof. For me, this book was very hard to get into. It felt like the authors were trying too hard to get the message of the book across to the reader. Almost every page mentioned something about being a good father to your children. It was overkill. I was disappointed that it was mentioned too often. Randy Alcorn is one of my favorite authors and I understand that he had a screenplay to work with and it may have been mentioned a lot in that, but I wish he'd have been able to tone it down a little. I felt like a kindergartener who had to be told the same thing over and over again. I am planning to watch the movie because I do believe in the message. I just don't feel that it was well executed in print.

From the back cover:
Four men, one calling: To Serve and Protect.
As law enforcement officers, Adam Mitchell, Nathan Hayes, and their partners willingly stand up to the worst the world can offer. Yet at the end of the day, they face a challenge that none of them are truly prepared to tackle: fatherhood. While they consistently give their best on the job, good enough seems to be all that they can muster as dads. But they're quickly discovering that their standard is missing the mark.
They know that God desieres to turn the hearts of fathers to their children, but their children are beginning to drift farther and farther away from them. Will they be able to find a way to serve and protect those weho are most dear to them?
When tragedy hit home, these men are left wrestling with their hopes, their fears, their faith, and their fathering. Can a newfound urgency help these dads draw closer to God...and to their children?

This book was provided for review by Tyndale.